Title Insurance for Real Estate transactions
DUAL's Real Estate appetite:
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Commercial real estate*
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Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. In certain situations, we can also cover real estate in Japan and South Korea
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Up to USD $150m for any single transaction/asset. Capacity is provided via AXA XL’s 2003 Syndicate at Lloyd’s
*‘Commercial’ for us is essentially anything other than single houses or apartments being purchased for owner-occupier or investment purposes. For example, we have appetite for professional property developers carrying on a commercial enterprise of developing land for medium and high-density residential purposes.
Private equity funds
Institutional investors
Financial institutions
Corporations
Insolvency practitioners
Financial advisors
What we look for in a risk
Clients usually want to achieve a commercial advantage
Our insureds typically are motivated to buy insurance because they wish to obtain some commercial advantage from insurance rather than being concerned about the underlying risk.
For example, a client might use our insurance to:
- Facilitate a transaction by taking an issue off the negotiating table.
- Obtain preferential bank financing where a lender’s risk tolerance is below normal commercial levels.
- Enable liquidators, administrators or trustees to distribute funds before a statute of limitation expires.
- Increase the availability of investors (eg pension funds) by changing the risk profile of an asset, to meet reserving. requirements.
Low / remote likelihood of loss
Our underwriting must conclude that the risk is low / remote.
If necessary, we will obtain third party expert opinion to assist with our underwriting.
Multiple triggers
Often, there are multiple triggers to a loss under the policy. These triggers include, for example:
- Contractual breaches.
- Regulatory investigations.
- System/control failures.
- Insolvency.
Normal insurance; bespoke situation
All of the risks that we insure are risk transfer policies and could be insured by more traditional insurance groups.
It is not because of the perception of risk that more traditional teams do not insure them. Often, the claim trigger does not fit within a reinsurance treaty or underwriting information is presented in an unfamiliar way to the particular underwriter. The structuring around the risk is also often more complicated or time-intensive.
Typical underwriting process
Timeframes
- We aim to provide an informal view of the risk as quickly as we can.
- Terms may take 2 to 4 business days.
- Underwriting usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to provide a policy.
Policy terms:
- We provide bespoke policies which are tailored to cover the risk. Cover is drafted specifically for the risk in question.
- We include material retentions (horizontal and/or co-insurance) to align interests.
- We often offer novel solutions.
- Policy terms detail the cover, loss, claims process as well as customary conduct obligations during the policy term.
Fees:
- We charge underwriting fees due to the time and cost of reviewing the risk and structuring the solution.
- Normally these will be €/£/$ 10k to 25k unless the risk is large, complex or has some other unusual feature.
Local underwriting contact points
Chris Hammond
Head of Title Insurance - Asia Pacific
Jordan Schwarz
Head of M&A Underwriting
See our full global Transaction Risk team
Visit our meet the team page to find the correct team member for your product and region, including their direct contact details for enquiries and support.
Underwriting locations
Global capability, local knowledge.
Wherever you are in the world, our local experts are ready to support you.
