A.M. Best Upgrades Issuer Credit Rating of United Educators Insurance

A.M. Best Co. has upgraded the issuer credit rating (ICR) to “a+” from “a” and affirmed the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) of United Educators Insurance, a Reciprocal Risk Retention Group (UE) (Vermont). The outlook for the ratings remains stable.

The ratings reflect UE’s excellent capitalization level, strong underwriting results, high member retention rates, excellent liquidity and significant presence in the liability insurance market for educational institutions. Partially offsetting the positive rating factors are UE’s profile as an insurer oriented almost exclusively toward one class of insureds. Nonetheless, the ratings reflect the ability of management to evaluate classes of business that have developed concerns and to take aggressive risk management, loss control and pricing measures to consistently produce favorable results and grow surplus.

The positive factors are derived from UE's specialized expertise in providing a variety of liability coverages and risk management services to its member educational institutions. The ratings also acknowledge the company’s significant size and profitable underwriting results as well as its considerable distribution by region and type of institution. UE continues to maintain its rates even though current market rates for liability insurance have come under increasing pressure.

A.M. Best remains the leading rating agency of captive insurers rating a wide variety of more than 200 captives in the United States and throughout the world.

For current Best’s Credit Ratings and independent data on the captive and alternative insurance market, please visit http://www.ambest.com/captive.

The principal methodologies used in determining these ratings, including any additional methodologies and factors that may have been considered, can be found at http://www.ambest.com/ratings/methodology.