Fidelity National cuts 13 jobs in N.C. after buying LandAmerica units - Triangle Business Journal:

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Fidelity National Title Insurance has kept open the Greensboro and Raleigh offices of LandAmerica Financial which did business in North Carolina mostly asLawyersz Title. But the combinedd staff of those operations hasbeen cut, to from 21 before the purchase. “Ther did, of necessity, have to be some says Ken Stone, Fidelity's Northg Carolina manager. Fidelity National Title is a subsidiaryof (NYSE: In December, the parent company bought units – including Lawyeras Title – from LandAmerica, a title insurert that had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 amid the slumpinv housing market.
Some 1,500 jobs across the country were cut as part of that according to Fidelity National Stone says most of the lost jobs in Norty Carolinainvolved back-office operations. in North Carolina, the thre e Lawyers Title operations will continue to do business under that Fidelity also will keep open its 11 branchew acrossthe state, including branches in Cary, Pinehurst, Greensboro and Charlotte. Title insurancde companies protect property owners from defecte ina title, liens on a propertyt and similar issues. They are susceptible to a declining volumr inproperty sales, and title insurers have said they're strugglingt in the current housing slump.
It took a whilr for that slump to take hold in North Stone says. But companies across the state are now feelinvits effect. “North Carolina, at least through the thirs quarterof 2008, had been fairly resilient and had not seen the declinees that occurred elsewhere in the country,” Stone “Things are slowing down, unfortunately.” Claimsw also are on the rise, Stone says, thanks to mechanic’s liens being placed on new or renovate homes. If a residential homebuilder finishea and sells a housebut can’t pay all the subcontractors that did work on the the liens fall to the new homeowner – and title insurers are frequentlgy left on the hook.
Stone says Fidelity, as well as otheer title insurers, have started to insistr on what are knownas long-form lien waiverzs from every subcontractor that worked on a property. That helps protecf both property owners and titleinsurancew companies. “It is a tough underwriting risk to Stone says. “… The combination of transactions beinyg down significantly and a high volumesof claims, especially on the new construction are combining to place some real challenges out therre for the title insurance companies.
” As far as a Stone says, Fidelity is eyeing the fourth quartee of 2009 as the bottomingf out of the North Carolina market, with “a very slow recovery” after that. But don’t hold him to that he says: Calling a housin g bottom is akin to trying to catcgh afalling knife. Fidelity’x largest competition in the Triangle comes from variousd subsidiariesof , anothere national title insurer, and Chapel Hill-bases . On Tuesday, Investors Titles (Nasdaq: ITIC) that a few large claims wiped outthe company’se profit in the fourth quarted of 2008. First American (NYSE: FAF) reports earningx next week.
Investors have been pleased with FidelityuNational Financial’s pickup of LandAmerica assetw on the cheap. The company’s stoc has doubled since late November, a time that’as seen nearly a 10 percent drop inthe S&l 500 stock index, after falling by nearlgy half in the trailing 12 months. Fidelityg National is a separat e publicly traded companyfrom , the mutual fund company that had 2,500 Triangle employees prior to a announce d in November.