The CFPB is requiring that the owner’s policy be disclosed as “optional” due to the fact that unlike the lender’s policy which is required by most institutional lenders in the country, an owner’s title insurance policy is not a transactional requirement nationwide.
This new descriptor was written to and applied nationwide with no allowance for customary contractual requirements in Southern California. Some parts of the country do not have the risk and liability of real estate transactions as we do in the highly populated State of California and thus Owner’s policies are considered optional and not a contractual obligation as they are here. As a reminder, the Closing Disclosure is a lender document and does not release the seller of any obligation to provide the buyer with required items per the mutually signed purchase agreement.
Here is a consumer friendly link on title insurance that might be helpful to your clients: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/eregulations/sxs/1026-38-g-4/2013-28210?from_version=2015-01321
