ALTA Advocacy Update

Federally, ALTA is reintroducing the SECURE Notarization Act in the current legislative session.  The Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act of 2020 (SECURE Notarization Act) would permit immediate nationwide use of remote online notary (RON) with minimum standards and provide certainty for the interstate recognition of RON. It was first introduced last year in March.  The support of local land title associations is extremely important in getting this act passed.  Be on the lookout for TAN* calls to action. 

The Judicial Security and Privacy Act was also introduced last session in the house and senate. Before the current session,  ALTA, along with PRIA, made several suggestions to improve the bill related to the title insurance industry. One exception allows access to the redacted data if the third party has a signed release from the judge, a court order, the entity is already subject to the requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act or the third party executes a confidentiality agreement with the government agency.    A second recommended change was to tweak the definition of the term data broker not to include a business that utilizes personal information internally, provides access to business under common ownership or affiliated by corporate control or sells or provides data for a transaction or service requested by or concerning the individual whose personal data is being transferred.

Lobbying to support the 1031 exchange also moves front and center as the current administration looks at changes to the 1031 laws to raise revenues.

 You can (virtually) join your industry colleagues from across the country in May at the ALTA Advocacy Summit to learn more about these federal initiatives and be an advocate for yourself by telling Members of Congress how you deliver for your local communities and protect Americans’ most important assets.

 ALTA is tracking 1,132 state bills that relate to the title industry.  They are closely tracking bills related to RIN, RON and IPEN, and efforts to pass comprehensive data privacy laws. There are thirty states with RON legislation in place and seventeen states with legislation submitted.

Trends across the country include the introduction of the NAIC’s cybersecurity model bill; the Uniform Law Commission’s “Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act,” and more recently, ALTA is  seeing trends in state-level legislation related to the redaction of data in local land records

 Several New York bills had activity recently – information as of week of 3/23.

 *The Title Action Network (TAN) TAN membership is FREE, and it only takes two minutes to sign up by clicking here. As a TAN member, you will receive action alerts for relevant state and federal issues., TAN is strategically designed to ensure that you are only notified about issues that will affect you, your business, and your customers.

 

Contributed by:
Marianne Mathieu, NTP
FNF Family of Companies