Trio of title companies explores merger

Stephen Babbit, president of Tri-Lakes Title & Escrow, in October 2005 formed LandChoice Co. LLC with Mike Holden, president of Columbia-based Guaranty Land Title Insurance Inc., and Cara Detring, president of Farmington-based Preferred Land Title Co.

Two years later, talks are under way to enact a merger.

Babbit, Holden and Detring – the three managing board members of LandChoice – plan to meet Oct. 26–27 in Branson to discuss the steps to complete a merger. But Babbit said the deal probably would not finalize until early 2009. While the companies use LandChoice to share many common services, each agency has retained incorporation.

Babbit said the major hurdle to a complete merger of the three agencies has been tax issues. The cost in corporate taxes for Babbit alone would be about $500,000 to make the move.

The three company owners met as members of the Missouri Land Title Association; Babbit and Detring are past presidents of the organization.

“They are all looking to expand their markets,” said Stephana Babbit Wilson, daughter of Stephen Babbit and vice president of Tri-Lakes Title Co., a subsidiary of Tri-Lakes Title & Escrow. “They thought it would be easier to work together than to compete against each other.”

Their two-year affiliation has made LandChoice one of the largest independent land title companies in Missouri, covering 79 counties through 36 offices. Initially, the three companies joined to pool their combined 188 employees for better insurance benefits.

“That was where we first started … to get the very best benefit package for everyone,” Detring said. “We’re still coming up with ideas on how to save money.”

Stephen Babbit said through LandChoice, the companies share common human resource services, medical, dental and retirement benefits, payroll administration, and title insurance underwriters.

“I’ve saved $100,000 on premium costs alone,” he said.

Detring said another benefit of the affiliation has been the consolidation of computer services.

“I was putting in a chunk of money on computer systems,” she said. “I had to connect all my offices on the same network to work on the same database.”

Through LandChoice, the companies now share Internet services such as e-mail and a common Web site that allows them to market together under the LandChoice brand.

To ease into the changes that come with a merger, LandChoice has put together a 30-member transition team of employees from the three companies, Wilson said. She said the team represents human resources, title, escrow and marketing.

“Transition is a big task,” Detring said. “It’s a really exciting opportunity to pool all these people together. We all bring different talents to the group. That’s why the mix has worked well.”

For Detring and Preferred Land Title’s nine offices in southeastern Missouri, this is a second try at partnering with other title companies.

“I attempted to put a group together a few years before,” she said. “I just put together the wrong people. Not everyone was interested.”

Detring said she is aware of two other locations in the United States where title companies have formed an alliance; one is in Florida, the other in Texas.[[In-content Ad]]