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Statutory Accounting and Regulation
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Insurance [Abstract]  
Statutory and Accounting Regulation
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 our insurance affiliates. The various laws and regulations require that insurers maintain minimum amounts of statutory surplus and risk-based capital, restrict insurers' ability to pay dividends, specify allowable investment types and investment mixes, and subject insurers to assessments. At June 30, 2016, and during the three and six months then ended, our insurance affiliates met all regulatory requirements of the states in which they operate, and they did not incur any material assessments.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) published Risk-Based Capital (RBC) guidelines 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, Hawaii and New York, have enacted statutory requirements adopting the NAIC RBC guidelines, 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.

The state laws of Florida, Hawaii and New York permit 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 state laws further provide calculations to determine the amount of dividends or distributions that can be made without the prior approval of the insurance regulatory authorities in those states and the amount of dividends or distributions that would require prior approval of the insurance regulatory authorities in those states. Statutory risk-based capital requirements may further restrict our insurance affiliates' 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 SBA note is considered a surplus note pursuant to statutory accounting principles. As a result, United Property & Casualty Insurance Company 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 have reported our insurance affiliates' assets, liabilities and results of operations in accordance with GAAP, which varies from statutory accounting principles prescribed or permitted by 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 to the extent realizable, and amortize policy acquisition costs over the estimated life of the policies.

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.

Statutory accounting allows certain investments to be carried at amortized cost or fair value based on the rating received from the Securities Valuation Office of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, while they are recorded at fair value for GAAP because the investments are held as available for sale.

Statutory accounting allows ceding commission income to be recognized when written if the cost of acquiring and renewing the associated business exceeds the ceding commissions, but under GAAP such income is deferred and recognized over the coverage period.

Statutory accounting requires that unearned premiums and loss reserves are presented net of related reinsurance rather than on a gross basis under GAAP.

Statutory accounting requires that a provision for reinsurance liability be established for reinsurance recoverable on paid losses aged over 90 days and for unsecured amounts recoverable from unauthorized reinsurers.  Under GAAP there is no charge for uncollateralized amounts ceded to a company not licensed in the insurance affiliate's domiciliary state and a reserve for uncollectable reinsurance is charged through earnings rather than surplus or equity.

Statutory accounting requires an additional admissibility test and the change in deferred income tax is reported directly in capital and surplus, rather than being reported as a component of income tax expense under GAAP.

Our insurance affiliates must file with the various insurance regulatory authorities an “Annual Statement” which reports, among other items, statutory net income (loss) and surplus as regards policyholders, which is called stockholder’s equity under GAAP. For the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, UPC, FSIC, UPC Re and IIC recorded the following amounts of statutory net income (loss).

 
Three Months Ended
 
Six Months Ended
 
June 30, 2016
 
June 30, 2015
 
June 30, 2016
 
June 30, 2015
UPC
$
(8,152
)
 
$
(345
)
 
$
(9,324
)
 
$
(2,711
)
UPC Re
$
759

 
$
39

 
$
749

 
$
80

FSIC
$
87

 
$
(49
)
 
$
183

 
$
66

IIC
$
5,837

 
N/A(1)

 
$
8,187

 
N/A(1)

(1) There is not a reportable value for Interboro Insurance Company as of June 30, 2015 as we did not own the company
until April 2016.

Our insurance affiliates must maintain capital and surplus ratios or balances as determined by the regulatory authority of the states in which they are domiciled. UPC is required to maintain capital and surplus equal to the greater of 10% of its total liabilities or $5,000,000. UPC Re is required to maintain a minimum surplus of $100,000. FSIC is required to maintain capital and surplus of $3,250,000. IIC is required to maintain capital and surplus of $4,700,000. The table below shows the amount of surplus as regards policyholders for our regulated entities at June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, respectively.

 
June 30, 2016
 
December 31, 2015
     UPC
$
130,464

 
$
135,288

     UPC Re
$
7,727

 
$
728

     FSIC
$
15,488

 
$
15,572

     IIC
$
38,009

 
N/A(1)

(1) There is not a reportable value for Interboro Insurance Company as of December 31, 2015
as we did not own the company until April 2016.