Adams Equities › Journal › Title and escrow on a $1M+ Florida purchase — where the money sits and who controls it
By Edgar Adams, Founder & Managing Broker · 2026-10-08 · 8 min read
Part of Buying luxury real estate in Orlando
On a $1M+ Florida purchase, the title premium is the one number nobody can negotiate and the one nobody should worry about. The State of Florida sets it by rule: $5,075 for a $1M owner's policy, $10,075 for $3M, $15,075 for $5M, identical at every title agency in the state. What does vary, and what decides whether a closing is clean, is who holds your deposit, who chooses the closing agent, what the title commitment discloses before you are committed, and how the wire instructions are verified before a seven-figure transfer leaves your account. Those four decisions are made by contract and by habit, usually without anyone noticing they were decisions. This piece covers each one, with the statute or rule behind it, so you know what you control and what the law already controls for you.
Under Rule 69O-186.003 of the Florida Administrative Code, an original owner's policy is priced in marginal tiers: $5.75 per thousand on the first $100,000, $5.00 per thousand from $100,000 to $1M, $2.50 per thousand from $1M to $5M, $2.25 per thousand from $5M to $10M, and $2.00 per thousand above $10M. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation sets these, and the CFO's consumer guide confirms that rates are set by that rule.
| Purchase price | Owner's policy premium (original rate) |
|---|---|
| $1,000,000 | $5,075 |
| $3,000,000 | $10,075 |
| $5,000,000 | $15,075 |
| $8,000,000 | $21,825 |
| $10,000,000 | $26,325 |
The marginal rate falls as the price rises, so the premium on $10M is not double the premium on $5M. It is about 75 percent higher.
A lender's policy is nearly free when it is issued with the owner's policy. The rule sets a minimum charge of $25 for a simultaneous-issue mortgagee policy up to the amount of the owner's policy, so a buyer financing $4M on a $5M purchase adds $25, not another five-figure premium.
The rule also carries a reissue schedule: $3.30 per thousand to $100,000, $3.00 per thousand to $1M, $2.00 per thousand from $1M to $10M. On a $3M policy that schedule produces $7,030 instead of $10,075, a difference of $3,045. It applies when a prior owner's policy insured the seller and the new policy takes effect less than three years after it, provided the agent and underwriter hold a copy of that policy. A seller who bought within the last three years should hand the old policy to the closing agent at the start. A buyer purchasing from a recent owner should ask on day one whether it is on file.
The premium covers the title work itself: examining the record, clearing exceptions, issuing the commitment and the policy. Search fees, closing fees and document preparation are quoted separately and do vary between agents. That is where comparison belongs.
The person paying for the owner's policy chooses the agent. In the FR/BAR AS IS contract that choice is a checkbox in Paragraph 9(c), and in Central Florida custom the seller checks the box, pays for the owner's policy and designates the agent. We covered the cost side in what it costs to sell a $5M home. The buyer's side of it is control of the table.
The CFO's guidance adds a constraint that often gets missed: where a lender is involved, the lender must approve the closing agent. A buyer and seller can also agree to a split closing with two agencies. On a financed luxury purchase we ask the lender for its approved-agent list before the contract is signed, not after.
The practical rule: the party who designates the agent should choose a firm that closes in this price range every month, with a named closer and a named escrow officer, and not the one with the lowest search fee.
A deposit on a Florida resale is held by a neutral escrow agent, not by the seller. If the broker holds it, the associate must deliver it to the broker by the end of the next business day, and the broker must deposit it within three business days, per Florida Realtors' summary of the escrow rules. Weekends and legal holidays do not count. Interest-bearing accounts require written permission from the parties.
When a title agency holds the deposit, a different statute governs. Section 626.8473, Florida Statutes, treats those funds as trust funds held in a fiduciary capacity. The agency must deposit them immediately in an in-state financial institution that is an FDIC or NCUSIF member, may disburse them only as the written escrow or closing instructions allow, and cannot expose them to its own creditors: escrow trust funds are not subject to the agency's debts. Converting them is a crime that scales with the amount. At $100,000 or more it is a first-degree felony.
Two points for a buyer posting a larger deposit. First, put the deposit with the agency that will close, so the funds and the closing file sit in one place. Second, make sure the contract names the escrow agent and the account holder in writing. At the luxury tier a deposit of $100,000 to several hundred thousand dollars is routine, and it should not sit in a general brokerage account by default.
The deposit does not return on one party's say-so. The CFO guidance states that when a deal falls through, escrowed money cannot be released until both buyer and seller give written approval. If they disagree, the money stays in escrow and either party can ask a court to direct it through a writ of interpleader.
A broker holding disputed funds must notify the Florida Real Estate Commission within 15 business days of receiving conflicting demands. That requirement does not apply to funds held by title companies or attorneys, who typically ask for written instructions from both sides and, absent agreement within a reasonable time, interplead the money with the clerk of court.
The consequence for a buyer is that the inspection period, the financing contingency and the appraisal contingency are not just exits. They are the only clean exits. A buyer who lets the contingency window lapse and then cancels has a disputed deposit, and a disputed deposit can sit frozen for months. We map those windows in the full arc of a luxury purchase.
The commitment is the title agent's statement of what the policy will insure and what it will not. It lists the requirements that must be met before closing, such as payoff of the seller's mortgage or release of a lien, and the exceptions that will remain on the policy, such as easements and restrictions. Title insurance protects against defects such as prior mortgages, judgment or tax liens, easements and restrictions, per the CFO guide, and it has exclusions, including defects created by the policyholder after the policy date and eminent domain.
Order the commitment in the first days of the contract, not the second week. A buyer reading it with 10 days left in the inspection period can still negotiate or walk. A buyer reading it at the closing table cannot. Read three things in it: the vesting, meaning whose name is on the deed; the requirements list, which is the seller's to-do list and the likeliest source of delay; and every recorded exception, each of which should be matched to the survey. On a lakefront estate on the Butler Chain, the survey and the commitment together answer where the boundary runs and what is recorded against it. We treat that as a separate question from the home inspection, which examines the structure.
In a gated community the estoppel is the document that states what the seller owes the association and what the buyer will owe at closing. Under Section 720.30851, Florida Statutes, the association must issue it within 10 business days of a written or electronic request. The fee may not exceed $250 if nothing is delinquent, plus $100 more if the certificate is delivered on an expedited basis within three business days, and up to $150 more when the account is delinquent. The certificate is effective for 30 days if delivered by hand or electronically and 35 days if mailed.
Do the arithmetic on the calendar. If the estoppel is requested after the inspection period ends, 10 business days puts its delivery two weeks later, and a 30-day validity window can expire before a delayed closing. Request it the week the contract is signed.
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded more than $275 million in real estate fraud losses in 2025 across at least 12,368 complaints, up from more than $173 million and 9,359 complaints in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors' report on the data. The pattern is consistent: an email that appears to come from a title agency, a lawyer or an agent changes the account number days before closing.
The protocol is not complicated, and it is non-negotiable. Obtain the title agency's wire instructions once, from the agency, by phone call to a number you already have from the contract or the agency's own website, never from a number in the email. Confirm the receiving account by voice with the named escrow officer before sending. Send a small test amount first if the agency allows it. Treat any change to instructions as fraud until a phone call proves otherwise, and call again the morning of the transfer.
Our own process is to hand the buyer the agency's verified phone number in the first week and to tell the buyer, in writing, that we will never send revised wire instructions by email.
Not currently. FinCEN's residential real estate rule would have required reports on non-financed transfers to entities and trusts. On March 19, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated it in Flowers Title Companies, LLC v. Bessent, and FinCEN has said reporting persons are not currently required to file. The government appealed to the Fifth Circuit, and as of late September 2026 the appeal was in briefing with no decision reported. Other courts have reached the opposite result on challenges to the rule, so its future is not settled.
A buyer purchasing through an LLC or trust should still expect the title agent to ask for beneficial ownership and entity documents, because identity and authority to sign are part of insuring title. Have the operating agreement, the certificate of good standing and the signing authority resolution ready before the closing is scheduled. If the rule returns, those same documents will be the starting point.
A $1M+ closing runs on four things the buyer can control: a named, lender-approved agent, a commitment read early, an estoppel requested the first week, and a wire verified by voice. Everything else on the settlement statement is set by Florida law.
If you are buying or selling in Windermere, Isleworth or Bay Hill and want the closing table arranged before the contract is signed, begin a private conversation.
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