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AM Best Revises Outlooks to Negative for Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company

BY Business Wire | CORPORATE | 05/08/25 02:31 PM EDT

OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

AM Best has revised the outlook to negative from stable for the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) and revised the outlook to negative from positive for the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) and affirmed the FSR of B++ (Good) and the Long-Term ICR of ?bbb? (Good) of Mountain West Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (Mountain West) (Laramie, WY).

The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Mountain West?s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its marginal operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The negative outlooks reflect material erosion of Mountain West?s capital position leading to elevated leverage metrics driven by the recent volatility in its underwriting profitability. The significant decline in surplus considerably reduced the company?s risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best?s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), along with deterioration of overall balance sheet strength metrics. In addition, the outlooks consider the decline in surplus as a reflection of the company's ERM program. Collectively, these factors resulted in a revision of the outlooks to negative.

To stabilize Mountain West?s operating performance, multiple profitability initiatives have been put in place such as taking rates in line with indications, increased use of data and analytics, as well as exposure management. While underwriting and operating results have shown considerable improvement through the first quarter of 2025 along with surplus growth, it remains uncertain whether these results can be sustained as current and projected premium leverage remain elevated. Accordingly, further weakening of key balance sheet strength metrics will likely result in a rating downgrade.?

Mountain West?s operating performance remains in line with other marginal-assessed rating units. The limited business profile reflects its geographic concentration of risks and the high property lines exposure.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best?s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best?s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best?s Credit Ratings, Best?s Performance Assessments, Best?s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best?s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright ? 2025 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Source: AM Best

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