The past 18 months have brought unprecedented challenges to all of us, given the pandemic, social unrest, and economic distress. As a company, CATIC was determined to meet these challenges head on, while protecting the interests of our insureds and our other industry partners. The social distancing requirements that were imposed, given the pandemic, meant that the traditional real estate closing had to adapt. Land records were closed to the public, and remote and electronic communication became the norm. Most employees began to work from home, and many real estate transactions were conducted using technology instead of in-person meetings.

Given all of the uncertainty faced by our industry partners, we immediately put in place a dedicated COVID-19 webpage, and posted daily updates about governmental actions, town halls and registries, and details on matters such as remote notarization and federal loan programs for businesses.

In keeping with our corporate goal of helping our agents to enhance their knowledge and build their businesses, we launched CATIC Academy, an interactive online platform that contains educational material produced by both CATIC and many other entities. We continued to provide numerous webinars for our agents and their staffs, covering matters such as new construction, standards of title, digital closings, foreclosures, cyber security, and marijuana production and sales facilities.

We continued with our expansion into new states, including Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and launched our “TOPS” title search platform in Rhode Island. In addition, for the first time, we made the national top ten list for title insurance premiums, putting us in contention nationally with the biggest firms in the industry.

In our efforts to build better communities by promoting fair and equitable treatment for all, we established a Social Justice Initiative, charged with finding ways to help improve the level of minority home ownership.

Despite the challenges we have faced in recent months, our goal remains the same –  to provide first-in-class service and support to our insureds and our other industry partners. To learn more about CATIC, please visit our website, www.CATIC.com.