Old Republic International Corporation (Old Republic) provides insurance underwriting and related services.
Segments
The company conducts its operations through a number of regulated insurance company subsidiaries organized into two reportable segments: Specialty Insurance (formerly referred to as General Insurance) and Title Insurance. Effective as of year-end 2024, the company renamed its reportable segment formerly referred to as ‘General Insurance’ to ‘Specialty Insurance.’
Specialty Insu...
Old Republic International Corporation (Old Republic) provides insurance underwriting and related services.
Segments
The company conducts its operations through a number of regulated insurance company subsidiaries organized into two reportable segments: Specialty Insurance (formerly referred to as General Insurance) and Title Insurance. Effective as of year-end 2024, the company renamed its reportable segment formerly referred to as ‘General Insurance’ to ‘Specialty Insurance.’
Specialty Insurance
Old Republic's Specialty Insurance segment is best characterized as a commercial lines insurance business with a strong focus on lines of coverages provided to businesses, state and local governments, and other institutions. The company does not have a meaningful exposure to personal lines insurance, such as homeowners and private auto coverages.
Old Republic also focuses on specific sectors of the North American economy, most prominently the transportation, commercial construction, healthcare, education, retail and wholesale trade, forest products, energy, general manufacturing, and financial services industries. In managing the insurance risks it undertakes, the company employs various underwriting and loss mitigation techniques, such as utilization of policy deductibles, captive insurance risk-sharing arrangements, self-insured retentions, retrospective rating and policyholder dividend plans. These underwriting techniques are intended to better correlate premium charges with the ultimate claims experience of individual or groups of insureds and align the company’s interests with those of the insureds.
Over the years, the Specialty Insurance segment's operations have been developed steadily through a combination of internal growth; the establishment of additional subsidiaries focused on specialized coverages, distribution channels and/or industry sectors; and through acquisitions. As a result, this segment has become widely diversified with a business base encompassing the following major insurance coverages:
Accident & Health: Specialized coverages such as employer stop loss, managed care, and ancillary products.
Aviation: Protects the value of aircraft hulls and affords liability coverage for acts that result in injury, loss of life, and property damage to passengers and others on the ground or in the air.
Commercial Auto: Covers vehicles (mostly trucks) used principally in commercial pursuits, including damage to insured vehicles and liabilities incurred by an insured for bodily injury and property damage sustained by third parties.
Commercial Multi-Peril (CMP): Coverage for claims arising from the acts of owners or employees, and protection for the physical assets of businesses.
Commercial Property: Protects an insured’s real and personal property from risk of direct physical loss or damage, including subsequent business interruption and expense.
Excess & Surplus: Commercial excess and surplus lines insurance solutions sourced primarily through wholesale distribution channels.
Financial Indemnity: Multiple types of specialty coverages, including most prominently the following:
D&O: Coverage provides for the payment of legal expenses and indemnity settlements for claims made against the directors and officers of corporations from a variety of sources, most typically shareholders.
E&O: Liability policies written for non-medical professional service providers such as lawyers, architects, and consultants, that provide coverage for legal expenses and indemnity settlements for claims alleging breaches of professional standards.
Fidelity: Bonds cover the exposures of financial institutions and commercial and other enterprises for losses of monies or debt and equity securities due to acts of employee dishonesty.
Surety: Bonds are insurance company guarantees of performance by a corporate principal or individual such as for the completion of a building or road project, or payment on various types of contracts.
Home & Auto Warranty: Includes the following types of coverages:
Automobile Extended Warranty: Coverage provided to vehicle owners for certain mechanical or electrical repair or replacement costs after the manufacturer's warranty has expired.
Home Warranty: Provides repair and/or replacement coverage for home systems (e.g. plumbing, heating, and electrical) and designated appliances.
General Liability: Protects against liability of an insured that stems from carelessness, negligence, or failure to act, and results in property damage or personal injury to others.
Inland Marine: Insurance of property in transit over land and of property that is mobile by nature, inclusive of builder's risk coverages which protect structures and materials during construction projects.
Travel Accident: Covers monetary losses arising from trip delay and cancellation for individual insureds.
Workers' Compensation: Purchased by employers to provide insurance for employees' lost wages and medical benefits in the event of work-related injury, disability, or death.
Approximately 94% of Specialty Insurance premiums are produced through independent agency or brokerage channels, while the remaining 6% is obtained through direct production facilities.
Title Insurance
Title Insurance's business primarily consists of the issuance of policies to real estate purchasers and investors based upon searches of the public records that contain information concerning interests in real property. The policies insure against losses arising out of defects, liens, and encumbrances affecting the insured title and not excluded or excepted from the coverage of the policy. For the year ended December 31, 2024, 23.0% of the company’s consolidated title premium and fee revenues stemmed from direct operations (which include branch offices of its title insurers and wholly-owned agency subsidiaries of the company), while the remaining 77.0% emanated from independent title agents.
There are two basic types of title insurance policies issued by the company: lenders' policies and owners' policies. Both are issued for a one-time premium. Most mortgages made in the United States are extended by mortgage bankers, savings and commercial banks, state and federal agencies, and life insurance companies. These financial institutions secure title insurance policies to protect their mortgagees' interest in the real property. This protection remains in effect for as long as the mortgagee has an interest in the property. A separate title insurance policy may be issued to the owner of the real estate. An owner's policy of title insurance protects an owner's interest in the title to the property.
In connection with its Title Insurance operations, Old Republic also provides escrow closing and construction disbursement services, as well as real estate information products, national default management services, and a variety of other services pertaining to real estate transfers and loan transactions. As lenders and the title insurance industry transition into the evolving digital landscape, Old Republic believes it is well positioned with technology and business process innovations to remain competitive in the market.
Corporate & Other
Corporate & Other operations include the RFIG Run-off business through the effective date of its sale of May 31, 2024, a small life and accident insurance business, the parent holding company, and several internal corporate services subsidiaries that perform cash and investment management, payroll, administrative, information technology, and marketing services. Life and accident business is conducted in both the United States and Canada and mostly consists of limited product offerings sold through financial intermediaries such as travel agents and marketing channels that are also utilized in some of Old Republic's Specialty Insurance operations. Production of term life insurance was terminated and placed in run-off as of year-end 2004.
Marketing
The personal contacts, relationships, reputations, and intellectual capital of Old Republic's key executives and other associates responsible for the production of business are vital elements in obtaining and retaining much of its business. Many of the company’s customers produce large amounts of premiums and fees and therefore warrant substantial levels of attention and involvement by these persons. In this respect, Old Republic's mode of operation relies on the marketing, underwriting, and management skills of relatively few key people for large parts of its business.
At least one insurance legal entity of the Old Republic Specialty Insurance segment is licensed to do business in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and each of the Canadian provinces. Title Insurance subsidiaries are licensed to do business in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.
Commercial coverages underwritten for business enterprises and public entities are marketed primarily through independent insurance agents and brokers with the assistance of Old Republic's trained sales, underwriting, actuarial, and loss control personnel.
A substantial portion of the company’s Title Insurance business is referred by title insurance agents, builders, lending institutions, real estate developers, realtors, and lawyers. Title insurance and related real estate settlement products are sold through its branch offices and owned agency subsidiaries of the company in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Policies are also issued through independent title agents (not themselves title insurers) pursuant to underwriting agreements. These agreements generally provide that the agent may cause title policies of the company to be issued, and the company is responsible under such policies for any payments to the insured.
Government Regulation
The company is subject to the U.S. federal and state laws and regulations that require financial institutions, insurance companies, and other businesses to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of personal information and to provide notice of their practices relating to the collection and disclosure of personal information. Various state insurance privacy laws and regulations, enacted to implement the privacy requirements of the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), impose restrictions on the company’s ability to collect and share consumer personal information and require notices and disclosures to consumers.
To the extent that the company collects and processes personal information about California residents that is not subject to the privacy restrictions and requirements of the GLBA, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act provide such California residents certain rights concerning such personal information and have imposed corresponding obligations and disclosure requirements on the company.
Cybersecurity requirements specific to the insurance industry to which the company is subject have been adopted by the New York Department of Financial Services (the ‘NY DFS’), and 26 other states have adopted requirements based on the Insurance Data Security Model Law promulgated by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. In 2023, the NY DFS adopted amendments to its Cybersecurity Regulation, imposing heightened cybersecurity requirements on licensees such as the company’s insurance company subsidiaries, including prompt notification for ransomware, payment of extortion, and certain other events.
History
Old Republic International Corporation was founded in 1923. The company was incorporated in 1969.