I am pleased to announce that on December 11, 2009, the Board of Directors declared a policyholder distribution for the 13th consecutive year. The amount to be distributed this year is $1,750,000 which when combined with prior years' distributions means that TLIE has returned a total of $24,050,000 to policyholders. This year's distribution along with all prior years' payments have been made possible by charging an adequate premium for the risks assumed. TLIE's operating philosophy has not changed during our over 30 years of continuous service-a fact that few, if any, other insurers can say. We, supported by our actuary's independent evaluation, strive to charge a reasonable premium in relation to the potential liabilities that we insure. If, through proper risk evaluation (underwriting) and claims management, we achieve a level of profitability is excess of that required for financial stability we will return those profits to our policyholders as an annual distribution. TLIE is a unique operation. It is an organization created by lawyers and managed by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers. We are a reciprocal exchange, which is probably the purest form of insurance available. A reciprocal is an association of members who exchange contracts of insurance-i.e.-the members protect each other. The actual exchange of these contracts is facilitated by and through an attorney-in-fact. The attorney-in-fact, or its designee, is responsible for all of the administrative requirements that are necessary to accomplish this exchange of contracts. Our mission is the same today as it was in 1979 and that is to provide a stable source of professional liability insurance to the attorneys of Texas at a financially responsible price. During this 30 year period, we have been notified of over 7,000 claims and have paid or have currently reserved almost $540,000,000 to resolve these matters. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we hope you have a happy and healthy 2010.
