OUR PLEDGE

At Provident Title & Escrow LLC, we are proud to announce we have established the “Title Insurance and Settlement Company Best Practices” according to the recent suggestions and guidance provided for by the American Land Title Association (ALTA). ALTA created these Best Practices to help its members highlight policies and procedures the title insurance industry exercises to protect lenders and consumers, while ensuring a positive and compliant real estate settlement experience. While our title agency has historically maintained the vast majority of these business practices in conducting our day-to-day business and also understanding that these ALTA guidelines are strictly voluntary, Provident Title & Escrow LLC has chosen to ratify and embrace the sum total of these Best Practices on behalf of our customer’s real estate transactions.

THE 7 PILLARS OF BEST PRACTICES

PILLAR #1
Establish and maintain current Licenses as required to conduct the business of title insurance and settlement services.

-Provident Title holds all Commonwealth of Virginia mandated title insurance licenses as a title insurance agency and for requisite individuals dependent upon job responsibilities. Such licenses are reviewed by our underwriters on an annual basis.

-Provident Title provides all required corporate governance filings and reports to the Commonwealth of Virginia as a matter of course. We also secure all local business licenses and permits required to do business for all branch locations we maintain.

-Provident Title is part of an agreement with ALTA in utilizing all ALTA Forms and affiliated information.

-Renewal reminders are established in Outlook and in separate company calendar.

PILLAR #2
Adopt and maintain appropriate written procedures and controls for Escrow Trust Accounts allowing for electronic verification of reconciliation.

-Provident Title deploys all appropriate and essential procedures and controls related to its Escrow Trust Accounts as required by the Virginia Department of Insurance, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and our underwriters to safeguard your funds. All Escrow Trust Accounts are reconciled daily.

-All accounts reconciled daily by third party positive pay.

-Two party confirmation of all outgoing wires and checks.

PILLAR #3
Adopt and maintain a written privacy and information security program to protect Non-public Personal information as required by local, state, and federal law.

-Provident Title maintains an information Security Policy that comports to federal and state law as well as requirements set forth by our underwriters for holding and securing non-public personal information. Provident Title has developed a Disaster management Plan for the company’s network, systems, and applications. This Plan is exclusive of the company’s routine upgrade and maintenance policies.

-Provident Title utilizes encrypted email for transmitting non-public personal information.

-Provident Title maintains all files in a secure-locked location when the office is not open.

-Provident Title has an electronic security system in place at all offices.

-Provident Title performs employee screening in the form of background checks in its hiring process and regularly conducts background checks every 3 years.

-Provident Title has procured a seven-figure “Cyber Liability” insurance policy for the benefit of our customers.

-All files remain in constant control of Provident Title. No files are sent to third party storage.

PILLAR #4
Adopt standard real estate settlement procedures and policies that help ensure compliance with Federal and State Consumer Financial Protection Laws as applicable to the Settlement process.

-Provident Title has written procedures that delineate our procedures and checklists (pre-closing and post-closing) for real estate settlements in Virginia that adhere to federal, state and underwriter mandated requirements. All employees are trained and subject to future training on those requirements.

-Provident Title maintains training for Mortgage Fraud Awareness and prevention that includes, but is not limited to, constructing a proprietary Fraud Alert System built on data and information routinely provided to us by our underwriters.

-Provident Title provides Pricing Procedures and Controls in the form of Underwriter’s rate manuals, our production system (LandTech), and online calculators (as appropriate) to help ensure the correct fees are being charged for title insurance policy premiums, state-specific fees and endorsements as filed with the Virginia Department of Insurance. All credits, discounts, and other pricing accommodations are provided (whenever applicable) pursuant to our underwriter’s business rules and rates.

-Provident Title administers written Document and Instrument Recording Procedures and Controls for e-recordings and overnight deliveries.

PILLAR #5
Adopt and maintain written procedures related to title production, delivery, reporting and premium remittance.

-Provident Title maintains all requisite procedures for timely issuance of title insurance policies to owners and lenders, as dictated by federal, Virginia Bureau of Insurance, and our underwriter mandates.

-Provident Title maintains the appropriate systems to timely report issued title insurance policies to our underwriters, remit payment to our underwriters, and overall meet our legal and contractual obligations thereto.

PILLAR #6
Maintain appropriate professional liability insurance and fidelity coverage.

-Provident Title secures Professional Liability Insurance up to 2 million per claim that stands by our financial capacity and commitment to provide professional real estate services to our customers.

PILLAR #7
Adopt and maintain written procedures for resolving consumer complaints.

-Not happy? We welcome receiving any complaint you might have. The company has developed written procedures to capture, review, and timely address any issues or concerns you may have regarding our services. You can submit a complaint directly to John Richter at jrichter@provtitle.com or Cathy Richter at crichter@provtitle.com. We want to know about any poor service experience or compliance concern you might have. Your confidence and satisfaction is very important to us.

-Provident Title has never had a criminal or civil complaint filed against it in the 15 years we have been in business.