I was looking at the list of uh speakers today and I can tell you you're you're going to get a treat. And the reason why you'll get a treat is because uh the names that I saw, they go they run the whole gamut from bottom feeders to those who buy the best companies. And that is what you want uh in a conference. And you will see uh with Benjamin Graham principles whether you buy good companies or you buy crappy companies as long as you apply the principles properly they all work and and so so uh so the question is where can you apply uh Benjamin Graham principles other than in investments. So one area that you can apply is in is in insurance. So this is uh let me show you what I did when I with this insurance company. So this was in May of 2017. I was alerted uh to the fact that strong trust was available um that I could buy it. So, so I went and and and so I went and looked at uh the 2016 uh balance sheet and what I was looking for was the ratio of investment assets, investable assets to shareholders equity. And if if there's a 2:1 ratio, then it makes my life easier in terms of compounding money. So if you look on on this balance sheet for Stone Trust that I'm showing it to you, the one um in uh in yellow. So investable assets was 128 million and a shareholders equity was 52 million and the ratio was 2.47. So that would mean uh that uh you know if I make 5% uh return on my on investments I would be making more than 10% on shareholders equity and if I make 7% then I'm making close more than 15% return on equity. So that was what you call the attraction, the big attraction. And so um so I was able to buy it um uh you know on uh on January 1st of 2018 and uh in a in a couple of years co hit and that gave me an opportunity to be able to uh to buy bonds and stocks at a really discounted price. As you know uh you know in investment you're looking for mispricing and that is very similar to what I do also in insurance I'm also looking for mispricing so in this one in stone trust if you look at it um the first mispricing came when covid hit was in the fixed income securities now other insurance companies uh were playing something called you know just buy the tea bills and they were giving you only 10 basis points you can hardly make any money on that I totally rejected that approach when the time came and I found um bonds that were really cheap, I bought them and you can see Benjamin Graham principles work even on bonds on fixed incomes and whether I buy junk bonds I or buy investable grade bonds they will work as long as you buy them cheap. So you can see like um like just to give an example this portfolio that I had in the first quarter of 2021 like antio resources no I bought it at 43 uh the bond price at the end of the quarter was 67 bucks and this portfolio that I'm showing you is not just the winners this was the whole fixed income securities of stone trust and the big head was Aabaska you know I bought it at 22 cents but had a coupon of 9.875 875. In other words, just on the coupon alone, you making 45% return and in a year and a half later, uh the company redeemed it at at 100 cents on a dollar. So that was a big hit. So you can see Benjamin Graham principles works even on fixed income securities. So next one you can see even the equity portfolio. So this is the equity portfolio and this is the whole portfolio and I was again lucky you know cohead and a lot of stock stock you know went down and I was able to purchase some of them and you can see in my portfolio here they are not just the crappiest company and they're not the best companies you know and they are all over the place and you can see they all uh worked out really well because when I bought them I bought them at a price lower than what the intrinsic value is. So Benjamin Graham uh principle applies whether you buy good companies or crappy companies and you can say like for example like about Alphabet know my cost was $2 million and at the end of that first quarter of 2021 u it was like 11 million then I've got junk you know like resolute forest products no I bought it at 2.2 2 million and and and and at the end of the quarter was 10.5 million. So so principles really work right. So um um so this is the portfolio as of uh 2025 end of the uh quarter and you can see that the portfolio has done really well o over that period of time over the last four or five period you know alphab alphabet has gone up you know close to 10 times and has gone up you know more than double and apple has gone up you know more than six times right and so on and so forth and and some of them are good companies and some of them are you know crappy companies So yeah. So yeah, but so the thing is not to laugh at crappy companies. They can make a lot of money for you as long as you buy them cheap, right? So yeah. And so what's the result of this? So let's look at Stron book value, you know. So next one is the page for Stone Trust uh book value. So at in 2018, the book value was $64 million, right? And so you can see at the end of 2025 if you add back all the dividend that they paid the book book value would have grown to $214 million. So that that that has done well on two accounts uh is because uh the the portfolio has done really well uh you know fixed income and the stock portfolio plus operationally we have done really well. So that combination alone has pulled no uh book value up substantially from 64 million to $214 million. So so uh you know a lot of the people think you can just go and invest. You buy an insurance company and then uh you can just go and invest. It's not as easy and easy as that. You know when you buy an insurance company you have to make sure it's really conservative. Now, now if it is not conservative and there there are few people that tried doing it the Buff Buffet way and you know they they're concentrating on topline growth and and they don't care about you know proper reserving conservative reserving if you do that no the stuff that I did here like buying the uh you know uh buying the equity and buying the fixed income you you will not be allowed to do that when you buy like junk bonds like I do uh and when you buy securities, equity securities, there's a charge to it like 50 50% charge to um to capital and and so what happens is if you're running a junky you know insurance companies you get limited to just buying uh just buying T bills and that's the only way you can get around it and therefore it is imperative that whoever is trying this trick like something doing what Buffett is doing or Fairfax is doing to have really conservative reserving policy like in stone trust people are amazed now normally when you put a reserve a reserve is an estimation of future liabilities and you put it at the 50% confidence level like somewhere halfway let's say the reserves are between 80 million and 120 million you would put it at 100 million that's what most companies do I put it at a 95% confidence level so if the reserves are between 80 and 120 I put it at $115 million. So in the short term it you know your shareholders equity is not as high as it should be but it gives me that cushion in case you know something goes wrong with it I have that reserve that I could release it sometime in the future. So it's really important to be really conservative uh when when you have an insurance company. So, next one is you know um it was June in 2022 and I was looking at uh Florida and I was wondering what could I do there? You know companies are going bankrupt. Um so you can see on this one and you know and there were legisl legislative reasons and and and there were and because of that so many companies couldn't make money. six companies went bankrupt and I believe 30 more were put you know on on on a watch list and so biggest problem there was the litigation nightmare um so as you know in 2022 uh there there was something called a oneway you know uh legal fees so it was always uh no the insurance company that would pay for it one way or the other they would pay for it the other person that sued but didn't have to pay for it and and um and so most of the losses came from there. The second one was hurricane Ian hit and it caused 25 to65 billion of losses and so the insurance companies were going bankrupt left and right and then the only alternative for Florida was to create a state insurer that they would take up these uh you know insurance policies because private insurance companies could not do that. So when I saw that, you know, with all these calamities happening around it, I knew something positive would happen. You know, you need uh you know, something like this to happen for the Florida market insurance market to get mispriced. And so I was looking around uh I was looking around and um and to see if I could form an insurance company, but I needed something else before I could form it. I needed a sense that the you know the legislative stuff would change and it and so we formed the log ahead on December 1st of 2022 and just two weeks later um you know the legislative changes came. So they they limited you know uh they limited the oneway legal fees and they also limited the other one that was really important called assignment of benefits. So how assignment of benefits work and how it was uh corrupted was you know after a light rain a guy would come knocking on your door and saying let me check your roof you know I can get you a brand new roof and you know just wear and tear and as long as the guy signed it you know the assignment of benefits that is you know whatever rewards they get uh not through the judicial system it would go to this guy but the but the owner of that house would get a brand new roof. So, normally when you're fixing the roof, if it was an old roof, even if you fix it, cost between 10 and $15,000, let's say, for a normal house, but it went if it when it went to uh to the lawyers, it would jump to between 30 to $45,000. And that is how they would make money. So, this guy would go to this house and make that pitch. Then he would go to every house in that in that neighborhood and make that pitch. And so that's the reason why you know um um know this clause had to be removed and luckily in u December middle of December 2022 uh that thing was that thing was removed and so so our timing was really good. We went in on December 1st by December 15th no the legislature made all these changes. So that mean I have the tailwind behind it. So next question was okay I I want to go to Florida but what what time of corporate format do you want? So in this format we decided to go on something called a reciprocal. So the reciprocal is sometimes you know they use all these u big insurance terms just to impress people that are not insurance related non people that are non-insurance and so a reciprocal just think about it as an insurance company there and then we have something called an attorney in fact an attorney in fact is the management company so we set it up like that we have a management company that would manage the insurance company and would and would uh we would take fees and the fees are 20% of gross written premium and then who's going to fund the reciprocal? So the reciprocal would be funded through surplus note and subscribers contribution. So suppressed com contribution means let's say uh you have a insurance policy and you're paying $2,000, right, for your car insurance and and let's say you're covered up to $2 million. out of that $2,000 uh uh for your premium, you know, 10% of that is u 200 bucks that is members contribution and that is that goes to shareholders equity. And now this is uh really powerful because it's not subject to premium tax. It's not subject to income tax. It flows right away to um to shareholders equity. So that is the format we had. So we put in $10 million. $10 million for 100% of the company. We put in $9 million to get 90% of the company. So So just $9 million. But to make it easier, no just use $10 million. So So this was the format, right? So you can see uh you know um in 20 24 our gross written premium was um $163 million. That is from uh scratch. our surplus was $53 million. But if you look at 2025, this year uh no gross return premium went up to $24 million and surplus uh went up to $73 million. And one of the thing that really helped us is because a lot of companies were leaving Florida and when you leave Florida, you just cannot leave. You have to have know something for the policy holders. So progressive was leaving. So we went to progressive and said if you leave, why don't you give the policy to us? you know and um we will replace uh your policy with your uh you know with your policy policy holders. So that's what we did and that's why the uh premium were able to grow so rapidly. So and so so question is uh now LRM is log ahead risk management and that is the management company and remember we put in uh $10 million to have 90% of the company but look at what happened in 2025 they made $18 million 18.3 no on no $10 million investment and we expect uh to make somewhere around 20 million for the next 5 years 20 million or tomorrow and and you know why this 18 million is so important and it's so critical and why um and and why this so different from other companies a lot of companies can say okay I'm making this $18 million but you have to put it in your inventories you have to put you have to buy more fixed fixed assets more into receivables and so on so forth this $18 million that uh that uh LRM is making is pure cash they can just throw it out it is pre-tax and they just can throw it out to to shareholders and that is what they're doing right now. So if you go to let me go to the next slide. So you can see on uh this next slide there are two things I would want to talk to you. First was the members contribution right. So you can see members contribution uh in 2025 was $29 million. Now loggerhead is has uh pre gross premium of 200 million. So 10% out of 200 million is $20 million. And you can see out of that total surplus in insurance uh when we say surplus that's equivalent to shareholders equity and you can see if you go through the years like members contribution as part of that surplus is growing because of that 20 million being added every year. So 2026 we expect members contribution to be 50.2 2 million out of $81 million in surplus and two by the time it comes to 2028 would be $93 million out of surplus of $105 million. So that is really critical. this member's contribution is contributing to uh you know to the growth in surplus and that allows you to write uh more premium if you if uh if you want to and next one is the uh distribution of dividends and this is where I'm saying the quality of earnings um for LRM. So they made $18 million and you can see in 2025 they threw out almost $13 million in dividends. They don't need it. So for the 2026 I just put in $15 million because um I was under pressure from professor Joyce. I have to complete my slides. So I just put in 15 otherwise professor jaw said I cannot be a presenter here today. So but but what happened was just last week they gave me 8 $8.2 2 million in dividends. And then I I was told that uh you know and then I was told a few weeks from now maybe in late April or early May I would get another $8 million in distribution. So don't don't you think that's so powerful just cash coming in. So if you look at it over the next uh if you look at it over the next 5 years at this holding company uh you know we have this holding company we will we had cash of zero you know a year ago in 5 years from now we'll have close to 90 to $100 million in cash now question is how much like how much would you put a valuation on on a company like LRM which is a management company so if you think about the S&P 500 right it's selling at 30 times after tax earnings. So if you take LRN's earnings, let's say 20 million and you put uh 30% let's say tax on it. So it's making like 14 million right after tax. So what is 30 million 30 * 14? That's more than $400 million. Like I would take it just for $250 or $300 million. So, so just to show the power of uh uh you know what log ahead has been able to do in terms of enhancing the intrinsic value you know of of winie holdings. Winai holdings is the parent company of uh no of stone trust and um and log head. And if you go back here, right? Uh if you go back uh if I go back here. So see if you see see if you uh on this slide in 2018 it was $64 million. Now if you add up what uh you know what loggerhead loggerhead is, let's say $300 million plus $200 million. No uh for stone trust that's500 million uh US dollars and that that we have grown from $64 million and that to done in in a way that's not highly risky. We were not gunning for premiums and we not gunning you know our policies on everything is highly conservative and we did it you know in in a really safe manner. Okay. So, so, so this was and so this is a reinsurance opportunity. Now, as you know, I'm all the time uh hunting for uh know hunting for bargains uh hunting for mispric opportunity whether it's in the stock market, bond market or insurance. So, I was looking at uh you know we already have bloghead uh and we have uh you know stone trust where else are the opportunity? So, so I I I normally get all these contracts. I look at them and then I was surprised at some of the pricing in the reinsurance uh in the reinsurance market. So, let me I know some of these terminology terminology a little bit complicated because I'm I'm going to use some insurance language. So, so I got this something called reinsurance contracts. So I look I look at them and so I look at this uh uh you know we have layers you know like excess of loss reinsurance and reinsurance means insurance companies are buying insurance uh and that's why we call it reinsurance. So I I was looking at uh you know at at event you know an occurrence event like one in 10 years and so and so the and and so uh the first layer here that I'm showing it to you is 14 million in excess of $10 million. In other words uh if I go into this layer I would take losses uh from between 10 and $24 million. Right? So I would take a loss of $14 million between 10 and 24. And then uh then I was looking at it, you know, looking at it, you know, what should the pricing be? So I was saying, okay, if I take a 14 million uh $14 million hit and that's going to happen one in 10 years, uh then if I divide 14 by 10, you know, to get at a break even price should be 1.4 million. But you know where the pricing was for this layer? It was at 110%. Instead of 1.4 million, the pricing was $15.4 million. Now, you cannot go wrong with it. You know, you just have to hold on long enough. Uh, you know, so I said uh you know, you know, this is a uh you know, this is definitely a big u mispricing in this reinsurance sector and we should get into it. So last year I formed a re reinsurance company called Winry and just to exploit this opportunity and and not only on this layer you know one in 10 years you can go in one in 15 uh one in 50 years was the same kind of mispricing. So I had a I had a choice. I could go into any layers, you know. I could go into layers like one in 250 years, one in 100 years or one in no 150 years and I could get a really good return and and my risk if I stay long enough for that 10 year period, you know, I would be really be safe, right? So you so so I was really shocked and so what I did was um uh uh so I formed a company called Winry just to go into reinsurance and that was uh last year sometime in March or April that uh I started to get money in and and and then when you start a company brand new you know you would expect $5 million loss you know it's really hard to do it right off the bat because uh we had nothing structure uh structured and then we under pressure because uh you know you have to get your you know you have to accept the contracts by May 1st. Uh some of these excessive laws and some of them are June 1st. Um but we were able to do it in a really short order like we were able to get um the approval from Cayman Islands in 45 days. We we we registered it in Cayman Islands because you don't have to pay taxes and so so the results just came in u you know so we made you know we raised $34 million out of 41 shareholders uh and we made uh over $10 million over 30% return on equity and you can see you know uh and so this is the beauty of uh Ben Graham you know you can apply it in so many different fields you can apply it in insurance you can apply apply it in fixed income, you can apply it in stocks and even in stocks you can apply it you know all you know you can indulge in the taste you know whether you want good companies or bad companies or or companies going bankrupt and as long as you buy them cheap know you would do really well so so this is what I wanted to bring it to your attention you know that you know that what I have done here is just basically uh falling you know pricing know very similar to what Benjamin Graham would to you know looking for mispricing looking for if it is undervalued and then to go in and then you know good things will happen as long as you don't do it just for one contract if you do it you over you know several contracts and then you have enough diversification and and and and so so professor George asked me and I said could I share this result uh with your audience and he said yes so so I was really happy to come here and and and show you what we were able to do in that short period of time.
April 14, 2026: Mr. Francis Chou, Founder and President, Chou Associates Management Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada was the Luncheon Keynote Speaker at the Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing's 2026 Value Investing Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Chou discussed the topic, “Ben Graham Insurance Edition”. PowerPoint Presentation: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/media/ozahjq3f/ben-graham-insurance-edition.pdf More information regarding this Event: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/bengrahaminvesting/bgcvi-events/2026/04/2026-value-investing-conference/ Upcoming Events: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/bengrahaminvesting/events/upcoming-events/ Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/bengrahaminvesting/ Copyright © 2026 The Ben Graham Centre for Value Investing Not to be copied or reproduced without permission. To request permission, contact us: https://www.ivey.uwo.ca/bengrahaminvesting/home/contact-us/