GuideOne Insurance was hit with ratings downgrades from A.M. Best, designations assigned to the company, in part because of its operating results over the first half of 2017.

Broken down, A.M. Best downgraded the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) to A- (Excellent) from A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) to “a-” from “a” of GuideOne Mutual Insurance Co. in West Des Moines, Iowa, and its wholly owned subsidiaries: GuideOne Specialty Mutual Insurance Company; GuideOne America Insurance Company; GuideOne Elite Insurance Company; GuideOne National Insurance Company; and GuideOne Property & Casualty Insurance Company.

The outlook of these credit ratings (ratings) is negative. All companies are domiciled in West Des Moines.

According to the rating firm, the downgrades reflect a material downturn in GuideOne’s operating results during the first half of 2017, resulting in material losses in capitalization and substantial adverse reserve development relative to surplus. The negative results are attributable to significant losses in the for-profit senior living center segment and excessive property catastrophe-related losses.

Conversely, GuideOne’s ratings reflect the group’s new senior management team’s focus on actions to stabilize near-term capital and reduce volatility in operating results, with a long-term strategic shift to facilitate profitable growth. As of third-quarter 2017, the new senior management team executed measures to address volatility, including exiting the for-profit senior living center segment, placing adverse development cover reinsurance to mitigate future volatility and closing claims and underwriting leakage to address catastrophe weather issues.

GuideOne’s customers include churches, schools (K-12), higher education institutions, home care providers and nonprofits.

in June, GuideOne brought on former State Auto Financial Corp. executive Jessica Clark as its new chief executive officer. She replaced Jim Wallace, who will retire at the end of this year after 16 years in charge.

A.M. Best said it could take negative rating action if GuideOne were to incur further material losses to its risk-adjusted capitalization, or if there were substantial adverse reserve development relative to surplus. Negative rating action also could occur if the group was unable to contain volatility under their current set of enterprise risk management measures.

Source: A.M. Best