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 LandAmericwFinancial Group, which did business in North Carolina mostl y as Lawyers Title. But the combinecd staff of those operations hasbeen cut, to from 21 before the purchase. “Thers did, of necessity, have to be some downscaling,” says Ken Stone, Fidelity' s North Carolina manager. Fidelity National Titls is a subsidiaryof (NYSE: FNF).
In December, the paren company bought units – includingg Lawyers Title – from LandAmerica, a titls insurer that had filed for bankruptcy in 2008 amid the slumping housing Some 1,500 jobs across the countrh were cut as part of that deal, according to Fidelith National Financial. Stone says most of the lost jobs in North Carolinainvolved back-office operations. Still, in North Carolina, the three Lawyers Title operations will continus to do business underthat name. Fidelity also will keep open its 11 brancheas acrossthe state, including branches in Cary, Pinehurst, Greensboro and Charlotte.
Title insurancre companies protect property owners from defects in a liens on a property and similar They are susceptible to a declininf volume inproperty sales, and titls insurers have said they're struggling in the current housing slump. It took a whils for that slump to take hold inNortgh Carolina, Stone says. But companies across the statwe are now feelingits effect. “North Carolina, at leastt through the third quarterof 2008, had been fairlu resilient and had not seen the decliness that occurred elsewhere in the country,” Stone “Things are slowing down, unfortunately.
” Claims also are on the Stone says, thanks to mechanic’s liens beinvg placed on new or renovated homes. If a residentiapl homebuilder finishes and sells a housebut can’r pay all the subcontractors that did work on the property, the liena fall to the new homeowner – and titlee insurers are frequently left on the Stone says Fidelity, as well as other title have started to insist on what are known as long-for m lien waivers from every subcontractor that worked on a That helps protect both property ownersz and title insurance companies. “It is a toughh underwriting riskto manage,” Stone says.
“… The combinationb of transactions being down significantly and a high volumeof claims, especially on the new constructio side, are combining to place some real challengesa out there for the titls insurance companies.” As far as a recovery, Stonde says, Fidelity is eyeing the fourth quarte r of 2009 as the bottoming out of the Nortgh Carolina market, with “a very, very slow recovery” after But don’t hold him to that prediction, he Calling a housing bottom is akin to trying to catcbh a falling knife. Fidelity’s largesy competition in the Triangle comes from various subsidiarieswof , another national title insurer, and Chapel Hill-baseds .
On Tuesday, Investors Title ITIC) that a few large claims wiped outthe company’sw profit in the fourth quarter of 2008. First America (NYSE: FAF) reports earningw next week. Investors have been pleased with Fidelity National Financial’s pickup of LandAmerica assets on the The company’s stock has doublexd since late November, a time that’s seen nearluy a 10 percent drop in the S&P 500 stock after falling by nearly half in the trailing 12 months.
Fidelit y National is a separate publicly traded companyfrom , the mutuaol fund company that had 2,500 Triangle employeeas prior to a announced in