The QI File

Qualified Intermediary

Exeter 1031

Exeter 1031 Exchange Services, LLC · Parent: The Exeter Group, LLC

FEA membership
FEA unknown
CES® holders
Not published on cited pages
Fidelity bond
$15.0 million fidelity bond (Exeter Group of Companies)
E&O / other cover
$10.0 million errors and omissions insurance
How funds are held
Segregated
Dual-signature wires
Dual-signature
Reverse / improvement / DST
Reverse Yes · Improvement Yes · DST Unknown
Last sourced
2026-09-04

Other published coverage

$15.0 million financial institution blanket bond; $15.0 million cyber and wire-transfer fraud insurance; more than $8.0 million equity capital reserves, as published by the Exeter Group

Fund handling

Separate, segregated, dual-signature, restricted qualified trust accounts at Exeter Trust Company. Exeter Trust Company is licensed, regulated, and examined by the Wyoming Division of Banking. The firm says four Exeter team members plus the client’s written authorization are required to transfer funds.

Fee structure

Firm says institutional/regulated providers typically charge $1,000–$1,500 to set up a forward exchange (one relinquished, one replacement) plus $300–$500 per additional property, and that complicated reverse/improvement structures generally run $7,500–$15,000 or more. Qualified trust accounts at Exeter Trust are included at no additional cost. Contact the firm for a written quote; a public itemized card is not posted.

Who keeps the float

Exeter’s fees page states that qualified intermediaries generally retain all or a portion of interest earned on exchange funds as compensation, and that investors should compare retained interest when shopping QIs.

Who it is for

Nationwide forward, reverse, improvement, leasehold improvement, foreign-property, and zero-equity exchanges. Headquarters in San Diego; additional regional offices published by the firm.

Verdict

Exeter’s real distinction is structural: client money sits in dual-signature qualified trust accounts at a Wyoming-regulated trust company, not only in a QI operating account with a bond sticker. That is closer to a custody architecture than most title-subsidiary marketing. The September 2026 PR figures ($15m fidelity, $10m E&O) supersede older $10m fidelity copy on some Exeter pages — confirm the current declarations. FEA membership and named CES® holders are not stated on the pages cited here, so they are marked unknown.

Notes

Exeter 1031 Exchange Services, LLC is a California limited liability company and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Exeter Group, LLC. Sister company Exeter Trust Company holds the qualified trust accounts and is examined by the Wyoming Division of Banking.

The firm leans hard on the LandAmerica lesson: if exchange funds are treated as the QI’s corporate cash in bankruptcy, exchangers stand in line with other creditors. Dual-signature qualified trust is the proposed answer. That is a legal-structure claim — still read the account agreement.

Sources