DONEGAL GROUP INC - Quarter Report: 2022 March (Form 10-Q)

Donegal Group Inc. and Subsidiaries

Consolidated Statement of Stockholders’ Equity

(Unaudited)

Three Months Ended March 31, 2022

 

Three Months Ended March 31, 2021

 

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.

At March 31, 2022, we had three segments: our investment function, our commercial lines of insurance and our personal lines of insurance. The commercial lines products of our insurance subsidiaries consist primarily of commercial automobile, commercial multi-peril and workers’ compensation policies. The personal lines products of our insurance subsidiaries consist primarily of homeowners and private passenger automobile policies.

 

We have two classes of common stock, which we refer to as our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock. Our certificate of incorporation provides that whenever our board of directors declares a dividend on our Class B common stock, our board of directors shall simultaneously declare a dividend on our Class A common stock that is payable to the holders of our Class A common stock at the same time and as of the same record date at a rate that is at least 10% greater than the rate at which our board of directors declared a dividend on our Class B common stock. Accordingly, we use the two-class method to compute our earnings per common share. The two-class method is an earnings allocation formula that determines earnings per share separately for each class of common stock based on dividends we have declared and an allocation of our remaining undistributed earnings using a participation percentage that reflects the dividend rights of each class. The table below presents for the periods indicated a reconciliation of the numerators and denominators we used to compute basic and diluted net income per share for our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock:

 

 

We did not include outstanding options to purchase the following number of shares of Class A common stock in our computation of diluted earnings per share because the exercise price of the options exceeded the average market price of our Class A common stock during the applicable periods.

In order to write automobile insurance in the state of Michigan, MICO is required to be a member of the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (“MCCA”).  The MCCA provides reinsurance to MICO for personal automobile and commercial automobile personal injury claims in the state of Michigan over a set retention. In November 2021, the MCCA approved the return of approximately $3.0 billion of its estimated surplus to its member insurance companies and provided guidance to those companies with respect to the payment of refunds to Michigan policyholders in the first half of 2022. We recorded a receivable from the MCCA and a corresponding payable for cash refunds due to Michigan policyholders in the amount of $18.1 million on our balance sheet as of December 31, 2021. In March 2022, we received such payment from the MCCA and subsequently paid the refunds due to our Michigan policyholders.

The amortized cost and estimated fair values of our fixed maturities at March 31, 2022 were as follows:

 

 

At March 31, 2022, our holdings of obligations of states and political subdivisions included general obligation bonds with an aggregate fair value of $283.6 million and an amortized cost of $296.1 million. Our holdings at March 31, 2022 also included special revenue bonds with an aggregate fair value of $152.9 million and an amortized cost of $157.5 million. With respect to both categories of those bonds at March 31, 2022, we held no securities of any issuer that comprised more than 10% of our holdings of either bond category. Education bonds and water and sewer utility bonds represented 48% and 35%, respectively, of our total investments in special revenue bonds based on the carrying values of these investments at March 31, 2022. Many of the issuers of the special revenue bonds we held at March 31, 2022 have the authority to impose ad valorem taxes. In that respect, many of the special revenue bonds we held at March 31, 2022 are similar to general obligation bonds.

 

The amortized cost and estimated fair values of our fixed maturities at December 31, 2021 were as follows:

 

 

At December 31, 2021, our holdings of obligations of states and political subdivisions included general obligation bonds with an aggregate fair value of $284.9 million and an amortized cost of $272.7 million. Our holdings also included special revenue bonds with an aggregate fair value of $160.8 million and an amortized cost of $154.2 million. With respect to both categories of bonds, we held no securities of any issuer that comprised more than 10% of that category at December 31, 2021. Education bonds and water and sewer utility bonds represented 48% and 35%, respectively, of our total investments in special revenue bonds based on their carrying values at December 31, 2021. Many of the issuers of the special revenue bonds we held at December 31, 2021 have the authority to impose ad valorem taxes. In that respect, many of the special revenue bonds we held are similar to general obligation bonds.

We have segregated within accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income the net unrealized losses of $15.1 million arising prior to the November 30, 2013 reclassification date for fixed maturities reclassified from available for sale to held to maturity. We are amortizing this balance over the remaining life of the related securities as an adjustment of yield in a manner consistent with the accretion of discount on the same fixed maturities. We recorded amortization of $ 149,475 and $371,265 in other comprehensive loss during the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. At March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, net unrealized losses of $5.0 million and $5.2 million, respectively, remained within accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income.

We show below the amortized cost and estimated fair value of our fixed maturities at March 31, 2022 by contractual maturity. Expected maturities may differ from contractual maturities because issuers of the securities may have the right to call or prepay obligations with or without call or prepayment penalties

.

The cost and estimated fair values of our equity securities at March 31, 2022 were as follows:

 

The cost and estimated fair values of our equity securities at December 31, 2021 were as follows:

 

 

We present below gross gains and losses from investments and the change in the difference between fair value and cost of investments:

 

We held fixed maturities with unrealized losses representing declines that we considered temporary at March 31, 2022 as follows:

 

We held fixed maturities with unrealized losses representing declines that we considered temporary at December 31, 2021 as follows:

 

We make estimates concerning the valuation of our investments and the recognition of other-than-temporary declines in the value of our investments. For equity securities, we measure investments at fair value, and we recognize changes in fair value in our results of operations. With respect to a debt security that is in an unrealized loss position, we first assess if we intend to sell the debt security. If we determine we intend to sell the debt security, we recognize the impairment loss in our results of operations. If we do not intend to sell the debt security, we determine whether it is more likely than not that we will be required to sell the debt security prior to recovery. If we determine it is more likely than not that we will be required to sell the debt security prior to recovery, we recognize the impairment loss in our results of operations. If we determine it is more likely than not that we will not be required to sell the debt security prior to recovery, we then evaluate whether a credit loss has occurred with respect to that security. We determine whether a credit loss has occurred by comparing the amortized cost of the debt security to the present value of the cash flows we expect to collect. If we expect a cash flow shortfall, we consider that a credit loss has occurred. If we determine that a credit loss has occurred, we consider the impairment to be other than temporary. We then recognize the amount of the impairment loss related to the credit loss in our results of operations, and we recognize the remaining portion of the impairment loss in our other comprehensive income, net of applicable taxes. In addition, we may write down securities in an unrealized loss position based on a number of other factors, including when the fair value of an investment is significantly below its cost, when the financial condition of the issuer of a security has deteriorated, the occurrence of industry, issuer or geographic events that have negatively impacted the value of a security and rating agency downgrades. We held 593 debt securities that were in an unrealized loss position at March 31, 2022. Based upon our analysis of general market conditions and underlying factors impacting these debt securities, we considered these declines in value to be temporary.

We amortize premiums and discounts on debt securities over the life of the security as an adjustment to yield using the effective interest method. We compute realized investment gains and losses using the specific identification method.

We amortize premiums and discounts on mortgage-backed debt securities using anticipated prepayments.

We evaluate the performance of our personal lines and commercial lines segments based upon the underwriting results of our insurance subsidiaries using statutory accounting principles (“SAP”) that various state insurance departments prescribe or permit. Our management uses SAP to measure the performance of our insurance subsidiaries instead of United States generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”). SAP financial measures are considered non-GAAP financial measures under applicable SEC rules because they include or exclude certain items that the most comparable GAAP financial measures do not ordinarily include or exclude.

Financial data by segment for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021 is as follows:

8 -	Share–Based Compensation

We account for financial assets using a framework that establishes a hierarchy that ranks the quality and reliability of the inputs, or assumptions, we use in the determination of fair value, and we classify financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value in one of the following three categories:

Level 1 – quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities;

Level 2 – directly or indirectly observable inputs other than Level 1 quoted prices; and

Level 3 – unobservable inputs not corroborated by market data.

For investments that have quoted market prices in active markets, we use the quoted market price as fair value and include these investments in Level 1 of the fair value hierarchy. We classify publicly-traded equity securities as Level 1. When quoted market prices in active markets are not available, we base fair values on quoted market prices of comparable instruments or price estimates we obtain from independent pricing services and include these investments in Level 2 of the fair value hierarchy. We classify our fixed maturity investments and non-publicly traded equity securities as Level 2. Our fixed maturity investments consist of U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of U.S. government corporations and agencies, obligations of states and political subdivisions, corporate securities and mortgage-backed securities.

We present our investments in available-for-sale fixed maturity and equity securities at estimated fair value. The estimated fair value of a security may differ from the amount that could be realized if we sold the security in a forced transaction. In addition, the valuation of fixed maturity investments is more subjective when markets are less liquid, increasing the potential that the estimated fair value does not reflect the price at which an actual transaction would occur. We utilize nationally recognized independent pricing services to estimate fair values or obtain market quotations for substantially all of our fixed maturity and equity investments. We generally obtain two prices per security. These pricing services utilize market quotations for fixed maturity and equity securities that have quoted prices in active markets. For fixed maturity securities that generally do not trade on a daily basis, the pricing services prepare estimates of fair value measurements based predominantly on observable market inputs. The pricing services do not use broker quotes in determining the fair values of our investments. Our investment personnel review the estimates of fair value the pricing services provide to verify that the estimates we obtain from the pricing services are representative of fair values based upon our investment personnel’s general knowledge of the market, their research findings related to unusual fluctuations in value and their comparison of such values to execution prices for similar securities. Our investment personnel monitor the market and are familiar with current trading ranges for similar securities and the pricing of specific investments. Our investment personnel review all pricing estimates that we receive from the pricing services against their expectations with respect to pricing based on fair market curves, security ratings, coupon rates, security types and recent trading activity. Our investment personnel periodically review documentation with respect to the pricing services’ pricing methodology that they obtain to determine if the primary pricing sources, market inputs and pricing frequency for various security types are reasonable. At March 31, 2022, we received two estimates per security from the pricing services, and we priced substantially all of our Level 1 and Level 2 investments using those prices. In our review of the estimates the pricing services provided at March 31, 2022, we did not identify any material discrepancies, and we did not make any adjustments to the estimates the pricing services provided.

We present our cash and short-term investments at estimated fair value. We classify these items as Level 1.

The carrying values we report in our balance sheet for premium receivables, reinsurance receivables related to paid losses and loss expenses and reinsurance balances payable approximate their fair values. The carrying amounts we report in our balance sheets for our subordinated debentures and borrowings under lines of credit approximate their fair values. We classify these items as Level 3.

We evaluate our assets and liabilities to determine the appropriate level at which to classify them for each reporting period.

The following table presents our fair value measurements for our investments in available-for-sale fixed maturity and equity securities at March 31, 2022:

The following table presents our fair value measurements for our investments in available-for-sale fixed maturity and equity securities at December 31, 2021:

At March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively, we had no material unrecognized tax benefits or accrued interest and penalties. Tax years 2016 through 2021 remained open for examination at March 31, 2022. We provide a valuation allowance when we believe it is more likely than not that we will not realize some portion of our tax assets. We established a valuation allowance of $7.9 million for our net state operating loss carryforward. We have determined that we are not required to establish a valuation allowance for our other deferred tax assets of $32.5 million and $28.1 million at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively, because it is more likely than not that we will realize these deferred tax assets through reversals of existing temporary differences, future taxable income and the implementation of tax planning strategies.

11 -	Liabilities for Losses and Loss Expenses

		Three Months Ended March 31,
		2022				2021
		(in thousands)
Balance at January 1		$	1,077,620			$	962,007
Less reinsurance recoverable			(451,261	)			(404,818	)
Net balance at January 1			626,359				557,189
Incurred related to:
Current year			134,432				127,433
Prior years			(16,549	)			(8,213	)
Total incurred			117,883				119,220
Paid related to:
Current year			40,293				35,584
Prior years			76,088				65,192
Total paid			116,381				100,776
Net balance at end of period			627,861				575,633
Plus reinsurance recoverable			443,726				421,346
Balance at end of period		$	1,071,587			$	996,979

In September 2016, the FASB issued guidance that amends previous guidance on the impairment of financial instruments by adding an impairment model that requires an entity to recognize expected credit losses as an allowance rather than impairments as credit losses are incurred. The intent of this guidance is to reduce complexity and result in a more timely recognition of expected credit losses. In November 2019, the FASB issued guidance that delays the effective date for “smaller reporting companies,” as defined in Item 10(f)(1) of Regulation S-K, to annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2022 from December 15, 2019. We are a smaller reporting company and are in the process of evaluating the impact of the adoption of this guidance on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.