Life Insurance Company of Alabama

Life Insurance Company of Alabama (LICOA) is a micro cap insurance company with two share classes, one of which (LINS, the fully voting shares) trades at a modest (~20%) discount to book value and the other of which (LINSA, with limited voting rights) trades at a gigantic (>50%) discount to book value. Note that in addition to the voting rights difference, the LINS shares have 5x the economic interest of the LINSA shares.

The company was written up on Value Investors Club and the story is broadly the same as it was then. Despite the big gap between the trading price and book value per share, management is not buying back any stock, and the valuation gap is not closing.

The State of Alabama Department of Insurance periodically examines the insurance companies that are licensed there and publishes a report about them. It is a report that is very helpful for gleaning more information about an insurance company, and helps fill in the gaps between what is in LICOA's bare-bones annual report or even in its annual and quarterly statements filed with the NAIC.

The old reports are not available on the Department of Insurance website, but they are available to anyone who writes in and asks for them. (And pays $1 per page.) The examination report on LICOA from May 2005 has some interesting revelations on the conduct of the family that controls and manages the company:

“It was noted that Rosalie F. Renfrow was hired as a management trainee in September 2002. Ms. Renfrow is the daughter of Raymond Rudolph Renfrom, Jr., a director, officer and stockholder of the Company and Anne Daugette Renfrow, a director of the Company. Ms. Renfrow's monthly salary for 2002, 2003 and 2004 was $1,900, $2,000 and $2,300, respectively, with her salary being increased in September of each year. Ms. Renfrow is also receiving a monthly automobile allowance. This allowance was $300 per month in January and February 2003 and increased to $550 per month for the remainder of the examination period. Ms. Renfrow did not keep regular business hours at the Company – it was noted by examiners that she was routinely not in the office.”

“Company management is not avoiding the appearance of impropriety. If Ms. Renfrow is being developed for a managerial position, she needs a defined job and training program. Due to nepotism within the Company, the Company's President should either actively supervise the training (before it happens, while it is happening, and after the fact) or delegate it where possible. Ms. Renfrow should report to the manager of each department in which she is training. The examiners find it highly unusual that a recent college graduate would be allowed to set their own schedule while receiving a full-time management salary. The preceding report of examination noted an issue with nepotism and this issue stands to harm the Company due to potential shareholder and/or policyholder lawsuits. It is imperative that the Company avoid the appearance of impropriety with the payment of salaries to family members. Ms. Renfrow should maintain working hours comparable to other employees of the Company and report to someone other than her father, Mr. Raymond Renfrow, in order to avoid internal control weaknesses and the appearances of improprieties.”

It is pretty amazing to see a report by a state regulator pointing out behavior by small company management that could cause "shareholder lawsuits". For one thing, only a certain subset of companies have their operations holistically assessed by a regulator: banks and insurance companies are two. And even then, the reports by bank regulators are not usually going to be seen by investors.

One wonders what was in the "preceding report of examination" as well? Meanwhile, here is the full report from 2003 as well as an excerpt with the section called "Other Compensation Issues".

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