You’re not really even sure what a Best Practices Manual is. Your title insurance underwriter has been telling you for months that you need to prepare one. You planned to, but you’ve been waiting for the “right time”. . . when things slow down a little. Now, the lender on that big closing this week needs to see your manual in 48 hours or the loan isn’t funding. Don’t panic, Best Practices Solutions has you covered – our sole focus is preparing “ALTA Best Practices Manuals” for law firms and title insurance agencies.
Your office is probably already doing many of the things that are considered “best practices.” Unfortunately, just doing those things isn’t enough anymore. The lenders now want their settlement agents to have their closing and business practices and procedures documented. Even that’s not enough; the lenders also want to be sure the settlement providers are reviewing and updating their practices and procedures periodically and training their staff on those practices and procedures.
This isn’t something the banks created on their own. Recent federal statutes and regulations now require that lenders “know their service providers.” For the history lesson of how we got to this point, check out this page. If you’re in a rush, suffice it to say the banks are complying with the mandated due diligence of their title insurance and closing professionals by requiring and reviewing the settlement agents’ “best practices” manuals. It is anticipated that all residential lenders will be requiring best practices manuals by the end of this year; some lenders havr already started.
You and your staff are already busy and don’t have extra hours to spend figuring out what the manual needs to cover and then spending several more hours trying to prepare a satisfactory manual. That’s where Best Practices Solutions can help. We work with your staff to assemble the information needed to document your law firm’s or title agency’s practices and procedures. If you don’t have procedures in any particular area, we will let you know the recommended “best practices” and offer suggestions for the creation and implementation of policies and procedures so that you comply with ALTA’s model “Pillars of Best Practices.” Once we have the information, we assemble a customized manual for your office and send it to you with a suggested schedule for periodic review and updates. We can help you with the updates too.
Whether we like it or not, these new requirements have changed the closing landscape. In the very near future, lenders are going to pull closings from those settlement agents who don’t have a Best Practices Manual. Don’t let that happen to you and don’t wait until the last minute, contact Best Practices Solutions today so we can help.