Accounting Policies

Organization

James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (referred to as “JRG Holdings” or, with its subsidiaries, the “Company”) is an exempted holding company registered in Bermuda, organized for the purpose of acquiring and managing insurance and reinsurance entities.

The Company owns six insurance companies based in the United States (“U.S.”) focused on specialty insurance niches and two Bermuda-based reinsurance companies as described below:


•	James River Group Holdings UK Limited (“James River UK”) is an insurance holding company formed in 2015 in the United Kingdom (“U.K.”). JRG Holdings contributed James River Group, Inc. (“James River Group”), a U.S. insurance holding company, to James River UK in 2015.


•	James River Group is a Delaware domiciled insurance holding company formed in 2002 which owns all of the Company’s U.S.-based subsidiaries, either directly or indirectly through one of its wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries. James River Group oversees the Company’s U.S. insurance operations and maintains all of the outstanding debt in the U.S.


•	James River Insurance Company is an Ohio domiciled excess and surplus lines insurance company that, with its wholly-owned insurance subsidiary, James River Casualty Company, is authorized to write business in every state and the District of Columbia.

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Falls Lake National Insurance Company (“Falls Lake National”) is an Ohio domiciled insurance company which wholly owns Stonewood Insurance Company (“Stonewood Insurance”), a North Carolina domiciled company, Falls Lake General Insurance Company, an Ohio domiciled company, and Falls Lake Fire and Casualty Company, a California domiciled company. Falls Lake National began writing specialty admitted fronting and program business in late 2013. Falls Lake Fire and Casualty began operations in 2016.


•	JRG Reinsurance Company Ltd. (“JRG Re”) was formed in 2007 and commenced operations in 2008. JRG Re, a Bermuda domiciled reinsurer, primarily provides non-catastrophe casualty reinsurance to U.S. third parties.


•	Carolina Re Ltd (“Carolina Re”) was formed in 2018 and provides reinsurance to the Company’s U.S.-based insurance subsidiaries. Carolina Re has entered into a stop loss reinsurance treaty with JRG Re.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements and notes have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and do not contain all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements. The condensed consolidated financial statements include the results of the Company and its subsidiaries from their respective dates of inception or acquisition, as applicable. Readers are urged to review the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 for a more complete description of the Company’s business and accounting policies. In the opinion of management, all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the condensed consolidated financial statements have been included. Such adjustments consist only of normal recurring items. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of results of operations for the full year. The consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2017 was derived from the Company’s audited annual consolidated financial statements.

Intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated.

Estimates and Assumptions

Preparation of the condensed consolidated financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the condensed consolidated financial statements and accompanying disclosures. Those estimates are inherently subject to change, and actual results may ultimately differ from those estimates.

Variable Interest Entities

Entities that do not have sufficient equity at risk to allow the entity to finance its activities without additional financial support or in which the equity investors, as a group, do not have the characteristic of a controlling financial interest are referred to as variable interest entities (“VIE”). A VIE is consolidated by the variable interest holder that is determined to have the controlling financial interest (primary beneficiary) as a result of having both the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact the VIE’s economic performance and the obligation to absorb losses or the right to receive benefits from the VIE that could potentially be significant to the VIE. The Company determines whether it is the primary beneficiary of an entity subject to consolidation based on a qualitative assessment of the VIE’s capital structure, contractual terms, nature of the VIE’s operations and purpose, and the Company’s relative exposure to the related risks of the VIE on the date it becomes initially involved in the VIE. The Company reassesses its VIE determination with respect to an entity on an ongoing basis.

The Company holds interests in VIEs through certain equity method investments included in “other invested assets” in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets. The Company has determined that it should not consolidate any of the VIEs as it is not the primary beneficiary in any of the relationships. Although the investments resulted in the Company holding variable interests in the entities, they did not empower the Company to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the entities. The Company’s investments related to these VIEs totaled $32.6 million and $32.1 million as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively, representing the Company’s maximum exposure to loss.

Income Tax Expense

Our effective tax rate fluctuates from period to period based on the relative mix of income reported by country and the respective tax rates imposed by each tax jurisdiction. For the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, our U.S. federal income tax expense was 8.7% and 7.7% of income before taxes, respectively. For U.S.-sourced income, the Company’s U.S. federal income tax expense differs from the amounts computed by applying the federal statutory income tax rate (21% in 2018 and 35% in 2017) to income before taxes due primarily to interest income on tax-advantaged state and municipal securities (state and municipal securities represent 12.4% and 10.9% of our available-for-sale securities at March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively), dividends received income, and excess tax benefits on share based compensation.

Financial results reflect provisional amounts related to the December 2017 enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”). These provisional estimates are based on the Company’s initial analysis and current interpretation of the legislation. Given the complexity of the legislation, anticipated guidance from the U.S. Treasury, and the potential for additional guidance from the SEC or the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), these estimates may be adjusted during 2018.

Adopted Accounting Standards

Effective January 1, 2018, the Company adopted Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606). The guidance applies to all companies that either enter into contracts with customers to transfer goods or services or enter into contracts for the transfer of nonfinancial assets, unless those contracts are within the scope of other standards, such as insurance contracts. Under this guidance, a company will recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. Judgments required in adopting this update may include identifying performance obligations in the contract, estimating the amount of variable consideration to include in the transaction price and allocating the transaction price to each separate performance obligation. The adoption of ASU 2014-09 had no impact on reported fee income and there was no cumulative effect of initially applying the update.

Effective January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments - Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. Among other things, this ASU requires equity investments (except those accounted for under the equity method of accounting or those that result in consolidation of the investee) to be measured at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in net income. Upon adoption on January 1, 2018, the Company made a $4.7 million cumulative-effect adjustment to increase retained earnings and reduce accumulated other comprehensive income. The adoption of ASU 2016-01 did not materially impact the Company's financial position, cash flows, or total comprehensive income. The Company's results of operations were impacted as changes in fair value of equity instruments are now presented in net income rather than other comprehensive (loss) income. For the three months ended March 31, 2018, the impact was a $1.4 million reduction in net income and a $0.05 reduction in basic and diluted earnings per share.

Effective January 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. This update was issued as a result of the enactment of the TCJA on December 22, 2017. The ASU allows for the option to reclassify the stranded tax effects resulting from the implementation of the TCJA out of accumulated other comprehensive income and into retained earnings. As the adoption of ASU 2016-01 in 2018 resulted in the reclassification of the entire unrealized balance on equity securities from accumulated other comprehensive income into retained earnings, only the stranded tax effects on the unrealized balances of fixed income securities were impacted by the adoption of ASU 2018-02. The reclassification resulted in a $711,000 decrease to the Company's retained earnings with a corresponding increase to accumulated other comprehensive income in the first quarter of 2018.

Prospective Accounting Standards

In February 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842). Under current guidance for lessees, leases are only included on the balance sheet if certain criteria, classifying the agreement as a capital lease, are met. This update will require the recognition of a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability, discounted to the present value, for all leases that extend beyond 12 months. This ASU is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018. Upon adoption, leases will be recognized and measured at the beginning of the earliest period presented using a modified retrospective approach. The Company is currently evaluating ASU 2016-02 to determine the potential impact that adopting this standard will have on its financial statements.

In June 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments. Current GAAP delays the recognition of credit losses until it is probable a loss has been incurred. The update will require financial assets measured at amortized cost, such as bank loan participations held for investment, to be presented at the net amount expected to be collected by means of an allowance for credit losses that runs through net income. Credit losses relating to available-for-sale debt securities will also be recorded through an allowance for credit losses, with the amount of the allowance limited to the amount by which fair value is below amortized cost. This ASU is effective for annual and interim reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019. Upon adoption, this ASU will be applied using the modified-retrospective approach, by which a cumulative-effect adjustment will be made to retained earnings as of the beginning of the first reporting period presented. The Company has not yet completed the analysis of how adopting this ASU will affect the Company’s financial statements.