Assurant is a specialty insurance company headquartered in New York City. Assurant’s four businesses provide a wide range of insurance products and related services, including creditor-placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, credit insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental insurance, group disability insurance, group life insurance, pre-funded funeral insurance, and extended warranties for electronics, appliances, and vehicles. The Fortune 500 company distributes its insurance products and services through various distribution channels.
Assurant is a provider of specialized insurance products and related services in North America and select international markets. The Company operates in four segments: Assurant Solutions, Assurant Specialty Property, Assurant Health, and Assurant Employee Benefits. These segments provide debt protection administration, credit-related insurance, warranties and service contracts, pre-funded funeral insurance, lender placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental insurance, group disability insurance, and group life insurance.
Assurant Solutions
Assurant Solutions targets three product areas: domestic and international extended service contracts (ESC) and warranties, preneed life insurance, and international credit insurance. Through partnerships with retailers and original equipment manufacturers, it underwrites and provides administrative services for extended service contracts and warranties. These contracts provide consumers with coverage on appliances, consumer electronics, personal computers, cellular phones, automobiles and recreational vehicles, protecting them from certain covered losses. It provides administration, claims handling and customer service. The Company’s Preneed life insurance allows individuals to prepay for a funeral in a single payment or in multiple payments over a fixed number of years. Preneed life insurance products are only sold in the United States and Canada, and are structured as whole life insurance policies in the United States and annuity products in Canada.
The Company’s credit insurance products offer protection from life events and uncertainties that arise in purchasing and borrowing transactions. Credit insurance programs offer consumers the option to protect a credit card balance or installment loan in the event of death, involuntary unemployment or disability and are available to all consumers without the underwriting restrictions that apply to term life insurance. In addition to the domestic market, the Company operated in Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Chile, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico and China. In these markets, it primarily sells ESC and credit insurance products through agreements with financial institutions, retailers and wireless service providers.
Assurant Specialty Property
Assurant Specialty Property includes lender-placed homeowners’ insurance, lender-placed flood insurance, lender-placed automobile and renters insurance. Assurant Specialty Property also writes other specialty products. The Company’s homeowners’ insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance offered through its lender-placed programs. The lender-placed program provides collateral protection to the Company’s mortgage lending and servicing clients in the event that a homeowner does not maintain insurance on a mortgaged dwelling. The majority of its mortgage lending and servicing clients outsource their insurance processing to the Company. It also provides insurance to some of its clients on properties that have been foreclosed and are being managed by its clients, referred to as Real Estate Owned (REO) insurance.
The Company’s manufactured housing insurance is offered on a lender-placed and voluntary basis. Lender-placed insurance is issued after an insurance tracking process. The tracking is performed by Assurant Specialty Property using an insurance tracking administration system, or by the lenders themselves. A number of manufactured housing retailers in the United States use its rating technology to assist them in selling property coverage at the point of sale. The Company has developed products in adjacent and emerging markets, such as the lender-placed flood, lender-placed automobile and mandatory insurance rental markets. It also acts as an administrator for the United States Government under the voluntary National Flood Insurance Program, for which it earns a fee for collecting premiums and processing claims. The business is 100% reinsured to the Federal Government. The Company offers its manufactured housing insurance programs primarily through manufactured housing lenders and retailers, along with independent specialty agents.
Assurant Health
Assurant Health offers medical insurance and short-term medical insurance to individuals and families in the medical insurance market. Its products are offered with different plan options. Assurant Health also offers medical insurance to small employer groups. The Company’s medical insurance products are sold to individuals, primarily between the ages of 18 and 64, and their families, who do not have employer-sponsored coverage. It offers a variety of benefit plans at different price points. The Company’s group medical insurance is primarily sold to small companies with 2 to 50 employees, although larger employer coverage is available. The Company’s health insurance products are principally marketed through a network of independent agents. It also markets through a variety of national account relationships and direct distribution channels.
Assurant Employee Benefits
The Company offers group disability, dental, vision, life and supplemental worksite products, as well as individual dental products. The group products are offered with funding options ranging from fully employer-paid to fully employee-paid (voluntary). In addition, it reinsures disability and life products through its wholly owned subsidiary, Disability Reinsurance Management Services, Inc. (DRMS). Group disability insurance provides partial replacement of lost earnings for insured employees who become disabled, as defined by their plan provisions. The Company’s products include both short- and long-term disability coverage options. It also reinsures disability policies written by other carriers through its DRMS subsidiary.
Dental benefit plans provide funding for necessary or elective dental care. Customers may select a traditional indemnity arrangement, a preferred provider organization (PPO) arrangement, or a prepaid or managed care arrangement. Coverage is subject to deductibles, coinsurance and annual or lifetime maximums. In a prepaid plan, members must use participating dentists in order to receive benefits. Assurant Employee Benefits owns and operates Dental Health Alliance, L.L.C., a dental PPO network. The Company also has an agreement with Aetna that allows it to use Aetna’s Dental Access network. Fully insured vision coverage is offered through its agreement with Vision Service Plan, Inc., a national supplier of vision insurance. The Company’s plans cover eye exams, glasses and contact lenses, and are sold in combination with one or more of its other products.
Group term life insurance provided through the workplace provides benefits in the event of death. The Company also provides accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance. Insurance consists primarily of renewable term life insurance with the amount of coverage provided being either a flat amount, a multiple of the employee’s earnings, or a combination of the two. It also reinsures life policies written by other carriers through DRMS. In addition to the traditional voluntary products, the Company provides group critical illness, cancer, accident, and gap insurance. These products are paid for by the employee through payroll deduction, and the employee is enrolled in the coverage(s) at the worksite. Its products and services are distributed through a group sales force located in 34 offices near metropolitan areas.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.44
Market Cap (Mil.): $3,925.66
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 98.88
Annual Dividend: 0.64
Yield (%): 1.61
FINANCIALS
AIZ.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 16.43 6.81 24.82
EPS (TTM): -43.73 -- --
ROI: -- 0.00 4.59
ROE: 5.43 8.90 9.20
Key Dates:
1950: Jorge Wilson Simeira Jacob begins running the family textile shop in Lins, Brazil.
1957: The shop begins carrying household appliances and is renamed Lojas Arapua; a second retail shop is opened in Aracatuba.
1967: Lojas Arapua acquires Fenicia S.A. and begins offering credit to consumers.
1989: Lojas Arapua reorganizes and begins selling only electronics and appliances.
1995: The company goes public and begins selling shares on the Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro exchanges.
1996: The chain begins selling personal computers.
1998: Lojas Arapua files for bankruptcy protection.
2001: The company begins selling MDF furniture, an inexpensive furniture line.
2003: Lojas Arapua emerges from the bankruptcy reorganization process with 88 stores remaining; the company offers insurance to customers who opt to purchase on credit, gaining some R$150,000 per month via insurance premiums.
Name Age Since Current Position
Rosen, Elaine 58 2010 Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Board
Pollock, Robert 56 2006 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Peninger, Michael 56 2009 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Pagano, Christopher 47 2007 EVP, CIO, Treasurer; President - Assurant Asset Management
Schwartz, Bart 58 2008 Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary
Colberg, Alan 49 2011 Executive Vice President - Marketing & Business Development
Wagner, Sylvia 62 2009 Executive Vice President - Human Resources and Development
Lemasters, S. Craig 50 2005 Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Solutions
Roberts, John 55 2009 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer - Assurant Employee Benefits
Mergelmeyer, Gene 52 2007 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Specialty Property
Lamnin, Adam 47 2011 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Health
Sondej, John 46 2005 Senior Vice President, Controller, Principal Accounting Officer
Freedman, Allen 71 1979 Director
Palms, John 75 2010 Independent Director
Carver, Howard 66 2002 Independent Director
Mackin, H. Carroll 70 1997 Independent Director
Koch, Charles 64 2005 Independent Director
Cento, Juan 59 2006 Independent Director
Kelso, David 58 2007 Independent Director
Jackson, Lawrence 57 2009 Independent Director
Swainson, John 56 2010 Independent Director
COMPANY ADDRESS
Assurant Inc
One Chase Manhattan Plaza
41st Floor
New York NY 10005
Assurant is a provider of specialized insurance products and related services in North America and select international markets. The Company operates in four segments: Assurant Solutions, Assurant Specialty Property, Assurant Health, and Assurant Employee Benefits. These segments provide debt protection administration, credit-related insurance, warranties and service contracts, pre-funded funeral insurance, lender placed homeowners insurance, manufactured housing homeowners insurance, individual health and small employer group health insurance, group dental insurance, group disability insurance, and group life insurance.
Assurant Solutions
Assurant Solutions targets three product areas: domestic and international extended service contracts (ESC) and warranties, preneed life insurance, and international credit insurance. Through partnerships with retailers and original equipment manufacturers, it underwrites and provides administrative services for extended service contracts and warranties. These contracts provide consumers with coverage on appliances, consumer electronics, personal computers, cellular phones, automobiles and recreational vehicles, protecting them from certain covered losses. It provides administration, claims handling and customer service. The Company’s Preneed life insurance allows individuals to prepay for a funeral in a single payment or in multiple payments over a fixed number of years. Preneed life insurance products are only sold in the United States and Canada, and are structured as whole life insurance policies in the United States and annuity products in Canada.
The Company’s credit insurance products offer protection from life events and uncertainties that arise in purchasing and borrowing transactions. Credit insurance programs offer consumers the option to protect a credit card balance or installment loan in the event of death, involuntary unemployment or disability and are available to all consumers without the underwriting restrictions that apply to term life insurance. In addition to the domestic market, the Company operated in Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Chile, Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico and China. In these markets, it primarily sells ESC and credit insurance products through agreements with financial institutions, retailers and wireless service providers.
Assurant Specialty Property
Assurant Specialty Property includes lender-placed homeowners’ insurance, lender-placed flood insurance, lender-placed automobile and renters insurance. Assurant Specialty Property also writes other specialty products. The Company’s homeowners’ insurance consists principally of fire and dwelling hazard insurance offered through its lender-placed programs. The lender-placed program provides collateral protection to the Company’s mortgage lending and servicing clients in the event that a homeowner does not maintain insurance on a mortgaged dwelling. The majority of its mortgage lending and servicing clients outsource their insurance processing to the Company. It also provides insurance to some of its clients on properties that have been foreclosed and are being managed by its clients, referred to as Real Estate Owned (REO) insurance.
The Company’s manufactured housing insurance is offered on a lender-placed and voluntary basis. Lender-placed insurance is issued after an insurance tracking process. The tracking is performed by Assurant Specialty Property using an insurance tracking administration system, or by the lenders themselves. A number of manufactured housing retailers in the United States use its rating technology to assist them in selling property coverage at the point of sale. The Company has developed products in adjacent and emerging markets, such as the lender-placed flood, lender-placed automobile and mandatory insurance rental markets. It also acts as an administrator for the United States Government under the voluntary National Flood Insurance Program, for which it earns a fee for collecting premiums and processing claims. The business is 100% reinsured to the Federal Government. The Company offers its manufactured housing insurance programs primarily through manufactured housing lenders and retailers, along with independent specialty agents.
Assurant Health
Assurant Health offers medical insurance and short-term medical insurance to individuals and families in the medical insurance market. Its products are offered with different plan options. Assurant Health also offers medical insurance to small employer groups. The Company’s medical insurance products are sold to individuals, primarily between the ages of 18 and 64, and their families, who do not have employer-sponsored coverage. It offers a variety of benefit plans at different price points. The Company’s group medical insurance is primarily sold to small companies with 2 to 50 employees, although larger employer coverage is available. The Company’s health insurance products are principally marketed through a network of independent agents. It also markets through a variety of national account relationships and direct distribution channels.
Assurant Employee Benefits
The Company offers group disability, dental, vision, life and supplemental worksite products, as well as individual dental products. The group products are offered with funding options ranging from fully employer-paid to fully employee-paid (voluntary). In addition, it reinsures disability and life products through its wholly owned subsidiary, Disability Reinsurance Management Services, Inc. (DRMS). Group disability insurance provides partial replacement of lost earnings for insured employees who become disabled, as defined by their plan provisions. The Company’s products include both short- and long-term disability coverage options. It also reinsures disability policies written by other carriers through its DRMS subsidiary.
Dental benefit plans provide funding for necessary or elective dental care. Customers may select a traditional indemnity arrangement, a preferred provider organization (PPO) arrangement, or a prepaid or managed care arrangement. Coverage is subject to deductibles, coinsurance and annual or lifetime maximums. In a prepaid plan, members must use participating dentists in order to receive benefits. Assurant Employee Benefits owns and operates Dental Health Alliance, L.L.C., a dental PPO network. The Company also has an agreement with Aetna that allows it to use Aetna’s Dental Access network. Fully insured vision coverage is offered through its agreement with Vision Service Plan, Inc., a national supplier of vision insurance. The Company’s plans cover eye exams, glasses and contact lenses, and are sold in combination with one or more of its other products.
Group term life insurance provided through the workplace provides benefits in the event of death. The Company also provides accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance. Insurance consists primarily of renewable term life insurance with the amount of coverage provided being either a flat amount, a multiple of the employee’s earnings, or a combination of the two. It also reinsures life policies written by other carriers through DRMS. In addition to the traditional voluntary products, the Company provides group critical illness, cancer, accident, and gap insurance. These products are paid for by the employee through payroll deduction, and the employee is enrolled in the coverage(s) at the worksite. Its products and services are distributed through a group sales force located in 34 offices near metropolitan areas.
OVERALL
Beta: 1.44
Market Cap (Mil.): $3,925.66
Shares Outstanding (Mil.): 98.88
Annual Dividend: 0.64
Yield (%): 1.61
FINANCIALS
AIZ.N Industry Sector
P/E (TTM): 16.43 6.81 24.82
EPS (TTM): -43.73 -- --
ROI: -- 0.00 4.59
ROE: 5.43 8.90 9.20
Key Dates:
1950: Jorge Wilson Simeira Jacob begins running the family textile shop in Lins, Brazil.
1957: The shop begins carrying household appliances and is renamed Lojas Arapua; a second retail shop is opened in Aracatuba.
1967: Lojas Arapua acquires Fenicia S.A. and begins offering credit to consumers.
1989: Lojas Arapua reorganizes and begins selling only electronics and appliances.
1995: The company goes public and begins selling shares on the Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro exchanges.
1996: The chain begins selling personal computers.
1998: Lojas Arapua files for bankruptcy protection.
2001: The company begins selling MDF furniture, an inexpensive furniture line.
2003: Lojas Arapua emerges from the bankruptcy reorganization process with 88 stores remaining; the company offers insurance to customers who opt to purchase on credit, gaining some R$150,000 per month via insurance premiums.
Name Age Since Current Position
Rosen, Elaine 58 2010 Independent Non-Executive Chairman of the Board
Pollock, Robert 56 2006 President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
Peninger, Michael 56 2009 Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
Pagano, Christopher 47 2007 EVP, CIO, Treasurer; President - Assurant Asset Management
Schwartz, Bart 58 2008 Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary
Colberg, Alan 49 2011 Executive Vice President - Marketing & Business Development
Wagner, Sylvia 62 2009 Executive Vice President - Human Resources and Development
Lemasters, S. Craig 50 2005 Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Solutions
Roberts, John 55 2009 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer - Assurant Employee Benefits
Mergelmeyer, Gene 52 2007 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Specialty Property
Lamnin, Adam 47 2011 Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer of Assurant Health
Sondej, John 46 2005 Senior Vice President, Controller, Principal Accounting Officer
Freedman, Allen 71 1979 Director
Palms, John 75 2010 Independent Director
Carver, Howard 66 2002 Independent Director
Mackin, H. Carroll 70 1997 Independent Director
Koch, Charles 64 2005 Independent Director
Cento, Juan 59 2006 Independent Director
Kelso, David 58 2007 Independent Director
Jackson, Lawrence 57 2009 Independent Director
Swainson, John 56 2010 Independent Director
COMPANY ADDRESS
Assurant Inc
One Chase Manhattan Plaza
41st Floor
New York NY 10005