AFLAC’s Press Releases

Since the Japanese earthquake, AFLAC has released exactly three press releases. Here they are:

Aflac Pledges 100 Million Yen to Red Cross Disaster Relief for Japan

Aflac Severs Ties with Gilbert Gottfried

Aflac Japan Corporate Offices Fully Operational, Employees Sustained No Injuries, Expected Impact on Japan Sales Minimal; Aflac Incorporated Affirms 2011 Operating EPS Target

This is the full text of the last one:

COLUMBUS, Ga., March 14, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Aflac Incorporated today announced that its operations in Japan are up and running and ready to assist policyholders following the recent earthquake in the Tohoku area, which includes the cities of Sendai and Minami Sanriku. Aflac Japan’s main offices, including the corporate offices in Tokyo and operational centers in both Tokyo and Osaka, are undamaged and fully functional.

Aflac Japan’s employees are safe, and the company continues to reach out to their independent sales force to assess their needs. The Aflac leadership teams from both the U.S. and Japan remain in close contact.

While the hardest-hit areas were Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, less than 5% of Aflac Japan’s new sales and in-force premiums are derived from these prefectures. Only two of Aflac Japan’s 82 sales offices have been negatively impacted; these two offices, located in a single building in Sendai, have minimal damage, but will be closed temporarily due to power outages.

About this natural disaster, Aflac Japan President and Chief Operating Officer Tohru Tonoike commented: “First and foremost, our thoughts go out to all those affected here in Japan. We are very grateful none of our employees were injured. We are working with our sales force to ensure that we provide them with assistance and help them take care of our customers. We remain ready to respond to the needs of our policyholders by paying claims swiftly, and will prioritize our response to those in the affected areas. We successfully executed our disaster preparedness plan and as a result, our operations stand ready to serve our policyholders and claimants.”

Aflac Incorporated Chairman and CEO Daniel P. Amos added: “In addition to sending our thoughts and prayers to each and every Japanese citizen, we want all of our Aflac Japan employees, sales agents and policyholders to know that your Aflac family here in the U.S. sends our support in every way possible. On Friday, we made an initial donation of 100 million yen to the International Red Cross to help with the start of the relief effort. Additionally, funds have been established by both our U.S. and Japanese employees and sales forces for our friends in Japan, including fellow employees and sales associates that have been most impacted by the disaster. Most importantly, we want our policyholders to know that we are here to deliver on our promise – we will be there when they need us most. Having operated in Japan for almost four decades, we know Japanese citizens are incredibly resilient and we want to help in any way possible as they work through this difficult time.

“As we look to the remainder of 2011, we expect Aflac Japan sales will only be minimally impacted by these events. Our earnings guidance for the year remains unchanged: we will likely be at the low end of the 8% to 12% range for operating earnings per diluted share growth in 2011, excluding the impact of currency.”

Leslie Scism of the WSJ reports:

Aflac Inc., a life and health insurer that gets up to 75% of its earnings from Japan, took another hit Tuesday amid investors’ concerns about life insurers’ shares.

The Columbus, Ga., company continues to stand by its view, since the disaster began unfolding last Friday, that it doesn’t expect a meaningful impact on its earnings and it isn’t changing its earnings guidance for the year, Chief Executive Daniel Amos said in an interview.

“We may see a spike in claims for the short-term due to the tsunami and the earthquake. However, it will not make a significant difference to our overall claims cost,” Mr. Amos said.

“In regards to the nuclear issues, it is too early to tell. But based on our actuarial assumptions with the worst-case scenario being a Chernobyl, we still don’t believe it will create a significant change in our claims costs.”

He said that the three prefectures hardest hit by the earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear-reactor problems represent less than 5% of the company’s sales in Japan. If the company got hit with thousands of sudden claims, he said, those would be a tiny slice of the company’s 20 million outstanding life and supplemental-medical policies.

“I think the tendency is that you look at the worst case, so I think that’s what is going on” in the selloff, he said.

Posted by on March 15th, 2011 at 2:09 pm


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