Investments in debt and equity securities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Investments, Debt and Equity Securities [Abstract]

Investments in debt and equity securities

Investments in debt and equity securities. Amortized costs and fair values at December 31, follow:

	2014		2013
	Amortized costs	Fair values	Amortized costs	Fair values
	($000 omitted)
Debt securities:
Municipal	60,656	61,689	47,808	47,252
Corporate	296,578	308,691	285,104	291,832
Foreign	163,099	166,685	164,146	162,367
U.S. Treasury Bonds	14,337	14,802	14,334	15,197
Equity securities	22,710	28,236	17,441	20,695
	557,380	580,103	528,833	537,343

The Company believes its investment portfolio is diversified and expects no material loss to result from the failure to perform by issuers of the debt securities it holds. Investments made by the Company are not collateralized. Foreign debt securities primarily include Canadian government and corporate bonds which aggregated fair values of$135.8 million and $133.8 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Also included in foreign debt securities are United Kingdom treasury bonds aggregating fair values of $27.3 million and $25.2 million as of December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Gross unrealized gains and losses at December 31, were:

	2014		2013
	Gains	Losses	Gains	Losses
	($000 omitted)
Debt securities:
Municipal	1,125	92	258	813
Corporate	12,559	446	9,955	3,228
Foreign	3,690	104	363	2,142
U.S. Treasury Bonds	492	27	924	60
Equity securities	5,982	456	3,264	11
	23,848	1,125	14,764	6,254

Debt securities at December 31, 2014 mature, according to their contractual terms, as follows (actual maturities may differ due to call or prepayment rights):

	Amortized costs	Fair values
	($000 omitted)
In one year or less	60,697	60,879
After one year through five years	196,352	201,272
After five years through ten years	235,408	244,617
After ten years	42,213	45,099
	534,670	551,867

Gross unrealized losses on investments and the fair values of the related securities, aggregated by investment category and length of time that individual securities have been in a continuous unrealized loss position at December 31, 2014, were:

	Less than 12 months		More than 12 months		Total
	Losses	Fair values	Losses	Fair values	Losses	Fair values
	($000 omitted)
Debt securities:
Municipal	1	2,673	91	12,076	92	14,749
Corporate	107	7,167	339	26,545	446	33,712
Foreign	11	34,236	93	6,446	104	40,682
U.S. Treasury Bonds	—	—	27	3,694	27	3,694
Equity securities:	456	6,540	—	—	456	6,540
	575	50,616	550	48,761	1,125	99,377

The number of investments in an unrealized loss position as of December 31, 2014 was 48. Since the Company does not intend to sell and will more-likely-than-not maintain each debt security until its anticipated recovery, and no significant credit risk is deemed to exist, these investments are not considered other-than-temporarily impaired.

Gross unrealized losses on investments and the fair values of the related securities, aggregated by investment category and length of time that individual securities have been in a continuous unrealized loss position at December 31, 2013, were:

	Less than 12 months		More than 12 months		Total
	Losses	Fair values	Losses	Fair values	Losses	Fair values
	($000 omitted)
Debt securities:
Municipal	770	27,686	43	628	813	28,314
Corporate	1,682	66,776	1,546	21,710	3,228	88,486
Foreign	1,539	63,039	603	53,807	2,142	116,846
U.S. Treasury Bonds	60	3,772	—	—	60	3,772
Equity securities:	11	1,267	—	—	11	1,267
	4,062	162,540	2,192	76,145	6,254	238,685

The number of investments in an unrealized loss position as of December 31, 2013 was 129. Since the Company did not intend to sell and was more-likely-than-not to maintain each debt security until its anticipated recovery, and no significant credit risk was deemed to exist, these investments were not considered other-than-temporarily impaired.