American Land Title Association

Within the industry of real estate, people needed an organization that could stand as the representative of the title abstractors, title insurers, and title agents. In the early 1900s, the American Land Title Association was founded as the answer to that need. Members are better able to serve their clients through their ability to protect land and real estate investors, buyers, and lenders with thoroughly researched titles that can be confidently insured. Membership is not limited to title insurance companies, as associate membership is offered to real estate brokers and agents, lawyers, land developers, and mortgage lenders.

The purpose of the American Land Title Association is to make real estate transfers as professional as legitimate as possible. The highest of standards are used while conducting record searches for land titles and the subsequent preparation of title insurance forms. By eliminating as much risk as possible, the American Land Title Association is an asset to its members and their clients by working to ensure there will be no problems with the land titles. Everyone benefits from this safe and reliable system, but problems do still occasionally occur, and Association members can work effectively to resolve them.

Title insurance has been around for over 100 years, protecting the interests and determining the rights of persons involved in real estate transactions. As real estate ownership is a matter of public record, title searches are conducted to ensure the real estate is free of problems, or to determine what the problems might be so they can be remedied in the quickest possible fashion. Once the search of public records is completed, an abstract of title is prepared by compiling all of the search records, which shows a history of the land and any persons who have owned or held interest in the land.

Unfortunately, even a trained and experienced title professional cannot find some problems by conducting the title search. If there are forgeries on a title or a claim made at a later by an unknown relative, those things will probably not be discovered during the title search. For this reason, title insurance was created. Title insurers work to prevent risk by trying to identify and fix any problems with the real estate title. Common issues are liens against the property, easements, future interests, life estates, and rights-of-way. While this process can be lengthy, title insurers find their jobs made much easier by the American Land Title Association as the association works to maintain up-to-date information on regulatory and legislative issues that can affect the industry land titles.