NYSE:RLI RLI Q3 2023 Earnings Report $1.45 -0.09 (-5.84%) As of 12:25 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast Annexon EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.31Consensus EPS $0.04Beat/MissBeat by +$0.27One Year Ago EPS$0.25Annexon Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$331.69 millionExpected Revenue$377.71 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$46.02 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAnnexon Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date10/24/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, October 24, 2023Conference Call Time11:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsDigital Realty Trust's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, April 24, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Digital Realty Trust Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrOctober 24, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:01Good morning, and welcome to the RLI Corp Third Quarter Earnings Teleconference. After management's prepared remarks, we will open the conference up for question and answers. Before we get started, let me remind everyone that through the course of the teleconference, RLI management may make comments that reflect their intentions, beliefs and expectations for the future. As always, these forward looking statements are subject certain factors and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the risk factors described in the company's various SEC filings, including an annual report on Form 10 ks as supplemented in Form 10 Q, all of which should be reviewed carefully. Operator00:00:40The company has filed a Form 8 ks with the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains a press release announcing 3rd quarter results. During the call, ROI management may refer to operating earnings and earnings per share from operations, which are non GAAP measures of financial results. RLI's operating earnings and earnings per share from operations consist of net earnings after the elimination of after tax realized gains or losses and after tax unrealized gains or losses on Equities Securities. Additionally, Equities and earnings of Maui Jim and the related taxes were excluded from operating earnings and operating EPS for 2022 due to the sale of RLI's investment in the Q3 of 2022. RLI's management believes these measures are useful in gauging core operating performance across reporting periods that may not be comparable to other companies' definition operating earnings. Operator00:01:32The Form 8 ks contains a reconciliation between operating earnings and net earnings. The Form 8 ks and press release are available at the company's website at www.rlicorp.com. I will now turn the conference over to RLI's Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer, Mr. Are Andy from Thaler. Please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 100:01:55Good morning. Thank you for joining our IR Alliance Third Quarter Earnings Call 2023. Joining us are Craig Kleejermis, President and CEO Jane Klobdak, Chief Operating Officer Todd Bryant, Chief Financial Officer. Today's agenda will include Craig opening up the call with some high level remarks. Todd will add detail on our financial results for the quarter. Speaker 100:02:18Jen will offer additional commentary on market conditions and our product portfolio. The operator will then open the line for questions and Craig will close with some final thoughts. Craig? Speaker 200:02:29Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. The devastating Maui wildfires that occurred in early August were a notable event for our customers, our team and our business this quarter. We continue to extend our heartfelt support to all who were affected by this tragic event. As Todd will touch on shortly, the quarter's results were significantly impacted by this catastrophe. Our claim team, both in Hawaii and other parts of the country responded quickly to assess the damage and remain dedicated to helping affected policyholders begin to recover as quickly as possible. Speaker 200:03:07Our purpose is to take on and diversify risks that can't be borne by an individual or business in exchange for a premium. Subsequent to a catastrophic or unexpected event, we execute our mission to fulfill the promises we have made to our impacted policyholders. Our financial strength is a benefit to those affected as well as our shareholders. I will let Todd and Jen go into more detail on the financials and the market in general. Todd, take it away. Speaker 200:03:36Thanks, Craig. Speaker 100:03:37Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we reported 3rd quarter operating earnings of $0.61 per share. The quarter's results were adversely affected by losses from the Hawaii wildfires will remain positive with an overall combined ratio below 100 and continued growth in investment income. All in, we posted a combined ratio of 98.7 percent for the quarter, now 88.0 percent year to date. We continue to experience top line growth of 11% in the quarter, which Jen will unpack in a bit. Speaker 100:04:12Investment income advanced 50% as improved reinvestment rates and a larger invested asset base have been accretive. Operating cash flow remains strong at $329,000,000 year to date and continue to support growth in invested assets. Q3 net earnings per share of $0.29 is challenging to compare to last year's $9.61 as 2022 was heavily influenced by the realized gain achieved on the sale of our stake in Mountain Gen. Our underwriting profitability, the previously mentioned investment income growth and modest realized gains of $7,000,000 were partially offset by net unrealized losses on equities of $25,000,000 in the quarter. From an underwriting income perspective, the quarter's 98.7% combined ratio compares to 97% reported last year as catastrophe activity affected both periods. Speaker 100:05:11Losses recorded from the Maui wildfires were $66,000,000 for the quarter, which was on the lower end of our previously announced range. Of this amount, $14,000,000 relates to reinstatement premiums on our catastrophe treaties. Impacts from this event added 17 points to the quarter's combined ratio. We also recorded $5,000,000 in other storm related losses in the quarter. The comparative quarter last year included $40,000,000 in losses from Hurricane Ian. Speaker 100:05:42As a reminder, first dollar retention on our catastrophe the treaty increased to $50,000,000 in January of 2023, up from the $25,000,000 previously. Apart from catastrophe events, incurred losses in the Property segment were low for the Q3 of 2023 and remain well contained for the year. Elevated catastrophe losses certainly made a notable impact on the property segment's loss ratio, but revenue growth is also part of the story. Earned premium growth from rates achieved over the trailing 4 quarters continued to moderate the overall impact of storm losses with the property segment's combined ratio of 88 on a year to date basis. From a prior year's reserves perspective, casualty drove the majority of the overall benefit reported. Speaker 100:06:31Casualty posted $22,000,000 of favorable loss emojance across a number of product lines. Executive products, commercial access, general liability and personal umbrella had notable benefits over multiple accident years. Property was modestly adverse on the 2021 accident year. This was largely driven by marine, which remains favorable on a current year basis. For surety favorable reserve development was $1,000,000 driven by the commercial segment. Speaker 100:07:02As noted each quarter, our approach to reserving remains the same and the quarter's results are reflective of a consistent process for evaluating loss reserves. Moving to expenses, compared to last year, our quarterly expense ratio decreased 1.2 points to 39.2. The decline would have been greater but for the aforementioned reinsurance reinstatement premiums. These ceded premiums are fully earned as recorded and result in lower net premiums earned from a trend perspective. The elevated ceded premiums earned adversely impact expense ratio comparisons. Speaker 100:07:39For the quarter, the expense ratio was up 1.8 points due to this impact. On a year to date basis, the impact was 0.5 point increase. We have, however, continued to increase investments in people and technology to support growth, improve the customer experience and drive long term efficiencies. Turning to investments, capital markets had a challenging quarter with both stocks and bonds declining, resulting in a total return of minus 1.7% for the combined portfolio. High quality fixed income has dominated our purchase strategy for some time and yields averaged 5% in Q3, well above the portfolio's current book yield. Speaker 100:08:26Our cash and short term investment allocation was down from June 30th as claim activity and the repayment of our 2013 long term debt issue at ROICor required additional liquidity. A portion of the proceeds used for bond repayment on September 15 were sourced by drawing $50,000,000 from our existing credit facility at PMC. Overall the balance sheet is in solid shape with an increased allocation to high quality fixed income, slightly lower leverage and strong available liquidity. Incorporating fixed income declines and comprehensive earnings and adjusting for dividends, book value per share declined slightly from June 30, but remains up 13% from year end 2022 to $28.47 Away from the traditional investment portfolio, investee earnings were up slightly when compared to the $2,000,000 significantly, excuse me, when compared to the last year to the $2,000,000 in the quarter. 2022 was heavily influenced by transaction related expenses at Maui Jim and as referenced in our press release, we have excluded value Jim's impact on operating earnings, which offers a better comparison. Speaker 100:09:41All in all, a solid operating quarter and continued Positive momentum for the year. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jen. Speaker 300:09:50Thank you, Todd. I will jump right into some details on our business by segment. Property premium for the quarter was up 26%. The growth continues to be led by our E and S Property division, which grew 39% and included a 42% rate increase. The catastrophe market remains hard with opportunities on both hurricane and earthquake business. Speaker 300:10:13Capacity has been reduced or pulled from many MGA markets and binding facilities. The delegated authority markets are still competitive, but only when the risk meets their narrower appetite. We are starting to see some limited competition return from admitted markets. Commercial businesses in Florida are increasing deductibles or buying less limit to control their spend. We are controlling our exposure by continuing to sell lower limits and managing our concentrations by region to acceptable levels, our growth, which is driven predominantly by rate at this point, and positively contributed to the bottom line. Speaker 300:10:49Our Hawaii homeowner book grew premiums 17% in the quarter. We've been a stable market with local underwriting and claims talent supporting Hawaii homeowners for over 25 years. The Wyoming and Wild prior August was an extreme and tragic event for our insurers, producer partners and employees. We mobilized immediately after the event, providing direct support including alternative housing and care packages within the 1st week. Given the severity in Lahaina, many locations were complete losses, which allowed us to quickly fulfill our promise and pay common claims expeditiously. Speaker 300:11:22We continue to work with insurers to understand the totality of their loss and help them secure long term housing, we are committed to the Hawaii homeowners market and will continue to write new business in the state. We're proud of our associate owners' response to this event and their ongoing commitment to provide exceptional customer service. Our Marine division had slower top line growth in the quarter due to market dynamics and underwriting adjustments made. However, we see continued opportunities in all of our property markets in the near term near to medium term. The combined ratio for the quarter for our Property segment was 122 due to the Hawaii losses, but the combined ratio year to date is 88%, which reflects the increased margin we're achieving in the current hard market. Speaker 300:12:05Turning to our surety segment, premium was down 2% for the quarter, but we posted an 82% combined ratio. Contract surety premium was down 7% for the quarter. We are in a more uncertain economic period, particularly for private sector construction, which is slowing due to higher material costs and interest rates in particular. These conditions can cause contractors to stretch to win projects, but it puts pressure on their profitability and their ability to execute. We're closely monitoring our contractors' financial security and project backlogs. Speaker 300:12:39We are seeing some increased claim notices and are working collaboratively with our contractors to ensure jobs are completed, while closely managing claim costs. Commercial surety premium was also down slightly. We are having broad based success in writing new business in this market, but the timing of bond renewals that shifted into the 4th quarter and the release of several sizable bonds put pressure on top line growth. As we review the overall surety industry results, we are pleased with the profitability achieved by our Surety team as we continue to focus on underwriting discipline. Casualty premiums grew 6% on a 90% combined ratio. Speaker 300:13:18Personal umbrella premium led the way with 33% growth supported by the continued market disruption. As a reminder, our personal umbrella product is sold on a standalone basis and demand is rising in those days where personal lines carriers have been pulling back on their auto or their homeowners businesses due to losses or the inability to obtain adequate rate levels. Given these issues, we work with our producer partners to manage the growth and have instituted higher underlying limit requirements or have surcharge insurers who buy down their attachment points. We have also obtained rate increases from many states, which translated into a 7% rate increase for First Umbrella this quarter. Premium in our Professional Services and Small Commercial division grew 6% this quarter as we continue to focus on serving architects, engineers and contractors for a broad product offering and value added risk management services. Speaker 300:14:11For our other casualty businesses, we are experiencing some challenges due to competition, consolidation of insurers in select market segments, a slowdown in construction in certain regions and revenue decreases for some transportation and construction risks. Despite these challenges, our more mature business units in casualty, transportation and executive products are collectively flat from a production standpoint. Rate change for the Casualty segment was up 5% for the quarter, which includes a 5% decrease for Executive Products, which is showing some moderation And a 10% increase in transportation as we continue to stay ahead of increasing loss costs. We would like to see the industry news of loss emergence over the accident years drive more discipline within the market overall. As referenced, there are several moving parts in casualty, but we continue to focus on risk selection with a constant eye toward underwriting profit. Speaker 300:15:07Once again, we are very pleased with the performance of our product portfolio and we see positive momentum in several key areas going forward. Our diverse portfolio supported by outstanding service to our producer partners and insurers continues to perform well. Now I'll turn the call over to the moderator to open it up for some questions. Operator00:15:27Thank you. The question and answer session will begin at this time. Please stand by for your first question. Our first question today comes from Greg Peters from Raymond James. Greg, your line is now open. Operator00:15:56Please go ahead. Speaker 400:15:58Great. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to go back, Jen, during your Comments on pricing in casualty, I think you said 7% in umbrella, but you also called out Financial Products and some of the other lines where pricing is flat or down. Can you spend a minute and just give us your view on how these pricing trends are matching up with your expectations around loss cost inflation? Speaker 300:16:28Sure, Greg. Thanks for the question. It varies by market within the casualty segment. Our casualty book is fairly diverse, and we're seeing opportunity in a lot of spots, personal umbrella leading the way on growth, but that is subject to approved rate filings, which we've had a lot of success in certain states. And in I'd say that it's been more challenging. Speaker 300:16:51So we are managing that growth by region and working with our producers to make sure that we're not growing too quickly in states where we can't get those approvals in place. But we think overall, based on how we're managing that growth and based on our commitment to dedicated claims service in that area that we are staying on top of trends that are happening. I know that in the industry that is a difficult coverage, we hear that from our reinsurance partners, but as they compare our book performance to others, they continue to support us. So we think we're doing okay in that area. I think transportation is an area that's hit the news a lot recently too. Speaker 300:17:29It's related as far as the auto losses. We've got 10% rate increase for transportation from the core, 7% year to date. I've got a chart here that shows back to 2018, we've had rate increases between 6% to 12% every year consecutively and so we continue to know that losses happen every day in our transportation division. So we need to continue to get rate as inflation whether You know, damage or bodily injury or the court system happens, we do need to continue to get rate there. We're focused really on risk selection though too. Speaker 300:18:04So in our transportation division in general, we've been shrinking in certain parts because it's been so competitive. And so it's not all about rate versus loss trend, it's about looking at the individual risks and making sure that you understand the possibility of how they are controlling losses, how they are training their drivers and maintaining their trucks and things of that nature. So we dig into the details there. And then I think the other area of interest usually is our Executive Products Group, which includes the D and O area. I mentioned the 5% rate decrease for the quarter 6% year to date, the headlines there have been that it's been a drastic reduction. Speaker 300:18:41And now we did see some larger reductions in the first half of the year. But again, we've used risk selection to get off of accounts where we think that rate decreases too much. And so it comes back to individual underwriting and looking at the risk and making Sure that we're comfortable with each one going forward. The momentum of renewing an account is pretty strong. But as an underwriter that's paid on the bottom line, they take a moment and they look at it to see what of that risk has changed since the last renewal and should they actually continue even if there is a rate decrease. Speaker 300:19:13And sometimes the answer is yes, That account has performed well and we can keep supporting them and at other times we have to be able to walk away. And so that's kind of a scenario, if you have questions on any of the other areas, I'm happy to answer any other questions on that. Speaker 400:19:28Well, that was great color. Thank you. I guess, I would like to pivot for a second on the reinsurance portion. Just curious about How I think you said the Hawaii losses wound up coming at the low end of the range of what you originally guided to. So Just curious about how the reinsurance worked for that loss, how much cover is left or some parameters that you can provide. Speaker 400:19:57And then Do you think it's going to affect your pricing for next year or considering that Your catastrophes elsewhere have been pretty limited at least year to date, maybe you'll get a pass on that. I'm just curious if you have an early view on reinsurance costs for next year. Speaker 200:20:17Well, I'm going to let Jen this is Craig. I'm going to let Jen talk about what she thinks about next year because she's probably a lot closer to it than me. But Matt, all I can say is the loss with the reinstatement premium that Todd referred to, there are no holes in our program. The program exists just like it did previous to The Maui loss, so if we were to have another large met, we would have coverage through the power just like it was pre Maui As a result of the reinstatement premium that we paid. Speaker 300:20:45Yes. So we had disclosed the $65,000,000 to $75,000,000 net range that of returns that would be And that would include all in, so that includes reinstatement premium. We booked $66,000,000 You can see it was at the low end of the range. That included $14,000,000 of reinstatement premium as Todd referenced earlier, if you look at it, our tower is a $750,000,000 tower ex of the $50,000,000 retention. We're not going to get near the top of that tower with this event. Speaker 300:21:13In fact, we're towards the lower end. We think we have plenty of coverage for events like this. I think this was an odd event. If you talk to our local Hawaii underwriting and claims staff, they would say They have never seen anything like this on the island. They've been there quite a while. Speaker 300:21:29It was quite a severe event. But we look at concentrations for property business across our portfolio, we have a number of units that write property business from E and S properties to marine to our packaged products to Hawaii. And in all cases, we do the old fashioned circles of limits, how much limits do we put in an area? And are we comfortable that it's a particular events of whatever time came through that area, are we comfortable sustaining that loss on a debt basis and just sharing that information with our reinsurers. I think we'll have more conversations with our reinsurers given this was unusual for our portfolio, at least in our history. Speaker 300:22:09But we have been in contact with them. We've done our trips to Bermuda and London already this year. So we're in contact with everybody. We're pretty transparent when it comes to a lot. We give them a lot of detail around the particular individual losses and what's happening and how we adjust these claims. Speaker 300:22:26In this particular event in Hawaii, there are several coverages involved. So, we in our loss estimate, Yes, we looked at things like additional living expense, for example, and we have reserved the full amount of that limit because we have seen an increased cost for housing in the area, and We think it will take a long time to rebuild. So we've built in all of those assumptions into our estimate. We're comfortable with that. Going forward, the reinsurers, Of course, they're going to say, we want to charge you more. Speaker 300:22:53That's what they do. You hear that in all the headlines. We're going to work with them to show them what our exposure is, what our process is I look for differentiation in the market because again we think we did a pretty good job in this area. We've been doing it for a long time. And so we wouldn't expect it to cause a huge impact to our reinsurance renewal process, but we're very early stages in negotiation for 11s at this point. Speaker 300:23:16So we'll see how it turns out. Speaker 400:23:19Excellent. Thanks for that color. I guess the final question I had is just in the area of surety, you talked the premium growth, you talked about some of the economic challenges for premium growth in that business. I'm just curious, there's a lot of headlines out there and noise in the marketplace about how the economy is going to look for next year. And as you guys are going through the budgeting process, I'm curious with your customer set, how you think the surety business might shape up next year? Speaker 400:23:55Any sort of guidepost you might be willing to provide would be helpful. That's my last question. Sure. Speaker 300:24:01So I don't know if you follow the SFA results that get published every quarter, they came out about a month ago, they were a pretty big lag. But if you look at the results for the industry, they've been elevated from last couple of years. And if you look at our results, we're performing very well compared to the industry from a bottom line perspective. From a top line perspective, you'll see that we've actually, I'll say falling down the chart Speaker 500:24:24a little bit in terms of Speaker 300:24:25the largest surety market. So we're now ranked around the 20th largest surety market. And some people would say, oh, that's disappointing that we're not at least to be, I think, the 10th largest. It's very well referred to the industry from a bottom line perspective. From a top line perspective, you'll see that we've actually, I'll say, fallen down the chart Speaker 500:24:43a little bit in terms of Speaker 300:24:44the largest surety market. So we're now ranked around the 20th largest Security market and some people would say, oh, that's disappointing that we're not at least to be, I think, the 10th largest. And so that is a little bit disappointing, but the point It's more competitive. Sometimes, as I mentioned, they do stretch, and so I want to be sure they did projects on the contract side, in particular, that they're building in enough profit to sustain their business. So it's hard to say how our business is going to grow. Speaker 300:25:09It's going to depend on how our competitors act. But for us, we're going to continue to focus on the discipline and the risk selection. Speaker 400:25:19Great. Thank you for the answers. Operator00:25:24Thank you, Greg. Our next question comes from Andrew Anderson from for you. Andrew, your line is now open. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:25:33Hey, good morning. Just looking at casualty reserve releases that were a bit stronger Quarter over quarter though a little bit lower year over year. I guess to start, is there different reserves that are reviewed in the 3rd quarter versus the second? And secondly, has the approach to reserve studies and viewing inflation trends changed through 9 months this year? Speaker 100:25:55Hi, Andrew. It's Todd. The process is the same. So there's nothing different quarter to quarter. So nothing unique about the Q3 relative to the 1st two quarters and nothing different as we compare to what would have been done Q3 of last year, so no change whatsoever. Speaker 100:26:16This is just how the studies fell out, if you will. Speaker 600:26:23Got it. And I think in the Q2 this year, you made some changes to current accident earpicks for some of the energy business, was there any similar type of changes in current year picks this quarter in casualty? Speaker 100:26:37Nothing material whatsoever on the current accident year, not at all. Speaker 600:26:43Okay. And maybe last one for me. At the top of the call, you'd kind of mentioned the expense ratio improving and perhaps a little bit of noise from the reinstatement premium. But What kind of opportunities do you see here with the investments that you're making in technology to perhaps improve the expense ratio a little bit from here? Speaker 100:27:00Well, yes, that's a good question. I think we're always looking to see where we can drive efficiencies as we grow. So there is opportunity there on the technology front, trying to get Fewer either front end systems or getting to one billing system. So looking on the efficiencies there, but a big part of it is really that customer experience. So that anything positive that we do from that standpoint, the hope would be that would be supportive of Growth in premium, which will also improve the expense ratio. Speaker 100:27:36So there's opportunity, certainly investments we need to make And we're focused on all of that. Speaker 600:27:45Great. Thank you. Operator00:27:57Our next question comes from Meyer Shields from KBW. Meyer, your line is now open. Please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 700:28:04Great. Thank you. Good morning. One quick question for Jen. You talked about underwriting adjustments in the arena. Speaker 700:28:09I was hoping you could expand on that a little bit. Speaker 300:28:14Sorry, you were talking so fast. I didn't understand the question. Speaker 700:28:18Sorry, that's an occupational hazard. Yes, In your opening comments, you talked about underwriting adjustments in marine and I'm not sure what that actually means. Sure. Speaker 300:28:29So you may have heard Todd say that the property reserve loss reserve release was a little bit adverse this quarter and as related to marine liability claims that we had from a couple of years ago. So marine is Even though the property segment is the combination of both property and liability coverages for non employee property, that's why it's in that segment. But we have seen a little bit of activity on the liability side And we have seen some issues in our cargo book and so we've made a few small underwriting adjustments. I don't want to we're not like reunderwriting the book, but we're just adjusting on the edges Which has caused us to reduce a Speaker 500:29:07little bit the growth Speaker 300:29:07that we've seen historically in Marine as of late. That's a very healthy book, so we continue to get filed for the rate in marine. So for the quarter, we had a 5% rate increase in marine, 6% year to date. So we're just taking minor underwriting actions, which is We do throughout, but in this particular case, it was a little bit more noticeable on the top line. So that's a point on the Marine book. Speaker 700:29:31Okay. So it wasn't like a numerical adjustment, they were just typing under underwriting standards? Yes. Okay. All right. Speaker 700:29:40Sorry, I wasn't sure. Related question, I know we've talked a lot about how turmoil in the personal lines market is creating opportunity For standalone Personal Umbrella, I'm wondering, is there any downside? Is there any business that's lost sort of on that you wouldn't want to leave Of because of all the challenges in Personal Life? Speaker 300:30:06That's an interesting question. We're not really losing business right now. We are our retention is pretty much steady. So I would say there's nothing notable there. In fact, it would be nice if our retention was higher because it does take effort to gain new business. Speaker 300:30:22So it would be nice if that would be higher. But We're not seeing any business that we're losing that we would not want to lose at a safe point. Speaker 700:30:31Okay, excellent. And then one final question just for modeling purposes. Is there a decent breakdown of the catastrophe losses and the reinstatement premium between the property and casualty segments that we can use? Speaker 100:30:49Yes, Maher, it's Todd. For the quarter, it really was contained. All of the MAUI losses were contained within the property segment as well as the reinstatement premium, the other storm losses in the quarter, the other $5,000,000 that I mentioned, There was around $1,000,000 of that, just south of $1,000,000 that was in the casualty segment. So the bulk of that was in the property segment as well. Speaker 700:31:17Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Operator00:31:23Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Heleniak from RBC Capital. Scott, please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 800:31:38Yes. Good morning. I was wondering if you could if you're able to share the what the gross losses are from the Hawaii wildfires. I I think somebody was trying to get at that before, but is that something you're able to share? Speaker 100:31:54Got it. It's Todd. I mean, I'm not sure of the relevance from that standpoint. I mean, to the extent that you're trying to do a comparative To prior periods, when you think in terms of changes in the reinsurance, but it's you're going to be in that 150 Plus range, I mean, you can kind of see it in the initial reserves that we estimate that we have made. We're going to do $130,000,000 to $150,000,000 range and we're constantly attempting anyway to be more on the conservative side and our initial book. Speaker 800:32:33Okay. That's helpful. And then just touching on the reserve releases again, was there any Particular accident year that stood out where most of those releases came from or was it spread out, anything notable there? Speaker 100:32:49It was spread out. I mean, we have a little bit in the 'fifteen to 'seventeen, some in the 'nineteen to 'twenty one. I mean, it really wasn't Any particular accident year that a bulk of that was coming through, pretty spread. Speaker 800:33:05Okay. And then just my last one was a comment that was made about, I think it was on the property book, there was some signs of increased competition from mid market carriers. And I was wondering if you might be able to give a little more detail on that. Are you just Seeing that from 1 or 2 in certain areas, certain regions or just curious if you can share anything more on that? Speaker 300:33:34Sure. So this is Jen. So we focus on Florida these days. So I'd say in Florida, we're seeing It was surprising to see some we lost one account to somebody, but it's not widespread. But you see these little green shoots and you're surprised by it. Speaker 300:33:48So I think the Florida market in particular would be very difficult to navigate on an admitted basis. So, I don't know that that's the sort of a trend. I think the big competition comes from a lot of those MGAs and things, but then also Citizens as well, continues to be a big force there, which is unfortunate Good to see, you'd hope that, that would be less of an emphasis. So I don't know, that market will continue to evolve. We're not seeing a ton of competition there, but there is So I'm sorry, it's a merge. Speaker 200:34:19Okay. I appreciate that. Thanks. Speaker 300:34:25Thank you. If there Operator00:34:26are no further questions, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Craig Hilkiewicz for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:34Thank you everyone for joining today. The financial results we reported yesterday reflects our organizational resiliency. Consistent profitability and top line growth are a testament to our diversified specialty product portfolio, our deep underwriting and claim our chosen markets and a willingness to prudently lean into disruption where we understand the exposures and the market environment. We grow with the opportunities and with investments in talented experts and deep relationships. We don't see growth simply for growth sake we don't run away from markets we serve with the first large loss. Speaker 200:35:14Our disciplined commitment to make the best long term decisions for our customers and our shareholders has served us well and is a differentiator of our culture and our organization. I'm proud of our associate owners' effort and the unique ownership model we have maintained. We are committed to being different Because being different works. Look forward to visiting with you all next quarter. Operator00:35:41Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to access the replay for this call, you may do so by dialing 1-eight sixty six-eight thirteen-nine thousand four hundred and three with an access code of 457,397. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you all for participating and have a nice rest of your day. All parties may now disconnect.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallDigital Realty Trust Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Annexon Earnings HeadlinesWestinghouse and McMaster University Collaborate on eVinci® MicroreactorApril 16 at 11:14 AM | financialpost.comHere's Why We Think RLI (NYSE:RLI) Might Deserve Your Attention TodayApril 15 at 3:59 PM | finance.yahoo.com[Action Required] Claim Your FREE IRS Loophole GuideThis shouldn't surprise anyone who's been paying attention, but... Pres. Trump may be about to unleash the biggest "dollar reset" since 1971.April 16, 2025 | Colonial Metals (Ad)Illumynt Offers Rare Earth Elements Recovery ProgramApril 15 at 3:46 PM | financialpost.comMirum's LIVMARLI Now FDA Approved in Tablet Formulation | MIRM Stock NewsApril 14 at 9:37 AM | gurufocus.comMirum's LIVMARLI Now FDA Approved in Tablet FormulationApril 14 at 9:37 AM | gurufocus.comSee More RLI Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Annexon? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Annexon and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About AnnexonAnnexon (NASDAQ:ANNX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, discovers and develops medicines for treating inflammatory-related diseases. Its lead candidate is ANX005, an investigational full-length monoclonal antibody, which is in Phase 3 clinical trial for the treatment of patients with guillain-barré syndrome; completed Phase II clinical trial for treating Huntington's disease; and in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The company is also developing ANX007, an antigen-binding fragment (Fab) that is in Phase 3 program for the treatment of patients with geographic atrophy; and ANX1502, a novel oral small molecule inhibitor, which is in Phase 1 clinical trials for autoimmune indications. In addition, it develops ANX009, a C1q-blocking Fab that is in Phase I clinical trial for treating patients with lupus nephritis. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:01Good morning, and welcome to the RLI Corp Third Quarter Earnings Teleconference. After management's prepared remarks, we will open the conference up for question and answers. Before we get started, let me remind everyone that through the course of the teleconference, RLI management may make comments that reflect their intentions, beliefs and expectations for the future. As always, these forward looking statements are subject certain factors and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the risk factors described in the company's various SEC filings, including an annual report on Form 10 ks as supplemented in Form 10 Q, all of which should be reviewed carefully. Operator00:00:40The company has filed a Form 8 ks with the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains a press release announcing 3rd quarter results. During the call, ROI management may refer to operating earnings and earnings per share from operations, which are non GAAP measures of financial results. RLI's operating earnings and earnings per share from operations consist of net earnings after the elimination of after tax realized gains or losses and after tax unrealized gains or losses on Equities Securities. Additionally, Equities and earnings of Maui Jim and the related taxes were excluded from operating earnings and operating EPS for 2022 due to the sale of RLI's investment in the Q3 of 2022. RLI's management believes these measures are useful in gauging core operating performance across reporting periods that may not be comparable to other companies' definition operating earnings. Operator00:01:32The Form 8 ks contains a reconciliation between operating earnings and net earnings. The Form 8 ks and press release are available at the company's website at www.rlicorp.com. I will now turn the conference over to RLI's Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer, Mr. Are Andy from Thaler. Please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 100:01:55Good morning. Thank you for joining our IR Alliance Third Quarter Earnings Call 2023. Joining us are Craig Kleejermis, President and CEO Jane Klobdak, Chief Operating Officer Todd Bryant, Chief Financial Officer. Today's agenda will include Craig opening up the call with some high level remarks. Todd will add detail on our financial results for the quarter. Speaker 100:02:18Jen will offer additional commentary on market conditions and our product portfolio. The operator will then open the line for questions and Craig will close with some final thoughts. Craig? Speaker 200:02:29Thank you, Aaron, and good morning, everyone. The devastating Maui wildfires that occurred in early August were a notable event for our customers, our team and our business this quarter. We continue to extend our heartfelt support to all who were affected by this tragic event. As Todd will touch on shortly, the quarter's results were significantly impacted by this catastrophe. Our claim team, both in Hawaii and other parts of the country responded quickly to assess the damage and remain dedicated to helping affected policyholders begin to recover as quickly as possible. Speaker 200:03:07Our purpose is to take on and diversify risks that can't be borne by an individual or business in exchange for a premium. Subsequent to a catastrophic or unexpected event, we execute our mission to fulfill the promises we have made to our impacted policyholders. Our financial strength is a benefit to those affected as well as our shareholders. I will let Todd and Jen go into more detail on the financials and the market in general. Todd, take it away. Speaker 200:03:36Thanks, Craig. Speaker 100:03:37Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we reported 3rd quarter operating earnings of $0.61 per share. The quarter's results were adversely affected by losses from the Hawaii wildfires will remain positive with an overall combined ratio below 100 and continued growth in investment income. All in, we posted a combined ratio of 98.7 percent for the quarter, now 88.0 percent year to date. We continue to experience top line growth of 11% in the quarter, which Jen will unpack in a bit. Speaker 100:04:12Investment income advanced 50% as improved reinvestment rates and a larger invested asset base have been accretive. Operating cash flow remains strong at $329,000,000 year to date and continue to support growth in invested assets. Q3 net earnings per share of $0.29 is challenging to compare to last year's $9.61 as 2022 was heavily influenced by the realized gain achieved on the sale of our stake in Mountain Gen. Our underwriting profitability, the previously mentioned investment income growth and modest realized gains of $7,000,000 were partially offset by net unrealized losses on equities of $25,000,000 in the quarter. From an underwriting income perspective, the quarter's 98.7% combined ratio compares to 97% reported last year as catastrophe activity affected both periods. Speaker 100:05:11Losses recorded from the Maui wildfires were $66,000,000 for the quarter, which was on the lower end of our previously announced range. Of this amount, $14,000,000 relates to reinstatement premiums on our catastrophe treaties. Impacts from this event added 17 points to the quarter's combined ratio. We also recorded $5,000,000 in other storm related losses in the quarter. The comparative quarter last year included $40,000,000 in losses from Hurricane Ian. Speaker 100:05:42As a reminder, first dollar retention on our catastrophe the treaty increased to $50,000,000 in January of 2023, up from the $25,000,000 previously. Apart from catastrophe events, incurred losses in the Property segment were low for the Q3 of 2023 and remain well contained for the year. Elevated catastrophe losses certainly made a notable impact on the property segment's loss ratio, but revenue growth is also part of the story. Earned premium growth from rates achieved over the trailing 4 quarters continued to moderate the overall impact of storm losses with the property segment's combined ratio of 88 on a year to date basis. From a prior year's reserves perspective, casualty drove the majority of the overall benefit reported. Speaker 100:06:31Casualty posted $22,000,000 of favorable loss emojance across a number of product lines. Executive products, commercial access, general liability and personal umbrella had notable benefits over multiple accident years. Property was modestly adverse on the 2021 accident year. This was largely driven by marine, which remains favorable on a current year basis. For surety favorable reserve development was $1,000,000 driven by the commercial segment. Speaker 100:07:02As noted each quarter, our approach to reserving remains the same and the quarter's results are reflective of a consistent process for evaluating loss reserves. Moving to expenses, compared to last year, our quarterly expense ratio decreased 1.2 points to 39.2. The decline would have been greater but for the aforementioned reinsurance reinstatement premiums. These ceded premiums are fully earned as recorded and result in lower net premiums earned from a trend perspective. The elevated ceded premiums earned adversely impact expense ratio comparisons. Speaker 100:07:39For the quarter, the expense ratio was up 1.8 points due to this impact. On a year to date basis, the impact was 0.5 point increase. We have, however, continued to increase investments in people and technology to support growth, improve the customer experience and drive long term efficiencies. Turning to investments, capital markets had a challenging quarter with both stocks and bonds declining, resulting in a total return of minus 1.7% for the combined portfolio. High quality fixed income has dominated our purchase strategy for some time and yields averaged 5% in Q3, well above the portfolio's current book yield. Speaker 100:08:26Our cash and short term investment allocation was down from June 30th as claim activity and the repayment of our 2013 long term debt issue at ROICor required additional liquidity. A portion of the proceeds used for bond repayment on September 15 were sourced by drawing $50,000,000 from our existing credit facility at PMC. Overall the balance sheet is in solid shape with an increased allocation to high quality fixed income, slightly lower leverage and strong available liquidity. Incorporating fixed income declines and comprehensive earnings and adjusting for dividends, book value per share declined slightly from June 30, but remains up 13% from year end 2022 to $28.47 Away from the traditional investment portfolio, investee earnings were up slightly when compared to the $2,000,000 significantly, excuse me, when compared to the last year to the $2,000,000 in the quarter. 2022 was heavily influenced by transaction related expenses at Maui Jim and as referenced in our press release, we have excluded value Jim's impact on operating earnings, which offers a better comparison. Speaker 100:09:41All in all, a solid operating quarter and continued Positive momentum for the year. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Jen. Speaker 300:09:50Thank you, Todd. I will jump right into some details on our business by segment. Property premium for the quarter was up 26%. The growth continues to be led by our E and S Property division, which grew 39% and included a 42% rate increase. The catastrophe market remains hard with opportunities on both hurricane and earthquake business. Speaker 300:10:13Capacity has been reduced or pulled from many MGA markets and binding facilities. The delegated authority markets are still competitive, but only when the risk meets their narrower appetite. We are starting to see some limited competition return from admitted markets. Commercial businesses in Florida are increasing deductibles or buying less limit to control their spend. We are controlling our exposure by continuing to sell lower limits and managing our concentrations by region to acceptable levels, our growth, which is driven predominantly by rate at this point, and positively contributed to the bottom line. Speaker 300:10:49Our Hawaii homeowner book grew premiums 17% in the quarter. We've been a stable market with local underwriting and claims talent supporting Hawaii homeowners for over 25 years. The Wyoming and Wild prior August was an extreme and tragic event for our insurers, producer partners and employees. We mobilized immediately after the event, providing direct support including alternative housing and care packages within the 1st week. Given the severity in Lahaina, many locations were complete losses, which allowed us to quickly fulfill our promise and pay common claims expeditiously. Speaker 300:11:22We continue to work with insurers to understand the totality of their loss and help them secure long term housing, we are committed to the Hawaii homeowners market and will continue to write new business in the state. We're proud of our associate owners' response to this event and their ongoing commitment to provide exceptional customer service. Our Marine division had slower top line growth in the quarter due to market dynamics and underwriting adjustments made. However, we see continued opportunities in all of our property markets in the near term near to medium term. The combined ratio for the quarter for our Property segment was 122 due to the Hawaii losses, but the combined ratio year to date is 88%, which reflects the increased margin we're achieving in the current hard market. Speaker 300:12:05Turning to our surety segment, premium was down 2% for the quarter, but we posted an 82% combined ratio. Contract surety premium was down 7% for the quarter. We are in a more uncertain economic period, particularly for private sector construction, which is slowing due to higher material costs and interest rates in particular. These conditions can cause contractors to stretch to win projects, but it puts pressure on their profitability and their ability to execute. We're closely monitoring our contractors' financial security and project backlogs. Speaker 300:12:39We are seeing some increased claim notices and are working collaboratively with our contractors to ensure jobs are completed, while closely managing claim costs. Commercial surety premium was also down slightly. We are having broad based success in writing new business in this market, but the timing of bond renewals that shifted into the 4th quarter and the release of several sizable bonds put pressure on top line growth. As we review the overall surety industry results, we are pleased with the profitability achieved by our Surety team as we continue to focus on underwriting discipline. Casualty premiums grew 6% on a 90% combined ratio. Speaker 300:13:18Personal umbrella premium led the way with 33% growth supported by the continued market disruption. As a reminder, our personal umbrella product is sold on a standalone basis and demand is rising in those days where personal lines carriers have been pulling back on their auto or their homeowners businesses due to losses or the inability to obtain adequate rate levels. Given these issues, we work with our producer partners to manage the growth and have instituted higher underlying limit requirements or have surcharge insurers who buy down their attachment points. We have also obtained rate increases from many states, which translated into a 7% rate increase for First Umbrella this quarter. Premium in our Professional Services and Small Commercial division grew 6% this quarter as we continue to focus on serving architects, engineers and contractors for a broad product offering and value added risk management services. Speaker 300:14:11For our other casualty businesses, we are experiencing some challenges due to competition, consolidation of insurers in select market segments, a slowdown in construction in certain regions and revenue decreases for some transportation and construction risks. Despite these challenges, our more mature business units in casualty, transportation and executive products are collectively flat from a production standpoint. Rate change for the Casualty segment was up 5% for the quarter, which includes a 5% decrease for Executive Products, which is showing some moderation And a 10% increase in transportation as we continue to stay ahead of increasing loss costs. We would like to see the industry news of loss emergence over the accident years drive more discipline within the market overall. As referenced, there are several moving parts in casualty, but we continue to focus on risk selection with a constant eye toward underwriting profit. Speaker 300:15:07Once again, we are very pleased with the performance of our product portfolio and we see positive momentum in several key areas going forward. Our diverse portfolio supported by outstanding service to our producer partners and insurers continues to perform well. Now I'll turn the call over to the moderator to open it up for some questions. Operator00:15:27Thank you. The question and answer session will begin at this time. Please stand by for your first question. Our first question today comes from Greg Peters from Raymond James. Greg, your line is now open. Operator00:15:56Please go ahead. Speaker 400:15:58Great. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to go back, Jen, during your Comments on pricing in casualty, I think you said 7% in umbrella, but you also called out Financial Products and some of the other lines where pricing is flat or down. Can you spend a minute and just give us your view on how these pricing trends are matching up with your expectations around loss cost inflation? Speaker 300:16:28Sure, Greg. Thanks for the question. It varies by market within the casualty segment. Our casualty book is fairly diverse, and we're seeing opportunity in a lot of spots, personal umbrella leading the way on growth, but that is subject to approved rate filings, which we've had a lot of success in certain states. And in I'd say that it's been more challenging. Speaker 300:16:51So we are managing that growth by region and working with our producers to make sure that we're not growing too quickly in states where we can't get those approvals in place. But we think overall, based on how we're managing that growth and based on our commitment to dedicated claims service in that area that we are staying on top of trends that are happening. I know that in the industry that is a difficult coverage, we hear that from our reinsurance partners, but as they compare our book performance to others, they continue to support us. So we think we're doing okay in that area. I think transportation is an area that's hit the news a lot recently too. Speaker 300:17:29It's related as far as the auto losses. We've got 10% rate increase for transportation from the core, 7% year to date. I've got a chart here that shows back to 2018, we've had rate increases between 6% to 12% every year consecutively and so we continue to know that losses happen every day in our transportation division. So we need to continue to get rate as inflation whether You know, damage or bodily injury or the court system happens, we do need to continue to get rate there. We're focused really on risk selection though too. Speaker 300:18:04So in our transportation division in general, we've been shrinking in certain parts because it's been so competitive. And so it's not all about rate versus loss trend, it's about looking at the individual risks and making sure that you understand the possibility of how they are controlling losses, how they are training their drivers and maintaining their trucks and things of that nature. So we dig into the details there. And then I think the other area of interest usually is our Executive Products Group, which includes the D and O area. I mentioned the 5% rate decrease for the quarter 6% year to date, the headlines there have been that it's been a drastic reduction. Speaker 300:18:41And now we did see some larger reductions in the first half of the year. But again, we've used risk selection to get off of accounts where we think that rate decreases too much. And so it comes back to individual underwriting and looking at the risk and making Sure that we're comfortable with each one going forward. The momentum of renewing an account is pretty strong. But as an underwriter that's paid on the bottom line, they take a moment and they look at it to see what of that risk has changed since the last renewal and should they actually continue even if there is a rate decrease. Speaker 300:19:13And sometimes the answer is yes, That account has performed well and we can keep supporting them and at other times we have to be able to walk away. And so that's kind of a scenario, if you have questions on any of the other areas, I'm happy to answer any other questions on that. Speaker 400:19:28Well, that was great color. Thank you. I guess, I would like to pivot for a second on the reinsurance portion. Just curious about How I think you said the Hawaii losses wound up coming at the low end of the range of what you originally guided to. So Just curious about how the reinsurance worked for that loss, how much cover is left or some parameters that you can provide. Speaker 400:19:57And then Do you think it's going to affect your pricing for next year or considering that Your catastrophes elsewhere have been pretty limited at least year to date, maybe you'll get a pass on that. I'm just curious if you have an early view on reinsurance costs for next year. Speaker 200:20:17Well, I'm going to let Jen this is Craig. I'm going to let Jen talk about what she thinks about next year because she's probably a lot closer to it than me. But Matt, all I can say is the loss with the reinstatement premium that Todd referred to, there are no holes in our program. The program exists just like it did previous to The Maui loss, so if we were to have another large met, we would have coverage through the power just like it was pre Maui As a result of the reinstatement premium that we paid. Speaker 300:20:45Yes. So we had disclosed the $65,000,000 to $75,000,000 net range that of returns that would be And that would include all in, so that includes reinstatement premium. We booked $66,000,000 You can see it was at the low end of the range. That included $14,000,000 of reinstatement premium as Todd referenced earlier, if you look at it, our tower is a $750,000,000 tower ex of the $50,000,000 retention. We're not going to get near the top of that tower with this event. Speaker 300:21:13In fact, we're towards the lower end. We think we have plenty of coverage for events like this. I think this was an odd event. If you talk to our local Hawaii underwriting and claims staff, they would say They have never seen anything like this on the island. They've been there quite a while. Speaker 300:21:29It was quite a severe event. But we look at concentrations for property business across our portfolio, we have a number of units that write property business from E and S properties to marine to our packaged products to Hawaii. And in all cases, we do the old fashioned circles of limits, how much limits do we put in an area? And are we comfortable that it's a particular events of whatever time came through that area, are we comfortable sustaining that loss on a debt basis and just sharing that information with our reinsurers. I think we'll have more conversations with our reinsurers given this was unusual for our portfolio, at least in our history. Speaker 300:22:09But we have been in contact with them. We've done our trips to Bermuda and London already this year. So we're in contact with everybody. We're pretty transparent when it comes to a lot. We give them a lot of detail around the particular individual losses and what's happening and how we adjust these claims. Speaker 300:22:26In this particular event in Hawaii, there are several coverages involved. So, we in our loss estimate, Yes, we looked at things like additional living expense, for example, and we have reserved the full amount of that limit because we have seen an increased cost for housing in the area, and We think it will take a long time to rebuild. So we've built in all of those assumptions into our estimate. We're comfortable with that. Going forward, the reinsurers, Of course, they're going to say, we want to charge you more. Speaker 300:22:53That's what they do. You hear that in all the headlines. We're going to work with them to show them what our exposure is, what our process is I look for differentiation in the market because again we think we did a pretty good job in this area. We've been doing it for a long time. And so we wouldn't expect it to cause a huge impact to our reinsurance renewal process, but we're very early stages in negotiation for 11s at this point. Speaker 300:23:16So we'll see how it turns out. Speaker 400:23:19Excellent. Thanks for that color. I guess the final question I had is just in the area of surety, you talked the premium growth, you talked about some of the economic challenges for premium growth in that business. I'm just curious, there's a lot of headlines out there and noise in the marketplace about how the economy is going to look for next year. And as you guys are going through the budgeting process, I'm curious with your customer set, how you think the surety business might shape up next year? Speaker 400:23:55Any sort of guidepost you might be willing to provide would be helpful. That's my last question. Sure. Speaker 300:24:01So I don't know if you follow the SFA results that get published every quarter, they came out about a month ago, they were a pretty big lag. But if you look at the results for the industry, they've been elevated from last couple of years. And if you look at our results, we're performing very well compared to the industry from a bottom line perspective. From a top line perspective, you'll see that we've actually, I'll say falling down the chart Speaker 500:24:24a little bit in terms of Speaker 300:24:25the largest surety market. So we're now ranked around the 20th largest surety market. And some people would say, oh, that's disappointing that we're not at least to be, I think, the 10th largest. It's very well referred to the industry from a bottom line perspective. From a top line perspective, you'll see that we've actually, I'll say, fallen down the chart Speaker 500:24:43a little bit in terms of Speaker 300:24:44the largest surety market. So we're now ranked around the 20th largest Security market and some people would say, oh, that's disappointing that we're not at least to be, I think, the 10th largest. And so that is a little bit disappointing, but the point It's more competitive. Sometimes, as I mentioned, they do stretch, and so I want to be sure they did projects on the contract side, in particular, that they're building in enough profit to sustain their business. So it's hard to say how our business is going to grow. Speaker 300:25:09It's going to depend on how our competitors act. But for us, we're going to continue to focus on the discipline and the risk selection. Speaker 400:25:19Great. Thank you for the answers. Operator00:25:24Thank you, Greg. Our next question comes from Andrew Anderson from for you. Andrew, your line is now open. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:25:33Hey, good morning. Just looking at casualty reserve releases that were a bit stronger Quarter over quarter though a little bit lower year over year. I guess to start, is there different reserves that are reviewed in the 3rd quarter versus the second? And secondly, has the approach to reserve studies and viewing inflation trends changed through 9 months this year? Speaker 100:25:55Hi, Andrew. It's Todd. The process is the same. So there's nothing different quarter to quarter. So nothing unique about the Q3 relative to the 1st two quarters and nothing different as we compare to what would have been done Q3 of last year, so no change whatsoever. Speaker 100:26:16This is just how the studies fell out, if you will. Speaker 600:26:23Got it. And I think in the Q2 this year, you made some changes to current accident earpicks for some of the energy business, was there any similar type of changes in current year picks this quarter in casualty? Speaker 100:26:37Nothing material whatsoever on the current accident year, not at all. Speaker 600:26:43Okay. And maybe last one for me. At the top of the call, you'd kind of mentioned the expense ratio improving and perhaps a little bit of noise from the reinstatement premium. But What kind of opportunities do you see here with the investments that you're making in technology to perhaps improve the expense ratio a little bit from here? Speaker 100:27:00Well, yes, that's a good question. I think we're always looking to see where we can drive efficiencies as we grow. So there is opportunity there on the technology front, trying to get Fewer either front end systems or getting to one billing system. So looking on the efficiencies there, but a big part of it is really that customer experience. So that anything positive that we do from that standpoint, the hope would be that would be supportive of Growth in premium, which will also improve the expense ratio. Speaker 100:27:36So there's opportunity, certainly investments we need to make And we're focused on all of that. Speaker 600:27:45Great. Thank you. Operator00:27:57Our next question comes from Meyer Shields from KBW. Meyer, your line is now open. Please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 700:28:04Great. Thank you. Good morning. One quick question for Jen. You talked about underwriting adjustments in the arena. Speaker 700:28:09I was hoping you could expand on that a little bit. Speaker 300:28:14Sorry, you were talking so fast. I didn't understand the question. Speaker 700:28:18Sorry, that's an occupational hazard. Yes, In your opening comments, you talked about underwriting adjustments in marine and I'm not sure what that actually means. Sure. Speaker 300:28:29So you may have heard Todd say that the property reserve loss reserve release was a little bit adverse this quarter and as related to marine liability claims that we had from a couple of years ago. So marine is Even though the property segment is the combination of both property and liability coverages for non employee property, that's why it's in that segment. But we have seen a little bit of activity on the liability side And we have seen some issues in our cargo book and so we've made a few small underwriting adjustments. I don't want to we're not like reunderwriting the book, but we're just adjusting on the edges Which has caused us to reduce a Speaker 500:29:07little bit the growth Speaker 300:29:07that we've seen historically in Marine as of late. That's a very healthy book, so we continue to get filed for the rate in marine. So for the quarter, we had a 5% rate increase in marine, 6% year to date. So we're just taking minor underwriting actions, which is We do throughout, but in this particular case, it was a little bit more noticeable on the top line. So that's a point on the Marine book. Speaker 700:29:31Okay. So it wasn't like a numerical adjustment, they were just typing under underwriting standards? Yes. Okay. All right. Speaker 700:29:40Sorry, I wasn't sure. Related question, I know we've talked a lot about how turmoil in the personal lines market is creating opportunity For standalone Personal Umbrella, I'm wondering, is there any downside? Is there any business that's lost sort of on that you wouldn't want to leave Of because of all the challenges in Personal Life? Speaker 300:30:06That's an interesting question. We're not really losing business right now. We are our retention is pretty much steady. So I would say there's nothing notable there. In fact, it would be nice if our retention was higher because it does take effort to gain new business. Speaker 300:30:22So it would be nice if that would be higher. But We're not seeing any business that we're losing that we would not want to lose at a safe point. Speaker 700:30:31Okay, excellent. And then one final question just for modeling purposes. Is there a decent breakdown of the catastrophe losses and the reinstatement premium between the property and casualty segments that we can use? Speaker 100:30:49Yes, Maher, it's Todd. For the quarter, it really was contained. All of the MAUI losses were contained within the property segment as well as the reinstatement premium, the other storm losses in the quarter, the other $5,000,000 that I mentioned, There was around $1,000,000 of that, just south of $1,000,000 that was in the casualty segment. So the bulk of that was in the property segment as well. Speaker 700:31:17Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Operator00:31:23Thank you. Our next question comes from Scott Heleniak from RBC Capital. Scott, please go ahead whenever you're ready. Speaker 800:31:38Yes. Good morning. I was wondering if you could if you're able to share the what the gross losses are from the Hawaii wildfires. I I think somebody was trying to get at that before, but is that something you're able to share? Speaker 100:31:54Got it. It's Todd. I mean, I'm not sure of the relevance from that standpoint. I mean, to the extent that you're trying to do a comparative To prior periods, when you think in terms of changes in the reinsurance, but it's you're going to be in that 150 Plus range, I mean, you can kind of see it in the initial reserves that we estimate that we have made. We're going to do $130,000,000 to $150,000,000 range and we're constantly attempting anyway to be more on the conservative side and our initial book. Speaker 800:32:33Okay. That's helpful. And then just touching on the reserve releases again, was there any Particular accident year that stood out where most of those releases came from or was it spread out, anything notable there? Speaker 100:32:49It was spread out. I mean, we have a little bit in the 'fifteen to 'seventeen, some in the 'nineteen to 'twenty one. I mean, it really wasn't Any particular accident year that a bulk of that was coming through, pretty spread. Speaker 800:33:05Okay. And then just my last one was a comment that was made about, I think it was on the property book, there was some signs of increased competition from mid market carriers. And I was wondering if you might be able to give a little more detail on that. Are you just Seeing that from 1 or 2 in certain areas, certain regions or just curious if you can share anything more on that? Speaker 300:33:34Sure. So this is Jen. So we focus on Florida these days. So I'd say in Florida, we're seeing It was surprising to see some we lost one account to somebody, but it's not widespread. But you see these little green shoots and you're surprised by it. Speaker 300:33:48So I think the Florida market in particular would be very difficult to navigate on an admitted basis. So, I don't know that that's the sort of a trend. I think the big competition comes from a lot of those MGAs and things, but then also Citizens as well, continues to be a big force there, which is unfortunate Good to see, you'd hope that, that would be less of an emphasis. So I don't know, that market will continue to evolve. We're not seeing a ton of competition there, but there is So I'm sorry, it's a merge. Speaker 200:34:19Okay. I appreciate that. Thanks. Speaker 300:34:25Thank you. If there Operator00:34:26are no further questions, I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Craig Hilkiewicz for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:34:34Thank you everyone for joining today. The financial results we reported yesterday reflects our organizational resiliency. Consistent profitability and top line growth are a testament to our diversified specialty product portfolio, our deep underwriting and claim our chosen markets and a willingness to prudently lean into disruption where we understand the exposures and the market environment. We grow with the opportunities and with investments in talented experts and deep relationships. We don't see growth simply for growth sake we don't run away from markets we serve with the first large loss. Speaker 200:35:14Our disciplined commitment to make the best long term decisions for our customers and our shareholders has served us well and is a differentiator of our culture and our organization. I'm proud of our associate owners' effort and the unique ownership model we have maintained. We are committed to being different Because being different works. Look forward to visiting with you all next quarter. Operator00:35:41Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to access the replay for this call, you may do so by dialing 1-eight sixty six-eight thirteen-nine thousand four hundred and three with an access code of 457,397. This concludes our conference call for today. Thank you all for participating and have a nice rest of your day. 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