FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Our company’s direct premiums written totaled $744.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017 surpassing premium writings for 2016 by $18.5 million or 2.5 percent. This improvement was primarily driven by our personal lines writings.

Our net combined ratio was 116.9 for the year, which includes 17.0 points related to a change in estimate for reinsurance recoverables attributable to legacy claims. Excluding the impact for this change in estimate, we achieved a combined ratio of 99.9, inclusive of 2.6 points arising from weather-related catastrophe events.

During the year, our company successfully repurchased a total of $16.0 million par value of its surplus note, effectively reducing the amount outstanding to $34.0 million at December 31, 2017. This will have the benefit of reducing our annual interest expense by $1.5 million. At December 31, 2017, admitted assets totaled $1.7 billion and surplus was strong at $586.9 million.