Throughout the Sustainability section of this website, you will find information about many of Assurity’s current environmentally friendly practices. We have also shared some of our future projects. A large and very important initiative is our new home office facility and its many “green” features. We believe when our home office is completed, it will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certified. In the LEED program, which was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings can qualify for four levels of certification. “Gold” is the second-highest rating.

As many of you know, Assurity represents the combination of three long-standing Lincoln, Nebraska-based mutual insurers – Woodmen Accident and Life founded in York, Nebraska, in 1890; Security Financial Life founded in Fremont, Nebraska, in 1895; and Lincoln Direct Life founded in Aurora, Nebraska, in 1897. If still an independent company, Woodmen Accident and Life would have celebrated its 120th year in 2010. We are proud of this storied heritage, which places us high among U.S. mutual insurance companies with the longest histories.

Since 1890, our company and its predecessors have endured and recovered from no fewer than 25 economic recessions and depressions. We have done so by maintaining the underwriting and investment discipline which is so critical to the success of any insurer. We are proud of our ability to weather adverse financial conditions and continue to thrive, providing stability and security for our policyholders and our independent agents or distributors.

In this anniversary year, several meaningful financial milestones were achieved.

• Assurity’s net gain from operations was nearly $12.7 million, up $7.3 million from 2009. Our net income (after realized capital gains and losses) stood at just under $15 million.
• Our capital account reached a record level of $279.6 million, which was12 percent of assets and 4.9 percent higher than last year.
• Our risk-based capital ratio stood at 582 percent, which puts Assurity among the best capitalized and strongest companies in life and health insurance industry.
• Company assets totaled $2.33 billion, 4 percent more than last year.

We believe the mark of an exceptional company is consistently solid performance relative to its competitors and peers, regardless of economic conditions and competitive threats. We believe Assurity meets this mark. Thanks to our focused business strategy, disciplined investment and underwriting practices, and a talented and highly engaged workforce, we avoided many of the pitfalls that devastated other companies in our industry during recent difficult economic times.

With our long company heritage, solid financial results, and no shareholders to accommodate or stock analysts to impress, we continue our focus on you, our policyholders, and your best interests. One lesson that has been learned, or perhaps relearned, since the tumultuous times of late 2008 and early 2009 is there are major qualitative differences among financial services companies. Many well-branded firms either failed or were forced to merge or accept government assistance during this crisis. It does matter who clients trust with their life, disability income and critical illness insurance needs. We will never lose sight of the fact that, as a mutual insurer, the security of our policyholders is objective No. 1. We take seriously our responsibility to continue to backstop families’ financial security across our great country for another 120 years and beyond.

I want to thank all Assurity associates for their hard work and attentive service to our policyholders and distributors during the past year. I also want to thank our company’s board of directors for their guidance. My special thanks go out to our former CEO Tom Potter who retired from our board of directors this past June after reaching the mandatory retirement age. It was Tom’s vision to combine the three companies, which made Assurity Life Insurance Company possible. We will miss his leadership and cogent industry insights. Our pride in our accomplishments since 1890 is second only to the enthusiasm we have for the future. We look forward to 2011 with great optimism and ambition.

Since 1890…

Thomas E. Henning, CLU, ChFC, CFA
President, Chairman and CEO
Assurity Life Insurance Company