During 1994, a subsidiary of the Company completed the purchase of a corporate home office building in Irvine, California, which houses the Company's corporate departments and various subsidiaries. The majority of the branch offices of the Company are leased from third parties. The remainder are owned by the Company, leased from partnerships in which the Company has an interest or leased from affiliates. As of December 31, 1995, the Company leased office and storage spaces in 192 locations in California, 35 in Texas, 31 in Florida, 26 in Arizona, 12 in Oregon, 9 in Pennsylvania, 8 in Nevada, 6 each in New York and North Carolina, 5 each in Michigan and New Mexico, 4 each in New Jersey and Washington, 2 each in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and one each in Georgia, Hawaii, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia. See Note J of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
(8) The net claims paid ratio is the percentage resulting from total title claims paid, net of recoupments, divided by title insurance premiums.
During 1995, 1994 and 1993, 71.1%, 62.6% and 65.3%, respectively, of total title related revenue (excluding interest and investment income and non-title related other fees and revenue) was generated from direct operations. The Company focuses on direct operations because it retains the entire premium from each transaction and is able to generate additional sources of revenue by providing other title related services. The fluctuation in the percentage of revenue generated by direct operations versus the percentage of revenue generated by agency operations between 1995 and 1994 is due to several factors. During 1995, the Company terminated a number of agency relationships based on the Company's agency retention criteria. The Company continually monitors agency relationships for quality and productivity. Audits of agents are conducted on a periodic basis, and agents which do not meet the Company's standards are not retained. In addition, during 1995, the Company acquired certain former agents which were converted to direct operations. See "Recent Developments." Finally, in certain states where a significant amount of premium volume was generated, the Company operates on a direct basis. During 1994 agency operations generated a slightly larger percentage of total title related revenue as compared to 1993, primarily as a result of the increased contributions made by Fidelity Pennsylvania, ATIC and Fidelity New York.
required and, if so, to measure the impairment. If the sum of the expected future cash flows, undiscounted and without interest charges, is less than the asset's carrying amount, an impairment loss is considered; if the sum of the expected future cash flows is more than the asset's carrying amount, an impairment loss cannot be recognized. Measurement of an impairment loss is based on the fair value of the asset. Statement 121 requires long-lived assets and certain identifiable intangibles to be disposed of to be reported at the lower of carrying amount or fair value less cost to sell, except for assets covered by the provisions of Accounting Pronouncements Board Opinion No. 30. Statement 121 is effective for financial statements issued for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 1995. The Company does not anticipate that the adoption of Statement 121 will have a material effect on the Consolidated Financial Statements.
In a private transaction which occurred on June 17, 1994, the Company acquired 31 percent, or 578,716 shares, of Micro General Corporation Common Stock ("Micro General", traded on NASDAQ, symbol -- MGEN) for $868,000. As a condition of the acquisition, two Company representatives have been named to Micro General's Board of Directors. Micro General develops, manufactures and markets automated equipment for shipping and mailing operations. During 1996 the Company acquired an additional 152,500 shares of Micro General. 40,000 of these shares were acquired in a private transaction at a cost of $60,000, or $1.50 per share. The remaining 112,500 shares were acquired in the open market at a cost of $225,000, or $2.00 per share. The Company currently owns approximately 37.5% of the outstanding Micro General Common Stock. The ownership interest is accounted for under the equity method.
Intangible assets include cost in excess of net assets acquired, capitalized licensing costs and capitalized software costs and are amortized on a straight line basis over seven to forty years. At December 31, 1995, intangible assets consist of goodwill of $5,303,000 less accumulated amortization of $1,378,000, capitalized licensing costs of $2,458,000 and capitalized software of $8,710,000 less accumulated amortization of $604,000. Intangible assets at December 31, 1994 consist of goodwill of $5,270,000 less accumulated amortization of $1,263,000 and capitalized software of $539,000 less accumulated amortization of $20,000.
On June 14, 1995, the Company acquired certain assets of World Title Company ("World") for a purchase price to be determined based on the collection of certain accounts. In the case of trade accounts receivable acquired, the Company will retain certain percentages of amounts collected subsequent to the acquisition date and will remit the remaining amounts to the Department of Insurance of the State of California ("Department"). The Company has also acquired the open title orders of World as of the purchase date. The Company will retain certain percentages of amounts collected on open title orders subsequent to the acquisition date and will remit the remaining amounts to the Department. The amount retained by the Company was not material in 1995.
The amortized cost and estimated fair value of fixed maturity securities, which are classified as available for sale at December 31, 1995, by contractual maturity, are shown as follows. Expected maturities may differ from contractual maturities because certain borrowers have the right to call or prepay obligations with or without call or prepayment penalties.
At December 31, 1995 and 1994, the Company had financial interests ranging from 22% to 50% in five real estate partnerships which are accounted for under the equity method. These partnerships are involved in the ownership and management of commercial office buildings, retail facilities, and have acquired specific parcels of real property for investment purposes. The Company, through Manchester, had general partnership interests in four of these real estate partnerships at December 31, 1995 and 1994. See Notes J and N.
In conducting its operations, the Company routinely holds customers' assets in trust, pending completion of real estate transactions. Such amounts are maintained in segregated bank accounts and have not been included in the accompanying Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company has a contingent liability relating to proper disposition of these balances for its customers which amounted to $204.8 million and $168.4 million at December 31, 1995 and 1994, respectively.