Note 8. Commitments and Contingencies

Accruals for home warranty claims are made using internal actuarial projections, which are based on current claims and historical claims experience. Accruals are established based on estimates of the ultimate cost to settle claims. Home warranty claims take approximately three months to settle, on average, and substantially all claims are settled within six months of incurrence. The amount of time required to settle a claim can vary based on a number of factors, including whether a replacement is ultimately required. In addition to our estimates, we engage a third-party actuary to perform an accrual analysis utilizing generally accepted actuarial methods that incorporate cumulative historical claims experience and information provided by us. We regularly review our estimates of claims costs along with the third-party analysis and adjust our estimates when appropriate. We believe that utilizing actuarial methods in our estimation process to account for these liabilities provides a consistent and effective way to measure these judgmental accruals.

Unpaid losses and loss adjustment reserves represent the estimated ultimate cost of settling all new home structural warranty claims and includes the estimated costs of claims incurred but not reported as of the balance sheet date. The reserve is based upon the facts of each case and the Company’s experience with similar cases. The establishment of appropriate reserves is an inherently uncertain and complex process. Reserve estimates are primarily derived using an actuarial estimation process in which historical loss patterns are applied to actual paid losses and reported losses (paid losses plus individual case reserves established by claim adjusters) to create an estimate of how losses are likely to develop over time. We regularly review our estimates of unpaid losses and adjust our estimates when appropriate. The Company reports its unpaid losses and loss adjustment reserves gross of the amounts related to unpaid losses recoverable from reinsurers and net of amounts ceded to reinsurers.

We have certain liabilities with respect to existing or potential claims, lawsuits and other proceedings. We accrue for these liabilities when it is probable that future costs will be incurred and such costs can be reasonably estimated. Any resulting adjustments, which could be material, are recorded in the period the adjustments are identified.

Due to the nature of our business activities, we are also at times subject to pending and threatened legal and regulatory actions that arise out of the ordinary course of business. In the opinion of management, based in part upon advice of legal counsel, the disposition of any such matters is not expected, individually or in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows. However, the results of legal actions cannot be predicted with certainty. Therefore, it is possible that our business, financial position, results of operations or cash flows could be materially adversely affected in any particular period by the unfavorable resolution of one or more legal actions.