SEC Company Response from CITIZENS FINANCIAL — Sep 14, 2005
CITIZENS FINANCIAL CORP /KY/ (CIK 0000887136)
Date: Sept. 14, 2005 · CIK: 0000887136 · Accession: 0000940397-05-000182
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File numbers found in text: 000-20148
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Citizens Financial SEC Letter
September
14, 2005
Via
EDGAR and facsimile (202) 772-9217
Mr.
Jim
B. Rosenberg
Senior
Assistant Chief Accountant
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
Mail
Stop
0306
450
Fifth
Street, N.W.
Washington,
DC 20549
Re: Citizens
Financial Corporation
Form
10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2004
File
No.
000-20148
Dear
Mr.
Rosenberg:
We
confirm Citizen Financial Corporation’s (the “Company”) receipt of the letter
from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) dated
August 25, 2005 regarding the Commission staff’s comments on the Company’s Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004. In connection with the letter,
we acknowledge the following:
·
the
Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosures
in
our filings;
·
staff
comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do
not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the
filing; and
·
the
Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding
initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities
laws of the United States.
We
also
wish to confirm that we have read the staff’s comments and have provided our
response to each question below. We have also included your comments for ease
of
review.
Staff
Comment #1 -- Cash Flow and Liquidity -- Page 28
1.
We
note that the Company has not included its policy benefits and claims
payable or interest on long-term debt in the contractual obligation
table,
and it would appear that these liabilities represent future legal
obligations of the Company. Due to the significant
Mr.
Jim
B. Rosenberg
September
14, 2005
Page
2
nature
of
these liabilities to your business we believe the inclusion of these items
in
the contractual obligation table will provide investors increased disclosure
of
your liquidity. The purpose of Financial Reporting Release 67 is to obtain
enhanced disclosure concerning a registrant’s contractual payment obligations
and the exclusion of ordinary course items would be inconsistent with the
objective of the Item 303(a)(5) of Regulation S-K. Based on the above factors,
please revise your contractual obligation table to include the expected
settlement of your loss reserves and interest payments on long term
debt.
Company
Response
We
acknowledge the staff’s comment to include in the contractual obligation table
future policy benefits and claims and interest payments on long-term debt.
We
propose to include disclosure in the following format in the Company’s future
filings on Form 10-K and in the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarter ending
September 30, 2005, under “Cash Flow and Liquidity” in Management’s Discussion
and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. The amounts
shown
below are as of June 30, 2005. Corresponding amounts as of September 30, 2005,
and each fiscal year end thereafter would be contained in the Company’s
September 30, 2005 10-Q and future 10-K filings.
A
summary
of all known commitments of the Company as of June 30, 2005, including the
aforementioned borrowings, and an estimate (based on reasonable assumptions
and
anticipated trends) of payments to be made for future policy benefits and
contract claims, is as follows:
Contractual
Obligations
Payments
Due by Period
Total
Less
than
1
Year
1-3
Years
4-5
Years
After
5
Years
Future
Policy Benefits &
Contract
Claims (a)
$
112,316,720
$
9,085,052
$
13,667,234
$
11,754,762
$
77,809,672
Note
Payable to Bank
$
2,145,479
$
2,145,479
--
--
--
Note
Payable to Related Party
$
3,180,000
$
3,180,000
--
--
--
Operating
Leases
$
61,341
$
32,066
$
27,816
$
1,459
--
(a)
anticipated cash benefit payments not including any future earnings or
additional premiums.
Management
is not aware of any other commitments or unusual events that could materially
affect the Company’s capital recourses.
Mr.
Jim
B. Rosenberg
September
14, 2005
Page
3
Staff
Comment #2 -- Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements; Note 1, Nature of
Operations and Significant Accounting Policies; Benefit Reserves and
Policyholder Deposits -- Page 41
2.
We
note from your disclosure that your investment yield assumptions
range
from 6% to 7%. We also refer to page 24 where you disclose the actual
investment yield of your investment portfolio, which ranges from
4.5% to
5.6% for the five years presented. Please explain to us why you believe
your investment yield assumptions are appropriate considering the
fact
that your actual yields have been lower than the low end of your
assumed
investment yield.
Company
Response
The
investment yield assumption range of 6% to 7% has been included in Note 1-Nature
of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies to the consolidated financial
statements as part of the disclosure of the methods and assumptions used in
estimating the liability for future policy benefits for our traditional life
insurance products as required by Paragraph 60(b) of Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards No. 60, Accounting
and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises
(“FAS
60”). It should also be noted that this investment yield assumption is a
long-term total return assumption for those investments backing the subject
liabilities for long duration contracts based on estimates of investment yields
expected at the time the insurance contracts were made. Further, as applicable
to FAS 60 products and consistent with Paragraph 21 of FAS 60, such original
assumptions continue to be used in subsequent accounting periods to determine
changes in the liability for future policy benefits (often referred to as the
“lock-in” concept).
Accordingly,
we do not believe that there is a direct correlation between the investment
yield assumptions as required by FAS 60 and the 5-year range of investment
income yield returns of 4.5% to 5.6% included in our Selected Financial Data
Table. We further note these returns include only interest and dividend
experience for all of our investments, including equities, backing all
liabilities. However, the Company continually challenges all its assumptions,
including challenging that its interest assumptions used in estimating the
liabilities for future policy benefits for each block of new insurance contracts
(a group of insurance contracts that may be limited to contracts issued under
the same plan in a particular year) are consistent with circumstances, such
as
actual yields, trends in yields, portfolio mix and maturities, and the Company’s
general investment experience, consistent with Paragraph 22 of FAS 60, and
revises its long-term investment yield assumptions as considered appropriate.
Future filings will include related disclosures regarding any revisions to
long-term investment yield assumptions.
Mr.
Jim
B. Rosenberg
September
14, 2005
Page
4
We
appreciate your review of the Company’s filing and your comments regarding the
filing. Please let us know if you have additional comments.
Very
truly yours,
/s/
Len E.
Schweitzer
Len
E.
Schweitzer
Vice
President and Chief Financial
Officer