Offering CE for Surveyors, Engineers, and Title Agents
2026 Zoom Meetings
New 2026 ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey Standards
FEBRUARY 9, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
After 3 years of work on the part of the Joint ALTA/NSPS Work Group, the 2026 Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for ALTA/NSPS Land Title Surveys were adopted by ALTA and NSPS in October 2025 with an effective date of February 23, 2026. This program outlines the changes from the 2021 Standards and provides a detailed explanation of the reason for each and how each affects the surveyor. Emphasis will be given to the most significant changes including an improved definition of Relative Positional Precision, changes to the Section 4 Records Research requirements, new clarity on what processes and procedures may be employed in performing a Land Title Survey (including a change to Table A item 15), better clarity as related to the Section 5 Easements and Servitudes section, and a new Table A item calling for a table identifying certain conditions that were observed in the process of conducting the survey. In addition, an overview of the entire set of 2026 Standards will be provided including a detailed explanation of the relationship between Land Title Surveys and title insurance. Guidance on certification to successors and assigns will be provided and throughout the program, the presenter will answer any and all questions relating to Land Title Surveys.
Boundary Dispute Resolution
March 13, 2026
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Eastern Time)
4 credit hours
In 1986 Williams & Onsurd wrote a treatise for the Real Property and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association entitled, What Every Lawyer Should Know about Title Surveys. “The surveyor, having made an evaluation of the evidence, forms an opinion as to where he believes the lines would be located if fully adjudicated in a court of law. The typical modern-day surveyor sees himself as an expert evaluator of evidence. He strives to arrive at the same opinion of boundary location regardless of whether he was hired by his client or his client’s next-door neighbor.” This is actually a very good description of the land surveyor’s role in society. When the surveyor successfully carries out this function, boundary disputes are rare. This program is about avoiding disputes before they happen. Ample case studies will be examined to focus on dispute resolution alternatives. Power Point presentation.
OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.
New 2026 ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey Standards for Field Technicians and their Managers
April 27, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
This course emphasizes the field aspects of performing a 2026 ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey. All elements of the standards that relate to tasks in the field are reviewed in order to achieve the goal of helping field technicians (and their managers) better understand the overriding purposes of an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey, and hence the purpose for each requirement. This understanding is critical if field technicians are to put the various requirements in context and best meet the needs of the title company, lender and client.
Survey Evidence and Procedures
May 15, 2026
9:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Eastern Time)
4 credit hours
The two fundamental principles of surveying are: (1) the surveyor is an ‘original surveyor’ laying out new boundary lines in new positions for the very first time, for a common grantor where there is unity of ownership on both sides of the new lines being created; or (2) the surveyor is a ‘retracing surveyor’ finding where the property lines have become established on the ground through the application of the appropriate boundary law principles, where there is diversity of ownership on each side of the line being retraced. In addition to these principles, the determination of any property boundary line is a two-part question: 1. What is the boundary? (the legal title question), and 2. Where is the property located? (the factual location question). The vast majority of boundary surveying work being performed today is retracement surveying as opposed laying out original subdivision lines, and that work can only be successfully accomplished by understanding the legal question while answering the factual question. This means that retracement surveying is an evidentiary exercise and not a math and measurement problem. This program will explore survey evidence and procedures in the retracement context. Power Point presentation.
OBJECTIVES: To enhance professional competency and improve practitioner’s knowledge of the law as it relates to the practice of land surveying.
Tracking The Railroads
June 4, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
Railroads have played a major part in the settlement and development of the United States. The importance of these bands of steel uniting the country was underscored by the powers granted to railroad companies to acquire land rights in whatever way necessary, whether by grant, in fee, or as easements. Surveyors involved with the original location and layout of the rails had a much easier time of it than we do today, as we try to recreate not only original configuration of rails and parcels, but also what kinds of rights the railroad companies may have had in the land beneath their tracks. We will discuss historical, legal, and practical aspects of the problems we face today as we unravel the railroad puzzle.
Highways, Byways and Private Roads
August 5, 2026
9:00 AM - 11:40 AM (Eastern Time)
3 credit hours
Location or relocation, free or restricted access, centerline or sideline: all of these aspects of roads affect the work of both boundary and construction surveyors. After a brief history of roads and road building in the US, we will investigate the creation of public and private terrestrial passage, the entities that control them, the rights of abutting owners, and the extinguishing of those same corridors for transportation.