Minnesota and HUD to crack down on affiliated title insurers
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006Minnesota and federal housing officials have launched a crackdown on affiliated business arrangements in which real estate brokerages, lenders or builders own a share of companies that provide title insurance.
Affiliated business arrangements, or ABAs, are legal in many states unless they are determined to be sham businesses created to generate illegal payments and kickbacks in exchange for referrals.
That’s how the Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have characterized Five Star Title, a partnership between a mortgage lender and title company.




investment property