Kingsway Financial Services Inc Company Profile

Kingsway Financial Services Inc. was incorporated under the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) on September 19, 1989.

Kingsway are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "KFS."
Kingsway is a Canadian holding company with operating subsidiaries located in the United States. The Company operates as a merchant bank primarily engaged, through its subsidiaries, in the property and casualty insurance business. Kingsway conducts its business through the following two reportable segments: Insurance Underwriting and Insurance Services. Insurance Underwriting and Insurance Services conduct their business and distribute their products in the United States.

The Companys property and casualty insurance business operations are conducted primarily through the following subsidiaries: Mendota Insurance Company ("Mendota"), Mendakota Insurance Company ("Mendakota"), Mendakota Casualty Company (formerly Universal Casualty Company) ("MCC"), Kingsway Amigo Insurance Company ("Amigo") and Kingsway Reinsurance Corporation (collectively, "Insurance Underwriting").

The insurance subsidiaries in Insurance Underwriting issue insurance policies and retain the risk of operating profit or loss related to the ultimate loss and loss adjustment expenses incurred on the underlying policies. Insurance Underwriting provides non-standard automobile insurance to individuals who do not meet the criteria for coverage by standard automobile insurers. Insurance Underwriting has policyholders in 12 states; however, new business is accepted in only nine states. In 2015, the following states accounted for 84.8% of Insurance Underwritings gross premiums written: Florida (24.0%), Texas (16.3%), Illinois (15.7%), California (10.3%), Nevada (9.9%) and Colorado (8.6%).

Trinity is a provider of warranty products and maintenance support to consumers and businesses in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning ("HVAC"), standby generator, commercial LED lighting and refrigeration industries. Trinity distributes its warranty products through original equipment manufacturers, HVAC distributors and commercial and residential contractors. Trinity distributes its maintenance support direct through corporate owners of retail spaces throughout the United States.

Responsibility for pricing and product management rests with the Companys individual operating subsidiaries in each of Insurance Underwriting and Insurance Services. Typically, teams comprised of pricing actuaries, product managers and business development managers work together by territory to develop policy forms and language, rating structures, regulatory filings and new product ideas. Data solutions and claims groups track loss performance on a monthly basis so as to alert the operating subsidiaries to the potential need to adjust forms or rates.

Claims management is the process by which Insurance Services determines the validity and amount of a claim. We believe that claims management is fundamental to our operating results. The individual operating subsidiaries in Insurance Services primarily employ their own claims adjusters who are responsible for investigating and settling claims. Our goal is to settle claims fairly for the benefit of our insureds and the insureds of our insurance company partners in a manner that is consistent with the insurance policy language and our regulatory and legal obligations.

IWS effectively and efficiently manages claims by utilizing in-house expertise and information systems. IWS employs an experienced claims staff comprised of Automotive Service Excellence certified mechanics, knowledgeable in all aspects of vehicle repairs and potential claims. Additionally, IWS owns its own proprietary database of historical claims data dating back over twenty years. Management analyzes this database to drive real-time pricing adjustments and strategic decision-making.

The Companys insurance policies are generally written on an occurrence basis. Non-standard automobile includes both short and long-tail coverages. The payments that are made quickly typically pertain to auto physical damage and property damage claims. The payments that take longer to finalize and are more difficult to estimate relate to bodily injury claims. Reporting lags are relatively short, and the claim settlement process for personal automobile liability generally is the least complex of the liability products. Given that our core non-standard automobile offerings are policies at the minimum prescribed limits in each state, our non-standard automobile business is generally viewed as a high frequency, low severity business.