Summary of Significant Accounting Policies (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

Estimated Useful Life for Property and Equipment

The following estimated useful lives can be considered as general guidelines:


Asset Category	Years
Computer hardware			3
Computer software	3	to	5
Software licenses	3	to	5
Internally developed software			5
Furniture and fixtures			10
Buildings and improvements	5	to	40

Schedule of Fair Value Measurement Inputs and Valuation Techniques

The techniques used to value our financial assets are as follows:

Level 1 Pricing


Security Type			Methodology
Equity Securities; U.S. Treasury Notes			Equity and U.S. Treasury Note prices are received from an independent pricing service that are based on observable market transactions. We validate these prices against a second external pricing service, and if established market value comparison thresholds are breached, further analysis is performed to determine the price to be used.
Short-Term Investments, excluding short-term fixed income securities			Short-term investments are recorded at fair value. Given the liquid nature of our short-term investments, we generally validate their fair value by way of active trades within approximately one week of the financial statement close.

Further information on our Level 2 asset pricing is included in the following table:



Security Type			Methodology
Corporate Securities, including preferred stocks classified as Fixed Income Securities, U.S. Government and Government Agencies and Short-term Corporate and U.S. Government Agency Bonds			Evaluations include obtaining relevant trade data, benchmark quotes and spreads, and incorporating this information into either spread-based or price-based evaluations as determined by the observed market data. Spread-based evaluations include: (i) creating a range of spreads for relevant maturities of each issuer based on the new issue market, secondary trading, and dealer quotes; and (ii) incorporating option-adjusted spreads for issues that have early redemption features. Based on the findings in (i) and (ii) above, final spreads are derived and added to benchmark curves. Price-based evaluations include matching each issue to its best-known market maker and contacting firms that transact in these securities.
Obligations of States and Political Subdivisions			Evaluations are based on yield curves that are developed based on factors such as: (i) benchmarks to issues with interest rates near prevailing market rates; (ii) established trading spreads over widely-accepted market benchmarks; (iii) yields on new issues; and (iv) market information from third-party sources such as reportable trades, broker-dealers, or issuers.
RMBS, CMBS, CLO and other ABS			Evaluations are based on a DCF, including: (i) generating cash flows for each tranche considering tranche-specific data, market data, and other pertinent information, such as historical performance of the underlying collateral, including net operating income generated by the underlying properties, conditional default rate assumptions, loan loss severity assumptions, consensus projections, prepayment projections, and actual pool and loan level collateral information; (ii) identifying applicable benchmark yields; and (iii) applying market-based tranche-specific spreads to determine an appropriate yield by incorporating collateral performance, tranche-level attributes, trades, bids, and offers.
Foreign Government			Evaluations are performed using a DCF model and by incorporating observed market yields of benchmarks as inputs, adjusting for varied maturities.

Level 3 Pricing


Security Type			Methodology
CMLs			Evaluations are performed by a third party and are based on matrix pricing. For fixed rate loans, the matrix process uses a yield build up approach to create a pricing yield, with components for base yield, credit quality spread, property type spread, and a weighted average life spread. Floating rate loans are priced with a target quality spread over the swap curve.

The techniques used to value our notes payable are as follows:

Level 2 Pricing


Security Type			Methodology
7.25% Senior Notes; 6.70% Senior Notes; 5.375% Senior Notes			Based on matrix pricing models prepared by external pricing services.
Borrowings from Federal Home Loan Banks			Evaluations are performed using a DCF model based on current borrowing rates provided by the Federal Home Loan Banks that are consistent with the remaining term of the borrowing.

The following tables present quantitative information about the significant unobservable inputs used in the fair value measurements of Level 3 assets at December 31, 2024, and 2023:

December 31, 2024

($ in thousands)

Assets Measured at Fair Value

Valuation Techniques

Unobservable Inputs

Range

Weighted Average

Internal valuations:

Corporate securities

147,294

DCF

Illiquidity Spread

(4.4)% - 5.3%

1.7%

CLO and other ABS

249,506

DCF

Illiquidity Spread

(0.97)% - 19.6%

1.9%

Total internal valuations

396,800

Other1

222,447

Total Level 3 securities

619,247

December 31, 2023

($ in thousands)

Assets Measured at Fair Value

Valuation Techniques

Unobservable Inputs

Range

Weighted Average

Internal valuations:

Corporate securities

135,524

DCF

Illiquidity Spread

(4.4)% - 5.3%

1.9%

CLO and other ABS

127,210

DCF

Illiquidity Spread

0.01% - 19.6%

2.4%

Total internal valuations

262,734

Other1

288,955

Total Level 3 securities

551,689

1Other is comprised of broker quotes or other third-party pricing for which there is a lack of transparency into the inputs used to develop the valuations. The quantitative details of these unobservable inputs is neither provided to us, nor reasonably available to us, and therefore are not included in the tables above.