MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF
FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Forward-Looking Statements
This Form 10-Q contains "forward-looking" statements that are intended to enhance the reader's ability to assess our future financial and business performance. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that represent our beliefs concerning future operations, strategies, financial results or other developments, and contain words and phrases such as "may," "expects," "should," "believes," "anticipates," "estimates," "intends" or similar expressions. In addition, statements that refer to our future financial performance, anticipated growth and trends in our business and in our industry and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Because these forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions that are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control or are subject to change, actual results could be materially different.
Consequently, such forward-looking statements should be regarded solely as our current plans, estimates and beliefs with respect to, among other things, future events and financial performance. Except as required under the federal securities laws, we do not intend, and do not undertake, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances after the date of such statements.
The forward-looking statements include, among other things, those items listed below:
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future economic conditions in the markets in which we compete that could be less favorable than expected and could have impacts on demand for our products and services;
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our ability to grow and develop our Agency business through expansion of retail call centers, online sales, wholesale operations and other areas of opportunity;
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our ability to grow and develop our insurance business and successfully develop and market new products;
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our ability to enter new markets successfully and capitalize on growth opportunities either through acquisitions or organically;
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financial market conditions, including, but not limited to, changes in interest rates and the level and trends of stock market prices causing a reduction of net investment income or realized losses and reduction in the value of our investment portfolios;
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increased competition in our businesses, including the potential impacts of aggressive price competition by other insurance companies, payment of higher commissions to agents that could affect demand for our insurance products and impact the ability to grow and retain agents in our Agency Segment and the entry of new competitors and the development of new products by new or existing competitors, resulting in a reduction in the demand for our products and services;
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the effect of legislative, judicial, economic, demographic, and regulatory events in the jurisdictions where we do business;
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the effect of challenges to our patents and other intellectual property;
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costs, availability, and collectability of reinsurance;
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the potential impact on our reported net income that could result from the
adoption of future accounting standards issued by the
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the inability to maintain or grow our strategic partnerships or our inability to realize the expected benefits from our relationship with the Standby Purchaser;
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the inability to manage future growth and integration of our operations; and
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changes in industry trends and financial strength ratings assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations.
The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and accompanying notes included in Item 1 of this Form 10-Q. Some of the information contained in this discussion and analysis and set forth elsewhere in this Form 10-Q constitutes forward looking information that involves risks and uncertainties. You should review "Forward Looking Statements" for a discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results described, or implied by, the forward-looking statements contained herein.
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Overview
We provide life insurance protection targeted to the middle American market. We
believe there is a substantial unmet need for life insurance, particularly among
domestic households with annual incomes of between
We conduct our business through our two operating subsidiaries, Fidelity Life,
an
COVID-19
The stress and disruption placed on the global economy and financial markets from the outbreak of COVID-19 may continue to have near and long-term negative effects on investment valuations, returns, and credit allowance exposure. The Company will continue to closely monitor the situation, including potential negative impacts on sales of new policies and mortality; however, due to the highly uncertain nature of these conditions, it is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of COVID-19 or its impact to the Company's operations, but the effect could be material.
The Company believes the war in
In the second quarter 2020, Fidelity Life entered into a
Agency Segment
This segment primarily consists of the operations of
Agency Segment expenses consist of marketing costs to acquire potential customers, salary and bonuses paid to our employee agents, salary and other costs of employees involved in managing the underwriting process for our insurance applications, sales management, agent licensing, training and compliance costs. Other Agency Segment expenses include costs associated with financial and administrative employees, facilities rent, and information technology. After payroll, the most significant Agency Segment expense is the cost of acquiring leads. We partially offset our sales leads expense through advertising revenues from individuals who click on specific advertisements while viewing one of our web pages, and through the resale of leads that are not well suited for our call center.
Insurance Segment
This segment consists of the operations of Fidelity Life. Fidelity Life
underwrites primarily term life insurance through
Fidelity Life engages in the following business lines:
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Core Life - Our Core Life insurance business is the primary business of the Insurance Segment. Core Life represents a significant portion of the insurance business written by Fidelity Life since it resumed independent operations in 2005. Our Core Life business consists of inforce policies that are considered to be of high strategic importance to Fidelity Life.
NonCore Life - Our NonCore Life business consists of: products that are currently being marketed but are not deemed to be of high strategic importance to the Company? inforce policies from product lines introduced since Fidelity Life resumed independent operations in 2005 but were subsequently discontinued? and an older annuity block of business that was not included in the Closed Block.
Closed Block - Our Closed Block represents all inforce participating insurance policies of Fidelity Life. The Closed Block was established in connection with our 2007 reorganization into a mutual holding company structure.
Annuities and Assumed Life - We have assumed reinsurance commitments with
respect to annuity contract holder deposits and a block of life insurance
contracts that were ceded by former affiliates of Fidelity Life. Under an
agreement with
Insurance Segment revenues consist of net insurance premiums, net investment income, and net realized gains (losses) on investments. We recognize premium revenue from our policyholders. We purchase reinsurance coverage to help manage the risk on our insurance policies by paying, or ceding, a portion of the policyholder premiums to the reinsurance company. Our net insurance premiums reflect amounts collected from policyholders, plus premiums assumed under reinsurance agreements less premiums ceded to reinsurance companies. Net investment income represents primarily interest income earned on fixed maturity investments. We also realize gains and losses on sales of investment securities.
Insurance Segment expenses consist of benefits paid to policyholders or their beneficiaries under life insurance policies. Benefit expenses also include additions to the reserve for future policyholder benefits to recognize our estimated future obligations under the policies. Benefit expenses are shown net of amounts ceded under our reinsurance contracts. Our Insurance Segment also incurs policy acquisition costs that consist of commissions paid to agents, policy underwriting, issue costs and variable sales costs. A portion of these policy acquisition costs are deferred and expensed over the life of the insurance policies acquired during the period. In addition to policy acquisition costs, we incur expenses that vary based on the number of contracts that we have in-force, or variable policy administrative costs. These variable costs consist of expenses paid to third-party administrators based on rates for each policy administered. Our insurance operations also incur overhead costs for functional and administrative staff to support insurance operations, financial reporting and information technology.
In the first quarter 2022, Fidelity Life entered into a reinsurance contract
with
Corporate & Other Segment
The results of this segment consist of net investment income and net gains
(losses) on investments earned on invested assets. We also include certain
corporate expenses, including severance costs that are not allocated to our
other segments, including expenses of
Included in the Corporate & Other Segment is the elimination of intercompany transactions which primarily consists of the sales by our Agency Segment of life products of our Insurance Segment. The eliminations represent the amounts required to eliminate the intercompany transactions as recorded in our segment results, and in particular, to eliminate any intersegment profits resulting from such transactions. Our segment results follow the accounting principles and methods applicable to each segment as if the intercompany transactions were with unaffiliated organizations: See "Corporate & Other" segment results included in this Management Discussion & Analysis for further discussion.
Critical Accounting Policies
Our critical accounting policies are described in "Note 1-Basis of Presentation
and Summary of Significant Accounting Policies" to our Consolidated Financial
Statements as of and for the year ended
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Actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions or
conditions and may affect our financial position and results of operations.
Accordingly, these Interim Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements should be
read in conjunction with the financial statements as of and for the year ended
Results of Operations
The major components of operating revenues, benefits and expenses and net (loss) income were as follows:
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