Quarterlytics / Financial Services / Insurance - Property & Casualty / United Fire Group, Inc.

United Fire Group, Inc.

ufcs · NASDAQ Financial Services
Claim this profile
Ticker ufcs
Exchange NASDAQ
Sector Financial Services
Industry Insurance - Property & Casualty
Employees 877
← All annual reports
FY2019 Annual Report · United Fire Group, Inc.
Sign in to download
Loading PDF…
Financial Highlights

United Fire Group, Inc. 2019 Annual Report

Years Ended December 31

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

Net Income ($000s)

Basic earnings per common share

Diluted earnings per common share

Cash dividends paid per common share

Book value per share

Closing stock price

Combined ratio

$

$

$

$

$

$

14,820 $

27,650 $

51,023 $

49,904 $

89,126

0.59 $

1.11 $

2.03 $

1.97 $

0.58 $

1.08 $

1.99 $

1.93 $

1.30 $

4.21 $

1.09 $

0.97 $

3.56

3.53

0.86

36.40 $

35.40 $

39.06 $

37.04 $

34.94

43.73 $

55.45 $

45.58 $

49.17 $

38.31

109.0 %

104.0 %

104.0 %

100.3 %

92.0 %

All current and prior periods in this table have been presented on a consolidated basis, including both continuing
and discontinued operations.

The value of “Indexed Total Shareholder Return” at each year-end shown is based on the then-current value of an
assumed $100 investment in UFCS common stock on December 31, 2014. It reflects changes in stock price and
assumes that dividends paid to shareholders are reinvested in our common stock on the date paid.

1

Earnings and Dividends Per CommonShare$3.53$1.93$1.99$1.08$0.58$0.86$0.97$1.09$4.21$1.30Diluted earnings per common shareCash dividends paid per common share20152016201720182019Total Shareholder Return$100.00$132.28$173.66$165.04$216.29$175.46201420152016201720182019$50.00$100.00$150.00$200.00$250.00United Fire Group, Inc. 2019 Annual Report

About UFG Insurance

Founded in 1946, UFG is a successful publicly traded and multibillion-dollar-asset insurance company. We offer
commercial and personal insurance for businesses, homes and vehicles, as well as surety bonds.

UFG partners with a select group of approximately 1,000 independent insurance agencies across the country.
With more than 1,100 employees at our corporate headquarters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and five regional offices in
Arizona, California, Colorado, New Jersey and Texas, we deliver
insurance protection and services to
policyholders throughout the U.S.

At UFG, we are committed to achieving long-term financial strength and stability, having used our nearly 75 years
of experience to successfully guide us through market cycles and industry challenges. We hold a financial
strength rating of “A” (Excellent) from A.M. Best Company, which was affirmed in December 2019.

Annual Meeting of Shareholders

United Fire Group, Inc.’s (UFG) annual meeting of shareholders will be held at 10 a.m. CT on Wednesday, May 20,
2020, at 118 2nd Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401. You will be able to attend, vote and submit questions by
logging on to www.meetingcenter.io/216769913 using a 15-digit Control Number. The password for the meeting is
UFCS2020. Our Annual Report on Form 10-K for 2019 is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and
is available (without exhibits) to shareholders, free of charge, upon written or oral request to:

Investor Relations
United Fire Group, Inc.
118 Second Avenue SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Telephone: 319-399-5700

or

Registrar and Transfer Agent
Computershare
P.O. Box 505000
Louisville, KY 40233-5000

Letter to Shareholders
There are no words to express our disappointment in
the year’s financial results, because the numbers
speak for themselves.
In 2019, we produced net
income of $0.58 per diluted share, a combined ratio
of 109% and return on equity of 1.6%.

Of course, what the numbers don’t explain is why
and that can be summed up in two words:
commercial auto. Specifically, our 2019 results were
increased severity of
negatively
commercial auto losses and prior-year
reserve
strengthening in our commercial auto line for the
Gulf Coast region.

impacted by

Though we benefited from strong equity market
performance and an average level of catastrophe
losses in 2019, commercial auto continued to be a
drag on our profitability. While nearly all other lines of
business performed within our expectations from a
profitability standpoint
in 2019, commercial auto
remains our largest and most unprofitable line of
business.

Despite our best efforts to manage poor-performing
and higher-risk commercial auto accounts with
double-digit rate increases and nonrenewals, these
efforts proved insufficient
to return this line of
business to underwriting profitability in 2019.There

were definitely some positive signs of progress in our
commercial auto line of business in 2019, including a
decrease in claims frequency, policy retention and
number of
insured units (whoever thought I’d be
bragging about lower retention and insuring fewer
units!). But
these positives weren’t significant
enough to offset the continued rise in severity of
commercial auto claims.

a

company

committed

top-quartile
For
performance, these results are unacceptable. As we
enter 2020, we are more determined and prepared
than ever to turn around the commercial auto line of
business that is impacting our overall profitability.

to

Solving our commercial auto issue

With the continued escalation of commercial auto
losses industrywide and no signs of improvement in
the key auto metrics we track, such as miles driven,
driver shortages, distracted driving and social
inflation, we plan to take stronger corrective actions
in the year ahead.

To reduce the size of our commercial auto book of
business, we plan to aggressively nonrenew
accounts in 2020, with intense focus on the bottom
30% of our book of business, underperforming

2

accounts and accounts that our model has identified
as having characteristics predictive of adverse future
loss experience. In addition, we do not plan to write
new classes of business that are heavy in auto.

Through these actions, we’re confident we’ll achieve
better diversification in our overall book of business,
which has become
too heavily weighted in
commercial auto in recent years. Although we stand
to lose some of our commercial package policy
business as a consequence, we believe these
actions will have the most immediate and profound
impact on our profitability.

We also plan to continue to seek rate increases on
commercial auto policies. Over the past three years,
we’ve achieved a cumulative renewal rate increase
of almost 30% in our commercial auto book, but it’s
clear
that our commercial auto issue cannot be
solved with rate increases alone.

As we initiate these actions in the year ahead, we
expect that our policy count, premium retention and
insured auto units will continue to decline, with no
expected premium growth in 2020.

Strengthening our loss reserves

with

higher-than-expected

Similar to our peers, we also continue to experience
the impact of what our industry has termed “social
inflation,”
legal
settlements associated with claims. As a result, we
strengthened our current-accident-year loss reserves
in 2019 in response to commercial auto claims in our
Gulf Coast
this
strengthening occurring in the first half of the year.

region, with the majority of

is worth noting that our overall approach to
It
reserving remains conservative at UFG, and we’ve
experienced annual favorable reserve development
every year since 2009.

New Strategic Direction

Throughout 2019, we focused on developing a new
strategic direction for UFG. We initiated a deep dive
into our entire operations, helping us clearly identify
our
as
and weaknesses,
opportunities for success in both the short term and
long term.

strengths

as well

sustainable

and profitable

This new path includes several initiatives to position
UFG for
financial
performance. As a general overview, we’re focusing
on implementing more consistent underwriting
practices across our six regions; better diversifying
our overall book of business; adopting proven best
practices
policyholders;
agents
enhancing our claims service with new efficiencies to

and

our

for

United Fire Group, Inc. 2019 Annual Report

shorten cycle time; and leveraging analytics for
improved pricing and risk selection.

We also continue to make progress on our OASIS
initiative, which stands for Optimizing Achievement
with a Strategic Insurance System. This is a major
initiative to upgrade our underwriting
multiyear
technology and analytics platform and one that we’ll
be working toward and providing updates on for the
next several years.

The first
release of OASIS was completed in
mid-2019 and included the launch of our new and
improved ufgagent.com for agents to process
the next
business and manage accounts. For
release, we’re focusing entirely on improving our
online quoting capabilities for our business owners
policy (BOP) products at ufgagent.com, aiming to
significantly increase our percentage of straight-
through processed policies to meet the changing
needs of our agents.

Speaking of change, the insurance industry today is
advancing faster than I’ve seen in my 35 years at
UFG, with constant change becoming the new
normal. Our new strategic plan is designed to
prepare us for the future, guiding us forward as we
adapt to our rapidly evolving industry with innovation
and agility.

than

It’s a plan with a far-reaching vision for success, one
that builds on our greatest strength as a company:
and
1,100
our more
knowledgeable employees who are dedicated to
coming together, rolling up their sleeves and starting
down a promising—and more profitable—path for
UFG.

experienced

Strong Balance Sheet

Despite the challenges we faced in 2019, our overall
balance sheet remains strong at UFG, with $3 billion
in total assets, $910 million of total stockholders’
equity, a conservative investment portfolio and zero
debt.

In 2019, we paid total quarterly dividends of $1.30
per share, returning $33 million to our shareholders
over the course of the year. UFG has a more than
50-year
to our
history of paying dividends
shareholders, with the fourth quarter of 2019
marking our 207th consecutive quarter.

We also repurchased 258,756 shares of common
stock in 2019. Under our current stock repurchase
program expiring in August 2020, we are authorized
by our board of directors to purchase an additional
1.9 million shares of common stock.

3

United Fire Group, Inc. 2019 Annual Report

employer

Also, UFG was named to Business Insurance’s 2019
list of Best Places to Work in Insurance as part of the
large
award honors
category. This
workplaces where employees can thrive, enjoy their
work and help their companies grow, which has
always been important to us.

As we look ahead to a new decade of success, we
are confident
in our abilities to overcome the
challenges we face and seize new opportunities that
come our way. After all, we’ve been in business for
almost 75 years and have been through many
evolutions as a company—and we’ll go through
many more in the next 75.

Our plans for 2020 are ambitious but with our
exceptional team of people at UFG, I believe we will
achieve everything we set out to do. We’re excited to
move forward with our strategic initiatives in the
months ahead and optimistic that we’ll have positive
results to show for it next year as we celebrate the
75th anniversary of UFG in 2021.

Thank you for investing in UFG and also for your
continued patience and support. I assure you that
we are committed to solving our commercial auto
issue and producing strong results in the year ahead
to create long-term value for you, our esteemed
shareholder.

in

insurance

carrier, UFG has multiple
As
an
company—shareholders,
our
stakeholders
employees,
policyholders,
agents,
insurance
communities—and we strive to be a trusted and
valued partner to all. To us, the insurance business is
a people business and we are continuously mindful
the commitments we make as a company,
of
balancing
the
expectations of our stakeholders.

objectives with

business

our

A Look Back, A Look Ahead

Though our efforts are not yet
reflected in our
financial results, I believe we’ll look back on 2019 as
both a transitional and transformational year at UFG.
We opened a new headquarters building to
accommodate our future workforce, completed the
first
release in our multiyear OASIS initiative,
launched a new and improved ufgagent.com for our
agency partners and developed a new strategic
direction forward.

Another positive in 2019 was A.M. Best’s affirmation
of the “A” (Excellent) financial strength rating with a
stable outlook for
the property and casualty
subsidiaries of United Fire Group, Inc. for the 26th
year in a row. A.M. Best ratings are a meaningful
measure in the insurance industry, with an “A” rating
given to companies that have an excellent ability to
meet their ongoing insurance obligations.

Randy Ramlo, President & CEO

4

UNITED FIRE GROUP, INC.

United Fire & Casualty Company

Addison Insurance Company

Financial Pacific Insurance Company

Franklin Insurance Company

Lafayette Insurance Company

Mercer Insurance Company

Mercer Insurance Company of New Jersey, Inc.

UFG Specialty Insurance Company

United Fire & Indemnity Company

United Fire Lloyds

United Real Estate Holdings, LLC

118 Second Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids IA 52401, 319-399-5700, ufginsurance.com

Disclosure of Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain forward-looking statements about our operations, anticipated performance and other
similar matters. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor under the Securities
Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for forward-looking statements. The forward-looking
statements are not historical facts and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from
those expected and/or projected. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates,
forecasts and projections about our company, the industry in which we operate, and beliefs and assumptions
made by management. Words such as “expect(s),” “anticipate(s),” “intend(s),” “plan(s),” “believe(s),” “continue(s),”
“seek(s),” “estimate(s),” “goal(s),” “remain(s) optimistic,” “target(s),” “forecast(s),” “project(s),” “predict(s),”
“should,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “might,” “hope,” “can” and other words and terms of similar meaning or
expression in connection with a discussion of future operations, financial performance or financial condition, are
intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and
involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results
may differ materially from what is expressed in such forward-looking statements. Information concerning factors
that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking
statements is contained in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2019, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 28, 2020. The risks
identified in our Annual Report on Form 10-K are representative of the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that
could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from what is expressed in the forward-looking
statements, and now include the ongoing impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19 virus). Readers are
cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of
this release or as of the date they are made. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and
regulations of the SEC, we do not have any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.