Stewart’s new story: How the title insurer reworked its agent base, operations, customer focus

Having recently been named chief executive officer of Stewart Information Services, Stewart Title Company and Stewart Title Guaranty, Matt Morris gave a presentation at the FBR Capital Markets' Fall Investor Conference in November 2011. In that presentation, Morris laid out Stewart’s blueprint for 2012, and its vision for navigating a market in flux. Fast forward to October 2012, sitting by a fireplace in the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Morris and George Houghton, group president of agency operations, updated The Title Report on their progress.

The key to each next stride forward was first taking a step back when Morris took over as CEO. For many years, as management will tell you, Stewart was getting in its own way. Its structure was too cumbersome. Its title claims had risen too high. It all led to a lengthy process of rethinking and realigning its services into three delivery channels, streamlining management teams and back-end solutions, and better controlling its agent network. Morris labeled it a “transformation of the business structure  from a holding company to an operating company model.”