Toll Free 800-505-7842 Local 865-862-0600 Fax 800-873-1722
emccullough@southerntitletn.com
Eugene R. McCullough
President
Dear prospective
agent;
I want to take
this opportunity to thank you for considering the possibility of Southern Title
Insurance Corporation becoming an underwriter for your title insurance agency.
I think you will find that Southern Title provides a unique blend of
underwriting and agency support services that enables independent title
agencies to function more efficiently in this very competitive marketplace.
Your application
and agency will be supported though the Southeast Regional Office of Southern
Title located in
It is my hope
that these pages will give you some insight about how we try to support our
agents. On the last page you will be provided with links to a copy of our
Agency Application for printing and completion and Issuing Agency Contract for
review prior to execution.
Overview of our Agent Support Services
Internet support
One of the key
components of our support is our internet based “Agent and
*
Request and Print (or re-print) any Insured Closing Service Letters within 2 ½
minutes
*
Print and issue digital policy jackets through our E-Jackets program
*
Search the “Terrorist List” online and print a Certificate indicating Search
Compliance within 15 seconds
*
Access our online “Resource Library” that posts relevant law review articles, Hud’s RESPA
Enforcement
Press Releases, significant cases and other materials that our office has
deemed to be a helpful
resource to agents and approved attorneys. All materials are
indexed by jurisdiction and topic for easy access.
*
Access a suite of “Search and Closing Tools” designed to enhance your ability
to:
>
Access a database of over 15,000 lenders to secure helpful information to aid
in payoffs - an
invaluable resource to locate payoffs of lenders who have gone
out of business, merged or are
otherwise difficult to find. This can save your staff hours
each month.
>
Locate parties in the chain of title - over a 100 links to helpful internet
databases
>
Search the Social Security Death Index to verify deaths - clear up ‘breaks in
the chain’
>
Locate Counties with online access to tax and recorders offices
>
Locate addresses in selected states for Notaries to aid in correction of bad
acknowledgments
>
Locate correct Zip Codes, track UPS, USPS and Fed Ex packages, and more....
*
Track assigned and reported policy inventory on-line, complete with a current
history of your
agency’s remittance history and policy aging for each of the past
12 months.
*
Place policy supply orders on-line to receive policy supplies via next day
delivery
*
View and download our various supplies, including schedules, endorsements, and
miscellaneous forms
>
All forms in Word, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat and some Softpro Ready Doc
formats
*
Download full versions (and updates) of our free proprietary software
>
STARS - Our agency remittance software that calculates rates, and prepares
remittance reports
>
CAPPS - Our Commitment and Policy Preparation software
>
Short Form PDF - a simple tool that resides on your desktop to allow you to
easily prepare short form loan policy schedules in less than a minute per
policy.
Reconciliation
assistance
Special help in
the escrow reconciliation area is available. We can help you ensure that your
system is set up to insure that all the safeguards that most applications
provide to management are being utilized . A properly installed, and properly utilized system will
minimize to potential of staff errors and help make the monthly reconciliation
process easy to manage.
Unique Policy
forms
As another area
of support, Southern has a set of unique policy products that will enable you
to provide the broadest coverage to your clients with a minimum amount of work
on the part of your policy preparation staff. Southern offers “Southern
Advantage” policies which provide the ALTA Enhanced Loan and Enhanced Homeowner’s
policies and has a special set of schedules that allow both these
enhanced coverage policies to be issued and delivered simultaneously to the
lender and the borrower at the closing table! These forms are specially
designed to minimize the amount of typing to save your staff time and yet
provide the broadest possible coverage for your clients.
Southern offers
all of its online forms to agents in electronic format via our website or on a
CD Rom or diskette. Our basic forms, which currently include over 100
schedules, endorsements, and affidavits, are available for use in most commonly
used formats.
Smaller Office
Support (Binder Agent Program)
For those agents
who desire to service their clients’ title insurance needs but don’t want to
add additional staff to manage policy supplies,
calculate rates or prepare final policies, Southern has a Binder Agency Program
that will allow those functions to be performed by the Southern Title regional
staff. Many agents find they are able to avoid the time consuming, and
expensive chore of constantly hiring title insurance trained support staff by
contracting at a lesser commission rate and leaving those tasks to be performed
by Southern Title. This may be an attractive option for those who are just starting
practice or for those who have recently lost their experienced title insurance
personnel.
Ongoing Education
and Underwriting Support
Our office keeps
our agents up to date through a monthly newsletter (BLURBSS)covering a variety
of time topics, designed to be easy to completely read, but informative enough
to help you throughout your entire practice. Our office is committed to keeping
you informed on current events that affect your business practice such as RESPA
changes, new Federal and State legislation. In addition to our newsletter, we send
out special underwriting or informational bulletins when merited. Additionally,
we conduct numerous
About Southern Title
For those who are
unfamiliar with Southern Title as an underwriter, I am proud to give you a
little of the history and philosophy of your new underwriter. Southern Title
Insurance Corporation is a 80+ year old ‘East coast’
title insurance underwriter with corporate headquarters in
Several years ago
Southern Title was acquired by the Westfield Group, a multi-billion
dollar diversified insurance company based in
Our Agent Application Approval Process
Southern Title’s
focus is on quality independent agents.
The experience and professionalism of our agents has always been more
important than the size of the agencies.
If the information outlined above is appealing to you we invite you to
provide us the following information:
1. Completed Application
for Appointment As Agent - Although this 2
part form initially may look like it requires a lot of input, don’t be concerned,
it’s just simple information that is easy to secure and complete. The first
part is the application for the agency.
In this form you provide the basic information pertaining to your
company or firm. The second part is for
the individual principals and/or key employees of the operation. This gives us an overview of the background
of the individuals working with the applicant agency. We need each of the principals of the agency
to complete this form. (Please print or
make copies of the attached form to utilize for the appropriate individuals). This part contains a grant of permission for
Southern to obtain a credit report on each individual principal and/or key
employee which is an important part of the application process. Finally, try to avoid leaving questions
unanswered - that will slow the approval process and require us to call you
back.
2. A copy of
Southern's Issuing
Agency Agreement is attached for your review. This form is not completed with
underwriting authority limits, commission splits, etc. Before submission,
please call our office to discuss these items so we can send you a completed
Schedule A will all these variables included. The final application package must
contain 2 executed Issuing Agency Agreements. Both copies are to be
forwarded with the Application for execution by Southern after which you will
receive a fully executed original for your files.
3. Copies of
recent Escrow Account Reconciliations -In the event your agency closes real
estate loans and will be requesting insured closing service letters, prospective
agents will be requested to provide a copy of the complete reconciliation for all
your escrow accounts for the previous three months. The reconciliations, along
with copies of the corresponding months’ bank statements and the Trial Balance
will be forwarded directly to our office for review and the submission of the
agency application is contingent upon approval by our escrow reconciliation
review staff.
4. A complete
copy of your current Errors and Omission Insurance Policy - The complete
policy, including all riders and endorsements necessary to protect your agency
and our Company as underwriter, should be sent. We urge you to periodically review
your policy and assure yourself that it contains the type of coverage you need
for the activities you conduct. Click here
for
a short overview of some basic points to consider when reviewing your policy.
5. In those
states where an Agent or Agency License is required to operate, we will
need copies of your license
information. Upon receipt of
the completed application package, Southern will order a Credit Report on each
of the applicants. This Credit Report may request a review of courthouse
records, financial information, and interviews with individuals who are
familiar with your business.
If you would like
to secure a Southern Title agency and are willing to provide the requested
information, I will commit to giving your Application every consideration and
hope that we can approve you to become an Agent of Southern Title Insurance
Corporation. Once we have received all the items indicated above, we should be
able to review same and reach a decision within 10 days. Since we handle all
policy supplies out of our
If you still have
any questions about our company or its philosophy about supporting our agents,
please feel free to call me, Mike or any of our agency development personnel.
We also encourage you to call one of our existing agents and get them to tell
you about their experience with Southern. We feel confident this will help you make a
decision about whether a Southern Title relationship would work well for you.
Sincerely
yours,
Eugene R. McCullough