STATE LAND TITLE ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES AND LEADERS MEETING AT ALTA CONVENTION, OCTOBER 13, 2026, SCOTTSDALE, AZ
By: Anna Batten, Executive Director
One of the initiatives of David Townsend, Immediate Past President of American Land Title Association, was to create a closer relationship with the various state land title associations around the country. Over the past year, he has done that by hosting quarterly Zoom calls and making sure we were informed via email by any important news. Some of those articles have been included in our monthly newsletters. I recently attended the State LTA Executives and Leaders meeting at the American Land Title Association’s annual convention in Scottsdale, Arizona. My company graciously picked up my expenses. It was interesting hearing other state associations talk about issues that are very similar in many cases to ours.
There was a discussion about how to recruit new members. Since our association is so new, this has been an ongoing initiative of ours. Wyatt Huggins is our new membership chair, and he is planning to aggressively pursue members throughout the end of the year so when memberships renew January 1st, we’ll hopefully see an increase.
A discussion on Attorney Opinion Letters replacing title insurance for some transactions, especially refinances, was held. ALTA and our association will be monitoring that closely especially in light of the recent Executive Order from the White House. We discussed how to leverage state and federal advocacy more. There was an emphasis to everyone to sign up for Title Action Network (TAN) to get bulletins and to be able to easily contact their state and federal legislators on initiatives affecting our industry. As a reminder your TAN membership must be renewed annually. There is a QR code at the bottom of this newsletter or go to alta.org/tan.
One item that our association needs to consider is how to develop a closer relationship with our state regulator, our Insurance Commissioner. Some states schedule “meet and greets” with their Insurance Commissioner to make sure they know who we are and know our issues. Please reach out to our officers, board members or me if you think this is an important initiative and if you’d like to be involved.
The Texas Land Title Association and the Pennsylvania Land Title Association have a real estate coalition group who meet periodically. The title association is the organizer, but they invite Realtors, Mortgage Bankers, Probate Judges, Builders, etc. to discuss common issues and develop closer bonds among the various groups. Your LTAAL also does that by sponsoring some of these associations, but this is an idea that can be discussed further by your LTAAL Officers and Board Members.
The overall take-away is that ALTA is here for us! The ALTA website has many resources to assist state associations including media releases, co-branding of ALTA materials, legislative “tool kits,” as well as in-person assistance. They have asked to start attending our conferences. Some of you are already ALTA members so you’re familiar with their resources, but if not, go to alta.org to check it out. Ultimately whether you’re a member or not, they are interested in becoming a resource to LTAAL.
