Statutory Accounting and Regulation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Statutory Accounting and Regulation [Abstract]

Statutory Accounting Practices Disclosure [Table Text Block]

STATUTORY ACCOUNTING AND REGULATION

The insurance industry is heavily-regulated. State laws and regulations, as well as national regulatory agency requirements, govern the operations of all insurers such as UPC. The various laws and regulations require that insurers maintain minimum amounts of statutory surplus and risk-based capital, they restrict insurers' ability to pay dividends, they specify allowable investment types and investment mixes, and they subject insurers to assessments. At September 30, 2011, UPC met all regulatory requirements of the states in which it operates, and it did not incur any assessments during the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners published risk-based capital standards for insurance companies that are designed to assess capital adequacy and to raise the level of protection that statutory surplus provides for policyholders. Most states, including Florida, have adopted the NAIC standards, and insurers having less statutory surplus than required will be subject to varying degrees of regulatory action, depending on the level of capital inadequacy. State insurance regulatory authorities could require an insurer to cease operations in the event the insurer fails to maintain the required statutory capital.

Florida law permits an insurer to pay dividends or make distributions out of that part of statutory surplus derived from net operating profit and net realized capital gains. The law further provides calculations to determine the amount of dividends or distributions that can be made without the prior approval of the insurance regulatory authority and the amount of dividends or distributions that would require prior approval of the insurance regulatory authority. Statutory risk-based capital requirements may further restrict UPC's ability to pay dividends or make distributions if the amount of the intended dividend or distribution would cause statutory surplus to fall below minimum risk-based capital requirements.

The note payable to the SBA is considered a surplus note pursuant to statutory accounting principles. As a result, UPC is subject to the authority of the Insurance Commissioner of the State of Florida with regard to its ability to repay principal and interest on the surplus note. Any payment of principal or interest requires permission from the insurance regulatory authority. We remitted principal payments totaling $882 during the nine-month period ended September 30, 2011.

Our insurance subsidiary's assets, liabilities and results of operations have been reported in accordance with GAAP, which varies from statutory accounting prescribed or permitted by the NAIC, state laws and regulations, as well as by general industry practices. The following items are principal differences between statutory accounting and GAAP:

• Statutory accounting requires that we exclude certain assets, called non-admitted assets, from the balance sheet.

• Statutory accounting requires us to expense policy acquisition costs when incurred, while GAAP allows us to defer and amortize policy acquisition costs over the estimated life of the policies.

• Statutory accounting requires that we calculate deferred income taxes differently than we would under GAAP.

• Statutory accounting requires that certain investments be recorded at cost or amortized cost, while other investments are recorded at fair value; however, GAAP requires all investments to be reported at fair value.

• Statutory accounting requires that surplus notes, also known as surplus debentures, be recorded in statutory surplus, while GAAP requires us to record surplus notes as a liability.

Our insurance subsidiary must file with applicable insurance regulatory authorities an “Annual Statement” which reports, among other items, net income (loss) and surplus as regards policyholders, which is called stockholders' equity under GAAP. Surplus as regards policyholders was $47,599 and $48,495 at September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively. Statutory net loss at our insurance subsidiary was $467 and $1,715 for the three-month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively, and $5,281 and $5,653 for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively.