The U.S. trustee charged with upholding bankruptcy laws filed an objection late yesterday regarding LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s plan to exit Chapter 11. The bankrupt Henrico County title insurer filed a mediated plan of reorganization in September, saying that liquidation was the firm’s only option. The plan detailed how creditors would be paid but also had other provisions to which U.S. trustee W. Clarkson McDow Jr. objected.

Interim fees charged by attorneys and other experts in LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s Chapter 11 case will be paid. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens approved the fee payments yesterday despite objections from creditors. Nearly three dozen creditors of the company’s LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. subsidiary sent written protests to Huennekens objecting to the requests from attorneys and experts for payment of more than $3.8 million in fees and expenses relating to the exchange company’s case.

Customers of the bankrupt and now-defunct LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. could get some tax help from the Internal Revenue Service. In letters to several congressmen and one senator, the IRS said it was working with the Treasury Department to see if the agency can “provide relief” to customers whose money is locked up in bankruptcy proceedings.

In the weeks before LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. declared bankruptcy, the company knew it had mounting money problems but continued to take on new customers and their money. Company executives also issued a directive changing how customer cash was to be handled, but reversed that decision upon realizing it would make the firm unable to fulfill its financial obligations.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. is readying to battle some banking giants over investment advice the title insurer now claims led to its undoing. Attorneys for the bankrupt Henrico County-based company have asked to hire a New York law firm to investigate and pursue claims that the company was misled when investing in auction-rate securities. A hearing on the request is scheduled Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond.

The LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. estate will be $28.5 million richer after the approval to sell six subsidiaries yesterday. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Kevin R. Huennekens gave the OK for the bankrupt company to sell two Virginia subsidiaries, LoanCare Servicing Center Inc. and LC Insurance Agency Inc., to Fidelity National Financial for $16.3 million.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. and a subsidiary are heading to mediation over a $68.2 million claim made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. So, too, are four test-case plaintiffs that filed complaints against subsidiary LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. Judge Kevin R. Huennekens agreed to a mediation plan yesterday, nearly six months after both companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. said its pension plan has enough money, but a federal agency yesterday took steps to relieve the Henrico County-based company from overseeing the fund. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said the plan is underfunded by 15 percent, or $36 million, and sent notice to LandAmerica of its intent to take over administration of the retirement fund.

LandAmerica unit’s top client gets $137 million At least one customer of the now-defunct LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services Inc. got its money bank. In U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond yesterday, Judge Kevin R. Huennekens ruled that the closed subsidiary of Henrico County-based LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. could settle with its biggest customer.

In December, LandAmerica Financial Group officials hailed the sale of its primary title-insurance subsidiaries as a way to save jobs while the parent company was in bankruptcy. But the transfer of 5,500 LandAmerica employees to Fidelity National Financial Inc. didn’t work out well for many workers. By the end of January, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company had cut 1,500 jobs, or 27 percent of the work force it inherited from the purchase of LandAmerica’s subsidiaries—Lawyers Title Insurance Co., Commonwealth Land Title Corp. and United Capital Title Insurance Co.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., a bankrupt Henrico County-based company with Richmond roots dating to 1925, is closing down.

A class-action lawsuit claiming breach of contract, fraud and theft of property has been filed relating to LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s 1031 Exchange business. The suit, filed Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, is on behalf of LandAmerica 1031 Exchange Services customers. Named in the suit are the Henrico County-based holding company, its exchange company and several executives, including former chairman and chief executive Theodore L. Chandler Jr., who stepped down Friday; Chief Financial Officer G. William Evans; and controller Christine R. Vlahcevic.

LandAmerica Financial Group, which traces its roots in Richmond to 1925, took another step yesterday toward shutting down. The Henrico County-based company said it plans to sell its remaining businesses. Those companies represent a mere fraction of what it owned before filing for bankruptcy protection in November and selling its key title-insurance subsidiaries last month.

The Richmond area has lost one of its 14 Fortune 1000 companies. LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., ranked 582 on the list and honored by Fortune this year for its innovation and financial health, sold subsidiaries yesterday that accounted for 85 percent to 90 percent its annual revenue.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond yesterday approved the sale of LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.‘s core operations to Fidelity National Financial Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla. Stewart Title Guaranty Co. of Houston, the other suitor for the Henrico County-based company’s main subsidiaries, was shut out of the deal. Judge Kevin Huennekens picked up on comments made by attorneys in an overflowing courtroom on LandAmerica’s deteriorating financial situation. “Like a melting ice cube, it is going fast,“ he said.