Title Insurance is Efficacious

October 18, 2018

By Phil Janny CLTP, NTP

Many of us in the title industry have been doing what we do best for such a long time that we don’t ever think of what we do as efficacious.  

The title industry tends to forget that not everyone in the world experiences the value of our product and the protections provided by a title insurance policy. As you will recall, the inadequacy of safeguards led to a historic court decision in 1868 in Pennsylvania that paved the way for the creation of title insurance. The first title insurance company was formed in 1876 by a group of Philadelphia conveyancers.   

In the book The Mystery of Capital, Hernando De Soto writes “For developing and former communist countries trying to make the transition to capitalism, the American experience is extremely significant, the recognition and integration of extralegal property rights was a key element in the United States becoming the most important market economy and producer of capital in the world.”

Title Insurance has become efficacious all the way to India. The country’s new journey into the title insurance space has created enthusiasm for the real estate sector within India and will likewise support private investments in the country's real estate market. Let us not forget our history and what we do daily, for it was the creation of title insurance that paved the way for the secondary mortgage market in the late 1930s and helped spur the United States to the most important market economy in the world today.    

Phil Janny CLTP, NTP is a licensed title insurance agent in Pennsylvania for the law firm Plunkett & Graver PC. He can be reached at [email protected].


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