
December 16, 2024
WISCONSIN – There are many things to think about when purchasing real estate.
One of them being title insurance.
Katie Schmitz, president/COO of Guaranty Closing & Title Services, said many have no idea what title insurance is, does or if they even have it.
According to Schmitz, title insurance policies are essential safeguards in real estate transactions, offering protection against potential issues with property titles.
Paid for with a one-time fee at the time of closing, Schmitz said title insurance policies provide peace of mind to both buyers and lenders and helps facilitate smooth property transfers.
With four decades in business under its belt – getting its start in 1984 – Schmitz said Guaranty Closing & Title Services knows a thing or two about the industry.
“Prior to 1984, people used abstracts, attorney opinions and things like that (to see the history of a property),” she said. “One of the things that Louis (Andrew, Jr., then a practicing attorney in Fond du Lac) brought (to the table) was a new concept called title insurance. He didn’t create it, of course, but he’d heard of it and started selling it in Fond du Lac.”
Before that, Schmitz said people buying property or their lender would hire an attorney to create an abstract that showed the history of a property.
“Because abstracts were based on information at the courthouse, any time you needed to see everything that had happened with the property over time, you had to go to the courthouse and look through those books,” she said.
Schmitz said it was not uncommon for one title company to have four or five researchers at a time at the courthouse digging through books.
As things have evolved, she said it’s turned into an actual title insurance policy – and though it doesn’t necessarily go as far back in a property’s history as abstracts did, she said “we do make sure that everything is safe from the last person who purchased the property moving forward.”

“For example, if there was an easement on the property for a driveway or power lines, we make sure the buyer of that property is fully aware of that easement and anything else that could inhibit them from fully using their property,” she said. “Those things are stated on the title insurance policy.”
In the simplest of terms, Schmitz said title insurance ensures that no one else has any claims to the property.
Title insurance, she said, insures the past, while homeowner’s insurance insures against the future.
Since 1984, Schmitz said not only have abstracts been replaced with title insurance, but 95% of the information researchers look for is now available online.
“They can access it there instead of having to go to the courthouse and dig through all those books,” she said.
Business evolution
Just as title insurance has evolved over the years, so, too, Schmitz said, has Guaranty.
After Louis Andrew, Jr. started Guaranty Title Services in Fond du Lac, she said the company was expanded to include offices throughout Wisconsin.
“He bought offices pretty much all over the state,” she said. “At one point, we were up to 13 but ended up realizing that it was really difficult to integrate the culture of the company when the offices were all over. So we ended up bringing the number down to three core offices – in Fond du Lac, Green Lake and Dodge counties.”
In 2021, Schmitz said the company purchased Closing & Title Services, LLC in Appleton, which made for four offices total.
“Then we purchased one in Sheboygan, and we opened an office in Stevens Point,” she said. “So, we currently have nine offices.”
Besides Fond du Lac, Appleton, Sheboygan and Stevens Point, Schmitz said Guaranty has offices in Green Bay, Green Lake, Juneau, Oshkosh and Wautoma.
With the 2021 acquisition of Closing & Title Services, she said Guaranty changed the company name to Guaranty Closing & Title Services.
Schmitz said it’s important that buyers of real estate understand that if situations come up involving their home or other real estate or something does slip between the cracks, “the title insurance company will fight for you on your behalf.”
“The buyer or owner would file a claim with the title insurance company, and the title insurance company will then go after whoever is responsible and needs to pay,” she said.
One of the big things title insurance companies are dealing with today, Schmitz said, is cybersecurity.
“There’s a ton of potential threats that way,” she said. “There are people who will forge deeds and mortgages and things like that. But we’re here to protect you against those kinds of things.”
Schmitz said any time you have an industry where there is a lot of cash flowing in and out of it – through wire transfers, etc. – “there are always bad people, mostly from overseas, who are trying to figure out how to redirect funds to them.”
“They look at our websites, our Facebook pages, all kinds of social media (and then try to spoof otherwise legitimate people),” she said. “Everything keeps evolving and the bad people continue trying to find new ways to compromise accounts.”
Schmitz said Guaranty has received false wiring instructions from customers whose email accounts were compromised informing them to send the funds elsewhere.
“We work with so many individuals – mortgage brokers, mortgage lenders, buyers and sellers – and all of those people could be compromised,” she said. “That’s how cybersecurity comes into play when it comes to our side of things in the transactions.”
What sets Guaranty apart?
Schmitz said employees are regularly surveyed to see how they would explain the company culture and three words always seem to come up: family, flexible and friendly.
Having strong leadership and a people-first dedication, she said, are part of what creates the foundation for Guaranty’s success, but it also helps set them apart.
That leadership includes Schmitz herself.
Now in her 23rd year with the company, she said has attained designations with both Wisconsin Title Professionals and National Title Professionals (NTP).
Schmitz said she is currently the only one in Wisconsin and one of only 160 people nationwide to have the NTP designation, which is designed to recognize land title professionals who demonstrate the knowledge, experience and dedication essential to the safe and efficient transfer of real property.
In addition to those involvements, she is on the Wisconsin Land Title Association Board, Holyland Food Pantry Board (where she serves as president) and the Wisconsin Mortgage Bankers Association Board.

Schmitz said Guaranty’s focus on giving back to the communities they live and work in, also sets them apart.
“One of the things we do regularly is we do food drives and different things to give back,” she said. “Recently, there was a group in the Fond du Lac office who went to Hope on the Block (a nonprofit organization that provides resources to those in need in the community) and made supper for them.”
To help celebrate Guaranty’s 40th anniversary celebration, it hosted 40 Days of Giving where it helped support employee-inspired charities.
“We randomly selected 20 customers and 20 employees who each chose which nonprofit they wanted to donate $100 to, and we donated the money on their behalf,” she said. “So over a 10-week span, we donated $4,000 to nonprofits all over the state.”
Last year, Schmitz said they created a cookbook that included recipes from team members company-wide.
They published 1,000 cookbooks they then gave to their customers but also sold dozens more, giving all the proceeds to local food pantries.
Schmitz said one of the major things that makes Guaranty very unique is being family owned and operated.
“There are many affiliated companies in the industry today, meaning that real estate offices are investing in title companies and the realtors then feel obligated to use the title company that their real estate company owns,” she said. “That has really changed the industry over the last 10 years. By contrast, our customers come from all kinds of real estate offices and they choose to use us. They’re not forced to use us or (are made to) feel obligated to use us because they work for an affiliated company.”
Along those lines, Schmitz said it’s important that buyers and sellers of property know that they “always have the choice as to which title company they want to use.”
Schmitz said buyers and sellers should pick a title company they feel is right for them, that they have faith in and whose service stands out.
“Because we’re not affiliated with any other entities, we have to work harder for business,” she said. “It shows in our customer service. One of our core values is to deliver service excellence to delight our customers.”
At every closing at all nine of its locations, Schmitz said customers are offered either a bottle of wine from a local winery or a bottle of champagne.
“That’s to both the buyer and the seller of the property to celebrate (the transaction),” she said. “It’s a big deal for everybody, so we want to help them celebrate it.”
The customer-focused approach, Schmitz said, doesn’t stop at leadership.
“We are nothing without our entire team,” she said. “They are the backbone of our company – every teammate is critical and key to creating a successful closing. There is a tagline that we use that I think is great: ‘Every closing is just the beginning.’”
As Guaranty looks ahead to the next 40 years and beyond, Schmitz said that perhaps best sums up the approach it has with every customer and every transaction.
For more information, check out Guaranty Closing & Title Services’ Facebook page.