Where Deed Fraud Protections Are Strongest—and Where They Fall Short

The daughter of a deceased New Jersey homeowner learned something was wrong with her father’s house when the township tax office contacted her about a fraudulent deed filing.But by then, the Gloucester County residence had been conveyed for $1 using a false quitclaim deed and fake notarization, according to a new investigation by the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation. The daughter, who was executor of her father’s estate, had never authorized the transfer, and unsuspecting tenants were already leasing the home through a shell company acting as landlord.New Jersey does have tools to help owners catch suspicious activity like this, including property alert systems in 19 of its 21 counties. But those alerts are triggered only after a document has been recorded and therefore “play no preventative role,” state investigators found.It's a prescient warning on the eve of the Great Wealth Transfer. As trillions of dollars in real estate wealth are poised to move from older homeowners to the next generation, many of the properties likely to be passed down have characteristics fraudsters already seek.Yet various states take very different approaches to protecting those homes—includ...