SEC Company Response from FPIC INSURANCE GROUP INC (CIK 0001010247) — Dec 28, 2005
FPIC INSURANCE GROUP INC (CIK 0001010247)
Date: Dec. 28, 2005 · CIK: 0001010247 · Accession: 0001010247-05-000089
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 001-11983
Referenced dates: December 13, 2005, July 31, 2003
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CORRESP
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filename1.htm
FPIC Correspondence December 2005
Kim
D.
Thorpe
Chief
Financial Officer
December
28, 2005
Mr. Jim
B. Rosenberg
Senior
Assistant Chief Accountant
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporate Finance
Washington,
D.C. 20549
Re: FPIC
Insurance Group, Inc.
Annual
Report
on Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004
Filed
March
15, 2005
Commission
File No. 001-11983
Dear
Mr.
Rosenberg:
We
have
reviewed your letter dated December 13, 2005 and the comments contained therein
with respect to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2004 (“2004 Form 10-K”) of FPIC Insurance Group, Inc. (the
“Company”) filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the
“Commission”) on March 15, 2005. As requested, this letter provides additional
information regarding the disclosure topics upon which the Commission has
commented. For convenience of reference, our responses are accompanied by a
restatement of the Commission’s comments.
Form
10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004
Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for
the
year ended December 31, 2004
Liability
for Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (“LAE”), page
17
Comment
No. 1:
We
note your expanded disclosure in response to comment number 3 in our comment
letter dated July 31, 2003. Please provide us the following, in disclosure-type
format:
·
More
detail regarding the specific actuarial techniques and assumptions
you use
when estimating the liability for losses and LAE. Specifically address
the
factors that led management to determine the best estimate of loss
reserves within your reserve
range.
225
Water
Street, Suite 1400 • Jacksonville, Florida 32202
(800)
221-2101 • (904) 360-3640 • Fax (904) 475-1159
kthorpe@fpic.com
Mr. Jim
B. Rosenberg
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
December
28, 2005
Page
2
·
Please
provide quantified and narrative analyses of the impact that reasonably
likely changes in one or more of your key assumptions that materially
affect the reserve balance would have on reported results, financial
position and liquidity. We note that you provide an analysis around
the
total carried reserve balance but do not provide quantitative and
narrative analyses around the key assumptions that affect the reserve
balance.
·
In
addition, because IBNR reserve estimates are more imprecise, please
provide the amount of IBNR separately from case reserves for each
line of
business.
Response
to Comment No. 1:
We
provide substantial and meaningful disclosure regarding the liability for losses
and loss adjustment expenses (“LAE”), also referred to as loss and LAE reserves,
in our Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations (“MD&A”), and in our Item 8, Financial Statements and
Supplementary Data. The disclosures are intended to provide investors and other
financial statement users with additional information necessary to understand
our loss and LAE reserves and how management establishes such reserves. We
continuously strive to improve our disclosures and believe that additional
disclosure addressing the recommendations contained in the Commission’s comments
would be helpful to readers of our financial statements. We intend, therefore,
to incorporate as appropriate under the circumstances, disclosures along the
lines of the matters presented below in our upcoming Annual Report on Form
10-K
for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2005, which we will file on or before
March 16, 2006 (“2005 Form 10-K”).
Actuarial
Techniques Used in Establishing Loss and LAE Reserves
Under
the
caption “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates,” of the MD&A in our
2004 Form 10-K, we summarized the process used to establish loss and LAE
reserves. As discussed in this narrative, we set the reserves taking into
account the results of the application of several different actuarial
techniques, as well as other factors and assumptions, and utilized and
integrated the calculations and analyses of an independent actuary.
The
primary actuarial methods applied in the process of estimating our loss and
LAE
reserves as of December 31, 2004, are listed below in disclosure-type format
accompanied by a discussion further explaining why we use multiple methods.
We
will add similar disclosure to the caption, “Critical Accounting Policies and
Estimates,” in our MD&A to be included in our 2005 Form
10-K.
Mr. Jim
B. Rosenberg
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
December
28, 2005
Page
3
Supplemental
Disclosure Regarding Actuarial Techniques in Disclosure-Type
Format:
The
actuarial techniques we use that are material to our evaluation of reserves
are
the following:
·
Loss
Development Methods (Incurred and Paid
Development)
·
Frequency/Severity
Methods
·
Berquist-Sherman
Case Reserve Adjustment Method
·
Bornhuetter-Ferguson
Expected Loss Projection Methods
·
Backward
Recursive Method
·
ALAE
Development Methods (Incurred and Paid
Development)
Each
technique has inherent benefits and shortcomings (i.e., biases), particularly
when applied to company-specific characteristics and trends. For example,
certain methods (e.g., the Bornhuetter-Ferguson methods) are more relevant
to
immature accident years and other methods (e.g., the loss development methods)
provide more meaningful information for years with a greater level of maturity.
Because each method has its own set of attributes, we do not rely exclusively
upon a single method. Various methods are evaluated for the different
perspectives that each provides and management makes judgmental selections
based
on the results of all methods when applied to our historical experience and
our
expectations about future claim results and trends.
--------------------------------------------
Quantified
and Narrative Analyses Regarding Key Reserve Assumptions
As
is
also reflected under the caption, “Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates,”
of our MD&A in our 2004 Form 10-K, the important factors or assumptions
implicit in our estimates that may have an impact on the adequacy of the
reserves are as follows:
·
Frequency
and severity trends (number of claims per exposure and how much we
will
pay on average for each claim)
·
Frequency
of claims closed with indemnity payments (the percentage of claims
reported that ultimately result in a loss payment versus those that
are
closed without a loss payment)
·
The
timing or pattern of future
payments
·
The
amount of defense costs we will pay for each claim or group of
claims
·
Inflationary
trends that are expected to bear on future loss and LAE
payments
Disclosure
of the above-mentioned factors or assumptions in our 2004 Form 10-K is
accompanied by further explanation of how they interrelate with the applications
of the actuarial methods and the overall process used by management in
developing its best estimate. In addition, the narrative disclosures
accompanying the 10-year and three-year tabular presentations required by the
1933 Act Industry Guide 6, which are included under the caption, “Management’s
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition,” provide a comprehensive
discussion of the factors underlying changes in our reserves.
Mr. Jim
B. Rosenberg
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
December
28, 2005
Page
4
As
discussed in these disclosures, our carried reserves, net of reinsurance, at
December 31, 2004, were approximately 6% higher than the point estimate of
our
independent actuary and within the upper end of the range. Our disclosure
describes the significant factors resulting in management’s more conservative
estimate, including the newness of tort reform measures passed in our largest
market in 2003 and related state constitutional amendments passed in 2004,
installation of a stricter claims defense philosophy beginning in 2001 and
loss
and LAE development experienced in certain accident years.
With
respect to the Commission’s comments regarding the provision of quantified and
narrative analyses of the impact that reasonably likely changes in one or more
key assumptions, we will add to or modify the disclosure regarding the key
reserve factors and assumptions in our 2005 Form 10-K as follows:
Supplemental
Disclosure Regarding Sensitivity of Key Reserve Assumptions in Disclosure-Type
Format:
These
factors can be impacted by internal events, such as changes in business mix
or
claims handling philosophy, and external events, such as changes in the legal
or
regulatory environment. For example, the removal or significant weakening of
one
or more of the tort reforms passed in our largest market, Florida, could result
in an unexpected increase in claim frequency and/or severity. Determining
whether such events are reasonably likely to occur and attempting to quantify
the impact of an individual event are inherently difficult. We utilize our
experience and judgment and consider these factors as well as historical
experience and the results of applied actuarial techniques, when evaluating
the
adequacy of carried loss and LAE reserves.
In
considering the potential sensitivity of the factors and assumptions underlying
management’s best estimate of loss and LAE reserves, it is also important to
understand that the medical professional liability sector of the
property-casualty insurance industry is characterized by a relatively small
number of claims with a large average cost per claim. For example, in 2004,
which we ended with 14,047 policyholders, we closed only 350 claims with an
average indemnity payment (i.e., losses only) of $194,000. Given the magnitude
of our reserves and these characteristics, even a relatively small change in
the
number of claims we expect to pay (i.e., frequency) or a relatively small
percentage change in the average cost per claim (i.e., severity) may be expected
to have a significant impact on our reserves and, correspondingly, the Company’s
financial position and results of operations. This is the case for other key
assumptions as well, such as the frequency of reported claims and incidents
that
will ultimately close with an indemnity payment versus those that will close
without an indemnity payment.
--------------------------------------------
In
our
disclosure, we will continue to provide analysis and discussion of the
significant factors considered in our reserving process. Given the
characteristics of our business, we continue to believe that the analysis around
the total carried reserve balance contained in our MD&A provides the most
meaningful and appropriate presentation, in the least confusing and most
straightforward terms, as to the impact of a change in loss and LAE reserve
estimates. We will, however, add to the disclosure in our 2005 Form 10-K along
the lines discussed above, and continue to consider the adequacy and
appropriateness of our reserve disclosures and expand the discussion in future
filings to address the impact on our reported results, financial condition
and
liquidity, as appropriate under the circumstances.
Mr. Jim
B. Rosenberg
United
States Securities and Exchange Commission
December
28, 2005
Page
5
Components
of Carried Reserves (Case Reserves and IBNR Reserves)
The
following table provides the components of carried reserves by line of business
on both a gross basis and a net basis. IBNR reserves include a provision for
the
aggregate difference between individually estimated case reserves established
by
the claims department and the amounts for which they will be ultimately settled.
We discuss this in further detail in our response to Comment No. 2.
We
will
add this type of disclosure to future filings.
Supplemental
Disclosure of Components of Carried Reserves in Disclosure-Type
Format:
As
of
December 31, 2004, our liability for losses and LAE presented in the
consolidated financial statements was comprised of the following components
(Gross Basis). In the lower portion of this table, we also present such reserve
components net of reinsurance (Net Basis).
Case
Reserves
IBNR
Reserves (including case reserve development)
Total
Reserves
GROSS
BASIS
Professional
Liability
$
531,293
79,259
610,552
Other
Lines
$
16,904
7,662
24,566
Total
Gross Reserves
$
548,197
86,921
635,118
NET
BASIS
Professional
Liability
$
295,921
3,421
299,342
Other
Lines
$
4,094
(1,737
)
2,357
Total
Net Reserves
$
300,015
1,684
301,699
--------------------------------------------
Comment
No. 2:
We
refer