Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Contingencies

Contingencies

In the ordinary course of its businesses, the Company is involved in legal proceedings, including lawsuits, arbitrations, 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 intend, 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, seek to alter the terms of life insurance contracts by imposing requirements that did not exist and were not contemplated at the time the issuing companies entered into such contracts.

In 2016, the Company voluntarily began implementing a comprehensive process to compare the life insurance records of its life insurance subsidiaries against one or more death verification databases to determine if any of its insureds may be deceased. The initial implementation of the process is continuing.

Attempts to estimate the ultimate outcomes of the aforementioned initiatives entail 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 2015, Kemper’s subsidiary, Kemper Corporate Services, Inc. (“KCSI”), filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) against Computer Sciences Corporation (“CSC”), claiming that 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. In April 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.

In April 2017, the parties participated in an evidentiary hearing before a AAA-appointed arbitrator. Subsequently, in October 2017, the arbitrator issued a Partial Final Award finding that CSC had breached the Agreements and awarded KCSI direct damages plus pre-judgment interest. KCSI then submitted 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.

Note 14 - Contingencies (continued)

KCSI pursued confirmation and enforcement of the Final Award in U.S. District Court in Texas. In September 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 appealed the district court’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On January 10, 2020, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion affirming the district court’s ruling in favor of KCSI.

During the pendency of the district court and appellate proceedings, CSC paid Kemper $35.7 million in September 2018 and an additional $20.1 million in April 2019 in partial satisfaction of the final judgment. The Company recognized such payments in Other Income in its Consolidated Statements of Income for the years ended December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2019, respectively. In February 2020, following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling denying CSC’s appeal, Kemper received $89.4 million in satisfaction of the remaining balance due on the judgment. The Company recognized such payment in Other Income in its Condensed Consolidated Statement of Income for the three months ended March 31, 2020.