Smart Strategies To Be FinCEN-Ready — Without New Tech Costs

Starting March 1, 2026, new FinCEN regulations will require title & escrow professionals to report more than 800,000 additional transactions annually—or face fines or even potential imprisonment. David I. Williams, Partner/Vice President of Compliance at Raleigh, NC-based real estate law firm Midtown Law, knew his team needed to be ready. 

The end-to-end FinCEN reporting solution built directly into Qualia Core—at zero cost to use for Qualia customers—made that preparation straightforward. While some vendors are charging $2 per transaction—potentially adding up to thousands in annual fees—Qualia customers get comprehensive FinCEN compliance without additional technology cost right in their existing workflow.

“As soon as I was ready to begin preparing for implementation, I found that Qualia had already done the work to create the solution and also the educational tools showing how it could be used,” says Williams. “The fact that the functionality was added at no extra cost reflects Qualia’s commitment to delivering a premium product with the features customers truly need.”

With the help of Qualia, Midtown Law is prepared for the FinCEN regulations taking effect March 1, 2026. Is your title & escrow operation ready to comply with maximum efficiency and minimal friction and cost? This blog will help you answer that question. It explains the new reporting requirements, suggests best practices for collecting, reviewing, and reporting required FinCEN data, and shows how Qualia’s integrated solution helps customers comply with confidence at no extra cost.

The background basics

The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers Rule from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) targets non-financed/cash transfers involving legal entities or trusts. FinCEN believes the regulations will combat and deter money laundering. 

Under the rule, professionals involved in closings and settlements—including title & escrow companies—must report covered transactions to FinCEN using a Real Estate Report form. FinCEN estimates that 800,000 to 850,000 transactions each yearwill fall under the rule, layering heavy new compliance obligations onto title & escrow workflows.

What the rule requires, in plain English

Reporting is mandatory when:

• A residential property transfer is non-financed, meaning no extension of credit secured by the property—or even when financing is provided by a lender not subject to AML/CFT or Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) requirements.
• The buyer is a legal entity or trust (not an individual)
• No exemption applies (such as certain transactions and transferees that are exempt from reporting. Learn more.)

When reporting is required, the reporting party must submit information that includes:

• Property details
• Buyer and seller information
• Beneficial ownership data (names, dates of birth, addresses, taxpayer IDs)
• Transaction value and payment method
• Information about representatives acting on behalf of the buyer
• Reporting person’s name and contact information.

The report must be filed through FinCEN’s BSA E-filing system by the last day of the month following the month the closing occurred or 30 calendar days after the closing, whichever is later. Late or incomplete filings can carry civil penalties (nearly $1,400 per offense), while willful violations expose industry firms to fines up to $250,000 and five years’ imprisonment. FinCEN uses a reporting cascade to determine who is responsible for filing. In many transactions, that responsibility lands squarely on title & escrow businesses.

The Imperative: align people, processes, and technology

To comply successfully, minimize risk, and keep business moving without burning teams out, title & escrow providers must align three key elements:

• People: Employees are the front line of compliance. Train them to understand the rule, identify FinCEN-reportable transactions, and execute established protocols consistently. Designate a FinCEN reporting lead and ensure every team member involved in a reportable transaction has clearly defined responsibilities, reinforced by documented expectations and measurable checkpoints. 
• Processes: Effective compliance depends on repeatable execution. Build structured workflows for document collection, reporting, and internal communication that can scale with transaction volume. Automate routine steps to reduce manual effort and errors. Quality control reviews, defined procedures for handling exceptions that come up, and standardized record-retention practices help deliver consistency. Also, ensure your designated reporting lead is enrolled in the BSA E-Filing system. Obtain your credentials now so you’re prepared when it’s time to report.
• Technology: FinCEN reporting requires the secure handling of non-public personal information (NPI). Email and ad-hoc tools introduce unnecessary risk and are not sufficient. Efficient, integrated digital systems, not just tacked on third-party tools that open the door to safety vulnerabilities, are essential for collecting, transmitting, and storing sensitive data in accordance with modern security and compliance standards. This protects clients and teams, while reducing institutional exposure.

It feels like a lot to  manage. Furthermore, Fidelity National Financial, the nation’s largest title insurance underwriter, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming FinCEN compliance will cost $472 to $829 per transaction. Still, it doesn’t have to be hard—or that expensive. With the right platform in place, firms can streamline FinCEN compliance and do so without adding expensive external tools that disrupt existing workflows and introduce risk. That’s where Qualia comes in.

Qualia: FinCEN compliance at no extra cost

Qualia anticipated the operational reality of FinCEN’s rules and built no-additional-cost FinCEN compliance capabilities directly into our unified, AI-powered digital real estate closing platform. Platform-level integration is essential to meet FinCEN requirements in a way that is thorough, secure, and scalable. 

“I’m incredibly appreciative of Qualia being so on the ball in building a data collection and submission solution into its platform in advance of the FinCEN rollout,” says Dan Strickland, President of Colorado-based Mountain Ensemble West, which includes Central Colorado Title & Escrow. “It’d be a horrible customer experience if we had to route our clients to a third-party FinCEN data collection provider. I feel for other agencies who aren’t on Qualia and have to do that.”

Crucially for existing customers, Qualia’s FinCEN compliance solution is provided at zero added expense. This no-cost solution enables title & escrow teams to: 

• Track orders: After confirming a transaction needs reporting, mark the order as “FinCEN Reportable” using a dedicated toggle. This moves the order into reporting views and flags orders for further tasks and reporting, increasing visibility and accountability across eligible transactions. 
• Automate intelligently: Configure workflows to automatically send information collection forms to buyers and sellers, assign key compliance tasks, and ensure that critical milestones are completed consistently and on time.
• Collect data securely: The FinCEN Information Request provides an efficient and secure process for collecting required data. Sensitive NPI is not exposed through email or other vulnerable channels. 
• Track submission status: Gain a centralized view of all FinCEN-reportable transactions, including calculated due dates and real-time submission status, to stay ahead of deadlines.
• Submit batch files directly to FinCEN: Qualia has developed an integrated solution for batch submitting Real Estate Report forms directly to FinCEN’s BSA e-filing system. This feature will be available in March, removing the need for manual submission, individual uploads, or costly third-party vendors.

Compliance is necessary. Chaos and new technology costs are not.

FinCEN’s AML rules present a significant operational lift for title & escrow. Firms that align people, processes, and technology—and adopt scalable, secure systems—will be best positioned to meet regulatory requirements with certainty. 

In contrast to solutions that tack on per-transaction fees, Qualia delivers full FinCEN compliance as part of the platform itself, with no added technology cost or workflow disruption.Through this, teams can comply efficiently and safely, without adding disconnected technology, new fees, or unnecessary operational strain.

“Qualia’s goal is to equip your title & escrow operations with the critical tools you need for success with FinCEN,” says Caroline Dill, Sr. Product Manager, Qualia. “By embedding compliance directly into the Qualia platform, we’re committed to helping teams meet new requirements without adding complexity or expense.”

If you’re currently using a platform that’s charging per-transaction fees or requiring third-party FinCEN vendors, let’s talk about what migration to Qualia would look like.