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Title Insurance Services Industry Profile Excerpt
| SIC Codes: 6361 NAICS Codes: 524127 Page Length: 10-12 Last Quarterly Update: 12/22/2008 View Sample Industry Profile |
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Slightly more than 100 licensed title insurance carriers operate in the US, with combined revenue of $12 billion. Large companies include Fidelity National Financial, First American Title Insurance, Old Republic International, and Stewart Information Services. The industry is highly concentrated.
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Home sales and mortgage refinancing are the primary drivers of demand for the title insurance industry. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations because of the large volume of transactions. Large companies benefit from economies of scale in access to large accumulated databases of property records. Small companies can mainly compete by specializing in non-standard titles or in geographical regions that the large companies don't cover.
PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY
The two types of title insurance policies are for owners and lenders, and may be issued for either residential or commercial properties. Most title companies get the majority of their revenue from the residential real estate market. Although commercial real estate transactions are generally larger, about 80 percent of insurance volume is from residential properties (although accurate data are unavailable). Both home sales and mortgage refinancing trigger the need for a title search and an insurance policy.
Title insurance is issued after a search of various public records to establish who owns the title to a property and to uncover any existing liens, use restrictions, or ownership interest held by any other party. Owner policies protect the owner against defects in the title that existed ...
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