UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
x | ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004
OR
¨ | TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 001-32195
Genworth Financial, Inc.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
Delaware | 33-1073076 | |||
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization) |
(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
6620 West Broad Street Richmond, Virginia 23230 (804) 281-6000 |
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(Address and Telephone Number of Principal Executive Offices) |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act
Title of Each Class |
Name of Each Exchange On Which Registered | |
Class A Common Stock, par value $.001 per share 6.00% Equity Units |
New York Stock Exchange New York Stock Exchange |
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
5.25% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock, Liquidation Preference $50 per share
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days: Yes x No ¨
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2). Yes ¨ No x
As of February 28, 2005, 146,505,045 shares of Class A Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share, and 343,088,145 shares of Class B Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share, were outstanding.
The aggregate market value of the common equity (based on the closing price of the Class A Common Stock on The New York Stock Exchange) held by non-affiliates of the registrant on June 30, 2004, the last business day of the registrants most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $3.36 billion. All executive officers and directors of the registrant have been deemed, solely for the purpose of the foregoing calculation, to be affiliates of the registrant.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Certain portions of the registrants definitive proxy statement pursuant to Regulation 14A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in connection with the 2005 annual meeting of the registrants stockholders are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report.
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PART I |
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Item 1. |
1 | |||
Item 2. |
82 | |||
Item 3. |
82 | |||
Item 4. |
85 | |||
PART II |
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Item 5. |
Market for Registrants Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters |
85 | ||
Item 6. |
86 | |||
Item 7. |
Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations |
93 | ||
Item 7A. |
138 | |||
Item 8. |
141 | |||
Item 9. |
Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure |
206 | ||
Item 9A. |
206 | |||
Item 9B. |
208 | |||
PART III |
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Item 10. |
208 | |||
Item 11. |
213 | |||
Item 12. |
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters |
213 | ||
Item 13. |
213 | |||
Item 14. |
213 | |||
PART IV |
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Item 15. |
214 |
In this Annual Report, unless the context otherwise requires, Genworth, we, us, and our refer to Genworth Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries and include the operations of the businesses acquired from General Electric in connection with our corporate reorganization referred to below. In addition, in this Annual Report, we refer to pro forma financial information, which reflects our statement of earnings for the year ended December 31, 2004, as adjusted to give effect to the transactions described in Item 6.Selected Historical and Pro Forma Financial Information, as if each of those transactions had occurred on January 1, 2004.
Overview
We are a leading insurance company in the U.S., with an expanding international presence, serving the life and lifestyle protection, retirement income, investment and mortgage insurance needs of more than 15 million customers. We have leadership positions in key products that we expect will benefit from a number of significant demographic, governmental and market trends. We distribute our products and services through an extensive and diversified distribution network that includes financial intermediaries, independent producers and dedicated sales specialists. We conduct operations in 22 countries and have approximately 6,150 employees.
We were incorporated in Delaware on October 23, 2003 in preparation for our corporate reorganization and an initial public offering, or IPO, which was completed on May 28, 2004. In connection with the IPO, we acquired substantially all of the assets and liabilities of GE Financial Assurance Holdings, Inc., or GEFAHI. GEFAHI is an indirect subsidiary of General Electric Company, or GE, and prior to the IPO was a holding company for a group of companies that provide life insurance, long-term care insurance, group life and health insurance, annuities and other investment products and U.S. mortgage insurance. We also acquired certain other insurance businesses that were owned by other GE subsidiaries but managed by members of the Genworth management team. These businesses include international mortgage insurance, payment protection insurance based in Europe, a Bermuda reinsurer and mortgage contract underwriting.
In consideration for the assets and liabilities that we acquired from GEFAHI, we issued to GEFAHI 489.5 million shares of our Class B Common Stock, $600 million of our 6.00% Equity Units (the Equity Units), $100 million of our 5.25% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock (the Series A Preferred Stock), which is mandatorily redeemable, a $2.4 billion short-term note, and a $550 million contingent non-interest-bearing note (the Contingent Note). We refinanced the $2.4 billion note with $1.9 billion of senior notes and $500 million of commercial paper shortly after the IPO, and we repaid the contingent note in December 2004. The liabilities we assumed included ¥60 billion aggregate principal amount of 1.6% notes due 2011 that had been issued by GEFAHI, ¥3 billion of which GEFAHI owned and transferred to us (and were subsequently retired). We refer to the transactions described above as our corporate reorganization. Shares of our Class B Common Stock convert automatically into shares of our Class A Common Stock when they are held by any person other than GE or an affiliate of GE or when GE no longer beneficially owns at least 10% of our outstanding common stock. As a result, all of the 146.4 million shares of common stock offered in our IPO (including shares sold pursuant to the underwriters exercise of their over-allotment option) consisted of Class A Common Stock.
GE currently owns approximately 70% of our outstanding common stock. GE has indicated that it expects, subject to market conditions, to reduce its ownership over the next two years as we transition to full independence. GE also has informed us that, in any event, it expects to reduce its interest in us to below 50% by value by May 27, 2006 (in satisfaction of a condition to the tax ruling secured in connection with the IPO).
In connection with our corporate reorganization and the IPO, we entered into a number of arrangements with GE governing our separation from GE and a variety of transition and other matters, including our relationship with GE while GE remains a significant stockholder in our company. These arrangements include
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several significant reinsurance transactions with Union Fidelity Life Insurance Company, or UFLIC, an indirect subsidiary of GE. As part of these transactions, effective as of January 1, 2004, we ceded to UFLIC all of our structured settlement contracts and substantially all of our variable annuity contracts, and a block of long-term care insurance policies that we reinsured in 2000 from The Travelers Insurance Company, which we refer to in this Annual Report as Travelers. In the aggregate, these blocks of business did not meet our target return thresholds, and although we remain liable under these contracts and policies as the ceding insurer, the reinsurance transactions have the effect of transferring the financial results of the reinsured blocks to UFLIC. We continue to service the blocks of business that we reinsured, which preserves our operating scale and enables us to service and grow our new sales of these products. In addition, as part of the reinsurance transactions, UFLIC ceded to us substantially all of its in-force blocks of Medicare supplement insurance.
We have the following three operating segments:
| Protection. We offer U.S. customers life insurance, long-term care insurance and, primarily for companies with fewer than 1,000 employees, group life and health insurance. In Europe, we offer payment protection insurance, which helps consumers meet their payment obligations in the event of illness, involuntary unemployment, disability or death. In 2004, we were the leading provider of individual long-term care insurance and a leading provider of term life insurance in the U.S., according to LIMRA International (in each case based upon annualized first-year premiums). We believe we are a leading provider of term life insurance through brokerage general agencies in the U.S. and that this channel is the largest and fastest-growing distribution channel for term life insurance. Our leadership in long-term care insurance is based upon 30 years of product underwriting and claims experience. This experience has enabled us to build and benefit from what we believe is the largest actuarial database in the long-term care insurance industry. For the year ended December 31, 2004, our Protection segment had pro forma segment net earnings of $527 million. |
| Retirement Income and Investments. We offer U.S. customers fixed and variable deferred annuities, income annuities, variable life insurance, asset management, and specialized products, including guaranteed investment contracts, or GICs, funding agreements and structured settlements. We are an established provider of these products. In 2004, according to VARDS, we were the largest provider of variable income annuities in the U.S., and according to LIMRA International, we were the second-largest provider of fixed income annuities in the U.S. (in each case based upon total premiums and deposits). For the year ended December 31, 2004, our Retirement Income and Investments segment had pro forma segment net earnings of $148 million. |
| Mortgage Insurance. In the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, we offer mortgage insurance products that facilitate homeownership by enabling borrowers to buy homes with low-down-payment mortgages. These products generally also aid financial institutions in managing their capital efficiently by reducing the capital required for low-down-payment mortgages. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, in 2004, we were the fifth-largest provider of mortgage insurance in the U.S. (based upon new insurance written). We also believe we are the largest provider of private mortgage insurance outside the U.S. (based upon flow new insurance written), with leading mortgage insurance operations in Canada, Australia and the U.K. and a growing presence in Continental Europe. The net premiums written in our international mortgage insurance business have increased by a compound annual growth rate of 45% for the three years ended December 31, 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2004, our Mortgage Insurance segment had pro forma segment net earnings of $426 million. |
We also have a Corporate and Other segment which consists primarily of unallocated corporate income and expenses (including amounts incurred in settlement of class action lawsuits), the results of several small, non-core businesses that are managed outside our operating segments, most of our interest and other financing expenses and net realized investment gains (losses). For the year ended December 31, 2004, our Corporate and Other segment had pro forma segment net earnings of $29 million.
We had $12.9 billion of total stockholders interest and $103.9 billion of total assets as of December 31, 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2004, on a pro forma basis, our revenues were $10.2 billion and our net
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earnings from continuing operations were $1.1 billion. Our principal life insurance companies have financial strength ratings of AA- (Very Strong) from S&P, Aa3 (Excellent) from Moodys, A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best and AA- (Very Strong) from Fitch, and our rated mortgage insurance companies have financial strength ratings of AA (Very Strong) from S&P, Aa2 (Excellent) from Moodys and AA (Very Strong) from Fitch. The AA and AA- ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of S&Ps 20 ratings categories, respectively. The Aa2 and Aa3 ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of Moodys 21 ratings categories, respectively. The A+ rating is the second-highest of A.M. Bests 15 ratings categories. The AA and AA- ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of Fitchs 24 ratings categories, respectively.
Market Environment and Opportunities
We believe we are well positioned to benefit from a number of significant demographic, governmental and market trends, including the following:
| Aging U.S. population with growing retirement income needs. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, from 1945 to 2003, U.S. life expectancy at birth increased from 62.9 years to 74.4 years for men and from 68.4 years to 79.5 years for women, respectively, and life expectancy is expected to increase further. In addition, increasing numbers of baby boomers are approaching retirement age. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the percentage of the U.S. population aged 55 or older will increase from approximately 22% (65 million) in 2004 to more than 29% (97 million) in 2020. These increases in life expectancy and the average age of the U.S. population heighten the risk that individuals will outlive their retirement savings. In addition, approximately $4.4 trillion of invested financial assets (25% of all U.S. invested financial assets) are held by people within 10 years of retirement and will be available to be converted to income as those people retire, and approximately $3.3 trillion of invested financial assets are held by individuals who are under age 70 and consider themselves retired, in each case according to a survey conducted by SRI Consulting Business Intelligence in 2002. We believe these trends will lead to growing demand for products, such as our income annuities and other investment products, that help consumers accumulate assets and provide reliable retirement income. |
| Growing lifestyle protection gap. The aging U.S. population and a number of other factors are creating a significant lifestyle protection gap for a growing number of individuals. This gap is the result of individuals not having sufficient resources, including insurance coverage, to ensure that their future assets and income will be adequate to support their desired lifestyle. Other factors contributing to this gap include declining individual savings rates, rising healthcare and nursing care costs, and a shifting of the burden for funding protection needs from governments and employers to individuals. For example, many companies have reduced employer-paid benefits in recent years, and the Social Security Administration projected in 2004 that the annual costs of Social Security will exceed the programs tax revenue under current law in 2018, creating the potential for both long-term benefit reductions from these traditional sources and the need for individuals to identify alternative sources for these benefits. In addition, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, personal savings rates decreased from 10.8% in 1984 to 1.0% in 2004. Consumers are exposed to the rising costs of healthcare and nursing care during their retirement years, and some experts believe that many consumers are underinsured with respect to their protection needs. For example, according to the American Society on Aging and Conning Research & Consulting, approximately 70% of individuals in the U.S. age 65 and older will require long-term care at some time in their lives. However, in 2003, less than 10% of the individuals in the U.S. age 55 and older had long-term care insurance, according to statistics published by LIMRA International and the U.S. Census Bureau. Moreover, the most recent Survey of Consumer Finances conducted by the Federal Reserve Board found that the median households life insurance coverage decreased in recent years to 1.4 times household income, which we believe leaves a significant life insurance protection gap for individuals and families. We expect these trends to result in increased demand for our life, long-term care and small group life and health insurance products. |
| Increasing opportunities for mortgage insurance internationally and in the U.S. We believe a number of factors have contributed and will contribute to the growth of mortgage insurance in Canada, Australia |
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and the U.S., where we have significant mortgage insurance operations. These factors include increasing homeownership levels (spurred in part by government housing policies that favor homeownership and demographic factors driving demand for housing); expansion of low-down-payment mortgage loan offerings; legislative and regulatory policies that provide capital incentives for lenders to transfer the risks of low-down-payment mortgages to mortgage insurers; and expansion of secondary mortgage markets that require credit enhancements, such as mortgage insurance. We believe a number of these factors also are becoming evident in some European, Latin American and Asian markets, where lenders increasingly are using mortgage insurance to manage the risks of their loan portfolios and to expand low-down-payment lending. |
Competitive Strengths
We believe the following competitive strengths will enable us to capitalize on opportunities in our targeted markets:
| Leading positions in diversified targeted markets. We have established leading positions in our targeted markets. In our Protection segment, we are a leading provider of several core products including individual long-term care insurance and term life insurance in the U.S. and payment protection insurance in Europe. In our Retirement Income and Investments segment, we are a leading provider of income annuities. In our international Mortgage Insurance business, we have leading operations in Canada, Australia and the U.K., with a growing presence in Continental Europe. We believe our leading positions provide us with the scale necessary to compete effectively in these markets as they grow. We also believe our strong presence in multiple markets provides balance to our business, reduces our exposure to adverse economic trends affecting any one market and provides stable cash flow to fund growth opportunities. |
| Product innovation and breadth. We have a tradition of developing innovative financial products to serve the needs of our customers. For example, we were the first to introduce long-term care insurance plans that enable married couples to share long-term care insurance benefits. We also introduced the Income Distribution Series of guaranteed income annuity products and riders that provide the contractholder with a guaranteed minimum income stream and an opportunity to participate in market appreciation. In our U.S. mortgage insurance business, we recently introduced our HomeOpenersSM products, which are designed, in part, to compete with simultaneous second loans. We offer a breadth of products that meet the needs of consumers throughout the various stages of their lives. We are selective in the products we offer and strive to maintain appropriate return and risk thresholds when we expand the scope of our product offerings. We believe our reputation for innovation and our breadth of products enable us to sustain strong relationships with our distributors. They also position us to benefit from the current trend among distributors to reduce the number of insurers with whom they maintain relationships, while at the same time providing distributors continued access to a breadth of products. |
| Extensive, multi-channel distribution network. We have extensive distribution reach and offer consumers access to our products through a broad network of financial intermediaries, independent producers and dedicated sales specialists. In addition, we maintain strong relationships with leading distributors by providing a high level of specialized and differentiated distribution support, such as product training, advanced marketing and sales solutions, financial product design for affluent customers and technology solutions that support the distributors sales efforts. We also offer a joint business improvement program, through which we help our independent sales intermediaries increase sales and realize greater cost and operational efficiencies in their businesses. |
| Technology-enhanced, scalable, low-cost operating platform. We have pursued an aggressive approach to cost-management and continuous process improvement. We employ an extensive array of cost management disciplines, forming dedicated teams to identify opportunities for cost reductions and the continuous improvement of business processes. This has enabled us to reduce our recurring operating expenses and provide funds for new growth and technology investments. We also have developed |
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sophisticated technology tools that enhance performance by automating key processes and reducing response times and process variations. These tools also make it easier for our customers and distributors to do business with us. For example, we have developed a proprietary digital platform that automates our term life and long-term care insurance new business processing and improves the consistency and accuracy of our underwriting decisions. This platform has shortened the cycle time from receipt-of-application to issuance-of-policy and reduced policy acquisition costs. In addition, we have centralized our operations and have established scalable, low-cost operating centers in Virginia, North Carolina and Ireland. Through an outsourcing provider that is 40% owned by GE, we also have a substantial team of professionals in India who provide us with a variety of support services. |
| Disciplined risk management with strong compliance practices. Risk management and regulatory compliance are critical parts of our business, and we are recognized in the insurance industry for our excellence in these areas. We employ comprehensive risk management processes in virtually every aspect of our operations, including product development, underwriting, investment management, asset-liability management and technology development programs. We have an experienced group of more than 150 professionals dedicated exclusively to our risk management processes. We believe our disciplined risk management processes have enabled us to avoid a number of the pricing and product design pitfalls that have affected other participants in the insurance industry. For example, we have not offered a traditional guaranteed minimum income benefit with our variable annuities as offered by many of our competitors because we concluded the exposures inherent in these benefits exceed our permissible risk tolerance. In our mortgage insurance business, we have substantially limited our exposure to the riskier portions of the bulk and sub-prime mortgage insurance market. We take a similar disciplined approach to legal and regulatory compliance. Throughout our company we instill a strong commitment to integrity in business dealings and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. |
| Strong balance sheet and high-quality investment portfolio. We believe our size, ratings and capital strength provide us with a significant competitive advantage. We have a diversified, high-quality investment portfolio with $65.7 billion of invested assets, as of December 31, 2004. Approximately 94% of our fixed maturities had ratings equivalent to investment-grade, and less than 1% of our total investment portfolio consisted of equity securities, as of December 31, 2004. We also actively manage the relationship between our investment assets and our insurance liabilities. Our prudent approach to managing our balance sheet reflects our commitment to maintaining financial strength. |
| Experienced and deep management team. Our senior management team has an average of approximately 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. We have an established track record for successfully developing managerial talent at all levels of our organization and have instilled a performance- and execution-oriented corporate culture. |
Growth Strategies
Our objective is to increase operating earnings and enhance returns on equity. We intend to pursue this objective by focusing on the following strategies:
| Capitalize on attractive growth trends in three key markets. We have positioned our product portfolio and distribution relationships to capitalize on the attractive growth prospects in three key markets: |
Retirement income, where we believe growth will be driven by a variety of favorable demographic trends and the approximately $4.4 trillion of invested financial assets in the U.S. that are held by people within 10 years of retirement and $3.3 trillion of invested assets that are held by individuals who are under age 70 and consider themselves retired, in each case according to SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. Our products are designed to enable the growing retired population to convert their accumulated assets into reliable income throughout their retirement years.
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Protection, particularly long-term care insurance and payment protection insurance. In long-term care insurance, we believe growth will be driven by the increasing protection needs of the expanding aging population and a shifting of the burden for funding these needs from governments and employers to individuals. For example, according to the American Society on Aging and Conning Research & Consulting, approximately 70% of individuals in the U.S. age 65 and older will require long-term care at some time in their lives, but in 2003, less than 10% of the individuals in the U.S. age 55 and older had long-term care insurance. In our payment protection insurance business, we believe market growth will result from the increase in consumer borrowing across Europe, the expansion of the European Union and reduced unemployment benefits in the European markets where we offer our products.
International mortgage insurance, where we continue to see attractive growth opportunities with the expansion of homeownership and low-down-payment loans. The net premiums written in our international mortgage insurance business have increased by a compound annual growth rate of 45% for the three years ended December 31, 2004.
| Further strengthen and extend our distribution channels. We intend to further strengthen and extend our distribution channels by continuing to differentiate ourselves in areas where we believe we have distinct competitive advantages. These areas include: |
Product and service innovations, as evidenced by new product introductions, such as the introduction of our Income Distribution Series of guaranteed income products and riders, our private mortgage insurance products in the European market, and our service innovations, which include programs such as our policyholder wellness initiatives in our long-term care insurance business and our automated underwriting platform in our mortgage insurance business.
Collaborative approach to key distributors, which includes our joint business improvement program and our tailored approach to our sales intermediaries addressing their unique service needs, which have benefited our distributors and helped strengthen our relationships with them.
Technology initiatives, such as our proprietary underwriting system, which has made it easier for distributors to do business with us, improved our term life and long-term care insurance underwriting speed and accuracy, and lowered our operating costs.
| Enhance returns on capital and increase margins. We believe we will be able to enhance our returns on capital and increase our margins through the following means: |
Adding new business layers at targeted returns and optimizing mix. We have introduced revised pricing and new products in a number of business lines, which we believe will increase our expected returns. In U.S. mortgage insurance, we are targeting market segments in which we can generate new business at higher returns and limiting our growth from segments that have lower returns. We have exited or placed in run-off certain product lines in blocks of business with low returns, including, for example, our older, fixed GICs, facility-only long-term care insurance policies and certain payment protection insurance contracts, mostly in the U.K. As these blocks decrease, we expect to release capital over time to deploy to higher-return products and/or businesses.
Capital efficiency and management. We continually seek opportunities to use our capital more efficiently, while maintaining our ratings and strong capital position. We have developed a capital markets solution to fund additional statutory reserves on our term life insurance policies related to Regulation XXX, and we are working to develop similar structures for other product lines, including universal life insurance. In addition, we intend to complement our core growth strategy through selective acquisitions designed to enhance product and distribution capabilities and returns, the breadth of our product portfolio, or our distribution reach. We have successfully completed the acquisition and integration of 13 key businesses since 1993. In addition to pursuing opportunities for core growth and accretive acquisitions, we also will consider making share repurchases and increasing dividends on our common stock.
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Investment income enhancements. The yield on our investment portfolio is affected by the practice, prior to our separation from GE, of realizing investment gains through the sale of appreciated securities and other assets during a period of historically low interest rates. This strategy had been pursued to offset impairments in our investment portfolio, fund consolidations and restructurings in our business and provide current income. As an independent public company, our investment strategy is to optimize investment income without relying on realized investment gains. Although the interest-rate environment since our IPO in mid-2004 has been challenging, we expect over time that the yield on our investment portfolio will stabilize, with the potential for yield increases in a rising interest rate environment. We also will seek to improve our investment yield by continuously evaluating our asset class mix, pursuing additional investment classes and accepting additional credit risk when we believe that it is prudent to do so.
Ongoing operating cost reductions and efficiencies. We continually focus on reducing our cost base while maintaining strong service levels for our customers. We expect to accomplish this goal in each of our operating units through a wide range of cost management disciplines, including consolidating operations, using low-cost operating locations, reducing supplier costs, leveraging process improvement efforts, forming focused teams to identify opportunities for cost reductions and investing in new technology, particularly for web-based, digital end-to-end processes.
Protection
Through our Protection segment, we offer life insurance, long-term care insurance, payment protection insurance and employment-based group life and health insurance. The following table sets forth, on an actual and pro forma basis, selected financial information regarding our Protection segment as of the dates and for the periods indicated:
Historical |
Pro forma | |||||||||||
As of or for the years ended December 31, |
For the 2004 | |||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums |
||||||||||||
Life insurance |
$ | 759 | $ | 698 | $ | 685 | $ | 759 | ||||
Long-term care insurance |
1,672 | 1,775 | 1,543 | 1,589 | ||||||||
Payment protection insurance |
1,427 | 1,507 | 1,242 | 1,427 | ||||||||
Group life and health insurance |
623 | 608 | 618 | 623 | ||||||||
Total net earned premiums |
$ | 4,481 | $ | 4,588 | $ | 4,088 | $ | 4,398 | ||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
||||||||||||
Life insurance |
$ | 1,518 | $ | 1,443 | $ | 1,432 | $ | 1,518 | ||||
Long-term care insurance |
2,311 | 2,408 | 2,087 | 2,182 | ||||||||
Payment protection insurance |
1,549 | 1,615 | 1,372 | 1,549 | ||||||||
Group life and health insurance |
686 | 677 | 714 | 686 | ||||||||
Total revenues, net of reinsurance |
$ | 6,064 | $ | 6,143 | $ | 5,605 | $ | 5,935 | ||||
Segment net earnings |
||||||||||||
Life insurance |
$ | 245 | $ | 211 | $ | 252 | $ | 245 | ||||
Long-term care insurance |
172 | 171 | 164 | 171 | ||||||||
Payment protection insurance |
81 | 64 | 82 | 81 | ||||||||
Group life and health insurance |
30 | 41 | 56 | 30 | ||||||||
Total segment net earnings |
$ | 528 | $ | 487 | $ | 554 | $ | 527 | ||||
Total segment assets |
$ | 31,806 | $ | 29,254 | $ | 27,104 | ||||||
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Life insurance
Overview
Life insurance provides protection against financial hardship after the death of an insured by providing cash payments to the beneficiaries of the policyholder. According to the American Council of Life Insurers, sales of new life insurance coverage in the U.S. were $2.9 trillion in 2003, and total life insurance coverage in the U.S. was $16.8 trillion as of December 31, 2003. Excluding variable life insurance, the sales of which have been adversely affected by recent stock market volatility, annualized first-year premiums for life insurance increased by an average of 14.7% per year from 2000 to 2003, according to LIMRA International.
Our principal life insurance product is term life, which provides life insurance coverage with guaranteed level premiums for a specified period of time with little or no buildup of cash value that is payable upon lapse of the coverage. We have been a leading provider of term life insurance for more than two decades, and we believe we are a leading provider of term life insurance through brokerage general agencies in the U.S. In addition to term life insurance, we offer universal life insurance products, which are designed to provide protection for the entire life of the insured and may include a buildup of cash value that can be used to meet the policyholders particular financial needs during his lifetime. Our life insurance business also includes a run-off block of whole life insurance.
We price our insurance policies based primarily upon our own historical experience in the risk categories that we target. Our pricing strategy is to target individuals in preferred risk categories and offer them attractive products at competitive prices. Preferred risks include healthier individuals who generally have family histories that do not present increased mortality risk. We also have significant expertise in evaluating people with health problems and offer appropriately priced coverage for people who meet our underwriting criteria.
We have been able to improve our returns on equity on new business by implementing pricing, reinsurance and capital management actions in response to Regulation XXX, which requires insurers to establish additional statutory reserves for term and universal life insurance policies with long-term premium guarantees. Virtually all our newly issued term and universal life insurance business is now affected by Regulation XXX.
We offer our life insurance products primarily through an extensive network of independent brokerage general agencies located throughout the U.S. We also offer our life insurance products through affluent market producer groups and financial intermediaries. We believe there are opportunities to expand our sales through each of these distribution channels.
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The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our life insurance products as of the dates and for the periods indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Term life insurance |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums |
$ | 721 | $ | 664 | $ | 635 | |||
Annualized first-year premiums(1) |
102 | 106 | 138 | ||||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
831 | 746 | 720 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, net of reinsurance (face amount) |
329,014 | 296,942 | 263,622 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, before reinsurance (face amount) |
481,985 | 457,738 | 416,305 | ||||||
Universal and whole life insurance |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums and deposits |
373 | 402 | 406 | ||||||
Annualized first-year deposits(1) |
42 | 57 | 57 | ||||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
687 | 697 | 712 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, net of reinsurance (face amount) |
41,745 | 43,726 | 44,663 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, before reinsurance (face amount) |
50,775 | 53,074 | 54,587 | ||||||
Total life insurance(2) |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums and deposits |
1,094 | 1,066 | 1,041 | ||||||
Annualized first-year premiums(1) |
102 | 106 | 138 | ||||||
Annualized first-year deposits(1) |
42 | 57 | 57 | ||||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
1,518 | 1,443 | 1,432 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, net of reinsurance (face amount) |
370,759 | 340,668 | 308,285 | ||||||
Life insurance in force, before reinsurance (face amount) |
532,760 | 510,812 | 470,892 |
(1) | Annualized first-year premiums for term life insurance and deposits for universal life insurance reflect the amount of business we generated during each period shown and do not include renewal premiums or deposits on policies written during prior periods. We consider annualized first-year premiums and deposits to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of new sales of insurance policies during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. This operating measure enables us to compare our operating performance across periods without regard to revenues or profitability related to policies sold in prior periods or from investments or other sources. |
(2) | Excludes life insurance written through our group life and health insurance business, a corporate-owned life insurance run-off block managed by our long-term care insurance business and variable life insurance written through our Retirement Income and Investments segment. |
Products
Term life insurance
Our term life insurance policies provide a death benefit if the insured dies while the coverage is in force. Term life policies lapse with little or no required payment by us at the end of the coverage period if the insured is still alive. We also offer policyholders the right to convert most of our term insurance policies to specified universal or variable universal life insurance policies issued by us. We seek to reduce the mortality risk associated with conversion by restricting its availability to certain ages and by limiting the period during which the conversion option can be exercised.
Our primary term life insurance products have guaranteed level premiums for initial terms of 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 years. In addition, our 5-year products offer, at the end of the initial term, a second 5-year term of level premiums, which may or may not be guaranteed. After the guaranteed period expires, premiums increase annually and the policyholder has the option to continue under the current policy by paying the increased premiums without demonstrating insurability or qualifying for a new policy by submitting again to the underwriting process. Coverage continues until the insured reaches the policy expiration age or the policyholder ceases to make premium payments or otherwise terminates the policy, including potentially converting to a
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permanent plan of insurance. The termination of coverage is called a lapse. For newer policies, we seek to reduce lapses at the end of the guaranteed period by gradually grading premiums to the attained age scale of the insured over the five years following the guaranteed period. After this phase-in period, premiums continue to increase as the insured ages.
Universal life insurance
Our universal life insurance policies provide policyholders with lifetime death benefit coverage, the ability to accumulate assets on a flexible, tax-deferred basis, and the option to access the cash value of the policy through a policy loan, partial withdrawal or full surrender. Our universal life products allow policyholders to adjust the timing and amount of premium payments. We credit premiums paid, less certain expenses, to the policyholders account and from that account deduct regular expense charges and certain risk charges, known as cost of insurance, which generally increase from year to year as the insured ages. Our universal life insurance policies accumulate cash value that we pay to the insured when the policy lapses or is surrendered. Most of our universal life policies also include provisions for surrender charges for early termination and partial withdrawals. As of December 31, 2004, 53% of our in-force block of universal life insurance was subject to surrender charges. We also sell joint, second-to-die policies that are typically used for estate planning purposes. These policies insure two lives rather than one, with the policy proceeds paid after the death of both insured individuals.
We credit interest on policyholder account balances at a rate determined by us, but not less than a contractually guaranteed minimum. Our in-force universal life insurance policies generally have minimum guaranteed crediting rates ranging from 3.0% to 6.0% for the life of the policy.
Underwriting and pricing
We believe effective underwriting and pricing are significant drivers of the profitability of our life insurance business, and we have established rigorous underwriting and pricing practices to maximize our profitability. We retain most of the risk we currently underwrite, thereby minimizing the premiums ceded to reinsurers. We generally reinsure risks in excess of $1 million per life, and the reinsured amount is generally based on the policy amount at the time of issue. We set pricing assumptions for expected claims, lapses, investment returns, expenses and customer demographics based on our own relevant experience and other factors. Our strategy is to price our products competitively for our target risk categories and not necessarily to be equally competitive in all categories.
Our current underwriting guidelines place each insurable life insurance applicant in one of eight primary risk categories, depending upon current health, medical history and other factors. Each of these eight categories has specific health criteria, including the applicants history of using nicotine products. We consider each life insurance application individually and apply our guidelines to place each applicant in the appropriate risk category, regardless of face value or net amount at risk. We may decline an applicants request for coverage if his health or lifestyle assessment is unacceptable to us. We do not delegate underwriting decisions to independent sales intermediaries. Instead, all underwriting decisions are made by our own underwriting personnel or by our automated underwriting system. We often share information with our reinsurers to gain their insights on potential mortality and underwriting risks and to benefit from their broad expertise. We use the information we obtain from the reinsurers to help us develop effective strategies to manage those risks.
A key part of our life insurance underwriting program is the streamlined, technology-enhanced process called GENIUS®, which automates new business processing for term life insurance. GENIUS® has shortened the cycle time from receipt-of-application to issuance-of-policy, reduced policy acquisition costs and improved the consistency and accuracy of our underwriting decisions by reducing decision-making variation.
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Long-term care insurance
Overview
We offer individual long-term care insurance products that provide protection against the high and escalating costs of long-term health care provided in the insureds home and in assisted living and nursing facilities. Insureds become eligible for benefits when they are incapable of performing certain activities of daily living or when they become cognitively impaired. In contrast to health insurance, long-term care insurance provides coverage for skilled and custodial care provided outside of a hospital. The typical claim covers a duration of care of 3 to 24 months.
We were the leading provider of individual long-term care insurance in 2004, according to LIMRA International, based upon number of policies sold and annualized first-year premiums. We established ourselves as a pioneer in long-term care insurance 30 years ago. Since that time, we have accumulated extensive pricing and claims experience, which we believe is the most comprehensive in the industry and has enabled us to build what we believe is the largest actuarial database in the industry. We believe our experience gives us a deep understanding of what is required for long term, consistent success and has enabled us to develop a disciplined growth strategy built on a foundation of strong risk management, product innovation and a diversified distribution strategy.
Total individual long-term care insurance premiums for in-force policies in the U.S. increased from approximately $2.4 billion in 1997 to $6.8 billion in 2004, according to LIMRA International. Industry-wide sales of individual long-term care insurance peaked in 2002 at approximately $1.0 billion and decreased by 7% in 2003 and 25% in 2004. We believe this decrease was due primarily to decisions by several providers to cease offering long-term care insurance, to raise premiums on in force-policies, and to introduce new products with higher prices. These actions resulted in decreased purchases of long-term care insurance products and have caused some distributors to reduce their sales focus on these products. Notwithstanding these recent trends, we believe that over time, the long-term care insurance market will continue to expand as the result of aging demographics, increasing healthcare and nursing care costs, the uncertainty regarding government programs that currently cover these costs and the increasing public awareness of the benefits of private long-term care insurance.
As the leading provider of individual long-term care insurance, we have made significant investments to further the education and awareness of the benefits of long-term care insurance. Examples of these investments include the national sponsorship of the Alzheimers Association annual Memory Walk, the creation of a national long-term care awareness day, and free access to our Center for Financial Learning website. In 2004, we also entered into a strategic alliance with the Corporation for Long-Term Care Certification, Inc., a nationally recognized long-term care training organization, to educate and train our independent producers in how to help solve clients long-term care needs. Through our sponsorship, approximately 2,000 of our independent producers attended this program.
Our rigorous focus on risk management in long-term care insurance is a key part of our disciplined growth strategy and we believe it has differentiated us from our competitors. This focus includes strong pricing disciplines, intelligent product positioning, experienced-based underwriting, sound claims adjudication, disciplined asset-liability management and extensive in-force monitoring processes. Our critical product pricing assumptions such as lapse rates, investment yields, mortality and morbidity are based upon 30 years of experience. As part of our approach to product pricing, we stress test all our morbidity and other pricing assumptions through stochastic modeling. Our products are positioned to be particularly attractive to certain segments of the population, based on age and marital status, where we see consistent, favorable claims experience. Our extensive pricing and claims experience and databases enable us to perform in depth analysis so that we can respond to emerging experience and execute product pricing strategies to achieve target returns. We have comprehensive underwriting processes, including an experienced team of underwriters, and advanced analytics and technology, that improve our risk assessment and operating efficiency. We believe we have one of
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the largest and most experienced claims organizations in the industry. Our claims adjudication process on reimbursement policies includes a pre-eligibility assessment by an experienced health professional to establish preliminary claims eligibility, followed by an on-site assessment and care coordination phase to validate eligibility and to design an appropriate plan of care. To mitigate exposure to interest rate risk, including interest rate risk on the investment of in-force premiums, we execute investment and hedging strategies. Finally, our in-force monitoring processes include on-going evaluations of product performance, external validation of risks and various simulation tests including stochastic modeling.
Throughout our history, we have consistently been a leader in product innovation. We were one of the first long-term care insurers to offer home care coverage and the first to offer shared plan coverage for married couples. We developed these innovations based upon our risk analytics and in response to policyholder needs and emerging claims experience. Our most recent innovations have included our policyholder wellness initiatives that are designed to improve the overall health of our policyholders. These initiatives provide valuable services to our policyholders, reduce claims expenses and differentiate us from our competitors.
We distribute our products through diversified sales channels consisting of more than 100,000 appointed independent producers, financial intermediaries and dedicated sales specialists. Approximately 300 associates support these diversified distribution channels.
The following table sets forth, on an actual and pro forma basis, selected financial information regarding our long-term care insurance business, which includes long-term care insurance, Medicare supplement insurance, as well as several run-off blocks of accident and health insurance and corporate-owned life insurance for the periods indicated:
Historical |
Pro forma | |||||||||||
For the years ended December 31, |
For the year ended December 31, 2004 | |||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums |
$ | 1,672 | $ | 1,775 | $ | 1,543 | $ | 1,589 | ||||
Annualized first-year premiums(1) |
162 | 240 | 257 | 162 | ||||||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
2,311 | 2,408 | 2,087 | 2,182 |
(1) | Annualized first-year premiums reflect the amount of business we generated during each period shown and do not include renewal premiums on policies written during prior periods. We consider annualized first-year premiums to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of new sales of insurance policies during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. This operating measure enables us to compare our operating performance across periods without regard to revenues or profitability related to policies sold in prior periods or from investments or other sources. |
Products
Our principal product is individual long-term care insurance. Prior to the mid-1990s, we issued primarily indemnity policies, which provide for fixed daily amounts for long-term care benefits. Since the mid-1990s, we have offered primarily reimbursement policies, which provide for reimbursement of documented and approved expenses for nursing home, assisted living facilities or home care expenses. As of December 31, 2004, our in-force policies consisted of approximately 84% reimbursement policies and 16% indemnity policies, measured on a premium-weighted basis. Reimbursement policies permit us to review individual claims expenses and, therefore, provide greater control over claims cost management than indemnity policies.
Our products provide customers with a choice of a maximum period of coverage from two years to ten years, as well as lifetime coverage. Our current products also provide customers with different choices for the
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maximum reimbursement limit for their policy, with $100 to $150 per day being the most common choices nationwide. Our new policies can be purchased with a benefit increase option that provides for increases in the maximum reimbursement limit at a fixed rate of 5% per year, which helps to mitigate customers exposure to increasing long-term care costs. Many long-term care insurance policies sold in the industry have a feature referred to as an elimination period that is a minimum period of time that an insured must incur the direct cost of care before becoming eligible for policy benefits. Although many of our new policies have no elimination period for home care coverage, the majority of our new policies do have an elimination period for care provided in assisted living and nursing facilities. All of these product features allow customers to tailor their coverage to meet their specific requirements and allow us to price our products with better predictability regarding future claim costs.
Our current long-term care insurance product is designed to offer comprehensive coverage with flexibility to adjust benefits and coverages to meet individual consumer needs. Features include no elimination period for home-care benefits, international coverage and a choice between monthly maximum expense limits and daily limits. Consumers also are able to design more economical long-term care insurance policies by customizing individual benefit features and reducing reimbursement on home-care benefits.
We sell our long-term care insurance policies on a guaranteed renewable basis, which means that we are required to renew the policies each year as long as the premium is paid. The terms of all our long-term care insurance policies permit us to increase premiums during the premium-paying period if appropriate in light of our experience with a relevant group of policies, although historically it has been our practice not to do so. We may increase premiums on a group of policies in response to those policies performance, subject to the receipt of regulatory approvals. However, we may not increase premiums due to changes in an individuals health status or age.
In addition to our individual long-term care insurance products, we also offer a group long-term care insurance program for GE employees in the U.S. This group program currently consists of approximately 42,000 long-term care insurance policies and accounted for approximately $25 million and $24 million of net earned premiums for the years ending December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively.
We also offer Medicare supplement insurance providing coverage for Medicare-qualified expenses that are not covered by Medicare because of applicable deductibles or maximum limits. Medicare supplement insurance often appeals to a similar sector of the population as long-term care insurance, and we believe we will be able to use our marketing and distribution strengths for long-term care insurance products to increase sales of Medicare supplement insurance.
The financial results of our long-term care insurance business also include the results of our Medicare supplement insurance product and several small run-off blocks of accident and health insurance products and corporate-owned life insurance. We believe that these blocks of business do not have a material effect on the results of our long-term care insurance business.
Prior to the completion of the IPO, we ceded a block of in-force long-term care insurance business to UFLIC, and we assumed several small in-force blocks of Medicare supplement insurance from UFLIC.
Underwriting and pricing
We employ extensive medical underwriting policies and procedures to assess and quantify risks before we issue our long-term care insurance policies. For individual long-term care products, we use underwriting criteria that are similar to, but separate from, those we use in underwriting life insurance products. Depending upon an applicants age and health status, we use a variety of underwriting information sources to determine morbidity risk, or the probability that an insured will be unable to perform activities of daily living or suffer cognitive impairment, and eligibility for insurance. The process entails a comprehensive application that requests health, prescription drug and lifestyle- and activity-related information. Higher-risk applicants are also required to
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participate in an assessment process by telephone or in person. A critical element of this assessment process is a cognitive exam to identify early cognitive impairments. In addition, an experienced long-term care insurance underwriter conducts a comprehensive review of the application, the results of the assessment process and, in many cases, complete medical records from the applicants physicians.
To streamline the underwriting process and improve the accuracy and consistency of our underwriting decisions, we implemented the GENIUS® automated underwriting technology in our long-term care insurance business beginning in January 2003. We now use GENIUS® to process all our new long-term care insurance applications.
We believe we have one of the largest and most experienced long-term care insurance claims management operations in the industry. Our claims adjudication process includes, with respect to newer policies, a pre-claim assessment by an experienced health professional who establishes preliminary claims eligibility, followed by an on-site assessment and care coordination phase to validate eligibility and to work with the customer in determining an appropriate plan of care. Continued claims eligibility is verified through an ongoing eligibility assessment for existing claimants. We will continue to make investments in new processes and technologies that will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our long-term care insurance expense tracking and claims decision-making process.
The overall profitability of our long-term care insurance policies depends to a large extent on the degree to which our claims experience, morbidity and mortality experience, lapse rates and investment yields match our pricing assumptions. We believe we have the largest actuarial database in the industry, derived from 30 years of experience in offering long-term care insurance products. This database has provided substantial claims experience and statistics regarding morbidity risk, which has helped us to develop a sophisticated pricing methodology tailored to segmented risk categories, depending upon marital status, medical history and other factors. We continually monitor trends and developments that may affect the risk, pricing and profitability of our long-term care insurance products and adjust our new product pricing and other terms as appropriate. We also work with a Medical Advisory Board, comprising independent experts from the medical technology and public policy fields, that provides insights on emerging morbidity and medical trends, enabling us to be more proactive in our risk segmentation, pricing and product development strategies.
Payment protection insurance
Overview
We provide payment protection insurance to customers throughout Europe. Payment protection insurance helps consumers meet their payment obligations on outstanding financial commitments, such as mortgages, personal loans or credit cards, in the event of a misfortune such as illness, involuntary unemployment, temporary incapacity, permanent disability or death. We currently offer payment protection insurance in the U.K., where we have offered the product for more than 30 years, and in 12 other European marketsDenmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Finaccord, an industry research firm, estimated in 2002 that gross written premiums for payment protection insurance with an involuntary unemployment, temporary incapacity, permanent disability or death element were approximately 26 billion in the U.K. and the six other European countries it reviewed. Finaccord also estimated that the average annual growth rates in these seven countries would be approximately 10% for retail lending balances from 2003 to 2005. The U.K. is the largest and most mature market in Europe. Although recent growth rates and margins have varied throughout Continental Europe, they are generally significantly higher than in the U.K.
We distribute our payment protection products primarily through financial institutions, such as major European banks, which offer our insurance products in connection with underlying loans or other financial
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products they sell to their customers. Under these arrangements, the distributors typically take responsibility for branding and marketing the products, allowing us to take advantage of their distribution capabilities, while we take responsibility for pricing, underwriting and claims payment. We continue to implement innovative methods for distributing our payment protection insurance products, including using web-based tools that provide our distributors with a cost-effective means of applying and selling our products in combination with a broad range of underlying financial products. We believe these innovative methods also will make it easier to establish arrangements with new distributors.
As we enter into new arrangements and as existing arrangements become due for renewal, we are focused on maintaining a disciplined approach to growth, with an emphasis on arrangements that achieve our targeted returns on capital and increase our operating earnings.
Products
Our principal product is payment protection insurance, which can support any loan, credit agreement or other financial commitment. Depending upon the type of financial product or commitment, our policies may cover all or a portion of the policyholders obligation or may cover monthly payments for a fixed period of time. We are able to customize the circumstances under which benefits are paid from among the range of events that can prevent policyholders from meeting their payment obligations. In the event of a policyholders illness, involuntary unemployment or other temporary inability to work, we cover monthly payment obligations until the policyholder is able to return to work, subject, in some cases, to a maximum period. In the event of a policyholders death or permanent disability, we typically repay the entire covered obligation.
In addition to payment protection insurance, we offer related consumer protection products, primarily in the U.K., including personal accident insurance and product purchase protection. We continue to evaluate opportunities to take advantage of our European operations and distribution infrastructure to offer consumer protection insurance products throughout Europe.
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our payment protection insurance and other related consumer protection insurance products for the periods indicated:
For for the years ended December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Gross written premiums |
$ | 902 | $ | 1,532 | $ | 1,548 | |||
Net earned premiums |
1,427 | 1,507 | 1,242 | ||||||
Total revenues, net of reinsurance |
1,549 | 1,615 | 1,372 | ||||||
Losses and loss adjustment expenses |
263 | 376 | 307 |
We work with our distributors to design and promote insurance products in ways that best complement their product strategies and risk profiles and to ensure that our products comply with all applicable consumer regulations. Through this close cooperation, we believe there are opportunities to increase the benefit of these arrangements by extending our payment protection insurance products across the full range of consumer finance products offered by our distributors. We are also working closely with our distributors to help them increase the percentage of their customers who purchase our protection insurance at the time they enter into a loan or financial commitment and reduce the percentage of customers who elect not to renew our policies upon expiration. Consumers generally pay premiums for our insurance to our distributors, who in turn forward these payments to us, typically net of commissions.
Consistent with our focus on disciplined growth and returns on capital, as we enter into new arrangements and review existing arrangements with distributors, we seek to manage these arrangements and deploy capital where we believe we can achieve the highest returns while strengthening our client relationships. In some cases,
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particularly in the U.K., we had arrangements in place that accounted for significant revenue without a corresponding benefit to return on capital. Accordingly, in the third quarter of 2003, we evaluated our contractual relationships with our payment protection insurance distributors against our targeted return thresholds and decided to terminate or not to renew certain relationships that we refer to as run-off. Although we expect our revenue to continue to decline over the next few years as existing policies from these less-profitable arrangements continue to run off, we believe this will not have a material impact on our operating earnings and will have a favorable effect on our returns as capital is released and redeployed into markets with potential for higher growth and returns. Written premiums in our payment protection insurance business, gross of reinsurance and cancellations, decreased by 31% from $2,175 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $1,501 million for the year ended December 31, 2004. Excluding the run-off business, written premiums, gross of reinsurance and cancellations, increased by 21% from $1,191 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 to $1,441 million for the year ended December 31, 2004.
We are continuing to diversify and expand our base of distributors. We are also exploring additional growth opportunities in Europe, which we believe will be increasingly receptive to payment protection insurance as consumer lending further develops in those markets. In addition, we believe the accession of additional countries to the European Union will facilitate our entry into those markets.
For the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, GEs consumer finance division and other related GE entities accounted for 42%, 19% and 14% of our payment protection insurance gross written premiums, respectively. This increase in the percentage of business relating to GE entities was primarily attributable to the decline in total gross written premiums in our payment insurance business that was due to the significant decrease in premiums relating to our run-off block. In early 2004, we entered into a five-year agreement, subject to certain early termination provisions, that extends our relationship with GEs consumer finance division and provides us with the right to be the exclusive provider of payment protection insurance in Europe for GEs consumer finance operations in jurisdictions where we offer these products.
Underwriting and pricing
We have more than 30 years of experience in underwriting payment protection insurance. Consistent with market practices, our payment protection insurance currently is underwritten and priced on a program basis, by type of product and by distributor, rather than on the basis of the characteristics of the individual policyholder. In setting prices, we take into account the underlying obligation, the particular product features and the average customer profile of the distributor (including data such as customer age, gender and occupation). We also consider morbidity and mortality rates, lapse rates and investment yields in pricing our products. We believe our experience in underwriting allows us to provide competitive pricing to distributors and generate targeted returns and profits for our business.
Group life and health insurance
Overview
We offer a full range of employment-based benefit products and services targeted primarily at employers with fewer than 1,000 employees, as well as select groups within larger companies that require highly customized benefit plans. We refer to our group life and health insurance business as the Employee Benefits Group. This groups products include group non-medical insurance products, such as dental, vision, life and disability insurance; group medical insurance products, such as stop loss insurance; and individual voluntary products. We purchase excess-of-loss reinsurance coverage to limit our exposure to losses from our group non-medical and medical insurance lines.
We use an independent network of approximately 4,000 licensed group life and health insurance brokers and agents, supported by our nationwide sales force of approximately 100 employees, to distribute our group life and health insurance products. Individual voluntary products are sold through employers and other worksite-
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based groups using a network of independent insurance producers. As of December 31, 2004, our Employee Benefits Group provided employment-based benefit products and services to more than 31,000 organizations, including approximately 2.7 million plan participants.
Many of the employers in our target market do not have large human resource departments with individuals devoted to benefit design, administration and budgeting. As a result, we work closely with independent group benefit brokers and the end customer or employer to design benefit plans to meet the employers particular requirements. Our customers are small and mid-size employers that require knowledgeable independent group benefit brokers and insurance company representatives to understand their individual financial needs and employee profiles and to structure benefit plans that are appropriate for their particular size, geographical markets and resources. We believe our extensive experience and expertise in group life and health insurance products provide us with opportunities to foster close broker relationships and to assist employers in designing benefit plans, as well as selling traditional insurance products.
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our group life and health insurance products for the periods indicated:
For the years ended December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Net earned premiums |
$ | 623 | $ | 608 | $ | 618 | |||
Annualized first-year premiums(1) |
171 | 144 | 168 | ||||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
686 | 677 | 714 |
(1) | Annualized first-year premiums reflect the amount of business we generated during each period shown and do not include renewal premiums on policies written during prior periods. We consider annualized first-year premiums to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of new sales of insurance policies during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. This operating measure enables us to compare our operating performance across periods without regard to revenues or profitability related to policies sold in prior periods or from investments or other sources. |
Products
We offer a full range of employee benefits products for the group, group voluntary and individual voluntary markets. We sell group benefits exclusively to employers, which pay all or most of the applicable premiums. We sell group voluntary and individual voluntary benefits through employers to employees, who generally pay all or most of the premiums through payroll deductions. Coverage in both group and group voluntary benefits generally ceases upon the termination of employment, whereas coverage in individual voluntary benefits continues after the termination of employment. Voluntary benefit products enable an employer to expand its available employee benefits without adding to the companys costs. As a result, these programs allow employees to select benefit packages to meet their individual and family needs and budgets, generally at lower premiums than they would pay for comparable benefit packages assembled independently. Employers help to administer group and group voluntary benefits, and we administer individual voluntary benefits with little involvement from employers.
Group non-medical insurance
Our group non-medical insurance consists of dental and vision, life and disability insurance products.
Dental and vision insurance. Our group dental coverage provides benefits to insured employees and their eligible dependents for specified dental services. We also offer dental managed-care plans, which provide differentiated benefit levels depending upon whether the dental provider is a member of a nationwide network. Vision coverage generally is offered as a supplement to dental coverage.
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Life insurance. Our group term life insurance product provides benefits in the event of an insured employees death. The death benefit can be based upon an individuals earnings or occupation, or can be fixed at a set dollar amount. Our products also include optional accidental death and dismemberment coverage as a supplement to our term life insurance policies. This coverage provides benefits for an insured employees loss of life, limb or sight as a result of accidental death or injury.
Disability insurance. Our group long-term disability coverage is designed to cover the risk of employee loss of income during prolonged periods of disability. Our group short-term disability coverage provides partial replacement of an insured employees weekly earnings in the event of disability resulting from an injury or illness. Benefits can be a set dollar amount or based upon a percentage of earnings.
Group medical insurance
Our group medical insurance consists of stop loss insurance and fully insured medical.
Stop loss insurance. Our stop loss insurance coverage is written for employers that self-insure their employee medical benefits and covers the risk of higher-than-expected claims experience. Our coverage provides reimbursement for claims in excess of a predetermined level.
We also offer an integrated self-funded medical benefits program that provides employers with stop-loss reinsurance coverage coupled with administrative services.
Fully insured medical. Our group medical coverage provides benefits for insured employees and their dependents for hospital, surgical and ancillary medical expenses. We offer several types of plans with a wide range of plan features, such as indemnity plans, which contain deductibles and co-insurance payments, and preferred provider organization plans, or PPO plans, which reduce deductibles and co-insurance payments for medical services provided by members of a preferred provider network of healthcare providers.
Individual voluntary products
We offer individual voluntary life and health insurance and annuity contracts through worksite marketing programs in which our representatives visit employer premises and make presentations to employees. Our individual health coverage consists primarily of short-term disability benefits with benefit periods generally ranging from nine months to two years. Although the policies are sold in connection with a benefit package offered to company employees, each policyholder receives an individual policy, and coverage can continue after termination of employment if the policyholder continues to make premium payments.
Underwriting and pricing
Group insurance pricing is different from individual product pricing in that it reflects the groups claims experience, when appropriate. The risk characteristics of each group are reviewed at the time the policy is issued and each year thereafter, resulting in ongoing adjustments to the groups pricing. The key rating and underwriting criteria are the groups demographic composition, including the age, gender and family composition of the groups members, the industry of the group, geographic location, regional economic trends, plan design and the groups prior claims experience.
We have a data warehouse that is integrated with all our claims processing systems. The data warehouse contains at least seven years of experience for each product that helps us predict future experience by modeling the impact of changes in current rates against historic claims. Our automated underwriting quotation and renewal systems efficiently process low-risk cases and identify high-risk cases for further underwriter review. We also have developed proprietary automated underwriting techniques that enhance the speed and accuracy of, and reduce variations in, our underwriting decision-making.
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Competition
We face significant competition in all our Protection segment operations. Our competitors include other large and highly rated insurance carriers. Some of these competitors have greater resources than we do, and many of them offer similar products and use similar distribution channels. We also face competition in our life, long-term care and group insurance product lines for independent sales intermediaries and our dedicated sales specialists. This competition is based primarily upon product pricing and features, compensation and benefits structure and support services offered. We continuously provide technology upgrades and enhanced training, and we seek to improve service for our independent sales intermediaries and dedicated sales specialists.
In our payment protection insurance business, we are one of the few payment protection insurance providers with operations across Europe. Our competitors are divided into two broad groups: the large pan-European payment protection providers and local competitors, consisting principally of smaller national insurance companies. We also compete with captive insurers, particularly in the U.K., as our distributors increasingly consider the benefits of providing payment protection insurance directly to their customers.
Retirement Income and Investments
Overview
Through our Retirement Income and Investments segment, we offer fixed and variable deferred annuities and income annuities. We offer these products to a broad range of consumers who want to accumulate tax-deferred assets for retirement, desire a reliable source of income during their retirement, and/or seek to protect against outliving their assets during retirement. According to VARDS, we were the largest provider of variable income annuities, and according to LIMRA International, we were the second-largest provider of fixed income annuities in the U.S. for the year ended December 31, 2004, in each case based upon total premiums and deposits.
According to LIMRA International, sales of individual annuities were $220 billion and $219 billion in 2002 and 2003, the last years for which industry data regarding aggregate sales of individual annuities is available. We believe aggregate sales of individual annuities in 2003 and 2004 remained nearly constant from 2002 levels for two reasons. First, the low interest rates that persisted throughout 2003 and 2004 resulted in low crediting rates and limited market demand for certain annuities. Second, continued volatility in the equity markets caused potential purchasers to refrain from purchasing products, such as variable annuities and variable life insurance, that have returns linked to the performance of the equity markets. We believe that higher interest rates and greater stability in equity markets will result in increased demand for annuities and other investment products that help consumers accumulate assets and provide reliable retirement income.
We offer fixed and variable deferred annuities, in which assets accumulate until the contract is surrendered, the contractholder dies or the contractholder begins receiving benefits under an annuity payout option, as well as fixed and variable income annuities, in which payments begin within one year of issue and continue for a fixed period or for life. We believe our wide range of fixed annuity products has provided a stable source of asset growth during volatile equity and bond markets in recent years, and our variable annuity offerings continue to appeal to contractholders who wish to participate in returns linked to equity and bond markets. We also offer variable life insurance through our Retirement Income and Investments segment because this product provides investment features that are similar to our variable annuity products.
In addition to our annuity and variable life insurance products, we offer a number of specialty products, including guaranteed investment contracts, or GICs, funding agreements and structured settlements. We sell GICs to ERISA-qualified plans, such as pension and 401(k) plans, and we sell funding agreements to money market funds that are not ERISA qualified and to other institutional investors. Our structured settlements provide an alternative to a lump sum settlement, generally in a personal injury lawsuit, and typically are purchased by property and casualty insurance companies for the benefit of an injured claimant with benefits scheduled to be paid throughout a fixed period or for the life of the claimant. In addition, we offer private asset management services for affluent individual investors.
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We develop our annuity products through a rigorous pricing and underwriting process designed to achieve targeted returns based upon each products risk profile and our expected rate of investment returns. We compete for sales of annuities through competitive pricing policies and innovative product design. For example, we recently introduced the Income Distribution Series of guaranteed income annuity products and riders that provide a guaranteed minimum income stream with an opportunity for the contractholder to participate in market appreciation but reduce some of the risks to insurers that generally accompany traditional products with guaranteed minimum income benefits.
We offer our annuities and other investment products primarily through financial institutions and specialized brokers, as well as independent accountants and independent advisers associated with our captive broker dealer. We provide extensive training and support to our distributors through a wholesaling sales force that specializes in retirement income needs.
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The following table sets forth selected information regarding the products we offer through our Retirement Income and Investments segment as of the dates and for the periods indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, |
||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||||
Spread-Based Retail Products |
||||||||||||
Fixed annuities |
||||||||||||
Account value net of reinsurance, beginning of period |
$ | 14,166 | $ | 13,753 | $ | 11,965 | ||||||
Deposits |
1,741 | 1,069 | 2,663 | |||||||||
Interest credited |
600 | 603 | 606 | |||||||||
Surrenders and benefits |
(1,381 | ) | (1,248 | ) | (1,471 | ) | ||||||
Product charges |
(13 | ) | (11 | ) | (10 | ) | ||||||
Account value net of reinsurance, end of period |
$ | 15,113 | $ | 14,166 | $ | 13,753 | ||||||
Income annuities |
||||||||||||
Account value net of reinsurance, beginning of period |
$ | 5,008 | $ | 4,673 | $ | 4,002 | ||||||
Net earned premiums and deposits |
760 | 717 | 979 | |||||||||
Interest credited |
303 | 292 | 277 | |||||||||
Surrenders and benefits |
(689 | ) | (650 | ) | (562 | ) | ||||||
Product charges |
(28 | ) | (24 | ) | (23 | ) | ||||||
Account value net of reinsurance, end of period |
$ | 5,354 | $ | 5,008 | $ | 4,673 | ||||||
Structured settlements(1) |
||||||||||||
Account value, beginning of period |
$ | 12,017 | $ | 11,544 | $ | 11,098 | ||||||
Net earned premiums and deposits |
544 | 581 | 516 | |||||||||
Interest credited |
844 | 827 | 797 | |||||||||
Surrenders and benefits |
(1,060 | ) | (912 | ) | (847 | ) | ||||||
Product charges |
(22 | ) | (23 | ) | (20 | ) | ||||||
Account value, end of period |
$ | 12,323 | $ | 12,017 | $ | 11,544 | ||||||
Total annualized first-year premiums from spread-based retail products(2) |
$ | 1,094 | $ | 1,049 | $ | 991 | ||||||
Total deposits on spread-based retail products(3) |
1,951 | 1,318 | 3,167 | |||||||||
Spread-Based Institutional Products |
||||||||||||
GICs and funding agreements |
||||||||||||
Account value, beginning of period |
$ | 9,527 | $ | 10,274 | $ | 8,693 | ||||||
Deposits(4) |
3,056 | 3,702 | 3,862 | |||||||||
Interest credited |
281 | 296 | 230 | |||||||||
Surrenders and benefits(4) |
(3,323 | ) | (4,745 | ) | (2,511 | ) | ||||||
Account value, end of period |
$ | 9,541 | $ | 9,527 | $ | 10,274 | ||||||
Total deposits on spread-based institutional products(3)(4) |
$ | 3,056 | $ | 3,702 | $ | 3,862 | ||||||
Fee-Based Products |
||||||||||||
Variable annuities(1) |
||||||||||||
Account value, beginning of period |
$ | 10,904 | $ | 9,048 | $ | 10,168 | ||||||
Deposits |
1,106 | 2,102 | 1,667 | |||||||||
Interest credited and investment performance |
1,116 | 1,356 | (1,091 | ) | ||||||||
Surrenders and benefits |
(1,451 | ) | (1,483 | ) | (1,571 | ) | ||||||
Product charges |
(120 | ) | (119 | ) | (125 | ) | ||||||
Account value, end of period |
$ | 11,555 | $ | 10,904 | $ | 9,048 | ||||||
Variable life insurance |
||||||||||||
Deposits |
$ | 39 | $ | 45 | $ | 47 | ||||||
Future policy benefits/policy account balances, net of reinsurance |
16 | 12 | 8 | |||||||||
Separate account liability |
297 | 269 | 220 | |||||||||
Life insurance in force |
3,472 | 3,636 | 3,628 | |||||||||
Asset management |
||||||||||||
Revenues |
47 | 32 | 40 | |||||||||
Deposits(5) |
691 | 760 | 650 | |||||||||
Assets under management |
2,753 | 2,395 | 1,762 | |||||||||
Total deposits on fee-based products(3) |
1,836 | 2,907 | 2,364 |
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(1) | Effective as of January 1, 2004, we ceded to UFLIC all of our structured settlement contracts and substantially all of our variable annuity contracts that were in-force as of December 31, 2003. |
(2) | Represents annualized first-year premiums earned on spread based income annuities and structured settlements with life contingencies. Annualized first year premiums reflect the amount of business we generated during each period shown and do not include renewal premiums on policies written during prior periods. We consider annualized first year premiums to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of new sales of insurance policies during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. This operating measure enables us to compare our operating performance across periods without regard to revenues or profitability related to policies sold in prior periods or from investments or other sources. |
(3) | Represents deposits received on spread based non-life-contingent products and on fee based products. We consider deposits, like annualized first year premiums, to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of additional investments by our customers during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. |
(4) | Surrenders and benefits include contracts that have matured but are redeposited with our company and reflected as deposits. In the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, surrenders and benefits of spread based institutional products included $927 million, $1,675 million and $800 million, respectively, that was redeposited and reflected under Deposits. |
(5) | Our clients own the assets deposited in our asset management products, and we receive a management fee based on the amount of assets under management. |
The following table sets forth, on an actual and pro forma basis, selected financial information regarding our Retirement Income and Investments segment as of the dates and for the periods indicated:
Historical |
Pro forma | |||||||||||
As of or for the years ended December 31, |
For the December 31, 2004 | |||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||||
Net earned premiums |
||||||||||||
Spread-based retail products |
$ | 1,094 | $ | 1,049 | $ | 991 | $ | 1,094 | ||||
Spread-based institutional products |
| | | | ||||||||
Fee-based products |
| | | | ||||||||
Total net earned premiums |
$ | 1,094 | $ | 1,049 | $ | 991 | $ | 1,094 | ||||
Revenues, net of reinsurance |
||||||||||||
Spread-based retail products |
$ | 2,712 | $ | 3,122 | $ | 3,028 | $ | 2,347 | ||||
Spread-based institutional products |
332 | 346 | 419 | 332 | ||||||||
Fee-based products |
317 | 335 | 309 | 212 | ||||||||
Total revenues, net of reinsurance |
$ | 3,361 | $ | 3,803 | $ | 3,756 | $ | 2,891 | ||||
Segment net earnings |
||||||||||||
Spread-based retail products(1) |
$ | 79 | $ | 109 | $ | 119 | $ | 71 | ||||
Spread-based institutional products |
30 | 29 | 47 | 30 | ||||||||
Fee-based products |
44 | 13 | 20 | 47 | ||||||||
Total segment net earnings(1) |
$ | 153 | $ | 151 | $ | 186 | $ | 148 | ||||
Assets |
||||||||||||
Spread-based retail products |
$ | 34,972 | $ | 34,255 | $ | 33,493 | ||||||
Spread-based institutional products |
9,359 | 9,346 | 10,175 | |||||||||
Fee-based products |
12,279 | 12,013 | 9,956 | |||||||||
Total assets |
$ | 56,610 | $ | 55,614 | $ | 53,624 | ||||||
(1) | Total segment net earnings for the year ended December 31, 2004 exclude the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principles, net of taxes, of $5 million. |
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Products
Spread-Based Retail Products
Fixed annuities
We offer fixed single premium deferred annuities, or SPDAs, which provide for a single premium payment at time of issue, an accumulation period and an annuity payout period at some future date. During the accumulation period, we credit the account value of the annuity with interest earned at an interest rate, called the crediting rate. The crediting rate is guaranteed generally for one year but may be guaranteed for up to seven years, at the contractholders option, and thereafter is subject to change at our discretion, based upon competitive factors, prevailing market rates and product profitability. Each contract also has a minimum guaranteed crediting rate. Our fixed annuity contracts are funded by our general account, and the accrual of interest during the accumulation period is generally on a tax-deferred basis to the owner. The majority of our fixed annuity contractholders retain their contracts for 5 to 10 years. After the period specified in the annuity contract, the contractholder may elect to take the proceeds of the annuity as a single payment or over time.
Our fixed annuity contracts permit the contractholder at any time during the accumulation period to withdraw all or part of the single premium paid, plus the amount credited to his account, subject to contract provisions such as surrender charges that vary depending upon the terms of the product. The contracts impose surrender charges that typically vary from 5.0% to 8.0% of the account value, starting in the year of deposit and decreasing to zero over a 5- to 9-year period. The contractholder also may withdraw annually up to 10% of the account value without any contractual penalty. Approximately $11.2 billion, or 75% of the total account value of our fixed annuities as of December 31, 2004, were subject to surrender charges.
At least once each month, we set an interest crediting rate for newly issued fixed SPDAs and additional deposits. We maintain the initial crediting rate for a minimum period of one year or the guarantee period, whichever is longer. Thereafter, we may adjust the crediting rate no more frequently than once per year for any given deposit. In 2004, we introduced a product that has flexible pricing features. Most of our recently issued annuity contracts have minimum guaranteed crediting rates between 1.5% and 3.0%.
Our earnings from fixed annuities are based upon the spread between the crediting rate on our fixed annuity contracts and the returns we earn on our investment of premiums in our general account.
Income annuities
We offer income annuities, also known in the industry as fixed single premium immediate annuities, or SPIAs, which provide for a single premium at the time of issue and guarantee a series of payments beginning within one year of the issue date and continuing over a period of years. Income annuities also include variable income annuities, which provide for an accumulation period, followed by a guaranteed minimum income stream for the life of the annuitant, with the possibility of additional income depending upon underlying investment account performance.
Our income annuities differ from deferred annuities in that they provide for contractually guaranteed payments that begin within one year of issue. Income annuities do not provide for surrender or policy loans by the contractholder, and therefore they provide us with the opportunity to match closely the underlying investment of the deposit received to the cash benefits to be paid under a policy and provide for an anticipated margin for expenses and profit, subject to credit, reinvestment and, in some cases, mortality risk.
The two most common types of income annuities are the life-contingent annuity, which makes payments for the life of a contractholder, and the joint and survivor annuity, which continues to make payments to a second contractholder, such as a spouse, after the death of the contractholder. We also offer period certain annuities, which generally make payments for a minimum period from 5 to 20 years even if the contractholder dies within the term certain period. Income annuities typically are sold to contractholders approaching retirement. We anticipate higher sales of income annuities with the demographic shift toward more people reaching retirement age and focusing on their need for dependable retirement income.
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Structured settlements
Structured settlement contracts provide an alternative to a lump sum settlement, generally in a personal injury lawsuit or workers compensation claim, and typically are purchased by property and casualty insurance companies for the benefit of an injured claimant. The structured settlements provide scheduled payments over a fixed period or, in the case of a life-contingent structured settlement, for the life of the claimant with a guaranteed minimum period of payments. Structured settlement contracts also may provide for irregularly scheduled payments to coincide with anticipated medical or other claimant needs. These settlements offer tax-advantaged, long-range financial security to the injured party and facilitate claim settlement for the property and casualty insurance carrier. Structured settlement contracts are long-term in nature, guarantee a fixed benefit stream and generally do not permit surrender or borrowing against the amounts outstanding under the contract.
Prior to the completion of the IPO, we ceded all of our in-force structured settlements business to UFLIC. We continue to write structured settlements when we believe we will be able to achieve our targeted returns, capitalizing on our experience and relationships in this product.
Spread-Based Institutional Products
We offer guaranteed investment contracts, or GICs, and funding agreements, which are deposit-type products that pay a guaranteed return to the contractholder on specified dates. GICs are purchased by ERISA qualified plans, including pension and 401(k) plans. Funding agreements are purchased by institutional accredited investors for various kinds of funds and accounts that are not ERISA qualified. Purchasers of funding agreements include money market funds, bank common trust funds and other corporate and trust accounts and private investors in the U.S. and other countries.
Substantially all our GICs allow for the payment of benefits at contract value to ERISA plan participants prior to contract maturity in the event of death, disability, retirement or change in investment election. We carefully underwrite these risks before issuing a GIC to a plan and historically have been able to effectively manage our exposure to these benefit payments. Our GICs typically credit interest at a fixed interest rate and have a fixed maturity generally ranging from two to six years.
Our funding agreements generally credit interest on deposits at a floating rate tied to an external market index. To hedge our exposure to fluctuations in interest rates, we invest the proceeds backing floating-rate funding agreements in floating-rate assets. Some of our funding agreements are purchased by money market funds, bank common trust funds and other short-term investors. These funding agreements typically are renewed annually, and generally contain put provisions, through which the contractholder has an option to terminate the funding agreement for any reason after giving notice within the contracts specified notice period, which is generally 90 days. As of December 31, 2004, we had an aggregate of $2.8 billion of floating-rate funding agreements outstanding, compared to $2.9 billion as of December 31, 2003. Of the $2.8 billion aggregate amount outstanding as of December 31, 2004, $1.6 billion had put option features, including $1.5 billion with put option features of 90 days and the remaining $0.1 billion with put option features of 180 days. General Electric Capital Corporation, or GE Capital, has guaranteed certain obligations under floating-rate funding agreements with a final maturity on or before June 30, 2005. This guarantee covers our obligations to contractholders and requires us to reimburse GE Capital for any payments made to contractholders under the guarantee. As of December 31, 2004, GE Capitals guarantee covered $1.4 billion of outstanding floating-rate funding agreements.
We also issue funding agreements to trust accounts to back medium-term notes purchased by investors. These contracts typically are issued for terms of one to seven years. As of December 31, 2004, we had an aggregate of $3.4 billion of these funding agreements, compared to $3.0 billion as of December 31, 2003. Of the $3.4 billion of these funding agreements outstanding as of December 31, 2004, $0.4 billion permitted early termination provisions upon twelve months notice. The remainder of these funding agreements did not permit early termination.
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Fee-Based Products
Variable annuities
We offer variable annuities that allow the contractholder to make payments into a guaranteed-rate account and separate accounts that invest in underlying mutual funds, as determined by the contractholder. Like a deferred fixed annuity, a deferred variable annuity has an accumulation period and a payout period. The main difference between our fixed annuity products and our variable annuity products is that the variable annuities allow the contractholder to allocate all or a portion of his account value to separate accounts that invest in investment accounts that are distinct from our general account. Assets allocated to each separate account track the performance of selected mutual funds, including offerings from GE, Fidelity and Oppenheimer. There is no guaranteed minimum rate of return in these subaccounts, and the contractholder bears the entire risk associated with the performance of these subaccounts. Some of our variable annuities also permit the contractholder to allocate all or a portion of his account value to our general account, in which case we credit interest at specified rates, subject to certain guaranteed minimums, which are comparable to the minimum rates in effect for our fixed annuities.
Similar to our fixed annuities, our variable annuity contracts permit the contractholder to withdraw all or part of the premiums paid, plus the amount credited to his account, subject to contract terms such as surrender charges. The cash surrender value of a variable annuity contract depends upon the value of the assets that have been allocated to the contract, how long those assets have been in the contract and the investment performance of the mutual funds to which the contractholder has allocated assets.
Variable annuities provide us with fee-based revenue in the form of expense charges and, in some cases, mortality charges. These fees equal a percentage of the contractholders assets in the separate account and typically range from 1.25% to 1.70% per annum. We also receive fees charged on assets allocated to our separate account to cover administrative costs and, in some cases, a distribution fee from the underlying mutual funds in which assets are invested.
We also offer variable annuities with fixed account options and with bonus features. Variable annuities with fixed account options enable the contractholder to allocate a portion of his account value to the fixed account, which pays a fixed interest crediting rate. New deposits to the fixed account within the variable annuity are limited to 25% of the total deposit. The portion of the account value allocated to the fixed account option represents general account liability for us and functions similarly to a traditional fixed annuity, whereas for the portion allocated to the separate account, the contractholder bears the investment risk. Our variable annuities with bonus features entitle the contractholder to an additional increase to his account value upon making a deposit. However, variable annuities with bonus features are subject to different surrender charge schedules and expense charges than variable annuities without the bonus feature.
Our variable annuity contracts provide for a guaranteed minimum death benefit, or GMDB, which provides a minimum account value to be paid upon the annuitants death. Our contractholders also have the option to purchase, at an additional charge, a GMDB rider that provides for an enhanced death benefit. Assuming every annuitant died on December 31, 2004, as of that date, contracts with GMDB features not covered by reinsurance had an account value of $1.1 billion and a related death benefit exposure of $1 million net amount at risk. In May 2003, we raised prices of, and reduced certain benefits under, our newly issued GMDBs. We continue to evaluate our pricing and hedging of GMDB features and intend to change prices if appropriate. In addition, in July 2004, we introduced a variable annuity product with a guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit, or GMWB. This product provides a guaranteed annual withdrawal of a fixed portion of the initial deposit over a fixed period of time but requires a balanced asset allocation of the customers separate account deposit.
We continually review potential new variable annuity products and pursue only those where we believe we can achieve targeted returns in light of the risks involved. Unlike several of our competitors, we have not offered variable annuity products with traditional guaranteed minimum income benefits, or GMIBs, or with guaranteed
25
minimum accumulation benefits, or GMABs. Traditional GMIB products guarantee a specified minimum appreciation rate for a defined period of time, after which annuity payments commence. GMAB products guarantee a customers account value will be no less than the original investment at the end of a specified accumulation period, plus a specified interest rate.
Although we do not offer traditional GMIBs or GMABs, we have been able to capitalize on the demand for products with guarantees with our GE Retirement Answer®, or GERA. GERA is a variable deferred annuity that has a minimum 10-year scheduled deposit period for customers who desire guaranteed minimum income streams at the end of an accumulation period. The income stream may exceed the guaranteed minimum based upon the performance of the mutual fund underlying the separate accounts. As of December 31, 2004, we had $1.23 billion of lump-sum deposits, collected scheduled periodic deposits, and future scheduled periodic deposits for this product since its inception in April 2002. Based on key product design features, some of which have patents pending, we believe GERA allows us to provide our customers a guaranteed income annuity product that mitigates a number of the risks that accompany traditional guaranteed minimum income benefits offered by many of our competitors.
GERA is a component of our Income Distribution Series of variable annuity products and riders. The Income Distribution Series also includes the GE Guaranteed Income Advantage, or GIA, and the GE Principal Protection Advantage, or PPA. The GIA is a rider to several of our variable annuity products that provides retirement benefits similar to the GERA but requires contractholders to allocate assets among a group of available investment options. Whereas the GERA and the GIA require a minimum ten-year accumulation period, the PPA is designed for purchasers nearing retirement and requires only a three-year accumulation period before annuitization.
Prior to the completion of the IPO, we ceded our in-force variable annuities business, excluding the GERA product and a small block of contracts in run-off, to UFLIC.
Variable life insurance
We offer variable life insurance products that provide insurance coverage through a policy that gives the policyholder flexibility in investment choices and, in some products, in premium payments and coverage amounts. Our variable life products allow the policyholder to allocate all or a portion of his premiums to separate accounts that invest in investment accounts that are distinct from our general account. Assets allocated to each separate account track the performance of selected mutual funds, including funds from GE, Fidelity and Oppenheimer. There is no guaranteed minimum rate of return in these subaccounts, and the policyholder bears the entire investment risk associated with the performance of the subaccounts. Some of our variable life insurance products also permit the policyholder to allocate all or a portion of his account value to our general account, in which case we credit interest at specified rates, subject to certain guaranteed minimums, which are comparable to the minimum rates in effect for our fixed annuities.
Similar to our variable annuity products, we collect specified mortality and expense charges, fees charged on assets allocated to the separate account to cover administrative services and costs, and a portion of the management fees from the various underlying mutual funds in which the assets are invested. We collect cost of insurance charges on our variable life insurance products to compensate us for the mortality risk of the guaranteed death benefit, particularly in the early years of the policy when the death benefit is significantly higher than the value of the policyholders account.
Asset management
We offer asset management services to affluent individual investors. Most of our clients for these services have accumulated significant capital, and our principal asset management strategy is to help protect their assets while taking advantage of opportunities for capital appreciation. Our asset management clients are referred to us
26
through financial advisers. We work with these financial advisers to develop portfolios consisting of individual securities, mutual funds and variable annuities designed to meet each clients particular investment objectives. Our products consist of separately managed accounts, managed mutual funds accounts, and managed variable annuity services. For each of these products, we receive a management fee based upon the amount of assets under management.
Separately managed accounts are individually managed client portfolios that we structure based on the clients needs and investment objectives, with securities recommended by multiple institutional investment advisors according to defined investment strategies. Our clients directly own the stocks in their individual portfolios, and we continuously monitor and evaluate each investment advisor and the investment performance in each portfolio. We also offer advisory services to help clients invest in a variety of mutual funds and other securities. By working in cooperation with our clients financial advisers, we seek to achieve each clients investment objectives by selecting the appropriate mutual funds.
Our asset management services generally require minimum investments of $50,000. As of December 31, 2004, we managed more than $2.6 billion for more than 17,000 accounts worldwide.
Our broker dealers have approximately 2,000 affiliated personal financial advisers, including approximately 1,700 accountants, who sell our annuity and insurance products, as well as third party mutual funds and other investment products. In connection with these sales, we receive commission and fee income from purchasers, and we pay a portion of the commissions and fees to personal financial advisers.
Prior to the completion of the IPO, we offered a broad range of institutional asset management services to third parties. GEAM provided the portfolio management services for this business, and we provided marketing, sales and support services. We did not acquire the institutional asset management services business from GEFAHI, but we will continue to provide services to GEAM and GEFAHI related to this asset management business, including client introduction services, asset retention services and compliance support. GEFAHI has agreed to pay us a fee of up to $10 million per year for four years following the completion of the IPO to provide these services. The fee will be determined based upon the level of third party assets under management managed by GEAM over the four-year term.
As of January 1, 2004, we entered into three agreements with affiliates of GE to manage a pool of municipal guaranteed investment contracts issued by those affiliates. Pursuant to these agreements, we have agreed to originate GIC liabilities and advise the GE affiliates regarding the investment, administration and management of their assets that support those liabilities. Under two of those agreements, we receive an administration fee of 0.165% per annum of the maximum program size for those GE affiliates, which is $15 billion. The agreements also provide for termination fees in the event of early termination at the option of either affiliate. Under a third agreement with another affiliate, we receive a management fee of 0.10% per annum of the book value of the investment contracts or similar securities issued by this affiliate after January 1, 2003, which was $1.6 billion as of December 31, 2004. The fee we receive on the contracts issued by that affiliate before January 1, 2003 is based upon a pricing arrangement that varies depending upon the maturities of those contracts and that affiliates cost of capital. The book value of the contracts issued before January 1, 2003 was $1.5 billion as of December 31, 2004 and is expected to generate a weighted average fee of approximately 0.35% in 2005. We also will receive reimbursement of our operating expenses under each of the agreements. The initial term of each of the three agreements will expire December 31, 2006, and unless terminated at the option of either party, each agreement will automatically renew on January 1 of each year for successive terms of one year.
Underwriting and pricing
We generally do not underwrite individual lives in our annuity products, other than structured settlements and some income annuities. Instead, we price our products based upon our expected investment returns and our expectations for mortality, longevity and persistency for the group of our contractholders as a whole, taking into
27
account mortality improvements in the general population and our historical experience. We price deferred annuities by analyzing longevity and persistency risk, volatility of expected earnings on our assets under management, and the expected time to retirement. We price our GICs using customized pricing models that estimate both expected cash flows and likely variance from those expectations caused by reallocations of assets by plan participants. We price income annuities and structured settlements using our mortality experience and assumptions regarding continued improvement in annuitant longevity, as well as assumptions regarding investment yields at the time of issue and thereafter.
Competition
As in our Protection segment, we face significant competition in all our Retirement Income and Investments businesses. Many other companies actively compete for sales in our markets, including other major insurers, banks, other financial institutions, mutual fund and money asset management firms and specialty providers. In many of our product lines, we face competition from competitors that have greater market share or breadth of distribution, offer a broader range of products, services or features, assume a greater level of risk, have lower profitability expectations or have higher claims paying ratings than we do. Many competitors offer similar products and use similar distribution channels. The substantial expansion of banks and insurance companies distribution capacities and expansion of product features in recent years has intensified pressure on margins and production levels and has increased the level of competition in many of our business lines.
We believe competition in our Retirement Income and Investments businesses is based on several factors, including product features, customer service, brand reputation, penetration of key distribution channels, breadth of product offering, product innovations and price.
Mortgage Insurance
Overview
Through our Mortgage Insurance segment, we offer mortgage insurance in the U.S., Australia, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. We also are exploring opportunities in Latin America and Asia.
Private mortgage insurance expands homeownership opportunities by enabling borrowers to buy homes with low-down-payment mortgages, which are usually defined as loans with a down payment of less than 20% of the homes value. Low-down-payment mortgages are sometimes also referred to as high loan-to-value mortgages. Mortgage insurance products increase the funds available for residential mortgages by protecting mortgage lenders and investors against loss in the event of a borrowers default. These products generally also aid financial institutions in managing their capital efficiently by reducing the capital required for low-down-payment mortgages. If a borrower defaults on mortgage payments, private mortgage insurance reduces and, in some instances, eliminates the loss to the insured institution. Private mortgage insurance also facilitates the sale of mortgage loans in the secondary mortgage market.
We have been providing mortgage insurance products and services in the U.S. since 1981 and now operate in all 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, we were the fifth-largest provider in 2004 of mortgage insurance in the U.S., based on new insurance written. We expanded our operations internationally throughout the 1990s and today we believe we are the largest provider of mortgage insurance outside the U.S. In 2004, we believe we were the leading provider in Australia based upon flow new insurance written, and one of two major insurers in Canada. We also are one of the leading private mortgage insurance providers in the U.K., based upon flow new insurance written, and have a growing presence in the developing private mortgage insurance market in Continental Europe. In addition to private mortgage insurance, we provide lenders with various underwriting and other products and services related to home mortgage lending.
28
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our U.S. and international mortgage insurance business, as of and for the periods indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Assets |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 3,239 | $ | 3,806 | $ | 4,650 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
3,189 | 2,304 | 1,416 | ||||||
Total assets |
$ | 6,428 | $ | 6,110 | $ | 6,066 | |||
Primary insurance in force |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 108,900 | $ | 122,200 | $ | 120,600 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
192,600 | 136,300 | 79,800 | ||||||
Total primary insurance in force |
$ | 301,500 | $ | 258,500 | $ | 200,400 | |||
Risk in force |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 23,700 | $ | 26,900 | $ | 29,600 | |||
International mortgage insurance(1) |
62,000 | 43,400 | 25,700 | ||||||
Total risk in force |
$ | 85,700 | $ | 70,300 | $ | 55,300 | |||
New insurance written |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 28,100 | $ | 67,400 | $ | 46,900 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
51,800 | 39,200 | 28,200 | ||||||
Total new insurance written |
$ | 79,900 | $ | 106,600 | $ | 75,100 | |||
Net premiums written |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 453 | $ | 486 | $ | 529 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
620 | 464 | 311 | ||||||
Total net premiums written |
$ | 1,073 | $ | 950 | $ | 840 | |||
Net premiums earned |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 460 | $ | 501 | $ | 550 | |||
International mortgage insurance(2) |
340 | 215 | 127 | ||||||
Total net premiums earned |
$ | 800 | $ | 716 | $ | 677 | |||
Total revenues, net of reinsurance |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 609 | $ | 665 | $ | 750 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
481 | 317 | 196 | ||||||
Total revenues, net of reinsurance |
$ | 1,090 | $ | 982 | $ | 946 | |||
Benefits and expenses |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 321 | $ | 358 | $ | 254 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
157 | 93 | 64 | ||||||
Total benefits and expenses |
$ | 478 | $ | 451 | $ | 318 | |||
Segment net earnings |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
$ | 224 | $ | 225 | $ | 366 | |||
International mortgage insurance |
202 | 144 | 85 | ||||||
Total segment net earnings |
$ | 426 | $ | 369 | $ | 451 | |||
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As of or for the years ended December 31, |
|||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||
Loss ratio(3) |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
28 | % | 20 | % | 6 | % | |||
International mortgage insurance |
11 | % | 7 | % | 9 | % | |||
Total loss ratio |
21 | % | 16 | % | 7 | % | |||
Expense ratio(4) |
|||||||||
U.S. mortgage insurance |
43 | % | 53 | % | 41 | % | |||
International mortgage insurance |
19 | % | 17 | % | 17 | % | |||
Total expense ratio |
29 | % | 35 | % | 32 | % |
(1) | Our businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada currently provide 100% coverage on the majority of the loans we insure in those markets. For the purpose of representing our risk in-force, we have computed an Effective Risk in Force amount, which recognizes that the loss on any particular loan will be reduced by the net proceeds received upon sale of the property. Effective risk in-force has been calculated by applying to insurance in-force a factor that represents our highest expected average per-claim payment for any one underwriting year over the life of our businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As of December 31, 2004, this factor was 35%. |
(2) | Most of our international mortgage insurance policies provide for single premiums at the time that loan proceeds are advanced. We initially record the single premiums to unearned premium reserves and recognize the premiums earned over time in accordance with the expected expiration of risk. As of December 31, 2004, our unearned premium reserves in our international mortgage insurance business were $1.5 billion. |
(3) | The ratio of incurred losses and loss adjustment expense to net premiums earned. |
(4) | The ratio of an insurers general expenses to net premiums written. In our business, general expenses consist of underwriting, acquisition and insurance expenses, net of deferrals, and amortization of DAC and intangibles. |
U.S. mortgage insurance
Overview
The U.S. private mortgage insurance industry is defined in large part by the requirements and practices of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other large mortgage investors. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase residential mortgages from mortgage lenders and investors, as part of their governmental mandate to provide liquidity in the secondary mortgage market. In the first nine months of 2004, Fannie Mae purchased approximately 21.3% of all the mortgage loans originated in the U.S., and Freddie Mac purchased approximately 14.8%, according to information published by Inside the GSEs. Mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac totaled more than $3.52 trillion as of December 31, 2004, or approximately 44% of the total outstanding mortgage debt in the U.S. In connection with these activities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also have established mortgage loan origination, documentation, servicing and selling requirements and standards for the loans they purchase. In addition, Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs current eligibility requirements provide that they will accept private mortgage insurance only from insurers that maintain financial strength ratings of at least AA- by S&P and Aa3 by Moodys. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government sponsored enterprises, and we refer to them as the GSEs.
The GSEs may purchase mortgages with unpaid principal amounts up to a specified maximum. The maximum single-family principal balance loan limit eligible for purchase by the GSEs is called the conforming loan limit. It is currently $359,650 and subject to annual adjustment. Each GSEs Congressional charter generally prohibits it from purchasing a mortgage where the loan-to-value ratio exceeds 80% of home value unless the portion of the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage which is in excess of 80% of the value of the property securing the mortgage is insured against default by lender recourse, participation or by a qualified insurer. As a result, high loan-to-value mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac generally are insured
30
with private mortgage insurance. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased approximately 68% of the flow loans we insured as of December 31, 2004.
The majority of our U.S. mortgage insurance policies provide default loss protection on a portion (typically 10%-40%) of the balance of an individual mortgage loan. Most of our primary mortgage insurance policies are flow insurance policies, which cover individual loans at the time the loan is originated. We also enter into bulk transactions with lenders and investors in selected instances, under which we insure a portfolio of loans for a negotiated price. Bulk insurance constituted less than 2% of our new risk written for each of the years ended December 2004, 2003 and 2002.
In addition to flow and bulk primary mortgage insurance business, we have written mortgage insurance on a pool basis. Under pool insurance, the mortgage insurer provides coverage on a group of specified loans, typically for 100% of all losses on every loan in the portfolio, subject to an agreed aggregate loss limit. We ceased writing pool insurance in 1993 (with the exception of a limited amount of insurance we wrote for state housing finance agencies and in connection with a sale of loans by an affiliate). We may consider writing pool insurance with state housing finance agencies and others where we believe we will be able to achieve our target returns.
The following table sets forth new risk written and risk in force in our U.S. mortgage insurance business, by product type, as of and for the periods indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
New risk written |
|||||||||
Flow insurance |
$ | 6,216 | $ | 12,612 | $ | 10,547 | |||
Bulk insurance(1) |
46 | 189 | 53 | ||||||
Pool insurance |
| 2 | | ||||||
Total |
$ | 6,262 | $ | 12,803 | $ | 10,600 | |||
Risk in force |
|||||||||
Flow insurance |
$ | 22,666 | $ | 25,396 | $ | 27,573 | |||
Bulk insurance |
303 | 409 | 431 | ||||||
Pool insurance |
736 | 1,046 | 1,638 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 23,705 | $ | 26,851 | $ | 29,642 | |||
(1) | A portion of our bulk insurance is classified as pool insurance under MICA reporting rules. |
Products and services
Primary mortgage insurance
Flow insurance. Flow insurance is primary mortgage insurance placed on an individual loan when the loan is originated. Our primary mortgage insurance covers default risk on first mortgage loans generally secured by one- to four-unit residential properties, and can be used to protect mortgage lenders and investors from default on any type of residential mortgage loan instrument that we have approved. Our insurance covers a specified coverage percentage of a claim amount consisting of unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure. As the insurer, we generally are required to pay the coverage percentage of a claim amount specified in the primary policy, but we also have the option to pay the lender an amount equal to the unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses incurred with the default and foreclosure, and acquire title to the property. In addition, the claim amount may be reduced or eliminated if the loss on the defaulted loan is reduced as a result of the lenders disposition of the property. The lender selects the coverage percentage at the time the loan is originated, often to comply with investor requirements to reduce the loss exposure on loans purchased by the investor.
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For a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the most common mortgage product in the U.S., the GSEs generally require coverage percentages of 30% for loan-to-value ratios, determined at loan origination, of 90.01%-95.00%, 25% for loan-to-value ratios of 85.01%-90.00% and 12% for loan-to-value ratios of 80.01%-85.00%. However, the GSEs may alter their coverage requirements and propose different product structures, and we also offer a range of other mortgage insurance products that provide greater or lesser coverage amounts.
The borrowers mortgage loan instrument generally requires the borrower to pay the mortgage insurance premium. In other cases, no insurance requirement is imposed upon the borrower, in which case the lender pays the premium and recovers those payments through the interest rate charged on the mortgage. Our mortgage insurance premiums for flow insurance typically are paid monthly, but premiums also may be paid annually or in a single, lump-sum payment. During each of the last three years, the monthly premium plan represented more than 98% of our flow new insurance written, with the annual premium plan and the single premium plan representing the balance of our new insurance written.
We are not permitted to terminate our mortgage insurance coverage in force, except for non-payment of premium or material breach of policy conditions. The insurance remains renewable at the option of the policyholder, usually at the renewal rate fixed when the loan was initially insured. As a result, we are not able to raise prices on existing policies to respond to unanticipated default patterns. In addition, our policyholders may cancel their insurance at any time at their option, including when a mortgage is repaid, which may be accelerated by mortgage refinancings in times of falling interest rates. Cancellations are generally driven primarily by the prevailing interest rate environment and the cancellation policies of the GSEs and other investors.
Under the U.S. Homeowners Protection Act, or the HPA, a borrower generally has the right to terminate private mortgage insurance coverage on loans closed after July 28, 1999 secured by a single-dwelling property that is the borrowers primary residence when certain loan-to-value ratio thresholds are met. In general, a borrower may stop making mortgage insurance payments when the loan-to-value ratio is scheduled to reach 80% (based upon the loans amortization schedule established at loan origination) if the borrower so requests and if certain requirements relating to the borrowers payment history and the propertys value since origination are satisfied. In addition, a borrowers obligation to make payments for private mortgage insurance generally terminates regardless of whether a borrower so requests when the loan-to-value ratio reaches 78% of the unpaid principal balance of the mortgage. Some states require mortgage servicers to notify borrowers periodically of the circumstances in which they may request a mortgage servicer to cancel private mortgage insurance. Some states allow the borrower to request that the mortgage servicer cancel private mortgage insurance or require the mortgage servicer to cancel such insurance automatically when the circumstances permitting cancellation occur.
The level of new mortgage originations decreased to $2,810 billion for the year ended December 31, 2004, from $3,760 billion and $2,680 billion for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively. This resulted in decreased levels of new mortgage insurance written. We believe the decrease in mortgage originations was due to two principal factors. First, increasing interest rates in 2004 made refinancings of existing mortgages less attractive to consumers than in recent years. Second, historically low interest rates in 2002 and 2003 contributed to substantial refinancing activity, which did not recur in 2004 because many mortgages for which refinancing would otherwise have been economically attractive were already refinanced prior to 2004. The lower level of refinancing activity resulted in an increase in our flow persistency rates from 46% for the year ended December 31, 2003 to 65% for the year ended December 31, 2004, excluding bulk transactions and the effect of a periodic payoff reconciliation on one structured transaction involving single premium mortgage insurance that today would be classified as bulk insurance. We expect the market for mortgage originations and new mortgage insurance written to stabilize as anticipated home sales in future years offset the recent decline in mortgage originations due to decreased refinancing activity.
We also are developing innovative mortgage insurance products that are designed to attract first-time home buyers and expand the scope of the traditional mortgage insurance market. For example, we recently launched our HomeOpenersSM products: MonthlyPlus, PaymentPlus and LenderPlus. Our MonthlyPlus product combines a
32
mortgage insurance policy with payment protection on mortgage payments for a specified period of time in the event of involuntary job loss or accidental death. Our PaymentPlus and LenderPlus products are designed to compete with simultaneous second mortgages, as described below under CompetitionMortgage lenders and other investors.
Bulk insurance
Under our primary bulk insurance, we insure a portfolio of loans in a single, bulk transaction. Generally, in our bulk insurance, the individual loans in the insured portfolio are insured to specified levels of coverage, and there is an aggregate loss limit applicable to all of the insured loans. We base the premium on our bulk insurance upon our evaluation of the overall risk of the insured loans included in a transaction, and we negotiate the premium directly with the securitizer or other owner of the loans. Most of our bulk insurance business has related to loans financed by lenders who participate in the mortgage programs sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Banks. Premiums for bulk transactions generally are paid monthly by lenders or investors or a securitization vehicle in connection with a securitization transaction or the sale of a loan portfolio.
The loans we insure in bulk transactions typically consist of prime credit-quality loans with loan-to-value ratios of 50% to 95%. We generally have avoided the riskier portions of the sub-prime segments of the market, because we believe market pricing for mortgage insurance on sub-prime bulk transactions has not been adequate and we have had concerns regarding the volatility of this segment. However, we may consider insuring such loans where we believe we will be able to achieve our target returns. Loans that we insure in bulk transactions with loan-to-value ratios above 80% typically have primary mortgage insurance on a flow basis, written either by us or another private mortgage insurer. Our mortgage insurance coverage levels in bulk transactions typically range from 10% to 40%.
Pool insurance
In addition to our flow and bulk primary mortgage insurance, we previously have written mortgage insurance on a pool basis. Pool insurance generally is used as an additional credit enhancement for secondary market mortgage transactions. We ceased writing pool insurance in 1993 (with the exception of a limited amount of insurance we wrote for state housing finance agencies and in connection with a sale of loans by an affiliate) because of relatively high losses on pool policies, resulting primarily from inadequate pricing, loss severity and risk concentration in certain parts of the country. However, we may consider writing pool insurance for state housing finance agencies and others where we believe we will be able to achieve our target returns.
Our remaining pool insurance in force, which relates primarily to policies written between 1990 and 1993, generally covers the loss on a defaulted mortgage loan that exceeds either the claim payment under the primary coverage (if primary insurance is required on that loan) or the total loss (if that loan does not require primary insurance), in each case up to a stated aggregate loss limit. Mortgage loans we insured in pool insurance with loan-to-value ratios above 80% typically are covered by flow mortgage insurance, written either by us or another private mortgage insurer.
Contract underwriting services
We perform fee-based contract underwriting services for mortgage lenders. Historically, lenders and mortgage insurers each maintained underwriting staffs and performed separate, and in many ways duplicative, underwriting activities with respect to each mortgage loan. Over time, lenders and mortgage insurers have developed a number of arrangements designed to eliminate those inefficiencies. The provision of underwriting services by mortgage insurers serves this purpose and speeds the approval process.
The principal contract underwriting service we provide is determining whether the data relating to a borrower and a proposed loan contained in a mortgage loan application file complies with the lenders loan
33
underwriting guidelines or the investors loan purchase requirements. In connection with that service, we also compile the application data and submit it to the automated underwriting systems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which independently analyze the data to determine if the proposed loan complies with their investor requirements. If the loan being reviewed requires mortgage insurance under the applicable lender or investor criteria, we also underwrite the loan to our mortgage insurance guidelines and issue the appropriate mortgage insurance coverage. We believe our contract underwriting services appeal to mortgage lenders because they enable lenders to reduce their costs and improve their operating efficiencies.
Under the terms of our contract underwriting agreements, we agree to indemnify the lender against losses incurred in the event we make material errors in determining whether loans processed by our contract underwriters meet specified underwriting or purchase criteria, subject to contractual limitations on liability.
New risk written by our contract underwriters represented 24% of our new risk written for the year ended December 31, 2004, compared to 23% and 26% for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
Captive Reinsurance
Captive reinsurance is a reinsurance program in which we share portions of our U.S. mortgage insurance risk written on loans originated or purchased by lenders with captive reinsurance companies, or captive reinsurers, affiliated with these lenders. In return, we cede to the captive reinsurers an agreed portion of our gross premiums on flow insurance written. New insurance written through the bulk channel generally is not subject to these arrangements.
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our captive reinsurance arrangements, as of and for the periods indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, |
|||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||
Primary risk in force subject to captive reinsurance arrangements, as a percentage of total primary risk in force |
66 | % | 64 | % | 55 | % | |||
Gross written premiums ceded pursuant to captive reinsurance arrangements, as a percentage of total gross written premiums |
24 | % | 23 | % | 18 | % | |||
Primary new risk written subject to captive reinsurance arrangements, as a percentage of total primary new risk written |
70 | % | 75 | % | 77 | % |
We believe that the increase in the percentage of primary risk in force subject to captive reinsurance agreements was driven by a higher percentage of new insurance written generated by lenders having captive reinsurance programs during a period of high refinancing activity. Many large mortgage lenders have developed captive reinsurance affiliates, and the recent consolidation among large mortgage lenders has resulted in an increased percentage of mortgage loans originated or purchased by lenders with captive reinsurance programs. The recent low-interest-rate environment has generated significant refinancing activity in recent years, which has resulted in increased concentration of mortgage loans with larger lenders that tend to use captive reinsurance arrangements.
Many large U.S. mortgage lenders whose policies we insure have developed reinsurance operations that provide for net premium cessions from mortgage insurers of 25% to 40%. Starting in late 2003, we generally sought to exit or restructure a portion of our excess-of-loss risk sharing arrangements with premium cessions in excess of 25% to improve profitability. This resulted in a significant reduction in business from several of these lenders and a reduction in the percentage of primary new risk written that is subject to captive reinsurance
34
arrangements. We then re-evaluated these relationships on a case-by-case basis, assessing various factors, including ceding terms, attachment points and quality of portfolios. As a result, we reinstated or restructured some of these arrangements.
As of December 31, 2004, other than reinsurance under captive arrangements, we reinsured less than 1% of our mortgage insurance in force.
Customers
Our principal mortgage insurance customers are originators of residential mortgage loans, such as mortgage banks, savings institutions, commercial banks, mortgage brokers, credit unions and other lenders, who typically determine which mortgage insurer or insurers they will use for the placement of mortgage insurance written on loans they originate. To obtain primary insurance written on a flow basis, a mortgage lender must first apply for and receive from us a mortgage guaranty master policy. In recent years, there has been significant consolidation among the largest lenders, which now underwrite a substantial portion of all the mortgages written in the U.S. Our top ten lenders accounted for an aggregate of 27% of our flow new insurance written for the year ended December 31, 2004.
We are focused on expanding our presence throughout the mortgage loan market by providing superior customer sales support, product offerings designed to meet the specific needs of our customers, and technology products designed to enable customers to reduce costs and expand revenues. In addition, as discussed under Operations and Technology, we have developed web-based technology services that enable our customers to interact more efficiently with us.
Underwriting and pricing
Loan applications for all loans we insure are reviewed to evaluate each individual borrowers credit strength and history, the characteristics of the loan and the value of the underlying property. This analysis generally includes reviewing the following criteria:
| the borrowers credit strength and history, as reported by credit reporting agencies; |
| the borrowers debt-to-income ratios where income is disclosed; |
| the loan-to-value ratio; |
| the type of mortgage instrument; |
| the purpose of the loan; |
| the type of property; and |
| appraisals to confirm the property market value is fairly stated. |
Loan applications for primary mortgage insurance are reviewed by our employees directly as part of our traditional underwriting process or by our contract underwriters as we process mortgage loan applications requiring mortgage insurance. Some mortgage lenders also underwrite loan applications for mortgage insurance under a delegated underwriting program, in which we permit approved lenders to commit us to insure loans using underwriting guidelines we have previously approved. Before granting a lender delegated underwriting authority, our risk management personnel review the lenders underwriting experience and processes, loan quality and specific loan programs to be included in the delegated program. In addition, we conduct audits on a sample of the delegated loans we insure to confirm that lenders with delegated authority adhere to approved underwriting guidelines and procedures.
The majority of mortgage loans we insure today are underwritten using Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs automated underwriting systems, or AUS, which lenders have widely adopted due to the GSEs requirements and
35
the efficiencies that AUS provide. We have evaluated loans approved by Fannie Maes and Freddie Macs AUS and, like other mortgage insurers, we generally have agreed to insure loans approved by these systems. Under the delegated underwriting program, lenders may use their own AUS provided we have reviewed and approved their system. AUS have automated many of the underwriting steps were previously performed by underwriters on a manual basis and use sophisticated mortgage scoring methodologies to evaluate borrower default risk. Although we review AUS before allowing their use under our delegated program, under which lenders have the responsibility to determine whether the loans comply with our approved underwriting guidelines, a potential risk to us of using AUS is factors we might otherwise evaluate in making an underwriting decision are not considered if not required by the AUS.
Loans insured under our delegated underwriting program accounted for approximately 59% of our total risk in force as of December 31, 2004, compared to 59% and 56% as of December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively. The percentage of new risk written by delegated underwriters was 58% for the year ended December 31, 2004, compared to 62% and 61% for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
In pricing mortgage insurance policies, we generally target substantially similar returns on capital regardless of the loan-to-value ratio, product type and depth of coverage. We establish premium rates principally on the basis of long-term claims experience in the industry, reflecting periods of lower and higher losses and various regional economic downturns. We believe over the long term each region of the U.S. will be subject to similar factors affecting risk of loss on insurance written, and, therefore, we generally use a nationally based premium rate policy, rather than a regional, local or lender-based policy. Our premium rates vary with the coverage percentage and the perceived risk of a claim on the insured loan, which takes into account the loan-to-value ratio, the type of mortgage and the term of the mortgage. Our premium rates also reflect our expectations, based upon our analysis of historical data, of the persistency of the policies in our book of business. Our premium rates also take into account competitive alternatives available to consumers, including rates offered by other mortgage insurers.
Our premium rates also consider the location of the borrowers credit score within a range of credit scores. In accordance with industry practice, we use the FICO score as one indicator of a borrowers credit quality. Fair Isaac and Company, or FICO, developed the FICO credit scoring model to calculate a FICO score based upon a borrowers credit history. The higher the credit score, the lower the likelihood that a borrower will default on a loan. FICO credit scores range up to 850, with a score of 620 or more generally viewed as a prime loan and a score below 620 generally viewed as a sub-prime loan. A minus loans generally are loans where the borrowers have FICO credit scores between 575 and 660, and where the borrower has a blemished credit history. Some of our products require a minimum FICO score and/or have rates based on FICO scores. As of December 31, 2004, on a risk in force basis, approximately 92% of our flow insurance loans had FICO credit scores of at least 620, approximately 6% had FICO credit scores between 575 and 619, and approximately 2% had FICO scores of 574 or less.
As of December 31, 2004, on a risk in force basis, approximately 91% of our bulk insurance loans had FICO credit scores of at least 620, approximately 5% had FICO credit scores between 575 and 619, and approximately 4% had FICO scores of 574 or less. The majority of loans we currently insure in bulk transactions meet the conforming loan limit and have FICO credit scores of at least 620. After 2001, we significantly reduced writing insurance of loans in bulk transactions that included non-conforming and lesser-quality loans, such as A minus loans and sub-prime loans, because we believe market pricing was inadequate to compensate us for the risk.
We also provide mortgage insurance for Alt A loans, which are originated under programs in which there is a reduced level of verification or disclosure of the borrowers income or assets. For an Alt A loan, the borrowers credit strength and history and the appraised value of the property are carefully reviewed. We also impose limitations on Alt A loans, including limitations with respect to the purpose of the loan and the type of property. Alt A loans represented 2.8%, 1.9% and 2.5% of our risk in force as of December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
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Loan portfolio
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding our U.S. primary mortgage insurance loan portfolio as of the dates indicated:
December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Primary risk-in-force lender concentration (by original applicant) |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Top 10 lenders |
9,755 | 12,047 | 12,538 | ||||||
Top 20 lenders |
11,938 | 14,392 | 15,360 | ||||||
Loan-to-value ratio |
|||||||||
95.01% and above |
3,601 | 3,431 | 2,538 | ||||||
90.01% to 95.00% |
9,450 | 10,759 | 12,313 | ||||||
80.01% to 90.00% |
9,555 | 10,868 | 11,681 | ||||||
80.00% and below |
363 | 747 | 1,472 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Loan grade |
|||||||||
Prime |
$ | 20,704 | $ | 23,408 | $ | 26,025 | |||
A minus and sub-prime |
2,265 | 2,397 | 1,979 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Loan type |
|||||||||
Fixed rate mortgage |
$ | 21,492 | $ | 24,354 | $ | 26,619 | |||
Adjustable rate mortgage |
1,477 | 1,451 | 1,385 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Type of documentation |
|||||||||
Alt A |
$ | 633 | $ | 503 | $ | 708 | |||
Standard |
22,336 | 25,302 | 27,296 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Mortgage term |
|||||||||
15 years and under |
$ | 1,163 | $ | 1,489 | $ | 1,214 | |||
More than 15 years |
21,806 | 24,316 | 26,790 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 22,969 | $ | 25,805 | $ | 28,004 | |||
Loans in default and claims
Our default management process begins with notification by the loan servicer of a default on an insured loan. Default is defined in our master policies as the borrowers failure to pay when due an amount equal to the scheduled monthly mortgage payment under the terms of the mortgage. Generally, the master policies require an insured to notify us of a default no later than ten days after the borrower has been in default by three monthly payments. In most cases, however, defaults are reported earlier. We generally consider a loan to be in default and establish reserves if the borrower has failed to make a required mortgage payment for two consecutive months. Borrowers default for a variety of reasons, including a reduction of income, unemployment, divorce, illness, inability to manage credit and interest rate levels. Borrowers may cure defaults by making all of the delinquent loan payments or by selling the property in full satisfaction of all amounts due under the mortgage. In most cases, defaults that are not cured result in a claim under our policy.
37
The following table sets forth the number of loans insured, the number of loans in default and the default rate for our U.S. mortgage insurance portfolio:
December 31, |
|||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||
Primary Insurance |
|||||||||
Insured loans in force |
830,688 | 950,157 | 993,906 | ||||||
Loans in default |
28,467 | 32,207 | 33,278 | ||||||
Percentage of loans in default (default rate) |
3.4 | % | 3.4 | % | 3.3 | % | |||
Flow loans in force |
719,533 | 839,891 | 948,224 | ||||||
Flow loans in default |
26,737 | 29,787 | 30,194 | ||||||
Percentage of flow loans in default (default rate) |
3.7 | % | 3.5 | % | 3.2 | % | |||
Bulk loans in force |
111,155 | 110,266 | 45,682 | ||||||
Bulk loans in default |
1,730 | 2,420 | 3,084 | ||||||
Percentage of bulk loans in default (default rate) |
1.6 | % | 2.2 | % | 6.8 | % | |||
A minus and sub-prime loans in force |
69,817 | 75,584 | 63,646 | ||||||
A minus and sub-prime loans in default |
7,068 | 6,881 | 5,547 | ||||||
Percentage of A minus and sub-prime loans in default (default rate) |
10.1 | % | 9.1 | % | 8.7 | % | |||
Pool Insurance |
|||||||||
Insured loans in force |
25,303 | 37,702 | 55,195 | ||||||
Loans in default |
777 | 855 | 1,505 | ||||||
Percentage of loans in default (default rate) |
3.1 | % | 2.3 | % | 2.7 | % |
Primary insurance default rates differ from region to region in the U.S. at any one time depending upon economic conditions and cyclical growth patterns. The two tables below set forth our primary default rates for the various regions of the U.S. and the ten largest states by our risk in force as of December 31, 2004. Default rates are shown by region based upon location of the underlying property, rather than the location of the lender.
Percent of primary risk in force as of December 31, 2004 |
Default rate December 31, |
|||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
||||||||||
U.S. Regions |
||||||||||||
Southeast(1) |
22 | % | 3.87 | % | 3.59 | % | 3.51 | % | ||||
South Central(2) |
17 | % | 3.82 | % | 3.65 | % | 3.45 | % | ||||
Northeast(3) |
13 | % | 3.79 | % | 3.88 | % | 3.87 | % | ||||
North Central(4) |
13 | % | 2.80 | % | 2.71 | % | 2.94 | % | ||||
Pacific(5) |
11 | % | 2.11 | % | 2.54 | % | 2.94 | % | ||||
Great Lakes(6) |
9 | % | 4.61 | % | 4.33 | % | 4.08 | % | ||||
Plains(7) |
6 | % | 2.57 | % | 2.54 | % | 2.43 | % | ||||
Mid-Atlantic(8) |
5 | % | 2.85 | % | 2.94 | % | 3.25 | % | ||||
New England(9) |
4 | % | 2.46 | % | 2.79 | % | 2.82 | % | ||||
Total |
100 | % | 3.43 | % | 3.38 | % | 3.34 | % | ||||
(1) | Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. |
(2) | Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. |
(3) | New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. |
(4) | Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. |
(5) | Alaska, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. |
(6) | Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. |
(7) | Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. |
(8) | Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and West Virginia. |
(9) | Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. |
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Percent of primary risk in force as of 2004 |
Default Rate December 31, |
|||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
||||||||||
Florida |
8.15 | % | 2.80 | % | 2.75 | % | 3.08 | % | ||||
Texas |
6.92 | % | 4.70 | % | 4.15 | % | 3.80 | % | ||||
New York |
5.87 | % | 3.06 | % | 3.47 | % | 3.46 | % | ||||
Illinois |
5.55 | % | 3.26 | % | 3.23 | % | 3.66 | % | ||||
California |
4.72 | % | 1.39 | % | 1.91 | % | 2.45 | % | ||||
North Carolina |
3.90 | % | 4.33 | % | 4.12 | % | 3.68 | % | ||||
Pennsylvania |
3.87 | % | 4.79 | % | 4.38 | % | 4.49 | % | ||||
Georgia |
3.67 | % | 4.92 | % | 4.68 | % | 4.40 | % | ||||
Arizona |
3.64 | % | 2.63 | % | 3.18 | % | 3.52 | % | ||||
Ohio |
3.63 | % | 5.13 | % | 4.64 | % | 4.20 | % |
Claim activity is not spread evenly throughout the coverage period of a primary insurance book of business. Based upon our experience, the majority of claims on primary mortgage insurance loans occur in the third through seventh years after loan origination, and relatively few claims are paid during the first two years after loan origination. Primary insurance written from the period from January 1, 1997 through December 31, 2001 represented 13% of our primary insurance in force as of December 31, 2004. This portion of our loan portfolio is in its expected peak claim period with respect to traditional primary loans. We believe our A minus and sub-prime loans will have earlier incidences of default than our prime loans. A minus loans represented 4.4% and 3.5% of our primary risk in force as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively, and sub-prime loans represented 5.5% and 5.8% of our primary risk in force as of December 31, 2004 and 2003, respectively.
The following table sets forth the dispersion of our primary insurance in force and risk in force as of December 31, 2004, by year of policy origination and average annual mortgage interest rate since we began operations in 1981:
(Dollar amounts in millions)
Policy Year |
Average rate |
Primary insurance in force |
Percent of total |
Primary risk in force |
Percent of total |
||||||||||
1981-92 |
9.21 | % | $ | 1,423 | 1.31 | % | $ | 316 | 1.38 | % | |||||
1993 |
7.41 | % | 989 | 0.91 | % | 205 | 0.89 | % | |||||||
1994 |
7.68 | % | 1,103 | 1.01 | % | 241 | 1.05 | % | |||||||
1995 |
8.22 | % | 820 | 0.75 | % | 220 | 0.96 | % | |||||||
1996 |
7.92 | % | 902 | 0.83 | % | 244 | 1.06 | % | |||||||
1997 |
7.82 | % | 825 | 0.76 | % | 221 | 0.96 | % | |||||||
1998 |
7.11 | % | 2,301 | 2.11 | % | 583 | 2.54 | % | |||||||
1999 |
7.23 | % | 2,559 | 2.35 | % | 640 | 2.79 | % | |||||||
2000 |
8.15 | % | 1,546 | 1.42 | % | 385 | 1.68 | % | |||||||
2001 |
7.42 | % | 6,457 | 5.93 | % | 1,546 | 6.73 | % | |||||||
2002 |
6.50 | % | 15,398 | 14.14 | % | 3,570 | 15.54 | % | |||||||
2003 |
5.62 | % | 48,962 | 44.95 | % | 9,108 | 39.65 | % | |||||||
2004 |
5.81 | % | 25,634 | 23.53 | % | 5,690 | 24.77 | % | |||||||
Total portfolio |
6.30 | % | $ | 108,919 | 100.00 | % | $ | 22,969 | 100.00 | % | |||||
Primary mortgage insurance claims paid, including loss adjustment expenses, or LAE, for the year ended December 31, 2004 were $146 million, compared to $117 million and $105 million for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively. Pool insurance claims paid for the year ended December 31, 2004 were $1 million, compared to $1 million and $4 million for the years ended December 31, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
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The frequency of defaults may not correlate directly with the number of claims received because the rate at which defaults are cured is influenced by borrowers financial resources and circumstances and regional economic differences. Whether an uncured default leads to a claim principally depends upon the borrowers equity at the time of default and the borrowers or the insureds ability to sell the home for an amount sufficient to satisfy all amounts due under the mortgage loan. When we receive notice of a default, we use a proprietary model to determine whether a delinquent loan is a candidate for work-out. When the model identifies such a candidate, our loan workout specialists prioritize cases for loss mitigation based upon the likelihood that the loan will result in a claim. Loss mitigation actions include loan modification, extension of credit to bring a loan current, foreclosure forbearance, pre-foreclosure sale, and deed-in-lieu. These loss mitigation efforts often are an effective way to reduce our claim exposure and ultimate payouts.
Our policies require the insured to file a claim with us, specifying the claim amount (unpaid principal, interest and expenses), no later than 60 days after it has acquired title to the underlying property, usually through foreclosure. The claim amount is subject to our review and possible adjustment. Depending upon the applicable state foreclosure law, an average of approximately 16 months elapse from the date of default to the filing of a claim on an uncured default. Our master policies exclude coverage for physical damage whether caused by fire, earthquake or other hazard where the borrowers default was caused by an uninsured casualty.
We have the right to rescind coverage and refuse to pay a claim if it is determined that the insured or its agents misrepresented material information in the insurance application. In addition, where loans are underwritten by lenders through our delegated underwriting program, we have the right to rescind coverage if the loan was not underwritten in compliance with our approved guidelines.
Within 60 days after a claim and supporting documentation have been filed, we have the option:
| to pay the claim amount, multiplied by coverage percentage specified in the certificate of insurance; |
| in the event the property is sold pursuant to an agreement made prior to payment of the claim, which we refer to as a pre-arranged sale, to pay the lesser of 100% of the claim amount less the proceeds of sale of the property, or the claim amount multiplied by the coverage percentage; or |
| to pay the lender an amount equal to the unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses incurred with the default and foreclosure, and acquire title to the property. We bear the risk of any loss in connection with the acquisition and sale of the property. |
For the year ended December 31, 2004, we settled a majority of the primary insurance claims processed for payment on the basis of a pre-arranged sale.
The ratio of the claim paid to the unpaid principal amount multiplied by the coverage percentage is referred to as claim severity. The main determinants of claim severity are the age of the mortgage loan, the value of the underlying property, accrued interest on the loan, expenses advanced by the insured and foreclosure expenses. These amounts depend partly upon the time required to complete foreclosure, which varies depending upon state laws. Pre-foreclosure sales, acquisitions and other early workout efforts help to reduce overall claim severity. Our average primary mortgage insurance claim severity was 94%, 93% and 93% for the years 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
Competition
We compete primarily with U.S. and state government agencies, other private mortgage insurers, mortgage lenders and other investors, the GSEs and, potentially, the Federal Home Loan Banks. We also compete, indirectly, with structured transactions in the capital markets and with other financial instruments designed to mitigate credit risk.
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U.S. and state government agencies. We and other private mortgage insurers compete for flow business directly with U.S. federal and state governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, principally the FHA and, to a lesser degree, the VA. The following table sets forth the relative mortgage insurance market share of FHA/VA and private mortgage insurers over the past five years:
December 31, |
|||||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000 |
|||||||||||
FHA/VA |
32.8 | % | 36.4 | % | 35.6 | % | 37.3 | % | 41.4 | % | |||||
Private mortgage insurance |
67.2 | % | 63.6 | % | 64.4 | % | 62.7 | % | 58.6 | % | |||||
Total |
100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | |||||
Source: Inside Mortgage Finance.
Loans insured by the FHA cannot exceed maximum principal amounts that are determined by a percentage of the conforming loan limit. For 2005, the maximum FHA loan amount for homes with one dwelling unit in high cost areas is $312,859 and the maximum VA loan amount is $359,650. We and other private mortgage insurers are not limited as to maximum individual loan amounts we can insure.
In January 2001, the FHA reduced the up-front mortgage insurance premium it charges on loans from 2.25% to 1.5% of the original loan amounts. The FHA has also streamlined its down-payment formula, making FHA insurance more competitive with private mortgage insurance in areas with higher home prices. These and other legislative and regulatory changes could cause future demand for private mortgage insurance to decrease.
In addition to competition from the FHA and the VA, we and other private mortgage insurers face competition from state-supported mortgage insurance funds in several states, including California, Illinois and New York. From time to time, other state legislatures and agencies consider expansions of the authority of their state governments to insure residential mortgages.
Government entities with which we compete typically do not have the same capital requirements and do not have the same profit objectives as we do. Although private companies establish pricing terms for their products to achieve targeted returns, these government entities may offer products on terms designed to accomplish social or political objectives or reflect other non-economic goals.
Private mortgage insurers. The private mortgage insurance industry is highly competitive. The private mortgage insurance industry currently consists of seven mortgage insurers plus our company.
The other companies are Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation; PMI Mortgage Insurance Company; CMG Mortgage Insurance Company, a joint venture in which PMI is one of the partners; Radian Guaranty Inc.; Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., an affiliate of Old Republic International; Triad Guaranty Insurance Corp.; and United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company, an affiliate of American International Group, Inc.
Mortgage lenders and other investors. We and other mortgage insurers compete with transactions structured by mortgage lenders to avoid mortgage insurance on low-down-payment mortgage loans. These transactions include self-insuring and simultaneous second loans, which separate a mortgage with a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80%, which generally would require mortgage insurance, into two loans, a first mortgage with a loan to-value-ratio of 80% and a simultaneous second mortgage for the excess portion of the loan. Simultaneous second loans are also often known as 80-10-10 loans, because they often comprise a first mortgage with an 80% loan-to-value ratio, a second mortgage with a 10% loan-to-value ratio and the remaining 10% paid in cash by the buyer, rather than a single mortgage with a 90% loan-to-value ratio. However, simultaneous seconds also can be structured as 80-15-5 loans or 80-20-0 loans, as well as other configurations.
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Over the past several years, we believe the volume of simultaneous second loans as an alternative to loans requiring private mortgage insurance has increased substantially. We believe this recent increase reflects the following factors:
| the lower cost of simultaneous second loans compared to the cost of mortgage insurance, due to the current low-interest-rate environment and the emerging popularity of 15- and 30-year amortizing and adjustable rate simultaneous seconds; |
| the fact that second mortgage interest is generally tax-deductible, whereas mortgage insurance payments currently are not tax-deductible (although from time to time there have been proposed legislative initiatives to permit deductions for mortgage insurance payments); |
| negative consumer, broker and realtor perceptions of private mortgage insurance; and |
| the desire by some investors to hold second mortgages. |
We are developing mortgage insurance products that seek to enhance the appeal of private mortgage insurance in view of the increasing volume of simultaneous second loans. For example, in 2004, we launched our HomeOpenersSM suite of products designed to compete more effectively with simultaneous second loans by offering consumers lower monthly payments, more deductible interest and involuntary job loss protection at no additional cost.
Mortgage lenders also may compete with mortgage insurers as a result of legislation that has removed restrictions on affiliations between banks and insurers. The Graham-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 permits the combination of banks, insurers and securities firms under one holding company. This legislation may increase competition by increasing the number, size and financial strength of potential competitors. In addition, mortgage lenders that establish or affiliate with competing mortgage insurers may reduce their purchases of our products.
We also compete with structured transactions in the capital markets and with other financial instruments designed to mitigate the risk of mortgage defaults, such as credit default swaps and credit linked notes, with lenders who forego mortgage insurance (self-insure) on loans held in their portfolios, and with mortgage lenders who maintain captive mortgage insurance and reinsurance programs.
The GSEsFannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As the predominant purchasers of conventional mortgage loans in the U.S., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide a direct link between mortgage origination and capital markets. As discussed above under Primary mortgage insurance, most high loan-to-value mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac are insured with private mortgage insurance issued by an insurer deemed qualified by the GSEs. Our mortgage insurance company is a qualified insurer with both GSEs. Private mortgage insurers may be subject to competition from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the extent the GSEs are compensated for assuming default risk that would otherwise be insured by the private mortgage insurance industry.
The GSEs are currently subject to oversight by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. In November 2004, HUD announced new GSE mortgage purchase requirements, known as affordable housing goals. Under these goals, which became effective January 1, 2005, the minimum percent of all loans purchased by the GSEs that must support low- and moderate-income homebuyers increases annually from 50% in 2004 to 56% in 2008, and the minimum percent of such loans that must be on properties in underserved areas increases annually from 36% in 2004 to 39% in 2008. The GSEs goals to expand purchases of affordable housing loans have increased the size of the mortgage insurance market. The GSEs also have expanded programs to include commitments to purchase certain volumes of loans with loan-to-value ratios greater than 95%.
Private mortgage insurers must satisfy requirements set by the GSEs to be eligible to insure loans sold to the GSEs, and the GSEs have the ability to implement new eligibility requirements for mortgage insurers. They also have the authority to change the pricing arrangements for purchasing retained- participation mortgages as compared to insured mortgages, increase or reduce required mortgage insurance coverage percentages, and alter or liberalize underwriting standards on low-down-payment mortgages they purchase.
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Federal Home Loan Banks. In October 1999, the Federal Housing Finance Board, or FHF Board, adopted resolutions that authorize each Federal Home Loan Bank, or FHLB, to offer Mortgage Partnership Finance Programs, or MPF Programs, to purchase single-family conforming mortgage loans originated by participating member institutions. In July 2000, the FHF Board gave permanent authority to each FHLB to purchase these loans from member institutions without any volume cap. In October 2000, the FHF Board approved the Mortgage Purchase Programs, or MPPs, to purchase single-family conforming mortgage loans, similar to the MPF Programs.
The MPF and MPP Programs are similar to the purchase of mortgage loans by the GSEs. Although not required to do so, the FHLBs currently use mortgage insurance on substantially all mortgage loans with a loan-to-value ratio above 80% and have become a source of increasing new business for us. However, to the extent that the FHLBs purchased uninsured mortgage loans or used other credit-enhancement products, the MPF and MPP Programs could result in a decrease in the size of the market for private mortgage insurance.
International mortgage insurance
We have significant mortgage insurance operations in Australia and Canada, two of the largest markets for mortgage insurance products outside the U.S., as well as in the smaller New Zealand market and the developing European market. The net premiums written in our international mortgage insurance business have increased by a compound annual growth rate of 45% for the three years ended December 31, 2004. Insurance in-force for our international mortgage insurance business contributed 64% of our total insurance in-force as of December 31, 2004 compared to 53% as of December 31, 2003 and 40% as of December 31, 2002. In addition, earnings from our international mortgage insurance business represented 47%, 39% and 19% of our mortgage insurance net earnings for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively, representing a compound annual growth rate of 54% from 2002 to 2004.
The mortgage loan markets in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand are well developed. Although mortgage insurance plays an important role in each of these markets, the markets vary significantly and are influenced in large part by the different cultural, economic and regulatory conditions in each market. We believe the following factors have contributed to the growth of robust mortgage insurance demand in these countries:
| a desire by lenders to offer low-down-payment mortgage loans to facilitate the expansion of their business; |
| the recognition of the higher default risk inherent in low-down-payment lending and the need for specialized underwriting expertise to conduct this business prudently; |
| government housing policies that support increased homeownership; |
| government policies that support the use of securitization and secondary market mortgage sales, in which third-party credit enhancement is often used, as a source of funding and liquidity for mortgage lending; and |
| bank regulatory capital policies that provide incentives to lenders to transfer some or all of the increased credit risk on low-down-payment mortgages to third parties, such as mortgage insurers. |
We believe a number of these factors are becoming evident in certain markets throughout Europe, Latin America and Asia and provide opportunities for us to expand our mortgage insurance business in those markets.
Based upon our experience in the mature markets, we believe a favorable regulatory framework is important to the development of an environment in which lenders routinely extend high loan-to-value loans and use products such as mortgage insurance to protect against default risk or obtain capital relief. As a result, we have advocated governmental and policymaking agencies throughout our markets adopt legislative and regulatory policies supporting increased homeownership and capital relief for lenders and mortgage investors that insure
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their loan portfolios with private mortgage insurance. Although the products we offer in each of our international markets differ, they represent substantially similar risk propositions and involve similar business practices. We have developed significant expertise in mature markets, and we leverage this experience in developing markets as we continue to encourage regulatory authorities to implement incentives for private mortgage insurance as an effective risk management strategy.
We believe the revisions to a set of regulatory rules and procedures governing global bank capital standards that were introduced by the Basel Committee of the Bank for International Settlements, known as Basel II, also may encourage further growth of international mortgage insurance. Basel II has been designed to reward banks that have developed effective risk management systems by allowing them to hold less capital than banks with less effective systems. For example, Basel II may reward a lender that transfers some risk of mortgage default to a third-party insurer by reducing the amount of capital that the lender must hold to back a mortgage. Basel II was finalized and issued in June 2004; however, its adoption by individual countries is ongoing. Therefore, we cannot predict the benefits that ultimately will be provided to lenders, or how any such benefits may affect the opportunities for the growth of mortgage insurance.
We believe certain markets in Europe, Latin America and Asia have strong demand for housing, but are underserved by the existing housing finance systems. As a result, we believe that mortgage insurance could enhance the overall scale, effectiveness and efficiency of these mortgage markets.
We believe lenders in these countries will seek to expand their consumer mortgage loan portfolios, while maintaining strong risk and capital management routines. With the expected implementation of the new Basel II standards, we believe we will be well positioned to assist lenders in these markets in meeting those goals and in complying with the anticipated complexity of the risk-based capital and operating standards.
Canada
We entered the Canadian mortgage insurance market in 1995 with our acquisition of certain assets and employees from the Mortgage Insurance Corporation of Canada, and we now operate in every province and territory. We are the only private mortgage insurer in the Canadian market.
Products
We offer two products in Canada: primary flow insurance and portfolio credit enhancement insurance. Our principal product is primary flow insurance, which is similar to the primary flow insurance we offer in the U.S. Regulations in Canada require the use of mortgage insurance for all mortgage loans extended by banks, trust companies and insurers, where the loan-to-value ratio exceeds 75%. Mortgage insurance in Canada is typically single premium and provides 100% coverage, in contrast to the U.S., where monthly premiums and lower coverage levels are typical. Under the single-premium plan, lenders usually include the single premium as a part of the aggregate loan amount and pay a single premium to us as the mortgage insurer. We, in turn, record the proceeds to unearned premium reserves, invest those proceeds and recognize the premiums over time in accordance with the expected expiration of risk.
We also provide portfolio credit enhancement insurance to lenders that have originated loans with loan-to-value ratios of less than 75%. These policies provide lenders with immediate capital relief from applicable bank regulatory capital requirements and facilitate the securitization of mortgages in the Canadian market. In both primary flow insurance and portfolio policies, our mortgage insurance in Canada provides insurance coverage for the entire unpaid loan balance, including interest, selling costs and expenses, following the sale of the underlying property.
The leading mortgage product in the Canadian market is a mortgage with the interest rate fixed for the first five years of the loan. After the fifth year, the loan becomes due and payable and the borrower must negotiate its renewal, at which time the borrower may choose to have the interest rate float or have it fixed for an additional
44
period. Lenders typically charge a mortgage pre-payment penalty that serves as a disincentive for borrowers to refinance their mortgages. Changes in interest rates, adverse economic conditions and high levels of borrowing affect the frequency of defaults and claims with respect to these loans, which may adversely affect our loss experience.
Regulations in Canada require the use of mortgage insurance for all mortgage loans extended by banks, trust, companies and insurers with loan-to-value ratios greater than 75%. In February 2005, as part of a periodic review of the federal financial services regulatory framework, the Canadian Department of Finance issued a consultation document seeking comment on a wide variety of potential initiatives relating to the regulation of financial services, including whether to remove the statutory requirement for mortgage insurance on all loans with loan-to-value ratios greater than 75%. The removal of the statutory requirement for mortgage insurance, in whole or in part, may result in a reduction in the amount of business we write in future years in Canada. See RegulationMortgage InsuranceInternational RegulationCanada.
Government guarantee
We have an agreement with the Canadian government under which it guarantees the benefits payable under a mortgage insurance policy, less 10% of the original principal amount of an insured loan, in the event that we fail to make claim payments with respect to that loan because of insolvency. We pay the Canadian government a risk premium for this guarantee and make other payments to a reserve fund in respect of the governments obligation. Because banks are not required to maintain regulatory capital on an asset backed by a sovereign guarantee, our 90% sovereign guarantee permits lenders purchasing our mortgage insurance to reduce their regulatory capital charges for credit risks on mortgages by 90%.
Our agreement with the Canadian government provides that we and the government are entitled to review the terms of the guarantee when certain pricing assumptions have changed or other events have occurred that cause either party to believe these changes or other events have resulted in unfairness, prejudice or obvious hardship. In this event, the agreement requires us to negotiate in good faith for six months to make such modifications as are required to remove or modify the unfairness, prejudice or obvious hardship. If we and the government are unable to agree on appropriate changes to the guarantee, the matter must be referred to binding arbitration.
In addition, our agreement with the Canadian government provides that the government has the right to review the terms of the guarantee if GEs ownership of our Canadian mortgage insurance company decreases below 50% or certain other events occur that affect the purposes of the agreement or the governments risk or exposure under the guarantee. In this event, the agreement requires us to negotiate in good faith to make such modifications as are required to remove or modify any unfairness, prejudice or obvious hardship that may have resulted from the change in ownership or other events. If we are unable to agree on appropriate modifications within six months, the agreement may be terminated for any new insurance written after the termination. GE has informed us that it expects to reduce its equity ownership of us to below 50% within two years of the completion of the IPO. A reduction in GEs equity ownership of us to below 50% would permit the Canadian government to review the terms of its guarantee and could lead to a modification or termination of the guarantee. Although we believe the Canadian government will preserve the guarantee to maintain competition in the Canadian mortgage insurance industry, any adverse change in the guarantees terms and conditions or termination of the guarantee could have a material adverse effect on our ability to continue offering mortgage insurance products in Canada.
Customers
The nine largest mortgage originators in Canada, consisting of banks, trust companies, and credit unions, collectively provide more than 80% of the financing for Canadas residential mortgage financing. These nine originators provided us with 87%, 85% and 86% of our new insurance written for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. Other market participants include regional banks, trust companies, and credit unions.
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Competitors
The only other mortgage insurance competitor in Canada is the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, which is a Crown corporation owned by the Canadian government. Because CMHC is a government-owned entity, its mortgage insurance provides lenders with 100% capital relief from bank regulatory requirements. CMHC also operates the Canadian Mortgage Bond Program, which provides lenders the ability to efficiently guaranty and securitize their mortgage loan portfolios. We compete with CMHC primarily based upon our reputation for high-quality customer service, quick decision-making on insurance applications, strong underwriting expertise and flexibility in terms of product development. In July 2003 the CMHC announced a 15% reduction in rates, which we have matched. This rate reduction or other actions taken by the CMHC to reduce rates or compete with us in other ways may cause our revenue in our Canadian mortgage insurance business to decline. In addition, as in other markets, we compete in Canada with alternative products and financial structures, such as credit default swaps and captive insurers owned by lenders, which are designed to transfer credit default risk on mortgage loans.
Australia and New Zealand
We entered the Australian mortgage insurance market in 1997 with our acquisition of the operating assets of the Housing Loans Insurance Corporation, or HLIC, from the Australian government. We entered the New Zealand mortgage insurance market in 1999 as an expansion of our Australian operations.
Products
In Australia and New Zealand, we offer primary flow insurance, known as lenders mortgage insurance, or LMI, and portfolio credit enhancement policies. Our principal product is LMI, which is similar to the primary flow insurance we offer in Canada, with single premiums and 100% coverage. Lenders usually collect the single premium from prospective borrowers at the time the loan proceeds are advanced and remit the amount to us as the mortgage insurer. We in turn record the proceeds to unearned premium reserves, invest those proceeds and recognize the premiums over time in accordance with the expected expiration of risk.
We provide LMI on a flow basis to two types of customers: banks, building societies and credit unions; and non-bank mortgage originators, called mortgage managers. Banks, building societies and credit unions generally acquire LMI only for residential mortgage loans with loan-to-value ratios above 80%, because reduced capital requirements apply to high loan-to-value residential mortgages only if they have been insured by, under requirements currently in effect, an A rated, or equivalently rated, mortgage insurance company that is regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, or APRA. After October 1, 2004, non-standard loans with a loan to value ratio above 60% are entitled to a reduced capital requirement only if they meet strict requirements as established by APRA or are insured by a qualified LMI. APRAs regulations currently require APRA-regulated lenders to determine the criteria for determining if a loan is a non-standard type loan. Our insurance subsidiary that serves the Australian and New Zealand markets has financial-strength ratings of AA (Very Strong) from S&P and Fitch and a rating of Aa2 (Excellent) from Moodys. The AA rating is the third-highest of S&Ps 20 ratings categories and the third-highest of Fitchs 24 ratings categories. The Aa2 rating is the third-highest of Moodys 21 ratings categories.
Mortgage managers fund their operations primarily through the issuance of mortgage-backed securities. Because they are not regulated by APRA, they do not have the same capital incentives as banks for acquiring LMI. However, they use LMI as the principal form of credit enhancement for these securities and generally purchase insurance for every loan they originate, without regard to the loan-to-value ratio.
We also provide portfolio credit enhancement policies to APRA-regulated lenders that have originated loans for securitization in the Australian market. Portfolio mortgage insurance serves as an important source of credit enhancement for the Australian securitization market, and our portfolio credit enhancement coverage generally is
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purchased for low loan-to-value, seasoned loans written by APRA-regulated institutions. To date, a market for these portfolio credit enhancement policies has not developed in New Zealand to the same extent as in Australia.
In both primary LMI and portfolio credit enhancement policies, our mortgage insurance provides insurance coverage for the entire unpaid loan balance, including selling costs and expenses, following the sale of the security property. Most of the loans we insure in Australia and New Zealand are variable rate mortgages with loan terms of between 20 and 30 years.
In connection with our acquisition of the operating assets of HLIC in 1997, we agreed to service a mortgage insurance portfolio that was retained by the Australian government. We receive a small amount of management fees for handling claims and providing loss mitigation and related services, but we did not acquire HLICs originated insurance policies and do not bear any risk on those policies.
Customers
The ten largest mortgage originators in Australia, consisting of seven banks and three mortgage managers, collectively provide more than 80% of Australias and New Zealands residential mortgage financing. These ten originators provided us with 78%, 78% and 77% of our new insurance written for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. Other market participants in Australian and New Zealand mortgage lending include regional banks, building societies and credit unions.
Competitors
The Australian and New Zealand flow mortgage insurance markets currently are served by one other independent LMI company, as well as various lender-affiliated captive mortgage insurance companies. We compete primarily based upon our reputation for high-quality customer service, quick decision making on insurance applications, strong underwriting expertise and flexibility in terms of product development. As in Canada, our products also compete in Australia and New Zealand with alternative products and financial structures that are designed to transfer credit default risk on mortgage loans. We believe other U.S. mortgage insurance providers are considering opportunities in Australia.
APRAs license conditions require Australian mortgage insurance companies, including ours, to be mono-line insurers, which are insurance companies that offer just one type of insurance product.
Europe
We began our European operations in 1994 in the U.K., which is Europes largest market for mortgage loan originations. We expanded into five additional countries between 1999 and 2004, and we continue to explore opportunities in other European countries. Mortgage insurance originating in the U.K. accounted for approximately 54% of our European mortgage insurance in force as of December 31, 2004 as compared to 84% as of December 31, 2003. This large concentration in the U.K. is attributable primarily to the fact that we have been operating in that country considerably longer than in any other European country. Our growth in other European countries has helped to diversify our risk.
Products
Our European business currently consists principally of primary flow insurance on adjustable-rate mortgages. As is the case in our other non-U.S. markets, most primary flow insurance policies written in Europe are structured with single premium payments. Our primary flow insurance generally provides first-loss coverage in the event of default on a portion (typically 10%-20%) of the balance of an individual mortgage loan. We believe that, over time, there is an opportunity to provide additional products with higher coverage percentages to reduce the risks to lenders of low-down-payment lending to levels similar to those in more mature mortgage insurance markets. We also recently began offering portfolio credit enhancement policies to lenders that have originated loans for securitization in select European markets.
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Customers
As a result of our strategy to expand organically into new markets in Europe with attractive growth potential, we have diversified our risk among six countries, thereby reducing our historical concentration in the U.K. Our portfolio of international mortgage insurance in force in Europe is concentrated in the countries where we have been active for the longest period of time and with customers with whom we have been doing business for the longest period of time. We expect this concentration to diminish over time. Our customers are primarily banks and mortgage investors, and our largest customer in Europe represented 31% of our new insurance written for the year ended December 31, 2004.
Competitors
Our European business faces competition from both traditional mortgage insurance companies as well as providers of alternative credit enhancement products. Our competitors are both public and private entities. Public mortgage guarantee facilities exist in a number of countries, which may compete with our products. We also face competition from affiliates of other U.S. private mortgage insurers, such as PMI, Radian and United Guaranty Residential Insurance Company, as well as multi-line insurers primarily in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland, such as Norwich Union and Legal & General.
We also face competition from alternative credit enhancement products, such as personal guarantees on high loan-to-value loans, second mortgages and bank guarantees, and captive insurance companies organized by lenders. Lenders also have sought other forms of risk transfer, such as the use of capital market solutions through credit derivatives. In addition, some European lenders have chosen to price for and retain the additional credit risk, effectively self-insuring their low-down-payment loans. We believe that our global expertise, coverage flexibility, and strong ratings provide a very valuable offering compared with competitors and alternative products.
Loan portfolio
The following table sets forth selected financial information regarding the effective risk in force of our international mortgage insurance loan portfolio as of the dates indicated:
December 31, | |||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 | ||||||
Loan-to-value ratio |
|||||||||
95.01% and above |
$ | 515 | $ | 132 | $ | 12 | |||
90.01% to 95.00% |
14,707 | 11,549 | 6,884 | ||||||
80.01% to 90.00% |
23,841 | 15,762 | 8,718 | ||||||
80.00% and below |
22,944 | 15,926 | 10,091 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 62,007 | $ | 43,369 | $ | 25,705 | |||
Loan type |
|||||||||
Fixed rate mortgage |
$ | | $ | | $ | | |||
Adjustable rate mortgage |
62,007 | 43,369 | 25,705 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 62,007 | $ | 43,369 | $ | 25,705 | |||
Mortgage term |
|||||||||
15 years and under |
$ | 26,138 | $ | 17,486 | $ | 11,813 | |||
More than 15 years |
35,869 | 25,883 | 13,892 | ||||||
Total |
$ | 62,007 | $ | 43,369 | $ | 25,705 | |||
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Our businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada currently provide 100% coverage on the majority of the loans we insure in those markets. The table above presents effective risk in force, which recognizes the loss on any particular loan will be reduced by the net proceeds received upon sale of the property. Effective risk in force has been calculated by applying to insurance in force a factor that represents our highest expected average per-claim payment for any one underwriting year over the life of our businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As of December 31, 2004, this factor was 35%.
Loans in default and claims
The claim process in our international mortgage insurance business is similar to the process we follow in our U.S. mortgage insurance business. See Mortgage InsuranceU.S. mortgage insuranceLoans in default and claims. The following table sets forth the number of loans insured, the number of loans in default and the default rate for our international mortgage insurance portfolio:
December 31, |
|||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||
Primary insurance |
|||||||||
Insured loans in force |
1,591,485 | 1,282,731 | 1,054,703 | ||||||
Loans in default |
5,304 | 4,926 | 3,641 | ||||||
Percentage of loans in default (default rate) |
0.3 | % | 0.4 | % | 0.4 | % | |||
Flow loans in force |
1,346,035 | 1,044,131 | 753,314 | ||||||
Flow loans in default |
5,084 | 4,679 | 3,268 | ||||||
Percentage of flow loans in default (default rate) |
0.4 | % | 0.5 | % | 0.4 | % | |||
Portfolio credit enhancement loans in force |
245,450 | 238,600 | 301,389 | ||||||
Portfolio credit enhancement loans in default |
220 | 247 | 373 | ||||||
Percentage of portfolio credit enhancement loans in default (default rate) |
0.1 | % | 0.1 | % | 0.1 | % |
Corporate and Other
Our Corporate and Other segment consists of net realized investment gains (losses), and unallocated corporate income and expenses (including amounts accrued in settlement of class action lawsuits), interest, and other financing expenses that are incurred at our holding company level. This segment also includes the results of Viking Insurance Company, GE Seguros and a few other small, non-core businesses that are managed outside our operating segments.
Our subsidiary, Viking Insurance Company, is a Bermuda-based reinsurer primarily of leased equipment insurance and consumer credit insurance underwritten by American Bankers Insurance Company, or ABIC. GEs Vendor Financial Services business purchases property and casualty insurance from ABIC on behalf of certain of its lessees to cover leased equipment. ABIC then reinsures those policies with Viking. GEs Card Services business develops and markets credit insurance through credit card issuers, retailers and banks. These credit insurance policies also are underwritten by ABIC and then reinsured with Viking.
Viking also has an in-force block of reinsurance of U.S. and Canadian consumer auto warranties and property and casualty gap insurance that protects consumers from the risk of loss on any difference between the value of an automobile and any loans secured by it. We do not intend to enter into any new warranty or gap insurance reinsurance treaties, and the existing treaties are in run-off, with the remaining program expiring gradually through 2008.
Vendor Financial Services ceased purchasing new insurance coverage on behalf of lessees through ABIC, as of March 1, 2004, and Card Services intends to phase out marketing credit insurance over the next several years. GE Capital has agreed to take all commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the relevant existing insurance and
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reinsurance relationships, but we expect Vikings reinsurance programs with GEs Card Services business and Vendor Financial Services to decline steadily over the next several years and, ultimately, be discontinued. With respect to Card Services credit insurance, GE Capital may decide to encourage a switch of existing coverages to another program. In that event, GE Capital has agreed to pay Viking an amount equal to the net underwriting income Viking is projected to receive as reinsurer from the date of discontinuation of any credit insurance program through December 31, 2008.
Our subsidiary, GE Seguros, is a small Mexican-domiciled multi-line insurer. We acquired this business in 1995 and currently hold 99.6% of its outstanding shares. GE Seguros is licensed to sell property and casualty, life and health insurance in Mexico.
GE Seguros currently writes primarily motor vehicle coverage for personal and commercial domestic vehicles and personal coverage for tourist vehicles. It also writes a small amount of homeowners, commercial property, transport and life insurance. GE Seguros distributes its products through independent agents in Mexico and, for the tourist auto business, it also distributes its products through agents located in key U.S. border locations. GE Seguros maintains agency relationships through its branch offices in major Mexican cities.
Viking, GE Seguros and other small, non-core businesses had aggregate net earnings of $44 million, $28 million and $42 million for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
International Operations
Information regarding our U.S. and international operations is presented in note 23 to our financial statements, included in Item 8. of this Annual Report.
Distribution
We distribute our products through an extensive and diversified distribution network that is balanced between independent sales intermediaries, including financial intermediaries and independent producers, and dedicated sales specialists. We believe this access to a variety of distribution channels enables us to respond effectively to changing consumer needs and distribution trends. We compete with other financial institutions to attract and retain commercial relationships in each of these channels, and our success in competing for sales through these sales intermediaries depends upon factors such as the amount of sales commissions and fees we pay, the breadth of our product offerings, the strength of our brand, our perceived stability and our financial strength ratings, the marketing and services we provide to them and the strength of the relationships we maintain with individuals at those firms. We have strategically positioned our multi-channel distribution network to capture a broad share of the distributor and consumer markets and to accommodate different consumer preferences in how to purchase insurance and financial services products.
Protection and Retirement Income and Investments segments
Our Protection and Retirement Income and Investments segments both distribute their products through the following channels:
| financial intermediaries, including banks, securities brokerage firms, and independent broker/dealers; |
| independent producers, including brokerage general agencies, or BGAs, affluent market producer groups and specialized brokers; and |
| dedicated sales specialists, including long-term care sales agents and affiliated networks of both accountants and personal financial advisers. |
The following table sets forth our annualized first-year premiums and deposits for the products in our Protection and Retirement Income and Investments segments (other than our payment protection insurance
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business), categorized by each of our distribution channels. For our payment protection insurance business, the following table sets forth written premiums, gross of reinsurance and cancellations, because historically we have not tracked annualized first-year premiums for this business.
Year ended December 31, 2004 |
Year ended December 31, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Financial intermediaries |
Independent producers |
Dedicated sales specialists |
Total |
Financial intermediaries |
Independent producers |
Dedicated sales specialists |
Total | ||||||||||||||||
Annualized first-year premiums and deposits(1) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Protection |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Life insurance |
$ | 7 | $ | 135 | $ | 2 | $ | 144 | $ | 10 | $ | 145 | $ | 8 | $ | 163 | ||||||||
Long-term care insurance |
41 | 47 | 74 | 162 | 53 | 48 | 139 | 240 | ||||||||||||||||
Group life and health insurance |
| 171 | | 171 | | 144 | | 144 | ||||||||||||||||
Retirement Income and Investments |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spread-based retail products |
2,136 | 848 | 34 | 3,018 | 1,361 | 812 | 82 | 2,255 | ||||||||||||||||
Spread-based institutional products |
| 2,151 | | 2,151 | | 1,911 | | 1,911 | ||||||||||||||||
Fee-based products |
1,018 | 678 | 542 | 2,238 | 1,934 | 767 | 378 | 3,079 | ||||||||||||||||
Written premiums(2) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Protection |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Payment protection insurance |
1,501 | | | 1,501 | 2,175 | | | 2,175 |
(1) | Annualized first-year premiums and deposits reflect the amount of business we generated during a specified period. We consider annualized first-year premiums and deposits to be a measure of our operating performance because they represent a measure of new sales of insurance policies and additional investments by our customers during a specified period, rather than a measure of our revenues or profitability during that period. |
(2) | Reflects written premiums, gross of reinsurance and cancellations. |
Financial intermediaries
We have selling agreements with approximately 1,000 financial intermediaries in the U.S., including banks, securities brokerage firms and independent broker/dealers. We use financial intermediaries to distribute a significant portion of our deferred and income annuities and other investment products, and long-term care insurance. They also distribute a small portion of our life insurance policies to their individual clients. We have approximately 200 wholesalers in the U.S. who are our employees and who work to develop sales relationships with new financial intermediaries and to expand sales with existing financial intermediaries. In addition, we have 174 distributors, most of whom are financial intermediaries, for our payment protection insurance products.
Independent producers
Brokerage general agencies. We distribute most of our products, including life insurance, annuities and long-term care insurance through approximately 565 independent BGAs located throughout the U.S. BGAs market our products, and those of other insurance companies, through a network of approximately 290,000 independent brokers who sell our products.
Affluent market producer groups. Through strong relationships with several industry-leading affluent market producer groups, we have access to approximately 6,300 producers who sell our products. These groups target high-net-worth individuals, which we define to include households with at least $1 million of liquid assets, as well as small to medium-size businesses, which we define as those with fewer than 1,000 employees. We distribute life insurance, long-term care insurance and annuity products through these groups.
Specialized brokers. We distribute many of our products through brokers that specialize in a particular insurance or investment product and deliver customized service and support to their clients. We use a network of
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approximately 600 specialized independent brokers to distribute structured settlements. We believe we have one of the oldest and largest distribution systems for structured settlements and our relationships with many of these specialized brokers date back more than 20 years. We distribute our group life and health insurance products and services through an independent network of approximately 4,000 licensed group life and health brokers and agents that are supported by our nationwide sales force of approximately 100 employees. These group brokers and agents typically specialize in providing employee benefit and retirement solution services to employers. We also distribute GICs and funding agreements through a group of approximately 35 specialized brokers and investment managers.
Dedicated sales specialists
Long-term care agents. We have approximately 1,200 active sales agents who specialize in selling our long-term care insurance products. These sales agents also sell our Medicare supplement insurance product and the products of other insurers on a select basis. We employ the individuals who manage and support the dedicated sales specialists. We compensate our long-term care agents primarily on a commission basis. To support lead generation for this channel, we have a comprehensive direct mail and marketing program, including mass marketing and affinity strategies that target members of various organizations, such as travel, social and professional organizations. We also identify prospective customers through educational seminars, policyholder referrals and targeted promotions linked to our national advertising campaigns.
Accountants and personal financial advisers. We have more than 2,000 affiliated personal financial advisers, of whom approximately 1,700 are accountants, who sell our annuity and insurance products including variable products, third-party mutual funds and other investment products through our wholly-owned broker/dealers. In the past several years, accountants have been increasingly responsible for assisting their clients with long-term financial planning, as well as traditional accounting and tax-related services. As a result, accountants provide us with an opportunity for growth as a distribution channel. We primarily distribute annuities and other investment products through this channel.
Mortgage Insurance
We distribute our mortgage insurance products through our dedicated sales force of more than 100 employees located throughout the U.S. This sales force primarily markets to financial institutions and mortgage originators, which in turn offer mortgage insurance products to borrowers. In addition to our field sales force, we also distribute our products through a telephone sales force serving our smaller lenders, as well as through our Action Center which provides live phone and web chat based support for all our customer segments.
We also maintain a dedicated sales force that markets our mortgage insurance products to lenders in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. As in the U.S. market, our sales force markets to financial institutions and mortgage originators, who in turn offer mortgage insurance products to borrowers.
Marketing
We promote and differentiate our products and services through breadth of offerings, technology services, specialized support for our distributors and innovative marketing programs tailored to particular consumer groups.
We offer a breadth of products that meet the needs of consumers throughout the various stages of their lives. We refer to our approach to product diversity as smart breadth because we are selective in the products we offer and strive to maintain appropriate return and risk thresholds when we expand the scope of our product offerings. We believe our reputation for innovation and our smart breadth of products enable us to sustain strong relationships with our distributors and position us to benefit from the current trend among distributors to reduce the number of insurers with whom they maintain relationships. We also have developed sophisticated
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technological tools that enhance performance by automating key processes and reducing response times and process variations. These tools also make it easier for our customers and distributors to do business with us.
Since the completion of our IPO, we have customized our marketing approach to promote our new brand to key constituencies, including sales intermediaries, employees, investors and consumers. These programs include advertising on television shows and in trade and business periodicals that are likely to reach those demographic groups. We also seek to build recognition of our new brand and maintain strong relationships with leading distributors by providing a high level of specialized and differentiated distribution support, such as product training, advanced marketing and sales solutions, financial product design for affluent customers and technology solutions that support the distributors sales efforts and by pursuing joint business improvement efforts. In addition, we sponsor various advisory councils with independent sales intermediaries and dedicated sales specialists to gather their feedback on industry trends, new product suggestions and ways to enhance our relationships.
In order to further meet the needs of our sales intermediaries, we also market our new brand and our products to key consumer groups through targeted marketing programs. For example, we sponsor the Genworth Center for Financial Learning, which provides a web site to promote financial literacy. We believe the website contributes to the recognition of our products and services and generates loyalty among independent sales intermediaries and consumers.
We also have been actively marketing our products and services to U.S. Latino customers, who we believe are substantially underserved by insurance and investment products, despite being the largest minority group in the U.S. As part of this campaign, we recruit Spanish-speaking agents, translate various marketing materials into Spanish, advertise our services on Spanish media and participate in Latin American cultural events. We operate a Spanish-language website devoted to financial education for U.S. Latinos. We also introduced our new emerging market web-based mortgage platform, TuCasaAhora.com, which was designed to help Latinos become homeowners. The product combines bilingual education, discounts, and incentives to support Latino first time homeownership.
Our branding strategy is to establish our new Genworth brand expeditiously while we continue to use the GE brand name and logo with customers. We have begun to transition some of our marketing and distribution activities to replace the GE brand name and monogram with our Genworth brand and logo. At the same time, we continue to use the GE brand name and monogram in marketing and distribution activities that we will replace with the Genworth brand in the future. Pursuant to a transitional trademark license agreement, GE granted us the right to use the GE mark and the GE monogram for up to five years following the IPO in connection with our products and services.
Risk Management
Overview
Risk management is a critical part of our business and we have adopted rigorous risk management processes in virtually every aspect of our operations, including product development, underwriting, investment management, asset-liability management and technology development projects. The primary objective of these risk management processes is to reduce the variations we experience from our expected results. We have an experienced group of more than 150 professionals, including actuaries, statisticians and other specialists, dedicated exclusively to our risk management process. We believe we have benefited from the sophisticated risk management techniques that GE applies throughout its businesses, and we have emphasized our adherence to those techniques as a competitive advantage in marketing and managing our products.
New product introductions
Our risk management process begins with the development and introduction of new products and services. We have established a rigorous product development process that specifies a series of required analyses, reviews and approvals for any new product. This process includes a review of the market opportunity and competitive
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landscape for each proposed product, major pricing assumptions and methodologies, return expectations, reinsurance strategies, underwriting criteria and business risks and potential mitigating factors. Before we introduce a new product in the market, we establish a monitoring program with specific performance targets and leading indicators, which we monitor frequently to identify any deviations from expected performance so that we can take prompt corrective action when necessary. Significant product introductions require approval by our senior management team. We use a similarly rigorous process to introduce variations to existing products and to introduce existing products through new distribution channels.
Product performance reviews
Our Risk Committee includes our President and Chief Executive Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Investment Officer, Chief Actuary, and the Presidents of our three operating segments. The Risk Committee reviews each of the products in all our operating segments on a regular cycle, typically approximately twice per year. These reviews include an analysis of the major drivers of profitability, underwriting performance, variations from expected results, regulatory and competitive environment and other factors affecting product performance. In addition, we initiate special reviews when a products performance fails to meet any of the indicators we established during that products introductory review process. If a product does not meet our performance criteria, we consider adjustments in pricing, design and marketing or ultimately discontinuing sales of that product. In addition, in our Mortgage Insurance segment, we also review the profitability of lender accounts on a quarterly basis to assess whether our business with these lenders is achieving anticipated performance levels and to identify trends requiring remedial action, including changes to underwriting guidelines, product mix or other customer performance. We review our underwriting, pricing and risk selection strategies on a regular basis to ensure that our products remain progressive, competitive and consistent with our marketing and profitability objectives. We are also subject to periodic external audits by our reinsurers, which provide us with valuable insights into other innovative risk management practices.
Asset-liability management
We maintain segmented investment portfolios for the majority of our product lines. This enables us to perform an ongoing analysis of the interest rate risks associated with each major product line, in addition to the interest rate risk for our overall enterprise. We analyze the behavior of our liability cash flows across a wide variety of future interest rate scenarios, reflecting policy features and expected policyholder behavior. We also analyze the behavior of our asset portfolios across the same scenarios. We believe this analysis shows the sensitivity of both our assets and liabilities to large and small changes in interest rates and enables us to manage our assets and liabilities more effectively.
Portfolio diversification
We use limits to ensure a spread of risk in our business. We have strict limitations on credit risk to avoid concentration in our investment portfolio. Our product portfolios have considerable diversification due to the wide variety of products we have sold over a number of years. We also manage unique product exposures in our business segments. For example, in managing our mortgage insurance risk exposure, we carefully monitor geographic concentrations in our portfolio and the condition of housing markets in each country in which we operate. We monitor our concentration of risk in force at the regional, state and major metropolitan area levels on a quarterly basis. In the U.S., we evaluate the condition of housing markets in major metropolitan areas with our proprietary OmniMarket SM model, which rates housing markets based on variables such as economic activity, unemployment, mortgage delinquencies, home sales trends and home price changes. We also regularly monitor factors that affect home prices and their affordability by region and major metropolitan area.
Actuarial databases and information systems
Our extensive actuarial databases and innovative information systems technology are important tools in our risk management programs. We believe we have the largest actuarial database for long-term care insurance
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claims with 30 years of experience in offering those products. We also have substantial experience in offering individual life insurance products, and we have developed a large database of claims experience, particularly in preferred risk classes, which provides significant predictive experience for mortality.
We use advanced and, in some cases, proprietary technology to manage variations in our underwriting process. For example, our GENIUS® new business processing system uses digital underwriting technology that has lowered our operating costs and increased the speed, consistency and accuracy of our underwriting process by reducing decision-making variation. In our mortgage insurance business we use borrower credit scores, our proprietary mortgage scoring model, OmniScore®, and our extensive database of mortgage insurance experience to evaluate new products and portfolio performance. OmniScore® uses the borrowers credit score and additional data concerning the borrower, the loan and the property, including loan-to-value ratio, loan type, loan amount, property type, occupancy status and borrower employment to predict the likelihood of having to pay a claim. In the U.S., OmniScore® also incorporates our assessment of the housing market in which a property is located, as evaluated with our OmniMarketSM model. We believe this additional mortgage data and housing market assessment significantly enhances OmniScores® predictive power over the life of the loan. We perform portfolio analysis on an ongoing basis to determine if modifications are required to our product offerings, underwriting guidelines or premium rates.
Compliance
We take a disciplined approach to legal and regulatory compliance practices and throughout our company instill a strong commitment to integrity in business dealings and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. We have approximately 200 professionals dedicated to legal and regulatory compliance matters.
Operations and Technology
Service and support
We have a dedicated team of approximately 5,000 service and support personnel (including our operations through an arrangement with an outsourcing provider in India that is 40% owned by GE) who assist our sales intermediaries and customers with their service needs. We use advanced and, in some cases, proprietary, patent-pending technology to provide customer service and support, and we operate service centers that leverage technology, integrated processes, and Six Sigma process management techniques.
In our Protection and Retirement Income and Investments segments, we interact directly and cost-effectively with our independent sales intermediaries and dedicated sales specialists through secure websites that have enabled them to transact business with us electronically, obtain information about our products, submit applications, check application and account status and view commission information. We also provide our independent sales intermediaries and dedicated sales specialists with account information to disseminate to their customers through the use of industry-standard XML communications.
We also have introduced technologically advanced services to customers in our Mortgage Insurance segment. Historically, lenders submitted applications for mortgage insurance via mail, courier or fax. If we approved the loan, we would issue a certificate of insurance to the lender. Advances in technology now enable us to accept applications through electronic submission and to issue electronic insurance commitments and certificates.
Through our Internet-enabled information systems, lenders can receive information about their loans in our database, as well as make corrections, file notices and claims, report settlement amounts, verify loan information and access payment histories. We also assist in workouts through LMO Fast-Track, which we believe is the mortgage insurance industrys first on-line workout approval system, allowing lenders to request and obtain authorization from us for them to provide workout solutions to their borrowers. For the year ended December 31, 2004, we issued approximately 86% of our U.S. mortgage insurance commitments electronically, compared to 82% for the year ended December 31, 2003 and 78% for the year ended December 31, 2002.
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Operating centers
We have centralized our operations and have established scalable, low-cost operating centers in Virginia, North Carolina and Ireland. We expect to realize additional efficiencies from further facility rationalization, which includes centralizing additional U.S. operations and consolidating mailrooms and print centers. In addition, through an arrangement with an outsourcing provider that is 40% owned by GE, we have a substantial team of professionals in India who provide a variety of services to us, including customer service, transaction processing, and functional support including finance, investment research, actuarial, risk and marketing resources to our insurance operations. Most of the personnel in India have college degrees, and many have graduate degrees.
Technology capabilities and process improvement
We rely on proprietary processes for project approval, execution, risk management and benefit verification as part of our approach to technology investment. We hold, or have applied for, more than 120 patents. Our technology team is experienced in large-scale project delivery, including many insurance administration system consolidations and the development of Internet-based servicing capabilities. We continually manage technology costs by standardizing our technology infrastructure, consolidating application systems, reducing servers and storage devices and managing project execution risks. We also work with associates from GEs Global Research Center to develop new technologies that help deliver competitive advantages to our company. We also may work in the future on new projects with the GE Global Research Center, other research organizations or academic institutions.
We believe we have greatly enhanced our operating efficiency and generated significant cost savings by using a variety of process tools, including a highly disciplined quality management and process optimization methodology known as Six Sigma which relies on the rigorous use of statistical techniques to assess process variations and defects. The program uses a disciplined methodology to define, measure, analyze, improve and control the features and performance of a companys products and processes. As part of our transition services agreement with GE, we will be able to continue to use the Six Sigma program as we have in the past, at no cost to us.
Reserves
We calculate and maintain reserves for estimated future benefit payments to our policyholders and contractholders in accordance with U.S. GAAP and industry accounting practices. We release these reserves as those future obligations are extinguished. The reserves we establish necessarily reflect estimates and actuarial assumptions with regard to our future experience. These estimates and actuarial assumptions involve the exercise of significant judgment. Our future financial results depend significantly upon the extent to which our actual future experience is consistent with the assumptions we have used in pricing our products and determining our reserves. Many factors can affect future experience, including economic and social conditions, inflation, healthcare costs, changes in doctrines of legal liability and damage awards in litigation. Therefore, we cannot determine with complete precision the ultimate amounts we will pay for actual future benefits or the timing of those payments.
Protection
We establish reserves for life insurance policies based upon generally recognized actuarial methods. We use mortality tables in general use in the U.S. and Europe, modified where appropriate, to reflect relevant historical experience and our underwriting practices. Persistency, expense and interest rate assumptions are based upon relevant experience and expectations for future development. We establish reserves at amounts which, including the receipt of assumed additional premiums and interest assumed to be earned on the assets underlying the reserves, we expect to be sufficient to satisfy our policy obligations.
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The liability for policy benefits for universal life insurance policies and interest-sensitive whole life policies is equal to the balance that accrues to the benefit of policyholders, including credited interest, plus any amount needed to provide for additional benefits. We also establish reserves for amounts that we have deducted from the policyholders balance to compensate us for services to be performed in future periods.
We establish reserves for long-term care insurance policies based upon factors including mortality, persistency, expenses, claim likelihood, benefit utilization levels, claim continuance, and any applicable coverage limitations. Long-term care insurance does not have the extensive historical claims experience of life insurance, and therefore, our ability to forecast future experience for long-term care insurance products is more limited than for life products.
Our reserves for unpaid group life and health insurance claims, including our medical and non-medical lines, are estimates of the ultimate net cost of both reported losses that have not yet been settled and incurred but as yet unreported losses. For reported claims, our reserves are based upon an evaluation of the claims, including anticipated run-out patterns, and include a provision for adverse claim development and fluctuation. Reserves for incurred but not reported claims are based upon historic incidence rates, severity rates, reporting delays and any known events which we believe will materially affect claim levels.
Reserves for long-term disability claims are based upon factors including recovery, mortality, expenses, Social Security and other benefit offsets, and investment income. They represent the actuarial present value of benefits and associated expenses for current claims, reported claims that have not yet completed the applicable elimination period and for covered disabilities that have been incurred but have not yet been reported. Claims on long-term disability insurance policies consist of payments to be made periodically, generally monthly, in accordance with the contractual terms of the policy.
We establish reserves for our payment protection insurance using a number of actuarial models. Claim reserves are calculated separately for disability, life and unemployment business. Reserves are established at three different stages of a claim: incurred but not reported, reported but not paid, and in the course of payment.
Retirement Income and Investments
For our investment contracts, including annuities, GICs, and funding agreements, contractholder liabilities are equal to the accumulated contract account values, which generally consist of an accumulation of deposit payments, less withdrawals, plus investment earnings and interest credited to the account, less expense, mortality, and profit charges, if applicable. We also maintain a separate reserve for any expected future payments in excess of the account value due to the potential death of the contractholder.
Reserves for future policy benefits on our immediate fixed annuity contracts are calculated based upon actuarial assumptions regarding the interest to be earned on the assets underlying the reserves and, if applicable, the annuitants life expectancy.
Mortgage Insurance
In our mortgage insurance businesses, a significant period of time may elapse between the occurrence of the borrowers default on a mortgage payment, which is the event triggering a potential future claim payment, the reporting of such default and our eventual payment of the claim. Consistent with U.S. GAAP and industry accounting practices, we establish reserves for loans that are in default, including loans that are in default but have not yet been reported, by forecasting the percentage of loans in default on which we will ultimately pay claims and the average claim that will be paid. We generally consider a loan to be in default if the borrower has failed to make a required mortgage payment for two consecutive months. In addition to our reserves for known loans in default, we establish reserves for loss adjustment expenses to provide for the estimated costs of settling claims, including legal and other fees, and general expenses of administering the claims settlement process.
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We estimate ultimate claims and associated costs based upon our historical loss experience, adjusted for the anticipated effect of current economic conditions and projected economic trends. Consistent with U.S. GAAP and industry accounting practices, we do not establish loss reserves for future claims on insured loans that are not currently in default.
To improve the reserve estimation process, we segregate our mortgage loan portfolio based upon a variety of factors, and we analyze each segment of the portfolio in light of our default experience to produce our reserve estimate. We review these factors on a periodic basis and adjust our loss reserves accordingly. Although inflation is implicitly included in the estimates, the impact of inflation is not explicitly isolated from other factors influencing the reserve estimates. We do not discount our loss reserves for financial reporting purposes.
We also establish liabilities related to contract underwriting indemnification. Under the terms of our contract underwriting agreements, we agree to indemnify the lender against losses incurred in the event that we make material errors in determining that loans processed by our contract underwriters meet specified underwriting or purchase criteria. We revise our estimates of these liabilities from time to time to reflect our recent experience.
Reinsurance
We follow the industry practice of reinsuring portions of our insurance risks with reinsurance companies. We use reinsurance both to diversify our risks and to manage loss exposures and capital effectively. The use of reinsurance permits us to write policies in amounts larger than the risk we are willing to retain, and also to write a larger volume of new business.
We cede insurance primarily on a treaty basis, under which risks are ceded to a reinsurer on specific blocks of business where the underlying risks meet certain predetermined criteria. To a lesser extent, we cede insurance risks on a facultative basis, under which the reinsurers prior approval is required on each risk reinsured. Use of reinsurance does not discharge us, as the insurer, from liability on the insurance ceded. We, as the insurer, are required to pay the full amount of our insurance obligations even in circumstances where we are entitled or able to receive payments from our reinsurer. The principal reinsurers to which we cede risks have A.M. Best financial strength ratings ranging from A+ to A-. Historically, we have not had significant concentrations of reinsurance risk with any one reinsurer. However, prior to the completion of the IPO, we entered into reinsurance transactions with UFLIC, which resulted in a significant concentration of reinsurance risk with UFLIC.
The following table sets forth our exposure to our principal reinsurers, along with the reinsurance recoverable as of December 31, 2004, and the A.M. Best ratings of those reinsurers as of that date:
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Reinsurance recoverable |
A.M. Best rating | |||
UFLIC(1) |
$ | 16,179 | A- | ||
IDS Life Insurance Company(2) |
746 | A+ | |||
Phoenix Life Insurance Company(3) |
618 | A | |||
Swiss Re Life & Health America Inc. |
154 | A+ | |||
Munich American Reassurance Company |
96 | A+ | |||
ERC(4) |
92 | A- | |||
Revios Reinsurance |
77 | A- |
(1) | See note 10 to the financial statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report. |
(2) | Our reinsurance arrangement with IDS covers a run-off block of single-premium life insurance policies. |
(3) | Our reinsurance arrangement with Phoenix covers a run-off block of corporate-owned life insurance policies. Both of these arrangements originated from acquisitions. |
(4) | ERC refers to Employers Reassurance Corporation (an indirect subsidiary of GE) and ERC Life Reinsurance Corporation (an indirect subsidiary of GE until December 2003). |
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As discussed above under Mortgage InsuranceProducts and ServicesRisk mitigation arrangementsCaptive reinsurance, in the U.S., we have entered into a number of reinsurance agreements in which we share portions of our mortgage insurance risk written on loans originated or purchased by lenders with captive reinsurance companies, or captive reinsurers, affiliated with these lenders. In return, we cede an agreed portion of our gross premiums on insurance written to the captive reinsurers. Substantially all of our captive mortgage reinsurance arrangements are structured on an excess-of-loss basis. As of December 31, 2004, our total mortgage insurance risk reinsured to all captive reinsurers was $2.8 billion, and the total capital held in trust for our benefit by all captive reinsurers was $528 million. These captive reinsurers are not rated, and their claims-paying obligations to us are limited to the amount of capital held in trust. We believe the capital held in trust by these captive reinsurers is sufficient to meet their anticipated obligations to us. However, we cannot ensure that each captive with which we do business can or will meet all its obligations to us.
Financial Strength Ratings
Ratings with respect to financial strength are an important factor in establishing the competitive position of insurance companies. Ratings are important to maintaining public confidence in us and our ability to market our products. Rating organizations review the financial performance and condition of most insurers and provide opinions regarding financial strength, operating performance and ability to meet obligations to policyholders.
Our principal life insurance subsidiaries are rated by A.M. Best, S&P, Moodys and Fitch as follows:
Company |
A.M. Best rating |
S&P rating |
Moodys rating |
Fitch rating | ||||
American Mayflower Life Insurance Company of New York |
A+ (Superior) | AA- (Very Strong) | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | ||||
Federal Home Life Insurance Company |
A+ (Superior) | Not rated | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | ||||
First Colony Life Insurance Company |
A+ (Superior) | AA- (Very Strong) | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | ||||
GE Capital Life Assurance Company of New York |
A+ (Superior) | AA- (Very Strong) | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | ||||
GE Life and Annuity Assurance Company |
A+ (Superior) | AA- (Very Strong) | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | ||||
GE Group Life Assurance Company |
A (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) | Not Rated | Not Rated | ||||
General Electric Capital Assurance Company |
A+ (Superior) | AA- (Very Strong) | Aa3 (Excellent) | AA- (Very Strong) |
Our mortgage insurance subsidiaries are rated by S&P, Moodys and Fitch as follows:
Company(1) |
S&P rating |
Moodys rating |
Fitch rating | |||
General Electric Mortgage Insurance Corporation |
AA (Very Strong) | Aa2 (Excellent) | AA (Very Strong) | |||
GE Residential Mortgage Insurance Corporation of NC |
AA (Very Strong) | Aa2 (Excellent) | AA (Very Strong) | |||
GE Mortgage Insurance Company Pty. Limited |
AA (Very Strong) | Aa2 (Excellent) | AA (Very Strong) | |||
GE Mortgage Insurance Limited |
AA (Very Strong) | Aa2 (Excellent) | AA (Very Strong) |
(1) | Our Canadian mortgage insurance company is not rated by any of the rating agencies shown above. |
The A.M. Best, S&P, Moodys and Fitch ratings included are not designed to be, and do not serve as, measures of protection or valuation offered to investors in this offering. These financial strength ratings should not be relied on with respect to making an investment in our securities.
A.M. Best states that its A+ (Superior) rating is assigned to those companies that have, in its opinion, a superior ability to meet their ongoing obligations to policyholders. The A+ (Superior) rating is the second-highest of fifteen ratings assigned by A.M. Best, which range from A++ to F.
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S&P states that an insurer rated AA (Very Strong) has very strong financial security characteristics that outweigh any vulnerabilities, and is highly likely to have the ability to meet financial commitments. The AA range is the second-highest of the four ratings ranges that meet these criteria, and also is the second-highest of nine financial strength rating ranges assigned by S&P, which range from AAA to R. A plus (+) or minus (-) shows relative standing in a rating category. Accordingly, the AA and AA- ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of S&Ps 20 ratings categories.
Moodys states that insurance companies rated Aa (Excellent) offer excellent financial security. Moodys states that companies in this group constitute what are generally known as high-grade companies. The Aa range is the second-highest of nine financial strength rating ranges assigned by Moodys, which range from Aaa to C. Numeric modifiers are used to refer to the ranking within the group, with 1 being the highest and 3 being the lowest. Accordingly, the Aa2 and Aa3 ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of Moodys 21 ratings categories.
Fitch states that AA (Very Strong) rated insurance companies are viewed as possessing very strong capacity to meet policyholder and contract obligations. Risk factors are modest, and the impact of any adverse business and economic factors is expected to be very small. The AA rating category is the second-highest of eight financial strength rating categories, which range from AAA to D. The symbol (+) or (-) may be appended to a rating to indicate the relative position of a credit within a rating category. These suffixes are not added to ratings in the AAA category or to ratings below the CCC category. Accordingly, the AA and AA- ratings are the third- and fourth-highest of Fitchs 24 ratings categories.
A.M. Best, S&P, Moodys and Fitch review their ratings periodically and we cannot assure you that we will maintain our current ratings in the future. Other agencies may also rate our company or our insurance subsidiaries on a solicited or an unsolicited basis.
Investments
As of December 31, 2004, we had total cash and invested assets of $67.1 billion (including $0.9 billion of restricted investments held by securitization entities) and an additional $8.9 billion held in our separate accounts, for which we do not bear investment risk. We manage our assets to meet diversification, credit quality, yield and liquidity requirements of our policy and contract liabilities by investing primarily in fixed maturities, including government, municipal and corporate bonds, mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities and mortgage loans on commercial real estate. We also invest in short-term securities and other investments, including a small position in equity securities. In all cases, investments for our particular insurance company subsidiaries are required to comply with restrictions imposed by applicable laws and insurance regulatory authorities.
Our primary investment objective is to meet our obligations to policyholders and contractholders while increasing value to our stockholders by investing in a diversified portfolio of high-quality, income producing securities and other assets. Our investment strategy seeks to optimize investment income without relying on realized investment gains. Our investment strategy focuses primarily on:
| minimizing interest rate risk through rigorous management of asset durations relative to policyholder and contractholder obligations; |
| selecting assets based on fundamental, research-driven strategies; |
| emphasizing fixed-interest, low-volatility assets; |
| maintaining sufficient liquidity to meet unexpected financial obligations; |
| continuously evaluating our asset class mix and pursuing additional investment classes; and |
| rigorous, continuous monitoring of asset quality. |
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We are exposed to two primary sources of investment risk:
| credit risk, relating to the uncertainty associated with the continued ability of a given issuer to make timely payments of principal and interest; and |
| interest rate risk, relating to the market price and cash flow variability associated with changes in market interest rates. |
We manage credit risk by analyzing issuers, transaction structures and real estate properties. We use sophisticated analytic techniques to monitor credit risk. For example, we continually measure the probability of credit default and estimated loss in the event of such a default, which provides us with early notification of worsening credits. If an issuer downgrade causes our holdings of that issuer to exceed our risk thresholds, we automatically undertake a detailed review of the issuers credit. We also manage credit risk through industry and issuer diversification and asset allocation practices. For commercial real estate loans, we manage credit risk through geographic, property type and product type diversification and asset allocation. We routinely review different issuers and sectors and conduct more formal quarterly portfolio reviews with our Investment Committee.
We mitigate interest rate risk through rigorous management of the relationship between the duration of our assets and the duration of our liabilities, seeking to minimize risk of loss in both rising and falling interest rate environments. For further information on our management of interest rate risk, see Item 7A.Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.
The following table sets forth our cash, cash equivalents and invested assets as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Carrying value |
% of total |
Carrying value |
% of total |
||||||||
Fixed-maturities, available-for-sale |
||||||||||||
Public |
$ | 40,150 | 60 | % | $ | 51,336 | 64 | % | ||||
Private |
12,274 | 18 | % | 14,149 | 18 | % | ||||||
Mortgage loans |
6,051 | 9 | % | 6,114 | 8 | % | ||||||
Other investments |
3,996 | 6 | % | 3,789 | 4 | % | ||||||
Policy loans |
1,224 | 2 | % | 1,105 | 1 | % | ||||||
Restricted investments held by securitization entities |
860 | 1 | % | 1,069 | 1 | % | ||||||
Equity securities, available for sale |
374 | 1 | % | 600 | 1 | % | ||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments |
2,210 | 3 | % | 2,513 | 3 | % | ||||||
Total cash and invested assets |
$ | 67,139 | 100 | % | $ | 80,675 | 100 | % | ||||
Organization
Prior to the IPO, GE Asset Management Incorporated, or GEAM, provided investment management services for substantially all of the investment portfolios for the U.S. companies in our Protection and Retirement Income and Investments segments and portions of the investment portfolios of the U.S. and Canadian companies in our Mortgage Insurance segment pursuant to various investment management agreements. In connection with the IPO, we established our own investment department which consists of more than 140 individuals, led by our Chief Investment Officer, who presides over our Investment Committee, which reports to our Board of Directors and the boards of directors of our insurance company subsidiaries. Our investment department includes portfolio management, risk management, finance and accounting functions and, under the direction of the Investment Committee, is responsible for establishing investment policies and strategies, reviewing asset liability management and performing asset allocation. In addition, we manage certain asset classes for our domestic insurance operations that until the IPO were managed by GEAM, including commercial mortgage loans, privately placed debt securities and derivatives.
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GEAM continues to provide investment management services for our U.S. and Bermudan investment portfolios pursuant to these investment management and services agreements and investment guidelines approved by the boards of directors of our insurance subsidiaries. We have agreed to pay GEAM a management fee for these services on a quarterly basis equal to a percentage of the value of the assets under management to be paid quarterly in arrears. The percentage is established annually by agreement between GEAM and us and is intended to reflect the cost to GEAM of providing its services.
We incurred expenses for investment management and related administrative services of $50 million, $67 million and $61 million for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively, of which $33 million, $61 million and $39 million was paid to GEAM for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. GEAM is a registered investment adviser providing a full range of investment management services, primarily to the GE Pension Trust, the funding vehicle for GEs defined benefit pension plan, and our subsidiaries as well as a wide range of affiliated and non-affiliated institutional clients, including certain other GE-affiliated insurance entities.
Management of investments for our non-U.S. operations is overseen by the managing director and boards of directors of the applicable non-U.S. legal entities in consultation with our Chief Investment Officer. Substantially all the assets of our payment protection and mortgage insurance businesses are managed by GE Asset Management Limited, or GEAML, pursuant to agreements that are substantially similar to our agreements with GEAM in the U.S. The majority of the assets of our Canadian, Australian and New Zealand mortgage insurance businesses continue to be managed by unaffiliated investment managers located in their respective countries. As of December 31, 2004 and 2003, approximately 8% and 5%, respectively, of our invested assets were held by our international operations and were invested primarily in non-U.S.-denominated securities.
Investment results
The annualized yield on general account cash and invested assets, excluding net realized investment gains and losses was 5.5%, 5.8% and 6.0% for the years ended December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. The decline in investment yields is primarily attributable to purchases of assets in an interest rate environment where current market yields are lower than the existing portfolio yields.
The following table sets forth information about our investment income, excluding realized gains and losses, for the components of our investment portfolio for the periods indicated:
For the years ended December 31, |
|||||||||||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
|||||||||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Yield |
Amount |
Yield |
Amount |
Yield |
Amount |
|||||||||||||||
Fixed maturities taxable |
5.5 | % | $ | 2,827 | 6.2 | % | $ | 3,354 | 6.2 | % | $ | 3,333 | |||||||||
Fixed maturities non-taxable |
5.1 | % | 150 | 4.0 | % | 128 | 4.9 | % | 158 | ||||||||||||
Mortgage loans |
7.3 | % | 438 | 7.2 | % | 410 | 7.4 | % | 361 | ||||||||||||
Equity securities |
5.5 | % | 25 | 2.8 | % | 27 | 2.2 | % | 39 | ||||||||||||
Other investments |
11.5 | % | 75 | 2.4 | % | 17 | 2.7 | % | 41 | ||||||||||||
Policy loans |
9.3 | % | 107 | 8.3 | % | 88 | 7.7 | % | 71 | ||||||||||||
Restricted investments held by securitization entities |
6.6 | % | 64 | 4.9 | % | 36 | 0.0 | % | | ||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments |
0.5 | % | 12 | 1.6 | % | 58 | 2.2 | % | 37 | ||||||||||||
Gross investment income before expenses and fees |
5.6 | % | 3,698 | 5.9 | % | 4,118 | 6.1 | % | 4,040 | ||||||||||||
Expenses and fees |
(50 | ) | (67 | ) | (61 | ) | |||||||||||||||
Net investment income |
5.5 | % | $ | 3,648 | 5.8 | % | $ | 4,051 | 6.0 | % | $ | 3,979 | |||||||||
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Yields are based on average carrying values except for fixed maturities, equity securities and securities lending activity. Yields for fixed maturities and equity securities are based on amortized cost and cost, respectively. Yields for securities lending activity, which is included in other investments, are calculated net of the corresponding securities lending liability.
Fixed maturities
Fixed maturities, including tax-exempt bonds, consist principally of publicly traded and privately placed debt securities, and represented 78%, 82% and 83% of total cash and invested assets as of December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively.
Based upon estimated fair value, public fixed maturities represented 77%, 78% and 81% of total fixed maturities as of December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. Private fixed maturities represented 23%, 22% and 19% of total fixed maturities as of December 31, 2004, 2003 and 2002, respectively. We invest in privately placed fixed maturities in an attempt to enhance the overall value of the portfolio, increase diversification and obtain higher yields than can ordinarily be obtained with comparable public market securities. Generally, private placements provide us with protective covenants, call protection features and, where applicable, a higher level of collateral. However, our private placements are not freely transferable because of restrictions imposed by federal and state securities laws, the terms of the securities, and illiquid trading markets.
The Securities Valuation Office of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, or NAIC, evaluates bond investments of U.S. insurers for regulatory reporting purposes and assigns securities to one of six investment categories called NAIC designations. The NAIC designations parallel the credit ratings of the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations for marketable bonds. NAIC designations 1 and 2 include bonds considered investment grade (rated Baa3 or higher by Moodys, or rated BBB- or higher by S&P) by such rating organizations. NAIC designations 3 through 6 include bonds considered below investment grade (rated Ba1 or lower by Moodys, or rated BB+ or lower by S&P).
The following tables present our public, private and aggregate fixed maturities by NAIC and/or equivalent ratings of the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, as well as the percentage, based upon estimated fair value, that each designation comprises. Our non-U.S. fixed maturities generally are not rated by the NAIC and are shown based upon their equivalent rating of the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations. Similarly, certain privately placed fixed maturities that are not rated by the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations are shown based upon their NAIC designation. Certain securities, primarily non-U.S. securities, are not rated by the NAIC or the Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations and are so designated.
December 31, |
||||||||||||||||||||
Public fixed maturities |
2004 |
2003 |
||||||||||||||||||
NAIC |
Rating agency equivalent designation |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
|||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
||||||||||||||||||||
1 |
Aaa/Aa/A | $ | 27,839 | $ | 28,635 | 71 | % | $ | 32,095 | $ | 33,212 | 64 | % | |||||||
2 |
Baa | 8,847 | 9,344 | 23 | % | 13,866 | 14,778 | 29 | % | |||||||||||
3 |
Ba | 1,339 | 1,415 | 4 | % | 1,829 | 1,896 | 4 | % | |||||||||||
4 |
B | 646 | 651 | 2 | % | 1,023 | 979 | 2 | % | |||||||||||
5 |
Caa and lower | 73 | 63 | 0 | % | 295 | 272 | 1 | % | |||||||||||
6 |
In or near default | 13 | 15 | 0 | % | 96 | 104 | 0 | % | |||||||||||
Not rated |
26 | 27 | 0 | % | 92 | 95 | 0 | % | ||||||||||||
Total public fixed maturities | $ | 38,783 | $ | 40,150 | 100 | % | $ | 49,296 | $ | 51,336 | 100 | % | ||||||||
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December 31, |
||||||||||||||||||||
Private fixed maturities |
2004 |
2003 |
||||||||||||||||||
NAIC |
Rating agency equivalent designation |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
|||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
||||||||||||||||||||
1 |
Aaa/Aa/A | $ | 6,272 | $ | 6,501 | 53 | % | $ | 7,029 | $ | 7,388 | 52 | % | |||||||
2 |
Baa | 4,587 | 4,768 | 39 | % | 5,182 | 5,442 | 38 | % | |||||||||||
3 |
Ba | 574 | 605 | 5 | % | 691 | 728 | 5 | % | |||||||||||
4 |
B | 198 | 202 | 2 | % | 234 | 228 | 2 | % | |||||||||||
5 |
Caa and lower | 112 | 103 | 1 | % | 192 | 177 | 1 | % | |||||||||||
6 |
In or near default | 44 | 43 | 0 | % | 93 | 86 | 1 | % | |||||||||||
Not rated |
52 | 52 | 0 | % | 99 | 100 | 1 | % | ||||||||||||
Total private fixed maturities | $ | 11,839 | $ | 12,274 | 100 | % | $ | 13,520 | $ | 14,149 | 100 | % | ||||||||
December 31, |
||||||||||||||||||||
Total fixed maturities |
2004 |
2003 |
||||||||||||||||||
NAIC |
Rating agency equivalent designation |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
|||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
||||||||||||||||||||
1 |
Aaa/Aa/A | $ | 34,111 | $ | 35,136 | 67 | % | $ | 39,124 | $ | 40,600 | 62 | % | |||||||
2 |
Baa | 13,434 | 14,112 | 27 | % | 19,048 | 20,220 | 31 | % | |||||||||||
3 |
Ba | 1,913 | 2,020 | 4 | % | 2,520 | 2,624 | 4 | % | |||||||||||
4 |
B | 844 | 853 | 2 | % | 1,257 | 1,207 | 2 | % | |||||||||||
5 |
Caa and lower | 185 | 166 | 0 | % | 487 | 449 | 1 | % | |||||||||||
6 |
In or near default | 57 | 58 | 0 | % | 189 | 190 | 0 | % | |||||||||||
Not rated |
78 | 79 | 0 | % | 191 | 195 | 0 | % | ||||||||||||
Total fixed maturities | $ | 50,622 | $ | 52,424 | 100 | % | $ | 62,816 | $ | 65,485 | 100 | % | ||||||||
The following table sets forth the amortized cost and estimated fair value of fixed maturities by contractual maturity dates (excluding scheduled sinking funds) as of the dates indicated:
December 31, | ||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 | |||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value |
Amortized cost |
Estimated fair value | ||||||||
Due in one year or less |
$ | 2,026 | $ | 2,040 | $ | 1,747 | $ | 1,761 | ||||
Due after one year through five years |
10,450 | 10,749 | 11,400 | 11,817 | ||||||||
Due after five years through ten years |
11,395 | 11,842 | 13,318 | 13,901 | ||||||||
Due after ten years |
15,002 | 15,916 | 24,288 | 25,754 | ||||||||
Subtotal |
38,873 | 40,547 | 50,753 | 53,233 | ||||||||
Mortgage-backed and asset-backed |
11,749 | 11,877 | 12,063 | 12,252 | ||||||||
Total fixed maturities |
$ | 50,622 | $ | 52,424 | $ | 62,816 | $ | 65,485 | ||||
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We diversify our fixed maturities by security sector. The following table sets forth the estimated fair value of our fixed maturities by sector as well as the percentage of the total fixed maturities holdings that each security sector comprised as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
||||||||
U.S. government and agencies |
$ | 572 | 1 | % | $ | 1,055 | 2 | % | ||||
State and municipal |
3,030 | 6 | % | 3,350 | 5 | % | ||||||
GovernmentNon-U.S. |
1,744 | 3 | % | 1,551 | 2 | % | ||||||
U.S. corporate |
21,893 | 42 | % | 33,025 | 50 | % | ||||||
CorporateNon-U.S. |
6,913 | 13 | % | 7,949 | 12 | % | ||||||
Mortgage-backed |
8,577 | 17 | % | 7,848 | 12 | % | ||||||
Asset-backed |
3,300 | 6 | % | 4,404 | 7 | % | ||||||
Public utilities |
6,395 | 12 | % | 6,303 | 10 | % | ||||||
Total fixed maturities |
$ | 52,424 | 100 | % | $ | 65,485 | 100 | % | ||||
The following table sets forth the major industry types that comprise our corporate bond holdings, based primarily on industry codes established by Lehman Brothers, as well as the percentage of the total corporate bond holdings that each industry comprised as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
||||||||
Finance and insurance |
$ | 10,357 | 30 | % | $ | 13,069 | 28 | % | ||||
Utilities and energy |
7,056 | 20 | % | 10,345 | 22 | % | ||||||
Consumernon cyclical |
4,351 | 12 | % | 6,036 | 13 | % | ||||||
Consumercyclical |
2,666 | 8 | % | 4,356 | 9 | % | ||||||
Industrial |
2,475 | 7 | % | 3,340 | 7 | % | ||||||
Capital goods |
2,240 | 6 | % | 2,928 | 6 | % | ||||||
Technology and communications |
2,223 | 6 | % | 2,972 | 6 | % | ||||||
Transportation |
1,063 | 3 | % | 1,970 | 4 | % | ||||||
Other |
2,770 | 8 | % | 2,258 | 5 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 35,201 | 100 | % | $ | 47,274 | 100 | % | ||||
We diversify our corporate bond holdings by industry and issuer. The portfolio does not have significant exposure to any single issuer. As of December 31, 2004, our combined corporate bond holdings in the ten issuers to which we had the greatest exposure was $2,154 million, which was approximately 3% of our total cash and invested assets as of such date. The exposure to the largest single issuer of corporate bonds held as of December 31, 2004 was $257 million, which was less than 1% of our total cash and invested assets as of such date.
We do not have material unhedged exposure to foreign currency risk in our invested assets. In our non-U.S. insurance operations, both our assets and liabilities are generally denominated in local currencies. Foreign currency denominated securities supporting U.S. dollar liabilities generally are swapped into U.S. dollars using derivative financial instruments.
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Mortgage-backed securities
The following table sets forth the types of mortgage backed securities we held as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
||||||||
Commercial mortgage-backed securities |
$ | 6,007 | 70 | % | $ | 5,348 | 68 | % | ||||
Collateralized mortgage obligations |
1,014 | 12 | % | 799 | 10 | % | ||||||
Sequential pay class bonds |
787 | 9 | % | 922 | 12 | % | ||||||
Planned amortization class bonds |
239 | 3 | % | 265 | 4 | % | ||||||
Pass-through securities |
108 | 1 | % | 32 | 0 | % | ||||||
Other |
422 | 5 | % | 482 | 6 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 8,577 | 100 | % | $ | 7,848 | 100 | % | ||||
We purchase mortgage-backed securities to diversify our portfolio risk characteristics from primarily corporate credit risk to a mix of credit risk and cash flow risk. The principal risks inherent in holding mortgage-backed securities are prepayment and extension risks, which will affect the timing of when cash flow will be received. The majority of the mortgage-backed securities in our investment portfolio have relatively low cash flow variability. Our active monitoring and analysis of this portfolio, focus on stable types of securities and limits on our holdings of more volatile types of securities reduces the effects of interest rate fluctuations on this portfolio.
Commercial mortgage-backed securities, or CMBS, which represent our largest class of mortgage-backed securities, are securities backed by a diversified pool of first mortgage loans on commercial properties ranging in size, property type and geographic location. The primary risk associated with CMBS is default risk. Prepayment risk on CMBS is generally low because of prepayment restrictions contained in the underlying collateral.
The majority of our collateralized mortgage obligations, or CMOs, are guaranteed or otherwise supported by the Federal National Mortgage Association, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation or Government National Mortgage Association. CMOs separate mortgage pools into different maturity classes called tranches. This separation generally provides for greater cash flow stability than other mortgage-backed securities.
Sequential pay class bonds receive principal payments in a prescribed sequence without a pre-determined prepayment schedule. Planned amortization class bonds are bonds structured to provide more certain cash flows to the investor and therefore are subject to less prepayment and extension risk than other mortgage-backed securities.
Pass-through securities are the most liquid assets in the mortgage-backed sector. Pass-through securities distribute, on a pro rata basis to their holders, the monthly cash flows of principal and interest, both scheduled and prepayments, generated by the underlying mortgages.
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Asset-backed securities
The following table sets forth the types of asset-backed securities we held as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
Estimated fair value |
% of total |
||||||||
Credit card receivables |
$ | 1,139 | 34 | % | $ | 1,131 | 26 | % | ||||
Home equity loans |
786 | 24 | % | 1,043 | 24 | % | ||||||
Automobile receivables |
496 | 15 | % | 1,425 | 32 | % | ||||||
Other |
879 | 27 | % | 805 | 18 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 3,300 | 100 | % | $ | 4,404 | 100 | % | ||||
We purchase asset-backed securities both to diversify the overall risks of our fixed maturities portfolio and to provide attractive returns. Our asset-backed securities are diversified by type of asset, issuer and servicer. As of December 31, 2004, approximately $1.99 billion, or 60%, of the total amount of our asset-backed securities were rated Aaa/AAA by Moodys or S&P.
The principal risks in holding asset-backed securities are structural, credit and capital market risks. Structural risks include the securitys priority in the issuers capital structure, the adequacy of and ability to realize proceeds from the collateral and the potential for prepayments. Credit risks include consumer or corporate credits such as credit card holders, equipment lessees, and corporate obligors. Capital market risks include the general level of interest rates and the liquidity for these securities in the marketplace.
Mortgage loans
Our mortgage loans are collateralized by commercial properties, including multifamily residential buildings. The carrying value of mortgage loans is stated at original cost net of prepayments and amortization.
We diversify our commercial mortgage loans by both property type and geographic region. The following table sets forth the distribution across property type and geographic region for commercial mortgage loans as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
Property Type |
Carrying value |
% of total |
Carrying value |
% of total |
||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
||||||||||||
Office |
$ | 1,822 | 30 | % | $ | 2,024 | 33 | % | ||||
Industrial |
1,797 | 30 | % | 1,812 | 30 | % | ||||||
Retail |
1,574 | 26 | % | 1,500 | 25 | % | ||||||
Apartments |
650 | 11 | % | 573 | 9 | % | ||||||
Mixed use/other |
208 | 3 | % | 205 | 3 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 6,051 | 100 | % | $ | 6,114 | 100 | % | ||||
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December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
Geographic Region |
Carrying value |
% of total |
Carrying value |
% of total |
||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
||||||||||||
Pacific |
$ | 1,796 | 30 | % | $ | 1,867 | 31 | % | ||||
South Atlantic |
1,239 | 20 | % | 1,194 | 20 | % | ||||||
Middle Atlantic |
953 | 16 | % | 932 | 15 | % | ||||||
East North Central |
682 | 11 | % | 771 | 12 | % | ||||||
Mountain |
463 | 8 | % | 478 | 8 | % | ||||||
West South Central |
306 | 5 | % | 288 | 5 | % | ||||||
West North Central |
252 | 4 | % | 271 | 4 | % | ||||||
East South Central |
225 | 4 | % | 226 | 4 | % | ||||||
New England |
135 | 2 | % | 87 | 1 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 6,051 | 100 | % | $ | 6,114 | 100 | % | ||||
The following table sets forth the distribution of our commercial mortgage loans by loan size as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Number of loans |
Principal balance |
% of total |
Number of loans |
Principal balance |
% of total |
||||||||||
Under $5 million |
3,119 | $ | 3,073 | 50 | % | 1,627 | $ | 3,153 | 51 | % | ||||||
$5 million but less than $10 million |
409 | 1,442 | 24 | % | 207 | 1,394 | 23 | % | ||||||||
$10 million but less than $20 million |
142 | 1,009 | 17 | % | 67 | 948 | 15 | % | ||||||||
$20 million but less than $30 million |
26 | 334 | 5 | % | 13 | 309 | 5 | % | ||||||||
More than $30 million |
12 | 237 | 4 | % | 8 | 358 | 6 | % | ||||||||
Total |
3,708 | $ | 6,095 | 100 | % | 1,922 | $ | 6,162 | 100 | % | ||||||
The following table sets forth the scheduled maturities for our commercial mortgage loans as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Carrying value |
% of total |
Carrying value |
% of total |
||||||||
Due in 1 year or less |
$ | 50 | 1 | % | $ | 68 | 1 | % | ||||
Due after 1 year through 2 years |
86 | 1 | % | 60 | 1 | % | ||||||
Due after 2 year through 3 years |
50 | 1 | % | 122 | 2 | % | ||||||
Due after 3 year through 4 years |
333 | 5 | % | 64 | 1 | % | ||||||
Due after 4 year through 5 years |
232 | 4 | % | 389 | 6 | % | ||||||
Due after 5 years |
5,300 | 88 | % | 5,411 | 89 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 6,051 | 100 | % | $ | 6,114 | 100 | % | ||||
We monitor our mortgage loans on a continual basis. These reviews include an analysis of the property, its financial statements, the relevant market and tenant creditworthiness. Through this monitoring process, we review loans that are restructured, delinquent or under foreclosure and identify those that management considers to be potentially delinquent.
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The following table sets forth the changes in allowance for losses on mortgage loans as of the dates indicated:
As of or for the years ended December 31, |
||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
2004 |
2003 |
||||||
Balance, beginning of period |
$ | 50 | $ | 45 | ||||
Additions |
7 | 8 | ||||||
Deductions for writedowns and dispositions |
(5 | ) | (3 | ) | ||||
Balance, end of period |
$ | 52 | $ | 50 | ||||
Equity securities
Our equity securities, which are classified as available-for-sale, primarily consist of retained interests in our securitization transactions, as well as mutual funds and investments in publicly-traded preferred and common stocks of U.S. and non-U.S. companies.
Other investments
The following table sets forth the carrying values of our other investments as of the dates indicated:
December 31, |
||||||||||||
2004 |
2003 |
|||||||||||
(Dollar amounts in millions) |
Carrying value |
% of total |
Carrying value |
% of total |
||||||||
Securities lending |
$ | 3,202 | 80 | % | $ | 3,026 | 80 | % | ||||
Limited partnerships |
183 | 5 | % | 253 | 7 | % | ||||||
Real estate |
| | 120 | 3 | % | |||||||
Other investments |
611 | 15 | % | 390 | 10 | % | ||||||
Total |
$ | 3,996 | 100 | % | $ | 3,789 | 100 | % | ||||
We participate in a securities lending program whereby blocks of securities included in our portfolio are loaned primarily to major brokerage firms. We require a minimum of 102% of the fair value of the loaned securities to be separately maintained as collateral for the loans. The limited partnerships primarily represent interests in pooled investment funds that make private equity investments in U.S. and non-U.S. companies. Real estate consists of ownership of real property, primarily commercial property. Other investments are primarily swaps, amounts on deposit with foreign governments, options and strategic equity investments.
Derivative financial instruments
We use derivative financial instruments, such as interest rate and currency swaps, currency forwards and option-based financial instruments, as part of our risk management strategy. We use these derivatives to mitigate certain risks, including interest rate risk, currency risk and equity risk, by:
| reducing the risk between the timing of the receipt of cash and its investment in the market; |
| matching the currency of invested assets with the liabilities they support; |
| converting the asset duration to match the duration of the liabilities; |