CNA CNA Financial Corp.

Risks

• If we determine that our recorded insurance reserves are insufficient to cover our estimated ultimate unpaid liability for claim and claim adjustment expenses, we may need to increase our insurance reserves which would result in a charge to our earnings.
• Our actual experience could vary from the key assumptions used to determine active life reserves for long term care policies.
• We are vulnerable to material losses from natural and man-made disasters.
• We are exposed to, and may face adverse developments related to, mass tort claims that could arise from our insureds’ sale or use of potentially harmful products or substances, changes to the social and legal environment, issues related to altered interpretation of coverage and other new and emerging claim theories.
• We use analytical models to assist our decision making in key areas such as pricing, reserving and capital modeling and may be adversely affected if actual results differ materially from the model outputs and related analyses.
• We face intense competition in our industry; we may be adversely affected by the cyclical nature of the property and casualty business and the evolving landscape of our distribution network.
• We may be adversely affected by technological changes or disruptions in the insurance marketplace.
• We may not be able to obtain sufficient reinsurance at a cost or on terms and conditions we deem acceptable, which could result in increased exposure to risk or a decrease in our underwriting commitments.
• We may not be able to collect amounts owed to us by reinsurers, which could result in higher net incurred losses.
• We may incur significant realized and unrealized investment losses and volatility in net investment income arising from changes in the financial markets.
• Changes in tax laws of jurisdictions in which we operate could adversely impact our results of operations.
• Any significant breach in our data security infrastructure could result in a materially adverse effect on our operations.
• Inability to detect and prevent significant employee or third party service provider misconduct, inadvertent errors and omissions, or exposure relating to functions performed on our behalf could result in a materially adverse effect on our operations.
• Loss of key vendor relationships and issues relating to the transitioning of vendor relationships could result in a materially adverse effect on our operations.
• Our insurance subsidiaries, upon whom we depend for dividends in order to fund our corporate obligations, are limited by insurance regulators in their ability to pay dividends.
• Rating agencies may downgrade their ratings of us and thereby adversely affect our ability to write insurance at competitive rates or at all.
• We are subject to extensive existing state, local, federal and foreign governmental regulations that restrict our ability to do business and generate revenues; additional regulation or significant modification to existing regulations or failure to comply with regulatory requirements may have a materially adverse effect on our business, our operations and financial condition.
• Changes in accounting principles and financial reporting requirements could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.