What is Title Insurance?

The title insurer carefully researches every known recorded document regarding current and prior ownership of the property being purchased or transferred to determine the current status of the title. This includes scrutiny of all public and court records, property tax records, legal descriptions, liens, and claims. The search may cover such relevant documents as deeds, mortgages, wills, judgments, divorce decrees, liens, and assessments relative to the property in question.

This process of risk elimination is followed to determine the insurable interest and what visible title defects will have to be cleared before title is transferred.

However, no matter how extensive and exacting the title search may be the possibility of hidden risks remains. Records may not reflect, claims of missing heirs, forgeries, improperly probated wills, clerical errors in recording legal documents, confusion due to similar or identical names, deeds executed under expired or false powers of attorney, unsatisfied claims not shown on the records, mistaken interpretation of wills and trusts, encroachment that a survey could disclose.  Hidden risks make the purchase of title insurance a most prudent one-time investment.