Citizens Inc 's

Our home service insurance products consist primarily of small face amount ordinary whole life and pre-need policies, which are designed to fund final expenses for the insured, primarily consisting of funeral and burial costs. The average life insurance policy face amount issued was approximately $6,700 in 2015; therefore, the underwriting performed on these applications is limited. Our property coverages are limited to $30,000 maximum coverage on any one dwelling and contents, while content-only coverage and dwelling-only coverage is limited to $20,000. We face competition in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas from other companies specializing in home service distribution of insurance. We seek to compete based upon our emphasis on personal service to our customers. We intend to continue premium growth within this segment via direct sales and acquisitions.

The U.S. life insurance industry is a mature industry that, in recent years, has experienced little to no growth. Competition is intense because the life insurance industry is consolidating, with larger, more efficient and more effective organizations emerging from consolidation.

Many domestic life insurance companies have significantly greater financial, marketing forces and other resources, longer business histories and more diversified lines of insurance products than we do. We also face competition from companies marketing in person as well as with direct mail and Internet sales campaigns. Although we may be at a competitive disadvantage to these entities, we believe our premium rates and policy features are generally competitive with those of other life insurance companies selling similar types of ordinary whole life insurance.

The life insurance business is highly competitive. We compete with a large number of stock and mutual life insurance companies internationally and domestically, as well as with financial institutions that offer insurance products. There are more than 800 life insurance companies in the United States, some of which also provide insurance to foreign residents.

We face competition primarily from companies formed and operated in the country in which the insureds reside, from companies that operate in the same manner as we do and from companies that are foreign to the countries in which policies are sold, but issue insurance policies denominated in the local currency of those countries. A substantial number of companies may be deemed to have a competitive advantage over us due to their significantly greater financial resources, histories of successful operations and larger marketing forces.

Because premiums on our international policies are paid in U.S. Dollars, and we pay claims and benefits in U.S. Dollars, we provide a product that is different from the products offered by foreign-domiciled companies. We believe our international policies are usually acquired by individuals in the upper middle class in their countries and those with significant net worth and earnings that place them in the upper income brackets of their respective countries. The policies sold by our foreign competitors are generally offered broadly and are priced using the mortality of the entire population of the geographic region. Our mortality charges are therefore typically lower, which provides a competitive advantage. Additionally, the assets backing the reserves for our foreign competitors policies must be substantially invested in their respective countries and, therefore, are exposed to the inflationary risks and social or economic crises that have been more common in these foreign countries.