Bulletin: CA2022004

Dear Associates:

The following ALTA policy forms provide the opportunity to incorporate by reference, certain endorsements:

ALTA Loan Policy (06-17-06)
ALTA Loan Policy (07-01-2021)
ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy (12-03-12)
ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (07-01-2021)
ALTA Owner’s Policy (07-01-21)

In the above-mentioned loan policies, the endorsements by reference are reflected as an optional paragraph No. 6 of Schedule A, except for the ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy (12-03-12), where the endorsements by reference are unnumbered and not an optional paragraph, and in the ALTA Owner’s Policy (07-01-21), endorsements by reference are reflected as an optional paragraph No. 5 of Schedule A.

As mentioned above, the paragraph allowing for the incorporation of endorsements by reference in both the ALTA Owner’s Policy (07-01-21) and the ALTA Loan Policy (07-01-2021) was filed as a bracketed paragraph which meant that the use of that paragraph was optional, and STGC has elected to remove and not include that paragraph when issuing either the ALTA Owner’s Policy (07-01-21) or the ALTA Loan Policy (07-01-2021). When issuing either the ALTA Owner’s Policy (07-01-21) or the ALTA Loan Policy (07-01-2021), do not issue any endorsements by reference; all endorsements that are intended to be issued with these two policy forms must be separately attached and the optional paragraphs 5 and 6, respectively, of Schedule A should be deleted.

In the ALTA Loan Policy (06-17-06), ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy (12-03-12) and ALTA Short Form Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (07-01-2021), the applicable Schedule A paragraphs discussed above, provide the opportunity to incorporate by reference into the policy, certain pre-identified endorsements. Note that the list of endorsements among these policy forms may not all be comprised of the same list of endorsements. When identifying one or more of these endorsements in Schedule A, the policy need not include those selected endorsements as separate attachments to the policy. Any other desired endorsements not found and selected on the referenced list must be attached as separate endorsements to the policy being issued.

This list of endorsements that can be selected to be incorporated by reference may not be modified in any way; absolutely no endorsements may be added or deleted to the pre-printed list because this materially modifies the policy form already filed and approved with the Department of Insurance. Moreover, this pre-printed section of the policy is not to be modified and recharacterized as a comprehensive list of all the endorsements that are being attached to the policy. Endorsements not selected as being incorporated by reference in Schedule A must be attached as separate documents to the policy upon issuance.

In the following four policies, the endorsements by reference were treated a bit differently in that they were not set out in Schedule A, but rather, their inclusion is located in paragraph 28 of the Covered Risks in the 2021 policy form and is an unnumbered paragraph below paragraph 28 of the Covered Risks in the 2015 policy form:

ALTA Expanded Coverage Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (07-01-2021)
ALTA Expanded Coverage Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (04-02-2015)
ALTA Short Form Expanded Coverage Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (07-01-2021)
ALTA Short Form Expanded Coverage Residential Loan Policy - Assessments Priority (04-02-2015)

There are six endorsements that are affirmatively included by reference, but not all will apply in any given transaction, so the policy provisions for the affirmative coverage only apply if there is nothing stated to the contrary in Schedule B. So as to any endorsements that wouldn’t apply, you would want to include an additional exception in Schedule B, carving out any affirmative endorsement(s) not intended to be issued by reference. Any endorsements that are identified as included by reference do not need to be separately attached to the policy, nor should the list of endorsements physically set out in the Covered Risks be altered in any way. If requested to issue any of these expanded loan policies, be sure to review the affirmative endorsements in the Covered Risks and comply with Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriting requirements associated with the issuance of the Expanded Coverage Residential Loan Policy.

If you have any questions relating to this or other bulletins, please contact a Stewart Title Guaranty Company underwriter.

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