Posted On: June 30, 2006, 7:31 pm CDT

Posted By: Joe Petrelli

Two thoughts - #1 - Title insurance is a single premium product. The agent retains 80% to 85% of the premium, and provides commensurate services, this leaves 15% for the insurance company to pay premium taxes (3%), all losses (say 5%), set aside a statutory premium reserves of $0.125 per thousand of exposure plus one $1, pay overhead and hopefully make a profit.

#2 - And the reason that no one has heard of a title loss is because the agents and insurance companies do a great job. The losses that do occur can be reported decades after the properties were purchased.

#3 - on a 30 year mortgage at 5.5% or more, your interest payments over 30 years exceed the principal you borrowed. If you think title insurance is expensive, try borrowing money!

Oh, yes, if you did not pick up on it, every small business and small businessowner in NY that is dependent on title insurance just got a 15% DECREASE in their revenue.