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Wiki Wiki Summary
Balance sheet In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a business partnership, a corporation, private limited company or other organization such as government or not-for-profit entity. Assets, liabilities and ownership equity are listed as of a specific date, such as the end of its financial year.
Financial statement Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of the financial activities and position of a business, person, or other entity.\nRelevant financial information is presented in a structured manner and in a form which is easy to understand.
Financial accounting Financial accounting is the field of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions related to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public use.
Futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument.
International Financial Reporting Standards International Financial Reporting Standards, commonly called IFRS, are accounting standards issued by the IFRS Foundation and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). They constitute a standardised way of describing the company's financial performance and position so that company financial statements are understandable and comparable across international boundaries.
Financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer-finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds, individual asset managers, and some government-sponsored enterprises.\n\n\n== History ==\n\nThe term "financial services" became more prevalent in the United States partly as a result of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of the late 1990s, which enabled different types of companies operating in the U.S. financial services industry at that time to merge.Companies usually have two distinct approaches to this new type of business.
Reliance Retail Reliance Retail is an Indian retail company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue.
Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related with, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services.
Investment management Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institutions, such as insurance companies, pension funds, corporations, charities, educational establishments, or private investors, either directly via investment contracts or, more commonly, via collective investment schemes like mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, or REITs.
Foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct control.
Profit (economics) An economic profit is the difference between the revenue a commercial entity has received from its outputs and the opportunity costs of its inputs. It equals to total revenue minus total cost, including both explicit and implicit costs.
Profitability analysis In cost accounting, profitability analysis is an analysis of the profitability of an organisation's output. Output of an organisation can be grouped into products, customers, locations, channels and/or transactions.
Small Is Profitable Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size is a 2002 book by energy analyst Amory Lovins and others. The book describes 207 ways in which the size of "electrical resources"—devices that make, save, or store electricity—affects their economic value.
Customer profitability Customer Profitability Analysis (in short CPA) is a management accounting and a credit underwriting method, allowing businesses and lenders to determine the profitability of each customer or segments of customers, by attributing profits and costs to each customer separately. CPA can be applied at the individual customer level (more time consuming, but providing a better understanding of business situation) or at the level of customer aggregates / groups (e.g.
SAP ERP SAP ERP is an enterprise resource planning software developed by the German company SAP SE. SAP ERP incorporates the key business functions of an organization. The latest version of SAP ERP (V.6.0) was made available in 2006.
Porter's five forces analysis Porter's Five Forces Framework is a method of analysing the operating environment of a competition of a business. It draws from industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, therefore, the attractiveness (or lack thereof) of an industry in terms of its profitability.
Investment Investment is the dedication of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort.
Ariel Investments Ariel Investments is an investment company located in Chicago, Illinois. It specializes in small and mid-capitalized stocks based in the United States.
Investment banking Investment banking denotes certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of debt or equity securities.
Mapletree Investments Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd is a real estate development, investment, capital and property management company headquartered in Singapore. The Group currently manages four Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) and seven private equity real estate funds, which comprise a diverse portfolio of assets in Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).
Qatar Sports Investments Qatar Sports Investments (QSi) is a closed shareholding organization founded in 2005 and based in Doha, Qatar. Revenues generated from ventures of QSi are reinvested into Qatar's sport, leisure and entertainment sectors.
Cascade Investment Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American holding company and private investment firm headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, United States. It is controlled by Bill Gates, and managed by Michael Larson.
Investment company An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in investing in securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
Investment fund An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:\n\nhire professional investment managers, who may offer better returns and more adequate risk management;\nbenefit from economies of scale, i.e., lower transaction costs;\nincrease the asset diversification to reduce some unsystematic risk.It remains unclear whether professional active investment managers can reliably enhance risk adjusted returns by an amount that exceeds fees and expenses of investment management.
Investment (macroeconomics) In macroeconomics, investment "consists of the additions to the nation's capital stock of buildings, equipment, software, and inventories during a year" or, alternatively, investment spending — "spending on productive physical capital such as machinery and construction of buildings, and on changes to inventories — as part of total spending" on goods and services per year.The types of investment include residential investment in housing that will provide a flow of housing services over an extended time, non-residential fixed investment in things such as new machinery or factories, human capital investment in workforce education, and inventory investment (the accumulation, intentional or unintentional, of goods inventories)\nIn measures of national income and output, "gross investment" (represented by the variable I ) is a component of gross domestic product (GDP), given in the formula GDP = C + I + G + NX, where C is consumption, G is government spending, and NX is net exports, given by the difference between the exports and imports, X − M. Thus investment is everything that remains of total expenditure after consumption, government spending, and net exports are subtracted (i.e. I = GDP − C − G − NX ).
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Melinda Ballard Melinda Ballard (1958–2013) was a financial executive and activist for insurance policyholders in America. In 1999, she sued her insurer over mold damage in her 22-room family home in Dripping Springs, Texas.
FM Global FM Global is an American mutual insurance company based in Johnston, Rhode Island, United States, with offices worldwide, that specializes in loss prevention services primarily to large corporations throughout the world in the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property insurance market sector. "FM Global" is the communicative name of the company, whereas the legal name is "Factory Mutual Insurance Company".
MetLife MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates.
Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Group is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest property and casualty insurer in the United States. It ranks 71st on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the United States based on 2020 revenue.
Embedded value The Embedded Value (EV) of a life insurance company is the present value of future profits plus adjusted net asset value. It is a construct from the field of actuarial science which allows insurance companies to be valued.
Company A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared goals.
Holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself.
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The Longaberger Company The Longaberger Company is an American manufacturer and distributor of handcrafted maple wood baskets and other home and lifestyle products. The company opened in 1973, was acquired in 2013 by CVSL, Inc., and closed in 2018.
Risk Factors
NATIONAL WESTERN LIFE INSURANCE CO ITEM 1A RISK FACTORS Company performance is subject to varying risk factors
If any of the following risks manifests into actual occurrences, the Companyapstas operations, financial position or financial performance could be negatively impacted
We are subject to changing interest rates, market volatility, and general economic conditions which may affect the risk and returns on both our investment portfolio and our products
We are exposed to significant capital market risk related to changes in interest rates
Substantial and sustained changes, up or down, in market interest rate levels can materially affect the profitability of our products, the market value of our investments, and ultimately the reported amount of stockholders &apos equity
A rise in interest rates will reduce the net unrealized gain position of our investment portfolio and may subject the Company to disintermediation risk
Disintermediation risk is the risk that policyholders may surrender their contracts in a rising interest rate environment, requiring the Company to liquidate investments in an unrealized loss position (ie the market value less than the carrying value of the investments)
With respect to fixed income security investments the Company maintains in an &quote Available for sale &quote category, rising interest rates will cause declines in the market value of these securities
These declines are reported in our financial statements as an unrealized investment loss and a reduction of stockholders &apos equity
A decline in interest rates could expose the Company to reduced profitability due to minimum interest rate guarantees that are required in our products by regulation
A key component of profitability is investment spread, or the difference between the yield on our investments and the rates we credit to policyholders on our products
A narrowing of investment spreads could negatively affect operating results
Although the Company has the ability to adjust the rates credited on products in order to maintain our required investment spread, a significant decline in interest rate levels could affect investment yields to the point where the investment spread is compromised due to minimum interest rate guarantees
In addition, the potential for increased policy surrenders and cash withdrawals, competitor activities, and other factors could further limit the Companyapstas ability to maintain crediting rates on its products at levels necessary to avoid sacrificing investment spread
We are subject to general domestic and international economic conditions that may be less favorable than currently exists or is anticipated
The demand for financial and insurance products is subject to factors such as consumer sentiment and behavior, business investment and government spending, the volatility and strength of capital markets, inflation, and overall economic climate
Further, since we accept applications from residents in North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim, we are exposed to economic conditions in multiple geographic locations
Economic downturns in any of these geographic locations characterized by political, social or economic instability, higher unemployment, lower family income or consumer spending could negatively affect the demand for the Companyapstas products
Accordingly, the Companyapstas overall success depends, in part, upon the ability to succeed despite these differing and dynamic conditions
Our investment portfolio is subject to credit quality risks which may lessen the value of invested assets and the Companyapstas book value per share
The Company substantially invests monies received in investment grade, fixed income investment securities in order to meet its obligations to policyholders and provide a return on its deployed capital
Consequently, we are subject to the risk that issuers of these securities may default on principal and interest payments, particularly in the event of a major downturn in economic and/or business climate
At December 31, 2005, approximately 3dtta2prca of the Companyapstas dlra5dtta3 billion fixed income securities portfolio was comprised of issuers who were investment grade at the time the Company acquired them but were subsequently downgraded for various reasons
A substantial increase in defaults from these or other issuers could negatively impact the Companyapstas financial position and results
For the Companyapstas equity-indexed products, over the counter derivative instruments are purchased from a number of highly rated counterparties to fund the equity-index credit to policyholders
In the event that any of these counterparties fails to meet their contractual obligations under these derivative instruments, the Company would be financially at risk for providing the credits due that the counterparty reneged on
Although the financial impact is limited due to the credit support agreements that the Company has with all if its counterparties, the failure of a counterparty to perform could negatively impact the Companyapstas financial position and results
We are subject to incurring difficulties in marketing and distributing our products through our current and future distribution channels
The Company distributes its life and annuity products through independent broker-agents
There is substantial competition, particularly in the Companyapstas domestic market, for independent broker-agents with the demonstrated ability to market and sell insurance products
Competition for these individuals or organizations typically centers on products, compensation, home office support and the insurerapstas financial strength ratings
The Companyapstas future sales and financial condition are dependent upon avoiding significant interruptions in attracting and retaining independent broker-agents
We are subject to a downgrade in our financial strength ratings which may negatively effect our ability to attract and retain independent distributors, make our products less attractive to consumers, and may have an adverse effect on our operations
Financial strength ratings have grown to become an important criteria in establishing the competitive position of insurers
Ratings generally reflect the rating agencies &apos view of a particular companyapstas financial strength, operating performance, and ability to meet its obligations to policyholders
However, some of the rating factors often relate to the particular views of the rating agency, their independent economic modeling, the general economic climate, and other circumstances outside of the insurerapstas control
Accordingly, we cannot predict with any certainty what actions rating agencies may take
A downgrade in our financial strength rating, or an announced potential downgrade, could affect our competitive position and make it more difficult to market our products vis-à-vis competitors with higher financial strength ratings
In extreme situations, a significant downgrade action by one or more rating agency could induce existing policyholders to cancel their policies and withdraw funds from the Company
These events could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and liquidity
We are subject to competition from new sources as well as companies having substantially greater financial resources which could have an adverse impact upon our business levels and profitability
In recent years, there has been considerable consolidation among companies in the insurance and financial sectors resulting in large, well-capitalized entities that offer products comparable to the Company
Frequently, these larger organizations are not domiciled in the United States or are financial services entities attempting to establish a position in the insurance industry
These larger competitors often enjoy economies of scale which produce lower operating costs and the wherewithal to absorb greater risk allowing them to price products more competitively and, in turn, attract independent distributors
Consequently, the Company may encounter additional product pricing pressures and be challenged to maintain profit margin targets and profitability criteria
Because of these competitive presences, the Company may not be able to effectively compete without negative affects on our financial position and results
We are subject to regulation and changes to existing laws that may affect our profitability or means of operations
The Company is subject to extensive laws and regulations which are complex and subject to change
In addition, these laws and regulations are enforced by a number of different authorities including, but not limited to, state insurance regulators, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the Securities and Exchange Commission, state attorney generals, and the US Department of Justice
Compliance with these laws and regulations is time consuming and any changes may materially increase our compliance costs and other expenses of doing business
The regulatory framework at the state and, increasingly, federal level pertaining to insurance products and practices is advancing and could affect not only the design of our products but our ability to continue to sell certain products
Life insurer products generally offer tax advantages to policyholders via the deferral of income tax on policy earnings during the accumulation phase of the product, be it an annuity or a life insurance product
Periodically, Congress has considered legislation that would reduce or eliminate this tax deferral advantage inherent to the life insurance industry and subject the industryapstas products to treatment more equivalent with other investments
In the event that the tax-deferred status of life insurance products is revised or reduced by Congress all life insurers would be adversely impacted
We may be subject to unfavorable judicial developments, including the time and expense of litigation, which potentially could affect our financial position and results
In the ordinary course of business, we are involved in various legal actions common to the life insurance industry, some of which may occasionally assert claims for large amounts
These actions, for example, could include allegations of improper sales practices in connection with the sale of life insurance or bad faith in the handling of insurance claims
While we are not a party to any lawsuit that we believe will have a material adverse effect on our financial position or operations, given the inherent unpredictability of litigation, there can be no assurance that such litigation, current or in the future, will not have such a material adverse effect on the Companyapstas results of operation or cash flows in any particular reporting period