Principles of Consolidation and Basis of Presentation (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

The Company manages its business through two business segments: Insurance Operations, which includes the operations of United National Insurance Company, Diamond State Insurance Company, United National Casualty Insurance Company, United National Specialty Insurance Company, Penn-America Insurance Company, Penn-Star Insurance Company, Penn-Patriot Insurance Company, American Insurance Adjustment Agency, Inc., Collectibles Insurance Services, LLC, Global Indemnity Insurance Agency, LLC, and J.H. Ferguson & Associates, LLC, and Reinsurance Operations, which includes the operations of Wind River Reinsurance Company, Ltd. (“Wind River Reinsurance”)

Interim Consolidated Financial statements

The interim consolidated financial statements are unaudited, but have been prepared in conformity with United States of America generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), which differs in certain respects from those principles followed in reports to insurance regulatory authorities. The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

The unaudited consolidated financial statements include all adjustments that are, in the opinion of management, of a normal recurring nature and are necessary for a fair statement of results for the interim periods. Results of operations for the quarters and nine months ended September 30, 2013 and 2012 are not necessarily indicative of the results of a full year. The accompanying notes to the unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the notes to the consolidated financial statements contained in the Company’s 2012 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Intercompany Balances and Transactions

The consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Global Indemnity and its wholly owned subsidiaries. All intercompany balances and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

The Company’s wholly owned business trust subsidiaries, United National Group Capital Trust I (“UNG Trust I”) and United National Group Capital Statutory Trust II (“UNG Trust II”), are not consolidated pursuant to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification. The Company’s business trust subsidiary, UNG Trust I, issued $10.0 million in floating rate capital securities (“Trust Preferred Securities”) and $0.3 million of floating rate common securities. On September 30, 2013, The Company repaid the entire outstanding principal due on its UNG Trust I junior subordinated notes. UNG Trust I was cancelled on October 4, 2013. The Company’s business trust subsidiary, UNG Trust II, issued $20.0 million in Trust Preferred Securities and $0.6 million of floating rate common securities. The sole assets of UNG Trust II are $20.6 million of junior subordinated debentures issued by the Company, which have the same terms with respect to maturity, payments, and distributions as the Trust Preferred Securities and the floating rate common securities.

Premium Deficiency

The Company recognizes a premium deficiency if the sum of expected loss and loss adjustment expenses and unamortized acquisition costs exceeds related unearned premium after consideration of investment income. This evaluation is done at a product line level in Insurance Operations and at a treaty level in Reinsurance Operations. Any future expected loss on the related unearned premium is recorded first by impairing the unamortized acquisition costs on the related unearned premium followed by an increase to loss and loss adjustment expense reserves on additional expected loss in excess of unamortized acquisition costs.

Profit Enhancement Initiative

In 2010 and 2011, the Company committed to a Profit Enhancement Initiative in response to the continuing impact of the domestic recession and the competitive landscape within the excess and surplus lines market. The total cost of this initiative was recorded in the Company’s statements of operations during those years. All action items related to this initiative were completed by December 31, 2011.

Investments

The Company regularly performs various analytical valuation procedures with respect to its investments, including reviewing each fixed maturity security in an unrealized loss position to assess whether the security is a candidate for credit loss. Specifically, the Company considers credit rating, market price, and issuer specific financial information, among other factors, to assess the likelihood of collection of all principal and interest as contractually due. Securities for which the Company determines that a credit loss is likely are subjected to further analysis through discounted cash flow testing to estimate the credit loss to be recognized in earnings, if any. The specific methodologies and significant assumptions used by asset class are discussed below. Upon identification of such securities and periodically thereafter, a detailed review is performed to determine whether the decline is considered other than temporary. This review includes an analysis of several factors, including but not limited to, the credit ratings and cash flows of the securities and the magnitude and length of time that the fair value of such securities is below cost.

For fixed maturities, the factors considered in reaching the conclusion that a decline below cost is other than temporary include, among others, whether:

(1)

the issuer is in financial distress;

(2)

the investment is secured;

(3)

a significant credit rating action occurred;

(4)

scheduled interest payments were delayed or missed;

(5)

changes in laws or regulations have affected an issuer or industry;

(6)

the investment has an unrealized loss and was identified by the Company’s investment manager as an investment to be sold before recovery or maturity; and

(7)

the investment failed cash flow projection testing to determine if anticipated principal and interest payments will be realized.

According to accounting guidance, for debt securities in an unrealized loss position, the Company is required to assess whether it has the intent to sell the debt security or more likely than not will be required to sell the debt security before the anticipated recovery. If either of these conditions is met the Company must recognize an other than temporary impairment with the entire unrealized loss being recorded through earnings. For debt securities in an unrealized loss position not meeting these conditions, the Company assesses whether the impairment of a security is other than temporary. If the impairment is deemed to be other than temporary, the Company must separate the other than temporary impairment into two components: the amount representing the credit loss and the amount related to all other factors, such as changes in interest rates. The credit loss represents the portion of the amortized book value in excess of the net present value of the projected future cash flows discounted at the effective interest rate implicit in the debt security prior to impairment. The credit loss component of the other than temporary impairment is recorded through earnings, whereas the amount relating to factors other than credit losses are recorded in other comprehensive income, net of taxes.

For equity securities, management carefully reviews all securities with unrealized losses to determine if a security should be impaired with a focus on securities that have either:

(1)

persisted with unrealized losses for more than twelve consecutive months or

(2)

the value of the investment has been 20% or more below cost for six continuous months or more.

Fair Value Measurement Policy

The accounting standards related to fair value measurements define fair value, establish a framework for measuring fair value, outline a fair value hierarchy based on inputs used to measure fair value, and enhance disclosure requirements for fair value measurements. These standards do not change existing guidance as to whether or not an instrument is carried at fair value. The Company has determined that its fair value measurements are in accordance with the requirements of these accounting standards.

The Company’s invested assets are carried at their fair value and are categorized based upon a fair value hierarchy:

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Level 1—inputs utilize quoted prices (unadjusted) in active markets for identical assets that the Company has the ability to access at the measurement date.

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Level 2—inputs utilize other than quoted prices included in Level 1 that are observable for similar assets, either directly or indirectly.

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Level 3—inputs are unobservable for the asset, and include situations where there is little, if any, market activity for the asset.

In certain cases, the inputs used to measure fair value may fall into different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, the level in the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurement falls has been determined based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement in its entirety. The Company’s assessment of the significance of a particular input to the fair value measurement in its entirety requires judgment, and considers factors specific to the asset.

Both observable and unobservable inputs may be used to determine the fair value of positions that the Company has classified within the Level 3 category. As a result, the unrealized gains and losses for invested assets within the Level 3 category presented in the tables below may include changes in fair value that are attributed to both observable (e.g., changes in market interest rates) and unobservable (e.g., changes in unobservable long-dated volatilities) inputs.

Based on the typical trading volumes and the lack of quoted market prices for fixed maturities, security prices are derived through recent reported trades for identical or similar securities making adjustments through the reporting date based upon available market observable information. If there are no recent reported trades, matrix or model processes are used to develop a security price where future cash flow expectations are developed based upon collateral performance and discounted at an estimated market rate. Included in the pricing of asset-backed securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, and mortgage-backed securities are estimates of the rate of future prepayments of principal over the remaining life of the securities. Such estimates are derived based on the characteristics of the underlying structure and prepayment speeds previously experienced at the interest rate levels projected for the underlying collateral. For corporate loans, price quotes from multiple dealers along with recent reported trades for identical or similar securities are used to develop prices.

The Company’s pricing vendors provide prices for all investment categories except for investments in limited partnerships.

The following is a description of the valuation methodologies used by the Company’s pricing vendors for investment securities carried at fair value:

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Equity prices are received from all primary and secondary exchanges.

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Corporate and agency bonds are evaluated by utilizing a multi-dimensional relational model. For bonds with early redemption options, an option adjusted spread model is utilized. Both asset classes use standard inputs and incorporate security set up, defined sector breakdown, benchmark yields, apply base spreads, yield to maturity, and adjust for corporate actions.

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A volatility-driven multi-dimensional spread table or an option-adjusted spread model and prepayment model is used for agency commercial mortgage obligations (“CMO”). For non-agency CMOs, a prepayment/spread/yield/price adjustment model is utilized. CMOs are categorized with mortgage-backed securities in the tables listed above. For ABSs, a multi-dimensional, collateral specific spread / prepayment speed tables is utilized. For both asset classes, evaluations utilize standard inputs plus new issue data, monthly payment information, and collateral performance. The evaluated pricing models incorporate security set-up, prepayment speeds, cash flows, and treasury swap curves and spread adjustments.

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For municipals, a multi-dimensional relational model is used to evaluate securities within this asset class. The evaluated pricing models for this asset class incorporate security set-up, benchmark yields, apply base spreads, yield to worst or market convention, ratings updates, prepayment schedules and adjustments for material events notices.

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U.S. treasuries are evaluated by obtaining feeds from a number of live data sources including active market makers and inter-dealer brokers.

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For MBSs, a matrix model correlation to TBA (a forward MBS trade) or benchmarking is utilized to value a security.

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Corporate loans are priced using averages of bids and offers obtained from the broker/dealer community involved in trading such loans.

Statutory income tax rates

The statutory income tax rate of each country is applied against the expected annual taxable income of the Company in each country to estimate the annual income tax expense.

Loss Reserves And Prior Year Development

When analyzing loss reserves and prior year development, the Company considers many factors, including the frequency and severity of claims, loss trends, case reserve settlements that may have resulted in significant development, and any other additional or pertinent factors that may impact reserve estimates.

Earnings Per Share

Earnings per share have been computed using the weighted average number of ordinary shares and ordinary share equivalents outstanding during the period.