ESCROW – ON-DEMAND WEBINARS

Date Recorded: October 31, 2022
Presenter: Anetria Cohen, Director, FORVIS, LLP

A two-hour webinar that reviews RESPA’s escrow rules as well as the TRID escrow disclosure requirements.

Escrow accounts play an important role in the mortgage industry by protecting both the lender and the borrower by ensuring that homeowners’ property taxes, property insurance premiums, mortgage insurance premiums, and other escrow items are paid in a timely fashion. The escrow account ensures that there is always enough money to pay these bills when they are due so that the homeowner avoids the risk of lapsed insurance coverage or delinquent taxes.

Consumer escrow accounts are subject to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (Regulation X), which imposes limitations on how much the lender can collect from the borrower both at loan closing and during the life of the loan, and requires that the lender administer the account correctly, provide various disclosures, and dictate how the lender handles shortages, deficiencies and surpluses.

While having an escrow account benefits an institution because it ensures that mortgage related obligations are actually paid, there are drawbacks as well – the actual time and effort to be an escrow agent and the potential results if institutions do something incorrectly. The escrow rules, and the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure rules regarding disclosure of escrow, can be confusing and often result in many violations.

This webinar will review both RESPA’s escrow requirements as well as the proper completion of the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure as it relates to escrows and the refund of escrow account balances.

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

• What transactions are covered by the RESPA escrow rules?
• Limitations on how much you can require the borrower to place into an escrow account at loan closing and during the life of the loan.
• How to conduct an escrow analysis.
• What is the “aggregate adjustment?”
• How to deal with shortages, deficiencies, and surpluses.
• The timing and content of the initial and annual escrow statements.
• The use of short-year statements.
• Penalties for non-compliance.
• Rules regarding the refund of escrow account balances.
• The proper completion of the Loan Estimate and Closing Disclosure for escrows.