5. REINSURANCE

In the ordinary course of business, the Company assumes and cedes premiums and selected insured risks with other insurance companies, known as reinsurance. A large portion of the reinsurance is put into effect under contracts known as treaties and, in some instances, by negotiation on each individual risk (known as facultative reinsurance). In addition, there are several types of treaties including quota share, excess of loss and catastrophe reinsurance contracts that protect against losses over stipulated amounts arising from any one occurrence or event. The arrangements allow the Company to pursue greater diversification of business and serve to limit the maximum net loss to a single event, such as a catastrophe. Through the quantification of exposed policy limits in each region and the extensive use of computer-assisted modeling techniques, management monitors the concentration of risks exposed to catastrophic events.

Through the purchase of reinsurance, the Company also generally limits its net loss on any individual risk to a maximum of $500,000, although certain treaties contain an annual aggregate deductible before reinsurance applies.

Premiums, written and earned, along with losses and settlement expenses incurred for the periods presented is summarized as follows:



	Three-Month Periods Ended March 31,
	2017		2016
WRITTEN
Direct	$	12,588,591	$	12,077,065
Reinsurance assumed		39,836		45,720
Reinsurance ceded		(1,976,230)		(1,955,964)
Net	$	10,652,197	$	10,166,821
EARNED
Direct	$	12,792,794	$	12,104,517
Reinsurance assumed		49,218		59,364
Reinsurance ceded		(2,003,906)		(1,873,119)
Net	$	10,838,106	$	10,290,762
LOSSES AND SETTLEMENT EXPENSES INCURRED
Direct	$	7,869,502	$	11,289,354
Reinsurance assumed		42,432		22,599
Reinsurance ceded		(1,312,550)		(4,932,457)
Net	$	6,599,384	$	6,379,496