Revenues from our mortgage services segment were $25.6 million for the fourth quarter 2013, as compared to $46.7 million in the fourth quarter 2012, largely due to the project-based nature of the contracts in this segment. We are transitioning from this segment’s historical service offerings for the management of defaulted and distressed loans to a more sustainable suite of service offerings to support the ongoing loan origination and servicing support needs of lenders in a heightened regulatory environment. Many lending institutions are under pressure to maintain earnings while managing the rising costs of regulatory compliance, which we believe will drive increased demand for the outsourced solutions we offer. We are focused on reducing expenses in the segment; however, we were unable to achieve efficiencies fast enough to offset the decline in revenues. As a result, the segment reported a pretax loss of $1.6 million in the fourth quarter 2013 compared to pretax earnings of $14.2 million and a pretax loss of $1.4 million for the fourth quarter 2012 and third quarter 2013, respectively.
Known claims provisions decreased for the year ended December 31, 2013 to $107.2 million from $126.8 million in 2012, primarily as a result of adjustments to existing claims filed on policies issued in previous years. Current year provisions - IBNR are recorded on policies issued in the current year as a percentage of premiums realized (provisioning rate). For the year ended December 31, 2013, current year provisions - IBNR decreased $13.4 million to $68.0 million compared to 2012 as a result of a reduction in our provisioning rate which was partially offset by a 3.8% increase in title revenues for the year ended December 31, 2013 compared to 2012. As a percentage of title operating revenues, provisions - IBNR for the current policy year decreased from 4.7% in 2012 to 3.8% in 2013 due to the lowering of the provisioning rate effective for policies issued in the second quarter 2013 resulting from a decrease in incurred losses. Provisions - IBNR relating to prior policy years decreased from $39.6 million in 2012 to $13.3 million in 2013 due to declining adverse development on large title losses relating to policies issued in prior years. This trend is indicative of lower incurred losses as the claims environment continues to improve and as claims have been closed in policy years with higher than normal claims.
In addition to title policy claims, we incur losses in our direct operations from escrow, closing and disbursement functions. These escrow losses typically relate to errors or other miscalculations of amounts to be paid at closing, including timing or amount of mortgage payoff, payment of property or other taxes and payment of homeowners’ association fees. Escrow losses are typically paid less than 12 months after the loss is discovered and have been immaterial for each of the three years ended December 31, 2013.
In 2013, we increased our employee headcount company-wide by approximately 351, or 5.6%, including acquisitions. The increase in headcount other than relating to acquisitions was largely driven to handle increased business activity. In addition, employee costs were influenced by higher incentive compensation due to the improved operating results, partially offset by lower contract labor.
Although our business is labor intensive, we are focused on a cost-effective, scalable business model which includes utilization of technology, centralization of back and middle office functions and business process outsourcing. Our approach allows us to adjust more easily to fluctuations in transaction volumes.
Cash from investing activities was generated principally by proceeds from investments matured and sold in the amounts of $104.5 million, $181.9 million and $339.7 million in 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. We used cash for the purchases of investments in the amounts of $160.5 million, $207.7 million and $336.1 million in 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively.