As I warned in the past, the national underwriters, the American Land Title Association, and the various state land title associations devalued the product of title insurance when they started supporting placing our nations real estate records on the Internet and legislation aimed a reducing the risks of insuring title. This was all done as part of their embrace of outsourcing the most important part of the process to overseas companies with cheap labor.  

All of this... and title insurance premiums and related fees have not been reduced for the consumer.  The result is clear - there isn't as much value in title insurance as there once was.  As a consumer, I'd much rather have a product that was created with a thorough title search, than an insurance policy that may or not provide coverage when a problem is eventually uncovered. We used to tout the value of the title industry was in the search and curative work that was done to eliminate problems prior to closing.  Now, I don't think we are seeing that same process... it's all about a cheap search and insuring over potential problems.    

If you want to protect your jobs, lobby for strong search requirements to restore the value of a title insurance policy and maybe they wouldn't be so quick to try to eliminate the fees. 

In the meantime, if the lending industry starts embracing title opinions again, sharpen your skills because local attorneys who will be willing to sign title opinions will hopefully be insisting on more thorough searches.  Your skills may once again be in demand and you may find that you have clients that value your experience and are willing to adequately compensate you for it.  

Just another perspective. 

Best,
Robert A. Franco
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