Home Buyers Need Title Companies. Agents Shouldn’t Be Getting Paid to Select Them.

In a recently settled case, Maryland sued one of its title companies. The claim? That the company, together with a few affiliates, made kickbacks to agents. It’s a sad story of greed.

It also offers some insights for our readers, and gives us a reason to talk about insuring our home titles—a precaution that should be better known. So let’s take a look.

Wait. Do Title Companies Give Kickbacks to Agents?

Hire an agent to sell your home, and look for your contract to specify a title company that will work with your deed transfer and title insurance.

What’s title insurance? Title insurance covers the title, not the home, from any surprise liens that might have been left on it. Home buyers pay for their lenders’ policies, and can optionally buy coverage for themselves, too.

Now, it’s possible an agent owns or has a marketing interest with a certain title company. Because you’re paying for their title work, your agent has to tell you about any such relationship.

Usually, it’s beneficial to work with a title company trusted by your agent. When an agent knows what to expect from the title company based on past experiences, a transaction that gets tricky can go through in a smoother manner. Most buyers do not know one title company from another, and they’re fine with the agent’s preference. But buyers do have a say in the selection before signing a contract with the agent.

What’s not OK is the agent actually getting paid for a referral to a specific company. That would bring up a conflict of interest. Agents must act in the client’s best interest. Part of that is referring the best professionals—not whoever pays a reward.

Not surprisingly, kickbacks (all sorts of unearned or unfair inducements) are banned by federal law and policy.

That said, some brokers have been known to get around this ban by working with affiliated title firms. If a broker is part of a title firm, the agents that sign up with that broker might be expected to use that title firm. Some title companies, like an LLC named KVS Title, have formed joint ventures with agents and brokers to sell insurance products.

The insurance commissioners in some states watch broker-insurer relationships very carefully. Brokers with stakes in title companies must allow real estate purchase agreements to allow other firms to insure the transactions. Otherwise, they’re violating the ethics rules.

A Title Company and a Real Estate Agent Walk Onto a Yacht…

To avoid confusion and blurred lines, Washington, D.C. now bars brokers from forming networks with joint venture title companies.

Recently, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced the District had gone after some title insurers working on deed transactions. They were giving cut-price shares in their profits to local real estate agents in exchange for referrals. They’d set up shell companies to transfer the inducements, disguised as dividends.

Law enforcement said one of the companies was treating agents to yacht trips.

The firms settled the case against them without admitting any wrongdoing. They must pay more than $3 million to the District of Columbia. The city will distribute most of these funds to deed holders who might have scored better prices on policies through other brokers. The firms have to separate their company from investors who are real estate agents — or else, keep clear of D.C.

Maryland Settles Its Case With KVS, Halting the Joint Ventures

In January 2026, Maryland’s Attorney General Anthony G. Brown made a notable announcement. The state’s Consumer Protection Division settled with KVS Title—a company formed under Maryland law.

Agents and brokers in KVS’s satellite firms were getting improper inducements for bringing clients onto company policies, Maryland had alleged. Both federal and state laws prohibit the practice.

Under the settlement, KVS Title and the joint venture firms are having to pay more than a million dollars in restitution to Maryland consumers and state consumer protection programs.

And those joint venture companies, the ones working with KVS? Time’s up for them in Maryland. They’ve had to cease operations.

Getting a Deed Through a Home Purchase? Get a Title Insurance Policy, Too.

Excited home buyers might be thinking of everything but title insurance. But purchasing a home opens a one-time opportunity to insure the title in the buyer’s name.

The lender always gets a policy. Its coverage tapers off as the homeowner pays down the debt. Once the loan’s repaid, the title is no longer insured. Unless the owner has a policy.

Say you’ve thought about this, and you want to sign up for an owner’s policy at closing. Then you may choose the insurance firm. The easy route is to simply use whatever company your agent and lender know best. Which generally works out fine.

Nevertheless, given that a home buyer will only get one shot to buy an owner’s title insurance policy, it’s particularly important that this decision be understood.

The opposite happens when someone’s getting kickbacks from the company that gets the customer’s business. Steering loan applicants to companies that pay rewards for referrals isn’t prudent or fair. This is why it’s restricted under federal and state laws addressing real estate settlements and consumer rights. States’ laws protect consumers against these and other deceptive business methods. In cases where a harm occurred on purpose, a court can award 3X damages to make a client whole again.

It Comes Down to Trust.

Recently, federal agents caught up with a certain Florida-based operator of multiple title insurance companies. This operator went so far as to set up interstate wire transfers of escrow money into his own title company’s accounts. Serious harm was done. People’s mortgage closings and deed transfers fell through.

“In exchange for his role in the scheme to defraud,” wrote the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida, the offender also took “ill-gotten title insurance premiums.”

Charged with the classic white-collar crime of wire fraud, Jonathan Yasko is now dealing with the consequences. Yasko entered a guilty plea last year.

Recently, U.S. District Judge Julie S. Sneed sentenced Yasko to more than two years in a federal prison. The defendant has also agreed to pay back more than $200K.  

Real estate professionals are supposed to have clients’ best interests in mind. The last thing the industry needs is deceptive practices by the people we’re all supposed to trust.