Item 1. Business
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Item 1. Business
Assurant, Inc. was incorporated as a Delaware corporation in 2004.
We are a leading global business services company that supports, protects and connects major consumer purchases. We support the advancement of the connected world by partnering with the world’s leading brands to develop innovative solutions and to deliver an enhanced customer experience. We operate in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific through two operating segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. Through our Global Lifestyle segment, we provide mobile device solutions, extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products (referred to as “Connected Living”); and vehicle protection services, commercial equipment services and other related services (referred to as “Global Automotive”). Through our Global Housing segment, we provide lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing and flood insurance, as well as voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance (referred to as “Homeowners”); and renters insurance and other products (referred to as “Renters and Other”).
Our Competitive Strengths
Our financial strength and capabilities across our businesses create competitive advantages that we believe allow us to support our clients, deliver a superior experience for their customers and drive sustainable profitable growth over the long term.
Our financial strength. We believe we have a strong balance sheet and operating cash flows. As of December 31, 2023, we had $33.64 billion in total assets and our debt to total capital was 30.2%. Our Global Lifestyle and Global Housing segments generate significant operating cash flows, which provide us with the flexibility to make investments to strengthen our strategic capabilities and enhance our partnerships with our clients.
Insights and capabilities enable innovation to meet evolving consumer needs. We have a deep understanding of our clients and the consumer markets they serve. We seek to leverage consumer insights, together with extensive capabilities, to identify and anticipate the needs of our clients and the consumers they serve. We intend to leverage those insights with investments in emerging technologies and operations, including digital-first solutions, to introduce innovative products and services and continuously adapt those offerings to the changing needs of consumers in the connected world.
Value chain integration and customer experience. We own or manage multiple pieces of the value chain, which enables us to create products and service offerings based on client and consumer needs and provide a seamless customer experience. Offering end-to-end solutions allows us to provide additional value for consumers and adapt more quickly and efficiently to their needs. Visibility across the value chain helps us leverage insights to further improve the customer experience and our offerings. Our ability to introduce value-added services and capabilities across the value chain and provide a superior customer experience allows us to strengthen our partnerships and our competitive position.
Our Strategy for Profitable Growth
Our vision is to be the leading global business services company supporting the advancement of the connected world. As we focus on executing our vision, we believe we are positioned for continued long-term profitable growth by:
Growing our portfolio of market-leading businesses. Our businesses represent a group of leading, service-oriented offerings focused on compelling growth opportunities. This includes capitalizing on the convergence of the connected world in the global markets and geographies in which we operate. We intend to grow our businesses by strengthening our partnerships with major clients and prospects globally, while continuing to invest in talent, capabilities and technology, including digital, to enable us to deliver a superior customer experience, as well as further broadening our offerings and diversifying our distribution channels. As our offerings continue to expand, we expect to generate a more diversified mix of business and earnings.
Providing integrated offerings through a superior, digital-first customer experience. As we continue to evolve our product and service capabilities and respond to client and consumer needs, we expect to accelerate the pace of innovation for our integrated offerings and drive additional value through a superior, digital-first customer experience.
Deploying our capital strategically. Our strong financial position provides us with flexibility to strategically deploy our capital. We generally deploy capital to support business growth by funding investments and through acquisitions, to pay dividends and to repurchase shares. We target new businesses and capabilities, organically and through acquisitions, that complement or support our strategy. Our approach to mergers, acquisitions and other growth opportunities reflects our strategic and disciplined approach to capital management.
Investing in talent. Our employees play a critical role in contributing to our success and supporting our business strategy. We believe in fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture to drive sustained profitable growth through innovation. We are focused on strategically attracting, developing, retaining and motivating our talent, as we prioritize programs and initiatives aimed at investing in their growth.
2023 Highlights
We achieved significant profitable growth in 2023, maintained a strong capital position and generated significant momentum throughout our businesses. Our results reflect our focus on further strengthening our business portfolio and driving operational excellence, including implementing digital-first initiatives across our operations, while accelerating innovation and investing in our businesses. Through active portfolio management, we exited businesses that are not core to our long-term strategy. We continued to expand partnerships with key clients and win new clients, deliver new and innovative solutions and execute on our commitment to being a socially responsible company for our stakeholders. We advanced our goals to reduce our environmental impact, and we remained focused on engaging and developing our diverse talent pool.
We realized benefits from the actions we announced in 2022 to simplify our business portfolio and corporate real estate and realign our organizational structure, allowing us to reinvest throughout the enterprise. We amended and extended our 2022 restructuring plan to include additional actions within these initiatives, including further consolidation of our real estate portfolio and additional changes to our organizational structure, which we believe will drive greater operational efficiency to support our long-term profitable growth and value creation. We expect to complete these actions by mid-2024.
In November 2023, we realigned our executive team to support our global growth strategy by appointing Keith Meier as Chief Financial Officer and Francesca Luthi as Chief Operating Officer. The appointments represented our ability to deploy our deep bench of talent and evolve from a position of strength.
Throughout the year, we have maintained a strong balance sheet, generated $772.6 million in dividends or returns of capital from our subsidiaries (net of infusions of liquid assets and excluding amounts used for acquisitions or received from dispositions) and returned $352.3 million to shareholders through share repurchases and common stock dividends. In February 2023, we issued $175.0 million of 6.10% senior notes due 2026 and used the net proceeds, together with cash on hand, to redeem a portion of the $225.0 million outstanding aggregate principal amount of our 4.20% senior notes due 2023.
Sustainability Priorities
Assurant is a purpose-driven company committed to making meaningful advancements each year to integrate our sustainability efforts into our long-term strategy to support our business outcomes, our global business operations and our product and service offerings. In 2023, we continued to make progress on building a more sustainable company for all of our stakeholders. Our Board of Directors (the “Board”), Management Committee and employees understand the importance of sustainability to deliver greater value as we operate our business each day and support Assurant’s long-term strategy.
Our sustainability strategic framework centers on four pillars against which we track our progress on sustainability topics that most impact Assurant’s value, society and the environment, as discussed below. Each of these pillars is dynamic, aligned to our long-term business strategy, and strengthens the communities in which we live and work.
Responsible employer. We are a responsible employer with a culture that believes diversity, equity and inclusion are critical to support business growth, and we recognize the importance of investing in talent as we look to deliver a superior employee experience. For additional information, refer to “– Human Capital Resources” below.
Impact on society. We actively engage to strengthen the communities where we live and work worldwide while operating our business, managing our investments, and evolving our product offerings to ensure we maintain a strong environmental commitment.
Customer commitment. We deliver differentiated experiences by being customer-centric and anticipating the needs of the people we serve.
Integrity and ethics. We adhere to unwavering standards of integrity, ethics, governance, privacy and information security.
Our longer-term strategic planning process, overseen by our Board, prioritized three multiyear ESG strategic focus areas:
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Talent: We aspire to foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture to drive innovation for the benefit of all stakeholders;
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Products: We aspire to help customers thrive in a connected world; and
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Climate: We aspire to operate in ways that minimize our carbon footprint and align our commitments to enhance climate action and environmental performance.
For additional information on our Sustainability priorities, including our most recent Sustainability report, please refer to our website at https://www.assurant.com/about-us/sustainability. The information found on our website and in such reports is not incorporated by reference into and does not constitute a part of this Report.
Segments
The composition of our reportable segments aligns with how we view and manage our business. For additional information on our segments, see “Item 7 – Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations – Results of Operations” and Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report.
Global Lifestyle
| Years Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||||
| Net earned premiums, fees and other income by product: | |||||||||||||||||
| Connected Living (1) | $ | 4,376.8 | $ | 4,259.4 | $ | 4,321.6 | |||||||||||
| Global Automotive | 4,184.6 | 3,802.5 | 3,504.5 | ||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 8,561.4 | $ | 8,061.9 | $ | 7,826.1 | |||||||||||
| Segment Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 792.3 | $ | 809.4 | $ | 737.6 | |||||||||||
| Segment equity (2) | $ | 4,822.0 | $ | 4,743.3 | $ | 4,644.9 |
(1)For the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, 44.8%, 46.0%, and 47.5%, respectively, of net earned premiums, fees and other income was from mobile device solutions; 44.7%, 44.3%, and 43.5%, respectively, was from extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances; and 10.5%, 9.7%, and 9.0%, respectively, was from credit and other insurance products.
(2)Segment equity does not include components of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”), which is primarily comprised of net unrealized gains on securities, net of taxes. For additional information on total AOCI, see Note 22 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report.
Our Products and Services
The key lines of business in Global Lifestyle are: Connected Living, which includes mobile device solutions (including extended service contracts, insurance policies and related services), extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and Global Automotive.
Connected Living: Through partnerships with mobile service providers (including carriers, retailers, original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and cable operators) and financial and other institutions, we underwrite and provide administrative support and related services for extended service contracts. These contracts provide consumers with coverage on mobile devices and consumer electronics and appliances, protecting them from certain covered losses. We pay the cost of repairing or replacing these consumer goods in the event of loss, theft, accidental damage, mechanical breakdown or electronic malfunction after the manufacturer's warranty expires. Our strategy is to provide integrated service solutions to our clients that address all aspects of the insurance or extended service contract, including program design and marketing strategy, risk management, data analytics, customer support and claims handling, supply chain services, service delivery and repair and logistics management, while ensuring exceptional customer experience measured through our net promoter scores. For example, we provide end-to-end mobile device lifecycle solutions in our mobile business from when the device is received and inspected, repaired or refurbished, to when it is ultimately disposed of through a sale to a third-party or used to support an insurance claim. In addition to extended protection for multiple devices, our mobile offerings include trade-in and upgrade programs, premium technical support, including device self-diagnostic tools, and device disposition. We also sell repaired or refurbished mobile and other electronic devices. We provide in-store, same-day device repairs to customers through our nationwide network of nearly 500 Cell Phone Repair locations. We believe that with the required administrative capability, digital platforms enabling on-boarding, claims management and service delivery, supply chain management, technical support infrastructure, insurance underwriting capabilities and a variety of adjacent value-added services, like trade-in and upgrade and asset value recovery, we maintain a differentiated position in this marketplace.
Within Connected Living, our global financial services business maintains a suite of protection and assurance products that deliver a combination of features and benefits for varying customer segment needs. With major financial services clients, we provide value-added financial services in the U.S. and internationally, ranging from credit insurance to inclusive credit card benefits, packaged bank account benefits and travel coverages.
Global Automotive: We underwrite and provide administrative services for vehicle service contracts (“VSCs”) and ancillary products providing coverage for vehicles, including automobiles, trucks, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, construction and agricultural equipment, as well as parts. For VSCs, we pay the cost of repairing a customer’s vehicle in the event of mechanical breakdown. For ancillary products, including relating to commercial and other leased equipment, coverage varies, but, generally, we pay the cost of repairing, servicing or replacing parts or provide other financial compensation in the event of mechanical breakdown, accidental damage or theft. We provide integrated service offerings to our clients, including program design and marketing strategy, risk management, data analytics, customer support and claims handling, reinsurance facilitation, actuarial consulting, experiential and digital training and performance management. We work closely with our global partners to develop innovative offerings that reflect the evolution of the auto market, such as Assurant Vehicle Care which launched in July 2023 in over 500 dealerships across the U.S. (over 30% of our dealer services total) and provides a comprehensive new suite of enhanced vehicle production products and a new digital experience for consumers. We also provide risk management solutions tailored for commercial and leased equipment where our core products include insurance tracking and physical damage insurance.
Distribution and Clients
Global Lifestyle operates globally, with approximately 83% of its revenue from North America (the U.S. and Canada), 7% from Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru), 6% from Europe (the United Kingdom (the “U.K.”), France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands) and 4% from Asia Pacific (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, India, Singapore and China (including Hong Kong) for the year ended December 31, 2023. In fourth quarter 2023, we made the decision to fully exit our operations in mainland China (other than Hong Kong). Global Lifestyle focuses on establishing strong, long-term relationships with clients that are leaders in their markets, including leading distributors of our products and services. In Connected Living, we partner with mobile service providers (including carriers, retailers, OEMs and cable operators) and financial and other institutions to market our mobile device solutions, with some of the largest OEMs, consumer electronics retailers, appliance retailers (including e-commerce retailers) and cable operators to market our extended service contracts and related services, and with financial institutions, insurers and retailers to market our credit and other insurance products. Most of our distribution agreements are exclusive. In Global Automotive, we partner with auto dealers and agents, third-party administrators, manufacturers, equipment retailers and large banks and financing companies to market our vehicle protection, commercial equipment-related products and other related services.
Typically, our agreements in Global Lifestyle are multi-year with terms generally between three and five years and allow us to integrate our administrative systems with those of our clients.
Global Lifestyle is dependent on a few clients, in particular mobile service providers, and a reduction in business with or the loss of any one or more such clients could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows. See “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks – Our revenues and profits may decline if we are unable to maintain relationships with significant clients, distributors and other parties, or renew contracts with them on favorable terms, or if those parties face financial, reputational or regulatory issues.”
Our Addressable Markets and Market Activity
The mobile protection market is a large and growing global market with evolving wireless standards. While smartphone penetration in the U.S., Japanese and European markets is high, other markets are less mature and present growth opportunities. Global adoption of 5G by subscribers is a high priority for mobile service providers. The worldwide used and refurbished smartphone market is growing, especially in newer markets like India, driven by the cost and availability of new devices and sustainability-conscious customers.
Consumer needs relating to mobile devices are continuing to expand in scope, particularly demand for certified pre-owned devices. We believe there are growth opportunities in bundled protection products, which support customers as they take full advantage of the features and functions of their mobile devices through their daily interaction with a connected world. Expanded capabilities like repair and logistics, technical support for customers and enhanced customer experience through digital solutions allow us to create product and service offerings that customers find compelling. We believe there are additional growth opportunities in expanding protection to other devices and technologies within the home.
Our business is subject to fluctuations in mobile device trade-in and upgrade volumes based on the release of new devices and carrier promotional programs, as well as customer preferences. As a general trend, we believe the average smartphone replacement cycle is lengthening, which may increase attachment rates for mobile protection offerings, including for our large, installed customer base. However, this trend may be reversed based on new technology and innovation.
In the vehicle sales markets, U.S. new vehicle sales have shown modest improvements as increased vehicle availability and pent-up demand are driving sales. OEMs with sufficient inventory are starting to increase incentives, which should help mitigate headwinds from higher interest rates which have had an adverse impact on attachment rates for our core products. However, we expect U.S. new vehicle sales to increase modestly, thereby providing more opportunities for product sales as an
offset to this interest rate pressure. The used vehicle market in the U.S. has started to normalize from recent elevated used vehicle prices and a shift in sales to new vehicles, but this normalization is tempered by lower and aging used vehicle inventory, as well as higher interest rates. We continue to expand our footprint in the U.S. by adding new dealership clients and growing our dealer and third-party relationship networks. In addition, we have successfully added clients internationally where new vehicle sales continue to grow in most markets. In addition to the overall market, inflation has had a significant impact on our Global Automotive results as parts and labor adversely affected claims costs.
Consumers are becoming increasingly connected across their mobile devices, vehicles and homes, which is creating a global market for smart home devices and related services. As we continue into the “Connected Decade”, we believe it will create long-term opportunities for Assurant as consumers’ lifestyles will increasingly intertwine with their connected ecosystems, which we call the connected world. Due to our capabilities, including device protection, premium technology support, service delivery and financing, as well as technology components such as dynamic fulfillment, which integrates a dynamic mobile claims management process with risk and fraud mitigation, we are well positioned to support customers as the smart home market continues to grow.
In our financial services business, our focus is on expanding our partnerships with leading financial institutions to offer credit card benefit and packaged bank account offerings to their customers.
Risk Management
We earn premiums on our insurance and extended service contracts and fees for our other services. For a portion of our contracts, we share in the underwriting risk with our clients through reinsurance or profit-sharing agreements. We believe that these arrangements better align our clients’ interests with ours and help us to better manage risk exposure. For additional risks relating to our Global Lifestyle segment, please see “Item 1A – Risk Factors.”
Inventory
In our mobile business, we carry inventory to meet the delivery requirements of certain clients. These devices are ultimately disposed of through sales to third parties. Our inventory includes devices and parts on consignment with our nationwide network of nearly 500 Cell Phone Repair locations through which we provide in-store repairs. Inventory levels may vary from period to period due to, among other things, differences between actual and forecasted demand, supply chain constraints, the addition of new devices and parts, and strategic purchases. Payment terms with clients also vary, which may result in less inventory financed by clients and more inventory financed with our own capital.
We take various actions to manage our inventory, including monitoring our inventory levels, managing the timing of purchases and obtaining return rights for some programs and devices. However, the value of certain inventory could be adversely impacted by technological changes affecting the usefulness or desirability of the devices and parts, physical problems resulting from faulty design or manufacturing, increased competition, decreased consumer demand, including due to changes in customer preferences and changes in client promotions, supply chain constraints, growing industry emphasis on cost containment and adverse foreign trade relationships. No assurance can be given that we will be adequately protected against declines in inventory value. See “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks – “Our mobile business is subject to the risk of declines in the value and availability of mobile devices, and to regulatory compliance and other risks.”
Seasonality
We experience seasonal fluctuations that impact demand in each of our lines of business. For example, seasonality for extended service contracts and VSCs aligns with the seasonality of the retail and automobile markets. In addition, our mobile results may fluctuate quarter to quarter due to the actual and anticipated timing and availability of the release of new devices and carrier promotional programs.
Global Housing
| Years Ended December 31, | |||||||||||||||||
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||||
| Net earned premiums, fees and other income by product: | |||||||||||||||||
| Homeowners | $ | 1,663.4 | $ | 1,402.2 | $ | 1,373.2 | |||||||||||
| Renters and Other | 479.5 | 482.4 | 482.2 | ||||||||||||||
| Total | $ | 2,142.9 | $ | 1,884.6 | $ | 1,855.4 | |||||||||||
| Segment Adjusted EBITDA | $ | 574.2 | $ | 246.0 | $ | 321.6 | |||||||||||
| Segment equity (1) | $ | 1,318.9 | $ | 1,272.8 | $ | 1,313.2 |
(1)Segment equity does not include components of AOCI, which is primarily comprised of net unrealized gains on securities, net of taxes. For additional information on total AOCI, see Note 22 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report.
Our Products and Services
The key lines of business in Global Housing are Homeowners and Renters and Other, each as described below.
Homeowners: We provide lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing and flood insurance, as well as voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance.
Lender-placed homeowners insurance. Lender-placed homeowners insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance offered through our lender-placed program. The lender-placed program provides collateral protection to lenders, mortgage servicers and investors in mortgaged properties in the event that a homeowner does not maintain insurance on a mortgaged dwelling. Lender-placed homeowners insurance provides structural coverage, similar to that of a standard homeowners policy. The amount of coverage is often based on the last known insurance coverage under the prior policy for the property and provides replacement cost coverage on the property. It protects both the lender’s interest and the borrower’s interest and equity. We also provide real estate owned (“REO”) insurance, consisting of insurance on foreclosed properties managed by our clients.
In the majority of cases, we use proprietary insurance-tracking administration systems linked with the administrative systems of our clients to monitor clients’ mortgage portfolios to verify the existence of insurance on each mortgaged property and identify those that are uninsured. If there is a potential lapse in insurance coverage, we begin a process of notification and outreach to both the homeowner and the last known insurance carrier or agent through phone calls and written correspondence, which generally takes up to 90 days to complete. If coverage cannot be verified at the end of this process, the mortgage servicer procures a lender-placed policy. The process of tracking voluntary coverage - including determining whether voluntary coverage is in force, the policy limits in place, the perils insured and the deductibles, and obtaining other required insurance related information - is part of our risk exposure management for our lender-placed insurance business. The exposure management process is needed in order to underwrite the risk we assume, to understand loss exposure and to communicate with appropriate parties, including the lender, insurance agent and homeowner. Our placement rates reflect the ratio of insurance policies placed to tracked hazard loans. The homeowner always retains the option to obtain or renew the insurance of his or her choice.
Lender-placed manufactured housing insurance. Lender-placed manufactured housing insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance for manufactured housing offered through our lender-placed program. Lender-placed manufactured housing insurance is issued after an insurance tracking and exposure management process similar to that described above. In most cases, tracking is performed using a proprietary insurance-tracking administration system.
Lender-placed flood insurance. Lender-placed flood insurance consists of flood insurance offered through our lender-placed program. It provides collateral protection to lenders in mortgaged properties in the event a homeowner does not maintain required flood insurance. Lender-placed flood insurance is issued after an insurance tracking and exposure management process similar to that described above.
Voluntary insurance. We offer voluntary manufactured housing, condominium and homeowners insurance. Our voluntary insurance products generally provide structural, contents and liability coverage.
Renters and Other: We provide renters insurance and other products, as described below.
Renters insurance. We provide integrated solutions across the resident lifecycle. We offer renters insurance for a wide variety of single and multi-family rental properties, providing content protection for renters’ personal belongings and liability protection for the property owners against renter-caused damage. We also offer an integrated billing and tracking platform for our clients and their customers. In addition, we provide tenant bonds as an alternative to security deposits, which allows our
clients to offer a lower move-in cost option while minimizing the risk of loss from damages, and receivables management, which helps our clients to maximize the collection of amounts owed by prior tenants.
Other products. We are the second largest administrator for the U.S. government under the voluntary National Flood Insurance Program (the “NFIP”), for which we earn fees for collecting premiums and processing claims. This business is 100% reinsured to the U.S. government.
Distribution and Clients
Global Housing establishes long-term relationships with leading mortgage lenders and servicers, manufactured housing lenders, property managers, and financial, insurance and other institutions. Lender-placed insurance products are distributed primarily through mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers and financial and other institutions. The majority of our lender-placed agreements are exclusive. Typically, these agreements have terms of three to five years and allow us to integrate our systems with those of our clients. Renters products are distributed primarily through property management companies and affinity marketing partners. We offer our voluntary insurance programs primarily through manufactured housing lenders and retailers, along with independent specialty agents. Independent specialty agents also distribute flood products and other property products.
Global Housing is dependent on a few clients, and a reduction in business with or the loss of any one or more such clients could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and cash flows. See “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks – Our revenues and profits may decline if we are unable to maintain relationships with significant clients, distributors and other parties, or renew contracts with them on favorable terms, or if those parties face financial, reputational or regulatory issues.”
Our Addressable Markets and Market Activity
In the lender-placed market, placement rates have increased in certain areas due to reduced availability of voluntary homeowners’ insurance. We continue to monitor the state of the overall housing market and the potential impact of loan modifications, forbearances and foreclosure delays, including the impact to REO volumes. Should the housing market deteriorate for a prolonged period, we could experience a longer-term increase in our placement rates over time. In addition to the overall market, our lender-placed results are also impacted by inflation and the costs of paying claims, and the mix of loans we service.
The U.S. renters insurance market is a growing market with new building development, high occupancy and favorable relocation trends. We believe there is opportunity to increase our market share and attachment rates with new and existing clients through our investments in digital platforms designed to deliver superior, digital-first customer experience and our expanded offerings to provide end-to-end solutions.
Risk Management
We earn premiums on our insurance products and fees for our services. Our lender-placed insurance products are not underwritten on an individual policy basis. Contracts with our clients require us to issue these policies automatically when a borrower’s insurance coverage is not maintained. These products are priced to factor in the additional risk from ensuring that all client properties have continuous insurance coverage. We monitor pricing adequacy based on a variety of factors and adjust pricing as required, subject to regulatory constraints, including through a built-in annual inflation guard feature. For additional risks relating to our Global Housing segment, please see “Item 1A – Risk Factors”, including “– Financial Risks – We may be unable to accurately predict and price for claims and other costs, which could reduce our profitability” and “ – Actual results may differ materially from the analytical models we use to assist in our decision-making in key areas such as pricing, catastrophe risks, reserving and capital management” therein.
Because several of our business lines (such as homeowners, manufactured housing and other property policies) are exposed to catastrophe risks, we purchase reinsurance coverage to reduce our financial exposure, protect capital, and mitigate earnings and cash flow volatility. Our reinsurance program generally incorporates a provision to allow for the reinstatement of coverage, which provides protection against the risk of multiple catastrophes in a single year.
For 2023, our property catastrophe reinsurance program included U.S. per-occurrence catastrophe coverage providing $1.28 billion of protection in excess of a $125.0 million retention in the main reinsurance program for a first event, which decreases to $100.0 million for a second and third event. All layers of the program allow for one automatic reinstatement. When combined with the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, the U.S. program was covered for gross Florida losses of up to approximately $1.58 billion. The 2023 catastrophe reinsurance program also included Caribbean catastrophe coverage providing up to $55.0 million, in excess of a $5.0 million retention.
For our 2024 catastrophe reinsurance program, underlying rates are favorable from improved reinsurance market conditions. We consolidated our reinsurance purchase into a single placement date of April 2024. In this initial year of
transition, we secured virtually all of our coverage by January 2024, including $1.38 billion of protection in excess of a $150.0 million retention. All layers of the program allow for one automatic reinstatement. The coverage amount from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund for the 2024 wind season will be finalized by June 2024. We do not expect to purchase a Caribbean excess catastrophe treaty in 2024 due to greatly reduced exposure in the region.
We are also subject to non-catastrophe risk from isolated fire, water and wind damage, theft and vandalism, as well as general liability in renters and homeowners policies. Losses are impacted by increases in inflation and supply chain disruptions that increase the cost of materials and labor required to settle claims. Please see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks – Catastrophe and non-catastrophe losses, including as a result of climate change and the current inflationary environment, could materially reduce our profitability and have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.”
Seasonality
We experience seasonal fluctuation in several of our lines of business, which are exposed to the risk of catastrophe and non-catastrophe losses. Catastrophe events such as hurricanes typically occur in the second half of the year, and may increase in frequency and severity due to climate change. We also experience some seasonal fluctuation in non-catastrophe weather-related claims that tend to occur in the first half of the year.
Competition
Our businesses focus on supporting, protecting and connecting major consumer purchases. Although we face global competition in each of our businesses, we believe that no single competitor competes against us in all of our business lines. Across Global Lifestyle and Global Housing, we compete for business, clients, customers, agents and other distribution relationships with many insurance companies, warranty and protection companies, financial services companies, mobile device repair and logistics companies, technology and software companies and specialized competitors that focus on one market, product or service. We must respond to the threat of disruption by traditional players, as well as from new entrants, such as “Insurtech” start-up companies and others. Competition in each business is based on a number of factors, including scope of products and services offered, ability to tailor products and services to client and consumer needs, product features and terms, pricing, technology offerings, diversity of distribution resources, brand recognition, costs, financial strength and ratings, resources, and quality of service, including speed of claims payment and the overall customer experience. The relative importance of these factors varies by product and market. To remain competitive in many of our businesses, we must also anticipate and respond effectively to changes in customer preferences, new industry standards, evolving distribution models, disruptive technology developments and alternate business models. For further information on the risks associated with competition, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks – Significant competitive pressures, changes in customer preferences and disruption could adversely affect our results of operations.”
Human Capital Resources
A cornerstone of Assurant is the employees who bring our purpose, values and commitments to life each day for the millions of customers we serve worldwide. We believe in fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture to drive sustained profitable growth through innovation. We regularly evaluate our policies, practices and programs to ensure we continue to attract, develop and retain the best talent to support our strategy. This includes ongoing investments in competitive total rewards and wellbeing offerings, and providing programs for learning, development and engagement, while continuously enhancing the experience of our employees who are critical to our long-term success.
As of December 31, 2023, Assurant had approximately 13,600 employees in 21 countries representing 68 nationalities. Our diverse workforce spans a wide range of roles and skills to further our vision of supporting the advancement of the connected world. While 77% of our employee base was located in North America, we continued to expand our presence in key international markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific to support our increasingly global client portfolio. As of December 31, 2023, approximately 63% of our employees were frontline workers, predominantly in hourly roles such as customer care, claims administration, mobile repair and logistics. The remaining 37% were in managerial roles, predominantly salaried employees engaged in an array of business and support functions. As of December 31, 2023, 60% of our global workforce identified as female. In the U.S., our largest market, women accounted for 62% of employees while other underrepresented minority groups accounted for 54% of our domestic workforce. We continue to promote a more diverse and inclusive workforce across all levels of the Company in support of our business strategy.
For full-year 2023, our global turnover rate was 18%, reflecting our blended workforce of frontline and managerial roles; turnover for managerial and salaried roles was 7%, and turnover for frontline employees was 24%, which is typically higher given the nature of the roles. The turnover rate for both managerial and frontline employees improved by 3 and 8 percentage points, respectively, year-over-year. Overall, this is attributed to ongoing actions to identify and remediate talent risks and enhance the employee experience as well as signs of stabilization in select labor markets.
The Board, through the Compensation and Talent Committee, oversees the significant human capital management programs of Assurant, which are led by Assurant’s Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), its Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer.
Attracting, developing and retaining the best talent globally is key to our success in sustaining long-term profitable growth. In November 2023, we realigned our executive team to support the execution of our growth strategy with the appointment of Keith Meier as Chief Financial Officer and Francesca Luthi as Chief Operating Officer. Also, we expanded our Management Committee, effective January 2024 to broaden leadership expertise and depth in the areas of financial, human capital and technology strategy. These appointments further underscored our deep talent pool and robust succession bench.
Our talent strategy is focused on employee engagement and investments in programs to support career development, as well as recognizing and rewarding performance. We believe these programs and opportunities create a diverse pipeline of talent and leadership necessary to drive and deliver on our long-term strategy. As part of our talent strategy, we have established Global Capabilities Centers, or global talent hubs in key markets, to leverage our global scale and access to diverse and best-in-class talent. We believe this advances our operating model, creates new capacity for client growth and existing client work, fosters innovation, and enables talent to focus on customer experiences in key attractive markets.
We regularly engage with our employees to seek feedback through an array of forums and channels, including one-on-one discussions with managers, interactive townhall meetings, targeted employee surveys and our enterprise-wide listening program designed to expand opportunities for anonymous, real-time feedback between managers and employees. Key topics covered include our culture, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, compensation, benefits, wellbeing and recognition. Based on employee feedback, action plans are implemented to address gaps or to further enhance employee satisfaction in alignment with our overall human capital strategy.
Results from our most recent listening program concluded in June 2023 benefited from strong employee participation and showed improvement above the prior year and generally above relevant industry benchmarks. Overall, the survey highlighted that employees generally feel engaged and aligned with the Company’s priorities. In many areas, such as mental wellbeing, recognition and freedom of opinion, results trended more favorably against our 2022 engagement survey and at or above comparable industry benchmarks. The 2023 results reinforced that our culture is a differentiator and strengths identified last year in the areas of overall engagement, goal setting, management support, work environment and flexibility, and diversity and inclusion continue to trend positively. Areas for continuing improvement include career development opportunities and managing workload. We will continue to develop actions plans in areas for improvement and monitor our progress each year.
Fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
At Assurant, we believe diversity, equity and inclusion (“DE&I”) fosters innovation and creates growth opportunities by strengthening employee engagement for the benefit of our stakeholders. We believe diverse teams and inclusive cultures perform better by improving our ability to respond to the changing global marketplace and social landscape.
We are committed to gender, racial and ethnic diversity at all levels of the Company. As of December 31, 2023, those identifying as women comprised 60% of our global workforce, 43% at the managerial levels, 11% at the Assurant Management Committee level and 31% of our Board; and 54% of our U.S. workforce, 45% at the managerial levels, 22% at the Assurant Management Committee level and 31% of our Board identified as racially or ethnically diverse. Four of the Company’s diverse directors held Board Chair and committee chair roles.
As of January 1, 2024, the Assurant Management Committee was expanded to support its global growth strategy and as a result, women now comprise 17% of the executive leadership team and 25% identify as racially or ethnically diverse, underscoring our commitment to expand diverse representation among senior leadership.
We are committed to continuing to increase representation and engagement of underrepresented groups within Assurant. Our Chief Operating Officer has direct oversight and responsibility for our DE&I strategy, along with our SVP, Sustainability and Communications. Additionally, the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee is committed to including women and minority candidates in the pool of qualified candidates from which Board nominees are chosen and will continue to review its processes and procedures to ensure that diverse candidates are included.
We recruit talent in diverse communities, including through strategic and educational partnerships that bring greater visibility and expertise. We continue to strengthen our recruiting and talent practices to identify and remove inherent biases that could influence outcomes, including ongoing enterprise-wide diversity training and diverse slate and interviewing requirements for all managerial and above job openings. We are focused on inclusion through global programming that spotlights the experiences of underrepresented groups. In 2023, we launched two additional Employee Resource Groups (five in total) to provide forums for employees to raise topics that are important to underrepresented groups. All Employee Resource Groups are chaired by members of our Management Committee or senior leaders to reinforce commitment and engagement at the highest levels of the company. To augment local initiatives, we sponsored an enterprise-wide diversity and inclusion mentorship
program. In the marketplace, we support social justice causes through the Assurant Foundation and we partner with nonprofit organizations to provide leadership development opportunities.
In 2023, we strengthened our commitment to disability inclusion, and our President and CEO, Keith Demmings, signed the Disability:IN Pledge. Disability:IN is a leading nonprofit resource for disability inclusion globally and one of our current DE&I strategic partners.
We also expanded our employees’ participation in targeted development programs for women and underrepresented groups including representation at various HACE (Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement), ELC (Executive Leadership Council), LEAP (Leadership Acceleration Program) and Disability:IN forums.
Pay Equity
Assurant is committed to pay equity. Our compensation practices and programs consider a variety of factors designed to set fair and equitable compensation levels. We take a holistic approach to evaluating and aligning roles with compensation levels based on job responsibilities, market competitiveness, geographical location, strategic importance of roles and other relevant factors. We periodically evaluate our compensation practices and for the last several years have engaged in a multi-step process to ensure that we are compensating equitably across employees performing similar job responsibilities. Results from our last review completed in 2023, which examined base pay for U.S.-, U.K.-, Argentina- and Canada-based employees, confirmed that we are fairly administering pay and see no evidence of systemic and material pay equity issues across demographic groups for substantially similar roles. In addition, we evaluated short-term incentive pay percentage ranges for the U.S. population enrolled in the short-term incentive plan and determined that those are fair and equitable. We expect to continue to assess compensation practices annually and remain committed to remediate any significant pay disparities we may discover. We also continue to monitor and adjust market wages as necessary to ensure we provide competitive wages, consistent with our ongoing compensation practices.
We remain committed to investing in our people through competitive rewards and development opportunities. We continued to reward high performers and invest in merit increases, allocating more funding to front-line employees in recognition of the disproportionate impact of the current challenging economic environment. We have advanced our commitment to pay transparency, particularly in North America, by providing employees with base salary ranges for their role and grade beginning in 2023.
Total Rewards and Wellbeing
We are committed to the health and safety of our employees as we believe the success of our business is directly connected to their wellbeing. In addition to providing robust compensation and benefits programs and opportunities to invest in their financial future, we offer employees and their families access to a variety of health and wellness programs. Our Total Rewards programs help to provide protection and security related to events that may require time away from work or that impact their financial wellbeing, such as paid time off, family leave, family care resources and flexible work schedules. Our Global Employee Assistance Plan provides additional support to help employees and their families access critical resources for their wellbeing, including financial, social, physical and mental health.
To further promote wellbeing, Assurant introduced the Virgin Pulse global wellbeing platform allowing employees to personalize their unique wellbeing goals with access to tools, activities and ways to stay engaged and accountable for building healthy habits. Assurant also included access to the Headspace App as a no-cost benefit for all global employees, which is an additional resource for managing stress and helping to find better balance.
We regularly benchmark our Total Rewards against companies of similar size and industries to ensure our offerings remain competitive and solicit employee feedback on the evolving needs of our workforce. We conducted employee focus groups that helped validate that recommended plan changes for 2023 met the needs of our diverse workforce particularly around predictability and affordability of health care costs. Additionally, there were several enhancements to benefits starting in 2024, such as increased employer contributions, expanded plan offerings and more affordable virtual care and mental health access. Assurant also introduced an HR virtual assistant to provide easy access to routine questions employees raise with the goal of improving their experience as an employee. We will continue to assess additional opportunities across Total Rewards and Wellbeing to help attract and retain top talent.
Recognizing the benefit of flexible work arrangements for our business, customers and employees, we continued to enable a long-term shift to a hybrid work model to support our business and talent strategy. A majority of our employees work virtually on a full-time or part-time basis and while we will continue to encourage purposeful in-person engagement to support our culture, team development and product innovation, we believe our hybrid work model will remain a key competitive advantage to support the evolving needs of our customers and employees. Within this hybrid environment, we introduced a new framework to support enterprise engagement. We accelerated our ongoing real estate consolidation to support work-from-home arrangements given our increasingly hybrid workforce, while making necessary investments in key facilities and markets to support the long-term strategy of the Company.
Learning and Development
Learning and development are essential to Assurant’s success. We continually invest in our employees’ career growth and provide employees with a wide range of training and development opportunities, including face-to-face, virtual and self-directed learning, mentoring and external development opportunities through a portfolio of initiatives called Leading the Way, which is designed to unlock the potential of our talent to achieve our vision and purpose. Leading the Way is intended to further grow skills, capabilities and careers to impact engagement, performance and drive results. Strengthening employees’ leadership, technical and professional skills to broaden career opportunities, while also reinforcing a culture of strong ethics and compliance, are primary focus areas. We continue to implement key initiatives to increase adoption of new technology and processes by providing both learning tools and change support, furthering our focus on a digital-first mindset. In 2023, we secured partnerships with leading industry tools to provide all employees with access to a virtual mentor to further develop professional and managerial skills. This also included specific access for technology employees to immerse in technology labs and assessments as we look to expand critical skills in this area. Additionally, Assurant assists employees in the pursuit of undergraduate and graduate degrees, certifications and continuing education required by certain professional organizations.
We have adapted our learning and development programs and delivery modes to meet the varying needs of our business and our predominantly virtual workforce. We provide a broad array of training on topics such as managing virtual and hybrid teams, mental health awareness and building resilience, managerial skills, and diversity and inclusion. In 2023, we also enhanced our internal career site to support employees in discovering new job opportunities as they become available.
Succession Planning
An important element of our talent strategy is succession planning and building diverse leadership pipelines for our most critical roles across the organization.
We assess the performance and potential of current incumbents, identify and assess potential successors, and create targeted development plans to strengthen the preparedness and diversity of our talent pipeline. Annually, we conduct a comprehensive talent review to discuss potential successors of our Management Committee and other key leadership roles, as well as a broader group of top talent as we look to ensure better visibility into our strengths and opportunities for prioritized roles. In 2023, we engaged an external partner to assess skills and strength of the overall succession pool. The Board and the Compensation & Talent Committee annually review the CEO succession plan and succession plans for senior executives, which includes emergency successors for each role, with the goal to ensure we have the right leadership in place to execute the Company’s long-term strategic plans.
For more information on our human capital resources, please refer to our most recent Sustainability Report available at https://www.assurant.com/our-story/sustainability and our most recent Proxy Statement available at ir.assurant.com. The information found on our website and in such reports is not incorporated by reference into and does not constitute a part of this Report.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of contractual rights and patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets to establish and protect our intellectual property. We regularly file patent and trademark applications to protect innovations arising from our research, development, design and marketing. We own a number of patents and pending applications relating to technical innovations. In addition, we have a trademark portfolio that we consider important in the marketing of our products and services, including the “Assurant” brand name.
Over time, we have accumulated a sizeable portfolio of issued and registered intellectual property rights around the world, and seek to protect it against infringement. No single intellectual property right is solely responsible for protecting our products and services. We have also entered into agreements that permit other companies to use certain of our patents and trademarks.
We believe the duration of our intellectual property rights is adequate relative to the expected lives of our products and services. Patents are of varying duration depending on the filing date, and will typically expire at the end of their natural term. The duration of trademark registrations may be renewed indefinitely, subject to country-specific use and registration requirements. For risks relating to our intellectual property, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Our business is subject to risks related to litigation and regulatory actions.”
Ratings
Independent rating organizations periodically review the financial strength of insurers, including many of our insurance subsidiaries. Financial strength ratings represent the opinions of rating agencies regarding the ability of an insurance company to meet its financial obligations to policyholders and contract holders. These ratings are not applicable to our common stock or debt securities. Ratings are an important factor in establishing the competitive position of insurance companies.
Rating agencies also use an “outlook statement” of “positive,” “stable,” “negative” or “developing” to indicate a medium- or long-term trend in credit fundamentals which, if continued, may lead to a rating change. A rating may have a stable outlook to indicate that the rating is not expected to change; however, a stable outlook does not preclude a rating agency from changing a rating at any time, without notice.
Most of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries are rated by A.M. Best Company (“A.M. Best”). In addition, three of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries are rated by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”) and S&P Global Ratings, a division of S&P Global Inc. (“S&P”). The ratings issued on our operating insurance subsidiaries by these agencies are announced publicly and are available from the agencies.
For information on the risks associated with ratings downgrades, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Financial Risks – A decline in the financial strength ratings of our insurance subsidiaries could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.”
The following table summarizes the financial strength ratings and outlooks of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries as of December 31, 2023:
| A.M. Best (1) | Moody’s (2) | S&P (3) | |||||||||||||||
| Company | |||||||||||||||||
| American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida | A+ | A2 | A | ||||||||||||||
| American Bankers Life Assurance Company of Florida | A | A2 | A | ||||||||||||||
| American Security Insurance Company | A+ | A2 | A | ||||||||||||||
| Caribbean American Life Assurance Company | A | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||||
| Caribbean American Property Insurance Company | A+ | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||||
| Reliable Lloyds Insurance Company | A+ | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||||
| Standard Guaranty Insurance Company | A+ | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||||
| Virginia Surety Company, Inc. | A+ | N/A | N/A | ||||||||||||||
| Voyager Indemnity Insurance Company | A+ | N/A | N/A |
(1)A.M. Best financial strength ratings range from “A+” (superior) to “D” (poor). A second “+” or a “-” may be appended to ratings from categories A+ to C to indicate relative position within a category. Ratings of A+ fall under the “superior” category, which is the highest of A.M. Best’s seven ratings categories, while ratings of A fall under the “excellent” category, which is the second highest of A.M. Best’s seven ratings categories. A.M. Best has a stable outlook on all of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries’ financial strength ratings.
(2)Moody’s insurance financial strength ratings range from “Aaa” (highest quality) to “C” (lowest rated). A numeric modifier may be appended to ratings from “Aa” to “Caa” to indicate relative position within a category, with 1 being the highest and 3 being the lowest. A rating of A2 is considered “upper-medium-grade” and falls within the third highest of Moody’s nine ratings categories. Moody's has a stable outlook on all of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries’ insurance financial strength ratings.
(3)S&P’s insurer financial strength ratings range from “AAA” (extremely strong) to “D” (general default). A “+” or “-” may be appended to ratings from categories AA to CCC to indicate relative position within a category. Ratings of A (strong) are within the third highest of S&P’s nine ratings categories. S&P has a stable outlook on all of our domestic operating insurance subsidiaries’ insurer financial strength ratings.
Regulation
We are subject to extensive federal, state and international regulation and supervision in the jurisdictions in which we do business. Regulations vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The following is a summary of significant regulations that apply to our businesses, but is not intended to be a comprehensive review of every regulation to which we are subject. For information on the risks associated with regulations applicable to us, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Business, Strategic and Operational Risks”, “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Technology, Cybersecurity and Privacy Risks” and “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Legal and Regulatory Risks.”
Holding Company Insurance Regulations
Under applicable insurance holding company regulations, no person may acquire a controlling interest in the Company or any of our insurance company subsidiaries, unless such person has obtained prior regulatory approval for such acquisition. Under these laws, “control” is presumed when any person acquires or holds, directly or indirectly, 10% or more of our common stock or of the voting securities of any of our insurance company subsidiaries. To obtain approval, the proposed acquiror must file an application with the relevant regulator. For more information on the risks associated with holding company insurance regulations, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – General Risk Factors – Applicable laws and our certificate of incorporation and by-laws may discourage takeovers and business combinations that some stockholders might consider to be in their best interests.”
U.S. Insurance Regulation
We are subject to the insurance holding company laws in the states and territories where our insurance companies are domiciled. These laws generally require insurance companies within the insurance holding company system to register with the insurance departments of their respective states and territories of domicile and furnish reports to such insurance departments regarding capital structure, ownership, financial condition, risk management, corporate governance, general business operations and intercompany transactions. These laws also require that transactions between affiliated companies be fair and equitable. In addition, certain intercompany transactions, changes of control, certain dividend payments and certain transfers of assets between the companies within the holding company system are subject to prior notice to, or approval by, regulatory authorities in such states and territories.
We are licensed to sell insurance through our insurance subsidiaries in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Like all U.S. insurance companies, our insurance subsidiaries are subject to regulation and supervision in the jurisdictions where they do business. In general, these regulations are designed to protect the interests of policyholders, and not necessarily the interests of shareholders and other investors. To that end, the laws of the various jurisdictions establish insurance departments with broad powers with respect to such things as:
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licensing;
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capital, surplus and dividends;
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underwriting requirements and limitations (including, in some cases, minimum or target loss ratios);
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entrance into and exit from markets;
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introduction, cancellation and termination of certain coverages;
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statutory accounting and annual statement disclosure requirements;
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product types, policy forms and mandated insurance benefits;
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premium rates;
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fines, penalties and assessments;
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claims practices, including occasional regulatory requirements to pay claims on terms other than those mandated by underlying policy contracts;
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transactions between affiliates;
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the form and content of disclosures to consumers;
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the type, amounts and valuation of investments;
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annual tests of solvency and reserve adequacy;
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assessments or other surcharges for guaranty funds and the recovery of assessments through premium increases; and
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market conduct and sales practices of insurers and agents.
Risk-Based Capital Requirements. In order to enhance the regulation of insurer solvency, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the “NAIC”) has established certain risk-based capital (“RBC”) standards applicable to life, health and property and casualty insurers. RBC, which regulators use to assess the sufficiency of an insurer’s statutory capital, is calculated by applying factors to various asset, premium, expense, liability and reserve items. Factors are higher for items that the NAIC views as having greater underlying risk. The NAIC periodically reviews the RBC formula and changes to the formula could occur in the future.
In December 2020, the NAIC adopted a group capital calculation tool using an RBC aggregation methodology for all entities within the insurance holding company system, including non-U.S. entities. The goal is to provide U.S. regulators with a method to aggregate the available capital and the minimum capital of each entity in a group in a way that applies to all groups
regardless of their structure in order to identify risks that may emanate from an insurer’s holding company system. The NAIC has stated that the calculation will be a regulatory tool and will not constitute a requirement or standard. State legislatures began adoption of the group capital calculation model regulations in 2021 and state adoption is expected to continue in 2024.
Investment Regulation. Insurance company investments must comply with applicable laws and regulations that govern the kind, quality and concentration of investments made by insurance companies. These regulations require diversification of insurance company investment portfolios and limit the amount of investments in certain asset categories.
Financial Reporting. Regulators closely monitor the financial condition of licensed insurance companies. Our insurance subsidiaries are required to file periodic financial reports with insurance regulators. Moreover, states and territories regulate the form and content of these statutory financial statements.
Products and Coverage. Insurance regulators have broad authority to regulate many aspects of our products and services. Additionally, certain non-insurance products and services we offer, such as service contracts, may be regulated by regulatory bodies other than departments of insurance and may be subject to consumer protection laws.
Pricing and Premium Rates. Nearly all states and territories have insurance laws requiring insurers to file price schedules and policy forms with the state’s or territory’s regulatory authority. In many cases, these price schedules and/or policy forms must be approved prior to use, and state and territory insurance departments have the power to disapprove increases or require decreases in the premium rates we charge.
Market Conduct Regulation. Activities of insurers are highly regulated by state and territory insurance laws and regulations, that govern the form and content of disclosure to consumers, advertising, sales practices and complaint handling. State and territory regulatory authorities enforce compliance through periodic market conduct examinations.
Guaranty Associations and Indemnity Funds. Most states and territories require insurance companies to support guaranty associations or indemnity funds, which are established to pay claims on behalf of insolvent insurance companies. These associations may levy assessments on member insurers. In some states and territories, member insurers can recover a portion of these assessments through premium tax offsets and/or policyholder surcharges.
Insurance Regulatory Initiatives. The NAIC, state and territory regulators and professional organizations have considered and are considering various proposals that may alter or increase state and territory authority to regulate insurance companies and insurance holding companies. For example, in 2021, the NAIC adopted the NAIC Real Property Lender-Placed Insurance Model Act (the “LPI Model Act”). The LPI Model Act governs the insurance that a mortgage servicer obtains when a borrower fails to obtain or maintain required insurance. Several states have enacted legislation that mirrors the LPI Model Act, and we expect more states to adopt similar legislation in 2024. See “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Changes in insurance regulation may reduce our profitability and limit our growth” for a discussion of the risks related to such initiatives.
Federal Regulation
Although our business in the United States is primarily regulated by the states, federal initiatives often have an impact on our business in a variety of ways. Impacted areas include financial services regulation, privacy, tort reform legislation and taxation. In addition, various forms of direct and indirect federal regulation of insurance have been proposed from time to time, including proposals for the establishment of an optional federal charter for insurance companies. See “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Our business is subject to risks related to litigation and regulatory actions.”
Employee Retirement Income Security Act. We are subject to regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (“ERISA”). ERISA places certain requirements on how we may administer employee benefit plans covered by ERISA. Among other things, regulations under ERISA set standards for certain notice and disclosure requirements and for claim processing and appeals.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Certain of our activities are subject to the privacy requirements of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which, along with regulations adopted thereunder, generally requires insurers to provide customers with notice regarding how their nonpublic personal financial information is used and the opportunity to “opt out” of certain disclosures, if applicable.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Regulations under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”) address mortgage servicers’ obligations to correct errors asserted by mortgage loan borrowers; provide certain information requested by such borrowers; and provide protections to such borrowers in connection with lender-placed insurance. These requirements affect our operations because, in many instances, we administer such operations on behalf of our mortgage servicer clients. While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”) does not have direct jurisdiction over insurance products, it is possible that additional regulations promulgated by the CFPB may extend its authority more broadly to cover these products and others we offer and thereby affect us or our clients. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act created the Federal Insurance Office (“FIO”) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“U.S. Treasury”). While the FIO does not have general supervisory or regulatory authority over the business of insurance, the FIO director performs various functions with respect to insurance, including monitoring the insurance sector and representing the
U.S. on prudential aspects of international insurance matters, including at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (“IAIS”). Additional regulations or new requirements may emerge from the activities of these regulatory entities.
Tax Reform. In 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (the “IRA”) introduced a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax for corporations that report an average annual adjusted income of more than $1 billion for a period of three consecutive years and a 1% excise tax on corporate share repurchases, among other things. We currently expect the impact of the IRA provisions for the alternative minimum tax and excise tax to be de minimis.
In addition, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (“OECD”) efforts around Global Pillars I and II dealing with possible new digital taxes and global minimum taxes could increase the Company’s overall tax burden, adversely impacting the Company’s business, results of operations and financial condition. As part of the OECD’s Pillar II rules, the OECD recommended a 15% global minimum tax on adjusted financial reported income. Many jurisdictions, including Japan, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, have adopted or plan to adopt Pillar II for tax years beginning in 2024. The overall impact of the OECD’s Global Pillars to the Company are uncertain due to the ambiguities in the application of certain provisions, the impact of future guidance, and interpretations or rules issued by government agencies. For more information, see “Item 1A – Risk Factors – Legal and Regulatory Risks – Changes in tax laws and regulations could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations and financial condition.”
International Regulation
We are subject to regulation and supervision of our international operations in various jurisdictions. These regulations, which vary depending on the jurisdiction, include, among others, anti-corruption laws; solvency and market conduct regulations; various privacy, insurance, tax, tariff and trade laws and regulations; and corporate, employment, intellectual property and investment laws and regulations. We operate in various jurisdictions, including Canada, the U.K., France, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Germany, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore, and, in several of these jurisdictions, our businesses are supervised by local regulatory authorities. In fourth quarter 2023, we made the decision to fully exit our operations in mainland China (other than Hong Kong). See Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements included elsewhere in this Report for more information.
In the past few years, the IAIS developed a model common framework for the supervision of Internationally Active Insurance Groups (“IAIGs”), which includes group-wide supervisory oversight across national boundaries and the establishment of ongoing supervisory colleges (“ComFrame”). ComFrame applies to entities that meet the IAIS’s criteria for IAIGs and that are so designated by their group-wide supervisor. The NAIC previously adopted changes to the Model Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act to allow state insurance regulators in the U.S. to be designated as group-wide supervisors for U.S.-based IAIGs. While we do not currently meet the criteria for IAIG designation, we are monitoring developments of reforms adopted by the IAIS as they influence NAIC activities, including those related to risk and group capital oversight.
Securities and Corporate Governance Regulation
As a company with publicly-traded securities, we are subject to certain legal and regulatory requirements applicable generally to public companies, including the rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) relating to public reporting and disclosure, accounting and financial reporting, corporate governance and other matters. One of our subsidiaries is a broker-dealer that is registered with the SEC and with the state securities commissions in all 50 states, and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Additionally, we and our subsidiaries are subject to the corporate governance laws of our respective jurisdictions of incorporation or formation.
Consumer Protection Laws
Numerous federal, state and international consumer protection laws affect the Company. For example, as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress established the CFPB to supervise and regulate institutions that provide certain financial products and services to consumers. Although the consumer financial services subject to the CFPB’s jurisdiction generally exclude insurance businesses, the CFPB may take the position that it has the authority to regulate certain non-insurance consumer services we provide. In addition, new or amended international regulations relating to fair value and fair treatment relating to products and services for consumers are being further considered or proposed, depending on the jurisdiction.
Anti-Corruption Regulation
We are subject to certain U.S. and foreign laws applicable to businesses generally, including anti-corruption laws. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (the “FCPA”) regulates U.S. companies in their dealings with foreign officials and prohibits bribes and similar practices. In addition, the U.K. Anti-Bribery Act has wide applicability to certain activities that affect U.K. companies, their commercial activities in the U.K., and potentially that of their affiliates located outside of the U.K.
Anti-bribery and corruption laws and regulations continue to be implemented and/or enhanced across most of the jurisdictions in which we operate.
Cybersecurity, Privacy Regulation and Artificial Intelligence
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the U.S. and abroad regarding privacy, data protection and data security. These laws and regulations are continuously evolving and developing. For example, the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which became effective in May 2018, greatly increased the jurisdictional reach of the European Commission’s laws and added a broad array of requirements for handling personal data, such as the public disclosure of significant data breaches, privacy impact assessments, data portability and the appointment of data protection officers. Since the enactment of GDPR, other countries where we conduct business have or are in the process of enacting stricter data protections laws that model GDPR, including Brazil, China, Japan and India.
At the state level, the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law has been enacted in multiple states, imposing an array of detailed security measures, reporting and attestation requirements on insurance companies. With respect to privacy rights, multiple states in the U.S. have enacted comprehensive privacy laws that further increase privacy rights in a manner similar to the GDPR. The accelerated rate of adoption of privacy legislation by states poses challenges for businesses as implementation and compliance may necessitate modifications to businesses processes, technological infrastructure, security measures and customer-facing websites.
Cybersecurity risks and incidents remain a focus for regulators. In July 2023, the SEC adopted new rules for public companies requiring disclosure of material cybersecurity incidents and periodic disclosures regarding cybersecurity risk management, strategy and governance. Furthermore, in November 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (the “NYDFS”) finalized amendments to its cybersecurity rule applicable to financial institutions licensed by the NYDFS.
We are monitoring increased regulatory activity related to artificial intelligence, including machine learning tools. For example, the NAIC has adopted guiding principles on artificial intelligence to inform and articulate general expectations for businesses, professionals and stakeholders across the insurance industry as they implement artificial intelligence tools to facilitate operations. While not effective until adopted by a specific state, we expect these guidelines to be adopted by at least some states. In addition, in October 2023, the Biden administration issued an Executive Order to, among other things, establish extensive new standards for artificial intelligence safety and security. Internationally, in December 2023, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council reached political agreement on the terms of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, which aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in the European Union.
Environmental Regulation
Because we own and operate real property, we are subject to federal, state and local environmental laws. Potential environmental liabilities and costs in connection with any required remediation of such properties is an inherent risk in property ownership and operation. Additionally, under the laws of several states, contamination of a property may give rise to a lien on the property to secure recovery of the costs of the cleanup, which could have priority over the lien of an existing mortgage against the property. To the extent we hold a mortgage loan on any property subject to such a lien, our ability to foreclose on that property should the related loan be in default would be impaired. Further, under certain circumstances, we may be liable for the costs of addressing releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances at properties securing mortgage loans held by us.
Other Regulation
As we continue to grow and evolve our business mix to cover other non-insurance-based products and services, we have and will continue to become subject to other legal and regulatory requirements, including regulations of the CFPB and other federal, state and municipal regulatory bodies, as well as additional regulatory bodies in non-U.S. jurisdictions. Examples include U.S. and local customs and trade regulations for the movement of mobile devices across geographic borders; health, safety, labor and environmental regulations, including those impacting our mobile supply chain operations; U.S. and international laws and regulations broadly relating to the performance, transparency and reporting of environmental, social and governance matters, including the SEC’s proposed rules to enhance climate-related disclosures; U.S. and international laws and regulations relating to the use of artificial intelligence; and antitrust and competition-related laws and regulations that may impact future transactions or business practices.
Global Risk Management
Governance
We employ a risk governance structure, overseen by our Board and senior management and led by the Global Risk Management function, to provide a common framework for evaluating the risks embedded in and across our businesses and functional areas, developing risk appetites, managing these risks, and identifying current and future risk challenges and opportunities.
Global risk management is the responsibility of the Chief Marketing and Risk Officer, who leads the Global Risk Management function, reports directly to the CEO, reports at least quarterly to the Finance and Risk Committee of the Board and reports at least annually to the Board. Our Enterprise Risk Management Policy, which outlines our risk management framework and establishes principles for its effectiveness, has been approved by the Enterprise Risk Committee and the Board, and is reviewed annually to align with the Company’s business operations and strategy as well as changes to applicable laws, regulations and industry standards.
Our risk management framework cascades downwards into the enterprise through various management committees. Our risk governance structure is headed by the management-level Enterprise Risk Committee, comprised of the CEO, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Marketing and Risk Officer, the Chief Legal Officer, the Treasurer, Chief Internal Auditor, Global Ethics and Compliance Officer, and other members of the risk leadership team. The Enterprise Risk Committee reviews the Company’s key enterprise risks, the alignment to the risk appetite of the Company, and the mitigation and remediation plans for these risks.
Board of Directors and Committee Oversight
The Board, directly and through its committees as described in their charters, oversees our risk management policies and practices, including our risk appetite, and discusses risk-related issues at least quarterly. The Board reviews management’s assessment of the Company’s key enterprise risks and receives a corresponding risk management update annually and management’s strategy with respect to each risk. The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee coordinates Board and committee oversight of the key enterprise risks. The Board and its committees receive updates from management on specific risks throughout the year, and each committee chair reports significant risk updates at least quarterly to the full Board so that the Board has the benefit of the committee’s specific areas of risk oversight.
The Audit Committee reviews the Company’s policies with respect to risk assessment and risk management and coordinates with the Finance and Risk Committee with respect to Board oversight of risk management and global risk management activities. The Audit Committee also focuses on risks relating to financial statements, internal control over financial reporting, disclosures, and compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The Audit Committee receives reports at least quarterly from the Chief Internal Auditor and the Global Ethics and Compliance Officer. The Finance and Risk Committee has primary oversight responsibility of the Global Risk Management function and corresponding risk activities, and receives risk management reports at least quarterly from the Chief Marketing and Risk Officer that include the identification, assessment, reporting and mitigation of existing and emerging key enterprise risks. The Finance and Risk Committee also focuses on risks relating to investments, capital management and catastrophe reinsurance. The Compensation and Talent Committee focuses on risks relating to management succession, talent management and compensation plan design, and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee focuses on risks relating to director succession and has ultimate oversight responsibility for how we manage sustainability. The Information Technology Committee is responsible for oversight of information technology risk assessment and risk management. This includes oversight of cybersecurity policies, controls and procedures, such as procedures to identify and assess internal and external cybersecurity risks. The Information Technology Committee receives updates from management, including the Chief Information Security Officer, on internal and external cybersecurity risks at least quarterly. In fulfilling its responsibilities, the Board and each committee has the authority to retain external advisors.
We believe that the Board’s leadership structure supports the risk oversight function of the Board and its committees, with the Chair of the Board and the CEO uniquely positioned to identify emerging risks while the Board’s five committees provide independent oversight of our risk management program within their purview.
Management Oversight
Global Risk Management develops risk assessment and risk management policies, and facilitates the identification and assessment, monitoring and reporting, and mitigation of risks.
The Company uses the three lines of defense operating model to provide structure around risk management and internal controls. The first line of defense is comprised of the business and functional areas that are responsible for the daily management of Company’s business operations and related risks. The second line of defense provides independent oversight of risk-taking activities in the first line and is comprised of the Company’s Global Risk Management and Compliance functions. The second line of defense assists in determining the risk appetite, strategies, policies and structure for managing risk, including business resiliency and operational risk. The third line of defense is comprised of the Internal Audit function and is independently governed by the Audit Committee. Internal Audit evaluates the effectiveness and adequacy of the Company’s control environment and other components of our governance system, including compliance with policies, procedures and processes established in the first and second lines, and assesses the design and ongoing effectiveness of risk management and the risk management framework.
Risk Appetite, Identification and Assessment, Monitoring and Reporting, and Mitigation
Risk appetite is defined as the levels, types and amount of risk that the Company is willing to accept in the pursuit of its business and strategic objectives, consistent with prudent management of risk concomitant with available levels of capital. Global Risk Management, in conjunction with various management committees, develops recommendations for risk limits as part of our risk appetite framework. Using metrics as appropriate in establishing these risk limits allows for a cohesive assessment of risk, resources and strategy, and supports management and the Board in making well-informed business decisions.
Risk identification and assessment, which involve the identification of risks, information gathering and analyses, are performed by Global Risk Management and conducted in coordination with the second and third lines of defense. Global Risk Management measures risk exposure, and monitors and manages internal and external risk reporting using a central risk depository as the single source for risk information. The register collects information obtained from the processes described above and other sources and is periodically reviewed and approved by the Enterprise Risk Committee. Risks are classified using an enterprise-wide risk taxonomy. Risk mitigation includes determining a course of action and monitoring progress against remediation.
Available Information
Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to such reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), as well as the Statements of Beneficial Ownership of Securities on Forms 3, 4 and 5 for our directors and officers, are available free of charge through the SEC website at www.sec.gov*.* We make our periodic reports and other information filed with or furnished to the SEC available, free of charge, through the Investor Relations page of our website (www.assurant.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC.
We use our website (www.assurant.com) and social media accounts, including X (formerly Twitter) (@Assurant), LinkedIn (@Assurant) and Facebook (@AssurantInc), as a means of disclosing information about us and our services and for complying with our disclosure obligations under the SEC’s Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure). The information we post on our website and social media accounts may be deemed material. Accordingly, investors should monitor our website and social media accounts in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. Except as specifically noted, the information found on our website and social media accounts are not incorporated by reference into, and do not constitute a part of, this Report or any other report filed with or furnished to the SEC.
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