The pace of change driven by technology across all industries is a clarion call for the title insurance industry to up its game when it comes to rethinking how it is delivering services at every level.
Integral to this process is the federal challenge to the title insurance in its current Federal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA) title acceptance pilot, which involves an automated title review process to assess title risk, allowing the GSEs to remove existing requirements that a lender’s title insurance policy or Attorney Opinion Letter (AOL) be obtained for certain transactions.
While the federal government is experimenting with removing the human element, those who understand the complexity of the title insurance, escrow and closing process know that you need both people and technology. Deciding how you assign those tasks in a way that is optimum for protecting home ownership is the challenge all title insurance underwriters and agencies must face in the coming decade.
Here are some things to consider.
Preparing your staff
Any title insurance agency that intends to be in business a decade from now must begin to prepare for a shift in how the work is accomplished, upskilling and reskilling staff as well as creating a hiring plan that brings in additional staff highly skilled in the use of technology.
The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs report addresses this shift, saying, “Overall, employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. One element contributing to this finding may be a growing focus on continuous learning, upskilling and reskilling programs, enabling companies to better anticipate and manage future skill requirements.”
No one in the title insurance industry can allow themselves to fall behind this clear trend.
Studying technology trends
Tech innovations have made an enormous difference in improving the title, escrow and closing process, over the past decade. Agency owners will be most successful if they keep a weather eye out on emerging technology that can advance the accumulation and verification of data so necessary to the real estate transaction process.
Of great significance to the title insurance industry, the WEF noted in its report that “process and task automation is expected to be the second most common workforce strategy, with 73% of employers planning to accelerate their use of this approach. Additionally, 63% of employers intend to complement and augment their workforce with new technologies.”
The key idea here is that technology will “augment” the workforce, not replace it.
Finally: Getting in front of the narrative
The title insurance industry has often lagged behind the public narrative, being drawn into inane arguments about the value of title insurance from pundits and politicians who had no knowledge of what the industry actually does.
Title agencies, large and small, can get in front of that narrative by making sure they are in constant education mode, making their voices heard at the closing table, in the media, at industry conferences and in state and federal legislatures.
At VizionX, we understand the pace of technological change in the real estate, lending and title insurance triad, and we are dedicated to developing technology that will help title agents future proof their companies. Contact us to learn more.
