This section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K generally discusses 2020 and 2019 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2020 and 2019. Discussions of 2018 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2019 and 2018 that are not included in this Form 10-K can be found in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.
2020 was a challenging year. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world and changed behavior and economic patterns, as described in Part I, Item 1. Business under “Strategic Initiatives”, we focused on pivoting our business to a more virtual model while executing on our growth initiatives that build on our expertise. We did this while navigating through significant internal and external disruptions, uncertainties and challenges including a change in control, the resignation of our former chief executive officer and appointment of an interim chief executive officer, litigation in Colorado brought by the Foundation, as our former controlling shareholder, against the Company and our Board of Directors following the change in control, and the global pandemic. These topics are discussed in more detail under Part I. Item 1. Business and Part I, Item 3. Legal Proceedings of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
During 2020, we reported a net loss of $11.0 million, compared to a net loss of $1.4 million in 2019. The increase in net loss in 2020 was primarily driven by $10.0 million of general expenses related to executive severance costs and professional fees incurred in connection with the change in control of the Company. Expenses related to the change in control in 2020 include (i) a severance payment of $8.8 million to a Rabbi Trust for the benefit of our former Chief Executive Officer, Geoffrey Kolander, following his resignation pursuant to the terms of his employment agreement and the Chief Executive Officer Separation of Service and Consulting Agreement dated July 29, 2020 (the “Separation and Consulting Agreement”), and (ii) $1.2 million of expenses related to the accelerated vesting of Mr. Kolander’s Restricted Stock Units following his resignation upon the change in control pursuant to his employment agreement and Separation and Consulting Agreement. Legal fees related to the litigation brought by the Foundation against the Company and its Board of Directors in Colorado also contributed to increased general expenses during 2020.
While our first-year premiums in the fourth quarter of 2020 in our Life Insurance segment were 75% higher than first year premiums in the third quarter of 2020 and 15% higher than first year premiums in the fourth quarter of 2019, premiums decreased by $9.0 million during 2020 as compared to 2019. We believe that our overall sales in the Life Insurance segment for 2020 were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. First year premiums in our Home Service Insurance segment were also negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as we stopped our door-to-door selling for two months while we pivoted to more virtual selling methods. Our renewal premiums in the Life Insurance segment were negatively impacted by higher levels of surrenders, which we believe was due to not only an aging block of business (i.e., maturities and surrenders of products where the surrender charges are close to expiring or have expired) and our decision to cease issuing new policies in Brazil in 2017 (where we see many policies lapsing), but also by economic circumstances in Latin America.
At December 31, 2020, we had $1.8 billion in total assets, an increase from $1.7 billion at December 31, 2019, and we had $34.1 million in cash. We did not have any debt at December 31, 2020.
•Net investment income increased 1.1% in 2020 compared to 2019, totaling $60.2 million and $59.5 million, respectively, driven by a growing asset base derived from cash flows from our insurance operations, which was partially offset by higher investment expenses from diversification of our investment portfolio into private equity investments. The average yield on our consolidated investment portfolio was 4.24% (annualized rate) for 2020 compared to 4.36% (annualized rate) for 2019, a decline of twelve basis points, as we faced a challenging investment environment for fixed maturity securities in 2020.
•Lower realized investment gains in 2020 were primarily a function of a recorded net gain in 2019 of $2.4 million net of real estate sales and impairment losses and $2.0 million of realized gains in 2019 related to tender offers for fixed maturity securities.
COVID-19 pandemic primarily negatively impacted our product sales (and thus first year premium revenue), and our claims and surrender benefits. We describe throughout this discussion in more detail areas of our results in which we believe our business may have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As described above, we have implemented operational changes and sales practices to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business. Because the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause quarantines, “stay-at-home” orders and similar mandates for many individuals and businesses requiring them to substantially restrict daily activities and to curtail or cease normal operations globally where we do business, and because of slower-than-expected implementation of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment therapies, we continue to foresee some adverse impact to near-term sales activity and premiums, especially in Latin America, as well as potential continued impact to claims, policy benefits, invested assets and regulatory capital. We continue to closely monitor developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic to assess its impact on our future results and business. For an additional discussion of the potential impacts on our business from the COVID-19 pandemic, see Part I, Item 1A - Risk Factors, in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Additionally, we continue to be impacted by the following significant economic issues and other developments impacting our business and industry, including the following:
◦Reducing the spread between guaranteed interest rates credited to policyholders and interest earned on supporting assets;
◦Causing us to reinvest proceeds in lower yielding assets as our fixed maturity investment portfolio, which is primarily invested in callable securities, are called and must be reinvested;
◦Making our products less attractive (due to lower credited interest rates), resulting in lower sales; or
•Global Operations. While our management has extensive experience in writing life insurance policies for foreign residents, changes to foreign laws and regulations and their related application and increased enforcement efforts by foreign governments, along with currency controls affecting our foreign resident insureds, could adversely impact our revenues, results of operations and financial condition.
Life Insurance. For over 45 years, CICA Life Insurance Company of America ("CICA") and its predecessors have issued U.S. dollar-denominated ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies to non-U.S. residents. We completed a novation of all of the international policies issued by CICA to CICA Life Ltd. ("CICA Ltd."), our Bermuda-based insurer, effective July 1, 2018. We distribute our international insurance products through independent marketing organizations and their agents located in the countries in which our policyholders reside.
Through the domestic market of our Life Insurance segment, we collect renewal premiums on ordinary whole life, credit life insurance, and final expense policies issued to middle- and lower-income families and individuals in certain markets in the Mountain West, Midwest and Southern U.S. As we discussed in Item 1. Business - Strategic Initiatives, we will introduce, beginning in Florida, our domestic products and distribution in early 2021. The majority of our current domestic revenues are generated by the policies of domestic life insurance companies we have acquired since 1987.
Home Service Insurance. We provide final expense ordinary and industrial life insurance to middle- and lower-income individuals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. Our policies in this segment are sold and serviced through a home service marketing distribution system utilizing independent agents who work on a route system to collect premiums and service policyholders, and through networks of funeral homes that collect premiums and provide personal policyholder service. To a much lesser extent, our Home Service Insurance segment also sells limited liability named-peril property policies covering dwellings and content.
Life Insurance $ 219,902,799 3,419 $ 64,318 $ 233,503,780 3,456 $ 67,565
We issued $354.2 million in insurance face amounts in 2020 as compared to $392.3 million in 2019. As discussed above, our first-year sales were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We issued 28,339 new policies in 2020, as compared to 25,604 new policies in 2019. The increase was driven by policies issued by our Home Service Insurance segment, which have a significantly lower face value than policies issued in our Life Insurance segment.
The number of policies issued in the Home Service Insurance segment increased 12.5% in 2020 compared to 2019. The increase in new business applications in our Home Service segment was driven primarily by the introduction of a new sales campaign targeted at existing policyholders in the third quarter that emphasized higher volume selling at lower average face amounts. In doing so, we focused on sales of additional benefits for our existing policyholders, which have lower face values, thus leading to a 24.8% decline in average policy face values and a 15.4% decline in amount of insurance issued as compared to 2019. Despite the increase in policies issued in 2020, our Home Service Insurance segment continued to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We had temporary office closures in Louisiana during the second and third quarters due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Laura, and we also curtailed the sales of certain product offerings that require extensive person-to-person sales interaction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Premium Income. Premium income derived from life, accident and health, and property insurance sales decreased 4.9% during 2020 compared to 2019. The decrease in 2020 was driven primarily by a decline in renewal and first year premiums in our Life insurance segment as discussed in "2020 Highlights".
Realized Gains (Losses) on Investments. Realized investment gains and losses are as follows:
•Death claim benefits increased 8.3% in 2020. The increase in 2020 was concentrated in our Home Service Insurance segment and we believe likely reflected increased mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic in our customer base in this segment. Mortality experience and COVID-19 impacts will continue to be closely monitored by the Company.
•Surrender benefits increased 11.2% in 2020. Surrender benefits represented less than 1.2% of total direct life insurance in force of $4.6 billion as of December 31, 2020. The increase in surrender benefits is primarily within our Life Insurance segment. A significant portion of surrender benefits relates to policies that have been in force and have little or no associated surrender charges.
Policyholder Dividends. Most of our Life Insurance segment's international policies contain guaranteed cash values and are participating (i.e., provide for cash dividends as apportioned by our Board of Directors). The policyowner has several options with regards to the policy dividends and annual premium benefits, which include, among other things, electing to receive cash, crediting such amounts towards the payment of premiums on the policy, leaving such amounts on deposit with the Company to accumulate at a defined interest rate or assigning them to a third-party which would allow for participation in the CISIP, as described in Item 1 - Business - International Products. Policyholders' dividends decreased by 7.5% in 2020 as compared to 2019 due to a lower in force block of business and actions taken by the Company to reduce discretionary dividends on existing international policies in response to the sustained low interest rate environment.
Commissions. Commission expenses are a cost of acquiring business, as commissions are the primary compensation paid to our independent consultants and independent agents for selling our products. First year commission rates are higher than renewal commission rates. Commissions fluctuate directly in relation to sales and thus the decrease in commissions in 2020 as compared to 2019 was due to lower sales in 2020.
We perform an expense study on an annual basis, utilizing an enterprise-wide time study, and we adjust cost allocations among entities as needed based upon this review. Any allocation changes are reflected in the segment operations, but do not impact consolidated expenses.
Amortization of DAC. Amortization of DAC totaled $27.4 million and $28.3 million in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Amortization of DAC is impacted by new business, persistency and the level of surrenders. Additionally, 2019 included $1.4 million of amortization associated with the conversion to a new actuarial valuation system.
Our business is comprised of two operating business segments, as detailed below.
Total income (loss) before federal income taxes $ (12,317) 5,745 2,002
Our Life Insurance segment primarily issues ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies in U.S. dollar-denominated amounts to non-U.S. residents in more than 75 countries through almost 1,000 independent marketing consultants as of December 31, 2020.
Endowment sales represent a significant portion of our new business sales internationally and totaled approximately $8.6 million and $9.3 million, representing approximately 82.7% and 79.5% of total first year premiums in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Most of our life insurance policies contain a policy loan provision, which allows the policyholder to use the accumulated cash value of a policy to pay premiums. These accumulated cash values can also be taken as a cash loan from the policy at the request of the policyholder and are secured by the policy values. The policy loan asset balance increased 2.0% from 2019 to 2020 and remains at the same approximate ratio to life reserves as noted in prior years.
Total $ 126,285 100.0 % $ 133,353 100.0 % $ 137,725 100.0 %
Sales from Colombia, Venezuela and Taiwan represented the majority of the new and renewal business premiums in 2020 and 2019. Overall, all of our top five countries listed above experienced a decline in premium levels from 2019 to 2020, with the biggest decrease occurring in Venezuela. As we discussed above, our in force business, in terms of policy counts and amount of in force insurance, has been declining for several years due to changes we made to our products and distribution over the last few years, which resulted in the pace of new policies issued lagging the number of policies terminated from death, surrender or lapse. We believe the economic uncertainty in Venezuela contributed to the larger decline in that country.
Domestic Premiums. Domestic premiums in our Life Insurance segment were $5.1 million in 2020, down from $6.2 million in 2019. We discontinued new sales of domestic ordinary whole life and endowment life insurance products within our Life Insurance segment in 2017; therefore, the majority of the premium recorded in 2018, 2019 and 2020 is related to renewal business. We plan to expand our Life Insurance segment to the Hispanic market in the U.S and expect to begin selling in this market during 2021 as detailed above under Item 1 - Business - Strategic Initiatives.
Net Investment Income. Net investment income in our Life Insurance segment increased 2.5% in 2020 compared to 2019 due to continued growth in average invested assets. We experienced a decrease in portfolio yield of 13 basis points in this segment in 2020 compared to 2019 as we continue to face a challenging investment environment for fixed maturity assets, which account for the majority of our investment portfolio. See the Investments section below for more detailed information on our investments.
The other key component of claims and surrender benefits is death claim benefits, which decreased 10.7% in 2020 compared to 2019. Mortality experience is closely monitored by the Company as a key performance indicator and these amounts were within expected levels.
Our Home Service Insurance products consist primarily of small face amount ordinary whole life and pre-need policies, which are designed to fund final expenses for the insured, primarily consisting of funeral and burial costs. To a much lesser extent, our Home Service Insurance segment sells limited-liability, named-peril property policies
Louisiana $ 42,950 90.2 % $ 42,867 90.2 % $ 42,898 90.2 %
Claims and Surrenders. A breakout of death claim and surrender benefits for the Home Service Insurance segment is detailed below.
The majority of claims and surrender benefits in our Home Service Insurance segment relate to death claim benefits. Death claim benefits increased 15.3% in 2020 compared to 2019 due primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic and the average dollar amount of claims incurred. Mortality experience is closely monitored by the Company and can fluctuate based on reported claims as a key performance indicator.
Total cash and invested assets $ 1,658,799 100.0 % $ 1,526,459 100.0 %
(1) Includes $164.0 million and $188.1 million of securities guaranteed by third parties for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Yields on investment assets vary between segment operations due to different portfolio mixes and durations in the segments. Our annualized yield on average invested assets on the consolidated level decreased twelve basis points in 2020 compared to 2019, primarily driven by the Life Insurance segment.
The Company made new investments in investment grade bonds during 2020. Non-investment grade securities are the result of downgrades of issuers or securities acquired during acquisitions of companies, as the Company has not purchased below investment grade securities.
As of December 31, 2020, the Company held municipal fixed maturity securities that include third-party guarantees. Detailed below is a presentation by credit rating of our municipal holdings by funding type.
AAA $ 22,785 22,066 3,334 3,096 - - 26,119 25,162 6.7 %
BB and other 4,509 4,432 678 608 - - 5,187 5,040 1.3
The Company holds 21.4% of its municipal holdings in Texas issuers as of December 31, 2020. There were no other states or individual issuer holdings that represented or exceeded 10% of the total municipal portfolio as of December 31, 2020.
The Company monitors the credit ratings of our life and property reinsurers. The ratings by A.M. Best Company range from B+ (Good) to A+ (Superior).
Liquidity refers to a company's ability to generate sufficient cash flows to meet the needs of its operations. In the year ended December 31, 2020, our operations provided $48.8 million in net cash. We manage our insurance operations as described herein in order to ensure that we have stable and reliable sources of cash flows to meet our obligations. We expect to meet our cash needs for the next 12 months with cash generated by our insurance operations and from our invested assets. Since the Company does not have any debt, the Company could seek a line of credit in order to provide additional liquidity at the holding company level if needed to provide for longer-term or emergency cash needs.
As we discussed in "2020 Highlights", Citizens had significant expenses in 2020 related to executive severance costs due to severance payable to our former Chief Executive Officer following the change in control. These expenses included payment of $8.8 million to a Rabbi Trust for the benefit of Mr. Kolander representing the severance payments due to him under his employment agreement and Chief Executive Officer Separation of Service and Consulting Agreement in connection with his resignation following a change in control. During the third quarter of 2020, Citizens sold approximately $5.7 million of fixed maturity securities held in our investment portfolio in order to fund a portion of the $8.8 million severance payment to the Rabbi Trust for the benefit of Mr. Kolander. The $8.8 million payment was paid to Mr. Kolander on February 8, 2021. We also incurred significant one-time expenses related to the build-out of our new headquarters in Austin, Texas and for the purchase of furniture and fixtures for the leased space.
See Contractual Obligations and Off-balance Sheet Arrangements below for a discussion of real estate lease payments to be made under our new long-term contract for our headquarters in Austin, Texas.
The liquidity requirements of our insurance operations are primarily met by premium revenues, investment income and investment maturities. Primary cash needs are for payments of policy benefits to policyholders, investment purchases, and operating expenses. Historically, we have not had to liquidate investments to provide cash flow for our insurance operations and we did not do so in 2020. We believe that we have adequate capital resources to support the liquidity requirements of our insurance operations if the cash flow from our insurance operations is insufficient to meet our cash needs. As discussed above, premium revenue was $175.3 million and $184.3 million in the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. See Contractual Obligations and Off-balance Sheet Arrangements below for a discussion of known and estimated cash needs related to payments of future policy benefits and policy claims.
Cash flows from operating activities were $48.8 million, $72.2 million and $84.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. We have traditionally also had significant cash flows from both scheduled and unscheduled investment security maturities, redemptions, and prepayments. These cash flows, for the most part, are reinvested in fixed income securities and to a lesser extent private equity funds or other alternative investments. However, during the third quarter of 2020, the Company used funds from matured securities to pay $6.0 million to the IRS for the tax compliance matter described in Note 7. Commitments and Contingencies in the notes to our consolidated financial statements. As noted in Note 7. Commitments and Contingencies, our payment does not represent closure of the matter or IRS acceptance of the tax liability shown on the submitted withholding tax returns, and the IRS reserves the right to revise our total tax liability for the covered period. Net cash outflows from investing activities totaled $61.8 million and $69.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The investing activities fluctuate from period to period due to timing of securities activities such as calls and maturities and reinvestment of those funds.
Our whole life and endowment products provide the policyholder with alternatives once the policy matures. The policyholder can choose to take a lump sum payout or leave the money on deposit at interest with the Company. As of December 31, 2020, 41% of the Company's total insurance in force was in endowment products. Approximately 13% of the endowments in force will mature in the next five years. Policyholder election behavior is unknown, but if policyholders elect lump sum distributions, the Company could be exposed to liquidity risk in years of high maturities. Meeting these distributions could require the Company to sell securities at inopportune times to pay policyholder withdrawals. Alternatively, if the policyholders were to leave the money on deposit with the Company at interest, our profitability could be impacted if the product guaranteed rate is higher than the market rate we are earning on our investments. We currently anticipate that available liquidity sources, our capital resources and future cash flows will be adequate to meet our needs for funds, but we will monitor closely our policyholder behavior patterns.
As discussed above, we are subject to regulatory capital requirements that could affect the Company’s ability to access capital from our insurance operations or cause the Company to have to put additional cash in our wholly-owned subsidiaries.
Our domestic companies are subject to minimum capital requirements set by the NAIC in the form of risk-based capital ("RBC"). RBC considers the type of business written by an insurance company, the quality of its assets, and various other aspects of an insurance company's business to develop a minimum level of capital called "Authorized Control Level Risk-Based Capital". This level of capital is then compared to an adjusted statutory capital that
CICA Ltd. is a Bermuda domiciled company. The BMA requires Bermuda insurers to maintain available statutory economic capital and surplus at a level equal to or in excess of the BMA's Enhanced Capital Requirement, which requires a certain Target Capital Level ("TCL"). As of December 31, 2020, CICA Ltd. was above the TCL threshold. However, as discussed in Part I. Item 1. Business - International Regulation - Bermuda, due to the Prudential Review, the BMA is requiring Citizens and CICA Ltd. to enter into a “Keepwell Agreement”, which would encumber certain assets of the Company. The Keepwell Agreement will include a specific target solvency level at which the Company would be required to make a capital injection into CICA Ltd. Both the Keepwell Agreement and any capital injection could negatively impact the Company’s capital resources and liquidity.
Future Policy Benefit Reserves and Policy Claims Payable. The payments related to the future policy benefits and policy claims payable reflected in the table above have been projected utilizing assumptions based upon our historical experience and anticipated future experience. Payments of amounts related to annuity, dividend and other policyholder funds left on deposit are projected based on assumptions of policyholder withdrawal activity. Because the exact timing and amount of the ultimate policyholder fund obligation is subject to significant uncertainty, we have reflected the obligation at the amount of the liability presented on the consolidated balance sheet in the more than five-year category.
The Company does not have off-balance sheet arrangements at December 31, 2020 and does not expect any future effects on the Company's financial condition related to any such arrangements. We do not utilize special purpose entities as investment vehicles, nor are there any such entities in which we have an investment that engages in speculative activities of any nature, and we do not use such investments to hedge our investment positions.
Based upon current accounting guidance, investment securities must be classified as held-to-maturity, available-for-sale ("AFS") or trading. Management determines the appropriate classification at the time of purchase. The classification of securities is significant since it directly impacts the accounting for unrealized gains and losses on securities. Fixed maturity securities are classified as held-to-maturity and carried at amortized cost when management has the positive intent and the Company has the ability to hold the securities to maturity. Securities not classified as held-to-maturity are classified as AFS and are carried at fair value, with the unrealized holding gains and losses, net of tax, reported in other comprehensive income and do not affect earnings until realized. The Company currently does not hold any fixed maturity securities classified as held-to-maturity.
The Company's best estimate of future cash flows involves assumptions including, but not limited to, various performance indicators, such as historical and projected default and recovery rates, credit ratings, and current delinquency rates. These assumptions require the use of significant management judgment and include the
liabilities for future policy benefits. The change in these adjustments, net of tax, is included with the change in net unrealized appreciation of investments that is credited or charged directly to other comprehensive income.
A recoverability test that considers, among other things, actual experience and projected future experience is performed at least annually. These annual recoverability tests are based initially on an estimate of the available premium (gross premium less the benefit and expense portion of premium) for the next 50 years using best estimate assumptions related to interest rates, mortality and lapses. Management believes that our COIA is recoverable for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. This belief is based upon the analysis performed on estimated future results of the block and our annual recoverability testing.
We continue to use the original assumptions (including a provision for the risk of adverse deviation) in subsequent periods to determine the changes in the liability for future policy benefits (the "lock-in concept”) unless a premium deficiency exists. Management monitors these assumptions and has determined that a premium deficiency did not exist as of December 31, 2020. Management believes that our policy liabilities and increase in future policy benefit reserves as of the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018 are based upon assumptions, including a provision for the risk of adverse deviation, that do not warrant revision. Annually, the Company completes experience studies with respect to mortality, lapse, interest and expenses. The results of these studies are used for current year reserve adequacy testing, which includes loss recognition, goodwill, and establishing benefit liabilities and DAC for the following year's new issues.
1.Information available prior to the issuance of the financial statements indicates that it is probable (virtual certainty is not required) that an asset has been impaired or a liability incurred as of the date of the financial statements; and
Reference is made to the consolidated financial statements, the notes thereto, and the report of our independent registered public accounting firm, as listed on the table of contents.