Title insurance is not considered a finance charge. But, if the title company is an affiliate of the bank, is it still not considered a finance charge?
Thank you for your help!

It would not be considered a finance charge, but the cost would have to be added back in for Section 32 purposes.

Seems like, you cannot require purchase of title insurance from an affiliate. Just a word of caution.

I think that a bank can purchase title insurance (lender coverage) from whomever they want - can't they. They just couldn't require the borrower to purchase title coverage (owner's coverage) from a particular provider - or is too late in the week for me???

Some state require a "Chinese Wall" between lending and insurance functions. See, for example, Michigan Compiled Laws 500.1243.

You do have to disclose the relationship between the title insurance provider and the bank to the customer for the purchase of the lenders' coverage.

I do not beleive that you can mandate the purchase of owners' coverage. However, most of the time it would not be cost effective to pay for a full title search from another party in order to get the coverage!

In Michigan, some the title underwriters anticipated the split coverage in a home sale, and filed the appropriate premiums with the state to allow two agencies to split the basic fee that would be charged if one agency is providing both the owner's and mortgagee's policies.