Open Forum

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Great open communication may be key. Thanks for sharing words of wisdom. 

Sincerely~

Gail Malloy

[email protected]
Westmoreland Paralegal Services
35 W. Otterman St.
Greensburg, PA  15601
t  724.832.8683
c 724.420.1015

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!

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!

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!

Hi Leslie, 

We are continuing to build out our resources for RRE. I'd be happy to walk you through a demo next week and show you our platform if youd like to see how it works. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fd8-JZL1Ec

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!

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!

We created a postcard-sized reference card that agents can use as a quick guide to determine whether a transaction will be reportable. We've been hand-delivering these cards to local real estate offices and offering in-person training, either at their office or ours.

Our goal is to educate realtors early so they understand the process and can proactively prepare their clients for the additional requirements that may be needed prior to closing.

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!

We created a postcard-sized reference card that agents can use as a quick guide to determine whether a transaction will be reportable. We've been hand-delivering these cards to local real estate offices and offering in-person training, either at their office or ours.

Our goal is to educate realtors early so they understand the process and can proactively prepare their clients for the additional requirements that may be needed prior to closing.

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!

We created a postcard-sized reference card that agents can use as a quick guide to determine whether a transaction will be reportable. We've been hand-delivering these cards to local real estate offices and offering in-person training, either at their office or ours.

Our goal is to educate realtors early so they understand the process and can proactively prepare their clients for the additional requirements that may be needed prior to closing.

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!

We created a postcard-sized reference card that agents can use as a quick guide to determine whether a transaction will be reportable. We've been hand-delivering these cards to local real estate offices and offering in-person training, either at their office or ours.

Our goal is to educate realtors early so they understand the process and can proactively prepare their clients for the additional requirements that may be needed prior to closing.

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!

We created a postcard-sized reference card that agents can use as a quick guide to determine whether a transaction will be reportable. We've been hand-delivering these cards to local real estate offices and offering in-person training, either at their office or ours.

Our goal is to educate realtors early so they understand the process and can proactively prepare their clients for the additional requirements that may be needed prior to closing.

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!