For many independent title company owners, retirement eventually creates a difficult question:

What happens to the company?

You may have spent 20, 30 or even 40 years building a local title agency. Your name has value. Your employees have history. Agents, lenders and attorneys know your company. You have developed underwriter relationships, operational infrastructure and knowledge that cannot simply be recreated overnight.

But eventually, you may not want to manage it anymore.

Traditionally, that leaves an owner with a few choices: find a successor, sell the title company, continue working longer than planned or eventually close.

At Viking Title Agency, we think there is another possibility.

What If You Kept the Company?

Instead of acquiring your title agency, Viking Managed Services may be able to operate it for you.

You retain ownership while Viking assumes agreed management and operational responsibilities.

That distinction matters.

You are not necessarily selling the asset you spent your career creating.

You are changing who has to operate it every day.

Retirement Does Not Have to End Your Legacy

For many independent title agency owners, the decision is not purely financial.

It is personal.

A title company can represent decades of someone's life. It is a reputation within a community, relationships spanning generations and sometimes a company an owner hoped would continue long after retirement.

That is your legacy.

A traditional acquisition may eventually eliminate the local brand, consolidate operations or fundamentally change the company.

Managed services creates another possibility: allowing that legacy to continue while removing much of the day-to-day responsibility from the owner.

What Does a Managed Title Company Look Like?

There is not one answer because no two agencies are identical.

One company may need complete operational management.

Another may already have an excellent escrow team but need title production, management and business development.

Another may have valuable licenses, underwriter relationships or title plant access but very little current order volume.

Viking evaluates the operation and determines what makes sense.

Where appropriate, managed services can encompass staffing, title production, escrow operations, technology, workflow, customer service, compliance coordination, business development and overall operational management.

What About Growth?

Retirement for the owner should not necessarily mean retirement for the company.

When Viking evaluates a managed-services opportunity, we are not only interested in maintaining existing business.

We want to understand where the company can go next.

  • Could it enter another market?
  • Could production capacity increase?
  • Are there referral relationships that are not being pursued?
  • Could technology improve turnaround times?
  • Are there opportunities in refinance, investor, commercial or other business?

A company that has slowed because its owner is ready to retire may still have substantial opportunities.

What If I Am Already Thinking About Selling?

Then this is exactly the time to have the conversation.

Before deciding what your title company is worth to someone else, consider what it might continue to be worth to you if you did not have to operate it.

A managed-services arrangement is not appropriate for every agency. Licensing, underwriter agreements, escrow requirements, financial condition and state regulations all have to be considered.

But for the right company, it can create an entirely different succession strategy.

You Built It. You Do Not Necessarily Have to Sell It.

Selling may ultimately be the right decision for some title company owners.

But it should not be the only option simply because you are ready to retire.

Viking Title Agency's Managed Services team is interested in speaking with independent title company owners across the country who are considering retirement, succession or stepping away from daily operations.

Your company may still have another chapter.

And your legacy may be worth continuing.

Considering retirement or thinking about selling your title company? Talk with Viking Title Agency before you decide.

www.vikingtitleagency.com