Demotech Affirms Financial Stability of Title Insurance Industry in Light of Precautions Related to Mitigating the Spread of COVID-19
Joseph Petrelli
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Columbus, Ohio, March 25, 2020: Demotech, Inc., the first to review and rate Title underwriters countrywide (1992), has concluded that the nation’s Title underwriters are financially healthy and possess the means to address time gaps in Title insurance coverage associated with the closing or limited hours of county recorder offices from coast to coast, Alaska and Hawaii.
The precautionary effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 has created an operating environment in which few businesses are operating at full capacity. However, the Title insurance industry has had in place, for decades, procedures and practices to mitigate purchaser and lender exposure associated with unknown title matters emerging in the period subsequent to examination of title.
Joseph Petrelli, President and co-founder of Demotech, who developed Demotech’s review and analysis process of Title underwriters says, “Gaps in protection are unavoidable. Backlogs at recorder offices and intervening matters subsequent to a search include the time commitment to process, record or index information. The effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and the resultant closings or limited hours at recorder offices has exacerbated the situation; however, this industry is well-positioned and possesses the capability to address gaps.”
“During the temporary COVID-19 restrictions, the practical protection available to stakeholders is gap coverage at the transaction level. Gap insurance practices vary by state, size of transaction, and the parties involved. Given that the professionals focused on finding and addressing matters impacting title to real property may be unable to discover all matters of record, there may be an additional premium associated with gap coverage,” says Douglas Powell, Senior Financial Analyst at Demotech.
“A Title underwriter’s response to consumers and lenders is a financial commitment as well as the vetting of the marketability of title. With more than $11 billion in net admitted assets and more than $5.6 billion of statutory net worth at year-end 2019, Title underwriters are positioned to address the needs of the property owners as well as any stakeholders that might rely on that real property as collateral,” added Paul Osborne, Senior Consultant at Demotech, and Editor-in-Chief of Demotech Performance of Title Insurance Companies.
About Demotech, Inc.
Demotech, Inc. is a financial analysis firm specializing in evaluating the financial stability of regional and specialty insurers. Since 1985, Demotech has served the insurance industry by assigning accurate, reliable, and proven Financial Stability Ratings? (FSRs) for Property & Casualty insurers and Title underwriters. FSRs are a leading indicator of financial stability, providing an objective baseline of the future solvency of an insurer.
Demotech’s philosophy is to review and evaluate insurers based on their area of focus and execution of their business model rather than solely on financial size.
Visit www.demotech.com for more information.
For over 30 years, Performance of Title Insurance Companies has assisted in analyzing the Title insurance industry and its competitive landscape with industry-wide benchmarks, along with underwriters and group level analysis for competitive assessment. Representing more than 99% of the Title industry, Demotech Performance of Title Insurance Companies is the most complete and thorough industry analysis available. Order today at www.Demotech.com/PTIC in either print or electronic format.