At December 31, 2019, the Company's federal income tax returns for years prior to 2014 are no longer subject to examination by the IRS. Management does not anticipate any assessments for tax years that remain subject to examination to have a material effect on the Company's financial position or results of operations. See Part II - Item 8, Note 11 of the Consolidated Financial Statements in this report for further information.
Trade names represents the present value of future savings accruing to NTA and BCG by virtue of not having to pay royalties for the use of the trade names, valued using the relief from royalty method. State licenses represents the regulatory licenses held by NTA that were valued using the cost approach. Both trade names and state licenses are indefinite-lived intangibles that are not subject to amortization.
N/A - The acquisition of NTA closed on July 1, 2019.
At December 31, 2019, 100% were investment grade, with an overall credit rating of AA+, and the positions were well diversified by property type, geography and sponsor.
The short-term liquidity requirements of the Company, within a 12 month operating cycle, are for the timely payment of claims and benefits to policyholders, operating expenses, interest payments and federal income taxes. Cash flow generated from operations has been, and is expected to be, adequate to meet the Company's operating cash needs in the next 12 months. Cash flow in excess of operational needs has been used to fund business growth, pay dividends to shareholders and repurchase shares of HMEC's common stock. Long-term liquidity requirements, beyond one year, are principally for the payment of future insurance and annuity policy claims and benefits, as well as retirement of long-term debt. The following table summarizes the Company's consolidated cash flows activity for the periods indicated.
Developing an independent range of fair value estimates using information from the Company, market data sources, models, and key assumptions for a selection of securities; and
Comparing the Company’s fair value estimates of hard-to-value securities to our independent range of fair value estimates for the same selection of securities.
Developing an independent range of reserves based on actuarial methodologies in order to evaluate the Company’s recorded reserves; and
Based on the Company's final allocation of the purchase price, the fair value of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed were as follows:
Also, included in investment contract and policy reserves are embedded derivatives related to the Company's IUL products which are carried at fair value. See Note 5 for further information.
The following table is a summary reconciliation of the beginning and ending Property and Casualty unpaid claims and claim expense reserves for the periods indicated. The table presents reserves on both gross and net (after reinsurance) basis. The total net Property and Casualty insurance claims and claim expense incurred amounts are reflected in the Consolidated Statements of Operations. The end of the year gross reserve (before reinsurance) balances and the reinsurance recoverable balances are reflected on a gross basis in the Consolidated Balance Sheets.
Claim count estimates are also established for claims as they occur for each line of business based on estimates of the ultimate claim counts. (These counts are derived by counting the number of claimants by insurance coverage.) The primary actuarial techniques (development of paid claim counts and development of reported claim counts) used to estimate ultimate claim counts are applied to actual paid claim counts and reported claim counts (paid claims plus individual unpaid claims set by claim adjusters) for an accident year to create an estimate of how claims are likely to develop over time. An accident year refers to classifying claims based on the year in which the claim occurred. The ultimate claim count generally gives equal consideration to the results of the two actuarial techniques described.
Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for all future tax consequences attributable to "temporary differences" between the financial statement carrying value of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax bases. There are no deferred tax liabilities that have not been recognized. The "temporary differences" that gave rise to the deferred tax balances were as follows:
The change in the Company's AOCI for the defined benefit plans for the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily attributable to better than expected asset returns, updates to mortality assumptions and updated census dates offset by a decrease in the discount rate. The change in the Company's AOCI for the defined benefit plans for the year ended December 31, 2018 was primarily attributable to lower than expected asset returns and updates to mortality assumptions and an increase in the discount rate. The change in the Company's AOCI for the defined benefit plans for the year ended December 31, 2017 was primarily attributable to better than expected asset returns and updates to mortality assumptions partially offset by a decrease in the discount rate.
The assumption for the long-term rate of return on plan assets was determined by considering actual investment experience during the lifetime of the plan, balanced with reasonable expectations of future growth considering the various classes of assets and percentage allocation for each asset class.
Companies in the insurance industry have been subject to substantial litigation resulting from claims, disputes and other matters. For instance, they have faced expensive claims, including class action lawsuits, alleging, among other things, improper sales practices and improper claims settlement procedures. Negotiated settlements of certain such actions have had a material adverse effect on many insurance companies.