Longmont, CO — (October 16, 2024) — Alliant National Title Insurance Company, the title insurer that is uniquely responsive to the needs of independent agents, is excited to announce that it has hired Valerie Grandin as Vice President, Senior Underwriting Counsel Florida.
Grandin brings with her a wealth of experience in title insurance, real estate, management and business strategy. She comes to Alliant National from a national underwriter, where she oversaw strategic initiatives, served as the primary point of contact for lender agreements, created agent and counsel training programs and coordinated regulatory compliance projects. In addition, she helped agents expand their capabilities and grow their businesses, while also leading continuing education programs for underwriters and examiners.
In her new role as Vice President, Senior Underwriting Counsel Florida, Grandin will have a full slate of responsibilities. Chief among them will be to develop educational programming and partner with Alliant National’s Florida agents to increase their market share through unique business development strategies and product offerings.
“I have been blessed to work with and know the team at Alliant National for many years,” said Grandin. “To be joining them now as the market is on the cusp of expansion and when Alliant National has assembled a great team, is a dream come true. Highly professional, agent focused and people-centric, it is a tremendous place to excel in an industry I love so much. Great things are ahead as we work together with our agents to drive greater business success.”
“Valerie is a consummate professional and a true industry leader. We couldn’t be happier to welcome her to our growing team,” said Jeff Stein, Chief Underwriting Counsel at Alliant National. “With her extensive experience in underwriting, education, management, compliance and business development, I know she will do great things for our agents and play an important role in the future of Alliant National.”
Grandin is an active member of the American Land Title Association (ALTA). She is also a member of the Florida Land Title Association (FLTA), where she serves on the Government Affairs committee, which is currently working on the new 2025 FinCEN rule. In addition, she sits on the Advisory Board of the University of Miami School of Law LLM in Real Property Development. As the only underwriting counsel on the board, she has a front row seat to the most cutting-edge changes and developments in the Florida commercial real estate market.
She received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law.
Two young professionals embark on a career in title insurance.
The title industry is all about passion and people. Those who are most successful often have a strong connection to the field and can effectively navigate the intricate web of relationships that go into every successful real estate transaction. Alliant National has long prioritized building a close-knit team of people who embody those qualities. Take two of its most recent hires as an example. Jace Coffie and Aaron Figueroa recently joined the Alliant National team as associate agency representatives. Both have strong industry ties and professional backgrounds rooted in service, preparing them well to help Alliant National’s agents grow their business.
A close connection and a commitment to service
First, let’s introduce Jace Coffie. Having grown up around the industry due to a family connection, Coffie is no stranger to the world of title insurance. When an opportunity to join the profession arose, he jumped at the chance. To Coffie, transitioning to the title insurance industry was a natural progression. “My previous professional positions have a shared theme of customer service,” he said.
The second new hire is Aaron Figueroa, who also joined the team as associate agency representative. As with Coffie, the title insurance community has long been on his radar due to a family member’s experience in the field. After years of working in the service industry where he delivered exceptional customer care, he has quickly adapted to the responsibilities of his new role.
Finding a home at Alliant National
Alliant National’s unique culture has resonated deeply with both new hires. “I have always wanted to work for a company that allows you to show your full personality,” Coffie said. He’s confident a place like Alliant National is “where I want to spend my career.” Figueroa shares Coffie’s zeal as well. He specifically highlighted how “involved and caring everyone is” at Alliant National as the reason why he is so excited to further build his career with the underwriter.
Tackling their new roles
Coffie and Figueroa have begun channeling their enthusiasm into their new responsibilities. Coffie, who will support agents in Alliant National’s Great Lakes-Central West Region, stated that he loves “to learn from the ground up,” and has already taken the company’s “Agents First” outlook to heart. He hopes to contribute to that mission, saying, “I want to learn everything I can to support those around me.”
Figueroa will be supporting agents in the Southwest Region. He seconded Coffie’s sentiments, remarking that “he would like to be a sponge and absorb as much information as possible to become an asset to Alliant National.” He believes a strong Alliant National benefits agents by assuring them that “they will be taken care of,” allowing them to focus on growing their operations and strengthening their communities.
Staying in touch with what’s important
When building a team, it can be difficult to know what to prioritize. But for Alliant National, the answer is clear. Time and time again, it has seen the benefits of bringing people on board who have strong connections to the industry and a genuine commitment to serving others. By hiring Coffie and Figueroa, it has continued that valuable tradition, and Alliant National’s agents will only stand to gain.
Westmoreland joins the team as Underwriting Counsel for the Southwest Region.
Alliant National is excited to announce Jamie Westmoreland has been hired as Underwriting Counsel for the Southwest Region. With extensive experience in the title insurance industry stretching back well over a decade, Westmoreland is a valuable addition to the team. She will play a pivotal role in supporting Alliant National’s independent agents and underwriting operations.
Westmoreland’s title insurance career began shortly after earning her Juris Doctorate from the South Texas College of Law. She worked for 10 years as an examiner and attorney for an independent agency. Later, she transitioned to a national underwriter, where she served as underwriting counsel for two years. These experiences afforded her strong knowledge in underwriting and agency operations, making her an ideal fit for Alliant National’s “agents first” approach.
“I could not be more excited to join the Alliant National family and help our agents be as successful as they can be!” said Westmoreland when discussing her hiring. Jean E. Bailey, Vice President, Southwest Regional Underwriting Counsel, echoed that sentiment. “We are excited for Jamie to join our Southwest Underwriting Team! Her experience will allow her to jump right in with assisting our agents. I know she will be a great fit with the team.”
In this new role, Westmoreland will work closely with agents, providing them with education, answering questions and offering guidance on complex title insurance issues. Additionally, she will focus on risk analysis to assess title insurability and develop helpful insurance standards and guidelines.
When Jeannette Black looks back at her real estate career, she can safely say that she has done it all. Ran her own real estate brokerage? Check! Provided continuing education for one of the largest and most respected real estate companies in the industry? Check! Served as a regional and national real estate trainer, and an adjunct faculty for the Texas Realtors University? Check, check and check!
Yet even with this enviable career defined by a wide range of roles, Black sees herself in straightforward terms. “Thing is, I was always a teacher,” she said. “By age 12, I was teaching other students at night what the teachers were not able to get across to them that day.”
Currently, Black is Alliant National’s Lead Texas Real Estate Instructor, and she uses her gifts to provide real estate agents with the information they need to execute for clients with speed, efficiency and confidence. In doing so, she delivers an important service to Alliant National’s agents and to the larger title and real estate communities.
Early days in real estate
Even though she has long identified as a teacher, it was not initially clear that education would become a cornerstone of Black’s professional life. “I was good at math so I thought accounting might be good; however, I was also interested in real estate.” Eventually, Black parlayed that interest into a full-on career. She obtained her real estate salesperson license in 1978, her broker’s license in 1980, started her own brokerage firm and then became a part of Coldwell Realty’s franchisee network after five years in operation.
It wasn’t long, however, before Black’s long-standing affinity for teaching, training and education reentered the picture. “There was not much in the way of education for real estate agents in 1980,” she said, “therefore, I read everything I could and went to every training I could find, which was mostly through the Texas Association of REALTORS®.”
Black then turned her attention to improving realtor education and training within her own firm. “I wrote my own training program for agents I hired,” she said. “In four years, we were out-performing brokers who had been in the business 20 to 30 years and had become number one in the marketplace.” Seeing these results was a powerful confirmation of Black’s long-standing belief that “knowledge and preparation hold the key to success.”
Embracing her role as an educator
As Black’s career progressed, so did her involvement in education and training, which made her realize something about herself. “I was good at selling real estate,” she reflected about that time. “Buyers and sellers trusted and respected me. I was innovative. However, I realized that my happiness was in assisting other agents and helping them be successful – not in my own individual success as a sales agent.”
Thankfully, she continued to find ample opportunities to pursue this passion and began to make an impact on a state and national level. People were taking notice of her success with realtor education. She was invited to teach other Coldwell Banker franchises in her geographical area and “also started training for the National Association of REALTORS® under REBAC.” Later, she worked as a trainer through the Texas Association of REALTORS®.
Black discovered other ways to contribute to realtor education during this period. She served as the Education Chairman for the local Board of REALTORS®, writing and giving the first orientation for folks wishing to join the association. Black would become a fixture of the organization, acting as Education Chairman 20 times over 38 years.
Although she enjoyed each of these positions, Black still had one last itch to scratch. She had long wanted to take on the challenge of being an instructor full-time. As chance would have it, just such an opportunity would come calling in 2012 in the form of Alliant National.
Putting agent education first at Alliant National
When Black learned that Alliant National was looking to hire a full-time instructor, she leapt at the opportunity. What made the role particularly attractive was that it coincided perfectly with her life circumstances at the time. “I had a longing in my heart for 20 years to be a full-time instructor,” she explained. “But with my real estate firm and children, traveling was not something I could take on.” Alliant National, Black continued, gave her “the opportunity to fulfill [her] dream at the age 66.” Originally, she thought she would only work at the company for a few years, but to her surprise, it blossomed into a second career.
Now 12 years on, Black considers joining Alliant National one of the best things she has done professionally, as the company’s employees “have become family to me.” She has also had the opportunity to play a direct role in shaping the underwriter’s Texas Real Estate Commission (TREC) education program. “Back In 2012, we began to expand the number of classes offered by Alliant National, as well as the number of title agencies we served,” she explained. By 2018, Black herself was conducting hundreds of different classes, traveling far and wide throughout the state of Texas. Further developments occurred when COVID-19 struck in 2020. Black became heavily involved in migrating Alliant National’s education offerings online to ensure that agents could continue learning despite the shutdowns.
Along with other Alliant National employees, Black saw this shift as not just a temporary response to a world-wide health event, but part of the underwriter’s long-term educational goals. “We were working toward the goal of advancing real estate education at Alliant National.” The company needed an “all-inclusive website that included both on-demand or pre-recorded classes, as well as live, in-person classes.”
It was around this time that Alliant National Academy was established. The Academy represented a major commitment on the part of the underwriter to agent education. As Black explained: “The platform requires a team of personnel – made up of real estate instructors, technology staff and communication staff. In other words, staff to advertise and promote it, staff to run the system, staff to schedule instructors, not to mention the instructors themselves.”
These commitments have continued up to the present day, as the underwriter has steadily increased the technological capabilities of its education platforms and expanded its offerings to new agencies. “What we have done with the Alliant National Academy over the last three years has really advanced our educational program,” said Black. “We are embracing digital education, which has enhanced and will continue to enhance our visibility.”
For Black, however, the increased access and visibility afforded by the Alliant National Academy is just one way in which the platform is taking agent education to the next level. It also has improved the customer experience and streamlined access to a team of instructors that is second to none. When asked about this point, Black remarked, “Our instructors each have different strengths. One advantage of our program is that, instead of one specific instructor servicing a title agent, title professionals have the ability of using the entire team of instructors via our scheduling system. It is innovative, professional and convenient for title agents. They enjoy top-notch instructors and a wide variety of courses. I am proud and grateful to be a part of the team behind the Academy.”
Continuing to serve her community
After decades of being a real estate professional, educator and trainer, Black can look back on all she has accomplished with pride. From her early industry days to her Board of REALTORS® work, to her current role at Alliant National, she has made major contributions to the industry and to the company on a regional and national level. It is a testament to not only the power of education and training but also the impact someone can have when they are driven to serve.
Perhaps most amazing, however, is that childhood drive to teach remains undiminished. Even with nearly 50 years of experience under her belt, her passion to help others succeed is as strong as ever. “I love sharing my knowledge of the real estate business. It gives me a special feeling when I see that I have taught an agent something they did not know,” she said, commenting on what keeps her connected to her work. “I know that when I decide it is time for me to retire, it will be the saddest day of my life, but there will also be other opportunities for me to serve in my community.”
Alliant National’s NOC is the “nerve center” of everything agent-related across the company.
When trying to sum up the National Operations Center (NOC), Debra Coffie, SVP, Florida Regional Manager at Alliant National and National Operations Manager, perhaps said it best: “It is the hub for all information for Alliant National agents throughout the entire country.”
This is indeed an apt description for the NOC’s small but mighty team. As the nerve center for everything agent-related across the company, the NOC handles onboarding and licensing to compliance, ongoing maintenance and customer service. Simply put, Alliant National couldn’t do what it does without the NOC’s commitment and expertise. Here, we are excited to introduce you to the incredible group of people behind the NOC and showcase how they support the independent agent.
From all walks of life
Hailing from all walks of life, the folks who make up Alliant National’s NOC team each bring different experiences and expertise to the table. Let’s meet them one-by-one:
Debra Coffie: Debra’s experience in title insurance goes back over 30 years. She initially came to Alliant National in 2009 to open the organization’s Florida operations. Last year, she started managing the NOC as well, inheriting what she describes as an “amazing team.” “It has been a joy to lead them,” she said about this experience. “This is a team that knows exactly what they’re doing. I just let them do what they do best.”
Michelle Morgan: Michelle got her start in title insurance back in 1993 and learned the ins-and-outs of the business over the intervening decades. “First, I was busy with reception duties. And gradually, I learned how to put together a commitment, type policies, order payoffs and get a successful result,” she said. Michelle has been with Alliant National for six years. She considers it her “happy zone,” the “best place” and loves what she does.
Rachel Ryan: Rachel Ryan is also a seasoned title professional. “I’ve been in the industry for basically my entire life,” she said. Initially, Rachel got into title insurance via a relative, starting small with tasks like making copies. After meeting Debra, however, she moved into administration, which proved to be her calling: “I love helping agents and the other employees,” she said. “To me, it is a joy to help.”
Kiersten Balbin: Kiersten also got into title through her family, in this case her mother, and considers herself as having been “born into the industry.” She started working at Alliant National in its Florida regional operations, focusing on premiums and policies. Transitioning to the NOC has been a fun experience for her, not to mention a “great learning opportunity.”
Lori Liberatore: Lori entered title insurance more recently than Michelle and Rachel, taking on her first role back in 2010. She came to Alliant National in March of 2023, which she described warmly as her “forever landing place.”
Jenna Hall: Unlike many of her colleagues, Jenna joined Alliant National from another industry. Originally, she was working in a temporary role, but eventually moved into a permanent position upon Michelle’s request. Reflecting on her career, she stated that, although she initially “fell into” the role, she couldn’t be happier with the result. “I love helping out the people we work with in the different regions where we operate.”
United by a dedication to the independent agent
While each member of the NOC has a different backstory, they are all united by a shared dedication to the independent agent. “At the NOC, we love coming up with new ideas and new ways to be of service to our agents, customers and other people within the company,” said Debra. In practical terms, this means having a rock-solid commitment to supplying agents with answers when and where they need them. Michelle echoed this by comparing the NOC to “a detective team” that “works to get [agents] the right information.” She also mentioned that if “we don’t know, we will find out who does.”
The NOC focuses on helping agents deal with present-day concerns like state compliance issues; processing agency applications; and supporting audits, wind-downs and other significant events. Yet, as with the rest of Alliant National, they also help agents deal with how the industry is changing. “Fraud and cyberattacks are a growing problem with the industry,” said Michelle, outlining one example. “Alliant National has created a digital tool called SecureMyTransaction to help agents better identify potential wire fraud.”
Solutions like SecureMyTransaction are emblematic of the NOC’s and Alliant National’s larger approach to helping agents prepare for the future, which is being disrupted by technological innovation and other developments. “Today, there are things like AI and automation that are happening in the field,” said Debra. “At Alliant National, we can quickly respond to industry and customer needs. And I know our leadership all the way up to the CEO has their fingers on the pulse. We continually ask ourselves how we can embrace change, embrace technology and embrace the things that are coming. We aspire to stay true to who we are as a company, to our culture and to our agents, while always ensuring that our industry stays at the table.”
Heroes of the company
Given its obvious passion for the title industry and the professionals working within it, Alliant National’s NOC team is a big reason why the company has been so successful with this goal. Their ability to respond with speed, dexterity, efficiency and joy to agents’ ever-evolving needs has made the organization well-equipped to tackle the industry’s pressing concerns of both today and tomorrow. Moreover, it has fulfilled Coffie’s original vision for the team when she began leading them in 2023. “I told [the team] on day one that my goal for them was they would be heroes at the company. And that is exactly who they are.”
