11.

Statutory Accounting and Regulatory Requirements

The Company's insurance subsidiaries file financial statements prepared in accordance with statutory accounting principles prescribed or permitted by the insurance regulatory authorities of the states in which the subsidiaries are domiciled. Statutory-basis shareholder's capital and surplus at December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009 of the directly owned insurance subsidiary, AIIC, and the combined statutory-basis net income and realized investment gains for all AMERISAFE's insurance subsidiaries for the three years in the period ended December 31, 2011, were as follows (in thousands):


	2011		2010		2009
	(unaudited)
Capital and surplus	$	314,397	$	320,388	$	323,477
Net income		26,969		30,484		55,159
Realized investment gains (losses)		2,121		3,040		2,008

Property and casualty insurance companies are subject to certain risk-based capital ("RBC") requirements specified by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Under these requirements, a target minimum amount of capital and surplus maintained by a property/casualty insurance company is determined based on the various risk factors related to it. At December 31, 2011, the capital and surplus of AIIC and its subsidiaries exceeded the minimum RBC requirement.

Pursuant to regulatory requirements, AIIC cannot pay dividends to the Company in excess of the lesser of 10% of statutory surplus, or statutory net income, excluding realized investment gains, for the preceding 12-month period, without the prior approval of the Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance. However, for purposes of this dividend calculation, net income from the previous two calendar years may be carried forward to the extent that it has not already been paid out as dividends. AIIC paid $32.0 million in dividends to the Company in 2011, $32.3 million in 2010 and $10.0 million in 2009. Based upon the above described calculation, AIIC could pay to the Company dividends of up to $21.4 million after March of 2012 without seeking regulatory approval.