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Porter Insurance Company has three lines of insurance: automobile, property, and life. The life insurance segment has been losing money for the past five quarters, and Leah Harper, Porter’s controller, has done an analysis of that segment. She has discovered that the commission paid to the agent for the first year the policy is in place is 55 percent of the first-year premium. The second-year commission is 20 percent, and all succeeding years a commission equal to 5 percent of premiums is paid. No salaries are paid to agents; however, Porter does advertise on television and in magazines. Last year, the advertising expense was $500,000. The loss rate (payout on claims) averages 50 percent. Administrative expenses equal $450,000 per year. Revenue last year was $10,000,000 (premiums). The percentage of policies of various lengths is as follows:
Experience has shown that if a policy remains in effect for more than two years, it is rarely cancelled.
Leah is considering two alternative plans to turn this segment around. Plan 1 requires spending $250,000 on improved customer claim service in hopes that the percentage of policies in effect will take on the following distribution:
Total premiums would remain constant at $10,000,000, and there are no other changes in fixed or variable cost behavior.
Plan 2 involves dropping the independent agent and commission system and having potential policyholders phone in requests for coverage. Leah estimates that revenue would drop to $7,000,000. Commissions would be zero, but administrative expenses would rise by $1,200,000, and advertising (including direct mail solicitation) would increase by $1,000,000.
Required:
- 1. Prepare a variable-costing income statement for last year for the life insurance segment of Porter Insurance Company.
- 2. What impact would Plan 1 have on income?
- 3. What impact would Plan 2 have on income?
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Chapter 18 Solutions
Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Series)
- Porter Insurance Company has three lines of insurance: automobile, property, and life. The life insurance segment has been losing money for the past five quarters, and Leah Harper, Porters controller, has done an analysis of that segment. She has discovered that the commission paid to the agent for the first year the policy is in place is 55 percent of the first-year premium. The second-year commission is 20 percent, and all succeeding years a commission equal to 5 percent of premiums is paid. No salaries are paid to agents; however, Porter does advertise on television and in magazines. Last year, the advertising expense was 500,000. The loss rate (payout on claims) averages 50 percent. Administrative expenses equal 450,000 per year. Revenue last year was 10,000,000 (premiums). The percentage of policies of various lengths is as follows: Experience has shown that if a policy remains in effect for more than two years, it is rarely cancelled. Leah is considering two alternative plans to turn this segment around. Plan 1 requires spending 250,000 on improved customer claim service in hopes that the percentage of policies in effect will take on the following distribution: Total premiums would remain constant at 10,000,000, and there are no other changes in fixed or variable cost behavior. Plan 2 involves dropping the independent agent and commission system and having potential policyholders phone in requests for coverage. Leah estimates that revenue would drop to 7,000,000. Commissions would be zero, but administrative expenses would rise by 1,200,000, and advertising (including direct mail solicitation) would increase by 1,000,000. Required: 1. Assume Fred holds the policy for one year and then drops it. What is his contribution to Porters operating income? 2. Assuming Fred holds the policy for three years, what is his contribution to Porters operating income in the second and third years? Over a three-year period? What implications does this hold for Porters efforts to retain policyholders?arrow_forwardHome Infusion provides an average of 10 home health visits a day at an average net charge of $119 per visit, for $979 in average daily billings (ADB). They provide services approximately 221 days per year. All services are paid by two third-party payers: One pays for half of the billing 24 days after the service is provided and the second pays for the other half of billings in 9 days. Average cost of debt (i.e. the interest rate on bank loans) is 15%. What is the average accounts receivable balance? (Do not round intermediate calculations and round your final answer to 2 decimal places. Omit the "$" sign and commas in your response. For example, $12.3456 should be entered as 12.35.)arrow_forwardStubs-R-Us is a local event ticket broker. Last year, the company sold 760,000 tickets with an average commission of $10. Because of the general economic climate, Stubs expects ticket volume to decline by 20 percent. In addition, employees at a local insurance company headquarters accounted for 5 percent of Stubs’ volume. The headquarters relocated to another state and all the employees closed their accounts. Offsetting these factors is the observation that the average commission per sale is likely to increase by 15 percent because the average ticket prices are expected to be larger in the coming year. Required: Estimate commission revenues for Stubs-R-Us for the coming year.arrow_forward
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- Cornerstones of Cost Management (Cornerstones Ser...AccountingISBN:9781305970663Author:Don R. Hansen, Maryanne M. MowenPublisher:Cengage Learning