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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D. C. 20549

FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 or 15(D) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2002

Commission File Number 0-11773

ALFA CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s Telephone Number including Area Code (334) 288-3900

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12 (b) of the Act:

None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12 (g) of the Act:

Common Stock, par value $1.00 per share

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

Yes x No o

The aggregate market value of the voting stock held by nonaffiliates of the Registrant as of June 28, 2002, was $439,092,880.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of Common Stock, as of the close of the period covered by this report.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of Registrant’s annual report to security holders for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002, and proxy statement for the annual meeting of stockholders to be held April 24, 2003, are incorporated by reference into Part II and Part III.

Part I

Item 1.            Business.

Alfa Corporation is a financial services holding company which operates predominantly in the insurance industry through its wholly-owned subsidiaries Alfa Life Insurance Corporation (Life), Alfa Insurance Corporation (AIC), Alfa General Insurance Corporation (AGIC), Alfa Agency Mississippi, Inc. and Alfa Agency Georgia, Inc. Other wholly-owned noninsurance subsidiaries include Alfa Financial Corporation (Financial), Alfa Investment Corporation, Alfa Builders, Inc. (Builders), Alfa Realty, Inc. (Realty) and Alfa Benefits Corporation (ABC), which are engaged in consumer financing, commercial leasing, real estate investments, residential and commercial construction, real estate sales and benefit services for the Alfa Group.

Alfa Corporation is affiliated with Alfa Mutual Insurance Company, Alfa Mutual Fire Insurance Company, and Alfa Mutual General Insurance Company (collectively, the Mutual Group). The Mutual Group owns 53.9% of Alfa Corporation’s common stock, their largest single investment. Alfa Corporation and its subsidiaries (the Company) together with the Mutual Group comprise the Alfa Group (Alfa). The Company’s common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market’s National Market under the symbol ALFA.

Alfa Corporation’s insurance subsidiaries write life insurance in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and property and casualty insurance in Georgia and Mississippi. Its property and casualty business is pooled with that of the Alfa Mutual Insurance Companies which write property and casualty business in Alabama. Approximately 80.1% of the Company’s property and casualty premium income and 69.8% of its total premium income for 2002 was derived from the Company’s participation with the Mutual Group in a Pooling Agreement. Effective August 1, 1987, the Company entered into a property and casualty insurance Pooling Agreement (the “Pooling Agreement”) with Alfa Mutual Insurance Company (Mutual), and other members of the Mutual Group. On January 1, 2002, Alfa Mutual Fire Insurance Company and Alfa Specialty Insurance Corporation (Specialty), a subsidiary of Mutual, became participants in the Pooling Agreement. The Mutual Group is a direct writer primarily of personal lines of property and casualty insurance in Alabama. The Company’s subsidiaries similarly are direct writers in Georgia and Mississippi. Both the Mutual Group and the Company write preferred risk automobile, homeowner, farmowner and mobile home insurance, fire and allied lines, standard risk automobile and homeowner insurance, and a limited amount of commercial insurance, including church and businessowner insurance. Specialty is a direct writer primarily of nonstandard risk automobile insurance. Under the terms of the Pooling Agreement, the Company cedes to Mutual all of its property and casualty business. Substantially all of the Mutual Group’s direct property and casualty business (together with the property and casualty business ceded by the Company) is included in the pool. Mutual currently retrocedes 65% of the pool to the Company and retains 35% within the Mutual Group including Specialty. On October 1, 1996, the Pooling Agreement was amended in conjunction with the restructuring of the Alfa Insurance Group’s catastrophe protection program. Effective November 1, 1996, the allocation of catastrophe costs among the members of the pool was changed to better reflect the economics of catastrophe finance. The amendment limited Alfa Corporation’s participation in any single catastrophic event or series of disasters to its pool share (65%) of a lower catastrophe pool limit unless the loss exceeded an upper catastrophe pool limit. In cases

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where the upper catastrophe limit is exceeded on a 100% basis, the Company’s share in the loss would be based upon its amount of surplus relative to other members of the group. Lower and upper catastrophe pool limits are adjusted periodically due to increases in insured property risks. The limits and participation levels since inception of the program are summarized below:

The Boards of Directors of the Mutual Group and of the Company’s property and casualty insurance subsidiaries have established the pool participation percentages and must approve any changes in such participation. The Alabama Insurance Department reviewed the Pooling Agreement and the Department determined that the implementation of the Pooling Agreement did not require the Department’s approval.

A committee consisting of two members of the Boards of Directors of the Mutual Group, two members of the Board of Directors of Specialty, two members of the Board of Directors of the Company and Jerry A. Newby, as chairman of each such Board, has been established to review and approve any changes in the Pooling Agreement. The committee is responsible for matters involving actual or potential conflicts of interest between the Company, Specialty and the Mutual Group and for attempting to ensure that, in operation, the Pooling Agreement is equitable to all parties. Conflicts in geographic markets are currently minimal because the Mutual Group writes property and casualty insurance only in Alabama and at present all of such insurance written by the Company is outside of Alabama. The Pooling Agreement is intended to reduce conflicts which could arise in the selection of risks to be insured by the participants by making the results of each participant’s operations dependent on the results of all of the Pooled Business. Accordingly, the participants should have substantially identical underwriting ratios for the Pooled Business excluding catastrophes as long as the Pooling Agreement remains in effect. See “Property and Casualty Business” section regarding impact of catastrophes.

The participation of the Company in the Pooling Agreement may be changed or terminated without the consent or approval of the shareholders, and the Pooling Agreement may be terminated by any party thereto upon 90 days notice. Any such termination, or a change in the Company’s allocated share of the Pooled Business, inclusion of riskier business or certain types of reinsurance assumed in the pool, or other changes to the Pooling Agreement, could have a material adverse impact on the Company’s earnings. Participants’ respective abilities to share in the Pooled Business are subject to regulatory capital requirements.

The Company’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all related amendments can be found at www.alfains.com by first selecting “Invest in Alfa” and then selecting “Financial Reports.”

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The Company reports operating segments based on the Company’s legal entities, which are organized by line of business, with property and casualty insurance as one segment, life insurance as one segment, non-insurance business composed of consumer financing, commercial leasing, residential and commercial construction and real estate sales as one segment, and corporate operations as one segment. All investing activities are allocated to the segments based on the actual assets, investments and cash flows of each segment.

Segment profit or loss for the property and casualty operating segment is measured by underwriting profits and losses as well as by total net profit. Segment profit or loss for the life insurance segment, the noninsurance segment and the corporate segment is measured by total net profit. Segment expenses are borne by the segment which directly incurred such expense or are allocated based on the Management and Operating Agreement discussed in Note 3 of the Company’s annual report to security holders for the year ended December 31, 2002 as included in Exhibit 13. Presented below is summarized financial information for the Company’s four business segments as of and for the years ended December 31, 2002, 2001 and 2000:

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Property and Casualty Business:

The Alfa Insurance Group’s primary business is personal lines property and casualty insurance, which accounts for over 78% of total premiums and approximately 70% of total revenues. Automobile and homeowners insurance account for approximately 85% of property and casualty premiums. In Alabama, the Alfa Insurance Group enjoys approximately a 20% share of the personal automobile and homeowners markets, second only to State Farm. The Company is a direct writer and distributes its products utilizing the employee/agent sales force of Mutual. The following table shows the Company’s premium distribution by product in property and casualty insurance for 2002:

The following table sets forth the components of property and casualty insurance earned premiums, net underwriting income (loss), GAAP basis loss, expense and combined ratios, underwriting margin, net investment income and operating income for the years ended December 31, 2002, 2001 and 2000:

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The Company’s strategy in property and casualty business has been to operate primarily in its niche, personal lines insurance, and to strive to be the low-cost producer, thereby marketing and underwriting to achieve a preferred, profitable book of business. The Company’s objective is to operate with an underwriting profit. Historically, this objective has been met except for five separate years, each of which was primarily impacted by catastrophic weather. In the wake of Hurricanes Opal and Erin, Alfa initiated intense studies of its catastrophe management strategy. Effective November 1, 1996, Alfa restructured the catastrophe program and amended the intercompany pooling agreement to allocate catastrophe losses among the members of the pool in a fashion that more equitably reflects the realities of catastrophe finance. As a result, Alfa Corporation’s share of the Alfa Group’s storm-related losses has been substantially reduced, thus providing much greater earnings stability and growth potential. The lower exposure also means a substantial reduction in reinsurance costs. Alfa Group pooled catastrophe losses for 2002, 2001 and 2000 totaled approximately $42 million, $39 million and $26 million, respectively. The Company’s share of such losses totaled $7.5 million, $7.4 million and $7.2 million in 2002, 2001 and 2000, respectively.

There are inherent uncertainties in reserving for unpaid losses. Management’s philosophy has been to establish reserves at a high level of confidence. Consequently, actual results have not generally reached the level of reserves established. As a result of the NAIC codification and independent actuarial review, management performed a more detailed analysis of loss reserve levels. As a result, the Company increased the risk of non-exceedance of loss development with respect to held reserve amounts for statutory reporting, which flowed through to the financial statements prepared using accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. These reserve adjustments were spread across accident years according to current actuarial estimates. There were no significant changes in the Company’s reserving assumptions or methodologies or in the Company’s historical payment patterns. The Company experienced no materially significant large losses or gains in its loss payments during 2000 or 2001 which led to changes in estimates.

The Company’s business is concentrated geographically in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Accordingly, unusually severe storms or other disasters in these contiguous states might have a more significant effect on the Company than on a more geographically diversified insurance company. Unusually severe storms, other natural disasters and other events could have an adverse impact on the Company’s financial condition and operating results. However, the Company believes that its current catastrophe protection program, which began November 1, 1996, will reduce the earnings volatility caused by such catastrophe exposures.

Life Insurance:

Life directly writes individual life insurance policies consisting primarily of ordinary whole life, term life, interest sensitive whole life and universal life products in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi and distributes these products utilizing the same employee/agent sales force used in the property and casualty business. In the highly fragmented life insurance market in Alabama, Alfa ranks among the leaders in market share.

Life offers several different types of whole life and term insurance products. As of December 31, 2002, Life had in excess of $16.7 billion of life insurance in force. As of December 31, for each year indicated, the Company had insurance in force as follows:

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The following table sets forth life insurance premiums and policy charges, by type of policy, net investment income, benefits and expenses and life insurance operating income for the years ended December 31, 2002, 2001, and 2000: