TESS Core gives DFPI-licensed independent escrow companies a clean, modern platform that fits the way you already work — without forcing your officers to relearn their day.
Request More Information Back to TESS HomeYou're regulated, audited, and bonded. The last thing you need is software that fights you. Here's how TESS works with — not against — how a licensed escrow company actually runs.
Trust accounting, three-way reconciliation, and audit-ready records that line up with the requirements your DFPI examiner expects to see. No bolt-ons, no spreadsheets on the side.
Purchase contracts, prelims, payoff demands, lender instructions, and HOA docs all live in one place inside the file — tagged, searchable, and audit-ready. No more digging through email threads or shared drives to find the latest version.
Built around how authorized signers, fidelity bond coverage, and disbursement controls actually work in a licensed escrow company. Not a generic SaaS retrofit.
We're not asking you to migrate ten years of files overnight. TESS is designed to drop into your current setup and prove its value file by file.
See your control record, beneficiary ledgers, and reconciliation status live — not at month-end when it's too late to fix something.
Less time typing, more time on the phone with buyers, sellers, lenders, and title. The work that actually moves a deal.
TESS Core is designed for DFPI-licensed escrow companies in California that want modern tooling without the chaos of a full system migration. You're a good fit if any of these sound familiar:
Common questions from DFPI-licensed escrow companies about licensing, trust accounting, and examinations. Thinking about applying for a license? See our step-by-step guide to starting an escrow company in California. This information is general and is not legal or compliance advice — confirm current requirements with DFPI or your counsel.
In California, escrow agents are either “licensed” or “controlled.” A licensed escrow company — commonly called an independent escrow company — holds a license issued by the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation under the California Escrow Law (Financial Code section 17000 et seq.). A controlled escrow, by contrast, is operated by a real estate broker, attorney, title insurer, or similar entity under an exemption, and is not DFPI-licensed.
DFPI expects licensees to perform daily and monthly reconciliation of trust accounts and to maintain records sufficient to support a regulatory examination. A separate reconciliation is required for each licensed office, and reconciliations must also be prepared for interest-bearing and dormant trust accounts. The general ledger should be posted monthly and general bank accounts reconciled monthly. Where a CPA identifies adjustments, the CPA must state how and when each was corrected and whether it created a debit balance.
Licensed escrow agents are subject to periodic DFPI examinations, with frequency influenced by factors such as the number of offices, escrow volume, transaction complexity, and prior compliance history. Examination costs are borne by the licensee, so the condition of your records has a direct effect on what an examination costs you. DFPI has noted that the cost of an audit or examination is largely a function of the care taken with recordkeeping throughout the year.
Each escrow agent must maintain a surety bond at all times. The amount is $25,000, $35,000, or $50,000 depending on average trust liability, increased by $5,000 for each additional licensed location. Separately, an escrow agent that is not required to be an EAFC member, or that processes transactions not covered by EAFC, must maintain a fidelity bond. Bond requirements are set out in Financial Code section 17202.
Under Financial Code section 17210, an applicant must demonstrate liquid assets in excess of current liabilities of at least $25,000 and a tangible net worth of at least $50,000, supported by audited financial statements. These thresholds must be met on an ongoing basis, not only at the time of application.
The Escrow Agents’ Fidelity Corporation provides fidelity coverage for member escrow agents. Under Financial Code section 17312(c), membership is required before a license is issued where the applicant will process real property escrows, bulk sale escrows, or fund and joint control escrows. Members are subject to EAFC assessments and must comply with its certificate program.
On or before May 30 each year, DFPI assesses each licensee for the costs of administering the Escrow Law. DFPI publishes the amount as $7,215 for each licensed location, and the Commissioner may seek a special assessment of up to $1,000 per location if the regular assessment is insufficient. Because fees are periodically revised, confirm the current figure directly with DFPI.
No. No software can make an escrow company compliant. Compliance rests with the licensee — its officers, its trust account procedures, its recordkeeping, and its supervision. What good software does is make compliance easier to sustain: keeping trust records organized, surfacing reconciliation status in real time rather than at month-end, and keeping documents in the file where an examiner expects to find them. TESS provides software and operational support; it does not provide legal or compliance advice, and it does not act as an escrow agent.
You can, but the transition needs planning. Records for the period under examination must remain accessible and complete, which usually means retaining read access to your prior system or exporting complete file and trust records before you migrate. TESS is designed to be adopted alongside your existing setup rather than through an all-at-once cutover, so files can move over as they open rather than mid-cycle.
Requirements and fee amounts change. The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation publishes current escrow licensing requirements at dfpi.ca.gov.
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