Mr. Snyder: Presidential Life Corporation is a holding company. Its main subsidiary is Presidential Life Insurance Company, a life and annuity writer domiciled in the State of New York. Our main products are fixed annuities, single-premium deferred annuities, immediate annuities with life and without life contingencies, and flexible premium annuities, as well as an array of life products, both whole life and term. The company is licensed in all states except New Hampshire and we sell our products through independent agents throughout the United States. A gentleman named Herbert Kurz, who is currently the CEO of the consolidated entity, founded the company in 1965. He is also the Chairman of the Board and he owns about 26% of the outstanding stock. The company has about 100 employees in Nyack, New York, which is where our home base is.
TWST: Give us an idea of what you see overall in the life industry,
particularly the products that you focus on.
Mr. Snyder: On the annuity side, which is basically 90% to 95% of our
business, we guarantee our policyholders an interest rate, tax deferred,
on their monies for a one-year, three-year, four-year, five-year, or
six-year terms depending upon the contract purchased. Obviously,
interest rates right now are at historical lows and it is very difficult
to make money in such an interest rate environment. We have drilled back
our revenue for that reason. We guarantee a minimum of 3% on our
products currently. We do look at our competitors on almost a weekly
basis to see where their interest rates are. We try and stay within the
top 10 in crediting rates. We don't want to be number one, number two or
even number three, but we do want to stay competitive and keep our
agents interested in our products. So the pressure is on Presidential to
stay competitive, profitable and to keep the marketing lines juiced as
best as we can.
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