Assessment Readiness Guide Available for Insurance Coverage Best Practice
August 7, 2014
With guidance from its Best Practices Task Force, ALTA has released its fifth 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 sixth pillar of the Best Practices, which says that appropriate levels of professional liability insurance or errors and omissions insurance help ensure title agencies and settlement companies maintain the financial capacity to stand behind their professional services. In addition, the pillar says that state law and title insurance underwriting agreements may require a company to maintain professional liability insurance or errors and omissions insurance, fidelity coverage or surety bonds.
ALTA also has released assessment guides for pillars one, four, five and seven. The guides are available exclusively to ALTA members. 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.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].