A Message from CLTA President, Jim Duncan

Title insurance has never captured the American imagination.  Hollywood churns out movies about doctors, lawyers, and even accountants, but not title officers.  In the movie The Firm, Tom Cruise played a tax lawyer, not an underwriter.  And on the rare occasion Hollywood did showcase insurance – the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity – it was life insurance, not title insurance.  

But lack of cultural resonance does not reflect lack of social and economic importance.  As Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto observed, the economic success of the west, particularly the United States, is based on its ability to produce capital, which is rooted in “an integrated legal property system that most other nations lack.”  This system turns “assets into capital by describing and organizing the most economically and socially useful aspects about assets, preserving this information in a recording system. . . and then embodying them in a title.”  In short, “formal property records and titles thus represent our shared concept of what is economically meaningful about any asset.”   (Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.)   

The California Land Title Association has been protecting the integrity of real property ownership since 1907.  Through its efforts to promote best practices in the title insurance industry; advocate on behalf of its members; and educate both industry professionals and the public about title insurance and real estate, the CLTA has helped drive California’s prosperity for almost 120 years.  

Yet challenges remain.  The last several years the title insurance industry has been buffeted by an array of challenges:  FinCEN, RON, CCPA, and non-title insurance products like attorney opinion letters, to name just a few.  And now AI has pushed its way to the front of the line, bringing both opportunities and problems.  Title companies are leveraging AI to deliver results for their clients more quickly and efficiently, but dangers lurk behind every prompt.  It seems axiomatic, but AI makes mistakes, and the title insurance industry can’t afford many of those.  And while AI can read a contract, it can’t read a room.  It will never serve as a suitable substitute for the diligence of a title officer, the dedication of an escrow officer, or the informed intuition of an underwriter.  This organization – and this industry – are only as good as its people, and we believe we have the best around.    

Speaking of people, I would be remiss if I failed to thank our officers, board members, committee chairs, committee members, and other industry colleagues for selflessly giving their time and energy to keep the CLTA at the vanguard of the Nation’s land title associations.  We grapple with a variety of complex regulatory, legal, and even technical issues that would be impossible to address without the vast expertise our members bring to bear on every new challenge. 

I am immensely proud to serve as president of this vital organization and to continue the work so ably advanced by my predecessors.  Under Anthony’s leadership and the hard work of Cynthia and Heather, the CLTA will continue to serve as a bulwark for common sense policies and practices that protect California homeowners.

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