Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business
OVERVIEW
Our Business
Tiptree is a holding company that allocates capital across a broad spectrum of businesses, assets and other investments. We classify our business as follows: the Insurance reportable segment and Tiptree Capital, including our Mortgage reportable segment. The remainder of our non-insurance operations are aggregated into Tiptree Capital - Other. Our Insurance segment consists of Fortegra, which is a leading provider of specialty insurance, warranty products and related administration services, and the Smart AutoCare brands. Insurance revenues are generated from earned premiums, net, service and administrative fees, ceding commissions and earnings on our investment portfolio. Our Mortgage segment consists of Reliance, which originates residential mortgage loans which are typically sold to secondary market investors, either servicing released or servicing retained. Mortgage revenues are generated from gain on sale of loans, net servicing income, net interest income and loan fee income. We also generate earnings from a diverse group of select investments that we refer to as Tiptree Capital - Other.
Our business is comprised of the following:
• Insurance
– Operations - We are a specialty insurance program underwriter and service provider, which focuses on niche business lines and fee-oriented services. The significant majority of our products are sold through independent agents. Our Insurance segment includes the Fortegra and the Smart AutoCare brands.
– Investments - We invest a majority of our insurance related investment assets in high quality fixed income securities to support our claims paying activities. To enhance our investment return objectives, we selectively allocate a portion of our insurance portfolio to higher yielding credit-risk assets, equities and alternative investments.
• Tiptree Capital - We also own a diverse group of investments, which includes control investments in businesses, investments in securities and other assets, all of which are managed to increase shareholder value, through a combination of current earnings and capital appreciation. We view these investment decisions as distinctly separate from our core insurance operations. We expect the investments within Tiptree Capital to change over time as we exit investments and our outlook on investment opportunities changes. Today, Tiptree Capital consists primarily of investments in shares of Invesque, maritime transportation and mortgage origination operations.
– Mortgage - as a nationwide mortgage lender, we are approved to originate and service Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae eligible loans. We primarily originate, sell and service conventional, conforming agency and government insured residential mortgage loans originated through our retail channel.
– Other - consists primarily of investments in shares of Invesque and maritime transportation.
As of December 31, 2020, Tiptree and its consolidated subsidiaries had 1,372 employees, 32 of which were at our corporate headquarters. Corporate employees are responsible for corporate strategy, capital allocation and investment decisions, as well as all public company reporting and compliance.
Our businesses are subject to regulation as described below. The 1940 Act may limit the types and nature of businesses that we engage in and assets that we may acquire. See “Risk Factors-Risks Related to Regulatory and Legal Matters-Maintenance of our 1940 Act exemption will impose limits on our operations.”
Our Operating Principles
At Tiptree, we are continually looking for investment opportunities that fit within our operating principles and make capital allocation decisions for the most efficient deployment of our capital.
Underwrite to a Profit . Our principal strategic objective is to continue expanding Fortegra’s operations, particularly the specialty insurance and warranty businesses. Our highest priority is to maintain strong underwriting practices, with attention paid to the insurance disciplines of pricing, underwriting and claims management.
Invest for Long-term Returns. Our financial goals are to generate consistent and growing earnings and cash flow, and to enhance shareholder value as measured by growth in book value per share plus dividends. We manage Tiptree with a long-term perspective, balancing cash-flowing investments with opportunities for capital appreciation. We focus on targeting investment returns that have
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a combination of current earnings and long-term capital appreciation, understanding that temporary accounting gains and losses may vary significantly from one period to the next.
Think Like Owners. Efficient deployment of capital is our top priority. We aim to find the best use of capital to create long-term value for our shareholders. We hope to achieve this through a combination of acquisitions, investments in our existing businesses, monetization opportunities, opportunistic share repurchases and paying a consistent dividend. As of March 11, 2021, directors, officers, employees and related trusts owned 30% of the Company.
Insurance
Overview
The Fortegra Group, LLC (“Fortegra”), is an established, growing and consistently profitable specialty insurer. We purposefully focus on niche business lines and fee-oriented services, providing us with a unique combination of specialty insurance program underwriting, warranty and service contract products and related service solutions. Our vertically integrated business model creates an attractive blend of traditional underwriting revenues, investment income and unregulated fee revenues. Our differentiated approach has led to robust growth, consistent profitability and high cash flows. Our business was founded in 1981. Fortegra is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and as of December 31, 2020, had 716 employees across 15 offices in four countries.
We target lines of business with a small premium-per-risk profile, which has increased our frequency exposure but has limited our severity and catastrophic risks. We believe this focus has allowed us to produce superior underwriting results through a more granular spread of risk. We use our proprietary technology to efficiently and effectively administer our business to specialty markets that we feel are underserved by larger, less agile insurers. Our underwriting expertise, strong distribution relationships and proprietary technology empower us to remain agile and take advantage of attractive opportunities in challenging market conditions.
We are an agent-driven business, employing a “one-to-many” distribution model, which allows us to leverage our high-quality partners’ brands and customer bases. We deliver our products through independent insurance agents. We also partner with agents that are embedded in consumer finance companies, online and regional big box retailers, auto dealers and other companies to deliver our products that complement the consumer transaction. We use artificial intelligence (“A.I.”) technology to create a distinct lead generation advantage for our insurance distribution partners and over the past five years have maintained a greater than 95% persistency rate, which represents the annual retention of the number of our producing agents. We align our agents’ economics with their underwriting results via risk-sharing agreements, which we believe has enabled us to better manage uncertainties and deliver more consistent profit margins. Combined with our underwriting expertise and technology-enabled administration, we provide a high-value proposition to our distribution relationships.
Products and Services
U.S. Insurance: Provides niche, specialty insurance programs distributed through managing general agents (“MGAs”), wholesale agents, retail agents and brokers. We offer an array of commercial programs with a particular focus on casualty lines. These lines include professional liability, warranty, energy, allied health, general liability, directors and officers liability, life sciences, inland marine, contractors equipment, contractors liability, student legal liability, hospitality and business owner policy. We also offer a range of personal lines programs including storage unit contents, manufactured housing, GAP, auto, credit life and disability and collateral protection products. Additionally, we offer related fee-earning, unregulated products and services, such as captive administration services, program administration and premium financing, to our U.S. Insurance customers. We are active in 50 states in the United States.
• Commercial & Personal Lines: Our program business is focused on underwriting niche commercial and personal lines insurance coverages for agents, retail agents, MGAs, brokers and other program managers that require broad licensure, an “A-” or better A.M. Best rating, and specialized knowledge and expertise to deliver our products. Our commercial lines and personal lines programs include a wide array of niche commercial and personal lines programs, including admitted and excess and surplus (“E&S”) lines programs. With each program, we grant these agents and program managers the authority to produce, underwrite and administer policies subject to our pricing and underwriting guidelines. We typically transfer a substantial portion of the underwriting risk on these programs to third-party reinsurers for which we are paid a ceding fee. We generally retain between 10-30% of the premium on a net basis.
• Credit Insurance & Collateral Protection: Our credit insurance products are designed to offer consumers and lenders protection from life events that limit a borrower’s ability to make payments on outstanding loan balances. These products offer consumers and lenders the option to protect loan balance repayment in the event of death, involuntary unemployment or disability. Our collateral protection products are designed to primarily protect the lender from losses to
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collateral pledged to secure an installment loan. In most instances, these products offer lenders the option to protect collateral from a comprehensive loss due to fire, wind, flood and theft. Additionally, if the collateral is an automobile, the coverage does protect against collision losses.
U.S. Warranty Solutions: Provides consumers with protection from certain covered losses on automobiles, mobile devices, consumer electronics, appliances and furniture in the United States. Our programs include, but are not limited to, VSCs, roadside assistance and motor clubs, GAP, automobile dent and ding repair, key replacement, cellular handset protection and brown and white good service contracts. We distribute our programs through retailers, auto dealerships and cell-phone carriers. We are active in 50 states in the United States.
Our warranty and service contract products and solutions provide consumers with coverage for specific losses to automobiles, recreation vehicles, mobile devices, consumer electronics, appliances and furniture and bedding. These products offer benefits such as replacement, service or repair coverage in the event of mechanical breakdown, accidental damage and water or spill damage. Some of our warranty and service contract products are extensions of warranty coverage provided by their original equipment manufacturers. As part of our vertically integrated offering, we provide valuable services to our distribution partners including premium financing, lead generation support, insurance sales, and business process outsourcing.
Europe Warranty Solutions: Provides consumers with protection from certain covered losses on automobiles, mobile devices, consumer electronics, appliances and furniture in the European region. We offer a variety of programs, including GAP, auto extended warranty, automobile dent and ding repair, tire and wheel protection, cellular handset protection, consumer products accidental damage and others. We distribute our programs through MGAs, retail agents and auto dealerships.
Distribution and Marketing
Our programs are marketed and sold by agents and program partners. Our program partners marketing and selling warranty solutions, collateral protection and credit insurance include financial services companies, big-box retailers, furniture stores, automobile dealerships, regional cellular service providers and mobile device service providers. Our commercial and personal lines insurance programs are marketed through a network of independent insurance agents, retailers, brokers and managing general agencies. Our warranty and service contract programs are primarily marketed and sourced through insurance intermediaries including third-party administrators (“TPAs”), insurance brokers, MGAs and agents. Our vertically integrated platform also allows us to engage and enter into direct relationships with distributors. In each case, we pay our program partners a commission-based fee (or a dealer net equivalent in the case of our service contract and protection product business). A significant portion of our commission agreements are on a retrospective commission basis. This type of arrangement allows us to adjust commissions based upon underwriting results. We believe these types of commission arrangements align the economic interests of the agent and insurer. Additionally, these arrangements deliver more consistent profit margins.
We generally target markets that are niche and specialty in nature, which we believe are underserved by competitors and have high barriers to entry. We focus on establishing quality client relationships and emphasizing customer service. This focus, along with our ability to help clients enhance revenue and reduce costs, has enabled us to develop and maintain numerous long-term client relationships.
A significant portion of our marketing partnership commission agreements are on a variable or retrospective commission basis, which allows us to adjust commissions on the basis of claims experience. Under these types of arrangements, the compensation to our marketing partners is based upon the actual losses incurred compared to premiums earned. We believe these types of contractual arrangements align their economic interests with ours, help us to better manage our risk exposure and deliver more consistent profit margins with respect to these types of arrangements.
Underwriting
Our underwriting team consists of 90 underwriting professionals as of December 31, 2020. Our underwriters are industry veterans with deep knowledge of the specialty products that they underwrite, and they have longstanding relationships with our distribution partners.
We give limited underwriting authority to our MGAs. This means that we give our MGAs quote, bind and policy issuance authority within specifically agreed underwriting guidelines. Our underwriters work with our MGA partners to develop the underwriting guidelines for each program. Exceptions to the underwriting guidelines require approval from a senior underwriter.
Technology
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Our business strategy is supported by technology in four ways: the ability to effectively serve small policies in a cost efficient manner; the ability to generate business leads that fit our risk profile using A.I.; enhancing underwriting results, improving the business and experience of our distribution partners; and the ability to grow our business and add new product lines with minimal incremental expense.
Claims Management
We organize our claims department by lines of business, with specialized teams aligned by the line of business in which they have expertise. Each claims adjuster is trained and experienced in evaluating the coverage applicable to the noticed matter and effectuating an appropriate resolution. When an insured reports a claim, it is immediately directed to the proper unit for handling.
We maintain claims disposition authority for greater than 90% of claims adjudicated within the credit and warranty programs. We maintain claims disposition authority for greater than 70% of claims adjudicated within the property and casualty programs. When necessary, the claims team has access to a panel of expert attorneys, mediators, investigators and independent adjusters who will be retained in connection with litigation or loss inspection. Our claims adjusters work closely with our underwriting team by keeping them apprised of loss trends early in a program’s development. For certain lines of business that have high frequency and low severity, we utilize TPAs to process claims. This allows our claims professionals to focus on more complex claims, and enhances the efficiency of our claims department. Our MGAs do not have claims authority and the TPAs that we use do not have underwriting authority.
Our claims are generally reported and settled quickly, resulting in consistent historical loss development patterns and limited tail risk. We have data systems that allow for the centralization of data and creation of reports, which creates a management reporting tool allowing for the identification of trends within a product, specific jurisdiction or across multiple jurisdictions.
Investments
Investment income is a significant component of our earnings. Our primary investment objectives are to maintain liquidity, to preserve capital, and to generate a stable level of investment income. We rely on our conservative underwriting practices to generate investable funds. As of December 31, 2020, the majority of our investments, or $377.1 million, was comprised of fixed maturity securities that are classified as available-for-sale and carried at fair value with unrealized gains and losses on these securities, net of applicable taxes, reported as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI). Also included in our investments were $34.3 million of equity securities, $7.8 million of loans, at fair value, $63.9 million of exchange traded fixed income funds, at fair value, and $125.8 million of other investments.
Our investable assets are invested in asset classes that we believe will maintain liquidity and support capital preservation while producing attractive risk-adjusted returns. Most of these securities are invested in short-duration fixed income securities that are both highly liquid and highly rated. Our fixed maturity securities totaled $589 million and include cash and cash equivalents, available for sale securities, at fair value, exchange traded funds and investment grade securities classified in other investments, had a weighted-average effective duration of 2.4 years, an average S&P rating of AA, and a book yield of 1.9% as of December 31, 2020. These securities, representing 83% of our total investments, are primarily managed by BlackRock with direction from internal asset management professionals. We internally manage credit risk assets, equities and alternative assets, which represented 17% of total investments as of December 31, 2020. We conduct monthly stress tests and use predictive analytics to manage our investments, which we believe reduces risk to our investment performance. We also maintain an investment committee that meets monthly to ensure our investment objectives remain aligned with our broader strategic and financial objectives.
Risk Management and Reinsurance
Consistent with standard industry practice for most insurance companies, we use reinsurance to manage our underwriting risk and efficiently utilize capital. For example, a significant portion of our distribution partners of credit and warranty insurance products have created captive reinsurance companies to assume the insurance risk on the products they deliver. These captive reinsurance companies are known as producer owned reinsurance companies (“PORCs”) and in most instances each PORC assumes almost all of the underwriting risk associated with the insurance products they deliver. When we use PORCs, consistent with applicable laws and insurance regulations, we act in a fronting and administrative capacity on behalf of each PORC, providing underwriting and claims management services. We receive an administration fee that compensates us for our expenses associated with underwriting and servicing the underlying policies. Because reinsurance does not relieve us of our primary liability to the policyholder, we generally require cash collateral to secure the reinsurance receivable in the event that a PORC is unable to pay the claims it has assumed. In our other commercial insurance program business, our reinsurers tend to be highly rated, well-capitalized professional third-party reinsurers. We typically contract with third-party reinsurers that have attained an “A-” or better financial strength rating
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from A.M. Best. Those reinsurers that fall below this threshold are required to post collateral on a funds held basis or with a letter of credit.
Our Competitive Strengths
Focus on Niche, Underserved Specialty Lines with Significant Fee-Based Income
We focus on specialty insurance program business and have continued to diversify our revenues. We use three distinct approaches to grow our business – we pursue and acquire agents with select books of business that we believe will maintain risk-appropriate rates; we seek agents with what we believe is distinct underwriting expertise to select specific niches in programs; and we target the lines of business we believe are overlooked by the standard markets. For example, we often target the smaller premium-per-risk lines that we believe are highly profitable, have the potential to grow and are underserved by our competitors. We believe we have a unique ability to source small programs that meet our rate, form and risk threshold through our extensive distribution network and A.I. technology. We believe our underwriting expertise, proprietary technology and deep distribution relationships allow us to serve our specialty markets and capture share. We cross-sell multiple products to our customers through the breadth of our products and solutions, including fee-based services. We believe the combination of a low limits profile, low severity products and attractive fee income provides higher underwriting margin and earnings stability for our business. While low limits and low severity constitute most of our underwritten business, we believe we are agile enough to take advantage of attractive opportunities in challenging market conditions.
Track Record of Growth, Profitable Underwriting and Strong Economic Alignment with Our Distribution Network
Consistent underwriting is a function of rate adequacy and risk selection by our specialized agents. While we regularly establish sound actuarial rates similar to our insurance peers, we believe our stringent risk selection requires unique underwriting expertise by our agents and a high degree of specialty program underwriting skillsets. After we establish relationships with our targeted agents, we further solidify our alliance by creating additional value for our distribution partners through our technology platform. We believe our A.I. algorithm and machine learning assisted underwriting drives a distinct lead generation advantage for our agents. Using A.I. technology and machine learning, we identify risks that fit into an acceptable profile, enhancing the agent’s efficiency and revenue base while allowing us to experience what we believe is a superior spread of risk and exceptional underwriting results. For the year ended December 31, 2020, our combined ratio was 91.5% and has averaged 91.6% over the past five years.
Scalable, Proprietary Technology, Which Drives Efficiency and Delivers Premium Customer Service
We provide many aspects of insurance, including admitted specialty property-casualty products, E&S line offerings, administration, premium finance and other value-added services. We have a scalable and flexible technology infrastructure, together with highly trained and knowledgeable IT personnel and consultants. These resources allow us to launch new insurance and fee for service programs and expand gross written premiums and premium equivalents volume quickly and seamlessly without significant incremental expenses. Our technology also delivers low-cost, highly automated underwriting and administration services to our program partners without substantial up front investments. This technology-enhanced platform enables us to automate core business processes, reduce our operating costs, increase our operating efficiency and secure high agent retention. We have maintained a 95% persistency rate with our insurance producing agents over the past five years. Our underwriting expertise, strong distribution relationships and proprietary technology empower us to remain agile and take advantage of attractive opportunities in challenging market conditions. Our systems also enable us to provide a high level of service to our distribution partners and customers through technology.
High-Quality, Conservative Balance Sheet with Solid Capitalization and Ratings
We maintain a high quality, S&P “AA” rated, fixed income investment portfolio. Our investment portfolio’s principal objectives are to preserve capital and surplus, to maintain appropriate liquidity for corporate requirements, to support our strong ratings and to maximize returns. We have a track record of reducing our reinsurance counterparty exposure by partnering with reinsurers that have high-grade credit quality, ensuring high-quality recoverable assets and by effectively using collateral and partnering with PORCs. Our financial strength ratings of “A-” (Excellent) (Stable Outlook) from A.M. Best and “A-” (Stable Outlook) from KBRA reflect our adherence to our core values.
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Market Opportunity
Commercial & Personal Lines
We underwrite and administer both admitted and E&S line business. We believe underwriting business across multiple industries and geographies creates a conducive environment for targeting profitable programs, supporting agents with highly specialized skillsets and focusing on overlooked business lines. Our approach facilitates participation in niche markets when the rate environment presents actionable opportunities. We believe the breadth of our underwriting capacity, services and expertise afford our agents with a platform that meets the entirety of their needs. Our risk-sharing model aligns agents’ economics to their underwriting performance, incentivizing agents to grow while maintaining strict profit margin discipline. Through long-term relationships with our agents and substantial experience in the markets we serve, we believe we operate in an advantageous position against new market entrants, who we believe would find it time-consuming and expensive to compete against or replicate our success.
Credit Insurance & Collateral Protection
We are a leading provider of credit insurance protection products in the United States and believe we are well positioned to increase our market share both organically and potentially through acquisition. We believe our capabilities and reputation have allowed us to better position ourselves competitively for new business and renewals in the marketplace. We also believe our market position, capabilities and reputation will make us a preferred acquisition partner for smaller competitors that may choose to exit the market or desire a partner with more resources.
U.S. Warranty Solutions
We believe we can significantly increase our market presence in the warranty sector. We entered the warranty market as a natural extension of our insurance products given that it possesses similar attributes and distribution channels. Our warranty market gross premiums written equivalents grew to $550.0 million in the year ended December 31, 2020, compared to $297.3 million in the year ended December 31, 2019, which represents a 85% compounded annual growth rate. We believe the demand from consumers for extended service contracts on products such as automobiles, furniture, mobile phones and electronics will continue to drive long-term growth opportunities. We believe our acquisition of Smart AutoCare, combined with Fortegra, position us as a leading provider of automobile extended service contracts.
Europe Warranty Solutions
In 2018, we expanded into Europe where we believe our existing warranty product offerings can be successfully distributed while maintaining similar levels of our existing underwriting performance.
Competition
We operate in several markets, and believe that no single company competes against us in all of our business lines. We may compete with other specialty carriers or program managers within a given program, but no specific insurers can be identified as clear competition across all of our programs. Within the United States, we compete with specialty insurers like Markel Corporation, RLI Corporation and Clear Blue Insurance Group. We also compete with larger insurance companies that may selectively underwrite specialty or credit programs like AIG and Allianz SE. Within our U.S. and European Warranty Solutions lines of business, we compete with Assurant, Securian Financial, Great American, Asurion, LLC, AmTrust Financial, SquareTrade Inc., Allianz SE, Helvetia Insurance and AXA SA. These lists are not exhaustive and are constantly evolving as we and our competitors expand program coverage.
In general, the insurance markets our programs operate in are highly competitive. The competition we face is due to a confluence of factors, including product pricing, industry knowledge and expertise, quality of customer service, effectiveness of distribution channels, technology platforms and underwriting processes, the quality of information systems, financial strength ratings, size, breadth of products offered, overall reputation, and other factors. We primarily compete by leveraging our proprietary technological innovations, decades of underwriting expertise, robust distribution relationships, data-driven marketing initiatives, our “agent-first” mentality, and best-in-class reputation.
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Regulation
We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign regulation and supervision. Our insurance subsidiaries are generally restricted by the insurance laws of their respective domiciles as to the amount of dividends they may pay without the prior approval of the respective regulatory authorities. Generally, the maximum dividend that may be paid by an insurance subsidiary during any year without prior regulatory approval is limited to a stated percentage of that subsidiary’s statutory surplus as of a certain date, or net income of the subsidiary for the preceding year.
Our U.S. insurance company subsidiaries are domiciled in several states, including Arizona, California, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky and Louisiana. The regulation, supervision and administration by state departments of insurance relate, among other things, to: standards of solvency that must be met and maintained, restrictions on the payment of dividends, changes in control of insurance companies, the licensing of insurers and their agents and other producers, the types of insurance that may be written, privacy practices, the ability to enter and exit certain insurance markets, the nature of and limitations on investments and premium rates, or restrictions on the size of risks that may be insured under a single policy, reserves and provisions for unearned premiums, losses and other obligations, deposits of securities for the benefit of policyholders, payment of sales compensation to third parties, approval of policy forms and the regulation of market conduct, including underwriting and claims practices. As part of their routine regulatory oversight process, state insurance departments conduct periodic detailed financial examinations of the books, records, accounts and operations of insurance companies that are domiciled in their states.
Our insurance company subsidiaries are also subject to certain state regulations that define eligible investments and establish diversification requirements and concentration limits among asset classes. Failure to comply with these regulations would cause non-conforming investments to be treated as non-admitted assets in the states in which we are licensed to sell insurance policies for purposes of measuring statutory surplus and, in some instances, would require us to sell those investments. Such investment laws are generally permissive with respect to federal, state and municipal obligations, and more restrictive with respect to corporate obligations, particularly non-investment grade obligations, foreign investment, equity securities and real estate investments. Each insurance company is therefore limited by the investment laws of its state of domicile from making excessive investments in any given security (such as single issuer limitations) or in certain classes or riskier investments (such as aggregate limitation in non-investment grade bonds).
The NAIC provides model insurance laws and regulations for adoption by the states and standardized insurance industry accounting and reporting guidance. However, model insurance laws and regulations only become effective when adopted and enacted by the states, and statutory accounting and reporting principles continue to be established by individual state laws, regulations and permitted practices. The NAIC has adopted a model act with risk-based capital (“RBC”) formulas to be applied to insurance companies to measure the minimum amount of capital appropriate for an insurance company to support its overall business operations in light of its size and risk profile. State insurance regulators use RBC standards as a tool to monitor capital adequacy and to determine appropriate actions relating to insurers that show signs of weak or deteriorating conditions. The domiciliary states of our insurance company subsidiaries have adopted laws substantially similar to the NAIC’s RBC model act.
Our insurance holding company is subject to the respective state insurance holding company statutes which may require prior regulatory approval or non-disapproval of material transactions between an insurance company and an affiliate or of an acquisition of control of a domestic insurer and payments of extraordinary dividends or distributions.
Our insurance and warranty businesses are subject to U.S. federal and state regulations governing the protection of personal confidential information and data security, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, New York Department of Financial Services Cybersecurity Regulation and California Consumer Privacy Act. Our subsidiaries operating in the EU are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, or the “GDPR,” which regulates data protection for all individuals within the EU, which became effective on May 25, 2018.
A portion of our foreign business is conducted via our insurance company in Malta. Malta is a member country of the EU, and we are active in seven countries in the EU. The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, implemented insurance directives and capital adequacy and risk management regulations. EU member countries follow the insurance directives approved by the European Commission. The insurance directives set forth a regulatory regime for the authorization and supervision of insurers, with a minimum set of rules and standards for protecting policyholders across the EU. These directives give insurers authorized in any one EU country or territory the freedom to conduct insurance business in any other EU country or territory, referred to as passporting. Procedures are in place regarding the notifications and approvals by the home state regulator for passporting. Insurers exercising this freedom continue to be regulated by their home state regulator, although the host state is entitled to impose domestic rules with which passporting insurers are required to follow for their business in the host state, in the interest of the general good. Within this context, our Malta company is authorized and supervised by the Malta Financial Services Authority (“MFSA”) and passports across EU member states.
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In addition to the regulation of authorization and distribution, the European Commission established capital adequacy and risk management regulations, called Solvency II, that apply to businesses within the EU. Solvency II includes capital requirements, risk management and corporate governance frameworks, and financial reporting requirements, which are subject to MFSA regulatory oversight.
Even though the United Kingdom exited the EU, United Kingdom insurance regulation generally follows the same insurance directives and Solvency II principles. After Brexit, United Kingdom regulators established the Temporary Permissions Regime, which permits passporting insurers to continue operating in the United Kingdom for up to three years post-Brexit. We are active in and subject to regulation in the United Kingdom. Our Malta company was passporting into the United Kingdom prior to Brexit and registered to operate under the Temporary Permissions Regime until permanent authority is granted by United Kingdom regulators. Aspects of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU remain to be negotiated and their relationship will continue to evolve, including with respect to the cross-border provision of products and services and related compliance requirements. Post-transition period changes to the EU and United Kingdom legal, trade and regulatory frameworks, as well as changes to United Kingdom regulatory requirements for insurers operating in that host country, could increase our compliance costs and subject us to operational challenges in the region.
Additionally, a portion of our business is also ceded to our reinsurance company subsidiary domiciled in Turks and Caicos. Our Turks and Caicos company is subject to Solvency II type of regulation by the domestic regulator.
We are also subject to federal and state laws and regulations related to the administration of insurance products on behalf of other insurers. In order for us to process and administer insurance products of other companies, we are required to maintain licenses of a third-party administrator in the states where those insurance companies operate. We are also subject to the related federal and state privacy laws and must comply with federal and state data protection and privacy laws.
Seasonality
Our financial results historically have been, and we expect to continue to be, affected by seasonal variations. Revenues may fluctuate seasonally based on consumer spending, which has historically been higher in September and December, corresponding to auto-sales events and the back-to-school and holiday seasons. Accordingly, our revenues have historically been higher in the third and fourth quarters than in the first half of the year.
Intellectual Property
We own or license a number of trademarks, patents, trade names, copyrights, service marks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights that relate to our services and products within the various jurisdictions we operate. Although we believe that these intellectual property rights are, in the aggregate, important to our business, we also believe that our business is not materially dependent upon any particular trademark, trade name, copyright, service mark, license or other intellectual property right. Additionally, our insurance subsidiaries have entered into confidentiality agreements with their clients that impose restrictions on client use of our proprietary software and other intellectual property rights.
Employees
At December 31, 2020, Insurance employed 716 employees.
Tiptree Capital
We own a diversified group of investments across a broad spectrum of businesses and assets. These investments are owned and managed separately as Tiptree Capital, and include our Mortgage segment operations. We manage Tiptree Capital with a long term focus, balancing current cash flow and long-term value appreciation.
When assessing potential acquisitions and investments, we look for opportunities that:
• have strong and experienced management teams;
• can generate long term attractive returns, from both current earnings and capital appreciation;
• complement existing businesses or strategies; and
• have sustainable and scalable business models.
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We expect the investments within Tiptree Capital to change over time as we exit investments and reallocate capital to new investment opportunities. Though we do not have any specific sector focus, historically, the majority of our investments have occurred within four major sectors: asset management, real assets, specialty finance and credit investments.
Tiptree Capital – Mortgage Operations
Our mortgage operations are conducted through Reliance First Capital, LLC. Our mortgage business originates conventional and government one-to-four family, residential mortgage loans. The loans are typically sold in the secondary market, primarily through issuance of MBS securities guaranteed by Ginnie Mae and by whole loan sales to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and secondary market investors and aggregators. We sell our loans either servicing released or servicing retained. When we sell the loans servicing retained, we service those loans on behalf of the agencies. Revenues are primarily generated from gain on sale of loans, net interest income and loan fee income and loan servicing fees. The growth in our mortgage business is expected primarily to come from increased origination volume, retention of additional mortgage servicing rights, and new products.
Competition
The residential mortgage market is highly competitive. There are a large number of institutions offering these products, including many that operate on a national scale, as well as local savings banks, commercial banks, and other lenders. Many of our competitors are larger and have access to greater financial resources. In addition, many of the largest competitors are banks or are affiliated with banking institutions, the advantages of which include, but are not limited to, having access to financing with more favorable terms, including lower interest rate bank deposits as a favorable source of funding.
Regulation
We are subject to extensive regulation by federal, state and local governmental authorities, including the CFPB, the Federal Trade Commission and various state agencies that license, audit and conduct examinations. Our mortgage operations must comply with a number of federal, state and local consumer protection and privacy laws including laws that apply to loan origination, fair lending, debt collection, use of credit reports, safeguarding of non-public personally identifiable information about customers, foreclosure and claims handling, investment of and interest payments on escrow balances and escrow payment features, and mandate certain disclosures and notices to borrowers.
Employees
At December 31, 2020, our Mortgage operations had 446 employees.
Tiptree Capital - Other
Tiptree Capital - Other currently includes:
• Our share holdings of Invesque, a publicly traded real estate investment company that specializes in health care and senior living property investment throughout North America.
• Our investment holdings in the maritime transportation sector, specifically in dry bulk vessels and product tankers that transport commodities, such as coal, grains and clean petroleum products.
Competitive Strengths
The depth and breadth of experience of our management team enables us to source, structure, execute and manage the capital allocated to Tiptree Capital. In addition, in each of our investments, we benefit by partnering with experienced management teams and third-party managers, which we have hired or chosen based on their depth of experience in their respective sectors.
Competition
In the sectors in which Tiptree Capital participates, the markets are highly competitive. There are a large number of competitors offering similar products and services, including many that operate on an international scale, and which are often affiliated with major multi-national companies. Many of these organizations have substantially more personnel and greater financial and commercial resources than we do. Some of these competitors have proprietary products and distribution capabilities that may make it more difficult for us to compete with them. Some competitors also have greater name recognition, have managed their businesses for longer periods of time, have greater experience over a wider range of products or have other competitive advantages.
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Regulation
In the sectors in which Tiptree Capital participates, we are subject to extensive regulation by international, federal, state and local governmental authorities, including the SEC, the Federal Trade Commission, the EU, the UK and various state agencies. Our asset manager is registered with the SEC as an investment advisor and is subject to various federal and state laws and regulations and rules of various securities regulators and exchanges. These laws and regulations primarily are intended to protect clients and generally grant supervisory agencies broad administrative powers, including the power to limit or restrict the carrying on of business for failure to comply with such laws and regulations.
Our investments in maritime transportation are regulated under international conventions, classification societies, national, state and local laws and regulations in force in the jurisdictions in which our vessels operate, as well as in the country or countries of their registration, that mandate safety and environmental protection policies. Government regulation of vessels, particularly environmental regulations, have become more stringent and may require us to incur significant capital expenditures on our vessels. Our international operations and activities also expose us to risks associated with trade and economic sanctions, prohibitions or other restrictions imposed by the United States or other governments or organizations, including the United Nations, the EU and its member countries. Under economic and trade sanctions laws, governments may seek to impose modifications to, prohibitions/restrictions on business practices and activities, and modifications to compliance programs, which may increase compliance costs, and, in the event of a violation, may subject us to fines and other penalties. In our international activities, we are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering and similar laws and regulations in various jurisdictions in which we conduct business, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010. We operate in countries known to present heightened risks for corruption, and our dry bulk shipping and related operations requires us to interact with government officials, including port officials, harbor masters, maritime regulators, customs officials and pilots.
Employees
At December 31, 2020, Tiptree Capital - Other’s combined operations had 210 employees.
Human Capital
At Tiptree, we strive to:
• provide employee wages that are competitive and consistent with employee positions, skill levels, experience, knowledge and geographic location.
• align executives’ long-term equity compensation with stockholders’ interests by linking realizable pay with revenue production and earnings.
• ensure that annual increases and incentive compensation are based on merit, which is communicated to employees at the time of hiring and documented through their talent management process as part of the annual review procedures and upon internal transfer and/or promotion.
• ensure that all employees are eligible for health insurance, paid and unpaid leaves, and life and disability/accident coverage.
At Fortegra, we have developed an education program that assists employees in developing key skills that enable them to perform their jobs and to advance their careers. We also have a Leadership Development Program (“LDP”) that identifies new talent and prepares them for success within the organization. The program hires recent college graduates who will typically rotate through several departments over a two-year period, becoming fully immersed in the insurance company’s business. Our goal for successful LDP participants is to hire them on a full time basis upon completion of the program.
AVAILABLE INFORMATION
We are required to file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC.
Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act, are also available free of charge on our Internet site at www.tiptreeinc.com as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. The information on our website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part hereof or incorporated into this or any of our other filings with the SEC.
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Our Investor Relations Department can be contacted at Tiptree Inc., 299 Park Avenue, 13th Floor, New York, NY, 10171, Attn: Investor Relations, telephone: (212) 446-1400, email: IR@tiptreeinc.com .
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