The benefit of using title insurance is that the purchaser gets broader coverage and better protection than what is provided by a lawyer's opinion for essentially the same price as a lawyer's opinion. The cost is about the same because the lawyer is not required to do certain searches which would normally be done, thereby saving the client the cost of those searches. The coverage is better because the title insurance covers things that are usually not covered by a lawyer's opinion because the cost of providing the opinion on an individual basis is prohibitively expensive.

Like any other insurance product, title insurance has many nuances and we really can not do justice to the topic in the brief time we have available to us during this call. But let me point out just a few things before we get off this topic: 1- the Lawyer's Rules of Professional Conduct requires us to discuss title insurance with our clients; 2- our clients are title insuring over 90% of the deals we are doing now; 3- anyone who wants to know more about title insurance can go to the various title insurers' web-sites for more information so that they can ask their lawyers more specific questions when they are considering whether to title insure their property.

There is virtually no downside to using title insurance other than in some cases it may cost $50 or $60 more than relying on the lawyer's opinion. I believe the additional protection afforded by title insurance is well worth the extra cost, if any, and that is why we always recommend title insurance to our clients.