Heartland Subsidiary Buys Title Texas

DALLAS-Locally based Title Texas Inc., one of the largest full-service independent title agencies in the US, has been sold to Federal Title Inc., a newly formed subsidiary of Heartland Security Insurance Group of Tyler.

The value of the transaction wasn’t disclosed. Vicki Rutherford Cearnal, former president of Title Texas, takes over the same position at Federal Title. Cearnal didn’t return GlobeSt.com’s requests for comment on the transaction.

In a prepared statement, Title Texas founder and outgoing CEO Spence Kendrick says he was pleased his company was purchased by “an organization that will continue to maintain our commitment to being independent in the marketplace.” Title Texas has been an issuing agent for most of the nation’s largest insurance underwriters and provided over $230 million in single-risk title insurance since it was founded in 1979.

Clint Lofman, the former senior director of investments at Chicago-based Wrightwood Capital, is CFO at Federal Title. Lofman tells GlobeSt.com the new company has 73 associates in eight offices and is the second largest independent title insurance agency in Dallas County. Federal Title has more than 6,300 pending transactions representing almost $700 million in real estate transactions, he says.

“One of my many initiatives here will be to beef up our commercial business,” Lofman tells GlobeSt.com. He says he accepted the Federal Title position after Billy Hibbs Jr., chairman of Heartland Security Insurance Group and “a lifelong friend and former [University of North Texas] roommate,” asked him to join the new company.

Lofman initially was hired by Hibbs as a consultant on the acquisition of Title Texas. He is a former vice president and portfolio manager at Archon Group LP, a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. subsidiary.