Dinner: Death and Dirt! What Estate Planners Should Know To Make Conveyancers Happy

Date: Monday, March 2, 2020
Time: 5:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: Palmers Restaurant, Andover
Speaker: Ward Graham, Vice President, Senior Underwriting Counsel, Old Republic National Title Insurance Company

Location: Palmers Restaurant, 18 Elm St, Andover, MA 01810

5:30-6:00 Networking Cocktails

6:00-8:00 Dinner and Presentation

Topic: Death and Dirt! What Estate Planners Should Know To Make Conveyancers Happy

We will be holding a joint event with the Merrimack Valley Conveyancers’ Association, on March 2nd, which will feature Ward P. Graham, Esq., of Old Republic National Title Insurance Company, Inc. speaking about Death and Dirt! What Estate Planners Should Know to Make Conveyancers Happy

Speaker: Ward P. Graham, Vice President, Senior Underwriting Counsel of Old Republic National Title Insurance Company.

Focus on:   Deeds of Distribution and Trust Transfers

  1. Deeds of distribution, including
    1. their limited value as deeds,
    2. failure to comply with the Terms and Provisions of devise in the will by changing identity of devisees or tenancies,
    3. claw-back, and
    4.  compliance with the statutory requirements;
  2. Non-compliance with the written terms of pour over-inter-vivos trusts, including, Failure to convey when the trust terminates despite a “shall convey to the beneficiaries” clause.
  3. Nominal consideration deeds back and forth from trusts.
  4. Familiarity with applicable REBA Title Standards and Land Court Guidelines.

Speaker BIO:

Ward Graham has been an underwriting and claims counsel in the title insurance industry for 32 years, most recently joining Old Republic National Title Insurance Company as Vice President and Senior Underwriting Counsel in April, 2016.  He received his B.A. from Tufts University and his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.  After a tour of duty as a U.S. Naval Judge Advocate and returning to his native New England, Ward spent several years in private practice concentrating in the areas of real estate conveyancing and probate before entering the title insurance industry. 

He has participated in numerous seminars on topics of real estate law and title insurance and was a guest lecturer for several years for the Real Estate Litigation Course at Suffolk University Law School.  Ward is a longstanding member of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts (“REBA”), for which he serves on the Standards and Forms and Legislation Committees.

He is also a member of the Abstract Club, a past president of New England Land Title Association and a contributing author to the MCLE publication, Real Estate Title Practice in Massachusetts (specifically, Chapter 4 on Title Insurance, §4.2(c) of which was noted by the SJC in footnote 42 of REBA v. NREIS, 459 Mass. 512, 534-535 (2011), for reference with respect to “Massachusetts case law relating to different types of marketable title promised in purchase and sale agreements”).

Ward’s focus throughout his career in the title insurance industry has always been on legal education and creative solutions to title problems in order to facilitate real estate transactions.

See Upcoming Event Calendar