Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Well, hello and welcome to the Bottom Line Me podcast, where we like to dive into topics that matter most to the world of real estate, title professionals, title insurance and property transactions.
Today, we're going to explore the American Land Title Association's best practices.
These are standards designed to ensure compliance, protect consumers, and improve the industry's overall integrity. I'm your host, Ann Allard. And joining me today is a very special guest, Old Republic National Title Insurance Company Executive Vice President, Jeff Bloom. Jeff is someone that I've had the great pleasure of learning from over the years. He's helped many of us in the industry become better at what we do and beyond his knowledge and experience. He's somebody that I really genuinely enjoy talking to. And I'm confident that you'll all enjoy hearing his thoughts today on Alta's best practices.
So without further ado, welcome. Jeff. Thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Thank you, Ann. It's an honor and a pleasure to be here with you. And your words are too kind about me.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Well, well, all true, Jeff. All true. So, well, speaking of you, before we dive into our topic, I'd love it if you'd take a couple of minutes and variety and get to know you a little better. Can you share a little bit about your background, what drew you into this field and what keeps you passionate about the work that you do? All that?
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah, sure, we can do that.
I have been very blessed and fortunate to be a part of the title insurance industry and Old Republic title for almost 44 years now.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: I came into the industry not knowing a thing about it.
One chapter in business law in college talked about title insurance.
But many, many years ago, I did an internship with the corporate internal audit department at Old Republic Title. My degree is in accounting and I had to have an internship to graduate.
And so I came and spent three, four months with them, went back to school, graduated, and then I was very fortunate that they hired me.
And that was in 1982, and I have been here ever since.
I have been so lucky to have countless opportunities over the years where seen a lot, done a lot, experienced a lot, perhaps more importantly, have made many, many, many industry friends inside and outside the company.
And I have also had the pleasure since we're talking about best practices of serving on Alta's best practice executive committee for 12 years now. So almost from the very start, way back when. And I know we'll. We'll talk about that start in a little bit here, but yeah, so I've been hanging around best practices for. For quite A while.
So that about sums it up.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Well, thank you for sharing that. And congratulations on such a long and successful career. It's not often these days that you hear that somebody stays with one company for all the, all the years of their career primarily. So that's, that's pretty incredible.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: So, yeah, I recognize I'm in, I'm in the minority spending my entire career at one place. But like I said, very blessed and fortunate be in the right place, the right time.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:17] Speaker B: With the, the right people.
And it's the people that, that really make the difference, whether it's I, our folks here at Old Republic or our agents. You know, like I said, I've got friends on both sides, the underwriter side, the agency side. And, and that's what makes it. I, I of course am biased, but makes it a great industry in, in my humble opinion.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Well, I couldn't agree more. I couldn't. Well, thanks for sharing a little of the, your story with us. Really appreciate it. So, all right, let's dive into our topic and I think a good place to start is with kind of the background or the evolution of best practices.
For those that may not really even know what Alta's best practices are. Maybe you could take a couple of minutes and tell us what they are and how they play a significant role in our industry.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Sure.
We'll do the 10,000 foot level summary here.
So today, Alta's best practices are really standard guidelines that have been published that can help title agents protect their company, protect their consumers, protect their customers.
A lot of risk management type things related to Alta's best practices.
But they're, like I said, they're really the standard guidelines that are put out there.
There are seven pillars that cover the gamut from licensing to dispersing money to, you know, protection of data to the closing, to E O insurance, to, you know, how you handle claims.
So it's a broad spectrum that they cover.
Now they've been around, perhaps not necessarily called best practices, but they've really been around since about 2000.
Alta published a document in 2000 that was called Supervision and Control Guidelines for Agencies and Approved Attorneys.
[00:06:42] Speaker A: I like best. This is better.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I do too. And, and back then in 2000, there.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: Were.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Procedures in that document that exist in the current version of best practices today.
And then a few years later, Altaa spruce things up a bit, made a nice shiny pamphlet color, you know, the printing and all that stuff. And they came up with standard procedures and controls for the title industry.
So they took what they did in 2000.
And then they enhanced it a few years later, expanded it to include some other areas beyond. Primarily, in the beginning, it was all about protecting the money, being good fiduciaries of the money.
And that kind of motored along the way. It was. For a while.
And then something happened in 2013.
Do you know what that was, Ann?
[00:07:54] Speaker A: 2013. Well, tell us what triggered the shift.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: Really?
Okay.
Friday, April 13, 2012, the CFPB. Oh, and by the way, you know, Friday the 13th, we all know that that's that traditionally unlucky day, right?
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Or the year 2013 as well.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So anyways, some on the call may remember that Friday, April 13th of 2012 was the day the CFPB sent out their bulletin that made for, as we understood it, all these compliance things that our industry was going to have to do and that all the lenders were now going to have to vet their title insurance providers.
We'd all have to be approved, and we're going to have to go through this rigorous testing by the lenders, and it just created a lot of concern.
And so our industry, through the assistance of alta, brought together a bunch of people and we started with the development of best practices with the objective of, how are we going to help our industry, primarily all the independent agents, right? How are we going to help them be able to withstand this vetting process now that supposedly the lenders were going to put them through? Because of course, the agents, the fear was, oh, my God, I'm gonna. I'm gonna lose all my business, right? Because I'm just a. A small agent. I got five people in my office, 10 people in my office.
What is this? You know, big national lender or even a local lender for apps?
What are they going to require of me? Because the CFPB is essentially saying, as we understand it, if they don't vet me, then the lender can get in trouble with the cfpb. So anyways, as I said, there was a group of us that got together and we started figuring out, okay, how do we get through this? How do we accomplish this? We talked to the lenders, we met with mba, and we started putting together what is today the core seven pillars of best practices.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Well, that's quite a story.
As soon as you mentioned that, the vetting process, I do remember that that's what triggered it or started it. But, wow, that seems like a lifetime ago now, Jeff, with all that we deal with today.
But I was going to ask you, why should these matter to our audience?
But I think they already Answered that question is pretty obvious.
Otherwise you're not competitive, number one, and you're exposing yourself. Anything else you want to add to that?
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah, things have evolved over time and of course with the current administration, none of us really have any insight perhaps on what the CFPB of the future is going to look like. Of course, and over time the vetting aspect that we built the pillars for has evolved and perhaps in some cases diminished a little bit from the heightened level that we thought it would be back in 2012, 1314. Whereas today we look at the best practices primarily as just good common sense business practices that as I said earlier and you can help use to minimize risk and protect your customers, your consumers, your employees, yourself if you're an agency owner.
So we look at it much more today as, hey, these are good operational things any business in our industry should be doing to protect themselves, have modern efficiencies available to help them get the work out on time and create that real positive customer experience.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: You know, as it's kind of a practical matter, how does an agent go about implementing, achieving these in kind of in practical terms?
Because there's a lot here.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's, I think there's a few ways that it can be accomplished and you can certainly go it on your own.
The best practices are available on Alta's website, www.alta.org. you do not have to be a member of Alta in order to obtain the best practices document that outlines the seven pillars and what the requirements are for those seven pillars.
So you can go it on your own, read through that and try to, you know, figure out how you want to implement them. If you're not already doing so, you could become a member of Alta if you're not already.
And then Alta has also a bunch of additional resources on how to implement their best practices on their website.
There are third party providers out there that can help you implement Alta's best practices.
Obviously those third party providers, they charge a fee to do so, but they can, they can help you do it.
You can go to Google, Google Alta's best practices and you will find several resources that could help you implement best practices.
It does take time, it does take an effort, it does take dedication.
Yeah, it is. If anybody with us today has, has ever read through all seven pillars, you know, it's, it's not something that you can like just overnight.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: And it's, it's done.
I will also say for our agents on the, that are with us today, more than likely they've been audited probably more than once by us.
And many of the things that we audit to are things that are part of alta's best practices.
And as such, over the years, you may have gotten recommendations from our agency audit team about improving this or adopting this.
And more than likely, that recommendation might have been an existing ALTA best practice or some variation of.
So even if you haven't dug into best practices at your agency, there's a good chance you've already adopted a number of them.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: And so maybe it doesn't take as much time and effort and dedication to put them in place and, you know, practical terms in your agency, because perhaps you're already halfway or more than halfway there. Yeah.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Well, that's the good news. Excellent.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Good.
[00:17:11] Speaker A: I think you mentioned that the, the committees, the Altar committee, and I would imagine you're charged with updates and things like that. Can you speak to that a little bit? Because I think you mentioned when we were preparing that there were some recent updates that were either coming or have already been implemented. So for those that maybe are familiar with best practices, they may not know about some latest versions.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And maybe, maybe some of our folks on with us today are, you know, part of the Best practices working group. You know, already, but to your point, and, or to answer your question. Yeah. So there, there is a Best Practices executive committee and there is a Best practices working group.
The best practice, and we've been structured like that for several years now.
The Best Practice Executive committee is really the group that does the brunt of the in the weeds stuff.
The working group keeps the executive committee in line. Perhaps that's the way we would describe it. Right.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Okay, I'll need that.
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Because the executive group, we do our thing when it comes to best practices and then we go to the working group and work with them to make sure we're doing the right thing is kind of the way it works. And there are methods via ALTA or just individual relationships even, where suggestions can be brought to either the executive committee or the working group or about, hey, what do you think about adding this? What do you think about changing this? What do you think about deleting this?
We take all that into consideration and then we go to work on discussing, debating, collaborating on whatever that topic was that was presented to us two years ago. We made a slight change at the executive committee level, where we went 10 years without really making any significant changes to Alta's best practices from the time they were implemented in 2013-2023.
Now, I think everybody with us today knows there's a Lot that's changed in the past 10 years in our industry.
And so we made major updates to best practices, primarily in the areas of escrow fund side, the data security side, and this, the settlement side. Yep, a lot of that was driven by what's happened with technology, what's happened with fraud, what's happened on the regulatory front with privacy issues.
So we made all these pretty significant changes and then we sat back and said, you know what, we can't go 10 years anymore.
So now what we do is every year we start making tweaks to best practices.
They might be very minor tweaks and they could be a little bit more major. So yes, 2023 was the big new introduction.
2024, we did some tweaking, again primarily in the areas of privacy and settlement.
And in 2025, we are doing a little bit more tweaking and it's again, primarily this year in the area of settlement.
So we listen to our audience, our industry participants being that audience, and we try to react to what they're asking for when it comes to best practices.
Excellent.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Now if somebody wanted to get involved, participate in some of these conversations, discussions, or they just want to learn more about the committees, what would you recommend.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: To in order to participate in the committees? Obviously you would have to be a member of alt. Right.
So if you are a member of Alta and you would like to participate in the working group, the way to do that is just make sure that ALTA knows that you would like to participate in the working group. The working group is large.
I think today it numbers, I want to say somewhere between 50 and 60.
Combination of big agents, small agents, you know, underwriters. Oh, and by the way, I should also mention the executive committee is also a combination of underwriters, agents, large agents, small agents, but it's much smaller and executive.
The, the working group is where you start and then, you know, over time you have an opportunity to work your way to the executive group.
So that's how you can get involved in the evolution and, and continued tweaking, drafting of things related to best practices, general awareness of them. If you just like to learn more, again, like I said, you can get stuff off of Alta's website without being a member.
You can see all the members of both the best practice executive group and the working group on alta's website.
You are certainly feel free to reach out to any of those members and ask questions.
And then of course, you know, you could also toss questions at us. You know, at Old Republic title, we have a number of People within Old Republic title that are very familiar with best practices.
And, you know, our people all know each other, Ann. And so if you reach out to somebody and that person know, that person will probably know somebody that does know that, you know, they can put you in touch with. So you have a number of avenues to be involved, stay involved.
And also, I should mention, when we make these changes to best practices, part of the protocol is, okay, executive committee makes the recommendation, working group blesses the recommendation, then it gets taken to the ALTA Board of Governors for their approval.
Once the ALTA Board of Governors approves it, then it gets put out for public comment.
So. And ALTA makes an announcement that it's now out there for public comment. And I think it's usually a 30 or 60 day period. Yeah. So if you don't like it, if you like to see it, say something else, you are free to make that public comment.
And then we take all those comments into consideration.
And if we need to make a change, we'll go back to the drawing board and we'll make that change.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: Okay. So there is an opportunity for everyone to have a voice in some of these things. That's. That's wonderful. Thank you.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yes, I would say so.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
Anything else you want to share with us before we get to the bottom line here?
[00:25:55] Speaker B: You know, I'm biased because I've been involved with it so long and I understand, like I said, and, and I think most people know that the average agent in the industry is small and could look at this and say it's overwhelming.
But don't despair.
Give it your best shot. Like I said, we have agents that are small on the working group and the executive committee.
And I personally try to defer to them as much as possible as we debate and collaborate on these topics, because I know the impact can be bigger to them than many others.
So I always like to hear what our agents have to say about it. So it's, it's good stuff. It's common sense, you know, good business practices.
Just because it might look overwhelming, don't let it scare you.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Well, I think that's an absolutely perfect bottom line here, Jeff.
So, again, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me and share all of this information with our audience. We really appreciate it and to our audience.
Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I have. And until we all meet again, let's all keep learning, growing and prospering. Thank you.
