Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Contingencies

Note 13 - Contingencies

In the ordinary course of its businesses, the Company is involved in legal proceedings, including lawsuits, regulatory examinations, audits and inquiries. Except with regard to the matters discussed below, based on currently available information, the Company does not believe that it is reasonably possible that any of its pending legal proceedings will have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

Over the last decade, there have been an array of initiatives that seek, in various ways, to impose new duties on life insurance companies to proactively search for information related to the deaths of their insureds. These initiatives, which can include legislation, audits, regulatory examinations and related litigation, could alter the terms of Kemper’s life insurance subsidiaries’ life insurance contracts by imposing requirements that did not exist and were not contemplated at the time those companies entered into such contracts.

In 2016, the Company voluntarily began implementing a comprehensive process to compare its life insurance records against one or more death verification databases to determine if any of its insureds may be deceased. Any attempt to estimate the ultimate outcomes of the aforementioned initiatives entails uncertainties including, but not limited to (i) the scope and interpretation of pertinent statutes, including the matching criteria and methodologies to be used in comparing policy records against a death verification database, (ii) the universe of policies affected, (iii) the results of audits, examinations and other actions by regulators and (iv) related litigation.

Gain Contingency

In October 2015, Kemper’s subsidiary, Kemper Corporate Services, Inc. (“KCSI”), filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”), claiming that Computer Sciences Corporation (“CSC”) had breached the terms of a master software license and services agreement and related agreements (collectively, the “Agreements”) by failing, among other things, to timely produce and deliver certain software to KCSI. CSC denied KCSI’s claims and filed a counterclaim. On April 1, 2017, CSC merged with a spin-off of the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company and is now known as DXC Technology Company (“DXC”). Currently, DXC’s stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Note 13 - Contingencies (continued)

In April 2017, the parties participated in an evidentiary hearing in Texas before a AAA-appointed arbitrator. Subsequently, in October 2017, the arbitrator issued a Partial Final Award finding that CSC had breached the Agreements and awarding KCSI direct damages plus pre-judgment interest. KCSI then submitted to the arbitrator a supplemental petition providing pre-judgment interest calculations and seeking an award for certain costs and expenses. In November 2017, the arbitrator issued a Final Award awarding KCSI direct damages against CSC of $84.3 million, prejudgment interest at the annual rate of 9% and costs and expenses in the amount of $7.2 million.

KCSI pursued confirmation and enforcement of the Final Award in U.S. District Court in Texas. In December 2017, CSC filed a Petition to Vacate an Arbitration Award in the U.S. District Court in New York and a motion to stay the proceedings in Texas. Following briefing and a hearing, the New York district court denied CSC’s motion to stay the Texas action and instead stayed the New York action. In March 2018, the Texas district court denied CSC’s motion to transfer venue and the New York district court subsequently transferred the vacatur proceeding to Texas. In April 2018, the Texas district court consolidated the two actions and the parties briefed KCSI’s Amended Motion to Confirm Arbitration Award and CSC’s motion to vacate the arbitration award.

On September 26, 2018, the Texas district court issued an Amended Final Judgment that (i) confirmed the Arbitration Award in favor of KCSI, (ii) denied CSC’s motion to vacate, and (iii) entered judgment against CSC in the total amount of $141.7 million.

CSC is appealing the district court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In the meantime CSC paid Kemper $35.7 million in September 2018 in partial satisfaction of the final judgment. The Company recognized such payment as a gain in its consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Subsequent to the date of Company’s condensed consolidated statement of income for the three months ended March 31, 2019, CSC paid Kemper an additional $20.1 million in partial satisfaction of the final judgment. Such payment is treated as a gain contingency for accounting purposes and, accordingly, is not recognized in the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, but instead will be recognized in the Company’s condensed consolidated financial statements for the quarter ending June 30, 2019.

The Company cannot make any assurance as to the additional amounts of the final judgment that will actually be collected or when they may be received. The unpaid balance of the final judgment is treated as a gain contingency for accounting purposes and accordingly, is not recognized in these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements.