ProAssurance Corporation (PRA) said Thursday that its Board has authorized an additional $100 million to repurchase its stock or retire outstanding debt. The current repurchase program is the addition to the company’s $31.3 million remaining repurchase authorizations. Since April 2007 ProAssurance has purchased 3.6 million shares at a cost of $177.8 million and used $40.9 million to retire debt. The total retirement of debt includes $7 million in surplus notes retired recently with respect to its acquisition of the PICA Group. Prudent capital management is a key strength for ProAssurance. The company deploys capital in an effective manner mainly through its stock buyback program. As the company is currently comfortable with its capital position, we anticipate the repurchase activities to continue in the coming quarters. As of December 31, 2008, all of the ProAssurance subsidiaries exceeded the minimum risk-based ...

Conseco Inc.'s (CNO) share price has steadily gained momentum in the last few months after touching record lows in March 2009. The company recently announced two events that could benefit its risk-based capital ratio.

Conseco has announced that two insurance companies in its Conseco Insurance Group segment will coinsure about 104,000 non-core life insurance policies with a Minnesota-based reinsurance firm Wilton Reassurance Company ("Wilton Re"). In the transaction, Wilton Re will pay a ceding commission of approximately $57.5 million and 100% coinsure and administer these policies.

The Conseco companies will be transferred to Wilton Re for approximately $409 million in cash, policy loans, $466 million of statutory policy and other reserves. The transaction is expected to be completed in 3Q09. As a result of this deal, Conseco expects to record an increase in its deferred tax valuation allowance of approximately $18 million and a deferred gain of

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On June 25, 2009, Conseco, Inc. (CNO) announced the coinsurance agreement of two of its insurance companies in its Conseco Insurance Group. The insurance companies will coinsure about 104,000 non-core life insurance policies with Wilton Reassurance Company, a Minnesota reinsurance company.Management expects this transaction to increase CNO's consolidated risk-based capital ratio by 8 percentage points, along with increasing statutory capital. Since CNO's results have been suffering from reduced financial flexibility for the last few quarters, the capital-building action will bring some relief. The transaction is expected to close in 3Q09.As part of this transaction, Wilton Reassurance will pay a ceding commission of approximately $57.5 million. Also, it will coinsure and administer 100% of these policies. The insurance companies of CNO will transfer approximately $409 million in cash and policy loans and $466 million of statutory policy and other reserves to Wilton Reassurance....