The February MTM Finance Committee and Board Meetings are the most important company meetings of the year. Well, with over 80 MTM members present, the October Member’s Meeting is very educational and fun too. However the member dollars are reviewed in February. Last month the Finance Committee and Board reviewed the year-end results including: loss reserves, loss trends, claims account funding, independent actuarial report, and management recommendation to determine if a member dividend is warranted.

In February 2015, the Board concluded that a $2.5 million dividend should be paid. In February 2016, the Board decided an increase to $3.5 million was earned and should be paid to members. And then in February 2017, the Finance Committee and Board decided another $3.5 million should be returned to policy members. This means that in the last three years, $9.5 million has been returned to MTM members. Being an owner of your insurance company has benefits.

Like the prior two years, the member dividend is actually two dividends (with one check issued). The first dividend is for all members with an active policy, as of February 16, 2017, and within the effective date of December 31, 2015 and earlier. We call this the “Loyalty Dividend”. The only requirement is that you be a member in those time frames.

The second dividend is for members with better than company average loss experience. The members that meet the loyalty requirement above, are also then looked at to determine loss ratios. If the company’s loss ratio is better than the company loss ratio, a second dividend is declared and both dividends are added into one check.

Now that the Finance Committee and the Board have declared the dividend, management is hard at work putting together the paperwork. Our plan is to print the checks early in March and then begin the delivery process immediately. As I’ve said in prior years, “Delivering members’ checks is the best part of my job.” With that, I will see you soon.