A.M. Best Downgrades and Assigns Ratings to Unified Life Insurance Company.OLDWICK, N.J. -- A.M. Best Co. has downgraded 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. ) to B++ (Good) from A- (Excellent) and assigned an 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 "bbb+" to Unified Life Insurance Company (Unified) (Dallas, TX). The outlook for both ratings is stable. The downgrade Downgrade A negative change in the rating of a security. Notes: For example, an analyst may downgrade a stock from strong buy to buy, or a bond rating agency may downgrade a bond from AAA to AA. reflects Unified's low absolute level of capital and surplus, evolving business profile and A.M. Best's concern over the company's ability to fund planned acquisitions as growth opportunities are expected to produce surplus strain in the near term. Additionally, Old Mutual's 30% minority ownership interest in the company, a potential source of capital and support since 2001, was purchased by the primary shareholder in May 2007. Offsetting factors are the continued statutory profitability, adequate risk-adjusted capitalization capitalization n. 1) the act of counting anticipated earnings and expenses as capital assets (property, equipment, fixtures) for accounting purposes. 2) the amount of anticipated net earnings which hypothetically can be used for conversion into capital assets. , a high quality bond portfolio and the company's ability to decrease expenses by integrating acquisitions. Despite continued growth prior to year-end 2006, Unified's capital position is modest when compared to peers. A.M. Best believes the company will be exposed to competitive pressures in new product lines, which could further strain capital. For Best's Ratings Best's rating A rating A.M. Best Co. assigns to insurance companies based on the company's ability to meet its obligations to its policyholders. , an overview of the rating process and rating methodologies, please visit www.ambest.com/ratings. Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. industries, including the banking and insurance sectors. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
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