SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (Policies)

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Principles of Consolidation and Basis of Presentation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of The National Security Group, Inc. (the Company) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries:  National Security Insurance Company (NSIC), National Security Fire and Casualty Company (NSFC) and NATSCO, Inc. (NATSCO).  NSFC includes a wholly-owned subsidiary, Omega One Insurance Company (Omega).  The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (GAAP).  In the opinion of management, all adjustments, consisting of normal and recurring items, necessary for the fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements have been included. All significant intercompany transactions and accounts have been eliminated in the consolidated financial statements. The financial information presented herein should be read in conjunction with the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018, which includes information and disclosures not presented herein.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of 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. Among the more significant estimates included in these consolidated financial statements are reserves for future life insurance policy benefits, liabilities for losses and loss adjustment expenses, reinsurance recoverable associated with loss and loss adjustment expense liabilities, deferred policy acquisition costs, deferred income tax assets and liabilities, assessments of other-than-temporary impairments on investments and accruals for contingencies.  Actual results could differ from the estimates used in preparing these consolidated financial statements.

Earnings Per Share

Earnings per share of common stock is based on the weighted average number of shares outstanding during each year. The adjusted weighted average shares outstanding were 2,527,136 at March 31, 2019 and 2,522,312 at March 31, 2018. The Company did not have any dilutive securities as of March 31, 2019 and 2018.

Reclassifications

Certain 2018 amounts have been reclassified from the prior year consolidated financial statements to conform to the 2019 presentation.

Concentration of Credit Risk

The Company maintains cash balances which are generally held in non-interest bearing demand deposit accounts subject to FDIC insured limits of $250,000 per entity. At March 31, 2019, the net amount exceeding FDIC insured limits was $3,251,000 at two financial institutions. The Company has not experienced any losses in such accounts. Management of the Company reviews financial information of financial institutions on a quarterly basis and believes the Company is not exposed to any significant credit risk on cash and cash equivalents.

Policy receivables are reported at unpaid balances. Policy receivables are generally offset by associated unearned premium liabilities and are not subject to significant credit risk. Receivables from agents, less provision for credit losses, are composed of balances due from independent agents. At March 31, 2019, the single largest balance due from one agent totaled $573,000.

Reinsurance contracts do not relieve the Company of its obligations to policyholders. A failure of a reinsurer to meet its obligation could result in losses to the insurance subsidiaries. Allowances for losses on reinsurance recoverables are established if amounts are believed to be uncollectible. At March 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, no amounts were deemed uncollectible. The Company, at least annually, evaluates the financial condition of all reinsurers and evaluates any potential concentrations of credit risk. At March 31, 2019, management does not believe the Company is exposed to any significant credit risk related to its reinsurance program.

Accounting Changes Not Yet Adopted and Recently Adopted Accounting Standards

Changes to the Disclosure Requirements for Fair Value Measurement

In August 2018, the FASB issued guidance to that removes, modifies and adds to the disclosure requirements related to fair value measurements. The guidance removes the requirements to disclose the amount and reasons for transfers between Level 1 and Level 2 assets, the policy for timing and transfers between levels and the valuation process for Level 3 fair value measurements. The guidance modifies disclosure requirements for investments in certain entities that calculate net asset value and clarifies the purpose of the measurement uncertainty disclosure. The guidance adds requirements to disclose changes in unrealized gains or losses included in other comprehensive income for recurring Level 3 fair value measurements and to disclose the range and weighted average used to develop significant unobservable inputs for Level 3 fair value measurements. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019 and interim periods within those fiscal years. The Company does not expect the adoption to have a material impact on its financial position or results of operations.

Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts

In August 2018, the FASB issued guidance to improve the existing recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure requirements for long-duration contracts issued by an insurance entity. The guidance improves timeliness of recognizing changes in the liability for future policy benefits and modifies the rate used to discount future cash flows. The guidance will simplify and improve accounting for certain market-based options or guarantees associated with deposit type contracts and simplify the amortization of deferred policy acquisition costs. The guidance also introduces certain financial statement presentation requirements, as well as significant additional quantitative and qualitative disclosures. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2020 and interim periods within those fiscal years. Early adoption is permitted. The Company is currently evaluating the impact of this new guidance. Due to the nature and extent of the changes required to the Company’s life insurance operations, the adoption of this standard is expected to have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements.

Contingent Put and Call Options in Debt Instruments

In March 2016, the FASB issued guidance that clarifies the requirements for assessing whether contingent call (put) options that can accelerate the payment of principal on debt instruments are clearly and closely related to their debt hosts. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those years. The Company does not expect the adoption to have a material impact on its financial position or results of operations.

Financial Instruments - Credit Losses

In June 2016, the FASB issued guidance that replaces the incurred loss impairment methodology in current GAAP with a methodology that reflects expected credit losses and requires consideration of a broader range of reasonable and supportable information to inform credit loss estimates. The FASB released additional guidance in November 2018 that provides scope clarification. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those years. The Company does not expect the adoption to have a material impact on its financial position or results of operations.

Recently Adopted Accounting Standards

Improvements to Nonemployee Share-Based Payment Accounting

In June 2018, the FASB issued guidance to simplify the accounting for nonemployee share-based payment awards. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within that fiscal year. The Company does not make any material share-based payments. The Company adopted this guidance on January 1, 2019. The adoption of this guidance did not have a material impact on its financial position or results of operations.

Derivatives and Hedging

In August 2017, the FASB issued guidance that amends and simplifies hedge accounting guidance in order to enable entities to better portray the economic results of their risk management activities. The guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those periods. Early adoption is permitted. The Company adopted this guidance on January 1, 2019 and had two swaps designated as cash flow hedges. One expired March 15, 2019 and one expires March 15, 2020. The adoption of this guidance did not have a significant impact on our financial position, results of operations, cash flows or related disclosures.

Leases

In February 2016, the FASB issued guidance that requires lessees (for capital and operating leases) to recognize the lease liability and right-of-use (ROU) asset at the commencement date of the lease. Additional transition guidance was issued in 2018 and 2019. This guidance is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, including interim periods within those years.

The Company adopted this guidance on January 1, 2019 and recorded a ROU asset of $299,000 and corresponding lease liability of $306,000. The ROU asset and operating lease liability are included in other assets and other liabilities, respectively, on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of January 1, 2019. The Company elected the package of practical expedients permitted under the guidance, which allowed the Company to account for existing leases under their current classification, as well as omit any new costs classified as initial direct costs, under the new guidance. Based on this election, the Company kept existing agreements as operating leases. The Company also elected the practical expedient allowing an accounting policy election by class of underlying asset, to account for separate lease and nonlease components as a single lease component.

The Company leases automobiles and some office equipment. These leases are not considered material. Adoption of this guidance had no material impact on the Company's financial position, results of operations, cash flows or related disclosures.

Consolidation, Variable Interest Entities

The Company holds a passive interest in a limited partnership that is considered to be a Variable Interest Entity (VIE) under the provisions of ASC 810 Consolidation. The Company is not the primary beneficiary of the entity and is not required to consolidate under ASC 810. The entity is a private placement investment fund formed for the purpose of investing in private equity investments. The Company owns less than 1% of the limited partnership. The carrying value of the investment totals $116,000 and is included as a component of Other Invested Assets in the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets.

Marketable Securities

For securities in an unrealized loss position, the Company assesses whether the Company has the intent to sell the security or more-likely-than-not will be required to sell the security before the anticipated recovery.  If either of these conditions is met, the Company is required to recognize an other-than-temporary impairment with the entire unrealized loss reported in earnings.  For securities in an unrealized loss position that do not meet these conditions, the Company assesses whether the impairment of a security is other-than-temporary.  If the impairment is determined to be other-than-temporary, the Company is required to separate the other-than-temporary impairments into two components:  the amount representing the credit loss and the amount related to all other factors.  The credit loss is 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 other-than-temporary impairments is reported in earnings, whereas the amount relating to factors other than credit losses are recorded in other comprehensive income, net of taxes.

Fair Values of Financial Instruments

Our available-for-sale securities consists of fixed maturity and equity securities which are recorded at fair value in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.  

We are permitted to elect to measure financial instruments and certain other items at fair value, with the change in fair value recorded in earnings.  We elected not to measure any eligible items using the fair value option.

Accounting standards define fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or would be paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date, and establishes a framework to make the measurement of fair value more consistent and comparable.  In determining fair value, we primarily use prices and other relevant information generated by market transactions involving identical or comparable assets. The Company categorizes assets and liabilities carried at their fair value based upon a fair value hierarchy:

Level 1 – Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the Company has the ability to access at the measurement date. Level 1 assets and liabilities consist of money market fund deposits and certain of our marketable debt and equity instruments, including equity instruments offsetting deferred compensation, that are traded in an active market with sufficient volume and frequency of transactions.

Level 2 - Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-derived valuations in which all significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities. Level 2 assets include certain of our marketable debt and equity instruments with quoted market prices that are traded in less active markets or priced using a quoted market price for similar instruments. Level 2 assets also include marketable equity instruments with security-specific restrictions that would transfer to the buyer, marketable debt instruments priced using indicator prices which represent non-binding market consensus prices that can be corroborated by observable market quotes, as well as derivative contracts and debt instruments priced using inputs that are observable in the market or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data.  Marketable debt instruments in this category generally include commercial paper, bank time deposits, repurchase agreements for fixed-income instruments, and a majority of floating-rate notes, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds.

Level 3 - Unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that are significant to the measurement of fair value of assets or liabilities. Level 3 assets and liabilities include marketable debt instruments, non-marketable equity investments, derivative contracts, and company issued debt with values are determined using inputs that are both unobservable and significant to the values of the instruments being measured. Level 3 assets also include marketable debt instruments that are priced using indicator prices that we were unable to corroborate with observable market quotes.

Marketable debt instruments in this category generally include asset-backed securities and certain floating-rate notes, corporate bonds, and municipal bonds.

The following methods and assumptions were used to estimate fair value of each class of financial instrument for which it is practical to estimate that value:

Cash and cash equivalents — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Fixed maturities held-to-maturity — the carrying amount is amortized cost; the fair values of the Company’s public fixed maturity securities that are classified as held-to-maturity are generally based on prices obtained from independent pricing services.

Mortgage loans — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value due to the restrictive nature and limited marketability of the mortgage notes.

Policy loans — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Company owned life insurance — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Other invested assets — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Other policyholder funds — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Debt — the carrying amount is a reasonable estimate of fair value.

Fixed maturities available-for-sale — The fair values of the Company’s public fixed maturity securities are generally based on prices obtained from independent pricing services. Consistent with the fair value hierarchy described above, securities with quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets are reflected within Level 1 while securities with validated quotes from pricing services are generally reflected within Level 2, as they are primarily based on observable pricing for similar assets and/or other market observable inputs.

Trading securities — Trading securities consist primarily of mutual funds whose fair values are determined consistent with similar instruments described above under “Fixed Maturities” and below under “Equity Securities.”

Equity securities — Equity securities consist principally of investments in common and preferred stock of publicly traded companies and privately traded securities. The fair values of our publicly traded equity securities are based on quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets and are classified within Level 1 in the fair value hierarchy.

Estimated fair values for our privately traded equity securities require a substantial level of judgment. Privately traded equity securities are classified within Level 3.

Interest rate swaps — Interest rate swaps are recorded at fair value either as assets, within other assets or as liabilities, within other liabilities. The fair values of our interest rate swaps are provided by a third-party broker and are classified within Level 3.

Derivatives

The Company is exposed to certain risks in the normal course of its business operations.  The primary risk that is managed through the use of derivatives is interest rate risk on floating rate borrowings.  This risk is managed through the use of interest rate swap agreements which are designated as cash flow hedges.  For cash flow hedges, the effective portion of the gain or loss on the interest rate swap is included as a component of other comprehensive income and reclassified into earnings in the same period during which the hedged transaction is recognized in earnings.  The Company does not hold or issue derivatives that are not designated as hedging instruments. 

We use dollar offset at the hedge's inception and for each reporting period thereafter to assess whether the derivative used in a hedging transaction is expected to be, and has been, effective in offsetting changes in the fair value of the hedged item. Since inception, no portion of the hedged item has been deemed ineffective. For all hedges, we discontinue hedge accounting if it is determined that a derivative is not expected to be, or has ceased to be, effective as a hedge.

The swap liability is reported as a component of other liabilities on the consolidated balance sheets.

Reinsurance

The Company's insurance operations utilize reinsurance in the risk management process in order to limit losses, minimize exposure to large risks, provide additional capacity for future growth and effect business-sharing arrangements. Life reinsurance is placed through yearly renewable term coverage. Property and casualty reinsurance is placed on an excess of loss basis to cover losses from catastrophe events. Reinsurance contracts do not relieve the insurance subsidiaries of the obligation indemnify policyholders with respect to the underlying insurance contracts. Failure of re-insurers to honor their obligations could result in credit related losses to the insurance subsidiaries. The insurance subsidiaries evaluate the financial conditions of their reinsurance companies and monitor concentrations of credit risk arising from similar geographic regions, activities, or economic characteristics of the companies to minimize their exposure to significant losses from reinsurance insolvencies.

In the normal course of business, NSFC seeks to reduce the loss that may arise from catastrophes or other individually significant large loss events that cause unfavorable underwriting results or have adverse impacts on regulatory capital levels by re-insuring certain levels of risk in various areas of exposure with reinsurance companies.  NSFC maintains a catastrophe reinsurance agreement to cover losses from catastrophic events, primarily hurricanes and tropical storms

Amounts recoverable from re-insurers are estimated in a manner consistent with the claim liability associated with the underlying insurance policies.  Amounts paid for prospective reinsurance contracts are reported as prepaid reinsurance premiums and amortized over the remaining contract period.

In the normal course of business, NSIC seeks to limit its exposure to loss on any single insured and to recover a portion of benefits paid by ceding reinsurance to reinsurance companies under excess coverage contracts.  NSIC retains a maximum of $50,000 of coverage per individual life.  Cost is amortized over the reinsurance contract period.

Business Segment

The Company’s life and accident and health operations comprise the second business segment.  The life and accident and health insurance segment consists of two lines of business: traditional life insurance and supplemental accident and health insurance.

The Company’s property and casualty insurance operations comprise one business segment. The property and casualty insurance segment primarily underwrites home insurance coverage with primary lines of business consisting of dwelling fire and extended coverage, homeowners (including mobile homeowners) and other liability.