Please refer to Note 2(o) in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements for a discussion of recent accounting standards that may affect us.
As discussed in Note 2(c) in our Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, we value our investments at fair value using quoted prices from active markets, to the extent available. For securities for which quoted prices in active markets are unavailable, we use observable inputs such as quoted prices in inactive markets, quoted prices in active markets for similar instruments, benchmark interest rates, broker quotes and other relevant inputs. We do not have any investments in our available for sale portfolio or in any other assets which require us to use unobservable inputs.
Excess - provides coverage on $172,860,000 of losses in excess of the private and FHCF reinsurance coverage and is 100% placed.
* Underlying Loss and LAE is a non-GAAP measure and is reconciled above to Net Loss and LAE, the most directly comparable GAAP measure. Additional information regarding non-GAAP financial measures presented in this document is in the "Definitions of Non-GAAP Measures" section of this document.
The carrying amounts for the following financial instrument categories approximate their fair values at December 31, 2013 and 2012 because of their short-term nature: cash and cash equivalents, accrued investment income, premiums receivable, reinsurance recoverable, reinsurance payable, and accounts payable and accrued expenses. The carrying amount of notes payable also approximates its fair value as the interest rate on the note payable is variable.
In July 2013, the FASB issued ASU 2013-11, Income Taxes (Topic 740)-Presentation of an Unrecognized Tax Benefit When a Net Operating Loss Carryforward or Tax Credit Carryforward Exists, which finalizes Proposed ASU No. EITF-13C, and requires an entity's unrecognized tax benefit to be presented in its financial statements as a reduction to a deferred tax asset for a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward, with one exception. That exception states that, to the extent a net operating loss carryforward, a similar tax loss, or a tax credit carryforward is not available at the reporting date under the tax law of the applicable jurisdiction to settle any additional income taxes that would result from the disallowance of a tax position, or the tax law of the applicable jurisdiction does not require the entity to use, and the entity does not intend to use, the deferred tax asset for such purpose, the unrecognized tax benefit should be presented in the financial statements as a liability and should not be combined with deferred tax assets. The ASU applies prospectively for reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2013. Retrospective application and early adoption are also permitted. We do not expect ASU No. 2013-02 or ASU No. 2013-11 to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.
We do not hold any available for sale investments that require unobservable inputs to determine their fair value. At the end of each quarter, we determine whether we need to transfer the fair values of any securities between levels of the fair value hierarchy and, if so, we report the transfer as of the end of the quarter. We made no such transfers during the year ended December 31, 2013.
Statutory accounting requires a provision for reinsurance liability be established for reinsurance recoverable on paid losses aged over ninety days and for unsecured amounts recoverable from unauthorized reinsurers. Under GAAP there is no charge for uncollateralized amounts ceded to a company not licensed in the insurance affiliate's domiciliary state and a reserve for uncollectable reinsurance is charged through earnings rather than surplus or equity.
We provide a 401(k) plan for substantially all of our employees. We match 100% of the first 5% of employees’ contributions to the plan. For the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012, and 2011, our contributions to the plan on behalf of the participating employees were $180,000, $111,000, and $97,000, respectively.