A few thoughts about this development:

1) If I read this correctly, First American and Old Republic are doing an end-around run against the work we do as title searchers in searching for all types of encumbrances.   If I read it correctly, the title insurance industry will completely rely on the searches already done throughout their territories.  What this might mean if the prior searches they rely on were done poorly or incompletely is that those errors will be cemented into the title chain. 

 2)  And as title insurance arose in order to obviate the risks of deficient searches by creating exceptions and exclusions to coverage, First American, Old Republic and any other title insurer claims all the income to be made from our work. 

 3)  This marks the velocity of change in the title search industry and how all of us in that industry will soon be out of a job.   There are only so many beautician/barber shop jobs open, only so many taxi driver jobs open, only so many people hankering after pizza. 

4)  The stated justification for this move is to "enhance the closing experience for consumers".  As this unfolds, it is yet another industry gainfully employing thousands and thousands of good people that is being destroyed and, as each industry falls to this kind of change, the question becomes how many consumers will be left who can afford such a thing as a closing experience?  If we all become barbers, taxi drivers, pizza workers of whatever kind, etc., what happens when there are only 6 people in the country/world who can afford to buy anything?

Then again, the CEO and executive suites of First American, Old Republic and all the other plutocrats who own everything will enjoy the swift, frictionless, fast-tracking of the closing process. 

The monopolization of the USA continues apace.