A.M. Best Affirms Ratings of National Western Life Insurance Company.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating (FSR (Free System Resource) In Windows 3.x, the amount of unused memory in various 64K blocks reserved for managing current applications. Every open window takes some space in this area. See Windows memory limitation. ) of A- (Excellent) and issuer credit rating (ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition or Image Character Recognition) The machine recognition of hand-printed characters as well as machine printing that is difficult to recognize. ) of "a-" of National Western Life Insurance Company (NWL NWL Newell Rubbermaid, Inc. (stock symbol) NWL Northwest League (Boise, Idaho; baseball) NWL Northwoods League NWL North West London NWL Neverending White Lights (band) ) (Denver, CO) (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : NWLIA NWLIA National Western Life Insurance (stock symbol) ). The outlook for both ratings remains positive. These rating actions reflect NWL's diverse business profile of accepting applications from residents both in the United States and in various international territories, its solid operating results, superior risk-adjusted capitalization and increasing statutory adjusted capital and surplus and GAAP GAAP See: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). equity trends. Offsetting these strengths are the challenges for NWL to manage its increasing exposure to interest sensitive annuity and universal life liabilities and continuing to grow its domestic and international ordinary life businesses. In maintaining the positive outlook, A.M. Best recognizes NWL's strong competitive position internationally, which continues to provide diversification of revenue, insurance risk and profitable earnings. The outlook also reflects management's efforts to continue to grow its U.S. domestic ordinary life segment, which A.M. Best believes can provide further diversification of NWL's business and earnings profile, as well as its ongoing efforts to further enhance and refine its asset/liability and enterprise risk management processes. NWL's net premium and deposit growth has been driven mainly by sales of its fixed-indexed annuity (FIA FIA feline infectious anemia. ) products. While NWL's annuity growth has resulted in greater interest rate and equity market risks, the company's strong risk-adjusted capitalization, surrender charge Surrender Charge A fee levied on a life insurance policyholder upon cancellation of his or her life insurance policy. The fee is used to cover the costs of keeping the insurance policy on the insurance provider's books. protection and market value adjustment features partially mitigate these risks. In noting NWL's growth in FIAs, A.M. Best recognizes NWL's prudent product design and customer profiles, effective hedging programs and active market conduct and compliance programs. However, A.M. Best remains cautious over the potential declines in the industry's future FIA sales and its impact on earnings given the increasing due diligence demanded to comply with the prevailing heightened regulatory environment. For Best's Ratings, an overview of the rating process and rating methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings. Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
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