Georgia Law Firm Earns Best Practice Certification
November 13, 2014
Aldridge Connors LLP, an Atlanta-based law firm focused on serving financial institutions, recently became certified to ALTA’s Best Practices for its Georgia operations from the independent accounting firm of Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP (HA&W).
"With our industry's focus on regulatory compliance, third-party validation of our processes and procedures is a valuable tool we use to continue to evolve as a ‘best-in-class’ provider of legal services," said John G. Aldridge Jr., managing partner of Aldridge Connors. "Our financial services clients require that law firms like ours remain in complete compliance with all CFPB rules and regulations. To ensure the same, we feel it is simply good business to find third-party industry experts to certify our compliance. Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, and its ComplianceSuccess Program, gives us that level of review and expertise to make sure we remain ahead of our competitors in this space."
The comprehensive requirements of ALTA’s Best Practices framework were developed to be a solution for mortgage lenders nationwide in meeting the regulatory requirements imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2012. The CFPB requires that mortgage lenders have an effective process in place for managing the risks of their third-party service provider relationships, to include settlement attorneys and title agents. A service provider that is unfamiliar with consumer financial protection laws or has weak internal controls puts consumers severely at risk.
"More companies across the nation are calling upon our firm because they want to provide the lenders they serve a level of assurance only a CPA can provide regarding their compliance with ALTA Best Practices," said Richard Kopelman, managing partner and CEO of HA&W. "CPAs have a track record of providing attestation on financial and non-financial information to the mortgage lending industry. It makes sense for mortgage lenders to count on this experience for this critical compliance mandate."
Aldridge Connors made the decision to retain HA&W to review its policies, processes and information security based on HA&W's comprehensive benchmarking and reporting services across all seven ALTA Best Practices pillars: Licensing; Escrow Accounting Procedures; Privacy and Information Security; Settlement Procedures; Title Policy Production & Delivery; Professional Liability Insurance Coverage and Consumer Complaints. HA&W provides independent, third-party assurance using CPA professional standards on attestation reporting.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].