Commitments and Contingencies

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments and Contingencies

Commitments

American National and its subsidiaries lease insurance sales office space, technological equipment, and automobiles. The remaining long-term lease commitments at June 30, 2019 were approximately $18,093,000.

American National had aggregate commitments at June 30, 2019, to purchase, expand or improve real estate, to fund fixed interest rate mortgage loans, and to purchase other invested assets of $1,136,972,000 of which $558,493,000 is expected to be funded in 2019 with the remainder funded in 2020 and beyond.

American National has a $100,000,000 short-term variable rate borrowing facility containing a $55,000,000 sub-feature for the issuance of letters of credit. Borrowings under the facility are at the discretion of the lender and would be used only for funding working capital requirements. The combination of borrowings and outstanding letters of credit cannot exceed $100,000,000 at any time. As of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the outstanding letters of credit were $4,006,000 and $2,995,000, respectively, and there were no borrowings on this facility. This facility expires on October 31, 2019.

Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) Agreements

In May 2018, the Company became a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (“FHLB”) to augment its liquidity resources. As membership requires the ownership of member stock, the Company purchased $7.0 million of stock to meet the FHLB’s membership requirement. The FHLB member stock is recorded in other invested assets on the Company’s consolidated statements of financial position. Through its membership, the Company has access to the FHLB’s financial services including advances that provide an attractive funding source for short-term borrowing and for access to other funding agreements. As of June 30, 2019, certain collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO’s) with a fair value of approximately $136.2 million were on deposit with the FHLB as collateral for amounts subject to funding agreements. The deposited securities are included in bonds held-to-maturity on the Company’s consolidated statements of financial position.

Guarantees

American National has guaranteed bank loans for customers of a third-party marketing operation. The bank loans are used to fund premium payments on life insurance policies issued by American National. The loans are secured by the cash values of the life insurance policies. If the customer were to default on a bank loan, American National would be obligated to pay off the loan. As the cash values of the life insurance policies always equal or exceed the balance of the loans, management does not foresee any loss on these guarantees. The total amount of the guarantees outstanding as of June 30, 2019, was approximately $136,074,000, while the total cash value of the related life insurance policies was approximately $142,021,000.

Litigation

American National and certain subsidiaries, in common with the insurance industry in general, are defendants in various lawsuits concerning alleged breaches of contracts, various employment matters, allegedly deceptive insurance sales and marketing practices, and miscellaneous other causes of action arising in the ordinary course of operations. Certain of these lawsuits include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. We provide accruals for these items to the extent we deem the losses probable and reasonably estimable. After reviewing these matters with legal counsel, based upon information presently available, management is of the opinion that the ultimate resultant liability, if any, would not have a material adverse effect on American National’s consolidated financial position, liquidity or results of operations; however, assessing the eventual outcome of litigation necessarily involves forward-looking speculation as to judgments to be made by judges, juries and appellate courts in the future.

Such speculation warrants caution, as the frequency of large damage awards, which bear little or no relation to the economic damages incurred by plaintiffs in some jurisdictions, continues to create the potential for an unpredictable judgment in any given lawsuit. These lawsuits are in various stages of development, and future facts and circumstances could result in management changing its conclusions. It is possible that, if the defenses in these lawsuits are not successful, and the judgments are greater than management can anticipate, the resulting liability could have a material impact on our consolidated financial position, liquidity or results of operations. With respect to the existing litigation, management currently believes that the possibility of a material judgment adverse to American National is remote and no estimate of range can be made for loss contingencies that are at least reasonably possible but not accrued.