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State of the Union
Dear Members:
Year 2001 was a difficult
and challenging year for many Americans. We survived the uncertainties of
the Millennium year and the start of the 21st Century. All the gloom and
doom that was predicted never materialized. Now that year 2001 has ended,
its historical events will be talked about for many years.
Yes the economists agree,
the recession started in March of 2001. As of today, we feel we are
approaching the first anniversary of this negative economic activity. The
September 11, 2001 terrorist act on America initiated the realization that
we must now have a mortality category called "Terrorist Death" as an
official cause of death.
The PRCUA was fortunate to
have had no such experience. We, however, have experienced a rise in death
claims of our members. As our membership ages, we need to take measures to
prevent this from having a negative impact on our financial condition. The
best measure is to increase the membership with younger persons. I am asking
all members to engage in our membership promotion.
The events in 2001 have
only slightly affected the portfolio of our organization. It's true that we
do not have all stocks in the profit column. We, however, were able to
declare record dollars in net capital gains. Year 2000 set a record at that
time - it was $1,136,369. Proper decisions were made last year that resulted
in net capital gains of $1,137,824. Yes! Another record.
Premium income increased by
$726,825 last year. This was a 21.16% increase. Total income increased by
$746,107. These were tremendous increases. They however were offset by many
increases in expenses, such as $154,060 more in death claims and over
$181,000 increase in aggregate reserves. This resulted in an increase in net
gain before dividends. Dividends were increased slightly and therefore
resulted in a net gain of $278,784. This was a year-to-year increase of
34.97% increase over year 2000.
Please refer to the
Annual
Statement for the year ending December 31, 2001 for more details.
This is the fifth
consecutive year of achieving over $1 million in net realized capital gains.
Anticipating this achievement, the Board of Directors, for the second
consecutive year, has declared a Special Bonus Dividend. As we did last
year, the payments will be made on the anniversary month of each member's
insurance certificate. Those members who are using dividends to purchase
more life insurance will receive more insurance coverage on their life.
This year, starting in
March, members who have been receiving their dividends in cash, will receive
the Special Bonus Dividend in the form of a check mailed directly to them. I
encourage these members to write to the home office and ask that these
dividends be used to purchase more insurance so their loved one's may have
the added death benefits.
I am sure everyone is aware
of ENRON, the Texas Energy Company that went bankrupt in December of 2001.
This failure has caused many to lose their pension funds. The Polish Roman
Catholic Union of America maintains a conservative investment program. This
has permitted steady and consistent growth in the organization. Be it the
insurance or annuity funds, our conservatism is also in the employee pension
fund. These funds are not only audited internally, but they are also audited
by a reputable accounting firm, as well as being audited annually by the
Illinois Insurance Department.
Last year at this time we
were still awaiting approval from numerous states of our Annuity Benefit
Certificate. Now, all states that the PRCUA is licensed in, have approved
our authorization to issue the Annuity Benefit Certificate. The Internal
Revenue Service has issued an opinion letter for the issuance of the annuity
program for one's retirement program.
On August 11, 2002, our
National Convention will be convened in Romulus, Michigan. The last time a
convention was held in Michigan was in 1958. The Pre-Convention Committee is
planning an opening event Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake at
11:00 a.m. in Orchard Lake, Michigan. We have been supporting the Orchard
Lake Schools for many years. Now, delegates and members will have a chance
to visit the campus of this historic religious institution.
I am urging all Society
officers and members to plan to attend the Convention in August. Your
participation is valued. This is where deliberations are held. It is at the
Convention that the goals of our fraternal spirit are promoted, our national
officers are elected and our budget is approved, along with changes being
made to the constitution of the PRCUA.
In the near future, every member will be receiving a 58th Convention
Voucher. This will be a special convention year promotion available to all
members. The $58.00 voucher will be made available for use this year and for
the next 19 years on a 20-year pay whole life certificate.
Depending on your age, a
$200.00, $300.00 or a $400.00 annual payment will give a member a life
insurance program that awards high dividends, as well as guaranteed death
benefits. More details will appear in the Naród
Polski and on our web site.
The PRCUA has achieved many
technological changes in 2001 and many more are planned in 2002. We have
integrated new high performance front-end servers based on Intel® Server
technology. The servers provide fault-tolerant operations for our company's
Intranet, Extranet and Internet related business functions.
Our servers utilize the
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server and Linux operating systems environment to
provide reliable and secure business operations. All server operations are
now centralized to our restructured Data Center. Connectivity to the Data
Center throughout the home office is provided by high speed, multi-gigabit
Ethernet topology.
With our extensive in-house
technology, we are now able to host web sites, provide e-mail and newsgroup
services for our Societies, agents, dance groups, and youth group. Our goal
for 2002 is to help our Societies and groups to successfully utilize this
asset to help promote their activities. This will increase our
organization’s exposure among all current and future members of all ages.
There are many more
technological changes currently being implemented. These changes will help
to ensure that the PRCUA will continue to meet the guidelines for not only
today’s business operations but also tomorrow’s.
Fraternally,
Wallace M. Ozog, FICF
National President
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