Title Insurance Editing and Proofreading Services

Alphabetical order is prescribed on the Loan Estimate, and so is the beginning of certain labels. Under 12 CFR 1026.37(f)(5)(ii), items in the Loan Costs table other than the points line "must be listed in alphabetical order by their labels under the applicable subheading."¹ Paragraph (f)(5) adds that those items are labeled using "terminology that describes each item," subject to three other paragraphs that prescribe particular wording.¹ The order of the page is produced by the labels, and the labels are not entirely the writer's to choose.

A ceiling under every subheading

The Loan Costs table has four subheadings, and three of them limit how many items they may hold. Paragraph (f)(1)(ii) provides that the number of items under Origination Charges, including the points line at (f)(1)(i), "shall not exceed 13."¹ Paragraph (f)(2)(ii) sets the same figure for Services You Cannot Shop For, and (f)(3)(ii) sets 14 for Services You Can Shop For.¹ The fourth, Total Loan Costs at (f)(4), carries a sum rather than items of its own.¹ Under Other Costs, paragraph (g)(4)(iii) provides that the number of items under Other "shall not exceed five."¹ The Bureau's guide to the two forms repeats the 13 and the 14.²

The front of a title label is prescribed

Two paragraphs use identical wording. Both reach any item that is a component of title insurance, and any item that is for conducting the closing. For such an item, paragraph (f)(2)(i) and paragraph (f)(3)(i) each provide that an introductory description "shall appear at the beginning of the label for that item."¹ The description the regulation prints is the word Title followed by a dash. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small entity compliance guide renders it as "'Title' followed by a dash or hyphen and then a description of the specific title insurance component."³

Where an addendum is not permitted

Overflow is handled one way in most of the form and another way in a single section. Paragraph (f)(6)(i) provides that an addendum "may not be used for items described in paragraph (f)(1) or (2) of this section."¹ Where the creditor cannot itemize every service in the lines provided, that paragraph directs that "the remaining charges shall be disclosed as an aggregate amount in the last line permitted," labeled "Additional Charges."¹ Paragraph (g)(8) bars an addendum for anything required by paragraph (g), and directs the same aggregate treatment there.¹ Services You Can Shop For is the exception, and (f)(6)(ii) gives the creditor a choice between an addendum and the aggregate line.¹

Which charges become the remaining ones follows from the ordering rule. Paragraph (f)(6)(ii)(A) requires items moved to an addendum to be listed there "in accordance with the requirements in paragraphs (f)(3) and (5) of this section."¹ Paragraph (f)(5) is the alphabetical rule. With the order set by the labels and the count set by the paragraph, the items past the last permitted line are the ones whose labels sort last.

The second form does not use the same subheadings

The Closing Disclosure is meant to be read against the estimate. Its Loan Costs table keeps Origination Charges, but 12 CFR 1026.38(f)(2) and (f)(3) require the headings "Services Borrower Did Not Shop For" and "Services Borrower Did Shop For."⁴ The Loan Estimate's equivalents are "Services You Cannot Shop For" and "Services You Can Shop For."¹ The totals line is renamed as well, from "Total Loan Costs" at 1026.37(f)(4) to "Total Loan Costs (Borrower-Paid)" at 1026.38(f)(4).¹⁴

The prescribed title wording moves too. On the Loan Estimate the introductory description is required at (f)(2)(i), (f)(3)(i) and (g)(4)(i).¹ On the Closing Disclosure it appears at 1026.38(g)(4)(i), which reaches "any cost that is a component of title insurance services" and attaches the description to the label "for that actual cost."⁴ The parenthetical at 1026.38(g)(4)(ii) carries a qualifier the estimate does not, reaching costs "designated borrower-paid at or before closing."⁴

The Bureau's home loan toolkit tells the buyer that the closing figures can be compared with the earlier estimate. It adds that there "should not be any significant changes other than those you have already agreed to."⁵ The comparison therefore runs between two pages that do not use the same words for the same groups.

The line between pricing and wording

All work received is confidential. What we do with it is narrower than the file it belongs to. A creditor and a settlement agent decide whether a service is one a consumer may shop for, which section a charge belongs in, and what a fee covers. None of those questions is put to an editor here, and we do not answer them.

The reading we do follows the documents instead. A label on the estimate can be set against the introductory description the regulation prescribes for it. The order of labels can be set against the order alphabetization actually produces. A service named on the written list can be traced to the line that names the same service on the disclosure that follows.