Blogs

Check out this story on Burj Al Barbas , a ghost town of abandoned fairytale castles. You can also watch a video of what it looks like now and check out the original sales brochure.

When I was in private law practice, I would usually end up getting a nice contingency plaintiff’s case every year or two. That was not my primary practice emphasis area, but it made for a very nice payday compared to routine hourly or transactional work. As I shifted more to a real estate practice and founded a title insurance agency, I realized handling a commercial real estate (#CRE) deal had similar characteristics to the contingency case for the payout as well as the frequency (unfortunately). For a title agent that does a great job with residential closings it can be a shock to the system to take on a commercial deal. Just as you might sail through a routine ...

Innovation in #CRE Title Insurance Underwriting I came across an article written by a fellow industry professional whose job is “Underwriting Innovation Director.” Wow, what a portfolio! My passion in underwriting is to try to think outside the box, take ownership, and act with urgency in a way that respects the risk management objectives of the Company while providing creative solutions for the customer. Why Joe? Isn’t title insurance just a commodity and could basically be underwritten by Artificial Intelligence? Oddly enough, there are some insurers experimenting or outright relying on AI for many residential underwriting decisions. However, in the ...

2021: A Year for New ALTA Forms The American Land Title Association (ALTA) has approved new forms of Commitment, Owner’s Policy, and Loan Policy to be effective July 1, 2021. These have been in discussion for a number of years and represent the first wholesale update in 15 years. I recall giving a talk on the proposed changes about 4 years ago the first time when some of the new Policy wording started to trickle out. Hopefully all of us as commercial real estate, legal, and title insurance industry professionals and our clients and customers will feel the long wait was worth it. If you’re a title nerd this is like Christmas! New Policies – yay! But seriously, ...