California Best Title Company Inc. settles case alleging illegal inducements for $150,000 without admitting wrongdoing, but marketing rep loses license for three years.
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California regulators have reached a $150,000 settlement with a title insurance company to resolve allegations that two of its employees provided free videos and other illegal inducements to real estate agents in exchange for business.
California Best Title Company Inc., which operates three offices in the metro Los Angeles market, did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to settle the case, which was filed by the California Department of Insurance last year.
In addition to covering the state’s investigative costs of $50,000 and an additional penalty of $100,000, the company agreed to develop a “formal, written training program for employees on state and federal title insurance anti-inducement laws,” and ensure that employees “receive such training regularly.”
One of the company’s licensed title marketing representatives, Jonathan Golden — accused of providing free photography and drone videography to real estate agents — admitted to providing illegal services and surrendered his license on March 20. He will be prohibited from seeking any insurance license for 3 years.
Another of the company’s licensed title marketing representatives, Joshua Meador — accused of providing real estate sales marketing tips as inducements — denied the allegations but agreed to pay $10,000 in penalties and costs and accepted ongoing restrictions on his license.
California regulators said they launched an investigation of California Best Title in 2023, after receiving “multiple complaints from industry professionals” alleging the company’s marketing representatives were providing illegal inducements to real estate agents who agreed to send business to the company.
“While consumers technically have the right to choose the title company in a real estate transaction, real estate agents almost always make this choice for consumers,” the Department of Insurance said in a March 27 press release.
In their Sept. 6, 2024, amended accusation, attorneys for the Department of Insurance alleged that Golden — through his affiliation with Blue Gold Media LLC — filmed and produced at least 164 listing videos for real estate agents.
Investigators alleged that nearly one in four of the listings (23 percent) became title orders for California Best Title, although 11 of the 37 orders failed to close.
Golden was the title marketing representative for California Best Title on the sale of a property at 5131 Etiwanda Avenue in Los Angeles, for example. The addition of the real estate agent’s logo to the original video shot by Blue Gold Media demonstrates the value that the videos had in enhancing the advertising of the listing, the complaint alleged.
From June 2023 to April 2024, Meador allegedly sent real estate agents at least 13 emails providing marketing tips for reaching out to homeowners in their “farm” or marketing sphere.
California law allows title companies to furnish the names of owners of record, descriptions of real property and property characteristics of homes within a real estate agent’s marketing sphere. Agents who wanted to order marketing services like postcards or targeted Facebook and Instagram ads from Meador had to pay for those services.
But regulators alleged that the free tips Meador provided to agents amounted to an illegal inducement, which he denied.
Title insurers and other providers of settlement services are barred by a federal law, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), from paying kickbacks for business. But many states have their own laws on the books, and California has pursued many similar cases in the past.
First American Title Co. agreed to pay $1.185 million in 2021 to resolve allegations that one of its marketing representatives in Southern California provided illegal perks to real estate agents, including video marketing and drone footage of listings with placement on social media sites, bus caravans to promote listings and sales coaching. The marketing representative surrendered his license in 2022 without admitting to the allegations.
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