These important standards ensure that lenders, consumers and
investors have increased faith in their title insurance and settlement service
providers, such as Knight Barry Title.
Some may view these industry best practices as mandates but
Knight Barry Title sees compliance as a good business procedure, and we’re
proud that many of our policies and procedures met or exceeded these standards
before they were formalized by ALTA.
The seven pillars of ALTA’s Best Practices include: maintaining
proper licensing; ensuring proper procedures for escrow services; protecting
non-public personal information; maintaining proper closing procedures; guaranteeing
proper delivery of title insurance policies; being properly insured; and
appropriately handling customer complaints.
Ensuring Proper Protocols
Knight Barry Title keeps separate escrow and operating
accounts in its markets. Escrow accounts are prepared with trial balances and
reconciled at least monthly but frequently more often than that using trusted
RynohLive software.
The duties of our closing and escrow departments are
segregated so that employees involved in reconciliation duties have no signing
authorities on those accounts.
In addition, only authorized employees can
conduct closings/settlements and only those team members with satisfactory
credit reports and background checks are authorized signatories on escrow
accounts.
In addition, our closing and settlement employees are always
learning more skills to do their jobs better and more efficiently. Knight Barry
even posts some of its training on YouTube for public consumption, so feel free to
check out some of the videos.
Client Security is a Top Priority
Only authorized Knight Barry Title
employees can access the non-public personal information (NPI) of our clients.
But our security goes much farther than that. If data is stored electronically,
it is done only on our secure servers, and Knight Barry heavily restricts what
information can be put on cell phones and portable storage devices to further
safeguard our clients’ information.
Documents containing NPI is
transmitted from our offices using a vendor specializing in safe delivery of
documents with encryption and password protection. Sensitive documents at all
Knight Barry Title locations are promptly shredded and disposed of when they
need to be discarded and the company regularly tests and updates its Disaster
Recovery Plan.
Knight Barry Title: Closing Experts
Closing documents for any Knight
Barry deal must be submitted for recording within two business days of
disbursement, according to company policy. Such documents are also to be
submitted via eRecording when possible so that they can be tracked
electronically throughout the transaction. Knight Barry’s online rate
calculator gives consumers the peace of mind that they are being charged fair
and appropriate premiums.
Striving for Perfection
Even after the deal is done,
Knight Barry Title knows its job is not complete. All documents must be
delivered to our clients as quickly as possible. Title policy production and
delivery is done within 30 days and the insurer’s premium is delivered within
45 days.
Knight Barry knows that customers
want their documents in a quick manner, and underwriters need their funds in a
similarly quick fashion. Closing documents can be delivered electronically.
Adopting appropriate procedures for the production, delivery, and remittance of
title insurance policies ensures title companies meet their legal and
contractual obligations. Plus, we think smooth delivery is great customer
service too.
Knight Barry Title carries the insurance needed to
ensure a financial capacity to stand behind our professional services and we
utilize a customer-friendly system to resolves any customer complaints if work
ever falls short of our standards. We believe that a streamlined process for
receiving and addressing consumer complaints is important to ensure that any
instances of inadequate service doesn’t go unaddressed.