Bulletin: CA2017002

Dear Associates:

The Stewart Title Guaranty Company Schedule of Charges and Forms for Title Insurance in the State of California (“Manual”) has been extensively amended and updated and became effective on November 15, 2016. The vast majority of the changes are updates to wording, grammar, and headings for the ease of reading and understanding, and for simplification, consistency, and applicability clarifications. There are some new items, deletions, and changes to pricing as well. The Manual has been shortened from 106 pages to 86 pages, and almost every page and section has changed. To list all the changes in this Bulletin would require reprinting almost the whole Manual. Therefore, to best understand what changes particularly apply to you, the Manual itself should be read thoroughly and carefully in its entirety. This Bulletin will attempt to identify the actual pricing changes and highlight certain areas of substantive change.

Section 1.7, the definition of an Issuing Office, has been deleted.

Section 1.23 is new and was added to explain how to charge for “increased liability”.

Section 1.24 is new and was added to define the various ways that Stewart Title Guaranty Company is referred to in the Manual.

Section 2.2, the definition of “fair value” was deleted.

Section 2.3, regarding “separate sales” was deleted.

Section 2.4, regarding “multiple policies insured simultaneously” was deleted.

Section 2.9C is new regarding the reissue of an Optionee’s Policy, priced similar to other reissued policies.

Section 2.10, “purchase improvements and sale with a leaseback” was deleted.

Section 2.12, the “sale of one parcel with loan on more than one parcel” was deleted.

Section 2.14, “elimination of objections” was deleted.

Section 3.3, “standard loan in connection with ALTA” was deleted.

Section 3.12, “elimination of objections” was deleted.

Section 3.15, the price for liability up to and including $75,000 has been raised to $100, and has made it clear that this is for the ALTA Residential Limited Coverage Junior Loan Policy.

Section 3.21, the requirement that the Policy to be issued is the ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy has been deleted.

Section 5.2 was merged into Section 5.1.

Section 5.5A, the “Subdivision Guarantee” was moved to the Guarantee Section, Section 9.7 (see below).

Section 5.5B, the “Parcel Map Guarantee” was moved to the Guarantee Section, Section 9.12 (see below).

Section 6.2, the “Limited Trustee’s Sale Guaranty” was deleted.

Section 6.3, the “Report As To Request For Notice of Default” was eliminated.

Section 6.4, the “Foreclosure Information Guarantee” was eliminated.

Section 7.1, the “Litigation Guarantee”, was moved to the Guarantee Section, Section 9.1 (see below).

Section 7.2, the “Proceeding Guarantee” was deleted.

Section 9, CLTA Guarantees, has been arranged into CLTA Guarantee Number order and archived and non-CLTA Guarantees have been eliminated. 

Section 9.1, the “Litigation Guarantee” was moved from Section 7.1.

Section 9.2A, the price for the “Chain of Title Guarantee”, formerly Section 9.13A, has been re-written to clarify that the charge was $400 plus $5 for each item reported.

Section 9.2B2, the price for the “Chain of Title Guarantee” accompanying a lender’s policy, and covering the period from the insured loan through 45 days after recording, formerly Section 9.13B2, has been raised to $75.

Section 9.5, the price for the “Personal Property Encumbrance Guarantee”, has been changed so that the liability is limited to the next multiple of $100 above the fee charged.

Section 9.7, the “Subdivision Guarantee,” formerly Section 5.5A, has been raised to $400, $500, or $600 depending on the amount of liability.

Section 9.9 is new for a “Combination Guarantee,” and provides that the charge shall be 80% of the combined amount of charges for both Guarantees.

Section 9.11 is new to reference that the “Trustee’s Sale Guarantee” is as priced in Section 6.1.

Section 9.12, the price for a “Parcel Map Guarantee”, formerly Section 5.5B, has been raised to $400, $500, or $600 depending on the amount of liability.

Section 10, “Endorsements” has been extensively changed, primarily for clarification and consistency; archived endorsements have been deleted and descriptions and effective dates have been updated.  We are seeing a number of endorsement requests to attach to policies for which the endorsement does not apply. Please check this Section to confirm that the endorsements you are issuing are applicable for the policy type you’re trying to endorse e.g., Lender v. Owner and ALTA v. CLTA. Similarly, confirm that the endorsements are priced in accordance with this Section. 

If you have any questions about these changes, or any pricing concerns, please contact your California Underwriting Team.

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

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