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With a small amount of capital, Laurance Eustis founded Canal Mortgage in 1956 as an adjunct to the 10-year-old Eustis General Insurance Agency. The Company's first success was to acquire the substantial Guardian Life loan servicing portfolio from a local builder.
In 1959, the name of the company was changed to Laurance Eustis Mortgage Corporation (LEMC). The company produced single-family and small multi-family loans. Beginning in 1960 with The Life-Insurance Company of Georgia (now ING Investment Management), LEMC established correspondency with a number of companies, including Life Casualty of Tennessee (now American General), that are still thriving 40 years later.
1968 was an exciting year for LEMC. Laurance (Larry) Eustis, III returned to New Orleans and joined the company, and George Sumner, a young CPA, came to the firm from Ernst & Ernst. They began to focus their business solely on income property loans and their servicing portfolio had grown exponentially.
The company continued to grow and in 1976 returned to the single-family loan business just as Robert Eustis joined the firm. Larry ran the income property operations, while George and Robert ran the single-family operations. LEMC expanded in the early eighties and by 1986 it employed 96 people servicing a broad spectrum of commercial and single-family loans.
Operating in the south Louisiana region, LEMC was hit very hard by the oil and gas bust. Its staff was reduced to 22 people and the company spent the next four years in successfully weathering the storm, but maintained its commitment to the mortgage industry. By 1990, the regional economy had stabilized, and the company began growing again.
In the 1990's, the company, now renamed Eustis Mortgage
Corporation, experienced its most successful years,
closing record levels of income property and single-family
loans. The Company now has a staff of 55 and production
offices in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Deridder, Louisiana.
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