SEC Company Response from CINCINNATI FINANCIAL CORP (CINF) (CIK 0000020286) (CINF) — May 6, 2015
CINCINNATI FINANCIAL CORP (CINF) (CIK 0000020286)
Date: May 6, 2015 · CIK: 0000020286 · Accession: 0001144204-15-028050
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 000-04604
Referenced dates: April 23, 2015
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CORRESP 1 filename1.htm May 6, 2015 Mr. Jim B. Rosenberg Senior Assistant Chief Accountant Division of Corporation Finance United States Securities and Exchange Commission Washington, D.C. 20549 Re: Cincinnati Financial Corporation Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year December 31, 2014 Filed February 27, 2015 File No. 000-04604 Dear Mr. Rosenberg: We have received your letter dated April 23, 2015, in response to our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. We appreciate that your review was intended to assist us in our compliance with applicable disclosure requirements and to enhance the overall disclosure in our filings. The following reflects our careful review of the comments you provided (keyed to your letter dated April 23): Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements Note 3 – Fair Value Measurements Fair Value Hierarchy, page 137 COMMENT 1. 1. Please refer to your disclosure of investments herein and in Note 2. Please provide us analyses under ASC 320-10-50-1B and ASC 820-10-50-2B supporting your presentations of investments by “major security types” and “classes.” In this regard, tell us why you did not further disaggregate your corporate and states, municipalities and political subdivisions fixed maturity securities and your common equities. With respect to corporate fixed maturity securities and common equities, your disclosure on pages 27 and 29 suggests that further disaggregation by industry sector for certain sectors may be necessary. Regarding your tax-exempt fixed maturity securities, your disclosure on page 28 suggests that further disaggregation by general and special obligation bonds and perhaps for Texas may be necessary. RESPONSE TO COMMENT 1: In determining the appropriate presentation of investments by “major security types” and “classes” within Note 3 – Fair Value Measurements and Note 2 – Investments of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, we considered the guidance under ASC 320-10-50-1B, Investments-Debt and Equity Securities-Overall-Disclosure, which states: “Major security types shall be based on the nature and risks of the security. In determining whether disclosure for a particular security type is necessary and whether it is necessary to further separate a particular security type into greater detail, an entity shall consider all of the following: a. (Shared) activity or business sector b. Vintage c. Geographic concentration d. Credit quality e. Economic characteristic.” We also took into consideration guidance under ASC 820-10-50-2B, Fair Value Measurement-Overall-Disclosure, which states: “A reporting entity shall determine appropriate classes of assets and liabilities on the basis of the following: a. The nature, characteristics, and risks of the asset or liability b. The level of the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurement is categorized. The number of classes may need to be greater for fair value measurements categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy because those measurements have a greater degree of uncertainty and subjectivity. Determining appropriate classes of assets and liabilities for which disclosures about fair value measurements should be provided requires judgment. A class of assets and liabilities will often require greater disaggregation than the line items presented in the statement of financial position. However, a reporting entity shall provide information sufficient to permit reconciliation to the line items presented in the statement of financial position. If another Topic specifies the class for an asset or a liability, a reporting entity may use that class in providing the disclosures required in this Topic if that class meets the requirements in this paragraph.” Corporate Fixed-Maturity Securities One of our fixed-maturity major security types is corporate securities. We identify corporate fixed-maturity securities as a major security type since these securities are similar in nature and risk and are different from other types of fixed-maturity securities. The economic characteristics that corporate fixed-maturity securities share include: issuance by corporations versus the government; the interest received is taxable versus non-taxable securities; the effective interest rate is generally higher than non-taxable securities; the diverse revenue source used to repay the security is from the selling of products/goods/services from corporations; similar credit quality (approximately 94% are investment grade); and the ability to make future principal and interest payments. These economic characteristics are the unique distinctions that we consider when purchasing or holding a corporate fixed-maturity security and all of our corporate fixed-maturity securities have these characteristics. In addition, we considered business sector, vintage and geographic concentration. We concluded that none of these characteristics provide for a unique major security type: · Business sector – We have no significant concentration in any one sector, and we do not believe repayment ability or effective interest rate is directly or indirectly tied to business sector. As of December 31, 2014, the largest concentration within a single business sector was insurance, which consists of $758 million in fair value, representing 13.7% of the corporate fixed-maturity portfolio or 8.0% of total fixed maturities. · Vintage – We have no concentration in any one contractual maturity period. · Geographic concentration – All corporate fixed-maturity securities in our portfolio are issued by domestic or multinational corporations that have a diverse source of geographic revenues supporting the securities. Based on our analyses of the nature and risks of these securities, we have concluded that further disaggregation by sector, vintage, geographic concentration, credit quality or economic characteristics is not required. While we may include supplementary information on page 27 of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, relating to investment-grade and below investment-grade holdings, this disclosure affirms that further disaggregation by credit quality provides little differentiation within our corporate fixed-maturities major security type. We believe our current disclosure in Notes 2 - Investments and 3 – Fair Value Measurements, identifying corporate fixed-maturity securities as a single major security type, is in accordance with ASC 320-10-50-1B and ASC 820-10-50-2B. States, Municipalities and Political Subdivisions Fixed-Maturity Securities A second fixed-maturity major security type is states, municipalities and political subdivisions securities. We identify states, municipalities and political subdivisions fixed-maturity securities as a major security type since these securities are similar in nature and risk and are different from other types of fixed-maturity securities. The economic characteristics, business sector and credit quality that these securities share include: issuance and management by a governmental entity; included in the public sector; similar source of funding from a taxing authority; support exclusively or in part by a governmental entity or otherwise authorized entity to collect taxes or other pertinent revenue; the interest received is generally tax exempt; 98% of the securities are investment grade; and generally issuance for public projects, public infrastructure or public benefit. These characteristics are the unique distinctions that we consider when purchasing or holding a state, local municipality and political subdivision fixed-maturity security. In addition, we considered vintage and geographic concentration. We concluded that these characteristics do not provide for a unique major security type: · Vintage – We have no concentration in any one contractual maturity period. · Geographic concentration – Since locally issued bonds and special revenue bonds are issued in various municipalities throughout a given state and they are not financially dependent on each other or the state they are issued in, there is no geographic concentration or dependence on the financial stability of a given state. For example, within Texas, the $439 million fair value of securities on page 28 of our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, were issued from approximately 166 municipalities that are geographically diverse. They are not dependent upon each other or guaranteed by each other and do not represent an obligation of the State of Texas. Based on our analyses of the nature and risks of these securities, we have concluded that further disaggregation by sector, vintage, geographic concentration, credit quality or economic characteristic is not required. The supplemental information on page 28 of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, which summarizes more than 1,500 municipal bond issues, was provided starting with our Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 2010 to demonstrate our well diversified investment portfolio and the lack of significant concentration. During this time period, certain states exhibited financial stress and we added this disclosure to demonstrate the lack of exposure to any single state or municipality. We believe our current disclosure in Notes 2 and 3, identifying states, municipalities and political subdivisions fixed-maturity securities as a single major security type, is in accordance with ASC 320-10-50-1B and ASC 820-10-50-2B. Common Equity Securities We identify common equities as a major security type, since these securities are similar in nature and risk. Our approach to purchasing or holding a common equity over the past 40 plus years is to identify corporations that pay a dividend and have a history or potential ability of increasing their dividend on an annual basis. If a common equity ceases paying a dividend, it is generally removed from our portfolio. These common equities are also mainly blue chip companies that have had the ability to increase dividends over the long term. In terms of economic characteristics, 71 of the 72, or 98% of the common equity portfolio fair value, are United States domiciled corporations. They are all dividend-paying. They all historically increase their dividend, and they have a history of stable earnings and stock price increases. Further disaggregation based upon vintage, geographic location or credit quality was considered, but deemed either not applicable or to not provide unique characteristics that differentiate the underlying nature and risk. In addition, we considered whether activity or business sector within this major security type required further disaggregation; however, we note that such does not change the nature and risk of dividend-paying stocks. Rather, the nature and risk is driven by strength in the balance sheet of the issuer, strong history of earnings and a proven track record of paying dividends regardless of the underlying sector or industry. Supplemental business description information provided for our common equities by industry sector on page 29 of our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, is supplementary disclosure we started in 2009 following the market decline to illustrate the diversification of our investment portfolio, as well as to compare to the S&P 500 Industry Weightings. This information demonstrates a lack of significant concentration in any single industry or sector. We consider the industry sector information to be appropriate for inclusion in Item 1 of our Form 10-K; however, this information is not representative of a difference in the nature and risks of our common equities. As such, we believe our current disclosure in Notes 2 and 3, identifying common equities as a single major security type, is in accordance with ASC 320-10-50-1B and ASC 820-10-5-2B. COMMENT 2. 2. Please provide us, for each “class” (see comment 1 above) of Level 2 fixed maturity securities, the inputs used in your fair value measurement. Refer to ASC 820-10-50-2bbb. RESPONSE TO COMMENT 2: As identified in our response to comment 1 above, our class of Level 2 fixed-maturity securities consist of corporate and states, municipalities and political subdivisions. Our Level 2 fixed-maturity securities also include commercial mortgage-backed, government-sponsored enterprises, foreign government, and convertibles and bonds with warrants attached. We referred to the guidance under ASC 820-10-50-2bbb, which states the following requirements: “For recurring and nonrecurring fair value measurements categorized within Level 2 and Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, a description of the valuation technique(s) and the inputs used in the fair value measurement. If there has been a change in valuation technique (for example, changing from a market approach to an income approach or the use of an additional valuation technique), the reporting entity shall disclose that change and the reason(s) for making it. For fair value measurements categorized within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, a reporting entity shall provide quantitative information about the significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurement. A reporting entity is not required to create quantitative information to comply with this disclosure requirement if quantitative unobservable inputs are not developed by the reporting entity when measuring fair value (for example, when a reporting entity uses prices from prior transactions or third-party pricing information without adjustment). However, when providing this disclosure, a reporting entity cannot ignore quantitative unobservable inputs that are significant to the fair value measurement and are reasonably available to the reporting entity.” All asset classes of fixed-maturity securities that we own share common characteristics of contractual provisions that define the amount and timing of cash flows and therefore can be valued using standardized and widely accepted methodologies that rely upon a common set of inputs. Commercial mortgage-backed fixed-maturity securities can have more variable cash flows within the contractual provisions and therefore require additional analysis and inputs to appropriately determine a valuation. The valuation techniques and inputs we use in our fair value measurement for each class of Level 2 fixed-maturity securities are as follows: Corporate (which includes convertibles and bonds with warrants attached) securities are valued using methodologies that model information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets, as well as discounted cash flow methodologies. Common inputs include prices from recently executed transactions of similar securities, market place quotes, benchmark yields, spreads off benchmark yields, interest rates and U.S. Treasury or swap curves. States, municipalities and political subdivisions securities are valued using methodologies that model information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets, as well as discounted cash flow methodologies. Common inputs include prices from recently executed transactions of similar securities, market place quotes, benchmark yields, spreads off benchmark yields, interest rates and U.S. Treasury or swap curves. Government-sponsored enterprises securities are valued using methodologies that model information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets, as well as discounted cash flow methodologies. Common inputs include prices from recently executed transactions of similar securities, market place quotes, benchmark yields, spreads off benchmark yields, interest rates and U.S. Treasury or swap curves. Commercial mortgaged-backed securities are valued using methodologies that model information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets, as well as discounted cas