Company: HIG-PG
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000874766-25-000023
Chunk: 1340

Company: HARTFORD INSURANCE GROUP, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-02-21
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 2
Chunk 1340
---
 monthly gross benefit which is reduced for estimates of the expected claim recovery due to return to work or claimant death, offsets from other income including offsets from Social Security benefits, and discounting, where the discount rate is tied to expected investment yield at the time the claim is incurred. Estimated future benefit payments represent the monthly income benefit that is paid until recovery, death or expiration of benefits. Claim recoveries are estimated based on claim characteristics such as age and diagnosis and represent an estimate of benefits that will terminate, generally as a result of the claimant returning to work or being deemed able to return to work. For claims recently closed due to recovery, a portion of the DLR is retained for the possibility that the claim reopens upon further evidence of disability. In addition, a reserve for estimated unpaid claim expenses is included in the DLR. The DLR also includes a liability for potential payments to pending claimants beyond the elimination period who have not yet been approved for LTD. In these cases, the present value of future benefits is reduced for the likelihood of claim denial based on Company experience. Estimates for IBNR claims are made by applying completion factors to expected emerged experience by line of business. Included within IBNR are bulk reserves for claims reported but still within the waiting period until benefits are paid, typically 3 or 6 months depending on the contract. Completion factors are derived from standard actuarial techniques using triangles that display historical claim count emergence by incurral month. These estimates are reviewed for reasonableness and are adjusted for current trends and other factors expected to cause a change in claim emergence. The reserves include an estimate of unpaid claim expenses, including a provision for the cost of initial set-up of the claim once reported.For all products, including LTD, there is a period generally ranging from two to twelve months, depending on the product and line of business, where emerged claims for an incurral year are not yet credible enough to be a basis for estimating reserves. In these cases, the ultimate loss is estimated using earned premium multiplied by an expected loss ratio based on pricing assumptions of claim incidence, claim severity, and earned pricing adjusted for emerging trends as needed.Impact of Key Assumptions on ReservesThe key assumptions affecting long-term disability, which is the largest reserve within Employee Benefits, include:Discount Rate - The discount rate is the interest rate at which expected future claim cash flows are discounted to determine the present value. A higher selected discount rate results in a lower reserve. If the discount rate is higher than our future investment returns, our