Cut through confusion on home title info
What’s the difference between title insurance and Home Title Lock? Simply put, Home Title Lock offers a subscription monitoring service for $14.99 per month that will alert you to court filings that affect your home’s title, where title insurance is a product that protects you from the possibility that someone may come along and contest your ownership of a property.
Title insurance can help protect you from losses if there is a problem with undisclosed heirs to the property, unpaid taxes, pending legal action, errors, or other problems with the deed that are a matter of public record. In these events if a problem occurs, the policy will pay for financial losses.
Home Title Lock is different because it’s a monitoring service that promises to alert you to anything affecting your home’s title, which could include mortgage/deed fraud. Once you receive a notice from Home Title Lock, and it has been determined that a fraudulent change in ownership has occurred, the company will file an affidavit on your behalf with the county. That alerts the county to a deed problem and also lets Realtors and title companies know there’s something wrong with the deed/title that needs to be cleared up before the property can be sold.
However, if you do end up having to file a claim to get your property back, according to the rep I spoke with, there is no legal obligation for Home Title Lock to step in and pay you for financial losses. So, to recap, if you want to have your property monitored by Home Title Lock, it will notify you of any changes to your deed, but it is under no obligation to pay for any losses sustained in the event you suffer financial losses. Title insurance covers defects in a title to your property from things that have happened in the past or things that were a matter of public record, not for things that may happen in the future.
Another option is to self-monitor your property for free by periodically checking your property deed on record on the county’s website. In addition, make sure you receive your property tax statements every year, which is a good indication that you are listed as the owner of the property. I spoke with a representative in the assessor’s office and she said they need the owner’s name, address and legal description of the property with a notarized signature before a change in ownership can be filed.
Then I spoke with a couple of local title agents and a local Realtor who informed me that this type of fraud is not prevalent in North Idaho. Also, from researching this topic it seems that scammers target vacant properties and obituaries. Scammers then scour property ownership records to see if they can “catch” owners/heirs not paying attention to their property or unaware of a family death, giving them enough time to perpetrate the crime hoping they won’t get caught.
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WHAT IS SECURE ACT? In late December, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act into law. If you have a 401(k) or IRA, there are some changes coming that you need to be aware of even if you are already retired and are spending down your assets.
Generally, the SECURE Act raises the age limits on saving and spending retirement funds and expands access to 401(k) plans for small businesses and even for part-time employees.
First, the required minimum distribution age has been raised from 70 and a half to 72. This change will allow your money to grow longer while you approach retirement. But if you turned 70 and a half in 2019, you’re covered under the old rules.
There used to be a maximum age of 70 and a half to make traditional IRA contributions, but under the new act, starting in tax year 2020, that age limit has been eliminated. But you must have earned income to contribute to an IRA. The thought here is that as life spans increase, there is a greater need to be able to put extra cash away to cover our longer retirement years.
Part-time workers benefit under this new law, if an employer offers retirement plans, because employers will now be required to allow part-time employees who work at least 1,000 hours annually or for workers who have worked at least 500 hours for three consecutive years to participate in their company’s 401(k) plan.
If you inherited an IRA or 401(k) plan, the stretch IRA rules have been eliminated, so now you must draw the whole balance down on an inherited IRA in 10 years or less. The old rules allowed heirs to stretch out the payments over their lifetime, which would limit their tax liability from the extra income during their prime earning years.
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SSA ISSUES WARNING: The Social Security Administration has sent out a warning that scammers continue to try to scare or trick us into giving away our personal information or money. I get calls weekly that this scam is still being perpetrated against readers. The scammers threaten us or our family or demand immediate payment to avoid arrest or other legal action.
The most likely form of payment the crook demands is cash, gift card, pre-paid debit card, or wire transfer. But the SSA says don’t be fooled. Hang up, don’t give them any information or money, and report the scam at: https://oig.ssa.gov/
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Remember: I’m on your side.
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If you have encountered a consumer issue that you have questions about or think our readers should know about, please send me an email at [email protected] or call me at 208-274-4458. As The CDA Press Consumer Gal, I’m here to help. I’m a full-time copywriter working with businesses on marketing strategy, a columnist and a consumer advocate living in Coeur d’Alene.