FMIC SHAPING THE FUTURE

Writing this letter is both very humbling and exciting for me. As I have come to learn how much?Forestry Mutual has supported and helped the logging industry over the past decades, I also realize there is more we can achieve both as an insurance company and as an advocate for the logging and the wood products industry.

I would like to first thank Keith Biggs whose leadership over the past 25 years has taken Forestry Mutual from a self-insurers fund to one of the Southeast’s premier and most universally admired companies in the logging insurance market. Forestry Mutual has been a leader in helping protect the most valued asset of our policyholders - their employees. Our recognized best-in-class loss?control service, industry specific educational programs, and the early adoption and implementation of new technology, have helped our insureds take loss control and loss mitigation to the next level.

Like many of you, I chose to work here at Forestry Mutual because we have a very bright future and offer the best workers’ compensation insurance program for the wood products industry. Over the past three months, I have seen how connected and vested our employees are in helping make Forestry Mutual a company that our insureds are proud to call “their” insurance carrier. I have also seen how much our insureds value the relationships we share both personally and professionally. This is what sets us apart and is what will drive my vision going forward. I have been told on a number of occasions about insureds who chose to leave Forestry Mutual for another carrier, and now they regret their decision. This has only confirmed what I know: we have something special to share which can be expanded upon as we strive to make a difference in the industry. This is the very same inspiration that continues to drive me today as we begin to build the vision for our future.

While Forestry has experienced success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry thrives on?respect, tradition, and innovation. This is a critical time for both the insurance industry and Forestry?Mutual as innovation is moving at warp speed and every day new technology is developed that can help both the industry and Forestry better manage and mitigate risk for our insureds.??We are also headed for more challenges as our competitors continue to look for ways to poach our customers away from the Forestry Mutual family.??We need to refocus our attention on growing profitably in each of our

territories. Focusing our efforts on growth will require that we examine each of our distribution channels for additional opportunities to grow our workers’ compensation line of business, while also looking to expand into additional lines of business and product offerings to help round out our existing workers’ compensation portfolio. Developing new lines of business will not only shield us from being that vulnerable monoline carrier, but it will also allow us to lead the way in setting the standard as an insurance?provider for the forest products industry.?Our goal is to ensure that Forestry Mutual and its clients thrive and succeed in both challenging and good times.

I believe that Forestry Mutual can become the company of choice for the markets we serve over the next decade. For years, Forestry Mutual has provided an array of services that have defined us as the expert in our market. However, not everyone in our territories is aware of our vast knowledge and resources, and we will work to communicate this expertise to attract new policyholders and retain existing customers. We have excelled in keeping our clients, the logging and mill industry, safe through our comprehensive one-on-one loss control and education services. We genuinely want every?employer and employee we serve to go home to their families each and every day the way they came to work. That philosophy will continue to drive our loss control mission.

In our early history, our mission was to provide workers’ compensation coverage to a market that no one wanted to insure and at a reasonable cost to the policyholder. As we plan for the future, we must focus on what Forestry Mutual can uniquely contribute to the industry. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine what we have done in the past with our partners and associations and develop new ways to serve our clients better. Going forward, we will focus our efforts on building a broader range of insurance services and products to help mitigate the risk we have as a monoline insurance carrier. Working closely with existing and new partnerships, we will develop a best-in-class insurance program that will allow us to continue to deliver on our mission as a mutual insurance company by providing affordable insurance coverages to the policyholders we serve.

What do we do next??

To paraphrase a quote from Oscar Wilde — "We need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable."

This starts with clarity of purpose and a renewed sense of mission that will lead us to imagine the?impossible and deliver it. We must prioritize innovation and incorporate it into our core values of?competitive policies, customer service, and best loss control practices provided by any insurance company.?

Every one of us needs to do our best work by leading and helping to drive the cultural change that is?taking place in the industry. We sometimes underestimate what we can do to make things happen, and?overestimate what others need to do to move us forward. We must change this. We started as a small family and will continue to be “family” as our clients, Forestry Mutual and?FMIC Agency grow into our future.

Finally, I genuinely believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know it’s not just work, but something that will improve other people’s lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company. Many companies aspire to change an industry, but very few have all the elements required: talent, resources, and perseverance. Forestry Mutual Insurance has?proven that it has all three in abundance, and as the new President, I can’t ask for a better foundation.

Let’s build on this foundation together.

Bill Dine, President & CEO,

Forestry Mutual Insurance Company