Property services provider SingleSource Property Solutions is now offering its own attorney opinion letter product, according to an announcement on Monday.
SingleSource has launched its “Attorney Conclusion of Title” (ACT), a standardized attorney opinion letter. The product is available nationwide.
According to SingleSource, under the authority of the supreme court of the state where the property is located, attorneys who issue an ACT will be protected by a comprehensive liability wrapper – enabling SingleSource to provide comparable coverage as a title insurance policy at a much lower cost to the consumer.
“Lenders and consumers finally have a new option when it comes to title insurance,” Ed Austin, the COO of SingleSource, said in a statement. “ACT applies the strength of a legal opinion to abstracted title evidence. As a nationwide title company, SingleSource is thrilled to offer an alternative that provides major cost and time savings for consumers nationwide.”
The product is being offered through a collaboration with Voxtur Analytics, which launched its own attorney opinion letter product back in April.
“We’re excited to collaborate with SingleSource on its ACT offering,” Jim Albertelli, Voxtur’s CEO, said in a statement. “This is an opportunity for us to lower the cost of purchasing a home, and to make home ownership a reality for more Americans.”
SingleSource’s ACT product is available through direct integrations with the loan originator’s origination system and it works with existing settlement processes. The company says it takes roughly the same amount of time to produce as a traditional title policy, but can offer all parties in the transactions significant cost savings.
According to the announcement, ACTs are available on loans up to $1 million and each ACT is backed by a Mortgage Service Providers Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance policy issued by carriers that are A-rated by AM Best. SingleSource says that the policies cover the full value of the loan for the life of the loan and are fully transferrable in the secondary market.
In early April, Fannie Mae announced that it would be accepting written opinion letters from an attorney in lieu of a title insurance policy “in limited circumstances.” Fannie Mae’s announcement made it the second GSE to accept AOLs after Freddie Mac announced it would accept AOLs in 2008.
