Commitments and Contingencies

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Leases

The Company and its subsidiaries lease office space and equipment under operating lease arrangements. Certain facility leases contain escalation clauses based on increases in the lessors’ operating expenses. At December 31, 2017, the aggregate future minimum lease payments under these operating lease agreements that have initial or non-cancelable terms in excess of one year are:



2018	$	21.6
2019	16.4
2020	13.1
2021	9.8
2022	5.2
Thereafter	3.1
Total minimum future lease payments (a)	$	69.2

(a) Minimum future lease payments exclude $0.8 million of sublease rental income.

Rent expense was $23.8 million, $26.5 million and $31.8 million for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Sublease income was $5.9 million, $5.6 million and $2.4 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Future minimum payments under purchase agreements totaled $13.5 million as of December 31, 2017, with payment of $4.5 million each due in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Letters of Credit

In the normal course of business, letters of credit are issued primarily to support reinsurance arrangements in which the Company is the reinsurer. These letters of credit are supported by commitments under which the Company is required to indemnify the financial institution issuing the letter of credit if the letter of credit is drawn. The Company had $18.1 million and $17.2 million of letters of credit outstanding as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Legal and Regulatory Matters

In January 2015, at the request of the Indiana Department of Insurance, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (the "NAIC") authorized a multistate targeted market conduct examination regarding the Company's lender placed insurance products. Various underwriting companies, including American Security Insurance Company, are subject to the examination. In December 2016, the Company reached a Regulatory Settlement Agreement (the "RSA") with the participating regulators to resolve the issues raised in the market conduct examination and a separate agreement with the Minnesota Department of Commerce to settle its lender-placed insurance market conduct examination (together with the RSA, the “Settlement Agreements”). The terms of the Settlement Agreements took effect in the first quarter of 2017. They resolve outstanding regulatory matters related to lender-placed insurance within the scope of the examinations and align lender-placed business practices with procedures already implemented across much of the Company's lender-placed business. In April 2017, the Company paid $85.0 million to the participating jurisdictions for examination, compliance and monitoring costs. In accordance with the RSA, the Company will also re-file its lender-placed insurance rates at least once every four years, and modify certain lender-placed business practices to which other significant providers in the lender-placed market will also be subject. The state insurance regulatory agencies have also imposed similar requirements and restrictions on other existing writers of lender-placed insurance and future entrants.

In addition, as previously disclosed, the Company is involved in a variety of litigation relating to its current and past business operations and, from time to time, it may become involved in other such actions. In particular, the Company is a defendant in class actions in a number of jurisdictions regarding its lender-placed insurance programs. These cases assert a variety of claims under a number of legal theories. The plaintiffs seek premium refunds and other relief. The Company continues to defend itself vigorously in these class actions. We have participated and may participate in settlements on terms that we consider reasonable given the strength of our defenses and other factors.

In July 2007 an Assurant subsidiary acquired Swansure Group, a privately held U.K. company, which owned D&D Homecare Limited (“D&D”). D&D was a packager of mortgages and certain insurance products, including Payment Protection Insurance (“PPI”) policies that, for a period of time, were underwritten by an Assurant subsidiary and sold by various alleged agents, including Carrington Carr Home Finance Limited (“CCHFL”), which is now in administration. In early 2014, as a result of consumer complaints alleging that CCHFL missold certain D&D-packaged PPI policies between August 8, 2003 and

November 1, 2004, the U.K. Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS”) requested that an Assurant subsidiary, Assurant Intermediary Limited (“AIL”), review complaints relating to CCHFL’s sale of such PPI policies. In late 2015, the FOS issued a provisional decision in favor of AIL’s challenge to the FOS’s jurisdiction on the CCHF population of cases. The provisional decision also provided the parties with the opportunity to provide further submissions before a final decision would be confirmed. In February 2016, the FOS confirmed the provisional decision in favor of AIL.

The Company has established an accrued liability for various legal and regulatory proceedings. However, the possible loss or range of loss resulting from such litigation and regulatory proceedings, if any, in excess of the amounts accrued is inherently unpredictable and uncertain. Consequently, no estimate can be made of any possible loss or range of loss in excess of the accrual. Although the Company cannot predict the outcome of any pending legal or regulatory action, or the potential losses, fines, penalties or equitable relief, if any, that may result, it is possible that such outcome could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated results of operations or cash flows for an individual reporting period. However, on the basis of currently available information, management does not believe that the pending matters are likely to have a material adverse effect, individually or in the aggregate, on the Company’s financial condition.

Guaranty Fund Assessments

Under state guaranty association laws, certain insurance companies can be assessed (up to prescribed limits) for certain obligations to the policyholders and claimants of impaired or insolvent insurance companies that write the same line or similar lines of business. In 2009, the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner (the “Commissioner”) placed long-term care insurer Penn Treaty Network America Insurance Company and one of its subsidiaries (collectively, “Penn Treaty”) in rehabilitation, an intermediate action before insolvency, and subsequently petitioned a state court to convert the rehabilitation into a liquidation. The state court began a hearing in July 2015 to consider the Commissioner’s most recent proposed rehabilitation plan, which contemplates a partial liquidation of Penn Treaty. Given developments in 2016, and the apparent inevitable liquidation of Penn Treaty, the Company accrued $12.5 million for its estimated share of guaranty association assessments in the fourth quarter of 2016. In March 2017, the order of liquidation was granted. During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company accrued an additional $3.0 million due to a revised estimated total loss of liability and has a net liability of $6.5 million as of December 31, 2017 for remaining obligations related to the insolvency.