• Why Investor Relations?

    For more than 40 years, the CFA Institute has advocated for efficient capital markets that are ethical, transparent, and provide investor protections. One of the Institute’s guiding principles states: “Investors need complete, accurate, timely and transparent information from securities issuers.”

  • Why InsuranceIR?

    Insurance companies face unique challenges when communicating with investors and InsuranceIR is uniquely suited to help with industry-specific support.

    The primary purpose of this blog is to offer specific ideas on how insurance companies can achieve that objective.

    The supporting pages offer information on InsuranceIR's capabilities and how firm principal Heather J. Wietzel can help your company improve your investor communications.

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  • Copyright 2012

A Webinar Invitation – Leveraging the 10-K

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Heather J. Wietzel

Are you ready? I’m going to be talking about the 10-K again (this really is one of my favorite topics).

This time, I am very excited to because I will be participating in a webinar on how investor relations teams can leverage the 10-K to enhance communications with investors.

WebFilings will be hosting the session on Tuesday, January 11 at 2 pm ET / 1 pm CT / 11 am PT. You can register by clicking here.

On the webinar, I plan to offer ideas on why a company should integrate other investor communication tools with the 10-K (and 10-Qs) as well as how it can do so to help achieve “best-in-class” investor communications. WebFilings’ Managing Director Mike Sellberg will introduce participants to capabilities of the WebFilings tool that can support the integration of the various communications.

Best of all, the material will be applicable to companies across industries. But insurance company IROs will get a bonus, as I plan to illustrate my comments with examples from industry-relevant 10-Ks.

Full Disclosure: In November, I posted an item about WebFilings and the potential value of their tool for investor relations. I have no business relationship with WebFilings, but they have been kind enough to continue to talk with me about ways in which we can share resources to achieve our respective objectives. This webinar will be our first try.

Filed under: Investor Relations | 1 Comment »

Holiday Wishes

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

Best wishes to all for a restful holiday and a great new year.

Heather

Filed under: Investor Relations | Leave a comment »

The Elephant in the Room – One Investor Concern for 2011 and 2012

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

Looming behind the various predictions of a turn in commercial lines pricing at some point in 2011 or 2012 is an “elephant” many companies find hard to discuss – reserve adequacy.

Based on prior insurance market cycles, commercial lines insurers and reinsurers can be expected to report adverse development in the quarters before and after pricing starts to turn.

Wall Street knows that the swing from favorable to adverse development is coming, as several analysts have reaffirmed to me in recent weeks. In the minds of insurance investors, the question isn’t whether there will be a swing to adverse development, it’s when it will happen and which companies will see it first.

Use Strategic Communications to Get Ahead of the Curve

Since the “when” and “which insurers” aren’t known — unless a company sets the stage appropriately – investors are prepared to treat each new report of adverse development as a negative surprise!

And Wall Street doesn’t respond well to these announcements. In one case in the third quarter, a company lost about $200 million in market value in one day when it reported an almost immaterial level of adverse development.

Using strategic (fully disclosed) communications to appropriately manage market expectations may be an insurance company’s only defense against short-term reactions of this sort. (The underlying reality of corporate performance and reserve adequacy is established over multiple years — in the long run, the strategic vision communicated by management must correlate with the reported financials.)

The more expansive year-end communications are one of the best opportunities for insurance company investor relations teams (from the CEO on down) to put information out “ahead of the curve,” to help cushion the surprise.

Practice Ways to Address the Issue with Investors Continue reading →

Filed under: Investor Relations | 1 Comment »

From Q4 Web Systems: Useful Website Tips

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

Excellent insight from Q4 Web Systems: Beyond the pdf: Alternative Ways to Present Content Effectively on your IR Website

Excellent ideas for consideration.  In particular, I strongly agree with providing materials in topical groupings. Website visitors do not necessarily know (or care) when material became available, or what channel was used for distribution (SEC filings vs. news).

Visitors are much more like to know the topic in which they are interested, e.g., third-quarter earnings, a merger, etc., so groupings work well.

Filed under: Investor Relations, Quick tips, Website | 1 Comment »

Honored

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

I love what I do!

When I started this blog earlier this year, I had little idea how much I would enjoy the opportunity to share my ideas about investor relations — and specifically investor relations for insurance companies — and be a part of the dialog on best practices.

Today’s announcement that I have been asked to be a contributor to IR Web Report, which opens up a whole new world of potential readers, is both very exciting and quite an honor. IR Web Report is long-standing source of excellent advice on online investor relations communications.

Also, congrats to the other contributors, I’m looking forward to learning more from all of you.

Dominic … My thanks to you

Filed under: Investor Relations | Leave a comment »

In Defense of IR Departments

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

Twice in the past week, larger companies have faced premature disclosure of material news because of poor website controls and procedures. The specifics have been widely reported (IRWebReport’s posts offer a summary of the various events).

As a former corporate IRO, I feel compelled to step up to the table to defend over-worked investor relations teams. These teams are being forced to cobble together less-than-ideal web solutions because of a lack of resources (both time and money) and the low priority their needs are given by corporate IT departments. When problems like these arise, the IR team may share some of the responsibility, but they do not deserve full blame.

From my view, it is more important that these recent events serve as a wake-up call to C-suite executives and board members.

Isn’t it time company’s give investor relations departments access to the right resources — internally and externally — if only to avoid unnecessary damage to corporate reputations. (We won’t dwell on the myriad of positive reasons for giving IR additional resources, e.g., improving valuation, etc.)

Filed under: Important ideas, Investor Relations | 1 Comment »

Quick Tip: WebFilings just for IR

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

WebFilings — which I initially discussed in this post — has added an item to their blog called “Investor Relations: An Early Fan of WebFilings.”

I’ll admit one reason I like their post is because of the kind things they said about me.  Thanks! (Remember — I have no business relationship with the organization.)

More important, WebFilings makes a key point.  They note that their solution can be adopted solely for the documents managed by the investor relations team, creating tremendous advantages. (It does not need to be simultaneously implemented for the 10-Ks and 10-Qs).

Filed under: Investor Relations, Quick tips | Leave a comment »

The Missing Link … at least for SEC filings and other investor communications

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

My corporate and consulting experience makes it hard for me to imagine serving in an investor relations capacity without taking a significant role in shaping the strategic content of the written/electronic materials that are directed at the investor audience (ranging from the SEC filings, e.g., 10-Ks ,10-Qs and proxy, to earnings releases, fact sheets, website materials, presentations, and more). Even the best IRO can talk or meet with only a subset of current and potential investors, many more learn about the company or stay up-to-date via written/electronic materials.

I know that including SEC filings on my list of key documents distinguishes me from many of my peers, but I firmly believe my view is bolstered by SEC commentary on the topic, as I’ve noted in previous posts.  The filings also are very important to the board and senior management (and are closely scrutinized by investors).

But I also know that convoluted processes make it very difficult for IROs to participate in everything that needs their attention on a strategic level, particularly the SEC filings.

I learned a few days ago about a possible solution – a simple, relatively inexpensive tool from WebFilings – that I think is the “missing link” to solve a long list of corporate disclosure process problems, including IR participation in the SEC filings.  (Note that I have no business relationship with WebFilings although they have been kind enough to give me a product demo and some background information.) Continue reading →

Filed under: Investor Relations, Quick tips, SEC | 2 Comments »

Why Bother, It’s Just the 10-K?

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

A University of Michigan study published in September is making a very strong case for companies to focus on the readability of their 10-K. (The Effect of Annual Report Readability on Analyst Following and the Properties of Their Earnings Forecasts)

The study draws the conclusion that:

“… Our overall findings that lower readability is associated with greater levels of analyst coverage, effort, and information content, but with lower accuracy, higher dispersion, and greater uncertainty of their earnings forecasts complements and contributes to the literature on how analysts respond to firms’ disclosure. … “

Adding investor relations to a company’s 10-K “team” is one of the most obvious ways to close the readability gap, while accomplishing other important objectives. Investor relations practitioners should know the strategic message. They also should be experienced at making complex financial topics understandable and putting them in context.

In a July post, I noted:

“One of the best opportunities companies have to create efficiencies in the communications process is by being consistent — making strategic use of their required (and time-consuming) SEC filings and leveraging that time to simplify development of other communications. Plus, investors read the SEC filings, and trade on the information they contain. Investors rely on the filings whether or not those documents share the strategic messages contained in presentations, news releases and other written and verbal communications.”

That July post (SEC Stresses Consistency) also transcribed comments on this topic by Meredith Cross, Director, SEC Division of Corporation Finance.

Filed under: Investor Relations, SEC | Leave a comment »

The Convergence of IR and Governance

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Heather J. Wietzel

Earlier this week, our local NIRI chapter hosted John Siemann of Phoenix Advisory Partners for an interesting and informative session.

In the context of changes to the proxy process arising from Dodd-Frank and other SEC actions, John talked about the growing convergence of investor relations and corporate governance.The convergence is driven by two factors: the reputation risk associated with “governance” and the overlap between the skills and relationships of the IR team and the variety of activities associated with corporate governance.

Here’s his full presentation. Below, I’ve highlighted a few specifics.

Most of the changes in the corporate governance landscape affect companies in every industry; insurance companies aren’t treated any better, or any worse.

But there’s one interesting exception.  There is a Dodd-Frank requirement for all 13-F filers — a classification that includes most insurance companies — to annually disclose how they voted on say-on-pay and golden parachute matters for holdings in the portfolio. An insurance company could face reputation risk if the investment team votes proxies in a fashion out of line with the board and management’s stance on the company’s own corporate governance.

Other items of note: Continue reading →

Filed under: Governance, Investor Relations | Leave a comment »

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