Chubb Ltd

We are, and have been since the 1980s, one of the leading writers of crop insurance in the U.S. and have conducted that business through a managing general agent subsidiary of Rain and Hail. We provide protection throughout the U.S. on a variety of crops and are therefore geographically diversified, which reduces the risk of exposure to a single event or a heavy accumulation of losses in any one region. Given its concentration of risk exposed to temperature, moisture, drought, hail and the more frequent and severe storms associated with climate change, crop insurance is a business with catastrophe-like features. Our crop insurance business comprises two components - Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) and crop-hail insurance.

The MPCI program, offered in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA), is a federal subsidized insurance program that covers revenue shortfalls or production losses due to natural causes such as drought, excessive moisture, hail, wind, freeze, insects, and disease. These revenue products are defined as providing both commodity price and yield coverages. Policies are available for various crops in different areas of the U.S. and generally have deductibles ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent of the insured's risk. The USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) sets the policy terms and conditions, rates and forms, and is also responsible for setting compliance standards. As a participant in the MPCI program, we report all details of policies to the RMA and are party to a Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA). The SRA sets out the relationship between private insurance companies and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) concerning the terms and conditions regarding the risks each will bear including the pro-rata and state stop-loss provisions, which allows companies to limit the exposure of any one state or group of states on their underwriting results. In addition to the pro-rata and excess of loss reinsurance protections inherent in the SRA, we purchase third-party proportional and stop-loss reinsurance for our MPCI business to reduce our exposure. We may also enter into crop derivative contracts to further manage our risk exposure.

Each year the RMA issues a final SRA for the subsequent reinsurance year (i.e., the 2024 SRA covers the 2024 reinsurance year from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024). There were no significant changes in the terms and conditions from the 2023 SRA and, therefore, the new SRA does not impact Chubb's outlook on the crop program relative to 2024.

We recognize net premiums written as soon as estimable on our MPCI business, which is generally when we receive acreage reports from the policyholders on the various crops throughout the U.S. This allows us to best determine the premium associated with the liability that is being planted. The MPCI program has specific timeframes as to when producers must report acreage to us, and in certain cases the reporting occurs after the close of the respective reinsurance year. Once the net premium written has been recorded, the premium is then earned over the growing season for the crops. A majority of the crops that are covered in the program are typically subject to the SRA in effect at the beginning of the year. Given the major crops covered in the program, we typically see a substantial written and earned premium impact in the second and third quarters.

The pricing of MPCI premium is determined using a number of factors including commodity prices and related volatility (i.e., both impact the amount of premium we can charge to the policyholder). For example, in most states, the pricing for the MPCI revenue product for corn (i.e., insurance coverage for lower than expected crop revenue in a given season) includes a factor based on the average commodity price in February. If corn commodity prices are higher in February, compared to the February price in the prior year, and all other factors are the same, the increase in price will increase the corn premium year-over-year. Pricing is also impacted by volatility factors, which measure the likelihood commodity prices will fluctuate over the crop year. For example, if volatility is set at a higher rate compared to the prior year, and all other factors are the same, the premium charged to the policyholder will be higher year-over-year for the same level of coverage.

Losses incurred on the MPCI business are determined using both commodity price and crop yield. With respect to commodity price, there are two important periods on a large portion of the business: the month of February when the initial premium base is set, and the month of October when the final harvest price is set. If the price declines from February to October, with yield remaining at normal levels, the policyholder may be eligible to recover on the policy. However, in most cases there are deductibles on these policies, therefore, the impact of a decline in price would have to exceed the deductible before a policyholder would be eligible to recover.

We evaluate our MPCI business at an aggregate level and the combination of all of our insured crops (both winter and summer) go into our underwriting gain or loss estimate in any given year. Typically, we do not have enough information on the harvest prices or crop yield outputs to quantify the preliminary estimated impact to our underwriting results until the fourth quarter.

Our crop-hail program is a private offering. Premium is earned on the crop-hail program over the coverage period of the policy. Given the very short nature of the growing season, most crop-hail business is typically written in the second and third quarters and the recognition of earned premium is also more heavily concentrated during this timeframe. We use industry data to develop our own rates and forms for the coverage offered. The policy primarily protects farmers against yield reduction caused by hail and/or fire, and related costs such as transit to storage. We offer various deductibles to allow the grower to partially self-insure for a reduced premium cost. We limit our crop-hail exposures through the use of township liability limits and third-party reinsurance on our net retained hail business.