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Kinsale Capital Group, Inc. (KNSL) Business

Verbatim Item 1 Business section from Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.'s latest 10-K. Filing date: 2026-02-20. Accession: 0001669162-26-000015.

This page reproduces the company's own Item 1 Business text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.

Informational only - not investment advice. See Disclaimer.

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Item 1. Business

Kinsale is a property and casualty insurance company that focuses exclusively on the excess and surplus lines ("E&S") market in the U.S., where we can use our underwriting expertise to write coverages for hard-to-place risks. We sell these insurance products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands primarily through a network of independent insurance brokers. Our experienced and cohesive management team has an average of over 30 years of relevant experience.

Our goal is to deliver long-term value for our stockholders by growing our business and generating attractive returns. We seek to accomplish this by generating consistent and attractive underwriting profits while managing our capital prudently. Using our proprietary technology platform and leveraging the expertise of our highly-experienced employees in our daily operations, we have built a company that is entrepreneurial and highly efficient. We believe our systems and technology are at the digital forefront of the insurance industry and allow us to quickly collect and analyze data, thereby improving our ability to manage our business and reduce our response times to our customers. We believe that we have differentiated ourselves from our competitors by effectively leveraging technology, vigilantly controlling expenses and maintaining control over our underwriting and claims operations.

We have significantly grown our business and have generated strong returns. During 2025, our gross written premiums increased by 5.7%, to $2.0 billion for the year ended December 31, 2025. Our return on equity and combined ratios were 29.3% and 75.9%, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2025. Our operating return on equity, a non-GAAP financial measure, was 26.4% for the year ended December 31, 2025. We believe that we are well positioned to continue to capitalize on attractive opportunities in our target market and to prudently grow our business. See "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for a reconciliation of net income to net operating earnings and calculations using net operating earnings (e.g., operating return on equity).

The following table compares stockholder returns of Kinsale to those of the S&P 500.

Kinsale's Performance vs. the S&P 500
Annual Percentage Change (1)
YearKinsale (2)S&P 500
2016113.54.2
201733.221.8
201824.1(4.4)
201983.731.5
202097.318.4
202119.228.7
202210.2(18.1)
202328.326.3
202439.125.0
2025(15.8)%17.9%
Compounded Annual Gain ─ 2016-202540.8%14.9%
Overall Gain ─ 2016-20252,421.4%270.5%

(1) Data for 2016 begins with Kinsale's initial public offering date of July 28, 2016 and assumes reinvestment of dividends.

(2) Returns are calculated from the initial public offering price of $16.00 per share.

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Our Products

We write a broad array of insurance coverages for risks that are unusual or hard to place in the standard insurance market. Typical E&S risks include newly established companies or industries, high-risk operations, insureds in litigious venues or companies with poor loss histories. We target classes of business where our underwriters have extensive experience allowing us to compete effectively and earn attractive returns. Our underwriters specialize in individual lines of business which allows them to develop in-depth knowledge and experience of the risks they underwrite. Our core client focus is small- to medium-sized accounts, which we believe are subject to less competition and have better pricing. The average premium per policy written by us in 2025 was $13,400. Excluding our personal insurance division, which has a relatively low premium per policy written, the average premium per policy written was $14,000 in 2025. We believe that our strategy, experience and expertise allow us to compete effectively in the E&S market and will enable us to generate attractive long-term stockholder value.

In 2025, the percentage breakdown of our gross written premiums was 70.7% casualty and 29.3% property. Our commercial lines offerings and homeowner's coverage in the personal lines market represented 97.0% and 3.0% of our gross written premiums, respectively.

The following table provides a summary of gross premiums written by division for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023.

Year Ended December 31,
202520242023
($ in thousands)
Commercial:
Commercial Property$374,45118.9%$456,17024.4%$411,95626.3%
Excess Casualty276,99814.0%245,13713.1%194,04912.4%
General Casualty207,88810.5%169,1629.0%118,7457.6%
Small Business Casualty202,41210.2%195,59310.5%174,08011.1%
Construction147,6017.5%148,5587.9%137,9028.8%
Small Business Property102,4135.2%76,8004.1%43,8932.8%
Allied Health96,9824.9%83,0584.5%67,8084.3%
Entertainment70,0493.6%55,1682.9%36,5662.3%
Products Liability67,8833.4%67,0353.6%61,7863.9%
Commercial Auto48,7212.5%35,0471.9%19,0501.2%
All other commercial lines321,98416.3%289,67915.5%264,50316.9%
Total commercial1,917,38297.0%1,821,40797.4%1,530,33897.6%
Personal:
High Value Homeowners36,0621.8%26,8441.4%14,2950.9%
Personal Insurance23,7271.2%22,0901.2%24,1821.5%
Total personal$59,7893.0%$48,9342.6%$38,4772.4%
Total gross written premiums$1,977,171100.0%$1,870,341100.0%$1,568,815100.0%

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe that our competitive strengths include:

Exclusive focus on the E&S market. The E&S, or non-admitted, market has historically operated at lower loss ratios and higher margins, and has grown direct premiums written more quickly than the standard, or admitted, market. From 2001 to 2024, A.M. Best Company's ("A.M. Best") domestic professional surplus lines composite produced an average net loss and loss adjustment expense ratio of 68.7% and grew direct premiums written by 10.0% annually, versus 73.6% and 4.7%, respectively for the property and casualty ("P&C") industry.

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Underwriting expertise across a broad spectrum of hard-to-place risks. We have a broad appetite to underwrite a diverse set of risks across the E&S market. Our underwriting team is highly experienced, and individually underwrites each risk to appropriately price and structure solutions. We balance our broad risk appetite by maintaining a diversified book of smaller accounts with strong pricing and well-defined coverages. Unlike many of our competitors, we do not extend underwriting authority to brokers, agents or other third parties. For the year ended December 31, 2025, our loss and loss adjustment expense ratio was 55.1%.

Technology is a core competency. As an insurance company that was founded in 2009, we have the benefit of having built, and continuing to enhance, a proprietary technology platform that reflects the best practices our management team has learned from its extensive experience. We operate on an integrated digital platform with a data warehouse that collects an array of statistical data. Our platform provides a high degree of efficiency, accuracy and speed across all of our processes. We are able to use the data that we collect to quickly analyze trends across all functions in our business. Our customized proprietary systems help us to reduce the risk of administrative errors in our policy forms and include all of the necessary exclusions for the specified risk, and provides for the efficient and accurate handling of claims. Additionally, our systems enable us to rapidly respond to brokers, allowing our underwriters to reply to many of our submissions within 24 hours, a significant benefit to our brokers. While our technology offers a competitive advantage, we also recognize that more modern technologies provide solutions for increased automation and efficiency; as such, we continue to dedicate resources to maintain, improve and, if necessary, replace our technology. We believe that our approach to technological advancement will provide us with an enduring competitive advantage as it allows us to quickly respond to market opportunities, and will continue to scale as our business grows.

Significantly lower expense ratio than our competitors. Expense management is ingrained in our business culture. We believe that the combination of our proprietary technology platform and our expense management allows us to process quotes, underwrite policies and operate with a substantial cost advantage over our direct competitors. In particular, our efficient platform allows us to provide a higher level of service to our brokers and to target smaller accounts which we believe are generally subject to less competition. For the year ended December 31, 2025, our expense ratio was 20.8%.

Fully integrated claims management. We believe that proactively managing our claims results in appropriate outcomes and a higher degree of reserve accuracy. We manage all of our claims in-house and do not delegate claims management authority to third parties. We promptly and thoroughly investigate all claims, generally through direct contact with the insured, and leverage both our systems and our underwriters to gather the relevant facts. As necessary, we employ local counsel in defense of our policy holders and independent adjusters for task assignments. When we believe claims are without merit, we vigorously contest payment. We currently average 100 open claims per claims adjuster (100 open claims per claims adjuster excluding catastrophe claims), which we believe is lower than industry average. As of December 31, 2025, our reserves for claims incurred but not reported were approximately 91.2% of our total net loss reserves. Of the total open claims as of December 31, 2025, 15.9% were open for accident years 2021 and prior.

Entrepreneurial management team with a track record of success. Our management team is highly experienced with an average of over 30 years of relevant experience, bringing together a full suite of underwriting, claims, technology and operating skills that we believe will drive our long-term success. The majority of our management team has a proven track record of successfully building high-performing specialty insurance companies. We are led by Michael Kehoe who, prior to founding Kinsale, was the president and chief executive officer of James River Insurance Company from 2002 until 2008. Prior to James River Insurance Company, Mr. Kehoe held several senior positions at Colony Insurance Company. Many of our other employees and members of our management team worked with Mr. Kehoe at James River Insurance Company and have decades of experience at other E&S insurance companies. As meaningful owners of Kinsale, we believe our management team has closely-aligned interests with our stockholders.

Our Board of Directors has deep insurance and financial services industry experience. Our Board of Directors is comprised of accomplished industry veterans. Collectively, our board members bring decades of experience from their prior roles operating and working in insurance and other financial services companies.

Our Strategy

We believe that our approach to our business will allow us to achieve our goals of both growing our business and generating attractive returns. Our approach involves:

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Expand our presence in the E&S market. According to A.M. Best, the total E&S market was approximately $129.8 billion of direct written premiums in 2024. Based on our 2025 gross written premiums of $2.0 billion, our current market share is approximately 1.5%. We believe that our exclusive focus on the E&S market and our high levels of service, including our ability to quote, underwrite and bind insurance policies in a timely manner through our efficient systems, allow us to better serve our brokers and position us to profitably increase our market share.

Generate underwriting profits. We focus on underwriting profitability regardless of market cycles. Our strategy is to concentrate on hard-to-place risks and to maintain adequate rate levels for the risks that we underwrite. We maintain control over our underwriting process to ensure consistent quality of work. We underwrite each account individually and never delegate authority to any outside agents or brokers.

Maintain a contrarian risk appetite. Our flexibility as an E&S insurer enables us to write business at attractive returns while offering competitive policies to our brokers and insureds. We believe we distinguish ourselves in the market with our contrarian risk appetite and our willingness to offer terms on risks requiring more extensive underwriting that some of our competitors may decline to consider. Such accounts frequently offer us a better return than those preferred by our competitors due to reduced competition.

Leverage investment in technology to drive efficiencies. We use a proprietary technology platform to drive a high level of efficiency, accuracy and speed in our underwriting and quoting process. We have organized our workflows, designed our systems and aligned our staff to provide superior service levels to brokers while achieving a level of efficiency that we believe provides us with a competitive advantage and helps contribute to our low expense ratio. We believe that automation also reduces human error in our underwriting, policy processing, accounting, collections, and claims adjusting processes. Additionally, we are able to track quotes, monitor historical loss experience and reserve development, and measure other relevant metrics at a granular level of detail. We believe that our technology approach is scalable and will allow us to maintain a low expense ratio as we continue to organically grow our business.

Maintain a strong balance sheet. In order to maintain the confidence of policyholders, brokers, reinsurers, investors, regulators and rating agencies, we seek to establish and maintain a conservative balance sheet. We have a robust process for setting our loss reserves and regularly reviewing our estimates. In addition, we maintain a conservative investment portfolio. Our strong balance sheet allows us to maintain the confidence of our investors and other constituencies, and thereby position ourselves to better achieve our goals.

Our Structure

The chart below displays our corporate structure:

Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.(Delaware corporation)
Kinsale Management, Inc.(Delaware corporation; management services company)Kinsale Insurance Company(Arkansas corporation; stock insurance company)Aspera Insurance Services, Inc.(Virginia corporation; insurance broker)Kinsale Real Estate, Inc.(Delaware corporation; real estate holding company)
2001 Maywill, LLC(Delaware limited liability company; real estate entity)2000 Maywill, LLC(Delaware limited liability company; real estate entity)

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Kinsale Capital Group, Inc., a Delaware domiciled insurance holding company, was formed on June 3, 2009 for the purpose of acquiring and managing insurance entities. Prior to September 5, 2014, the Company was a Bermuda registered holding company, formerly known as Kinsale Capital Group, Ltd. ("KCGL"). Effective September 5, 2014, KCGL was re-domesticated from Bermuda to Delaware. A wholly-owned subsidiary of KCGL, Kinsale Capital Group, Inc., which was formed on June 4, 2009 as a U.S. holding company, was immediately merged into the re-domesticated entity and Kinsale Capital Group, Ltd. changed its name to Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.

On June 4, 2009, we incorporated Kinsale Management, Inc. ("Kinsale Management") as a wholly-owned subsidiary domiciled in Delaware, in order to provide management services to all of our U.S.-based subsidiaries.

On February 5, 2010, we acquired American Healthcare Specialty Insurance Company and changed its name to Kinsale Insurance Company ("Kinsale Insurance"). Kinsale Insurance is an Arkansas-domiciled insurance company and is eligible to operate on an excess and surplus lines basis in 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

On August 21, 2013, we established Aspera Insurance Services, Inc. ("Aspera"), an insurance broker. Aspera is domiciled in Virginia and is authorized to conduct business in Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont and Washington.

On December 3, 2018, we incorporated Kinsale Real Estate, Inc. ("Kinsale Real Estate"), as a wholly-owned subsidiary domiciled in Delaware, in order to acquire and hold real estate.

On December 3, 2018, we formed 2001 Maywill, LLC, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kinsale Real Estate, domiciled in Delaware, in order to hold our corporate headquarters.

On September 8, 2022, we formed 2000 Maywill, LLC, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kinsale Real Estate, domiciled in Delaware, in order to acquire and hold real estate investment property.

Marketing and Distribution

We market our products through a broad group of independent brokers. We also sell policies through our wholly-owned broker, Aspera. In 2025, Aspera distributed 1.2% of Kinsale’s premiums, primarily manufactured housing risks within our personal insurance division. Kinsale does not grant its independent brokers any underwriting or claims authority.

We select our brokers based on management's review of the experience, knowledge and business plan of each broker. Many of our brokers have more than one office, and we may appoint some but not all offices owned by a broker. We seek brokers with business plans that are consistent with our strategy and underwriting objectives. Our underwriters regularly visit with brokers in their offices in order to market and discuss the products we offer.

For the year ended December 31, 2025, our largest brokers were RSG Specialty, LLC, which produced $371.2 million, or 18.8%, of our gross written premiums, AmWINS Brokerage, which produced $339.0 million, or 17.1% of our gross written premiums and CRC Commercial Solutions, which produced $231.2 million, or 11.7%, of our gross written premiums. No other broker accounted for more than 10% of our gross written premiums in the year ended December 31, 2025.

It is important to us that we maintain excellent relationships with our brokers. Commissions are an important part of that relationship, but brokers will also typically consider the ultimate price to the insured, and the service and expertise offered by the carrier when determining where to place their business. In 2025, we paid an average commission to our brokers of 14.8% of gross written premiums. We believe this is slightly lower than the average commission paid by our competitors. We believe that our specialization in hard-to-place risks, combined with our high degree of service, including our rapid response times, permits us to manage our commission expense as part of our overall management of the underwriting process. Additionally, we do not contract out our underwriting to program managers or general agents which typically requires a higher commission level to compensate the third party for its work on behalf of the carrier.

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We sell policies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The following tables show our gross written premiums by state for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023.

Year Ended December 31,
2025% of Total2024% of Total2023% of Total
($ in thousands)
Gross written premiums by state:
California$388,58719.7%$352,08218.8%$295,24218.8%
Florida302,61915.3%291,84915.6%266,15317.0%
Texas276,65414.0%250,20013.4%198,75812.7%
New York88,8874.5%80,1444.3%66,4894.2%
Louisiana58,8913.0%56,8193.0%49,9703.2%
Colorado51,9352.6%50,7342.7%43,8522.8%
New Jersey51,0812.6%47,0572.5%42,0612.7%
Washington49,9562.5%51,5882.8%46,5073.0%
Pennsylvania42,1792.1%41,4942.2%33,3332.1%
Illinois41,5512.1%41,4092.2%30,7431.9%
All other states624,83131.6%606,96532.5%495,70731.6%
$1,977,171100.0%$1,870,341100.0%$1,568,815100.0%

Underwriting

Our underwriting department consisted of approximately 340 employees as of December 31, 2025. We use our proprietary technology platform to drive a high level of efficiency, accuracy and speed in our underwriting and quoting process. We believe our internal business processing systems allow us to maintain a high ratio of underwriters to total employees, as we do not require a significant number of administrative personnel to facilitate our underwriting process. We also believe that our digital environment allows us to engage fewer employees in policy administration.

We aim to issue quotes for the majority of new business submissions we receive. For certain submissions, we preemptively offer additional coverage. For example, if we receive a submission requesting primary coverage, we may also offer excess coverage. These preemptively offered submissions, which are generated by the Company without a specific request from the broker or insured, are referred to as unsolicited submissions and are included in new business submissions. For the year ended December 31, 2025, we processed approximately 988,000 new business submissions, and of those submissions, we issued approximately 711,000 quotes for a new business quote ratio of 72.0% and bound 75,000 policies for a new policy to new submission ratio of 7.6%. Excluding unsolicited submissions, for the year ended December 31, 2025, we processed approximately 751,000 new business submissions, and of those submissions, we issued approximately 563,000 quotes for a new business quote ratio of 75.0% and bound 72,000 policies for a new policy to new submission ratio of 9.6%. We are careful to establish terms that are suited to the risk and the pricing of our policies. As an E&S company, we use our freedom of rate and form assertively in order to appropriately underwrite risks that have already been rejected by standard carriers constrained by approved forms and filed rates.

We endeavor to craft policies that offer affordable and appropriate protection to address our insureds' exposures while also constructing coverage such that potential losses are more predictable and claims cost can be best managed.

Claims

Our claims department consisted of approximately 90 claims professionals who had an average of 9 years of claims experience in the industry as of December 31, 2025. Our Chief Claims Officer has over 30 years of litigation and claims experience in large commercial insurance claims departments. Our claims department is fully integrated with our other functional departments. We manage all of our claims in-house and do not delegate claims management authority to third parties.

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We focus on the effective management of the claims adjusting process. This process is achieved by extending low reserve and settlement authority levels to our front-line claim examiners; keeping the adjuster-to-supervisor ratios low to allow for greater supervision over the adjusting process; and monitoring the number of claims handled by each claims examiner. This method ensures that two or more members of the department participate in the decision-making process when appropriate; our claim examiners recognize and address key issues; and reserves are adjusted to the appropriate amount, as necessary. We seek to manage the number of claims per claims examiner to allow our claim examiners sufficient time to review and investigate claims submitted. Moreover, prior to any scheduled mediation or trial, claims personnel conduct further peer review to ensure that issues and exposures have been adequately analyzed. In addition, our claim examiners work closely with members of the underwriting staff to keep them apprised of claim trends. Vendor management is also important, and our claim examiners work closely with our vendors to manage expenses and costs.

Information Technology

Our information technology department consisted of approximately 140 employees and contractors as of December 31, 2025. Our Chief Information Officer has over 30 years of experience in the technology field. Our information technology staff utilizes an agile methodology and cloud-first strategy to develop best-in-class software solutions and to attract and retain quality staff.

We have built a proprietary technology platform that reflects the best practices our management team has learned from its extensive experience. Our platform encompasses multiple applications and services which comprise an integrated system. Key applications and services supporting the core business are developed and improved in-house. We designed the architecture for our information systems in a fashion that would allow us to reduce administrative costs and quickly provide us with useful information. Our insurance company subsidiary operates in a digital environment, which reduces the costs of printing, storing and handling thousands of documents each week. Moreover, by maintaining electronic files on each account, we have been able to facilitate clear communication among personnel responsible for handling matters related to underwriting, servicing and claims as each has access to the necessary information regarding an account.

We use a web-based platform approach to develop applications. When a broker submits a request for insurance, the information is processed through our web-based intake and underwriting systems. This eliminates costly data-entry steps in our underwriting process and permits the underwriter to focus on underwriting the account accurately and rapidly.

Since inception, we have been intent on capturing and analyzing data and building, over time, a robust repository of information that we can use to improve our decision making. We refer to this repository as our data warehouse. The design of our data warehouse permits us to capture an array of relevant data collected by the platform at Kinsale. The data warehouse is easily searchable, collects and labels information in a consistent format and contains key underwriting and claims information we collect at each step of the process. The data warehouse permits us flexibility with regard to analyzing our business by segment or in the aggregate. We believe the proprietary technology platform, which includes the data warehouse, is a competitive advantage for us.

We have invested for many years in the development of our analytics capabilities, supported by a growing team of actuaries and data scientists who use our proprietary data, together with third-party data, to generate insights that support underwriting, pricing, and other operational decision-making. Building on these capabilities, we have expanded our use of artificial intelligence ("AI") to support existing workflows and analytical processes. In 2025, we initiated a company-wide effort to introduce AI-enabled tools, including providing each employee an enterprise license for an AI tool, to assist with research, analysis and certain routine business processes. Use of these tools is most prevalent within our information technology, actuarial and analytical teams, with selective use in other areas of the business, including underwriting and back office functions. We also utilize internally developed agents. We continue to evaluate opportunities to integrate AI-enabled functionality into our proprietary technology platform and data warehouse where such tools can enhance efficiency and support underwriting discipline.

Reserve Development

We maintain reserves for specific claims incurred and reported and for claims incurred but not reported. We continually monitor and adjust our reserves as necessary using new information on reported claims and a variety of statistical techniques. Anticipated inflation is reflected implicitly in the reserving process through analysis of cost trends and the

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review of historical development. We do not discount our reserves to reflect the estimated present value. However, our ultimate liability may be greater or less than current reserves and there is always the risk that reserves may prove inadequate.

See "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations — Critical Accounting Estimates — Reserves for Unpaid Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses" and Note 7 of the consolidated financial statements for a discussion of estimates and assumptions related to the reserves for unpaid losses and loss adjustment expenses.

Catastrophe Risk Management

We use stochastic models to analyze the risk of severe losses from natural catastrophes. We measure exposure to these losses in terms of probable maximum loss ("PML"), which is an estimate of the amount of loss we would expect to meet or exceed once in a given number of years (referred to as the return period). When managing our catastrophe exposure, we focus on the 100-year and the 250-year return periods. Our main catastrophe risk arises from hurricanes. We manage catastrophe exposure through:

•careful and disciplined underwriting,

•purchasing extensive reinsurance protection from financially strong counterparties,

•analyzing results of catastrophe modeling for our business portfolio on monthly basis, and

•limiting the concentration of property business by geographic area to reduce loss exposure from extreme events.

We mitigate catastrophe exposure by implementing certain aggregate risk management guidelines for our overall property business. For instance, these guidelines limit the exposed property values within a specified geographic radius, which in turn limits the gross and net PML. In addition to our aggregate risk management guidelines, we tactically write policies using limits in order to minimize exposure to large losses. While specific limits change over time as our risk appetite changes due to growth, the majority of our property business is written with policy limits of $5.0 million and lower. Our insurance policies are also generally written for one year and repriced annually to reflect changing exposures, including changes in frequency and severity of weather-related claims. Increased frequency and severity of natural catastrophes drive increased volatility for insurers. It also causes standard insurers to push more catastrophe exposed business into the E&S market thereby increasing our business opportunity. E&S companies are better able to manage the volatility associated with catastrophe risk given their regulatory freedom of rate and form allowing for maximum flexibility in restricting coverage and charging higher rates.

Reinsurance

We enter into reinsurance contracts primarily to limit our exposure to potential large losses. Reinsurance involves an insurance company transferring ("ceding") a portion of its exposure on a risk to another insurer, the reinsurer. The reinsurer assumes the exposure in return for a portion of the premium. Our reinsurance is primarily contracted under quota-share reinsurance and excess of loss treaties. In quota-share reinsurance, the reinsurer agrees to assume a specified percentage of the ceding company's losses arising out of a defined class of business in exchange for a corresponding percentage of premiums, net of a ceding commission. In excess of loss reinsurance, the reinsurer agrees to assume all or a portion of the ceding company's losses, in excess of a specified amount. Under excess of loss reinsurance, the premium payable to the reinsurer is negotiated by the parties based on their assessment of the amount of risk being ceded to the reinsurer because the reinsurer does not share proportionately in the ceding company's losses.

We renew our reinsurance treaties annually. During each renewal cycle, there are a number of factors we consider when determining our reinsurance coverage, including (1) plans to change the underlying insurance coverage we offer, (2) trends in loss activity, (3) the level of our capital and surplus, (4) changes in our risk appetite and (5) the cost and availability of reinsurance coverage.

As previously discussed, when managing our catastrophe exposure, we generally focus on the 100-year and the 250-year return periods. We mitigate our risk associated with natural catastrophes with respect to our property insurance business primarily by purchasing reinsurance from only highly-rated reinsurers. We utilize a quota-share reinsurance treaty

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combined with a catastrophe reinsurance treaty as an efficient and cost-effective way to manage the total loss exposure on our property coverages.

The following is a summary of our significant reinsurance programs as of December 31, 2025:

Line of Business CoveredCompany Policy LimitReinsurance CoverageCompany Retention
Property (1)Up to $10.0 million per occurrence40% up to $443.0 million per catastrophe60% of property losses
Property – catastrophe (2)N/A$250.0 million excess of $75.0 million$75.0 million per catastrophe
Primary casualty (3)Up to $10.0 million per occurrence$8.0 million excess of $2.0 million$2.0 million per occurrence
Excess casualty (4)Up to $10.0 million per occurrenceVariable quota-share$3.0 million per occurrence as described in note (4) below

(1)    Our property quota-share reinsurance reduces the financial impact of property losses up to a loss recovery of $177.2 million for an event. This reinsurance is not applicable to any individual policy with a limit of $2.0 million or less.

(2)    Our property catastrophe reinsurance reduces the financial impact of a catastrophe event involving multiple claims and policyholders. Our property catastrophe reinsurance includes a reinstatement provision that requires us to pay reinstatement premiums after a loss has occurred in order to preserve coverage. Including the reinstatement of coverage, the maximum aggregate loss recovery limit is $500.0 million. This coverage applies after the coverage provided by the commercial property quota-share treaty.

(3)    This reinsurance is not applicable to any individual policy with a per-occurrence limit of $2.0 million or less.

(4)    For excess casualty policies with a per-occurrence limit higher than $3.0 million, the ceding percentage varies such that the retention is always $3.0 million or less. For example, for a $5.0 million limit excess policy, our retention would be 60%, whereas for a $10.0 million limit excess policy, our retention would be 30%. For policies for which we also write an underlying primary limit, the combined retention on the primary and excess policies would not exceed $3.0 million. This reinsurance is not applicable to any individual policy with a per-occurrence limit of $3.0 million or less.

Reinsurance contracts do not relieve us from our obligations to policyholders. Failure of the reinsurer to honor its obligation could result in losses to us, and therefore, we established an allowance for credit risk based on historical analysis of credit losses for highly rated companies in the insurance industry. In formulating our reinsurance programs, we are selective in our choice of reinsurers and we consider numerous factors, the most important of which are the financial stability of the reinsurer, its history of responding to claims and its overall reputation. In an effort to minimize our exposure to the insolvency of our reinsurers, we review the financial condition of each reinsurer annually. In addition, we continually monitor for rating downgrades involving any of our reinsurers. At December 31, 2025, all reinsurance contracts that our insurance subsidiary was party to were with companies with A.M. Best ratings of "A-" (Excellent) or better. At December 31, 2025, we recorded an allowance for credit losses of $1.1 million related to our reinsurance balances.

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We had reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses of $381.4 million at December 31, 2025, and recoverables on paid losses of $13.0 million at December 31, 2025. The following table provides a summary of our top ten reinsurers, based on the amount recoverable, at December 31, 2025:

ReinsurersS&P RatingA.M. Best RatingReinsurance Recoverable
($ in thousands)
Munich Reinsurance America, Inc.AAA+$95,813
General Reinsurance CorporationAA+A++46,276
Swiss Reinsurance America Corp.AA-A+37,875
SCOR Reinsurance Co.A+A30,785
Hannover Rück SEAA-A+24,613
Arch Reinsurance Co.AA-A+23,774
Odyssey Reinsurance Co.AA-A+22,962
XL Reinsurance America Inc.AA-A+20,544
Berkley Insurance Co.A+A+20,405
Allied World Insurance Co.AA-A+19,497
Total for top ten reinsurers342,544
All others, net of allowance for credit losses51,785
Total reinsurance recoverable$394,329

We did not have reinsurance recoverables greater than $18.3 million at December 31, 2025 from any individual reinsurer other than the ten listed above.

To reduce credit exposure to reinsurance recoverable balances, we obtain letters of credit from certain reinsurers that are not authorized as reinsurers under U.S. state insurance regulations. In addition, under the terms of our reinsurance contracts discussed above, we may retain funds due from reinsurers as security for those recoverable balances.

Investments

Investment income is an important component of our earnings. We collect premiums from our insureds and invest a portion of these funds until claims are paid. Our cash and invested assets generally consist of fixed-maturity securities, equity securities, short-term investments and cash equivalents. We seek to maximize investment returns using conservative investment guidelines that stress prudent allocation among cash and cash equivalents, fixed-maturity securities and, to a lesser extent, equity securities.

Our fixed-maturity securities are classified as "available-for-sale" and are carried at fair value with unrealized gains and losses on those securities reported, net of tax, as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss). Our equity securities are carried at fair value and changes in the fair value of these investments are recognized in net income. Fair value generally represents quoted market value prices for securities traded in the public market or prices analytically determined using bid or closing prices for securities not actively traded in the public marketplace. Short-term investments, if any, are reported at amortized cost and include investments that are both readily convertible to known amounts of cash and have maturities of 12 months or less upon acquisition by us.

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Real estate investments represent directly owned property held for investment purposes. During the fourth quarter of 2025, construction of our new headquarters building was substantially completed and the property was placed into service. In December 2025, upon moving our operations to the new headquarters, we reclassified our former headquarters and related assets from property and equipment to real estate investments due to a change in the intended use of the property.

Our cash and invested assets totaled $5.2 billion at December 31, 2025 and $4.1 billion at December 31, 2024, and are summarized as follows:

December 31, 2025December 31, 2024
Carrying Value% of PortfolioCarrying Value% of Portfolio
($ in thousands)
Fixed maturities - at fair value:
U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of U.S. government agencies$874%$15,0480.4%
Obligations of states, municipalities and political subdivisions127,8602.5%146,3043.6%
Corporate and other securities1,713,88833.0%1,989,49048.9%
Asset-backed securities588,51911.3%732,74218.0%
Residential mortgage-backed securities1,459,27028.1%448,87411.0%
Commercial mortgage-backed securities451,0398.7%205,1055.0%
Total fixed maturities4,341,45083.6%3,537,56386.9%
Equity securities - at fair value:
Exchange traded funds185,5233.6%129,7313.2%
Non-redeemable preferred stock24,1000.5%26,4330.6%
Common stock416,7768.0%242,1956.0%
Total equity securities626,39912.1%398,3599.8%
Short-term investments, at amortized cost3,8640.1%3,7140.1%
Real estate investment, net55,2361.1%15,0450.4%
Cash and cash equivalents163,3613.1%113,2132.8%
Total$5,190,310100.0%$4,067,894100.0%

Our policy is to invest primarily in high-quality fixed-maturity securities with a primary focus on preservation of capital and a secondary focus on maximizing our risk-adjusted investment returns. Investment policy is set by the Investment Committee of the Board of Directors, subject to the limits of applicable regulations. Our investment policy is designed to comply with the regulatory investment requirements and restrictions to which our insurance subsidiary is subject. Our fixed-maturity portfolio and preferred stocks are managed by an outside investment advisory firm and our equity securities are managed in-house under guidelines approved by our Investment Committee. Our Investment Committee meets periodically and reports to our Board of Directors.

Our investment policy also imposes requirements for credit quality, with a minimum average credit quality of the portfolio being rated "AA-" or higher by Standard & Poor's or the equivalent rating from another nationally recognized rating agency. Our investment policy also imposes restrictions on concentrations of securities by class and issuer. As of December 31, 2025, our fixed-maturity portfolio, including cash equivalents, had an average duration of 4.0 years and had an average rating of "AA-."

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The following table sets forth the composition of our portfolio of fixed-maturity securities by rating as of December 31, 2025:

AAAAAABBBBelow BBBTotal
($ in thousands)
U.S. Treasury securities and obligations of U.S. government agencies$$874$$$$874
Obligations of states, municipalities and political subdivisions12,97584,64026,4203,090735127,860
Corporate and other securities190115,204827,447715,62155,4261,713,888
Asset-backed securities572,1205,1797,7903,430588,519
Residential mortgage-backed securities197,0661,258,9883,2161,459,270
Commercial mortgage-backed securities412,55138,488451,039
Total fixed maturities$1,194,902$1,503,373$861,657$722,141$59,377$4,341,450

The fair value of our investments in fixed-maturity securities at December 31, 2025, summarized by stated maturities follows:

December 31, 2025
Estimated% of
Fair ValueFair Value
($ in thousands)
Due in one year or less$14,3920.3%
Due after one year through five years879,53220.3%
Due after five years through ten years700,46616.1%
Due after ten years248,2325.7%
Asset-backed securities588,51913.6%
Residential mortgage-backed securities1,459,27033.6%
Commercial mortgage-backed securities451,03910.4%
Total fixed maturities$4,341,450100.0%

Actual maturities may differ for some securities because borrowers have the right to call or prepay obligations with or without penalties. As of December 31, 2025, our fixed-maturity security portfolio contained $1.5 billion (33.6%) of residential mortgage-backed securities ("RMBS"). RMBS, including collateralized mortgage obligations, are subject to prepayment risks that vary with, among other things, interest rates. During periods of declining interest rates, RMBS generally prepay faster as the underlying mortgages are prepaid and refinanced by the borrowers in order to take advantage of the lower rates. As a result, during periods of falling interest rates, proceeds from such prepayments generally must be reinvested at lower prevailing yields. In addition, RMBS that have an amortized cost that is greater than par (i.e., purchased at a premium) may incur a reduction in yield or a loss as a result of such prepayments. Conversely, during periods of rising interest rates, the rate of prepayments generally slows. RMBS that have an amortized value that is less than par (i.e., purchased at a discount) may incur a decrease in yield as a result of a slower rate of prepayments. Changes in estimated cash flows due to changes in prepayment assumptions from the original purchase assumptions are revised based on current interest rates and the economic environment. Our investment policy does not permit us to own any interest only, principal only or residual tranches of RMBS.

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At December 31, 2025, our portfolio of fixed-maturity securities contained corporate bonds with a fair value of $1.7 billion. A summary of these securities by industry segment is shown below as of December 31, 2025:

December 31, 2025
IndustryFair Value% of Total
($ in thousands)
Industrials and other$864,48350.5%
Financial669,05339.0%
Utilities180,35210.5%
Total$1,713,888100.0%

Approximately 11.6% of our total cash and investments were invested in certain common stocks and exchange traded funds ("ETFs"). At December 31, 2025, our equity securities included the following:

December 31, 2025
Equity securitiesFair Value% of Total
($ in thousands)
Common stocks$416,77669.2%
Domestic stock market fund185,52330.8%
Total$602,299100.0%

Approximately 0.5% of our total cash and investments were invested in nonredeemable preferred stock. A summary of these securities by industry segment is shown below as of December 31, 2025:

December 31, 2025
IndustryFair Value% of Total
($ in thousands)
Financial$23,23296.4%
Industrials and other8683.6%
Total$24,100100.0%

Competition

The P&C insurance industry is highly competitive. We compete with domestic and international insurers, some of which have greater financial, marketing and management resources and experience than we do. We may also compete with new market entrants in the future. Competition is based on many factors, including the perceived market strength of the insurer, pricing and other terms and conditions, services provided, the speed of claims payment, the reputation and experience of the insurer and ratings assigned by independent rating organizations such as A.M. Best. Our insurance subsidiary, Kinsale Insurance, currently has a rating from A.M. Best of "A" (Excellent). Ratings for an insurance company are based on its ability to pay policyholder obligations and are not directed toward the protection of investors.

Today, our primary competitors in the E&S sector include American International Group, Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Chubb Limited, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, Lloyds of London, Markel Group Inc., RLI Corp. and W. R. Berkley Corporation.

Regulation

Insurance regulation

We are regulated by insurance regulatory authorities in the states in which we conduct business. State insurance laws and regulations generally are designed to protect the interests of policyholders, consumers and claimants rather than stockholders or other investors. The nature and extent of state regulation varies by jurisdiction, and state insurance regulators generally have broad administrative power relating to, among other matters, setting capital and surplus requirements, licensing of insurers and agents, establishing standards for reserve adequacy, prescribing statutory

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accounting methods, determining the form and content of statutory financial reports, regulating certain transactions with affiliates and prescribing types and amounts of investments insurers may hold.

Regulation of insurance companies constantly changes as governmental agencies and legislatures react to real or perceived issues. In recent years, the state insurance regulatory framework has come under increased federal scrutiny, and some state legislatures have considered or enacted laws that alter and, in many cases, increase, state authority to regulate insurance companies and insurance holding company systems. Further, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") and state insurance regulators are continually re-examining existing laws and regulations, specifically focusing on issues relating to the solvency of insurance companies, group capital requirements, interpretations of existing laws and the development of new laws. Although the federal government does not directly regulate the business of insurance, federal initiatives often affect the insurance industry in a variety of ways. In addition, the Federal Insurance Office (the "FIO") was established within the U.S. Department of the Treasury by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act") in July 2010 to monitor all aspects of the insurance industry, including identifying issues or gaps in the regulation of insurers that could contribute to a systemic crisis in the insurance industry or the U.S. financial system. See "—Federal and state legislative and regulatory changes" below.

Required licensing

Kinsale Insurance is organized and domiciled in the State of Arkansas and maintains a Certificate of Authority (license) in the State of Arkansas to transact certain lines of P&C insurance as a domestic surplus lines insurer. This license is in good standing, and, pursuant to applicable Arkansas laws and regulations, will continue in force unless suspended, revoked or otherwise terminated, subject to certain conditions, including the payment by Kinsale Insurance of annual continuation fees, the filing of annual statutory financial statements and the filing of an annual registration statement with the Arkansas Insurance Department.

Kinsale Insurance currently operates on an excess and surplus lines basis in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. While Kinsale Insurance does not have to apply for and maintain a license in those states (with the exception of Arkansas, its domiciliary state), it is subject to maintaining suitability standards under each particular state’s surplus lines laws to be included as an eligible surplus lines carrier (as discussed below, the Dodd-Frank Act has brought uniformity to these standards (see "—Federal and state legislative and regulatory changes")). In states in which it operates on a surplus line basis, Kinsale Insurance has freedom of rate and form on the majority of its business. This means that Kinsale Insurance can generally implement a change in policy form, underwriting guidelines, or rates for a product without being subject to regulatory pre-approval.

Almost all insurance is written through licensed agents and brokers. In states in which we operate on a non-admitted basis, general agents and their retail insurance brokers are often required to certify that a certain number of licensed admitted insurers had been offered and declined to write a particular risk prior to placing that risk with us.

In addition, Aspera, our insurance broker, and designated employees must be licensed to act as insurance producers or adjusters, as applicable, by insurance regulatory authorities in the states where they operate. Such insurance regulatory authorities are vested in most cases with relatively broad discretion as to the granting, revocation, suspension, and renewal of licenses.

Insurance holding company regulation

We operate as an insurance holding company system and are subject to the insurance holding company laws of the State of Arkansas, the state in which Kinsale Insurance is organized and domiciled. These laws require that each insurance company in the system register with the insurance department of its state of domicile and furnish information concerning the operations of companies within the holding company system that may materially affect the operations, management or financial condition of the insurers within the system and domiciled in that state. These laws also provide that all transactions among members of a holding company system must be fair and reasonable. Transactions between insurance subsidiaries and their parents and affiliates generally must be disclosed to the state regulators, and notice to or prior approval of the applicable state insurance regulator generally is required for any material or extraordinary transaction.

On December 9, 2020, the NAIC initially adopted the Group Capital Calculation ("GCC") template and instructions, as well as corresponding amendments to NAIC model insurance holding company system laws. The amendments require,

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subject to certain exemptions, that the ultimate controlling person of each insurance group file a GCC on an annual basis with such insurance group’s lead state commissioner. The Group Capital Calculation (E) Working Group annually publishes Instructions and Template documents which provide GCC filing preparation guidance. The GCC uses a risk-based capital aggregation approach intended to provide regulators with an additional group supervisory tool. As of October 31, 2025, forty-eight (48) states have adopted the 2020 revisions to the Insurance Holding Company Act pertaining to Group Capital Calculation and Liquidity Stress Testing, including Arkansas. The Company will be subject to the requirements of these revisions beginning in 2026.

Changes of control

Before a person can acquire control of a U.S. domestic insurer, prior written approval must be obtained from the insurance commissioner of the state where the insurer is domiciled. Prior to granting approval of an application to acquire control of a domestic insurer, the domiciliary state insurance commissioner will consider a number of factors, which include the financial strength of the proposed acquiror, the acquiror’s plans for the future operations of the domestic insurer and any anti-competitive results that may arise from the consummation of the acquisition of control.

Generally, state insurance statutes provide that control over a domestic insurer is presumed to exist if any person, directly or indirectly, owns, controls, holds with the power to vote, or holds proxies representing, ten percent or more of the voting securities of the domestic insurer. This statutory presumption of control may be rebutted by a showing that control does not exist in fact. The state regulators, however, may find that "control" exists in circumstances in which a person owns or controls less than ten percent of the voting securities of the domestic insurer.

As Kinsale Insurance is domiciled in Arkansas, the insurance laws and regulations of that state would be applicable to any proposed acquisition of control of Kinsale Insurance. Under applicable Arkansas insurance laws and regulations, no person may acquire control of a domestic insurer until written approval is obtained from the state insurance commissioner following a public hearing on the proposed acquisition. Such approval would be contingent upon the state insurance commissioner’s consideration of a number of factors, including among others, the financial strength of the proposed acquiror, the integrity and management of the acquiror’s board of directors and executive officers, the acquiror’s plans for the future operations of the domestic insurer and any anti-competitive results that may arise from the consummation of the acquisition of control. Arkansas insurance laws and regulations contain a rebuttable presumption of control if any person directly or indirectly acquires ten percent or more of the voting stock of an Arkansas-domiciled insurer. Accordingly, the acquisition of ten percent or more of our common stock would be considered an indirect change of control of Kinsale Insurance and would trigger the applicable change of control filing requirements under Arkansas insurance laws and regulations, absent a disclaimer of control filing and its acceptance by the Arkansas Insurance Department. These requirements may discourage potential acquisition proposals and may delay, deter or prevent a change of control of us, including through transactions that some or all of our stockholders might consider to be desirable.

Restrictions on paying dividends

State insurance laws restrict the ability of insurance companies to declare and pay stockholder dividends. State insurance regulators require insurance companies to maintain specified levels of statutory capital and surplus. The maximum dividend distribution absent the approval or non-disapproval of the insurance regulatory authority in Arkansas is limited by Arkansas law to the greater of 10% of policyholder surplus as of December 31 of the previous year or net income, not including realized capital gains, for the previous calendar year. Dividend payments are further limited to that part of available policyholder surplus which is derived from net profits on an insurer’s business.

Investment regulation

Kinsale Insurance is subject to state laws which require diversification of our investment portfolios and limits on the amount of our investments in certain categories. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations would cause non-conforming investments to be treated as non-admitted assets in the states in which we are licensed to sell insurance policies for purposes of measuring statutory surplus and, in some instances, would require us to dispose of those investments.

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Restrictions on market withdrawal

Many states have laws and regulations that limit the ability of an insurance company licensed by that state to exit a market. Some states prohibit an insurer from withdrawing from one or more lines of business in the state except pursuant to a plan approved by the state insurance regulator, which may disapprove a plan that may lead to market disruption. Some state statutes may explicitly or by interpretation apply these restrictions to insurers operating on a surplus lines basis.

Enterprise risk and other developments

The NAIC, as part of its solvency modernization initiative, has engaged in a concerted effort to strengthen the ability of U.S. state insurance regulators to monitor U.S. insurance holding company groups. Recent efforts by the NAIC to establish group capital standards are consistent with this initiative. State insurance holding company laws, including those in Arkansas, address "enterprise" risk, the risk that an activity, circumstance, event or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer will, if not remedied promptly, be likely to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole and require annual reporting of potential enterprise risk as well as access to information to allow the state insurance regulator to assess such risk. Under Arkansas insurance holding company laws, the ultimate controlling person of insurers subject to registration is required to file an annual enterprise risk report with the lead state commissioner, when applicable, of the insurance holding company system as determined by the procedures within the Financial Analysis Handbook adopted by the NAIC.

In 2012, the NAIC adopted the Risk Management and Own Risk and Solvency Assessment ("ORSA") Model Act. The ORSA Model Act, when adopted by state regulators requires domestic insurers to maintain a risk management framework and establishes a legal requirement for domestic insurers to conduct an ORSA. The ORSA Summary Report is a confidential internal assessment, appropriate to the nature, scale and complexity of an insurer, regarding the material and relevant risks identified by the insurer associated with an insurer’s current business plan and the sufficiency of capital resources to support those risks. Effective July 2015, Arkansas adopted its version of the ORSA Model Act. Our subsidiary, Kinsale Insurance, is subject to the requirements of the ORSA Model Act as adopted in its domicile of Arkansas.

Additionally, in response to the growing threat of cyber-attacks in the insurance industry, certain jurisdictions have begun to consider new cybersecurity measures, including the adoption of cybersecurity regulations which, among other things, would require insurance companies to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program and implement and maintain cybersecurity policies and procedures. On October 24, 2017, the NAIC adopted its Insurance Data Security Model Law, intended to serve as model legislation for states to enact in order to govern cybersecurity and data protection practices of insurers, insurance agents, and other licensed entities registered under state insurance laws (Arkansas has not yet adopted this model legislation). The New York State Department of Financial Services ("DFS") issued regulations governing cybersecurity requirements for financial services companies, which became effective on March 1, 2017, and, as currently amended, require insurance companies, among others, regulated in New York to assess their specific cyber risk profiles and design cyber security programs to address such risks. We annually file our program compliance certifications pertaining to the DFS cybersecurity requirements in New York.

Federal and state legislative and regulatory changes

The U.S. federal government’s oversight of the insurance industry was expanded under the Dodd-Frank Act. Prior to the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act in July 2010, the U.S. federal government’s regulation of the insurance industry was essentially limited to certain insurance products, such as flood insurance, multi-peril crop insurance and reinsurance of losses from terrorism. As part of the overall federal financial regulatory reform package contained in the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress has legislated reforms in the surplus lines sector (among others).

The Dodd-Frank Act incorporates the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2010 ("NRRA"), which became effective on July 21, 2011. Among other things, the NRRA establishes national uniform standards on how states may regulate and tax surplus lines insurance and sets national standards concerning the regulation of reinsurance. In particular, the NRRA gives regulators in the home state of an insured exclusive authority to regulate and tax surplus lines insurance

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transactions, and regulators in a ceding insurer’s state of domicile the sole responsibility for regulating the balance sheet credit that the ceding insurer may take for reinsurance recoverables.

The Dodd-Frank Act also established the FIO in the U.S. Department of the Treasury and vested the FIO with the authority to monitor all aspects of the insurance sector, monitor the extent to which traditionally underserved communities and consumers have access to affordable non-health insurance products, and to represent the United States on prudential aspects of international insurance matters, including at the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (the "IAIS"). In addition, the FIO serves as an advisory member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, assists the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury with administration of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program, and advises the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury on important national and international insurance matters. In addition, the FIO has the ability to recommend to the Financial Stability Oversight Council the designation of an insurer as "systemically important" and therefore subject to regulation and oversight by the Federal Reserve Board in a manner similar to a bank holding company also subject to designation.

In limited circumstances, the FIO can declare a state insurance law or regulation "preempted," but this can be done only after extensive consultation with state insurance regulators, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and key insurance industry players (in trade associations representing insurers and intermediaries). Additionally, the FIO must publish a notice regarding the basis for the preemption in the Federal Register, allowing a reasonable opportunity for comments. The FIO cannot preempt state antitrust laws governing rate making, underwriting, sales practices or coverage requirements. No later than September 30th of each year, the FIO must submit an annual report to Congress explaining any use of the preemption authority during the prior year.

In addition, a number of federal laws affect and apply to the insurance industry, including various privacy laws and the economic and trade sanctions implemented by the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. OFAC maintains and enforces economic sanctions against certain foreign countries and groups and prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in certain transactions with certain persons or entities. OFAC has imposed civil penalties on persons, including insurance and reinsurance companies, arising from violations of its economic sanctions program.

On November 20, 2015, the FIO and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced their intention to exercise their authority under the Dodd-Frank Act to negotiate a “covered agreement” with the European Union (the "Covered Agreement"). After a number of private negotiating sessions, on January 13, 2017, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notified Congress that they had completed negotiations with the European Union for the Covered Agreement, which addressed reinsurance, insurance group supervision and the exchange of information between insurance supervisors. The Covered Agreement was formally entered into on September 22, 2017. A covered agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom extending terms nearly identical to the EU Covered Agreement to insurers and reinsurers operating in the UK following Brexit entered into force on December 31, 2020.

With respect to reinsurance, under the Covered Agreement, both the U.S. and the European Union agreed that their supervisory authorities will not impose reinsurance collateral requirements or "local presence" requirements on a reinsurer domiciled in (or with a head office in) the other’s territory that are less favorable than collateral or local presence requirements applied to a domestic reinsurer. However, the collateral or local presence provisions apply only if the insurer or reinsurer satisfies certain conditions and standards, including among others, minimum capital and risk-based capital, confirmation of financial condition by the reinsurer’s domestic regulator and claims payment standards. U.S. states were provided five years from execution of the Covered Agreement to adopt reinsurance reforms removing collateral requirements for European Union reinsurers that meet the prescribed conditions in the Covered Agreement. If the FIO determines that state laws are inconsistent with the Covered Agreement, such states' laws may be preempted.

On June 25, 2019, the NAIC adopted revisions to the Credit for Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation in order to satisfy the substantive and timing requirements of the Covered Agreement. These amendments paved the way for state legislatures to bring their credit for reinsurance laws into compliance with the Covered Agreement's zero reinsurance collateral provisions by September 2022, thereby avoiding a potential federal preemption of these laws. Associated revisions were adopted by all U.S. jurisdictions within the prescribed timeframe, including Arkansas, whose adoption became effective on July 1, 2021.

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Trade practices

The manner in which insurance companies and insurance agents and brokers conduct the business of insurance is regulated by state statutes in an effort to prohibit practices that constitute unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Prohibited practices include, but are not limited to, disseminating false information or advertising, unfair discrimination, rebating and false statements. We set business conduct policies and provide training to make our employee-agents and other sales personnel aware of these prohibitions, and we require them to conduct their activities in compliance with these statutes.

Unfair claims practices

Generally, insurance companies, adjusting companies and individual claims adjusters are prohibited by state statutes from engaging in unfair claims practices. Unfair claims practices include, but are not limited to, misrepresenting pertinent facts or insurance policy provisions; failing to acknowledge and act reasonably promptly upon communications with respect to claims arising under insurance policies; and attempting to settle a claim for less than the amount to which a reasonable person would have believed such person was entitled. We set business conduct policies and conduct training to make our employee-adjusters and other claims personnel aware of these prohibitions, and we require them to conduct their activities in compliance with these statutes.

Credit for reinsurance

State insurance laws permit U.S. insurance companies, as ceding insurers, to take financial statement credit for reinsurance that is ceded, so long as the assuming reinsurer satisfies the state’s credit for reinsurance laws. The NRRA contained in the Dodd-Frank Act provides that if the state of domicile of a ceding insurer is an NAIC accredited state, or has financial solvency requirements substantially similar to the requirements necessary for NAIC accreditation, and recognizes credit for reinsurance for the insurer’s ceded risk, then no other state may deny such credit for reinsurance. Because all states are currently accredited by the NAIC, the Dodd-Frank Act prohibits a state in which a U.S. ceding insurer is licensed but not domiciled from denying credit for reinsurance for the insurer’s ceded risk if the cedant's domestic state regulator recognizes credit for reinsurance. The ceding company in this instance is permitted to reflect in its statutory financial statements a credit in an aggregate amount equal to the ceding company’s liability for unearned premium (which are that portion of written premiums which applies to the unexpired portion of the policy period), loss reserves and loss expense reserves to the extent ceded to the reinsurer.

Periodic financial and market conduct examinations

The insurance regulatory authority in the State of Arkansas, our insurance subsidiary's state of domicile, conducts on-site visits and examinations of the affairs of our insurance subsidiary, including its financial condition, its relationships and transactions with affiliates and its dealings with policyholders, every three to five years, and may conduct special or targeted examinations to address particular concerns or issues at any time. Insurance regulators of other states in which we do business also may conduct examinations. The results of these examinations can give rise to regulatory orders requiring remedial, injunctive or other corrective action. Insurance regulatory authorities have broad administrative powers to regulate trade practices and, in that connection, to restrict or rescind licenses to transact business and to levy fines and monetary penalties against insurers and insurance agents and brokers found to be in violation of applicable laws and regulations.

Risk-based capital

Risk-based capital ("RBC") laws are designed to assess the minimum amount of capital that an insurance company needs to support its overall business operations and to ensure that it has an acceptably low expectation of becoming financially impaired. State insurance regulators use RBC to set capital requirements, considering the size and degree of risk taken by the insurer and taking into account various risk factors including asset risk, credit risk, underwriting risk and interest rate risk. As the ratio of an insurer’s total adjusted capital and surplus decreases relative to its risk-based capital, the RBC laws provide for increasing levels of regulatory intervention culminating with mandatory control of the operations of the insurer by the domiciliary insurance department at the so-called mandatory control level.

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The Arkansas Insurance Department has largely adopted the model legislation promulgated by the NAIC pertaining to RBC, and requires annual reporting by Arkansas-domiciled insurers to confirm that the minimum amount of RBC necessary for an insurer to support its overall business operations has been met. Arkansas-domiciled insurers falling below a calculated threshold may be subject to varying degrees of regulatory action, including supervision, rehabilitation or liquidation by the Arkansas Insurance Department. Failure to maintain our risk-based capital at the required levels could adversely affect the ability of Kinsale Insurance to maintain the regulatory authority necessary to conduct our business. However, as of December 31, 2025, Kinsale Insurance maintained RBC levels significantly in excess of amounts that would require any corrective actions.

IRIS ratios

The NAIC Insurance Regulatory Information System, or IRIS, is part of a collection of analytical tools designed to provide state insurance regulators with an integrated approach to screening and analyzing the financial condition of insurance companies operating in their respective states. IRIS is intended to assist state insurance regulators in targeting resources to those insurers in greatest need of regulatory attention. IRIS consists of two phases: statistical and analytical. In the statistical phase, the NAIC database generates key financial ratio results based on financial information obtained from insurers’ annual statutory statements. The analytical phase is a review of the annual statements, financial ratios and other automated solvency tools. The primary goal of the analytical phase is to identify companies that appear to require immediate regulatory attention. A ratio result falling outside the usual range of IRIS ratios is not considered a failing result; rather, unusual values are viewed as part of the regulatory early monitoring system. Furthermore, in some years, it may not be unusual for financially sound companies to have several ratios with results outside the usual ranges. An insurance company may fall out of the usual range for one or more ratios because of specific transactions that are in themselves immaterial.

Ratings

A.M. Best, which rates insurance companies based on factors of concern to policyholders, rates our insurance subsidiary. A.M. Best assigns ratings to insurance companies, which range from "A++" (Superior) to "F" (In Liquidation). Our insurance subsidiary, Kinsale Insurance, has a rating of "A" (Excellent), which is the third highest rating. In evaluating a company's financial and operating performance, A.M. Best reviews the company's profitability, leverage and liquidity, as well as its book of business, the adequacy and soundness of its reinsurance, the quality and estimated market value of its assets, the adequacy of its loss and loss expense reserves, the adequacy of its surplus, its capital structure, the experience and competence of its management and its market presence. A.M. Best's ratings reflect its opinion of an insurance company's financial strength, operating performance and ability to meet its obligations to policyholders. These evaluations are not directed to purchasers of an insurance company's securities.

Human Capital

As of December 31, 2025, we had 720 employees, of which 711 were full-time employees, and all of whom were located at our headquarters in Richmond, Virginia.

Compensation and Benefits

We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset and paying our employees well is the foundation of our performance-based culture. In order to attract and retain high-performing talent, we offer and maintain market-competitive compensation and benefit programs to all our employees. Our compensation program includes base salary, performance-based bonuses and equity grants for all management-level and select other employees. The mix of these rewards varies depending on the employee’s role at the Company and our longstanding pay-for-performance philosophy. While all of our employees are eligible to participate in the variable compensation elements of our program (annual cash bonus and equity awards), variable compensation becomes a larger portion of the total mix for employees at higher levels in the organization. Our executives, who are responsible for the development and execution of our strategic and financial plans, have the largest portion of their compensation tied to equity-based incentives to ensure financial alignment with our stockholders.

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In addition to competitive compensation, we offer comprehensive and flexible benefit options to support the health and wellness needs of our employees including:

• Company-matched 401(k) plan

• Educational assistance program

• Medical insurance

• Company-paid insurance benefits

• Health savings accounts with large employer contributions and flexible spending accounts

• Paid time off, family leave, and employee assistance programs.

Learning and Development

Employee training and development programs that enhance employee skills and capabilities directly lead to Kinsale's success. We encourage and support employee development through our Educational Assistance Program. All employees have the opportunity to enroll in courses or classes that will enhance their contribution to the organization and/or prepare them for more advanced positions at Kinsale. Our employees have access to courses tailored to specific career paths, such as underwriting, claims, information technology, reinsurance, and other disciplines to build professional expertise. We offer an array of classes that were developed within Kinsale to all employees. These classes support employees' growth from the new employee/onboarding stage through senior manager development. We also sponsor on-site education courses, such as the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), that make professional development programs more accessible to our employees.

Performance and Success

We believe that performance management ensures our continued success through cultivating the right talent and skill sets and equipping our employees with the necessary tools and feedback. On an annual basis, every employee at Kinsale actively participates in a performance evaluation. The annual performance management process requires setting goals, planning development, assessing progress against those goals as well as discussing opportunities for improvement. Our performance management process provides a forum for meaningful conversations to discuss what went well and what can be improved.

Equal Opportunity

We hire the best talent and make our employment-related decisions without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or other characteristics or activity that is protected by state or U.S. federal law. We have an anti-nepotism policy to ensure fairness and business decisions are based on individual qualifications, skills, ability, and performance.

We are committed to fostering a work environment based on merit and free from discrimination of any kind.

Available Information

We file annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and other information with the SEC. The SEC maintains an internet web site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers, including us, that file electronically with the SEC. The address of that site is https://www.sec.gov. Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K and other information filed by us with the SEC are available, without charge, on our internet web site, https://www.kinsalecapitalgroup.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed electronically with the SEC. The information on our website is not a part of this Annual Report.