Amend HB 2565 (Senate committee printing) by adding an
appropriately numbered SECTION of the bill to read as follows and
renumbering the existing SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION ____. Section 2502.055, Insurance Code, is amended
as follows:
Sec. 2502.055. CERTAIN PROMOTIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL
ACTIVITIES NOT REBATES NOT PROHIBITED. (a) The activities
described in this section are not rebates. Nothing in this
subchapter prohibits a title insurance company or a title insurance
agent from: This subchapter does not prohibit
(1) engaging in legal promotional and educational
activities that are not conditioned on the referral of title
insurance business;
(2) purchasing advertising promoting the title
insurance company or the title insurance agent at market rates from
any person in any publication, event, or media;
(3) delivering to a party in the transaction or the
party's representative legal documents or funds which are directly
or indirectly related to a transaction closed by the title
insurance company or title insurance agent; or
(4) participating in an association of attorneys,
builders, developers, realtors, or other real estate practitioners
provided that the level of such participation does not exceed
normal participation of a volunteer member of the association and
is not activity that would ordinarily be performed by paid staff of
an association.
(b) "Market rate" means the price at which a seller, under no
obligation or duress to sell, is willing to accept and a buyer,
under no obligation or duress to buy, is willing to pay in an
arms-length transaction. The market rate is determined by
comparing the rights or items purchased or sold to similar rights or
items that have been recently purchased by others or sold to others
including others not in title insurance business.