AM Best Revises Issuer Credit Rating Outlook to Positive for Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company

Business Wire

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
AM Best has revised the outlook to positive from stable for the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a” (Excellent) of Florida Lawyers Mutual Insurance Company (FLMIC) (Oviedo, FL). The outlook of the FSR is stable.

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect FLMIC’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as very strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The change in the Long-Term ICR outlook to positive from stable reflects FLMIC’s sustained positive operating performance over the past five years based on positive annual underwriting income supported by growing net investment income. The positive underwriting results were aided by the company’s pure loss ratio, which compares favorably with AM Best’s commercial casualty composite; however, it is partially offset by an elevated underwriting expense ratio, primarily driven by higher overhead. In addition, FLMIC has reported profitable pre-tax and total return and combined ratio measures that compare favorably with the composite averages over the past five years.

FLMIC maintains a neutral business profile assessment based on its strong market share position in Florida. All business continues to be underwritten by FLMIC and its control over product distribution has aided in fairly consistent operating results in recent years.

AM Best considers FLMIC’s ERM program to be appropriate for its size and scope of operations, which allows it to monitor its concentration of risks in Florida and to purchase an appropriate limit of reinsurance to mitigate these exposures.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.