Employee Benefits Plan

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

Employee Benefit Plans.

We currently offer a variety of employee benefit plans, including a 401(k) savings plan and non-qualified plans, including unfunded supplemental management and executive benefit plans (collectively, the “SERPs”) which were frozen effective December 31, 2010, a frozen pension restoration plan (“Restoration”), and deferred compensation plan.

The non-qualified plans are exempt from most provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act because they are only available to a select group of management and highly compensated employees and are therefore not qualified employee benefit plans. To preserve the tax-deferred savings advantages of a non-qualified plan, federal law requires that it be an unfunded or informally funded future promise to pay.

FAC’s defined benefit pension plan was a noncontributory, qualified, defined benefit plan with benefits based on the employee’s years of service. The policy was to fund all accrued pension costs. Contributions were intended to provide not only for benefits attributable to past service, but also for those benefits expected to be earned in the future. The sponsorship for this plan was transferred to FAFC as part of the Separation. As part of the Separation, we provided FAFC with a promissory note in the principal amount of $19.9 million. The note approximates the unfunded portion of the benefit obligation attributable to participants in the FAC defined benefit pension plan that are or were our employees. The balance outstanding on the note was $18.8 million at December 31, 2010 and was paid in full as of September 2011.

The liability associated with FAFC’s participants in the FAC non-qualified, unfunded supplemental benefit plan, 401(k) savings plan and deferred compensation plan was transferred to FAFC as part of the Separation.

The following table summarizes the balance sheet impact, including benefit obligations, assets and funded status associated with the SERPs and Restoration plans as of December 31, 2011, and 2010:

(in thousands)	2011			2010
Change in projected benefit obligation:
Benefit obligation at beginning of period	$	26,954		$	258,631
Service costs	565			2,743
Interest costs	1,434			7,300
Actuarial losses	3,058			1,735
Separation of FAFC	—			(228,347		)
Benefits paid	(1,352		)	(5,952		)
Plan amendment	—			(9,156		)
Projected benefit obligation at end of period	30,659			26,954
Change in plan assets:
Company contributions	1,352			5,952
Benefits paid	(1,352		)	(5,952		)
Plan assets at fair value at end of the period	—			—
Reconciliation of funded status:
Unfunded status of the plans	$	(30,659	)	$	(26,954	)
Amounts recognized in the consolidated balance sheet consist of:
Accrued benefit liability	$	(30,659	)	$	(26,954	)
	$	(30,659	)	$	(26,954	)
Amounts recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income/(loss):
Unrecognized net actuarial loss	$	15,565		$	16,529
Unrecognized prior service credit	(10,209		)	(11,352		)
Separation of FAFC	—			(2,955		)
	$	5,356		$	2,222

The net periodic pension cost for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010, and 2009, for the FAC defined benefit pension plan, SERPs and Restoration plans includes the following components:

(in thousands)	2011			2010		2009
Expenses:
Service costs	$	565		$	2,743	$	6,049
Interest costs	1,435			7,300		34,845
Expected return on plan assets	—			—		(20,176		)
Amortization of net loss	(76		)	3,680		19,956
Amortization of prior service credit	—			—		(1,291		)
	$	1,924		$	13,723	$	39,383

Included in these expenses are $8.9 million and $34.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009, respectively, related to FAFC employees.

Weighted-average discount rate used to determine costs for the plans were as follows:

	2011		2010
SERP Plans	5.50	%	5.81%
Restoration Plan	5.33	%	5.81%

Weighted-average actuarial assumptions used to determine benefit obligations for the plans were as follows:

	2011	2010
SERP Plans
Discount rate	4.52%	5.50%
Salary increase rate	N/A	—%
Restoration Plan
Discount rate	4.57%	5.33%

The discount-rate assumption used for pension plan accounting reflects the yield available on high-quality, fixed-income debt securities that match the expected timing of the benefit obligation payments.

The following table provides the funded status in the defined SERPs as of December 31, 2011 and 2010:

(in thousands)	2011		2010
Projected benefit obligation	$	30,660	$	26,954
Accumulated benefit obligation	$	30,660	$	26,954
Plan assets at fair value at end of year	$	—	$	—

The following benefit payments for all plans, which reflect expected future turnover, as appropriate, are expected to be paid as follows:

(in thousands)
2012	$	1,871
2013	$	1,865
2014	$	1,843
2015	$	1,821
2016	$	1,273
2017-2020	$	6,503

In February 2010, the name of the First Advantage Corporation 401(k) Plan was changed to the First American Information Solutions Company 401(k) Plan. All employees of the FAC information solutions companies who participated in The First American Corporation 401(k) Saving Plan (the “FAC Plan”) and their related assets were transferred into the First American Information Solutions Company 401(k) Plan on February 23, 2010, as part of the transaction. In June 2010, the name of the First American Information Solutions Company 401(k) Plan was changed to the CoreLogic, Inc 401(k) Savings Plan (the “Savings Plan”).

The Savings Plan allows for employee-elective contributions up to the maximum deductible amount as determined by the Internal Revenue Code. We make discretionary contributions to the Savings Plan based on profitability, as well as contributions of the participants. There were no contributions or expense for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 related to the Savings Plan as a result of the determination that we did not meet the requirement for a profit driven 401(k) match. The Savings Plan allows the participants to purchase shares of our common stock as one of the investment options, subject to certain limitations. The Savings Plan held 1,236,874 and 1,287,357 shares of our common stock, representing 1.2% and 1.1% of the total shares outstanding at December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Our expense related to the FAC Plan amounted to $6.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2009. The FAC Plan permitted the participants to purchase shares of our common stock as one of the investment options, subject to certain limitations. The FAC Plan held 6,455,142 shares of our common stock, representing 6.2% of the total shares outstanding at 2009.

We have a deferred compensation plan that allows participants to defer up to 80% of their salary, commissions and bonus. Participants allocate their deferrals among a variety of investment crediting options (known as “deemed investments”). Deemed investments mean that the participant has no ownership interest in the funds they select; the funds are only used to measure the gains or losses that will be attributed to their deferral account over time. Participants can elect to have their deferral balance paid out in a future year while they are still employed or after their employment ends The participants’ deferrals and any earnings on those deferrals are general unsecured obligations of the Company. The Company is informally funding the deferred compensation plan through a tax-advantaged investment known as variable universal life insurance. Deferred compensation plan assets are held as a Company asset within a special trust, called a “rabbi trust.”

The value of the assets underlying our deferred compensation plan was $28.4 million and $30.7 million as of December 31, 2011, and 2010, respectively, and is included in other assets in the consolidated balance sheets. The unfunded liability for our deferred compensation plan was $30.1 million and $32.2 million as of December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and is included in other liabilities in the consolidated balance sheets.