Item 1. Business
Item 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
Citizens, Inc. ("Citizens" or the "Company") is an insurance holding company incorporated in Colorado and with its headquarters in Austin, Texas, serving the life insurance needs of individuals in the United States since 1969 and internationally since 1975. Through our domestic insurance subsidiaries, we are licensed to issue insurance products in 43 U.S. states and through our international subsidiaries, we provide insurance benefits to residents in almost 80 different countries. We pursue a strategy of offering traditional insurance products in niche markets where we believe we are able to achieve competitive advantages. We had approximately $1.7 billion of assets and over $5.2 billion of direct insurance in force at December 31, 2024.
We operate in two business segments:
• Life Insurance - Internationally, we sell U.S. dollar-denominated whole life insurance, endowment and critical illness policies to non-U.S. residents, located principally in Latin America and the Pacific Rim. In the U.S. we primarily sell whole life final expense insurance and insurance with living benefits.
• Home Service Insurance - We sell affordable life insurance policies to lower-income households in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.
Our Principal Brands
LIFE INSURANCE SEGMENT
Internationally, we conduct our Life Insurance segment business through CICA Life, A.I., a Puerto Rico company ("CICA International").
Domestically, we conduct our Life Insurance segment business through CICA Life Insurance Company of America ("CICA Domestic").
HOME SERVICE INSURANCE SEGMENT
We conduct our Home Service Insurance segment through Security Plan Life Insurance Company ("SPLIC") and Magnolia Guaranty Life Insurance Company ("Magnolia").
As an insurance provider, we collect premiums on an ongoing basis from our policyholders and invest the majority of the premiums to pay future benefits, including claims, maturities, surrenders and policyholder dividends. Accordingly, we derive our revenues principally from: (1) life insurance premiums, and (2) net investment income. In addition to paying and reserving for insurance benefits that we pay to our policyholders and their beneficiaries, our expenses consist primarily of the costs of selling our insurance products, operating expenses and income taxes.
Because collection of premiums is the primary source of our revenues, our overall financial performance depends primarily upon the successful development, distribution and persistency of our products. A key to product development is the accuracy of our pricing assumptions as profitability is affected by actual experience deviations from the established assumptions. We seek to price our insurance policies such that insurance premiums and future net investment income earned on premiums received will cover the ultimate cost of paying claims on our policies, our expenses and will also yield a profit margin. Pricing adequacy depends on a number of factors, including the ability to project future claims based on historical claim experience adjusted for known trends, proper evaluation of underwriting risks, the Company’s response to competitors, commission payments for selling our products, expectations about interest rates, regulatory or legal developments, and expense levels.
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In addition to insurance premiums, the investment return, or yield, on invested assets is an important element of the Company’s earnings since life insurance products are priced with the assumption that premiums received can be invested for a long period of time before benefits are paid. Pursuant to regulatory guidelines, most of the Company’s invested assets are held in available-for-sale ("AFS") fixed maturity securities, primarily in asset classes of corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and government obligation bonds. The interest rate environment has a significant impact on the determination of insurance contract liabilities, our investment rates and yields, and our asset/liability management. The profitability of our "spread-based" product features depends largely on the Company’s ability to earn higher returns on invested assets than the interest we credit to policyholders. The primary investment objective for the Company is to maximize economic value, consistent with acceptable risk parameters, including the management of credit risk and interest rate sensitivity of invested assets, while generating sufficient after-tax income to meet policyholder and corporate obligations. The Company maintains a prudent investment strategy that may vary based on a variety of factors including business needs, regulatory requirements and tax considerations.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
The Pursuit of Profitable Growth
Historically, our insurance companies have only issued a few products and had limited distribution channels. Domestically, most of our historical growth came from the acquisition of assets rather than new sales. Internationally, our limited products, which were mostly endowment products, burdened us with known high levels of maturities after a certain period with limited products to replace the business. As a result, from 2017 through 2021, our total premium revenue fell by over $20 million. In 2021, we became a non-controlled company for the first time in over 20 years and under new leadership, our strategy shifted to the pursuit of long-term profitable growth through a 4-pronged strategy:
• Grow first year sales to reverse the decline in our total revenue. We do this through the introduction of new products and by expanding our distribution.
• Products . Our product development process focuses on our customer needs by developing new products tailored to our specific markets, working with partners to develop products tailored to their markets, and enhancing existing products. Our management team meets regularly to ensure we are bringing the right products to market at the right time.
• Distribution. New products help our sales force, as they can sell additional products to existing customers and offer a broader portfolio of products to entice prospective customers. A broader product portfolio also helps attract new distributors. We are also focused on implementing sales promotions and campaigns in order to align our sales consultant compensation opportunities with our premium revenue goals and our growth and retention initiatives.
• Slow the decline of premiums through retention efforts. We pay certain costs (e.g., commissions, underwriting, marketing expenses) to obtain new policyholders. First year commissions paid to our agents are significantly higher than renewal commissions. Accordingly, it is important to preserve policyholder relationships once we have issued a new policy. We are focused on improving the customer experience and policyholder retention.
• Focus on execution.
• Processes . We are implementing process improvements and new technologies not only to speed up product delivery but also to improve the experience for both our policyholders and our agents. We have also implemented new processes and technologies to help our employees work more effectively and efficiently.
• Financial and expense discipline.
We believe these factors will lead to growth and profitability. As a result of these efforts over the last few years, in 2024, our total premium revenue grew for the first time since 2017.
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Status of New and Enhanced Products; Trends in Market Demand
As mentioned above, offering new and enhanced products and expanding our distribution are key to achieving our strategic goals. In 2024, we issued the highest amount of insurance ever in a year by Citizens - $1.1 billion and achieved our highest ever total direct insurance in force - $5.2 billion.
• Following the filing of 3 new products in our domestic markets in 2023, we continued growing our domestic business in 2024:
◦ we became licensed in 8 additional states. CICA Domestic is licensed in 43 states, up from 35 states at 2023 year-end and up from 32 states at 2022 year-end; and
◦ we expanded our domestic distribution network, growing from over 2,000 agents at December 31, 2023 to over 5,000 agents at December 31, 2024.
This led to direct first year premium revenue growth of 106% in our Life Insurance segment.
• We maintained our A.M. Best rating.
◦ CICA Domestic is rated as a B++ with a "Very Strong" balance sheet. We believe this will help us expand our distribution networks and the appeal of our products to consumers.
• We introduced a new product in our international markets designed to allow policyholders with maturing endowments to use some or all of the funds to purchase a new life insurance policy. This led to increased first year premiums in the international business.
LIFE INSURANCE SEGMENT
INTERNATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE
Products
CICA International issues primarily individual whole life insurance and endowment products in U.S. dollar-denominated amounts to non-U.S. residents. The products accumulate guaranteed cash values beginning in the first policy year and provide lifetime income guarantees for an insured or for surviving beneficiaries.
In addition to death benefits, our international products have living benefit features. Most policies contain guaranteed cash values that can be used during an insured's lifetime by taking a loan or advance on the death benefit, have options for annual premium benefits, and are participating (i.e . , provide for cash dividends). Our policyowners have several options with regards to the policy dividends and annual premium benefits, which include, among other things, electing to receive cash, crediting such amounts towards the payment of premiums on the policy, leaving such amounts on deposit with the Company to accumulate at a specified interest rate or assigning them to a third party, Computershare Trust Company, N.A. ( an affiliate of Computershare, Inc., our transfer agent), who facilitates their purchase of our Class A common stock, through the Citizens, Inc. Stock Investment Plan (the "SIP") . The SIP is a direct stock purchase plan available to policyowners, shareholders, our employees and directors, independent consultants, and other potential investors through Computershare Trust Company, as administrator of the SIP. The Company has registered the shares of Class A common stock issuable to participants under the SIP on a Form S-3 registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "Securities Act") that is on file with the SEC. Computershare administers the SIP in accordance with the terms and conditions of the SIP, which is available on the Computershare website and as part of the Company’s registration statement on file with the SEC.
We believe positive attributes of our international insurance business typically include:
• larger face amount policies issued compared to our U.S. operations, which results in lower underwriting and administrative costs per dollar of coverage;
• high persistency (retention) and low mortality charges due to our customer demographics; and
• premiums paid annually at the beginning of each policy year rather than monthly or quarterly, which reduces our administrative expenses, accelerates cash flow and results in lower policy lapse rates than premium payment options with more frequently scheduled payments.
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Sales and Distribution
We sell our international products through independent marketing agencies and consultants located primarily in Latin America and the Pacific Rim. As of December 31, 2024, we had insurance policies in force in almost 80 foreign countries and receive the majority of our premiums from Colombia, Taiwan, Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina. International direct premiums comprised approximately 89% of total direct premiums in the Life Insurance segment and 67% of our total consolidated direct premiums in 2024.
The independent marketing agencies and consultants who sell our products specialize in life insurance products. We enter into contracts with the independent marketing agencies pursuant to which they recruit, train and supervise their managers and associates in the sales and service of our products. These agencies receive commissions for products they sell and service, as well as commission overrides on the business that their agents produce and, in return for the override, they guarantee any debt their agents owe to us. Their agents also contract directly with us as independent consultants and receive commission compensation directly from us. This allows us to develop a relationship with their associates so if an agency contract is terminated for any reason, we may seek to continue the existing independent consultant marketing arrangements with the associates of such agency. Our agreements typically provide that the agencies and their agents are independent consultants responsible for their own operational expenses and are the representative of the prospective insured. Our contracts require the independent marketing agencies and consultants to understand and comply with all laws applicable to sales of our products in their country.
Competition
The life insurance business is competitive. Internationally, we compete with a number of life insurance companies, as well as with financial institutions that offer insurance products.
We face competition from (i) other insurance companies that operate in the same markets and manner as we do, (ii) local companies formed and operated in the country in which an insured resides, and (iii) other foreign companies who issue insurance policies denominated in the local currency of those countries or issue products approved by regulators of those countries. Some of these companies may have a competitive advantage over us due to their greater financial resources, histories of successful operations and brand recognition, local licensing, partnering with local insurance companies and larger marketing forces.
We believe that issuing U.S. dollar-denominated products is a key competitive advantage for us. Because premiums on our international policies are paid in U.S. dollars, cash value is accumulated in U.S. dollars, and we pay claims and benefits in U.S. dollars. We believe this provides security and stability to our policy owners and insureds, who are generally individuals in the middle- to upper-middle class in their respective countries with significant net worth and earnings, by providing:
• protection against devaluation of the policyowners' local currency;
• protection against local hyper-inflation that has historically occurred in Latin America; and
• capital investment in a more secure economic environment (i.e., the U.S.).
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DOMESTIC LIFE INSURANCE
Over the last couple of years, we began our "white label" program to expand our distribution by expanding CICA Domestic's state licenses, developing new final expense and living benefit products, and filing these new products in multiple states. At December 31, 2024, we had over 5,000 agents appointed to sell these products. As a result, in the past year, we have significantly expanded our domestic distribution in the Life Insurance segment and first year premiums have more than doubled in this segment compared to 2023. In 2024, domestic direct life insurance premiums comprised approximately 11% of total direct premiums in the Life Insurance segment and 9% of our consolidated total direct premiums. The average life insurance policy face amount issued in 2024 was approximately $10,800 per policy. Due to the lower risk associated with small face amount polices, the underwriting performed on these applications is limited.
Competition
Domestically we face competition with other insurance carriers specializing in final expense insurance. We seek to compete effectively through policyholder service, price, product design, and distribution efforts. While there are insurance companies competing with us, no individual company dominates any of our life insurance markets.
The Company effectively competes with other carriers, in part, due to our ability to tailor products to individual distributors' needs.
HOME SERVICE INSURANCE SEGMENT
We operate our domestic Home Service Insurance segment through SPLIC and Magnolia. SPLIC issues final expense life insurance and critical illness products to lower-income individuals, primarily through a home service distribution model based in Louisiana. Policies issued by Magnolia are primarily burial policies which are sold and serviced through funeral homes, who are also typically the beneficiaries of the policies. Additionally, prior to June 30, 2023, we operated through Security Plan Fire Insurance Company ("SPFIC"), a limited liability casualty company that issued small face value property insurance policies covering dwelling and contents, primarily in Louisiana. We ceased operations on June 30, 2023 and dissolved SPFIC in 2024. In 2024, our Home Service Insurance segment comprised 24% of our total consolidated direct premiums.
Products
Our Home Service Insurance products consist primarily of small face amount whole life, pre-need policies, which are designed to fund final expenses for the insured (e.g., funeral and burial costs) and critical illness products. The average life insurance policy face amount issued in 2024 was approximately $12,800 per policy. Due to the lower risk associated with small face amount polices, the underwriting performed on these applications is limited.
Competition
We face competition in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas from other carriers specializing in final expense insurance. We seek to compete by delivering exceptional personal service to our customers, enhancing our management team and upgrading our agent field force. We intend to continue premium growth within this segment by focusing on direct independent agent-to-consumer sales.
REINSURANCE
We follow the industry practice of reinsuring a portion of our insurance risks with unaffiliated reinsurers. In a reinsurance transaction, a reinsurer agrees to indemnify another insurer for part or all of its liability under a policy or policies it has issued for an agreed upon premium. We participate in reinsurance activities in order to minimize exposure to significant risks, limit losses, and provide additional capacity for future growth. We enter into various agreements with reinsurers that cover individual risks, group risks or defined blocks of business, primarily on a coinsurance and yearly renewable term basis.
For the majority of our international life insurance business, we generally retain the first $100,000 of risk on any one life and reinsure the remainder of the risk. Therefore, under the terms of the reinsurance agreements, the reinsurers
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agree to reimburse us for the ceded amount (i.e., the death benefit amount less our retained risk) in the event a claim is paid. The Company evaluates the maximum amount it is willing to retain from time to time and may increase its retention, which can reduce premiums ceded to our reinsurers and allow us to keep a larger portion of premiums received.
In the second quarter of 2024, CICA Domestic entered into a coinsurance agreement with RGA Reinsurance Company ("RGA") in order to provide more capacity for growth. Under this agreement (the "RGA Agreement"), CICA Domestic initially elected for RGA to reinsure 50% of its newly written final expense business, which means that we cede 50% of premiums received and benefits paid in our domestic final expense benefit to RGA.
Cessions under reinsurance agreements do not discharge our obligations as the primary insurer. In the event reinsurers do not meet their obligations under the terms of the reinsurance agreements, reinsurance recoverable balances could become uncollectible.
Our amounts recoverable from reinsurers represent receivables from and/or reserves ceded to reinsurers. The amount recoverable from reinsurers was $6.9 million as of December 31, 2024.
We focus on obtaining reinsurance from a diverse group of well-established reinsurers. All of our reinsurers are rated A- (Excellent) or higher by A.M. Best. We regularly evaluate the financial condition of our reinsurers and monitor concentration risk with our reinsurers.
OTHER NON-INSURANCE ENTERPRISES
Other Non-Insurance Enterprises includes the results of our parent company, Citizens, Inc., Nexo Global Services LLC, a Puerto Rico holding company ("Nexo"), Nexo Enrollment Services LLC ("NES"), a Puerto Rico company that provides services to the customers of CICA International, and our non-insurance subsidiary, Computing Technology, Inc., which primarily provides the Company's corporate-support and information technology functions to the insurance operations.
OPERATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY
Most of our operations are based at our corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. We also conduct operations for our Home Service Insurance segment from our district offices in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, as well as our service center in Donaldsonville, Louisiana. For the international portion of our Life Insurance segment, certain operations are conducted at our office in Puerto Rico and, starting in 2024, some customer service functions are conducted in the Philippines. The Company is actively engaged in optimizing its operations by seeking opportunities to leverage the global workforce to meet the needs of its international policyholders.
We have a proprietary single, centrally-controlled, mainframe-based policy administration system ("PAS") that we use for all of our insurance companies. Our PAS performs various functions to effectively handle our insurance operations. These functions include policy set-up, administration, billing and collections, commission calculation, valuation, automated data edits, storage backup, image management and other related functions. Each company and block of business we have acquired has been converted onto our PAS. The Company is actively engaged in continued modernization of technology to invest and expand into new opportunities. This modernization allows us to bring new products to market rapidly and automate insurance interactions to enhance user experience. This investment is foundational to the Company's growth strategy as we pursue new product innovation and provides:
• our customers and agents with portals to be able to access account information 24/7;
• our policyholder service and claims representatives with a customer account-centric view of our policyholders and beneficiaries, reducing customer inquiry response time and claims processing time;
• streamline, automated processes that deliver the scalability needed for continue growth; and
• business-to-business solutions.
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REGULATION
The insurance industry is heavily regulated and both Citizens and our insurance subsidiaries are subject to regulation and supervision by the U.S. states in which they do business, by U.S. federal laws, and for CICA International, by Puerto Rico.
REGULATION OF OUR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Puerto Rico
CICA International, our Puerto Rico domiciled subsidiary, is regulated by the Puerto Rico Office of the Insurance Commissioner (“OIC”) and is licensed pursuant to the Puerto Rico Insurance Code (the "Insurance Code"). Although Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, it has its own tax code and own insurance code, including a provision under its Insurance Code that allows CICA International to be established as an "international insurer" and thus export insurance to international markets. We may not insure risks of residents of Puerto Rico with this type of license and we do not issue policies to U.S. risks through CICA International.
The Insurance Code does not specifically set forth minimum capital and surplus standards, but rather requires that an insurer submit a business plan for approval to the OIC that includes proposed minimum capital and surplus. CICA International is required to maintain a minimum of $750,000 in capital and maintain a premium to surplus ratio of 7 to 1. The Insurance Code requires us to file annual U.S. GAAP financial statements with the OIC that include schedules providing information regarding premiums written and reinsurance assumed and ceded, as well as an annual actuarial certification.
In addition to compliance with the Insurance Code, CICA International must comply with other laws and regulations of Puerto Rico, most of which apply to our domestic subsidiaries as well, including the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering laws and regulations of the United States.
Other International Regulation
Generally, all foreign countries in which we offer insurance products require a license or other authority to conduct insurance business in that country. Some of these countries also require that local regulatory authorities approve the terms of any insurance product sold to residents of that country. We operate on a non-admitted basis and are not licensed to do business in any foreign country, and we have never submitted our international insurance policies for approval to any regulatory agency. As described above, we sell our policies to residents of foreign countries through independent marketing agencies and independent consultants located in those countries and we rely on our independent consultants to comply with laws applicable to them in marketing and servicing our insurance products in their respective countries.
We have undertaken a comprehensive compliance review of risks associated with the potential application of foreign laws to our issuance of insurance policies in foreign countries. These laws vary by country. There is a lack of uniform regulation, lack of clarity in certain countries regarding application of regulations and in many cases, lack of legal precedent in addressing circumstances similar to ours. Our compliance review has confirmed certain risks related to foreign insurance laws associated with our business model, at least in certain jurisdictions, as described in detail in Part I. Item 1A. Risk Factors .
U.S. REGULATION
In the United States, insurance is primarily regulated at the state level. Our primary regulator in the U.S. is the Colorado Division of Insurance, as both Citizens and CICA Domestic are Colorado companies. We are also regulated by the departments of insurance in Louisiana (SPLIC) and Mississippi (Magnolia), as well as each of the 43 states and the District of Columbia in which we conduct insurance business. In supervising and regulating insurance companies, state insurance departments aim to protect policyholders and the public rather than investors, and enjoy broad authority and discretion in applying applicable insurance laws and regulation for that purpose. The extent of this regulation varies, but most U.S. jurisdictions have laws and regulations based upon the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") model rules governing the financial condition of insurers, including standards of solvency, types and concentration of investments, establishment and maintenance of reserves, credit for reinsurance and requirements of capital adequacy; and the business conduct of insurers,
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including marketing and sales practices and claims handling. In addition, statutes and regulations require the licensing of insurers and agents, the approval of most types of policy forms and related materials (such as advertising) and the approval of rates for certain types of insurance products. Insurance companies are also required to file detailed annual reports with our supervisory agencies.
In order for insurance regulators to monitor solvency, insurance companies are subject to risk-based capital ("RBC") requirements. The RBC requirement is a statutory minimum level of capital that is based on two factors - (1) the insurance company's size, and (2) the inherent riskiness of its financial assets and operations, i.e. a company must hold capital in proportion to its risk. The RBC requirement thus determines a minimum level of capital required for an insurer to support its operations and write coverage. The purpose of the RBC requirements is to identify weakly capitalized companies, which facilitates regulatory actions to ensure that the policyholders will receive the benefits promised. Regulators have the legal authority to take preventive and corrective measures depending on the capital deficiency indicated by the RBC result. If a company's ratio of total adjusted statutory capital to control level risk-based capital is above 200%, no regulatory intervention is needed. In 2024, due to our strategic plan to expand CICA Domestic's business, we entered into a capital maintenance agreement with the Colorado Division of Insurance that specifies that Citizens will infuse capital as needed to ensure that CICA Domestic's RBC ratio remains at or above 350%.
In addition to monitoring our financial condition, insurance regulatory authorities (including state law enforcement agencies and attorneys general) periodically make inquiries and regularly conduct examinations regarding compliance with insurance and other laws and regulations regarding the conduct of our insurance businesses. It is our practice to fully and consistently cooperate with such inquiries and examinations and take corrective action when warranted.
In order to sell products in any state, we first have to become licensed in that state. States have various rules for obtaining a license, including capital deposit requirements and seasoning requirements, among others. Once we are licensed in a state, most states require us to file our products for their approval before being able to sell the products. The application and product forms must comply with state insurance laws regarding policy requirements. Once an application or product is approved in that state, we must use the approved forms to sell our products. We have to file our domestic forms in both English and Spanish for separate approvals. We are also subject to laws related to our advertising and may have to file certain marketing documents with state regulators as well.
Because Citizens is a holding company that directly and indirectly owns insurance operating subsidiaries, we are also subject to regulation in our three domiciliary states that require us to furnish the respective insurance regulators with financial and other information concerning the operations of, and the interrelationships and transactions among, the companies within our holding company system that may materially affect the operations, management or financial condition of the insurers within the system. Generally, these laws and regulations require that all transactions within a holding company system between an insurer and its affiliates be fair and reasonable and that the insurer's statutory capital and surplus following any transaction with an affiliate be both reasonable in relation to its outstanding liabilities and adequate to its financial needs. For certain types of agreements and transactions between an insurer and its affiliates, these laws and regulations require prior notification to, and non-disapproval or approval by, the insurance regulatory authority of the insurer's jurisdiction of domicile. These laws also require that a controlling party obtain the approval of the insurance commissioner of the insurance company's jurisdiction of domicile prior to acquiring or divesting control of the insurer.
The payment of dividends or other distributions to Citizens by our insurance subsidiaries is also regulated by the insurance laws and regulations of their respective state or jurisdiction of domicile. The laws and regulations of some of these jurisdictions also prohibit an insurer from declaring or paying a dividend except out of its earned surplus or require the insurer to obtain regulatory approval before it may do so. In addition, insurance regulators may prohibit the payment of ordinary dividends or other payments by our insurance subsidiaries to us (such as a payment under a tax sharing agreement or for employee or other services) if they determine such payment could be adverse to policyholders or insurance contract holders of the subsidiary.
Because we maintain sensitive data regarding our customers, we are also subject to additional state regulations in states where we do business, such as data security and state privacy laws.
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While primarily regulated at the state level, our domestic business is subject to various federal laws and regulations. Some of the primary federal laws include:
• USA Patriot Act and the Bank Secrecy Act, which require us to institute certain measures to detect and prevent money laundering;
• Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which makes it unlawful to bribe foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business;
• Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires us to explain our information-sharing practices to our customers and to safeguard sensitive data;
• Securities Act, Securities Exchange Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which establish various requirements for Citizens, as a public company, to comply with, including registration of our Class A common stock, reporting and disclosure requirements, and public company audit and internal control requirements;
Our U.S.-based insurance products and thus our businesses also are affected by U.S. federal, state and local tax laws.
HUMAN CAPITAL RESOURCES
Composition and Demographics
Our human capital is a critical component to our success. Our employees implement and drive our strategic initiatives and contribute to the success of our products (development, underwriting, pricing adequacy, customer service), promotions and processes. Our employees in our claims department are ultimately tasked with "keeping our promise". Our independent consultants and agents also drive our key goals, as they sell our insurance products and provide local services to our global base of policyholders. We also believe that we derive a great deal of strength from our diverse workforce. Fostering an equitable and inclusive workplace with diverse teams produces more creative solutions, results in more innovative products and services and is crucial to our efforts to attract, develop and retain key talent.
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As of December 31, 2024, we had 247 full-time employees and 3 part-time employees. The pie charts below illustrate the gender, racial, ethnic, and generational make-up of our total employee workforce as of such date.
Gender Composition
Racial/Ethnic Composition
Generational Composition
We determine race, ethnicity, gender, and generation based on our employees' self-identification or other information compiled to meet requirements of the U.S. government.
None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.
We do not utilize captive employee agents to distribute our products and thus contract with over 1,000 actively producing independent consultants internationally and over 5,000 independent agencies and agents domestically to sell and service our insurance products.
In order to continue to develop, sell and administer our products, it is crucial that we continue to attract and retain both experienced employees and independent agents.
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