Home Title Fraud

Unfortunately, this world is full of a lot of bad actors… and I’m not talking about the ones on the screen or stage. I’m talking about criminals out to rob you of your money, your identity or anything else they can get out of you. Lately, in an effort to expand my knowledge for clients, I’ve attended several talks given by professionals to help educate the public on how to avoid becoming a victim. Something that came up in a couple of these is home title theft. In fact, I recently saw two commercials on TV from companies selling a product designed to stop this situation.

While I’m not aware of any friends, family or even clients who have been victim of home title theft, we shouldn’t let our guard down.

Indiana, along with many other states, participates in a property fraud alert program. While the program does not prevent fraud attempts, it works by notifying you if someone has recorded a deed with your name or your property location. In Indiana, there are two programs that cover the various counties, so you have to check both programs to find which one covers your county, then sign up for alerts for your name and/or address.

If you are interested in signing up for these alerts, go to Doxpop.com and propertyfraudalert.com to find out which service covers your county. For those outside Indiana, propertyfraudalert.com covers about 20 states, while Doxpop.com is for Indiana and Michigan only. There is no fee for these services.

When I first heard about the program, I was skeptical, so I reached out to my county’s recorder and she confirmed the programs I’m suggesting are legitimate. If you don’t live in a state that uses one of these services, contact your county recorder to find out if they use something else.

- Juli Erhart-Graves, CFP®, Reify Wealth Advisors

This article was included in the Reify Wealth Advisors Quarterly Newsletter.