By Lisa A. Tyler
National Escrow Administrator

In years past if a settlement employee stole from the escrow trust account, he or she was quietly terminated and the funds were replaced at the expense of the Company. In some cases the incident was reported to the state regulator if the settlement employee was individually licensed, other than that no local or federal law enforcement ever became involved.

The main reason: no title and escrow company wanted the word on the street to be their company hires dishonest employees who steal from the public. They feared word would spread like wildfire and threaten the livelihood of all company employees. Boy, times have changed! Read "FELONY violation" to find out how far the Company will go to ensure full restitution and make sure a thief no longer works in the industry.

Divorce horror stories typically involve the principals — either the sellers or borrowers — in a transaction and they always involve drama! In the story appropriately entitled "DRAMA, drama, drama" find out how the divorce of a private beneficiary to a note and deed of trust ended up causing all kinds of drama for the escrow officer, the Company and ultimately the borrower.

The story serves as a great reminder about all the little steps we take to protect the Company from claims and losses — following our Document Execution Guidelines, obtaining supporting documentation such as affidavits and reviewing organizational documents. Missing one or more of those little steps could cause the Company a huge loss.

Our Company has technology in place enabling all employees to send email messages containing a customer's non–public information safely and securely over the Internet. To find out how to use this technology in connection with your day–to–day work, read the article entitled "SECURE emails."