WFG National Title Insurance Company's Default Title Services expanded its offerings to include forbearance, loan modification and foreclosure information reports nationwide. The expansion adds to the company's existing roster of national title and closing services offered by its Enterprise Solutions group, according to a press release.
"For the past year, we’ve been listening to Servicers who have been exhausting all efforts to try to keep their borrowers in their homes," said Dean Kirchen, senior vice president of WFG Default Title Services. "Our Default Title Services division is committed to providing the same world-class service levels for which our parent company is known, and offering customizable solutions for all our clients is key to this effort, regardless of their size."
WFG National Title also has a team of underwriters who understand the nuances of foreclosures and the potential effect of recent legislation related to moratorium on foreclosures.
"This is important when looking at title insurance after a foreclosure sale," Kirchen states. "To illustrate the point, our proprietary Fannie Mae foreclosure report is considered the product of choice by many of our customers because we call out unreleased deeds of trust under Schedule C. This is extremely helpful for title curative purposes."
Forbearance legislation and moratoriums have all but stopped foreclosure proceedings during the pandemic and will continue until at least June 2021; however, industry experts expect a surge of default activity in Q4 2021 and beyond once these initiatives are lifted, according to WFG.
"While we don't expect an onslaught of foreclosures like we saw during the mortgage meltdown before the great recession, we can foresee a time after the current forbearance scenario ends in which as many as 500,000 to 700,000 foreclosures may occur," said WFG executive chairman and founder Patrick F. Stone. "That might begin as early as the fourth quarter of 2021 and, in case it becomes necessary, these services will be ready to support our default customers."
