ALTA Releases Readiness Guide for Consumer Complaints Pillar of Best Practices

July 17, 2014

With guidance from its Best Practices Task Force, ALTA has released its second Assessment Readiness Guide to help members determine if they are prepared to undergo an assessment to determine compliance with ALTA’s “Title Insurance and Settlement Company Best Practices.”

The guide released today is for the seventh pillar of the Best Practices, which requires companies to adopt and maintain written procedures for resolving consumer complaints The Assessment Readiness Guides are available exclusively to ALTA members. Last week, ALTA released a guide for pillar No. 1 of the Best Practices, which addresses establishing and maintaining the required licenses to conduct business.

“ALTA members are encouraged to use this Assessment Readiness Guide to internally assess how their practices and procedures match up to the Best Practices,” said Frank Pellegrini, ALTA past president and chair of the Best Practices Task Force. “We believe the guide will be a helpful tool as ALTA members evaluate their company’s practices and procedures and strive to implement practices that will help them succeed in the market place."

Separate guides should be completed for each licensed entity a company owns.

The first section of the guide asks for basic company information, including whether your company uses any third party for services, such as title plants, search companies and notaries. The second section of the Assessment Readiness Guide is comprised of a series of questions corresponding to the Best Practices. Along with the questions, the guide includes suggested testing and reviews for a company to conduct to help verify whether an operation follows the Best Practices.

In addition to the Assessment Readiness Guides, ALTA is working with lenders to develop a standard format to communicate compliance. This will be a tool ALTA members can use to respond to lender questionnaires or other inquiries.

Additional resources on ALTA’s Best Practices are available at www.alta.org/bestpractices. Questions about the Assessment Readiness Guide may be sent to [email protected].


Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].