A professional association for title abstractors sounds like a good idea to me. After all, there are several associations for our industry as a whole, such as the land title associations (ALTA, and the other state associations); I think a specific association for title abstractors would be nice. Hopefully it would be an association that would protect the interests of abstractors, but also be beneficial to our clients.

We are trying to work on some of this here on Source of Title by offering "abstractor certification". Our goal with that is to set forth some basic standards that will let our clients know that we meet some basic criteria. I would also like to work on things like a group rate for E&O. As Source of Title continues to grow we will investigate these possibilities. Those of you who may be interested in assisting with this can e-mail me and we will put together an un-official committee. It would be nice to get input from abstractors in various regions.

Since Source of Title already has one of the largest audiences of independent abstractors, it is a good place to start. We need to increase our base of abstractors and continue to share ideas. The more users we have the more power we will have to work on these types of issues.

All opinions on this topic are welcome and if there is anything Source of Title can do to help further a professional association, let me know.

We just have to remember that we are all busy trying to run a business (Jay included) and this is a large undertaking for any one person. Most professional associations have several dedicated employees, which costs money. An association made up entirely of volunteers would be nice, but very demanding for those people. Structuring that type of organization could be difficult.

Great topic, lots of good ideas, lets keep working on it.

Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE


to post a reply: login - or - register