New American Land Title Association (ALTA) President Jack Rattikin III has been talking title for as long as he can remember.
“My family’s been in the title business forever,” the president and CEO of Rattikin Title Co. in Fort Worth, Texas, told The Title Report. “As a young kid, I heard of this thing called title insurance. I didn’t know what it meant, but we talked about it at the family dinner table. I knew there was this thing called closing, and I’d always ask my dad, ‘Did you have any closings today?’ I didn’t know what a closing was but I knew to ask. I kind of learned the business from listening to him.”
Rattikin is the third generation of his family in the title industry.
“I feel like I’ve been in the title industry my whole life, and I have, because my family has owned our title company my whole life. My grandfather started our title agency in 1944,” he said.
Jack Rattikin Sr. helped bring title insurance to Texas, his grandson explained. At the time, some areas on the East Coast had title insurance. But in Texas and most of the West, there were only abstracts of title and attorney opinion letters (AOLs).
The then-owner of Stewart Title hired Rattikin’s grandfather to introduce title abstractors in Texas to title insurance and how a title policy could help buyers and lenders. He was successful and soon left Stewart Title and opened Rattikin Title Co.
“So now we’re 78 years into it,” Rattikin said. “My father was in the business and he ran the company for a long time until I took over in 1999.”
Rattikin went to college at the University of Texas at Austin and then law school at Texas Tech.
“I got out of law school and my dad offered me a job, and I said, ‘Sure, let’s go for it,’ and here I am 39 years later,” he said. “I love the business. I absolutely love it. I love the challenge of it, and I love working with people.”
He remembers as a child, even family vacations revolved around title.
“We lived the business. We came to conventions,” he said. “My dad had a summer meeting at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs every year, and that was part of our family vacation, coming to an ALTA committee meeting.”
Rattikin was sworn in as ALTA president at ALTA ONE in October. So not only is he the third generation of his family in the title industry, he’s also the third to be ALTA president.
“Both my father (1984-1985) and my grandfather (1939-1940) were presidents of this association, so I’m now third generation president,” he said. “My uncle, Bill Thurman, was also a president of ALTA, so we’re pretty embedded in the business.”
“Jack is one of our most valuable leaders in the title insurance industry and at ALTA,” ALTA CEO Diane Tomb said. “His knowledge gained from more than 30 years as a title professional and his time as a board member for both ALTA and the Texas Land Title Association — not to mention he literally grew up talking about title insurance at the dinner table — have positioned him perfectly for the ALTA presidency. His decades of hands-on experience will help him lead ALTA members through a changing economic landscape. Additionally, his ability to cultivate relationships across vertical and horizontal markets will be especially important as ALTA works to enhance connections with state and federal regulatory agencies and policymakers.”
As president of ALTA, Rattikin said one of his major focuses for the upcoming year is leadership.
“Leadership is integral to what we do in the title business,” he said. “I don’t care how big or small a company is, you cannot run a business, you can’t have a business, without effective leadership. Sometimes businesses fail because they don’t have effective leadership.”
A major part of leadership is communication, he said.
“If we’re not communicating to our employees and customers, if I’m not communicating with ALTA staff, it’s not going to work,” he said.
He encourages everyone at every level of an organization, from managers to new team members just starting out, to have a voice.
“If you’re in a committee meeting at ALTA, or in a title company, have a seat at the table and talk. Give your opinion as to what you think,” Rattikin said. “A lot of people will be involved in a group or a committee and they won’t say a word. Maybe they’re shy and they think, ‘Oh, no one cares about my opinion.’ Yes, we do care about your opinion. I want to hear everyone’s opinion. And if I’m the leader, leading a committee or leading ALTA, I want to hear from people as to what they think and what they like.”
Respecting differing viewpoints is also crucial for being an effective leader, he said.
“We’ve also got to respect the opinions of others. I may not agree with them. That’s OK. We don’t have to agree on everything, but I want to respect the opinions of others,” he said.
Rattikin also will focus on ALTA’s strategic priorities for 2022-2023, which includes helping members optimize their businesses in a changing market.
“The real estate market has changed this year. It’s been on a long roll of success and profits. This year, the bottom dropped out of the lender market because mortgage rates are the highest they’ve been in 20 years. We can handle that; we’ve been here before,” he said. “In my long career, I’ve been through two major real estate recessions, the late 1980s and then 2008-2011. No one was making any money. Well, that’s the real estate business. It’s very cyclical. And with the real estate business goes the title insurance business. We’re experiencing a challenging market right now on the residential side, but we will recover. We’ll get through this together.”
Another priority is to help ALTA members navigate the regulatory environment. This includes recent GSE guidance allowing AOLs in lieu of title insurance in limited circumstances.
“In the state of Texas, we have the most highly regulated title insurance product in the country. We’re OK with that,” Rattikin said. “I don’t mind rules and regulations. It gives us a map of where we need to go. But sometimes there is a gap in understanding among various regulators and that’s where we and our team at ALTA have to manage that — by coming together to close that gap through education and advocacy on the benefits of title insurance.”
Rattikin finds it interesting his grandfather was successful in bringing title insurance to Texas as an alternative to AOLs in the 1940s, and today there is a reemergence of this discussion.
“The reason title insurance was a relatively easy sell for him was that people were saying that an attorney opinion letter doesn’t work for them because they may have a title claim, there may be fraud or forgery or all these other things that title insurance covers. The attorney opinion is an opinion of title but lacks some core protections provided by title insurance,” he said. “Certain emerging AOLs may have some errors and omissions insurance behind them, but that insurance is not title insurance, and it will not cover everything we cover. It’s really interesting where we were. We came with title insurance, we solved a lot of problems, and now the AOL discussion is back. Because it did not work in the past, personally, I don’t think it’ll work in the future.”
One of the reasons he is skeptical about the success of title insurance alternatives, such as certain AOLs, is lender risk.
“If a lender decides to go with an attorney opinion letter, and not require title insurance for their loan, the lender takes the risk. So, if there’s a fraud, forgery, etc., or say it’s a $500,000 loan that goes south due to a title risk or failure, the lender is on the hook,” Rattikin said. “We don’t think that many lenders will want that kind of risk for their company. ALTA’s going to be working with a lot of lenders, regulators and policymakers, to help them understand the risk that’s involved. We’re prepared to tackle that issue and help lenders and consumers get the most comprehensive protection they can.”
A third strategic priority is leveraging modern payment systems, including digital funds transfers and currencies, to help continue to protect against wire fraud.
“We’ve got to protect our money and our customers’ money,” Rattikin said. “Right now, most transactions are funded by wire transfer.”
But new payment systems, including FedNow, the Federal Reserve’s real-time payment-like system, are scheduled to be online by 2023. There are other systems already in place, like real-time payments, but it isn’t clear if that system is legal in every state due to Good Funds laws, he said.
“Our association has been working with Congress and regulators about this issue, about wire fraud, so hopefully new systems and approaches will help battle this threat,” Rattikin said.
ALTA also will focus on promoting homeownership opportunities.
“There is an important focus on the issue of homeownership affordability from a number of quarters. We want everyone to own a home, those who can and should be,” he said. “What we have to do is determine how can we help promote that with our customers, with our Realtors, the real estate community. How do we add value to our products and services to further help people purchase affordable homes and other real estate?”
Along with Rattikin as president, the other members elected to the 2022-2023 ALTA board of governors include:
- President-elect: Don Kennedy, First American Title Insurance Co.
- Treasurer: Tara Smith, Stewart Title Guaranty Co.
- Chair of Finance Committee: Quinn Stufflebeam, Title Financial Corp.
- Agents Section Chair: Richard Welshons, DCA Title.
- Agents Section Rep: Craig Haskins, Knight Barry Title.
- Agents Section Rep: Lisa Steele, Mother Lode Holding.
- Underwriters Section Chair: David Townsend, Agents National Title Insurance Co.
- Underwriters Section Rep: Joe Grealish, FNF Family of Cos.
- Underwriters Section Rep: Scott Chandler Westcor Land Title Insurance Co.
- Immediate Past President: Daniel Wold, Old Republic National Title Insurance Co.