Title Insurance and Settlement Services

Title insurance is the safety net that stands between a buyer, a lender, and every problem the public record might hide. Ianniello Anderson, P.C. has been issuing title and closing real estate transactions for the Capital Region since 1971, and our in-house title operation means the policy, the search, the curative work, and the closing all live under one roof. That structure delivers faster closings, fewer hand-offs, and a single point of accountability — for a Clifton Park homebuyer or a national lender clearing a portfolio of REO files. Call **(518) 371-8888** to start a conversation.

What Title Insurance Actually Covers

Title insurance protects against losses caused by defects in the public record that existed *before* the policy was issued — unreleased liens, undischarged mortgages, forged deeds, missing heirs, recording errors, and the rest of the issues that can call ownership into question years after a closing. Unlike most insurance, the premium is paid once at closing and the policy stays in force for as long as the insured has an interest in the property.

There are two policies, and they protect two different parties:

• Owner’s policy. Protects the buyer’s equity in the property. If a covered defect surfaces — a tax lien that was never released, an heir who was missed in the chain of title, a deed that turns out to have been forged — the policy pays for the legal work to clear it or compensates the owner for the loss. The owner’s policy is optional in New York, but for most buyers it is the single best dollar spent at the closing table.
• Lender’s policy. Protects the lender’s security interest up to the loan amount. Lenders require it on every financed transaction; the borrower typically pays for it as part of closing costs. The lender’s policy decreases in coverage as the loan is paid down and terminates when the loan is satisfied.

Both policies cover defects that existed at closing but were not discovered during the title search. Neither covers issues that arise *after* closing — that’s where curative work, and sometimes new litigation, comes in.

How We Issue Title Directly

Most New York law firms outsource the title work to a separate agency, then wait for the commitment to come back before they can move a closing forward. We do not. Our in-house title operation issues title commitments and policies directly, which changes the math on every closing in three ways.

**Faster closings.** When the title search, the curative work, and the legal review all run through the same team, the file moves at one speed instead of three. We are not waiting on a third-party agent to return calls, request documentation, or push a clearance through underwriting. The work happens here.

**Single point of accountability.** If a question surfaces on the commitment — an old mortgage, a survey discrepancy, a name variation in the chain — the same attorney handling the closing can resolve it. No telephone tag between the title agency, the underwriter, and the closing attorney. One team owns the file from contract to recorded deed.

**Underwriter relationships.** As a member of the American Land Title Association (ALTA) and an agent for major national underwriters, we know what each underwriter requires to insure over a defect, accept curative documentation, or issue an endorsement. That knowledge compresses the time between “issue identified” and “issue cleared.” It also means realistic answers up front — when an issue is a same-week fix versus a thirty-day cure versus a court proceeding — instead of false hope that runs out the closing clock.

The result is a closing that holds its date. For homebuyers, that means moving when you planned to move. For lenders, it means a predictable pipeline.

Title Defects and Curative Work

Most title commitments come back clean. The ones that don’t get the same in-house treatment.

When the search surfaces a defect — an unreleased lien, an undischarged mortgage, a missing-heir issue, a boundary discrepancy, a deed signed under questionable authority — we handle the curative work directly rather than pushing it to outside counsel. For administrative cures (corrective documents, satisfactions, affidavits), we secure the documentation and file with the county. For defects that require a court proceeding — quiet title actions, partition proceedings, petitions to discharge stale mortgages — our litigators draft the pleadings and see the matter through.

Because the curative work and the title underwriting are coordinated under the same roof, we know in advance what each underwriter will accept, what they want insured over, and what requires a formal cure before a policy will issue. Deals that would stall for weeks under a typical outsourced setup move in days.

For a deeper look at the kinds of issues we resolve, visit our [title defect resolution](/real-estate/title-defects/) page.

Nationwide Coverage for Distressed Assets

Beyond Capital Region closings, our title operation provides nationwide title coverage for distressed asset transactions — REO portfolios, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, short sales, loan modifications, and the loss-mitigation work that institutional lenders and servicers handle daily.

Through our network of national title agents and underwriters, we coordinate title and settlement on transactions far beyond New York’s borders, with the same single-point-of-contact structure that defines our local work. Property reports, vesting reports, title commitments, owner’s and lender’s policies, and the curative work that distressed files routinely require — all handled through one team.

Institutional clients use us because the files are clean, the timelines are predictable, and the loss-mitigation expertise is built in. The same team that closes a Clifton Park kitchen-table refinance on Tuesday closes a multi-state REO portfolio on Wednesday — the volume work sharpens the institutional work, and the institutional work raises the standard on every file. See our [institutional real estate](/real-estate/institutional/) practice for the full scope of our work with national lenders, servicers, and asset managers.

Have a Closing Coming Up? Start with a Conversation.

Title insurance is one of those products most people think about exactly once — at the closing table, when a stack of paper is in front of them and the clock is ticking. We would rather you understand what you are buying before you sign for it. Whether you are a first-time homebuyer in Saratoga County, a commercial buyer closing on an investment property, or a national lender evaluating settlement partners for your New York pipeline, we will give you straight answers about coverage, cost, and what our in-house title operation can do for your file.

Call **(518) 371-8888** to speak with our real estate team, or fill out the form on our [contact us](/contact-us/) page and a member of our team will be in touch within one business day — often sooner. If your matter is time-sensitive, please call us directly.

You can also explore our [residential real estate](/real-estate/residential/) and [commercial real estate](/real-estate/commercial/) practices, or meet our [attorneys](/our-attorneys/).