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8-K - 8-K - CINCINNATI FINANCIAL CORPcatrelease8-k01x12x17.htm


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The Cincinnati Insurance Company n The Cincinnati Indemnity Company
The Cincinnati Casualty Company n The Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Insurance Company
The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company n CFC Investment Company n CSU Producer Resources Inc.

Investor Contact: Dennis E. McDaniel, 513-870-2768
CINF-IR@cinfin.com
Media Contact: Betsy E. Ertel, 513-603-5323
Media_Inquiries@cinfin.com

Cincinnati Financial Corporation Announces Preliminary Estimate for Fourth-Quarter Catastrophe Losses

Cincinnati, January 12, 2017 - Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today announced that The Cincinnati Insurance Companies’ property casualty group expects its fourth-quarter results to include pretax catastrophe losses of approximately $75 million to $85 million, representing an impact on the fourth-quarter 2016 combined ratio of approximately 6.5 to 7.5 percentage points, based on estimated property casualty earned premiums. The company’s 10‑year historical average contribution of catastrophe losses to the combined ratio is 0.7 percentage points for the fourth quarter. Losses from natural catastrophe events affect property casualty insurance underwriting income, one of the sources of consolidated net income along with profits from investment operations and life insurance operations.

In addition to the previously disclosed fourth-quarter catastrophe loss estimate for Hurricane Matthew, the company experienced significant catastrophe losses from properties damaged by wildfire and wind in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee, area. Management estimates the company’s share of the Tennessee catastrophe losses will total approximately $55 million, with roughly half affecting its commercial lines insurance results and the other half its personal lines insurance results. Approximately one-third of the $55 million total was from damage to two commercial properties and three private homes.

The company estimates its fourth-quarter 2016 property casualty combined ratio will be in the range of 96 percent to 98 percent, including the effect of catastrophe losses. Its fourth-quarter combined ratio before catastrophe loss effects is estimated to be approximately 3 percentage points higher than the result for the first nine months of 2016, largely due to less favorable reserve development on prior accident years. The less favorable reserve development was driven by higher reserve estimates of losses and loss expenses for the company’s commercial casualty line of business, reflecting paid loss trends emerging at levels higher than previously expected.

Steven J. Johnston, president and chief executive officer, commented, “Our hearts go out to those who had their lives turned upside down from these events. Our claims professionals quickly sprang into action, inspecting losses and issuing payments so that policyholders in these communities could start the process of rebuilding.

“The financial strength of Cincinnati Insurance continues to benefit our independent agents and policyholders, giving us ample capacity to absorb insured losses, while providing the highest quality service for claims involving storms or other insured loss events.”

Cincinnati Financial plans to report final results for fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 on Wednesday, February 8, 2017, after the close of regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. A conference call to discuss the results will be held at 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, February 9, 2017, with a live, audio-only internet broadcast available at cinfin.com/investors.

About Cincinnati Financial
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers business, home and auto insurance, our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life and disability income insurance, fixed annuities and surplus lines property and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit cinfin.com.






Mailing Address:                    Street Address:
P.O. Box 145496                    6200 South Gilmore Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-5496        Fairfield, Ohio 45014-5141

Safe Harbor Statement
This is our “Safe Harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 26.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:
Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations, changes in weather patterns, environmental events, terrorism incidents or other causes
Increased frequency and/or severity of claims or development of claims that are unforeseen at the time of policy issuance
Inadequate estimates, assumptions or reliance on third-party data used for critical accounting estimates
Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting the company’s equity portfolio and book value
Domestic and global events resulting in capital market or credit market uncertainty, followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to:
Significant or prolonged decline in the fair value of a particular security or group of securities and impairment of the asset(s)
Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from a particular security or group of securities
Significant rise in losses from surety and director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities
Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors that limit the company’s ability to generate growth in investment income or interest rate fluctuations that result in declining values of fixed-maturity investments, including declines in accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets
Recession or other economic conditions resulting in lower demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies
Difficulties with technology or data security breaches, including cyberattacks, that could negatively affect our ability to conduct business and our relationships with agents, policyholders and others
Disruption of the insurance market caused by technology innovations such as driverless cars that could decrease consumer demand for insurance products
Delays, inadequate data developed internally or from third parties, or performance inadequacies from ongoing development and implementation of underwriting and pricing methods, including telematics and other usage-based insurance methods, or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our pricing accuracy, underwriting profit and competitiveness
Increased competition that could result in a significant reduction in the company’s premium volume
Changing consumer insurance-buying habits and consolidation of independent insurance agencies that could alter our competitive advantages
Inability to obtain adequate ceded reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of reinsurance coverage purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the potential for nonpayment or delay in payment by reinsurers
Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that segment could not achieve sustainable profitability
Inability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends consistent with current or past levels
Events or conditions that could weaken or harm the company’s relationships with its independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on the company’s opportunities for growth, such as:
Downgrades of the company’s financial strength ratings
Concerns that doing business with the company is too difficult
Perceptions that the company’s level of service, particularly claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in the marketplace
Inability or unwillingness to nimbly develop and introduce coverage product updates and innovations that our competitors offer and consumers expect to find in the marketplace
Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that:
Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates
Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules and regulations
Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business





Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance‑related assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes
Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax law
Increase our other expenses
Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace
Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents
Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings
Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of controls, that reduce the company’s future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other key employees due to retirement, health or other causes that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others
Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe or terrorism, that could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce at our headquarters location
Further, the company’s insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, global, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. The company also is subject to public and regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for its common stock, such as measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.

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