In recent years, the Florida personal residential insurance market has been characterized by increased losses and LAE due to abuses and inflated claims. These conditions have continued to worsen and have reached levels well beyond historical norms and levels experienced in other jurisdictions. The adverse conditions in the Florida personal residential insurance market can be attributed largely to the proliferation of represented claims, involving both public adjusters and attorneys, as well as by aggressive estimates and demands put forth by remediation and repair companies. In many cases, policyholders have representation even before the claims are filed or before the company is able to provide an initial assessment of damages. In other instances, policyholder representatives are taking opportunities occasioned by hurricanes or other events to solicit customers to file other claims or to re-open prior claims, sometimes years after the purported dates of loss. These actions adversely affect both the frequency and severity of losses as otherwise understood based on historical patterns and patterns experienced in other states. See “Part I-Item 1A - Risk Factors-Risks Relating to Our Business-Actual claims incurred have exceeded, and in the future may exceed, reserves established for claims, adversely affecting our operating results and financial condition.
Additionally, we have taken steps to implement new claim settlement rules associated with the Florida legislation passed in 2019 designed to reduce the negative effects of claims involving assignments of benefits (“AOB”). See “Part I, Item 1 - Business-Government Regulation.” An AOB is a document signed by a policyholder that allows a third party to be paid for services performed for an insured homeowner who would normally be reimbursed by the insurance company directly after making a claim. The Company has seen an increase in the use of AOBs involving litigation by Florida policyholders. Claims paid under an AOB often involve unnecessary litigation, with the Company required to pay both its own defense costs and those of the plaintiff, and, as a result, cost the Company significantly more than claims settled when an AOB is not involved. In 2019, the Florida legislature passed legislation designed to increase consumer protections against AOB abuses and reduce AOB-related litigation. While the Florida legislation addressing abuses associated with AOBs may be beneficial in reducing one aspect of the concerns affecting the Florida market, the overall impact of the deterioration in claims-related tactics and behaviors thus far has continued to outpace any benefits arising in the early months of the new legislation.
Weighted average diluted common shares outstanding were lower by 4.3% to 34.2 million shares at December 31, 2019 from 35.8 million shares at December 31, 2018.
Book value per share increased by $0.71, or 4.9%, to $15.13 at December 31, 2019 from $14.42 at December 31, 2018.
In December 2019, Demotech, Inc. affirmed the Financial Stability Rating® of “A” for the Insurance Entities. According to Demotech, Inc., the assigned rating represents a company’s continued positive surplus related to policyholders, liquidity of invested assets, an acceptable level of financial leverage, reasonable loss and LAE reserves, and realistic pricing. The ratings of the Insurance Entities are subject to at least annual review by Demotech, Inc., and may be revised upward or downward or revoked at the sole discretion of Demotech, Inc. Financial Stability Ratings® are primarily directed towards policyholders, and are not evaluations directed toward the protection of investors in a company, including holders of a company’s common stock, and are not recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities. See “Item 1A - Risk Factors-Risks Relating to Our Business-A downgrade in our Financial Stability Rating® may have an adverse effect on our competitive position, the marketability of our product offerings, and our liquidity, operating results and financial condition.”
The Company generates revenues primarily from the collection of premiums and invests funds in excess of those retained for claims-paying obligations and insurance operations. Other significant sources of revenue include brokerage commissions collected from reinsurers on certain reinsurance programs placed by the Insurance Entities, policy fees collected from policyholders by our wholly-owned managing general agent (“MGA”) subsidiary and payment plan fees charged to policyholders who choose to pay their premiums in installments. Our wholly-owned adjusting company receives claims-handling fees from the Insurance Entities. The Insurance Entities are reimbursed for these fees on claims that are subject to recovery under the Insurance Entities’ respective reinsurance programs. These fees, after expenses, are recorded in the consolidated financial statements as an adjustment to losses and loss adjustment expense.
Policy Fees. Policy fees, which represents fees paid by policyholders to the MGA’s on all new and renewal insurance policies, are recognized as income upon policy inception.
As of the dates in the table above, both UPCIC and APPCIC exceeded the minimum statutory capitalization requirement. UPCIC also met the capitalization requirements of the other states in which it is licensed as of December 31, 2019. UPCIC and APPCIC are also required to adhere to prescribed premium-to-capital surplus ratios and have met those requirements at such dates. Statutory capital and surplus for UPCIC at December 31, 2019 includes a $30 million capital contribution funded in February 2020 by UVE through PSI, the Insurance Entities’ parent company, but permitted to be included in the statutory capital and surplus at December 31, 2019 with the permission of the FLOIR under statutory accounting principles. This contribution was not recognized on a U.S. GAAP basis at December 31, 2019.
Stock Options granted by the Company generally expire between five to ten years from the grant date and generally vest over a one- to three-year service period commencing on the grant date.
Effective January 1, 2009, the Company adopted a qualified retirement plan covering substantially all employees. It is designed to help the employees meet their financial needs during their retirement years. Eligibility for participation in the plan is generally based on employee’s date of hire or on completion of a specified period of service. Employer contributions to this plan are made in cash.
A fourth method, called the counts and averages method, is utilized for estimates of loss, subrogation and LAE for each Florida sector. In this method, an estimate of unpaid losses or expenses is determined by separately projecting ultimate reported claim counts and ultimate claim severities (cost or recoveries per claim) on open and unreported claims for each accident period. Typically, chain ladder development methods are used to project ultimate claim counts and claim severities based on historical data using the same methodology described in the paid and reported development methods above. Estimated ultimate losses are then calculated as the product of the two items. This method is intended to avoid data distortions that may exist with the other methods for the most recent years as a result of changes in case reserve levels, settlement rates and claims handling fees. In addition, it may provide insight into the drivers of loss experience. For example, this method is utilized for sinkhole losses due to unique settlement patterns that have emerged since the passage of legislation that codified claim settlement practices with respect to sinkhole related claims and subsequent policy form changes, we implemented. The method is also utilized to evaluate segments impacted by the implementation of our Fast Track Initiative, which is an initiative to settle claims on an accelerated basis. These claims are expected