Third Quarter 2009 Update
A message from Stu Henderson, President & CEO

With the end of 2009 fast approaching and our ‘noses to the grindstone’ working to meet our year-end premium goals, we’ve hardly had time to look up and celebrate some of the major successes of the last few months – namely, our advances in customer service and our achievement of an “A” rating from A.M. Best.  On the customer service side, our recent launch of My Western National gives both you and your customers greater access to online documents (including online bill payment for your customers).  This new tool, along with our upcoming Agency Sweep program (now in the testing phase) and our upgraded “A” financial rating, are just a few of the areas where we’re working to make it even easier for you to place quality business with Western National.

That being said, and despite having been spared from another year of major wind-and-hailstorms and extreme market volatility, it remains a tough time for growth.  Written premium for the Group lost some ground during the last quarter, reaching $184.7 million (about 71.1% of our $260 million goal).  Splitting that out by lines of business, personal lines are still seeing solid growth (up $4.2 million over this time last year) while our commercial lines premiums continue to feel the strain of the stubborn market.  The result is that we’re currently behind pace to meet our annual target, and we’re going to need your help to get back on track during the final months of 2009.

On a positive note, we’re always saying that profitability is first priority, and the business we’ve written so far has been mostly profitable.  Through September our Loss Ratio is 54.3%.  Add in Loss Adjustment Expenses of 13.5% and Underwriting Expenses of 26.6%, and our Combined Ratio for the first three quarters of 2009 comes out to 94.4%.  With investment income added and taxes deducted, this puts us at a year-to-date Net Income After Tax of $15.3 million—bumping our Policyholder Surplus up to $226.3 million through September.