Erie Indemnity Company (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a publicly held Pennsylvania business corporation that since 1925 has been the managing Attorney-in-Fact for the subscribers at Erie Insurance Exchange (“Exchange”). The Exchange is a subscriber (policyholder) owned Pennsylvania-domiciled reciprocal insurer that writes property/casualty insurance. Our primary function is to perform certain services for the Exchange relating to sales, underwriting and issuance of policies on behalf of the Exchange. This is done in accordance with a subscribers agreement (a limited power of attorney) executed by each subscriber (policyholder), appointing us as their common attorney-in-fact to transact business on their behalf and to manage their affairs at the Exchange. We earn a management fee from the Exchange for these services.
The Exchange and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Flagship City Insurance Company (“Flagship”) and the Indemnity’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Erie Insurance Company (“EIC”), Erie Insurance Company of New York (“ENY”) and the Erie Insurance Property and Casualty Company (“EPC”), comprise the Property and Casualty Group. The Property and Casualty Group is a regional insurance group operating in 11 Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern states and the District of Columbia. The Property and Casualty Group primarily writes personal auto insurance, which comprises 48% of its direct premiums.
The Indemnity owns 21.6% of the common stock of the Erie Family Life Insurance Company (“EFL”), an affiliated life insurance company; the Exchange owns the remaining 78.4%. EFL underwrites and sells nonparticipating individual and group life insurance policies and fixed annuities.
The Indemnity, together with the members of the Property and Casualty Group and EFL, operate collectively as the Erie Insurance Group (“Group”).
Business segments
We operate our business as three reportable segments — management operations, insurance underwriting operations and investment operations.
Management operations — For our services as attorney-in-fact, we charge the policyholders of the Exchange a management fee of up to 25%. Management fees accounted for approximately 81% of our total revenue in 2009, 84% in 2008 and 72% in 2007. The proportion of management fee revenue to total revenues was greater in 2009 and 2008 due to lower revenues generated from our investment operations as a result of market conditions. Excluding limited partnership losses and market value adjustments, 2009 management fee revenues accounted for 76% of total revenues. Excluding impairment charges, 2008 management fee revenues accounted for 79% of total revenues.
We have an interest in the growth and financial condition of the Exchange as 1) the Exchange is our sole customer and 2) our earnings are largely generated from management fees based on the direct written premiums of the Exchange and other members of the Property and Casualty Group. Historically, due to policy renewal and sales patterns, the Property and Casualty Group’s direct written premiums are greater in the second and third quarters than in the first and fourth quarters of the calendar year. Consequently, there is seasonality in our management fees and we have higher gross margins in our management operations in those quarters.
Insurance underwriting operations — The members of the Property and Casualty Group pool their underwriting results. Under the reinsurance pooling arrangement, the Exchange assumes 94.5% of the pool. Accordingly, the underwriting risk of the Property and Casualty Group’s business is largely borne by the Exchange, which had $4.5 billion and $4.0 billion of statutory surplus at December 31, 2009 and December 31, 2008, respectively. Through the pool, our property/casualty insurance subsidiaries currently assume 5.5% of the Property and Casualty Group’s underwriting results, and therefore, we also have a direct incentive to manage the insurance underwriting operations of the Property and Casualty Group effectively.
The Property and Casualty Group seeks to insure standard and preferred risks with personal lines comprising 72% of the 2009 direct written premiums and commercial lines the remaining 28%. The principal personal lines products based on 2009 direct written premiums were private passenger automobile (48%) and homeowners (21%). The principal commercial lines products based on 2009 direct written premiums were commercial multi-peril (11%), commercial automobile (8%) and workers compensation (6%). The Property and Casualty Group ranked as the 14th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on 2008 direct written premiums and as the 18th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on 2008 total lines net premium written according to AM Best.
The Property and Casualty Group writes business in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. The states of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia made up 64% of the Property and Casualty Group’s 2009 direct written premium.
The Property and Casualty Group is represented by over 2,000 independent agencies comprising over 9,200 licensed representatives and is our sole distribution channel. In addition to their principal role as salespersons, the independent agents play a significant role as underwriting and service providers and are fundamental to the Property and Casualty Group’s success.
While sales, underwriting and policy issuance services are centralized at our home office, the Property and Casualty Group maintains 23 field offices throughout its operating region to provide claims services to policyholders and marketing support for the independent agencies that represent us.
Investment operations — We generate revenues from our fixed maturity, equity security and alternative investment portfolios. The portfolios are managed with a view toward maximizing after-tax yields and limiting credit risk. Revenues and losses included in investment operations consist of net investment income, net realized gains and losses, and impairment losses recognized in earnings for our fixed maturity and equity portfolios. Equity in earnings and losses from our alternative investments, which include private equity, mezzanine, and real estate partnerships, are also included as a component of investment operations. Additionally, our 21.6% investment in EFL is included in the investment operation results.