RESILIENCE
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Each of us is tested from time to time. 2024 was a year that tested CIG. A January winter freeze in the Pacific Northwest resulted in outcomes we have not experienced in several years. The hill before us was steep, but fortunately we had a whole year to climb. We achieved success by remaining resilient despite the many obstacles faced. That made it easy to pick the theme for this year’s Annual Report: Resilience – Winning Against Industry Odds.
There were many tests for CIG in 2024, including the Davis Fire in Reno, the Mountain Fire in Ventura County, the Franklin Fire in Malibu, a Northwest bomb cyclone, and three earthquakes, one of which triggered a tsunami warning. Beyond natural events, the insurance, regulatory, and legal environments remained challenging with no signs of easing, and CIG faced its own set of growing pains as we continued to advance.
Despite the obstacles, we persevered and accomplished much. Our major systems have migrated to the cloud. Our Claims operation introduced a new team to tackle litigation concerns. Our Business Owners Policies (BOP) expanded, generating 40% growth in two newly introduced classes of business. Our Personal Lines team worked tirelessly to improve service levels intensified by high submission volume.
Additionally, CIG was once again named a Great Place to Work®, and in the fall AM Best reaffirmed our Financial Strength Rating (FSR) as A (Excellent) and upgraded our Issuer Credit Rating (ICR) to a+. An observation made by AM Best in their commentary demonstrates how resilience has benefited CIG: “Despite catastrophic losses from wildfires in prior years, the group’s underwriting results have greatly improved as the result of an increased focus on risk management.”
The validation that our resilience paid off is reflected in our results. CIG’s direct business grew to an all-time high of $637.3 million, up 13.5%. Our 2024 combined ratio came in at a highly respectable 98.5% along with an increase in policyholder surplus to $447.6 million, up 8.9%. Couple these results with the continued strong backing of Auto-Owners Insurance Group, and CIG is poised to remain resilient for many years.
As you read through the pages ahead, it will become clear that the board is set for the long game. I want to assure our independent agents and policyholders that CIG is prepared to make the necessary moves to be your partner for years to come, regardless of the challenges in front of us.
I hope you enjoy our Annual Report, and we look forward to the year ahead.
Andrew J. Doll President & CEO
By the Numbers
Resilience is nothing new for CIG. It exemplifies the path we embarked upon following the extreme challenges from the 2017-2019 fiscal years. It has been demonstrated through CIG’s organizational changes and has been foundational for navigating the current regulatory, legal, economic, and business environments.
The following multi-year graphs demonstrate how CIG’s resilience enabled us to succeed in trending favorably in key financial metrics. By following a strategic path focused on profitable production, increased productivity, improved underwriting, prudent expense management, and financial conservatism, CIG’s key metrics have trended favorably.
Net Premium Growth (Compound Annual Growth Rate, in millions)
10.8% CAGR
Net Premium per FTE (Full Time Employee) CAGR 8.2%
Continued focus on building retention, incorporating appropriate rate and exposure increases, and cultivating new business set CIG up for outstanding production results.
5 Year Avg. Combined Ratio 98.2%
Reducing Expense Ratio, Improvement of 4.7 points
Improved selection of underwriting risks, effective catastrophe modeling, reserve adequacy, and prudent expense management solidified CIG’s production of profitable combined ratios and consistently reduced expense ratios.
Organic Surplus Growth
CAGR
The material organic surplus growth is a byproduct of:
Strong underwriting results Net investment income
Positive cash flow from operations has allowed CIG to increase investments within the company portfolio. This strengthens our ability to pay claim settlements and outstanding liabilities promptly while supporting future organic surplus growth and financial stability. This in turn gives our agency partners reason to have confidence in our diverse and innovative products and in CIG’s strength and stability for years to come.
Robert Zic Assistant Vice President & Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
“For me resilience isn’t simply a word on a piece of paper. Rather it’s a component of the ‘special sauce’ that allows CIG to succeed. No matter who raises an operational concern, senior leadership and management come together to develop a solution.
In larger organizations it would take years to discuss such an issue, more time to agree on a course to take, and even more precious time to determine how to execute it. At CIG, because we can seamlessly collaborate and are agile and nimble, successful execution can be accounted for in mere months rather than years.”
Meeting Players in the Field
While solutions to meet insureds’ needs have been rapidly disappearing, CIG remains steadfast in our commitment to independent agencies. In fact, 2024 was defined by our partnerships with agents to provide options for policyholders. Our field staff is here to collaborate with agents however and wherever possible. It is through these collaborations that we were able to achieve incredible results.
Last year, CIG’s Sales and Underwriting teams met with agency principals and producers to assist in maximizing our collective outcomes. The hard-won fruits of our teamwork can be seen in the results below.
CIG Policies in Force (PIF)
Actual As of 31-Dec-2022 As of 31-Dec-2023 As of 31-Dec-2024
Results by State
AZ
CA
NV
OR
WA
Total
$38,455,508
$483,190,594
$28,727,833
$30,574,161
$77,859,502
$658,807,598
$8,331,512
$53,359,338
$4,738,513
$5,262,271
$12,551,434
$84,242,068
John La Porta Assistant Vice President, Sales & Marketing
“Over the past few years, the insurance industry has faced many obstacles and setbacks. Throughout, we continue to rise to meet challenges by remaining positive, seeking to understand needs, and working to provide support and solutions. Being there for our agencies to help them persevere is how we face these challenges together, as seen clearly in the performance results we have achieved in 2024.”
ONLY THE BEST PAIRINGS
Quotes From Our 2024 Agencies of the Year
“ We have developed a strong and genuine partnership with CIG. We value their collaborative approach in working alongside our teams to develop effective solutions for our clients. Ultimately, they embody the qualities we seek in a partner: the ability to listen, communicate effectively and work with us to resolve challenges for our clients. While there may be occasions when they are unable to provide a solution, we always appreciate the transparency and clarity with which they explain the rationale behind their decisions.”
– Torri Howard, Vice President, Carrier Relations Executive, IMA, Northwest Region Winner
“Being named Agency of the Year by CIG is an incredible honor. Our partnership with CIG goes beyond a typical carrier relationship—it’s built on trust, collaboration, and mutual success. From Personal to Commercial and Farm lines, we truly value working with a team that prioritizes relationships. A big thank you to our Agency Development Manager, Yecenia, for helping foster this outstanding partnership.”
– Tom Scarlett, CEO, WSR Insurance, Northern California Region Winner
“ We are honored and humbled to receive the “Agency of the Year” award from CIG. CIG has been a true partner in a difficult market. Working with our underwriter, Marie Pierce, and the rest of the Underwriting team is a real pleasure. We know they will listen and discuss risks when we need them to. I can’t express enough how important CIG is to our success as an agency.”
– Tim Woodruff, Co-Owner/ Commercial Lines Broker, Woodruff Leavitt Insurance, Southwest Region Winner
“For nearly 60 years, we’ve been honored to partner with CIG, building a relationship rooted in shared values and a deep commitment to our clients. Receiving the Agency of the Year award reflects the strength of that partnership and the impact we’ve made together.”
– Brendan Morris, CEO and Principal, Morris & Garritano, Southern California Region Winner
Opening the Board to New Classes
CIG is determined to remain a stable market in the West, continue to grow, and expand our offerings. This can be seen in the introduction of restaurant and hotel classes to our Business Owners Policy form, making it easier to write more Commercial Lines business online. We also introduced wildfire mitigation discounts in California to reward conscientious policyholders who are proactive in reducing risk. Together with our agency partners we achieved remarkable results.
$7M in new business Commercial Lines Agricultural Lines 85% premium retention 90.4% premium retention
$48M in new business
9.9% direct written premium growth 6% increased policies in force
In the years ahead, we are eager to protect more businesses and farms and remain a valuable partner to our agents and policyholders in the West.
Kevin Okelberry Vice President & Chief Underwriting Officer
“Resilience signifies the capacity to adapt as well as the ability to be there for our independent agents during times of unforeseen disruption. I am grateful that our agents entrusted us with their most valued clients.”
Checking Risks to Ensure Progress
The Personal Lines division is grateful for an amazing 2024. Despite the impact of catastrophic events, our loss ratio generated a profitable result thanks to our incredible partnerships. In addition, our collaboration enabled Personal Lines to achieve a third consecutive year of record new business premium with an overall premium growth of over 20%. Some key performance metrics include:
$28.7M in new premium Personal Lines
$197.7M direct written premium booked 90% policy retention
These outstanding results are a testament to your commitment to CIG as we worked diligently to improve service levels in the second half of the year, restoring turnaround times to what agents and policyholders expect from us.
Our dedication to operational excellence and customer satisfaction is stronger than ever; however, we will not stop there. We will continue to invest in our people, processes, and technologies to further enhance the service we provide and uphold our reputation for excellence as the premier regional carrier in the Western U.S.
Scott Cummins Assistant Vice President, Personal Lines
“Resilience is all about the strength of the human spirit and facing challenges head-on. It is an understatement to say the people at CIG, and the partner agents we are privileged to serve, demonstrated tremendous resilience in 2024, overcoming obstacles presented by a challenging market to achieve great outcomes.”
Endgame Vision: Our Commitment to the Future
In 2024, CIG proudly marked 126 years of service, drawing on a deep legacy of experience to guide strategic decision making. As dedicated risk managers, we collaborate with conscientious agents and policyholders who share our commitment to resilience and loss prevention. Together, we develop innovative solutions that help properties and businesses across the West not only withstand challenges but thrive— just as CIG has for over a century.
Looking ahead to the next 100 years, we are building on our expertise while expanding into new competencies that will enhance our insurance products and risk management services. As part of this effort, we engaged a focus group of agency partners whose insights proved invaluable. We also partnered with industry and academic experts to refine our approach to attracting conscientious policyholders—a cornerstone of our long-term strategy.
At the same time, we are driving forward with modernization initiatives. CIG is now preparing for a major milestone in this journey: the migration of our Personal Lines policies to the Guidewire platform. These strategic investments and modernization efforts will allow CIG to be a resource to our employees, agency partners, and the policyholders we serve.
Kurt Morgan Assistant Vice President, Strategy & Innovation
“The five states that CIG operates in face the most challenging regulatory environments and some of the worst disasters mother nature can dole out. Regardless of the challenges, CIG consistently made decisions that allowed us not only to stay in business, but also to be there for our agents while making a profit.”
Navigating a Critical Position
It is well known that the West Coast is host to difficult environmental and regulatory challenges. To meet these head-on, our teams worked diligently to provide adequate rates to continue to expand what we offer in our five-state footprint and to better serve our agency partners.
We have invested in systems that will centralize our data in the cloud, enabling us to provide more accurate, real-time, up-to-date insights. With these enhancements, CIG’s Actuarial team can access unified datasets that enable our underwriters to more effectively assess risk and remain a strong carrier partner to independent agents.
In the year ahead, CIG will continue to focus on centralizing our data to provide more timely and accurate services for agents, enabling our mutual success.
Daniel Moskala Assistant Vice President & Chief Actuary
“Resilience is putting in the effort and working hard to push through adversity rather than giving up when experiencing setbacks.”
Last year CIG laid the groundwork for our core systems to become more flexible and ready to integrate into modern applications by launching Guidewire’s PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, and Contact Manager via cloud-based applications. In the year ahead, we will continue our modernization efforts by enhancing the Producer Engage experience for our agency partners.
Improving the ease of writing business with CIG is a priority; equally important is ensuring a safe and secure environment to do so. To this end, the foundation has been laid for the rollout of agency-facing multifactor authentication in the coming year. Work also began in 2024 to consolidate forms and documents and enhance electronic delivery to our valued agency partners and policyholders through a new application called SmartCOMM.
The work undertaken in 2024 will continue in the years to come. It is part of our commitment to improving agent experiences. It will enable us to adjust to varying market demands more efficiently and further enhance and strengthen our partnerships well into the future.
Michael Ackerman Vice President & Chief Information Officer
“We have and will continue to experience many challenges in the future as we continue our modernization journey. Holding steadfast to our vision in the midst of many obstacles and marching forward demonstrates the resilience our company has to achieve our goals.”
Covering Your Piece: Partnerships that Matter with Claims
Last year was bookended by natural disasters that highlighted what CIG’s Claims department does best: receiving customer claims and handling them well. We take pride in the strong relationships with our agents and policyholders, and we are honored to support and navigate the difficult litigation climate on their behalf.
Our customers trust that we stand by them when they need assistance, as seen in our outstanding customer service scores. Agents and policyholders can count on us to consistently deliver on our commitments and fulfill the promises made in our policies while providing the best possible service.
“A company is only as good as the people they have working for them, and CIG has an outstanding staff that were really concerned about my problem and getting it fixed. Thank you to the people at CIG. Great job.”
– Patrick P., Policyholder
“Hats off to CIG! My claim was a bit unusual, but CIG handled it very efficiently... Thank you again for all the effort. You made an uncomfortable situation bearable.”
– Ron R., Policyholder
“Every point in the process (claims reporting, adjuster, my repair shop, and rental car contact) was seamless and effortless. Bravo Zulu to my adjuster who kept everything running smoothly with coordination, follow-up, and follow-through!”
– Elsie A., Policyholder
Cynthia Mehrtens Vice President & Chief Claims Officer
“90% of life is showing up, and the Claims team is committed to always being there for our agents and insureds. No matter what challenge you are facing, we are going to be there for you.”
The HR Game Plan: Empowering Every Player on the Board
Human Resources (HR) plays a critical role in not only ensuring employees are exceptional partners to agencies but also in fostering organizational resilience. A workforce focused on strong partnerships and long-lasting systems strengthens CIG’s ability to adapt to and recover from disruptions and changes. To support this, we equip our employees with the necessary skills, mindset, and support systems to handle adversity and change effectively.
By placing people at the center of everything we do and nurturing a supportive organizational culture, we encourage employees to continuously develop their professional, technical, and interpersonal skills. In 2024, the HR team provided comprehensive leadership training across the company, enhanced onsite training offerings for employees, launched a robust rewards and recognition program, and more.
Additionally, the HR team bolstered its ability to identify and develop talent within the industry. Over the last year, we:
• Strengthened our Talent & Acquisition team with a strategic hire
• Partnered with Underwriting to develop and roll out an Underwriting Trainee Program
• Provided extensive training opportunities for all employees
By working with teams throughout the company, we created programs, policies, and environments that empower employees not only to survive disruption but to thrive, allowing CIG to remain agile, productive, and prepared for the future.
Tammy Marsh Assistant Vice President, Human Resources
“In our role as partners to the organization, resilience goes beyond crisis management. It’s about building a workforce that is adaptable, mentally strong, and emotionally supported.”
CIG: the team with all the right moves.
OFFICERS & DIRECTORS
Andrew J. Doll
President & Chief Executive Officer
Michael Ackerman
Vice President & Chief Information Officer
Don Johnson
Director, Technical Operations
Patrick Tzou Director, Application Development
Cynthia Mehrtens Vice President & Chief Claims Officer
Ernest Guerra Director, Property CAT & Large Loss
Eric Hartwell Director, Claims Operations
Martin Ighani
Director, Claims Counsel
Juliet Schade
Director, Claims Property
Laura Teasdale Director, Claims Casualty
Vanessa Toureau Director, Casualty Claims
Daniel Moskala
Assistant Vice President & Chief Actuary
Bashir Moallim Director, Actuarial
Kevin Okelberry Vice President & Chief Underwriting Officer
Scott Cummins
Assistant Vice President, Personal Lines
John La Porta
Assistant Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Debbie Belardes Director, Underwriting Services
Victor Foggie Director, Field Operations
Pauleen Hepner
Regional Field Executive – Northern CA
Tom Nowell
Regional Field Executive – Southwest
Bruce Ostrem
Regional Field Executive – Southern CA
Jennifer Wagner
Regional Field Executive – Northwest
Dustin Lewis Director, AgriBusiness Underwriting
Kenneth Stewart Director, Underwriter Development & Audit
Robert Zic
Assistant Vice President & Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Tammy Marsh
Assistant Vice President, Human Resources
Kurt Morgan
Assistant Vice President, Strategy & Innovation
CLOSING STATEMENT
Advancing with Determination
As this report was being prepared, major fires in Southern California broke out. Fortunately, by the time this is shared, the fires have been extinguished, and the long recovery process has begun. Clearly, the need for resilience did not end in 2024. In fact, these events have illustrated the need for elevated partnership.
CIG accomplished much in 2024 in the face of odds that were stacked against the industry. It is thanks to our legacy knowledge of the regions we serve and our reliable partners that we thrived while others pulled back. Furthermore, we made improvements to enhance the agency experience, introduced new classes of business, and wrote more policies than ever before.
Looking ahead, CIG will remain a strong partner for agents and policyholders. We will show who we are by understanding the needs of all our stakeholders and working collaboratively with a proper sense of compassion. Together, we will adapt and overcome whatever obstacles we may face to succeed against all odds.
