Anthony Knight and I have spent our careers inside the title industry. I spent about two decades at First American in national roles, including President of its National Agency division and regional leadership in National Commercial Services. Anthony built and ran sales, operations and business development for national and regional title organizations. Between us we have more than 60 years in this business.

Over that time, one problem kept coming back, and it has only grown. We started Innovative to solve it.

The deals outgrew the model

Commercial transactions have changed. Portfolios now span many states. Energy and infrastructure projects sit on leaseholds and easements across hundreds of parcels. Construction and mezzanine financing add layers of insured parties and endorsements.

As deals get larger, the liability on a single transaction can exceed what any one underwriter is willing to retain. When that happens, the policy has to be built from several underwriters through co-insurance, reinsurance or both. Someone has to assemble that capacity, coordinate the underwriting and stand behind one commitment.

Too often that work falls to the client's counsel or lender, routed through a title agent whose relationship runs to a single underwriter. That agent can offer one underwriter's appetite and one underwriter's limits. On the largest deals, that isn't enough.

We represent the market

Innovative is a licensed title agency with relationships across the national underwriters. We start with the transaction, not with an underwriter we need to place it with. Then we match the risk to the underwriter, or the combination of underwriters, best suited to carry it.

For our clients that means one point of contact and one commitment, with the capacity assembled behind it.

Every deal, every state

Representing the market cuts both ways. Large national commercial operations put their biggest files first, which is reasonable, but it means deals under $10 million often wait. We don't work that way. We handle those transactions ourselves, and our promise is the same on every file: we will find the right capacity for your deal.

At the other end, the largest multi-state transactions expose a different weakness. A single underwriter depends on its own agents and offices in each state, and the quality of execution varies from state to state. A sales or escrow team inside one company sees only its own network. We see the whole market, so we know where execution is strong, where it isn't, and how to plan around it before it slows a closing.

What that looks like on a deal

  • Early involvement. We want to see the deal at LOI, when capacity and curative questions are still easy to solve.
  • An underwriting strategy. We decide early whether the deal needs co-insurance or reinsurance, and which underwriters belong in it.
  • Senior underwriting access. Affirmative coverage, endorsements and complex structures go directly to people who can approve them.
  • Attorney-closing states. Where state law reserves the closing for an attorney, we work alongside the deal's counsel or approved local attorneys rather than around them.
  • Coordinated settlement. Escrow, recording and policy issuance managed with every party at the table.

Who we built it for

Developers and sponsors working across states. Lenders and servicers on large, layered or distressed loans. Law firms that need responsive underwriting and a title partner in attorney-closing states. And title agencies and commercial reps whose deal has outgrown their underwriter's limit. We help place it and keep them in the deal.

If you have a transaction that is testing the limits of a single policy, Anthony and I would like to hear about it.