How you talk to your clients is going to be heavily dependent on how you're choosing to handle FinCEN reporting - in-house or outsourcing the work. There is a lot of information that potentially needs to be collected, and who is doing that work is going to affect their perspective. If it is your own settlement/closing staff, then at least there is a trust relationship already existing, and their experience with your team is going to make things a little easier when "intrusive" questions are asked. Whereas a vendor is going to be essentially cold-contacting the parties, and letting them know this is coming is crucial to ensure timely cooperation.
Having said that, as always, it is going to come down to communication. I've been in the middle of FinCEN for years now in a GTO area, and experience has definitely taught me to communicate FinCEN requirements as early as possible, and keep open the communications on this subject - I would say over 50% of reported transactions I've worked on required multiple rounds of communication to get all the needed information. Realtors especially should be informed of what FinCEN reporting is, why it is required, and what information is being collected. For many entity buyers, the whole point is to "mask" the identity of the owners, and FinCEN reporting requires that mask to be dropped. So letting your realtor clients (and through them their buyers) know that these questions are coming and MUST be answered honestly is important. Having your own expert who is available to assist realtors in talking about this is a great asset!
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Ken Flint
Upward Title Company (SoCal)
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-16-2026 07:36
From: Leslie Wilkinson
Subject: Preparing realtors and FSBO clients for FINCEN
Hi everyone,
Looking for ideas and discussions about how you plan to communicate/educate the reporting requirement to your clients. Have you had conversations? What is the feedback or questions you received that you didn't know the answer? Thank you in advance for sharing your experiences and ideas!
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Leslie Wilkinson
North Florida Abstract & Title
Monticello FL
+1 (850) 997-2670
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