Always Forward: David Townsend’s Call to Action for a New Era of Title & Escrow
When David Townsend walks into a room, you notice. He shakes every hand, remembers every name, and he commands a stage with ease. His personality is larger than life, one of the most recognizable in the title industry. Yet talk to him for more than a few minutes, and you realize his real edge isn’t volume or charisma. It’s discipline. He wins by doing the small things, day after day, in ways most people overlook.
That paradox, big presence and quiet consistency, is what carried him from a private law practice in Columbia, Missouri, to the presidency of the American Land Title Association. It’s also what he believes can carry the entire industry into a new era.
Townsend had the pedigree for a predictable career. A law degree, experience in private practice, and experience in title insurance. But at 30, he decided it was time to take a chance. He bet on himself. Along with his partner, David Atkins, he launched Farmers National, later Agents National, a regional, agent-focused underwriter. The gamble was enormous. Within six months, they had their first policy issued, and in the process, they upended a system that had hardly changed in decades.
Before Townsend, Atkins, and their team, agents used paper policy jackets and mailed handwritten ledgers to underwriters, who re-keyed the data, dragging receivable cycles out for up to a year. They built an online policy system that cut that cycle to 30 days, integrating accounting into the process and pushing the industry toward paperless operations years before it was common. It was less a company launch than a shock to the system.
Those years taught him lessons the boardroom never could. The exhaustion of being an entrepreneur. The risk of every decision. The line between a good agent and a shady one. He carried that knowledge into his current role at Fidelity National Financial, where he leads with both empathy and pragmatism. He knows what it costs to build a business because he’s lived it.
That perspective now shapes his vision as ALTA president. Townsend often compares title professionals to umpires in baseball: essential to the game, but invisible unless something goes wrong. “No one buys a ticket to watch the umpire,” he says, “but you can’t have a game without one.” The comparison is meant to provoke, because he believes the industry can’t keep playing that role quietly. Regulators depend on the title industry for expertise while questioning its fees. Consumers see the costs but rarely the protection provided. Townsend’s answer is blunt: “the industry is either integral, or it isn’t.” You can’t have it both ways.
To change that perception, he’s pushing for a new identity. “Title and settlement” sounds niche, but it's too small for the weight the industry carries. He prefers something bolder: the Real Estate Data and Finance industry. The words are meant to do more than rebrand. They’re a rallying cry, a way to attract new talent, instill pride in industry veterans, and remind everyone that this industry doesn’t just process paperwork. It secures the backbone of every real estate transaction.
For all the big goals, Townsend remains grounded. During the pandemic, when conferences disappeared, he co-hosted That Floats, a podcast with Craig Haskins that gave the industry a place to swap stories and laugh together. At home in Columbia, his life revolves around his wife, Kerry, and their two kids, Blair and Charlie. He credits mentors like Jim Barrett for teaching him empathy, and Atkins for reminding him to lead with an open hand, not a closed fist. His father, a traveling salesman, never missed a school play or ballgame, and Townsend holds himself to the same standard.
Ask him what drives him, and he’ll remind you that no one is dying in this business. It’s not brain surgery. “We can have a little fun along the way,” he says. That mix of perspective and ambition, joy without complacency, may be why he’s become both the industry’s biggest presence and its most relatable advocate.
David Townsend’s story is full of bold bets, to launching an underwriter to stepping onto the national stage. But what makes him matter isn’t just the leaps. It’s the small things done well, over and over, until they add up to trust. That is how he built his career. It’s how he intends to lead ALTA. And it’s why, at this moment, in an industry often overlooked, he feels like the right voice for a new era.