April 29, 2025

URGING AGENTS TO SUPPORT SB 2648

Preserve the Future of Attorneys and Their Clients

by Addressing Market Misconduct that Harms the Profession and the Consumers We Serve

For 60 years, Advocus has embraced our mission statement: To preserve the attorney's role in real estate transactions for the benefit of the public.

A real estate transaction is typically the largest financial transaction of a consumer's life. It’s incredibly complex. For buyers and sellers, having an attorney by their side is essential.

While our mission has remained the same, the battles to protect it have taken many forms: National title underwriters' repeated attempts to undermine or eliminate attorneys from the process; bad actors (including a few bad-apple attorneys) who devalue the services attorneys provide; and some real estate broker affiliated businesses that are a blockade to attorneys' ability to independently represent their clients.

The one constant has been Advocus and our tireless efforts to hold the bad actors accountable to prevent the erosion of consumer trust. Even still, it's been a mostly frustrating and sometimes futile exercise. Our pleas to secure regulatory action for the most obvious violations of the law have gone unanswered. Recent examples have been the emergence of sham affiliated businesses and kickback schemes, which are often in the form of arrangements between unsavory title agencies, real estate broker owners, and individual real estate agents. These arrangements harm the consumer financially and damage the reputation of all real estate professionals.



In Light of Marketplace Violations, Lack of Enforcement by IDFPR Has Real Consequences

These “race to the bottom” behaviors harm the profession and consumers and have raised alarm at all levels of the real estate industry. Our regulator, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), has been unable to rein in even the most egregious behavior. This is the reason we support legislation to transfer jurisdiction of the title industry to the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDOI):

• IDFPR does not devote adequate resources to the title industry (especially given the revenue the industry generates to IDFPR).
• As a result, we have a dysfunctional and mostly unregulated industry rife with illegal kickback schemes, sham affiliated businesses, and other practices that harm consumers.
• The title insurance section of IDFPR has one full-time person on staff supervising this multibillion-dollar industry.
• Consumers have no protection from bad actors.
• Most filed complaints go unheeded. (Advocus and other industry stakeholders have filed complaints with IDFPR over the years, to no avail.)

Illinois is the only state in the country not regulated by a Department or Division of Insurance.

Transferring Title Industry Jurisdiction to IDOI Has Advantages

The IDOI's regulatory framework and specialized staff are well-equipped to ensure a much higher level of consumer protection by focusing on:

• identifying and stopping bad actors; and
• assuring insurer solvency.

For the first time in many years, we fear that in the absence of regulatory change, the future of our beloved profession will be either compromised or eliminated. And as a result, consumers will be denied reasonable access to attorneys to represent them in what is invariably the largest financial transaction of their lives.

For these reasons, we urge you to support SB 2648.

• Read the full text of the bill here.
• Customize our Sample Letter and contact your State representative to express your views.

If you have questions or would like more information, we would love to hear from you—simply reply to this email. We value your feedback!

Peter J. Birnbaum

Executive Chairman

Advocus National Title Insurance Company