Fitch Affirms Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund.CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has affirmed the Insurer Financial Strength rating of Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund, Inc. (The Fund) at 'A-'. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The rating of The Fund is supported by its 19% share in the FL title insurance market, good profitability and improving risk-adjusted capital ratio. Balanced against these strengths are deteriorating market share, concentration of business in Florida, significant investment in equity securities, and pricing pressure from the Florida Department Florida is a department (departamento) of Uruguay. Population and Demographics As of the census of 2004, there were 68,181 people and 21,938 households in the department. The average household size was 3.1. For every 100 females, there were 100.4 males. of Insurance. The Fund is the third-largest title insurer in Florida based on premium volume and the sixth-largest title insurance organization in the U.S. Both Fidelity National Financial and First American Corporation
Officially referred to as The First American Corporation (FAC) , have recently moved ahead of The Fund in terms of market share in FL. Although it is considered risky that the company derives nearly all of its revenue from a single state, FL's real estate market has historically performed better than other regions of the country. The potential repricing Repricing To change the price of an asset. In derivatives, it sometimes refers to the exchange of options of with different strike prices. repricing of title insurance by the Florida Department of Insurance does make The Fund's concentration in that state a greater concern. Profitability, which had historically been below average, has improved over the past several years and compared favorably fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. to averages for Fitch's title insurance rating universe. The Fund has taken advantage of a strong title insurance market to grow surplus by nearly 3 times to $139 million between 2001 and 2005. Fitch's risk-adjusted capital (RAC See remote access concentrator. ) formula quantitatively tests capital adequacy for several risks, including investment risks, reserve adequacy, exposure to large losses, expense leverage, and agency risks. The Fund's capital adequacy, as measured by Fitch's RAC ratio, continued to improve in 2005 but remains below the average for Fitch's rating universe. The company has an above-average exposure to unaffiliated common and preferred stocks Stock shares that have preferential rights to dividends or to amounts distributable on liquidation, or to both, ahead of common shareholders. Preferred stock is given preference over common stock. Holders of preferred stock receive dividends at a fixed annual rate. , representing approximately one-half of total invested assets, or 86% of policyholders' surplus. The concerns over the large allocation to equity securities are additional volatility in earnings and surplus from stock market fluctuations. The Fund is owned by a business trust that, in turn, is owned by attorneys who serve as agents for the company. All licensed attorneys in FL are eligible to become agent/owners of The Fund following the completion of The Fund's application process and payment of a modest annual fee. The company has approximately 6,000 attorney member agents in Florida. The Fund's ownership structure limits its access to outside capital. Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund, Inc. --IFS affirmed at 'A-', with a Stable Outlook. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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