Revised ALTA Closing Protection Letters Published

April 8, 2021

Revisions to two ALTA Closing Protection Letters (CPLs) were published and went into effect April 2.

The ALTA Forms Committee recognized the need to conform the CPLs for single and multiple transactions to the work in progress on the 2021 ALTA Loan and Owner’s Policies and the value of making the revisions available immediately. The CPLs were last revised in December 2018.

In addition, the Board approved a recommendation from the Forms Committee to adopt the 47 Series Endorsements and addendums to the Short Forms Residential Loan Policies. These changed were recommended due to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case McGirt v Oklahoma (140 S.Ct. 2452 (2020)), which raised potential jurisdictional questions for both tribal lands and areas formerly not understood to comprise reservation lands. ALTA expects the 47 Series Endorsements and addendums to be available in the next few months.

These new Endorsements and Addendums have been designed to accompany the 2006 policies as long as those policies may be used. It’s likely that the 2006 policies will be used for several years because it will take some time for the 2021 policies to become available in the marketplace.

ALTA’s Policy Forms Committee has been working on updates to the ALTA Loan and Owner’s Policies due to advancements in electronic notarizations, changes in certain consumer and creditor’ rights law and case law developments. These changes are presently expected to go into effect on July 1, 2021.

As always, the forms have been developed by the ALTA Forms Committee and approved by the ALTA Board. An opportunity to review and comment is extended to ALTA members, Policy Forms Licensees and industry customers before final publication. The forms, in general, are made available for customer convenience. The parties are free in each case to agree to different terms and the use of these forms is voluntary unless required by law. The forms are copyrighted, and use is restricted to ALTA Policy Forms Licensees (including ALTA Members) in good standing as of the date of use. Permission to reprint may be requested by contacting [email protected]. 

The forms can be viewed and downloaded here.

Send questions and comments to either Kelly Romeo or Steve Gold.


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