Bill Amendment: IL HB3910 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly

NOTE: For additional amemendments please see the Bill Drafting List

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Bill Title: TITLE INS AGENT VISITATION

Status: 2015-07-22 - Public Act . . . . . . . . . 99-0104 [HB3910 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2015-HB3910-House_Amendment_001.html

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Rep. David Reis

Filed: 3/12/2015

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AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 3910
AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 3910 by replacing
everything after the enacting clause with the following:
"Section 5. The Title Insurance Act is amended by changing
Sections 14 and 16 as follows:
(215 ILCS 155/14) (from Ch. 73, par. 1414)
Sec. 14. Fees.
(a) Every title insurance company and every independent
escrowee subject to this Act shall pay the following fees:
(1) for filing the original application for a
certificate of authority and receiving the deposit
required under this Act, $500;
(2) for the certificate of authority, $10;
(3) for every copy of a paper filed in the Department
under this Act, $1 per folio;
(4) for affixing the seal of the Department and

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certifying a copy, $2; and
(5) for filing the annual statement, $50.
(b) Each title insurance company shall remit pay, for all
of its title insurance agents subject to this Act for filing an
annual registration of its agents, an amount collected from the
consumer equal to $3 for each policy issued by all of its
agents in the immediately preceding calendar year.
(Source: P.A. 93-32, eff. 7-1-03; 94-893, eff. 6-20-06.)
(215 ILCS 155/16) (from Ch. 73, par. 1416)
Sec. 16. Title insurance agents.
(a) No person, firm, partnership, association, corporation
or other legal entity shall act as or hold itself out to be a
title insurance agent unless duly registered by a title
insurance company with the Secretary.
(b) Each application for registration shall be made on a
form specified by the Secretary and prepared in duplicate by
each title insurance company which the agent represents. The
title insurance company shall retain the copy of the
application and forward a copy the original to the Secretary
with the appropriate fee.
(c) Every applicant for registration, except a firm,
partnership, association, limited liability company, or
corporation, must be 18 years or more of age. Included in every
application for registration of a title insurance agent,
including a firm, partnership, association, limited liability

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company, or corporation, shall be an affidavit of the applicant
title insurance agent, signed and notarized in front of a
notary public, affirming that the applicant and every owner,
officer, director, principal, member, or manager of the
applicant has never been convicted or pled guilty to any felony
or misdemeanor involving a crime of theft or dishonesty or
otherwise accurately disclosing any such felony or misdemeanor
involving a crime of theft or dishonesty. No person who has had
a conviction or pled guilty to any felony or misdemeanor
involving theft or dishonesty may be registered by a title
insurance company without a written notification to the
Secretary disclosing the conviction or plea, and no such person
may serve as an owner, officer, director, principal, or manager
of any registered title insurance agent without the written
permission of the Secretary.
(d) Registration shall be made annually by a filing with
the Secretary; supplemental registrations for new title
insurance agents to be added between annual filings shall be
made from time to time in the manner provided by the Secretary;
registrations shall remain in effect unless revoked or
suspended by the Secretary or voluntarily withdrawn by the
registrant or the title insurance company.
(e) Funds deposited in connection with any escrows,
settlements, or closings shall be deposited in a separate
fiduciary trust account or accounts in a bank or other
financial institution insured by an agency of the federal

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government unless the instructions provide otherwise. The
funds shall be the property of the person or persons entitled
thereto under the provisions of the escrow, settlement, or
closing and shall be segregated by escrow, settlement, or
closing in the records of the escrow agent. The funds shall not
be subject to any debts of the escrowee and shall be used only
in accordance with the terms of the individual escrow,
settlement, or closing under which the funds were accepted.
Interest received on funds deposited with the escrow agent
in connection with any escrow, settlement, or closing shall be
paid to the depositing party unless the instructions provide
otherwise.
The escrow agent shall maintain separate records of all
receipts and disbursements of escrow, settlement, or closing
funds.
The escrow agent shall comply with any rules adopted by the
Secretary pertaining to escrow, settlement, or closing
transactions.
(f) A title insurance agent shall not act as an escrow
agent in a nonresidential real property transaction where the
amount of settlement funds on deposit with the escrow agent is
less than $2,000,000 or in a residential real property
transaction unless the title insurance agent, title insurance
company, or another authorized title insurance agent has
committed for the issuance of title insurance in that
transaction and the title insurance agent is authorized to act

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as an escrow agent on behalf of the title insurance company for
which the commitment for title insurance has been issued. The
authorization under the preceding sentence shall be given
either (1) by an agency contract with the title insurance
company which contract, in compliance with the requirements set
forth in subsection (g) of this Section, authorizes the title
insurance agent to act as an escrow agent on behalf of the
title insurance company or (2) by a closing protection letter
in compliance with the requirements set forth in Section 16.1
of this Act, issued by the title insurance company to the
seller, buyer, borrower, and lender. A closing protection
letter shall not be issued by a title insurance agent. The
provisions of this subsection (f) shall not apply to the
authority of a title insurance agent to act as an escrow agent
under subsection (g) of Section 17 of this Act.
(g) If an agency contract between the title insurance
company and the title insurance agent is the source of the
authority under subsection (f) of this Section for a title
insurance agent to act as escrow agent for a real property
transaction, then the agency contract shall provide for no less
protection from the title insurance company to all parties to
the real property transaction than the title insurance company
would have provided to those parties had the title insurance
company issued a closing protection letter in conformity with
Section 16.1 of this Act.
(h) A title insurance company shall be liable for the acts

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or omissions of its title insurance agent as an escrow agent if
the title insurance company has authorized the title insurance
agent under subsections (f) and (g) of this Section 16 and only
to the extent of the liability undertaken by the title
insurance company in the agency agreement or closing protection
letter. The liability, if any, of the title insurance agent to
the title insurance company for acts and omissions of the title
insurance agent as an escrow agent shall not be limited or
otherwise modified because the title insurance company has
provided closing protection to a party or parties to a real
property transaction escrow, settlement, or closing. The
escrow agent shall not charge a fee for protection provided by
a title insurance company to parties to real property
transactions under subsections (f) and (g) of this Section 16
and Section 16.1, but shall collect from the parties the fee
charged by the title insurance company and shall promptly remit
the fee to the title insurance company. The title insurance
company may charge the parties a reasonable fee for protection
provided pursuant to subsections (f) and (g) of this Section 16
and Section 16.1 and shall not pay any portion of the fee to
the escrow agent. The payment of any portion of the fee to the
escrow agent by the title insurance company, shall be deemed a
prohibited inducement or compensation in violation of Section
24 of this Act.
(i) The Secretary shall adopt and amend such rules as may
be required for the proper administration and enforcement of

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this Section 16 consistent with the federal Real Estate
Settlement Procedures Act and Section 24 of this Act.
(Source: P.A. 98-398, eff. 1-1-14; 98-832, eff. 1-1-15.)".