Agenda / Content Covered

1. Title Law Updates: What You Need to Know NOW!
   9:00 - 9:45, Philip Peter Apter
   
   1. Issues with Online Title Examinations and Recordings
   2. Remote Online Notarization
   3. eRecording
   4. Cybercrime and Data Security
   5. Blockchain
2. Title Searches and Examinations: An Insider's Look
   9:45 - 10:30, Philip Peter Apter
   
3. Reviewing Title Commitments and Surveys
   10:45 - 12:00, Steven H. Winkler
   
   1. Line-by-Line Through the Title Commitment
      1. Schedule A
      2. Schedule B-I
      3. Schedule B-II
   2. Investigating Special Exceptions
   3. Reading Legal Descriptions
   4. State and ALTA/NSPS Survey Standards
   5. Surveys: What to Look for
      1. Basic Surveying Terms and Symbols
      2. Survey Review Checklist
      3. Ensuring Title Reports and Land Surveys Align
      4. Boundaries, Easements, Improvements, Encroachments
      5. Access Issues
      6. Utilities
      7. Setbacks and Zoning Requirements
   6. Approaches to Title Issues: Transfer Risk, Accept the Risk or Solve the Problem?
   7. Title Objections and Sample Letter
4. Title Insurance Endorsements and Negotiating Tactics to Maximize Coverage
   1:00 - 1:45, Steven H. Winkler
   
   1. Getting Insurers to Remove or Modify Exceptions
   2. Review of Endorsements - What do They Really Cover?
   3. Endorsements to Obtain, When and Why
   4. Endorsements That are Unnecessary
   5. Risk vs. Cost Analysis and Keeping Costs Down
   6. Negotiating Endorsement Coverage
5. Curing Title Defects: Mortgage Issues, Liens, Legal Description Errors and More
   1:45 - 2:30, Lisa Lugauskas
   
   1. Mortgage, Foreclosure and Bankruptcy Issues
   2. Liens: Mechanic's, Judgment, Tax and Others
   3. Breaks in Chain of Title
   4. Deed and Legal Description Problems
   5. Estate Issues
   6. Fraud and Forgery
   7. Title Issues in Common Interest Communities
   8. Quiet Title Actions
6. Easement, Access and Encroachment Issues in Title
   2:45 - 3:30, Brian R. Smith
   
   1. Interpretation of Rights to Use Access Easements and Private Roads
   2. Easement Size and Location
   3. Rights and Maintenance Responsibilities
   4. Insuring Servitudes
   5. Common Encroachment Issues
   6. Easement Creation and Termination
   7. Encroachment Agreements and Removal
7. Ethical Considerations
   3:30 - 4:30, Lisa Lugauskas
   
   1. Attorneys' Fees
   2. Conflicts of Interest
   3. Multiple Representation
   4. Disclosure of Defects in Property
   5. Q&A

Accreditation Details:

PHILIP PETER APTER is a managing member of ETS, LLC d/b/a Eastland Title Services, headquartered in South Windsor, Connecticut. The company offers a real estate title searching and recording service covering Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. He has performed thousands of residential and commercial title examinations. He has lectured on title examining for the Connecticut Bar Association, REBA, and NELTA. Mr. Apter is past director of National Association of Land Title Examiners and Abstracters (NALTEA), and a member of the New England Land Title Association (NELTA). He is accepted as an expert witness by the Connecticut Superior Court. Mr. Apter graduated from Clark University (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude) and the University of Connecticut School of Law.

LISA LUGAUSKAS is vice president and branch counsel of the Fidelity National Title Group. Ms. Lugauskas has extensive speaking experience and earned a Post University Award for excellence in teaching. She is an officer of the Connecticut Title Land Association and an officer and director of the Waterbury Bar Association. Ms. Lugauskas is the chairperson of the Connecticut Bar Association's Residential Real Estate Specialization Committee and an officer of the CBA's Real Property Section. She is a director of CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) and is a co-chair of its Professional Development Committee, as well as a member of the Careers Committee. Ms. Lugauskas is admitted to the Connecticut Bar Association, the U.S. District Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She earned her B.S. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Connecticut and her J.D. degree from Brigham Young University.

BRIAN R. SMITH is a partner in the law firm of Robinson & Cole, LLP, where he is section leader of the firm's land law section, composed of lawyers who practice in construction, environmental and utilities, land use, and real estate. Mr. Smith concentrates his practice in land use and real estate, as well as in litigation concerning these topics. He represents developers, municipalities, and neighbors in land use, planning, wetlands, coastal resources, and real estate title issues. Mr. Smith has been lead counsel in numerous trials and appeals relating to these issues. He has lectured extensively on the topics of land use, First and Fifth Amendment issues, and roads and highways. Mr. Smith is an Executive Committee member of the Planning and Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. He is a member of the Cornell Real Estate Council. He earned his B.A. degree, cum laude, with honors, from Colgate University and his J.D. degree from Cornell Law School.

STEVEN H. WINKLER is senior vice president and chief underwriting counsel of Williston Financial Group and its underwriting subsidiary, WFG National Title Insurance Company. Mr. Winkler is admitted to practice in Connecticut and has been in the title insurance industry in a variety of legal and management capacities since 1972. Currently, he is a member of the Greater Bridgeport, New Haven County, Hartford County, Connecticut (emeritus member), Executive Committee of the Real Property Section, 1979-present; American Bar Association; and the Association of Corporate Counsel. Mr. Winkler has been elected a fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the American College of Mortgage Attorneys. He also presently serves on the Forms Committee of the American Land Title Association. Mr. Winkler was co-founder and a past president of the Connecticut Title Association and was a member of the Connecticut Insurance Commissioner's Title Insurance Task Force-Insurance Code Recodification Project. He has spoken many times on title insurance-related topics and is co-author of the Common Interest Ownership Manual (1984). Mr. Winkler earned his B.A. degree from Union College, Schenectady, New York and his J.D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School.