A River Runs Through It: Navigating Riparian Rights and Water
Title Tenets: CRE Webinar
August 2025
Join us for an overview of how water affects title and how it relates to safeguarding transactions. In this one-hour webinar, we’ll offer valuable insights into how water laws shape ownership, use and insurability of land near water. Among the topics to be presented will be the difference between riparian (river or stream) and littoral (lake or ocean) rights, how natural changes impact land boundaries and ownership, and the significance of navigable waters and how their legal classification affects title to submerged lands.
Presented by:
Matthew A. Madison
Senior Underwriting Counsel
Adam Stricker
Senior Underwriting Counsel
Read their bios here.
NCS Speakers
Matthew A. Madison
Senior Underwriting Counsel, NCS
Matthew A. Madison is a Senior Underwiring Counsel and the Director of Underwriting for the Stewart Title Energy Group. Based in Houston, Texas, Matt is the senior commercial underwriter for Stewart's Houston NCS office, and he oversees all underwriting related to title insurance for utility-scale renewable energy projects (solar/ wind/battery energy storage, green fuels, transmission) throughout the United States. Matthew has extensive experience providing guidance on endorsements, affirmative coverages, and title curative in particular, in addition to matters related to mineral coverage for renewable energy projects. Prior to joining Stewart, Matthew also worked extensively in the areas of oil and gas title examination and litigation.
Adam Stricker
Senior Underwriting Counsel, NCS
As Senior Underwriting Counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Company, Adam possesses over 20 years of experience in the legal and real estate industries. He joined Stewart Title in 2010 as Southwestern Region Salvage Counsel. In that role he oversaw policy loss recovery efforts and litigation in 13 states and offshore territories before he was named Underwriting Counsel in 2016. Today, Adam underwrites commercial and residential transactions throughout the Western United States including in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arizona. Prior to joining Stewart, Adam was an attorney in private practice in Denver, Colorado where he represented title insurance companies and their insureds in real estate and title related litigation. He is admitted to practice in both Colorado and Nevada and holds a B.A. from the University of California – Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law where he served as a General Editor on the Denver University Law Review.
