8 companies · 4 ownership models
Eight firms that can legally hold your sale proceeds for six months. Four ways they are owned. Not one federal licence between them.
The short answer
A 1031 exchange company acts as your qualified intermediary: it holds the proceeds between your two closings so you never take receipt of them. They come in four kinds: title-owned, bank-affiliated, independent and institutional. No federal body licenses any of them.
The Easy1031 Exchange Desk
Reviewed September 8, 2026
The role
One structural job: stand between your sale and your purchase so you never touch the proceeds. That is the condition the whole deferral rests on.
For six months, a company you may have picked in an afternoon holds the largest sum in your transaction. Nobody licenses it, nobody examines it, and no compensation scheme stands behind it.
That is why the differences below are worth an hour of your time.
Ownership
Ownership predicts what balance sheet stands behind your funds, how close custody sits to a regulated institution, and whether exchanges are the whole business.
Owned by a title insurance underwriter and sold alongside the closing. The largest intermediaries by volume sit here.
What it means for youA substantial parent balance sheet, but the exchange is one product inside a much larger company.
Suits: Investors already closing through the parent's title offices.
Run by or alongside a depository or trust institution, so custody sits close to the entity holding the money.
What it means for youA short custody chain and a regulated holder, but affiliation alone does not tell you the account is segregated.
Suits: Investors who want the shortest chain to the institution holding the cash.
Owned by neither a title company nor a bank. Exchanges are the whole business, and the firm picks its own custody.
What it means for youUsually the deepest expertise and the most direct service. Smaller balance sheets, so the bond and the custody terms carry more weight.
Suits: Investors who want specialists and will check the bond themselves.
A fund administrator for which 1031 work is one mandate among several, aimed at sponsors rather than individuals.
What it means for youBuilt for scale, reporting and unusual structures. Individual investors are rarely the target client.
Suits: Sponsors, DST programmes and fund-level structures.
Each model in depth, including what to ask a firm in each category.
Side by side
Eight firms covering all four ownership models, in ranked order. The point is to show how differently they are built before you read any of them individually.
| Company | Ownership model | Owned by | Since | Footprint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.Easy1031Best overall | Independent | Independently owned | 2024 | Nationwide, Delaware and New Jersey |
| 2.IPX1031 | Title-owned | Fidelity National Financial | 1988 | Nationwide, regional offices |
| 3.First American Exchange Company | Title-owned | First American Financial | 1990s | Nationwide, via parent offices |
| 4.Accruit | Independent | Independently owned | 2000 | Nationwide, Denver-based |
| 5.Asset Preservation, Inc. | Title-owned | Stewart Information Services | 1990 | Nationwide |
| 6.Exeter 1031 Exchange Services | Bank-affiliated | Affiliated trust company | 2005 | Nationwide, San Diego-based |
| 7.1031 CORP. | Independent | Independently owned | 1991 | Nationwide, Mid-Atlantic roots |
| 8.JTC Americas | Institutional | JTC Group | 1987 | Institutional, US arm of a global group |
Ranked on structural disclosure, not on price. Easy1031 publishes this site and ranks first on it; the columns here are facts each company states publicly, so you can check the ordering against them.
The ranking
Ranked on how much of the structure is on the table before you sign: who owns the firm, where your money sits, and what stands behind it. Each entry lists what the structure gives you and what it leaves you to check.
$0 forward fee, interest shared with you
Operating since 2024
An independent intermediary that funds itself from the interest earned on exchange funds rather than from a setup fee, and shares part of that interest with the investor. Funds sit in a segregated account at a commercial bank.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
The largest intermediary by volume
Operating since 1988
Investment Property Exchange Services, generally regarded as the largest qualified intermediary in the United States by exchange volume. It sits inside one of the country's largest title insurance groups.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
A national title underwriter's 1031 arm
Operating since 1990s
The exchange arm of a major national title underwriter. Frequently used where the sale and the purchase both close through a First American office.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
Built its own exchange technology
Operating since 2000
An independent intermediary that built its own exchange workflow software and holds patents around like-kind exchange programmes. Serves individuals and companies running recurring exchange volume.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
Long-tenured, publicly traded parent
Operating since 1990
A long-tenured intermediary operating under a publicly traded title parent, with a written performance guarantee and a bench of dedicated exchange counsellors.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
Custody alongside an affiliated trust company
Operating since 2005
Independent of any title underwriter, but operating alongside an affiliated trust company that features in its fund-custody arrangements.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
One named exchange officer per deal
Operating since 1991
A boutique intermediary organised around dedicated exchange officers, assigning a single named point of contact per transaction rather than routing work through a queue.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
Fund-level and sponsor 1031 work
Operating since 1987
Formerly NES Financial. The US arm of a regulated international fund administrator, with a 1031 practice oriented toward sponsors, DST programmes and fund-level structures.
What the structure gives you
What to check yourself
Ranked on structural disclosure: how much of the ownership, the custody arrangement and the backing a firm states before you sign. Not on price. Eight firms chosen to cover every ownership model rather than to be exhaustive; no complete register of qualified intermediaries exists. Ownership and founding details are as publicly stated by each firm. Easy1031 publishes this site and ranks first on it, which you should weigh accordingly. The four questions on the fund-safety page let you check any firm here yourself.
Oversight
No federal licence. No registration, no examination, no capital requirement, no regulator.
| Oversight | Exists? | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Federal licensing | No | No registration or examination of any kind |
| Federal regulator | No | No agency supervises QIs as such |
| State rules | Sometimes | Roughly eight states impose bonding or registration |
| Capital requirements | No | No minimum net worth to hold client funds |
| Mandatory segregation | No | Commingling is not federally prohibited |
| Industry bodies | Voluntary | Membership confers no supervision |
In most states anyone may form a company tomorrow, call it a qualified intermediary, and start accepting custody of other people’s money. That is a structural fact rather than a scandal, and it is why the diligence falls to you.
The stakes
Three things are fixed by law. Four are entirely a function of which firm you pick, and none of the four are visible from a homepage.
A firm that acts as qualified intermediary on a like-kind exchange: it takes the proceeds from your sale, holds them while you find a replacement property, and applies them to the purchase. The IRS requires this role because you may not take receipt of the funds yourself. The companies doing it fall into four ownership models: title-company subsidiaries, bank or trust affiliates, independent specialists, and institutional administrators.
Nobody knows precisely, because there is no federal register of qualified intermediaries and no licence to count. Industry estimates put the number in the high hundreds, ranging from national firms handling tens of thousands of exchanges a year to one-person operations. The absence of a register is itself the most important fact about the sector.
Barely. There is no federal licensing, registration or examination regime for qualified intermediaries. A small number of states, including California, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, Washington, Idaho, Maine and Oregon, impose bonding, insurance or registration requirements of varying strength. In most states, anyone may form a company, call itself a qualified intermediary, and take custody of seven figures of someone else's money.
The largest by volume are subsidiaries of title insurance underwriters, which sell exchanges alongside the closing itself. Beneath them sit bank and trust affiliates, independent specialists for whom exchanges are the entire business, and institutional administrators serving sponsors and fund programmes rather than individuals.
Two ways, and only one of them appears on an invoice. Most charge a setup fee for a forward exchange, typically several hundred to a couple of thousand dollars. All of them also earn interest on the sale proceeds they hold for up to 180 days, and at most firms that interest is retained as company revenue. On a seven-figure exchange the float is usually the larger number by an order of magnitude.
It matters for the things that are hard to reverse. Ownership model shapes the balance sheet behind your funds, whether custody is close to a regulated institution, how deep the exchange expertise runs, and whether the exchange is the firm's whole business or one product among many. It does not change the tax treatment. The IRS rules are identical whichever company you use.
It depends almost entirely on how the funds were held. Money in a segregated account opened for your exchange is far easier to trace and recover than money pooled in a commingled operating account, which can be drawn into the bankruptcy estate and shared among creditors. Documented failures in the sector have cost investors substantial sums. Segregation, the named depository bank, FDIC coverage and the fidelity bond are the four things worth confirming in writing.
No. 1031ExchangeCompanies.com is published by Easy1031, an independent qualified intermediary that is ranked first on it. Firms are ranked on structural disclosure, meaning how much of the ownership, custody and financial backing is stated before you sign, rather than on price or service quality. Weigh the ranking accordingly, check each firm's answers yourself, and get written quotes from more than one intermediary before choosing.
Easy1031 is an independent qualified intermediary. It charges $0 for a standard forward exchange and shares the interest earned on your funds rather than keeping it.
Easy1031 publishes this site and appears in the directory above. It has a commercial interest in you starting an exchange, worth weighing, and worth comparing against other intermediaries.
