Title. Our direct title insurance premiums and escrow, title-related and other fees are recognized as revenue at the time of closing of the related transaction as the earnings process is then considered complete. Premium revenues from agency operations and agency commissions include an accrual based on estimates using historical information of the volume of transactions that have closed in a particular period for which premiums have not yet been reported to us. The accrual for agency premiums is necessary because of the lag between the closing of these transactions and the reporting of these policies to us by the agent. Historically, the time lag between the closing of these transactions by our agents and the reporting of these policies, or premiums, to us has been up to 15 months, with 86 - 91% reported within three months following closing, an additional 9 - 11% reported within the next three months and the remainder within seven to fifteen months.In addition to accruing these earned but unreported agency premiums, we also accrue agent commission expense, which was 76.1% , of agent premiums earned in 2016 , 76.0% of agent premiums earned in 2015 and 75.7% of agent premiums earned in 2014 . We also record a provision for claim losses at the provision rate at the time we record the accrual for the premiums, which averaged 5.4% , excluding the release of excess reserves relating to prior years of $97 million , for 2016 , 5.7% for 2015 and 6.2% for 2014 and accruals for premium taxes and other expenses relating to our premium accrual. The resulting impact to pretax earnings in any period is approximately 11% of the accrued premium amount. The impact of the change in the accrual for agency premiums and related expenses on our pretax earnings was an increase of $ 4 million for the year ended December31, 2016 , a decrease of $ 5 million for the year ended 2015 and a decrease of $ 9 million for the year ended 2014 . The amount due from our agents relating to this accrual, i.e., the agent premium less their contractu