Orange Coast Title Buys Agency, Expands Operations into L.A. County

Orange Coast Title Co., a Santa Ana agency selling title insurance in four Southland counties, has expanded its operations into Los Angeles County with the purchase of a small agency from a TRW Inc. subsidiary.

Orange Coast acquired Record Title Co. of California, an Anaheim firm with its major title plant in Sunland, for an unspecified amount of cash. It relocated RTC’s corporate offices to Santa Ana last weekend.

At the same time, the title company agreed to use TRW Title Insurance Services, RTC’s former owner based in Anaheim, as one of its two major underwriters of title insurance. Orange Coast’s primary underwriter is Minnesota Title Insurance Co.

The acquisition “will provide OCT with a direct entry into the Los Angeles title market,” said John L. Marconi, Orange Coast’s founder and president.

Orange Coast previously had not been licensed to do business in Los Angeles County and used affiliates to handle work there. Record Title’s plant in Sunland had been the base for its Los Angeles operations.

Marconi, who worked in the title business in Los Angeles in the early 1960s, moved to Orange County later that decade and opened his business in 1974. The firm has since grown to 400 employees in 14 offices in Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Last year, the privately held firm had revenues of $25 million and was Orange County’s leading title agency in the resale housing market, said Rich Macaluso, Marconi’s assistant.

“We’ve been wanting to get into the L.A. market,” Macaluso said. “It rounds out Southern California for us and puts us in the largest real estate market, possibly, in the world.”

Record Title generated about $3.5 million in revenue last year, Macaluso said. The combined operation gives Orange Coast about 450 employees in 16 offices in five counties.