Cincinnati Financial Corporation Announces New Lead Independent Director

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Oct 21, 2022, 14:45 ET

Reduces board size to 12

CINCINNATI, Oct. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) announced today that the board of directors elected Dirk J. Debbink as the new lead independent director and chair of the nominating committee and added him to the executive committee, following the death of former lead independent director William Bahl. At the same time, the board reduced its size to 12 members.

Debbink has served on the Cincinnati Financial board since 2012, most recently as a member of the audit and nominating committees. Debbink is currently chairman and chief executive officer of MSI General Corporation, a privately owned design/build construction firm he's been employed with since 1983.

Debbink has served as a leader of organizations ranging from small firms typical of the company's commercial policyholders to extremely large organizations, including Reserve Deputy Commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet and Commander, Navy Reserve Force. While on active duty with the U.S. Navy, he served as a senior member of the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon. He has extensive experience in strategic planning and execution, sales, marketing, information technology for a worldwide dispersed workforce, human resources, including pension and profit-sharing plans, and government relationships at the federal level.

Steven J. Johnston, chairman and chief executive officer, shared, "Dirk has been a Cincinnati Financial director for a decade. He has achieved outstanding success with his independent business in Wisconsin and his service to our nation. He'll continue to draw on his leadership experience in both realms in service of Cincinnati shareholders."

"I'm confident that he will make a smooth transition into the role of lead independent director. I look forward to continuing to work with Dirk to deliver value to our shareholders for years to come," Johnston remarked.

About Cincinnati Financial
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers primarily business, home and auto insurance through The Cincinnati Insurance Company and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life insurance, fixed annuities and surplus lines property and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit cinfin.com.

Mailing Address:	Street Address:
P.O. Box 145496	6200 South Gilmore Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-5496	Fairfield, Ohio 45014-5141

Safe Harbor Statement

This is our "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 32.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that could affect results for reasons such as:

Securities market disruption or volatility and related effects such as decreased economic activity and continued supply chain disruptions that affect our investment portfolio and book value
An unusually high level of claims in our insurance or reinsurance operations that increase litigation-related expenses
An unusually high level of insurance losses, including risk of legislation or court decisions extending business interruption insurance in commercial property coverage forms to cover claims for pure economic loss related to the COVID-19 pandemic
Decreased premium revenue and cash flow from disruption to our distribution channel of independent agents, consumer self-isolation, travel limitations, business restrictions and decreased economic activity
Inability of our workforce, agencies or vendors to perform necessary business functions

Ongoing developments concerning business interruption insurance claims and litigation related to the COVID-19 pandemic that affect our estimates of losses and loss adjustment expenses or our ability to reasonably estimate such losses, such as:

The continuing duration of the pandemic and governmental actions to limit the spread of the virus that may produce additional economic losses
The number of policyholders that will ultimately submit claims or file lawsuits
The lack of submitted proofs of loss for allegedly covered claims
Judicial rulings in similar litigation involving other companies in the insurance industry
Differences in state laws and developing case law
Litigation trends, including varying legal theories advanced by policyholders
Whether and to what degree any class of policyholders may be certified
The inherent unpredictability of litigation

Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations, changes in weather patterns (whether as a result of global climate change or otherwise), environmental events, war or political unrest, terrorism incidents, cyberattacks, civil unrest or other causes
Increased frequency and/or severity of claims or development of claims that are unforeseen at the time of policy issuance, due to inflationary trends or other causes
Inadequate estimates or assumptions, or reliance on third-party data used for critical accounting estimates
Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting our equity portfolio and book value
Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors that limit our ability to generate growth in investment income or interest rate fluctuations that result in declining values of fixed-maturity investments, including declines in accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets
Domestic and global events, such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, resulting in capital market or credit market uncertainty, followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to:

Significant or prolonged decline in the fair value of a particular security or group of securities and impairment of the asset(s)
Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from a particular security or group of securities
Significant rise in losses from surety or director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities

Our inability to manage Cincinnati Global or other subsidiaries to produce related business opportunities and growth prospects for our ongoing operations
Recession, prolonged elevated inflation or other economic conditions resulting in lower demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies
Ineffective information technology systems or discontinuing to develop and implement improvements in technology may impact our success and profitability
Difficulties with technology or data security breaches, including cyberattacks, that could negatively affect our or our agents' ability to conduct business; disrupt our relationships with agents, policyholders and others; cause reputational damage, mitigation expenses and data loss and expose us to liability under federal and state laws
Difficulties with our operations and technology that may negatively impact our ability to conduct business, including cloud-based data information storage, data security, cyberattacks, remote working capabilities, and/or outsourcing relationships and third-party operations and data security
Disruption of the insurance market caused by technology innovations such as driverless cars that could decrease consumer demand for insurance products
Delays, inadequate data developed internally or from third parties, or performance inadequacies from ongoing development and implementation of underwriting and pricing methods, including telematics and other usage-based insurance methods, or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our pricing accuracy, underwriting profit and competitiveness
Intense competition, and the impact of innovation, technological change and changing customer preferences on the insurance industry and the markets in which we operate, could harm our ability to maintain or increase our ability to maintain or increase our business volumes and profitability
Changing consumer insurance-buying habits and consolidation of independent insurance agencies could alter our competitive advantages
Inability to obtain adequate ceded reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of reinsurance coverage purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the potential for nonpayment or delay in payment by reinsurers
Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that segment could not achieve sustainable profitability
Inability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends consistent with current or past levels
Events or conditions that could weaken or harm our relationships with our independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on our opportunities for growth, such as:

Downgrades of our financial strength ratings
Concerns that doing business with us is too difficult
Perceptions that our level of service, particularly claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in the marketplace
Inability or unwillingness to nimbly develop and introduce coverage product updates and innovations that our competitors offer and consumers expect to find in the marketplace

Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that:

Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates
Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules and regulations
Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business
Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance‑related assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes
Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax law
Increase our other expenses
Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace
Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents

Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings, including effects of social inflation on the size of litigation awards
Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of controls, that reduce our future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other key employees due to retirement, health or other causes that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others
Our inability, or the inability of our independent agents, to attract and retain personnel in a competitive labor market, impacting the customer experience and altering our competitive advantages
Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe or terrorism, that could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce at our headquarters location or work effectively in a remote environment

Further, our insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, global, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. We also are subject to public and regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for our common stock, such as measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.

SOURCE Cincinnati Financial Corporation