An OCEA conversation
PJ Garcia ontrust, wire fraud,& escrow judgment.
PJ Garcia has practiced escrow since 1980. She explains why trust is the only thing an escrow company has to sell, what compressed timelines demand from an escrow office, and why she works “at the speed of safe.”
“All I have to sell as an escrow company is trust.”
01 / Full conversation
At the Speed of Safe
PJ and Sebastian discuss scam victims, wire fraud, AI impersonation, remote online notarization, payee verification, consumer education, customer-service boundaries, and the future of independent escrow.
02 / Selected moments
Four moments worth keeping.
Short, source-locked excerpts from PJ’s full OCEA conversation.
0:19Scam Victims Came to Her Office
Fraud stopped being abstract when scam victims came to PJ’s office looking for help.
0:28Enabling Bad Decisions Is Not Customer Service
PJ draws a firm line between serving customers and accepting bad decisions.
0:33All Escrow Has to Sell Is Trust
For PJ, escrow’s product is public trust—and maintaining it requires hard conversations.
0:29What a 10-Day Escrow Costs
A compressed timeline does not remove the steps. It concentrates the work.
03 / Inside the episode
A conversation about judgment.
Technology changes. Timelines compress. The duty to slow down long enough to think does not.
View all chapters
- What is the job of escrow?
- Four decades of change
- When fraud becomes personal
- Wire fraud and safer seller practices
- “Good friction” in a compressed timeline
- Escrow at the speed of safe
- Trust, AI, and remote notarization
- Why payee verification matters
- Fraud education and shared responsibility
- The future of the escrow profession
- How to reach PJ
About the series
The people and judgment behind escrow.
At the Speed of Safe is an OCEA conversation series about the people, judgment, and practices behind escrow.
This launch conversation features PJ Garcia of Beach Pacific Escrow, who has practiced escrow since 1980.
Published by
Orange County Escrow Association
OCEA supports Orange County’s escrow community through education, professional development, legal updates, and connection.
Visit o-c-e-a.org