Reinsurance

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

4 - Reinsurance

Atlantic States and Donegal Mutual have participated in a pooling agreement since 1986 under which they pool their direct premiums written, and Atlantic States and Donegal Mutual then share the underwriting results of the pool in accordance with the terms of the pooling agreement. Atlantic States

has an 80% share of the results of the pool, and Donegal Mutual has a 20% share

of the results of the pool. Donegal Mutual currently excludes from the pool its underwriting results in four Southwestern states in which Donegal Mutual markets its products together with its insurance subsidiaries as the Mountain States Insurance Group. Donegal Mutual currently plans to place the business of the Mountain States Insurance Group into the pool beginning with policies effective in 2021.

Our insurance subsidiaries and Donegal Mutual have a combined third-party reinsurance program. The coverage and parameters of the program are common to all of our insurance subsidiaries and Donegal Mutual. Our insurance subsidiaries use several different reinsurers, all of which have an A.M. Best rating of

A-

(Excellent) or better or, with respect to foreign reinsurers, have a financial condition that, in the opinion of our management, is equivalent to a company with at least an

A-

rating from A.M. Best. The following information describes the external reinsurance our insurance subsidiaries have in place for 2020:

•

excess of loss reinsurance, under which the losses of Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries are automatically reinsured, through a series of contracts, over a set retention of $2.0 million

;

and

•

catastrophe reinsurance, under which Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries recover, through a series of reinsurance agreements, 100% of an accumulation of many losses resulting from a single event, including natural disasters, over a set retention of $15.0 million up to aggregate losses of $185.0 million per occurrence.

In addition to the pooling agreement and third-party reinsurance, our insurance subsidiaries have a catastrophe reinsurance agreement with Donegal Mutual, under which each of our insurance subsidiaries recovers 100% of an accumulation of multiple losses resulting from a single event, including natural disasters, over a set retention of $2.0 million up to aggregate losses of $13.0 million per occurrence. The agreement also provides additional coverage for an accumulation of losses from a single event including a combination of our insurance subsidiaries over a combined retention of $5.0 million.

Our insurance subsidiaries and Donegal Mutual also purchase facultative reinsurance to cover certain exposures, including property exposures that exceeded the limits provided by their respective treaty reinsurance.