Title Info Now : Who We Are

(From the November 17, 2003 issue of THE TITLE REPORT)

Minnesota title companies using a new starter exchange technology.

Underwriting and agent Competitors unite and develop unique prior policy system.

Two years ago a proposal called FeeSimpleHosting swept through the title insurance industry. Supporters had grand hopes for the national starter exchange. The goal was to get 80 percent of the title underwriters in the Unitled States to instruct their policy issuing offices, direct and agency, to use a new way of submitting policy copies--posting them to the Internet.

While the controversial concept of a national starter exchange, which never gained full acceptance, is still simmering on the back burner, a new initiative is emerging, with a new approach to the problem of sharing data to improve efficiency. Title Info Now! (TIN) announced last month that First American Title Insurance Company, one of the country's largest national title insurance underwirters, has purchased an interest in TIN in the Minnesota market.

"TIN is a central online resource that gives title companies a way to search their own prior policies and those of their competitiors," said Ray Allen, TIN manager. Allen is with Access Information Systems, Inc. (AIS), the manager and provider of the data storage for TIN.

Under the terms of the purchase, First American will be an equal partner and join existing members: Chicago Title Insurance Company: LandAmerica Financial Group, including Commonwealth Title, Lawyers Title and Transnation; Old Republic Title; and Stewart Title.

In addition to these large national underwriters, two title agents that operate in multiple states, Edina Realty Title and Burnet Title as well as Access Information, also serve as equal partners in the venture. (There are also at least 20 different agencies that use the database on a daily basis but don't have an ownership interest in TIN)

"It is a huge deal that everyone in our marketplace is working together on this," said John McGraw, BP North Central division manager for Old Republic Title. "It really improves all of our efficiencies."

"This means TIN is now owned and operated by the five largest national underwriters and two of the biggest agents in the country. With this kind of financial strength and geographic coverage, we can offer our customers an even broader base of prior policy information and search support services." said J. Scott McCall, Senior Vice President, Agency Services, LandAmerica Financial Group.

The buy-in

According to Lisa Brecount, Senior Vice President of Burnet Title, her company and Edina Realty Title, were the main advocates of TIN. Burnet Title's parent company is Cendant Settlement Services Group, which is affiliated with Cendant Mortgage Corporation.

Brecount cites several reasons for serving as an impetus behind TIN. "Historically we have provided copies of prior policies for use as starters by our competitors but the process was very labor intensive. We had a need to purchase prior policies and the process, delivery mechanism and timing was very unpredictable from company to company. Our policy data is on Genesis software which does not operate in a windows environment. By converting the information into TIN, users can print the policy or cut and paste the information into their own commitments," she said.

Lastly, TIN provides an additional revenue stream from title work Burnet Title had previously issued without the need for human - intervention. "I have been pleasantly surprised by the income generated by our TIN sales. We have already recovered our ownership investment in TIN as well as our costs for downloading the information into TIN," Brecount said.

Greg Mason, President of Edina Realty Title, seconded that. His company is part of HomeServices of America, the sencond-largest independent residential real estate brokerage firm in the country, which currently operates under various well-know, local brand names (such as Edina Realty) in its 15 state markets.

The concept

"TIN, which has been around since 1998, is a similar concept to the FeeSimpleHosting proposal," said Allen. "The difference is that our concept didn't start with a national focus. It happens to work very well in our region and it may work well in other select regions. We are also working with positive cash flow," he said.

Perry Hamilton, longtime industry executive and president of Condell & Company, a consulting/publishing company based in Hilton Head Island, N.C., was one of the major forces hehind FeeSimpleHosting. He recently spoke at the Ohio Land Title Association on the emergence and benefits of file sharing in the title industry. "In Florida, Attorneys Title furnishes all prior files online to its agents. In Texas, agents with Stewart must agree to share files with their competitors. In Minnesota several companies have agreed to merge their prior files together and in New England, First American will give you access to all their prior files if you become one of their agents," he said. "The problem is that file sharing doesn't work unless every company is on board."

"Your customers can't tell the difference between policies from one company to another, file sharing keeps your costs down, you have faster turn-around times and reduced claims in the long run," Hamilton concluded. "The only question left to answer is, 'should we stay where we are or should we move forward?"

Allen and the rest of the crew would argue that they are moving forward in the Minnesota market, and beyond.

"My reaction is that it is a service that people have been selling to one another de facto for some time and to be able to centralize that into one entity has been well received," said Steve Tierney, counsel for Chicago Title. "The entities involved are very happy with it."

Bob Ibler, upper Midwest manager for Chicago Title in Minnesota, added that: "It saves people making a lot of phone calls to see if there are prior policies out there because there's one database. It definitely saves everyone involved time and money."

One of the most obvious shortcomings can be that competitors don't want to share data. "In the beginning I think the entities wer hesitant, such as First American and Old Republic," said Ibler. "Old Republic is the one entity in our marketplace that has its own title plant covering several counties. They were the primary source for a lot of the title companies' evidence, I think they were concerned in the beginning, but they eventually came around and decided it was a good idea."

McGraw did acknowledge that Old Republic did bring the largest amount of policies to the table initially, but he agreed that the efficiencies of sharing were definitely beneficial for all involved.

Ups and downs

The system isn't without its flaws. Information from the policy data, such as city, PH) or legal is often missing. This is because contributors, prior to 2000, didn't save certain kinds of information. For example, Edina Realty Title didn't savy PIT) or municipality information and Chichago Title didn't save legal descriptions. For 2000 going forward, contributors are now saving all information needed for policy searches.

TIN encourages title agents and companies to contribute their title policies for sale, thus creating a revenue stream for contributors. Thi initial investment total was under $400,000 which was split by the seven investors.

The contributors retain the ownership of their policy information and have the right to remove their policies from TIN. Users have access to the policy plant at no cost and only pay for information they pruchase. Customers are charged $15 once they've gotten the search results and request index information on a specific policy. An additional $10 is charged if an e-policy is requested. If an e-policy is not requested, but customers choose to link to the contributing title company, a negotiable fee is charged--typically $25.

Allen, who says there are approximately 500,000 policies represented in the system, added that imaged policies are not currently available because TIN participating members wanted to first focus on those policies stored in data files since they were easier to cut and paste into documents. Imaged documents will be added sometime in the near future. In terms of erroneous data, the individual contributors are responsible. The site functions best when used by Internet Explorer version 3.0 and above.

According to Rob Reitz, underwriter with First American Title in Minnesota, the TIN model, along with a few of the participants, is looking at other states--notably Missouri. Ibler concluded that he thinks there will be demand for this. "It will depend market per market how willing people will be to contribute. Some markets are more competitive than others. But anything that speeds up the time to get our product out will certainly help people," he said.