During the Great Depression, it was not the government that
bailed out the banking industry; it was the U.S. insurance companies.[1] If a total financial collapse of our country
were ever to take place the insurance companies would be the last industry to
fall. The only survivor beyond
insurance companies would be our government since it is the only entity that
has the ability to tax and print money.
The insurers of North America owns, controls, or manages more assets
than all of the banks in the world combined.
A reserve pool is a system of insurance companies that assumes
the liabilities of a defunct member company.
Virtually every state requires that insurers doing business in their
state belong to the reserve pool. Not
all products and types of insurers are included in the reserve pools. Each state has variations, depending upon
their laws.
Reserve pools are designed for the fixed-rate annuities or for
the investors who opt for the fixed-rate option within a variable annuity. However, variable annuities are also
protected. The only thing the variable
annuity investors need worry about is how well the underlying portfolios
perform. What happens to the insurance
company has no real impact on how the sub-accounts perform.
As Author Ben G. Baldwin points out in his book titled The New
Life insurance Investment Advisor, there was a time when the sound advise was
to keep investments and insurance separate.
Today, the two are woven together, complimenting each other.
The economy is the first and foremost financial entity that
drives the insurance industry. The life
insurance industry existed for almost 150 years within a very stable
economy. It wasnt until the interest
rates became very volatile hitting an all-time high of 21.5 percent in December
of 1980, then tumbling in the 1990s that they began to once again stabilize. This was the first primary wave of financial
change in the insurance industry.
The second wave is the government regulations that have
developed. Regulation by government
will continue to have a substantial impact on the industry. The insurance industry was built in a
climate of legislation designed for a stable economy, which hasnt always
materialized.
Legislation has often created and then extinguished some types of
insurance products. For example, the
Tax Reform Act of 1984 created the niche market for single premium life and
then took it away with 1988 legislation.
Of course, some insurers themselves created problems for the
industry. In fairness to the companies,
some of the problems could not necessarily have been foreseen
When insurer failures hit in the 1990s everyone criticized our
government for not having a crystal ball and recognizing the failures that were
coming. Never mind that most industry
analysts did not foresee the problems either.
Although company rating companies already existed, new ones developed at
this time and the existing companies were forced to view insurers in a
different light since they primarily missed the coming problems along with
everyone else.
The 1990s saw heightened awareness by the states Insurance
Commissioners of the potential problems that could develop from troubled
insurers. There was new awareness of
the importance of insurance company surplus
(assets in excess of liabilities). This
new measure of quality was called risk-based
capital ratio.
The 1980s and 1990s saw many company failures. In 1989 48 life and health companies
failed. In 1990, 33 insurers failed,
followed by 70 in 1991 and 19 in 1992.[2] Although we have the insurance pool to bail
out those companies that fail, we could eventually see the responsible companies
objecting to the required bailout of irresponsible ones.
Under risk-based capital
ratio, if the insurer has assets defined as risky by the state commissioner,
the company then needs to have more surplus than if it has assets deemed safe,
such as short-term government bonds.
When very safe assets are kept it is not surprising that the interest
rate paid, especially in view of the current low rates, is very close or equal
to the minimum guaranteed policy rates.
Another impact on the insurance industry that might easily be
overlooked is technology. Modern
technology allows the creation of products, management of products, and service
of products faster and more accurately.
Implementing the change over to newer technologies is always expensive,
and not always successful. The larger
companies are more likely to find success than the smaller ones that fewer
resources.
Understanding how annuities
are financially protected starts with understanding how to read financial reviews. Many of the terms used are associated with
the company's balance sheet, its statement of assets, liabilities, and owner's
equity.
ADMITTED ASSETS are those assets the company is allowed by state
regulatory authorities to include in its statutory annual balance sheet. Some of a life insurance company's assets
may be excluded in the interest of balance sheet conservatism, although most
assets are admitted. If an asset is a nonadmitted asset, regulators generally regard
it as a bit less sound than admitted assets. Nonadmitted assets are typically thought to
provide less security for the company's policyholders. Nonadmitted assets include such things as
the agents' balances owed to the company, office furniture and mortgage loan
interest income that is overdue by more than a specified length of time.
CONSOLIDATED ASSETS are the total of the assets of the parent
insurance company and all the subsidiary companies, if more than 50 percent of
the voting stock is owned. Even though
the assets are owned by two or more separate companies, for the purpose of the
balance sheet, the assets are combined and treated as if they were owned
entirely by the parent company. This is
due to the voting control the parent company has. Even the assets of subsidiaries not engaged in the life
insurance business are included in the consolidated assets of the parent
company.
INVESTMENT GRADE ISSUES are something often seen in percentage forms. These are bonds whose insurers have been
evaluated by a recognized rating agency who has placed them in one of the
agency's few highest quality rating classifications. Generally speaking, the higher this percentage is, the greater
the safety of the bonds in the portfolio.
Therefore, the greater the insurance company's financial soundness. Even so, the rating assigned to any
particular bond issue can be lowered without warning as a result of many
circumstances or events.
It is common for insurance
companies to advertise that their assets exceed large quantities of money; for
instance $2-billion may be stated.
While it is important to have sufficient quantities of assets, the
amount of those assets will mean nothing if the company's liabilities
equal or top the amount of assets. The
size of a companys assets is less important than the percentage of liabilities
to assets. There is a basic balance
sheet equation:
Assets = liabilities + owners' equity.
All three components must be
considered before the strength of a company may be correctly judged.
OWNERS' EQUITY is the amount of the insurance company's assets
that are financed with funds that were supplied by owners rather than by
creditors.
CONTINGENCY RESERVES are accounts (from owners' equity) that are
voluntarily set aside by the insurance companies for the possibility of
unforeseen future adverse circumstances.
Usually the board of directors will not pay dividends from these
reserves.
UNASSIGNED OR PERMANENT SURPLUS is the amount of the mutual insurer's owners'
equity that has not been set aside for any specific reserve or purpose.
COMMON STOCK that is referred to in financial statements are
the total number of shares of common stock outstanding. They are usually valued at an arbitrary (and
usually low) dollar amount. This may
be called par or stated value per share.
ADDITIONAL PAID-IN CAPITAL and CONTRIBUTED SURPLUS is the same thing. It is the excess of the selling price of the stock at the time
it was issued over its par value. Neither
the amount of the capital stock account nor the additional paid-in capital
account has any relationship to the present value of the stock life insurer's
common shares.
A balance sheet also contains
a section on the company's liabilities.
The largest amount listed will be for amounts owed to policyowners and
the beneficiaries of the life insurance policies. There may be (though not always) the normal borrowed funds and
accrued expenses payable.
MANDATORY SECURITIES VALUATION RESERVE is also generally listed in the liability
section. This is a reserve (as the name
implies) of some of the assets (not necessarily cash), which is set aside to
prevent changes in the amount of the company's unassigned or permanent surplus
which may result from fluctuations in the market value of other assets such as
bonds, preferred stock and common stock.
Even though the Mandatory
Securities Valuation Reserve is listed in the liability column of the balance
sheet, it is not a true liability. It is more like a reserve for amounts owed
to others. State regulatory authorities
decide the size the reserve must be, which is determined by a number of
factors.
CAPITAL RATIO is
the portion of the company's total assets that are financed by owner's
funds. This is often the measure used
to determine the insurance company's financial strength. It may also be called Capital-To-Assets Ratio or Surplus-To-Assets Ratio. The higher this percentage is, if all
other things are basically equal, the greater the company's financial
strength is thought to be.
Notice the previous statement
said: "if all other things are basically equal." Since the Capital
Ratio is so often used to compare the financial strength of
companies, it is important to realize that different ingredients may be used in
determining the ratio.
Sometimes an insurance
company will make reference to its income statement as a basis of financial
strength. Income is only part of the
picture, of course. A company's direct
premium income does not show any premium income or outlays resulting from
reinsurance transactions, for example.
NET PREMIUM INCOME is typically defined as its direct premium income
plus premiums it earns from reinsurance it assumes, minus premiums it
gives up due to reinsurance that it transfers to another company.
The equation is basic:
Direct premium income
+
(Plus) premiums earned from reinsurance it assumed
- (Minus) premium it gives up due to reinsurance it
cedes to other companies
= (Equals) NET PREMIUM INCOME.
Even though this formula may
be used by an insurance company to suggest its financial strength, it really is
only about half of the needed information to make a sound judgment call. In fact it is more likely to tell an agent
the size of the company, rather than its financial strength.
SURPLUS REINSURANCE is the transfer of a portion of the amount of
coverage under a life insurance policy to a reinsurer. The ceding or surrendering company then is
allowed, if regulatory requirements are met, to also transfer to the reinsurer
a corresponding portion of the aggregate reserve liability under the policy. The ceding company (transferring company)
receives a credit against its liability for the portion transferred. Some feel the use of surplus reinsurance may
be a sign of an insurance company's financial weakness.
It is easy for an agent to
overlook the terms from the balance sheet that we have discussed here. Typically, agents are more concerned with a
company's rating from the rating firms, such as A.M. Best. That information is certainly easier for the
agent to obtain and understand. It is
also probably easier to relay to a potential client in a sales situation. However, it is becoming increasingly evident
that such rating firms are not infallible.
There are also differing opinions among rating firms. Which one is the correct rating? There have been insurance companies who
enjoyed a high rating and yet ended up in financial trouble. A career agent simply must look beyond the
rating of the companies he or she chooses to recommend.
There are so many things that
play a part in an insurance company's financial strength. Things such as underwriting standards, how
reserves are set up, risk spreads, management, and reinsurance practices are
some items that may affect a company's financial strength. An agent cannot know all that is involved in
a company, but an agent can look past the surface of the brochures put
out. Remember that any given company is
selling itself not only to policyholders, but to the agents as well.
With the realization that the
insurance companies are also selling the insurance agent (so that insurance
agents will sell their products), an agent can take a common sense approach to
due diligence. For a busy agent, it can
be difficult to follow through on all financial details involved in an insurance
company's financial report. While the
technical analysis is certainly important, such analysis is not always
possible.
When using a common sense
approach to determine financial solvency there may be a combination of factors
to consider. A company that makes one
or more obviously big financial mistakes may end up with financial
problems. An example of this is the
companies that invested in junk bonds.
Although the bonds looked good at the time, there was no lack of
warnings from the professionals about the problems that could occur.
Watch out also for losses
within a company that exceed the gains.
While this may occasionally happen, it is most definitely a warning
signal. Losses eat up capital and
surplus funds. In fact, if money is
going out faster than it is coming in, for whatever reason, a red flag should
go up.
Sometimes a lack of public
trust can cause problems. If the
consumers perceive a problem within a company, they will begin to withdraw
funds or quit paying premiums. A
company that is trying to hang on may be pushed over the edge when such actions
occur.
Perhaps the best common sense
approach is simply looking at the products being offered. If any given product seems to give much,
much more (commissions plus high interest rates for the policyholder, for
example) than other similar products, then it is possible that trouble is
waiting down the road. Product design
may also reflect the company's outlook and philosophy. If gimmicks rather than sound design seem to
hold the product together, that could well be the philosophy of the
company. Is the product set up to "catch
and hold" a policyowner rather than benefit them? Could you find yourself in an embarrassing
situation down the road when your client requires service or benefits?
If a company is not a mutual
company, then it is often a good idea to know who owns the company. The company's owners will reflect their own
values and ethics throughout the company itself. While it may not be possible to know what the values and ethics
are of any given person, the agent can look to their past history. Do they come from the insurance field? What financial education do they have? Looking at their backgrounds can give the
field agent a general idea of what to expect.
The object of using these
common sense approaches is not necessarily to find the best companies, but
rather to weed out the worst of them.
An alert insurance agent must keep their eyes and ears open. Listen to other agents. Follow the service given to clients from the
home office. Does service start out
well, but then steadily decline? These
are signs of problems. While it may be
something as simple as a poorly managed department within the company, it may
also be something as major as an entire company ran poorly.
Certainly, there is concern
in any industry if the number of insolvencies dramatically increases. Currently, about 30 insurance companies
become insolvent each year. The
majority of those companies are in the property/casualty field. Insolvency usually reflects poor management
and/or the amount of claims incurred.
Natural disasters can contribute to property/casualty failures.
Real estate investments have
haunted the insurance industry to a certain degree. However, when you look at the types of loans made by insurance
companies when compared to the savings and loan industry, the differences
cannot be overlooked. Most of the commercial
real estate loans made by the S&Ls were for new construction. The primary loans made by insurance
companies were on completed projects, which were occupied and do, therefore,
have a cash flow. In 1989, the
delinquency rate on real estate loans by life insurance companies was around 2.47
percent. That represented about .5 percent
of their total assets.
There is one area where many
businesses, including the life insurance industry, have attempted to divert
attention. In the past, debt levels
were highly stressed. We are now seeing
the emphasis placed more on returns and profitability. An S&L may boast about the amount of
deposits they have. What they fail to
mention is that deposits are actually considered liabilities, not assets. An insurance company may flaunt the amount
of insurance in force. Again, this is a
liability; not an asset. Financial
strength is based upon assets and profitability.
Persistency of in force
policies is one of the best indicators of strong products and good
service. Persistency is a measure of
marketing strength and service effort.
It is also a measure of how well the agents have matched products to a
client's needs.
It is never an easy task to
be both a successful agent in the field and an ethical person as well. Over the long run it will pay off, however. Think of each contract (policy) as a
personally signed document. You place
your name on each policy you write. Do
you want your name on anything less than the very best?
End of Chapter Ten
United Insurance Educators, Inc.