MEET THE PEOPLE WHO HOLD THE MONEY
The Escrow Agents Behind Every Safe Closing
Your money is never held by us and never by the other party. It is held by a licensed professional whose job, license and insurance all depend on doing this correctly. Here is exactly who that person is in your state, what they do, and how to check them yourself.
ONE STATE, ONE KIND OF AGENT
Who Holds Your Money In Each State
Ohio: the Licensed Title Agent
LICENSED BY THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE
A title insurance agent runs your Ohio closing: they hold funds in a regulated escrow account, search Franklin, Cuyahoga or your county records for liens, prepare the deed, and disburse under the Ohio good-funds statute, R.C. 1349.21, which forbids paying anyone until the money has actually cleared.
- Holds: earnest money, purchase funds, signed deed
- Insured by: agency E&O policy plus the national title underwriter behind the policy
- Verify them: license search at insurance.ohio.gov
Texas: the Licensed Escrow Officer
LICENSED BY THE TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE
Texas runs the strictest title regime in the country: rates and policy forms are set by the state itself, and every escrow officer holds an individual TDI license. Your Harris, Dallas or Bexar county closing is handled by that named officer inside a licensed title agency, with your file number on every dollar.
- Holds: escrowed deposits, cleared purchase funds, documents
- Insured by: statutory bonding, agency E&O, state-regulated underwriters
- Verify them: agent lookup at tdi.texas.gov
Georgia: the Closing Attorney
MEMBER OF THE STATE BAR OF GEORGIA, REQUIRED BY LAW
Georgia goes one step further than most states: a licensed attorney must supervise every real estate closing, and the State Bar enforces this as the unauthorized practice of law. Your Fulton, DeKalb or Chatham county closing attorney owes you professional duties on top of escrow duties, with a law license on the line.
- Holds: all funds in an attorney trust (IOLTA) account, all documents
- Insured by: malpractice coverage, bar client-protection mechanisms, title underwriter
- Verify them: member directory at gabar.org
FOUR LAYERS DEEP
The Insurance Stack Behind Your Agent
Escrow agents are not trusted because they seem nice. They are trusted because four independent layers of protection stand behind them, and each layer has its own money at stake if something goes wrong.
Most local title agencies also write their policies on behalf of large national underwriters, the companies of the scale of First American, Fidelity National, Old Republic and Stewart, which is why a policy issued by a small-town Ohio agency carries national financial backing. The American Land Title Association maintains a national registry of verified title agents at alta.org.
Ask Us Who Will Hold Your File →The license
State-issued, individually held, revocable. Losing it ends the career.
The bond and E&O insurance
State-required coverage that pays for errors and misconduct.
The title underwriter
The national insurer behind every policy, auditing the agents who issue for them.
The regulator and the courts
Departments of insurance, the Georgia Bar, and public county records over all of it.
We Name Your Agent Before You Sign Anything
On every transaction, seller side or buyer side, we tell you which title company or closing attorney holds the file, in writing, before any signature. Then we encourage you to run the two-minute license check above and call them directly. A company that closes clean has nothing to hide, and a customer who verified once trusts the whole process.
Escrow Agent Questions, Answered Directly
It depends on the state. In Ohio and Texas it is a licensed title insurance agent or escrow officer working for a title company. In Georgia it is a licensed real estate closing attorney, because Georgia law requires attorney-supervised closings. In every case we name your specific agent and company before you sign anything.
Every state publishes its licenses. Ohio: search the agent or agency in the Ohio Department of Insurance license gateway. Texas: use the Texas Department of Insurance agent lookup. Georgia: confirm the closing attorney in the State Bar of Georgia member directory. The searches are free and take about two minutes.
Multiple insurance layers respond: the agency's errors-and-omissions policy, state-required bonding, the underwriter behind the title policy, and in attorney states the bar's client protection mechanisms. This layered backstop is why regulated escrow exists instead of trust between strangers.
Often yes, especially on the buyer side. Where the existing contract already names one, we tell you upfront and you are free to have your own attorney review the entire file alongside them.