Unlocking Real Estate Protection: Understanding Title Insurance with Shauna Vandenbroek

In this insightful episode of Real Life Mortgage Solutions, host Len Lane is joined by Shauna Vandenbroek, Business Development Manager for Residential Lending Solutions at FCT (First Canadian Title). Shauna dives deep into the often-overlooked topic of title insurance, explaining its critical role in protecting homeowners from various risks. From covering unknown issues like liens, judgments, and fraud to discussing the differences between lender and homeowner policies, Shauna provides a comprehensive guide on why title insurance is essential for every property owner.

Shauna also shares valuable insights into the rising trends of title fraud and how FCT’s advanced fraud detection measures, including their new identification verification system, help safeguard clients and lenders. The episode highlights the importance of strong industry partnerships and how FCT’s mortgage closing solutions can simplify the closing process, reduce costs, and enhance client trust. Tune in to learn why title insurance is more than just an optional add-on but a vital component of any real estate transaction.

About Shauna Vandenbroek

Shauna Vandenbroek is the Business Development Manager for Residential Lending Solutions at FCT (First Canadian Title). With extensive experience in the mortgage and lending industry, Shauna is passionate about educating professionals and homeowners on the importance of title insurance. She works closely with mortgage brokers and lenders to provide innovative solutions that enhance the closing process and protect clients from potential risks.

Resources discussed in this episode:

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Contact Len Lane | Brokers for Life:

Contact Shauna Vandenbroek:

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Transcript

Len 00:02

Welcome, my name is Len Lane, and I am the founder and president of Brokers for Life Inc, and we are Dominion Lending Centres in Western Canada. The topic of our podcast will be about what we consider to be Real Life Mortgage Solutions.

Len 00:20

Welcome back. This morning we’re gonna talk about insurance. Yes, I know half of you just left the conversation. But when you’re buying a home, there are several types of insurance that need to be addressed. Default insurance is what is more commonly known as mortgage insurance, is CMHC, or Sagen and you have to buy home insurance obviously, to protect your property. We always talk about life and disability insurance through our MPP program. But the one that is probably not talked about enough is called title insurance. So, our guest today is Shauna Vandenbroek, Business Development Manager Residential Lending Solutions for FCT which is First Canadian title. Welcome, Shauna.

Shauna 01:02

Thank you so much for having me, Len. I’m really excited the idea behind this podcast bringing that digital connection and education into the broker world. FCT, we really value having lending partners like you, DLC Brokers for Life, really helping us share out these educational pieces into the market. Lots of value been having those strong relationships with industry partners for your business as a mortgage broker. So, I really appreciate the partnership that we have and you bringing me in today, hopefully our chat is going to bring some value to everybody listening in.

Len 01:34

Yeah, I’m happy to have this one in here because I know FCT does a great job with our clients. So, why don’t we start with what exactly is title insurance? And why does it exist?

Shauna 01:44

Absolutely. So, like you said, insurance is plentiful during that mortgage transaction. Title insurance is the one people know the least about, but it is really such a valuable tool to have in place. So, what is title insurance? Your clients and borrowers, they’re asking the same question and they’re going out and educating themselves. They’re on social media, they’re using Google, our research shows that online searches for, what is title insurance, what does insurance cover? Who is FCT? Back in 2020, that was happening about 800 times per month, and in 2023 that was up to 11,000 times per month. Absolutely wow. The conversations are getting out there and clients are getting themselves educated. So, the more educated we are on this side, we can continue that conversation and answer those questions for them. So, title insurance, we’re really that’s just a unique type of insurance, we’re designed to protect risks related to the title of the land. So, unlike traditional insurance, which protects risks that might occur in a future state, title insurance protects from risks that are present, but from the past. So, things that are unknown, but currently exist. And those tend to present themselves in a couple of different ways. So, when they’re on title, we see them as liens, judgments, notices, security interests, sometimes a name mismatch, we’ll see them as off-title items that might show up later after a possession. So, sometimes tax or utility arrears that don’t get posted to title until after possession. Lack of building permits is a really big one. And then there’s our transactional ones. So RPR surveys and fraud, of course fraud. The risks that we cover with title insurance, they’re not mitigated by other types of insurance and that can be really costly and concerning for property owners. In Alberta, our claim average was almost $30,000. And without having title insurance in place, they’d be out of pocket for those costs. So, considering it’s a one-time premium to protect for the lifetime, that you have the interest in the property, as long as you own that home, it really gives you that kind of sleep at night kind of peace of mind protection.

Len 03:51

So, the coverage remains with the property as long as you own it?

Shauna 03:56

Absolutely. Yeah.

Len 03:57

That’s excellent. I didn’t realize that, because the mortgage term ends at the end of five years in 99% of the cases, right? So, as they renewed with another, maybe with another lender, then they don’t worry that the title insurance didn’t change. So–

Shauna 04:10

For the homeowner policy, absolutely. So, that’s a really good point that you lead us into there Len, two different types of policies.

Len 04:18

Thenone that I don’t think most people don’t realize they can have. Is that second policy wh…