Q3 2024 Donegal Group Inc Earnings Call - Pre-Recorded

October 24, 2024

<unk> W. W Dot Donegal group Dot com.

Speaker Change: Please be advised that today's conference was prerecorded and all participants are in listen only mode.

Speaker Change: Speaking today will be president and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Burke, Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Miller, Chief Underwriting Officer, Jeff, Hey, Chief Operating Officer, Dan Telemeter, and Chief Investment Officer, Tony The Aussie.

Speaker Change: Please be aware that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are forward looking statements and necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially.

Speaker Change: These factors can be found in Donegal group's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K, and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, the company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce the results of any revision that they may make to any forward looking statements to reflect the occurrence of anticipated.

Speaker Change: Or unanticipated events or circumstances. After the date of such statements with that it's my pleasure to turn it over to Mr. Kevin Burke Kevin.

Kevin Burke: Thank you Karen and welcome everyone in today's call will provide commentary on our quarterly financial results and an update on strategies and actions that we expect will continue to drive favorable results in future periods.

Kevin Burke: We will outline the factors that contributed to the highest level of quarterly earnings we've achieved since 2020.

We achieved net income of $16 8 million or 51 cents per class a share despite incurring $6 million pre.

Kevin Burke: Pre tax catastrophe losses related to Hurricane Halloween.

Kevin Burke: We will provide more details about weather related losses and other key earnings drivers later in the call.

Kevin Burke: Having completed our strategic non renewals of all commercial policies in the state of Georgia, and Alabama in July our commercial lines growth in the quarter reflected higher levels of commercial lines, new business in targeted states and classes of business as well as solid renewal premium increases and retention levels.

Kevin Burke: We completed our fourth annual state strategy sessions in August and we are refining our strategies and action plans as we finalize our 2025 business plan.

Kevin Burke: Our team is fully aligned and we're looking forward to capitalizing on opportunities for profitable growth in 2025, we are making excellent progress on the final two software releases within our systems modernization project in fact over this weekend, we will deploy the first phase of one of these releases which will facilitate.

Kevin Burke: The automated conversion of our remaining legacy homeowners and dwelling fire policies converting to our new platform as they renew starting with policies effective in January 2025, as you will hear from the other presenters today, we remain focused on solid execution and I am confident that our strategy is in <unk>.

Kevin Burke: <unk> will continue to generate favorable results through the fourth quarter and looking ahead to 2025 and beyond.

Speaker Change: I will now turn the call over to Jeff Miller to review, our third quarter financial results.

Jeff Miller: Thanks, Kevin for the third quarter of 2024, net premiums earned increased 6% to $238 million.

Jeff Miller: Net premiums written increased by five 9% as strong premium rate increases and retention were offset partially by planned attrition in states and classes of business. We have targeted for profit improvement rate increases achieved during the third quarter of 2024 remained in double digit percentages.

Jeff Miller: Averaging 12, 6% in total and 13, 6% when excluding workers' comp.

Jeff Miller: The combined ratio was 96, 4% for the third quarter of 2024 compared to 104, 5% for the prior year quarter with a decrease in the loss ratio primarily accounting for the improvement there.

Jeff Miller: The core loss ratio declined six six percentage points from the prior year quarter due to a combination of higher earned premiums and improved claim frequency and severity and we were pleased to see improvement in the core loss ratios of all of our lines of business.

Jeff Miller: Weather related losses of $24 4 million or 10, three percentage points of the loss ratio for the third quarter of 2024 were slightly lower than the $25 7 million or 11, five percentage points, we incurred for the third quarter of 2023.

Jeff Miller: The lower impact was primarily due to reduced severity of commercial property losses with $5 $3 million of losses, contributing 10 percentage points to the quarterly commercial multi peril loss ratio compared to 17 five percentage points of the loss ratio for that line of business in the third quarter of 2023.

Karen: Its results. The release and the supplemental investor presentation are available in the investor relations section of Donegal's website at www.donegalgroup.com. Please be advised that today's conference was prerecorded and all participants are in listen-only mode. Speaking today will be President and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Burke, Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Miller, Chief Underwriting Officer, Jeff Hay, Chief Operating Officer, Dan DeLamater, and Chief Investment Officer, Tony Viozzi. Please be aware that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements and necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to vary materially. These factors can be found in Donegal Group's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q.

Our earnings release outlining its results the release and supplemental investor presentation are available in the Investor Relations section of Donegal website at Www Dot Donegal group Dot com.

Speaker Change: Please be advised that today's conference was prerecorded and all participants are in listen only mode.

Jeff Miller: In our homeowners line weather related losses totaled $16 3 million or <unk> 45, two percentage points of the loss ratio compared to 49 two points in the prior year quarter.

Jeff Miller: In total the quarterly weather claim impact was higher than the previous five year average for the third quarter of nine four percentage points.

Jeff Miller: Our insurance subsidiaries incurred $6 million of net losses from Hurricane Helene, which caused significant homeowners' losses in Georgia in late September.

Jeff Miller: That $6 million impact reflected our insurance subsidiaries full aggregate reinsurance retention amount under their property catastrophe reinsurance agreement with Donegal mutual.

Karen: The company disclaims any obligation to update or publicly announce the results of any revisions that they may make to any forward-looking statements to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of such statements. With that, it's my pleasure to turn it over to Mr. Kevin Burke. Kevin?

Jeff Miller: Large fire losses, which we define as over $50000 in damages contributed three seven percentage points to the loss ratio for the third quarter of 2024, which was lower than four nine percentage points for the prior year quarter.

Kevin Burke: Thank you, Karen, and welcome everyone. In today's call, we'll provide commentary on our quarterly financial results and an update on strategies and actions that we expect will continue to drive favorable results in future periods. We will outline the factors that contributed to the highest level of quarterly earnings we've achieved since 2020. We achieved net income of $16.8 million, or $0.51 per Class A share, despite incurring $6 million of pre-tax catastrophe losses related to Hurricane Helene. We will provide more details about weather-related losses and other key earnings drivers later in the call. Having completed our strategic non-renewals of all commercial policies in the state of Georgia and Alabama in July, our commercial lines growth in the quarter reflected higher levels of commercial lines' new business in targeted states and classes of business, as well as solid renewal premium increases and retention levels.

Jeff Miller: The decrease reflected lower average severity of commercial fire losses as homeowners fire loss activity was comparable to the prior year quarter.

Jeff Miller: Our insurance subsidiaries had $6 2 million of favorable reserve development for losses incurred in prior accident years.

Jeff Miller: Which decreased the loss ratio by two six percentage points for the third quarter of 2024 compared to $7 3 million that decreased the loss ratio by three three percentage points for the prior year third quarter.

Jeff Miller: Breaking the development down by line of business, we had favorable development of $4 million in commercial multi peril too.

Jeff Miller: $2 2 million and other commercial.

Jeff Miller: $933000 in workers' compensation and.

Jeff Miller: And 800000 in personal auto offset partially by $1 6 million of unfavorable development in commercial auto due primarily to higher than expected severity of a handful of claims.

Kevin Burke: We are now ramping up our small business commercial underwriting strategies for all four of our operating regions to build momentum in small business growth, which will be a key area of focus for us in 2025 and the years ahead. We completed our fourth annual state strategy sessions in August, and we are refining our strategies and action plans as we finalize our 2025 business plan. Our team is fully aligned and we are looking forward to capitalizing on opportunities for profitable growth in 2025. We are making excellent progress on the final two software releases within our systems modernization project. In fact, over this weekend, we will deploy the first phase of one of these releases, which will facilitate the automated conversion of our remaining legacy homeowners and dwelling and fire policies, converting to our new platform as they renew, starting with policies effective in January 2025.

Jeff Miller: The expense ratio was 34, 5% for the third quarter of 2024 compared to 34, 1% for the third quarter of 2023.

Speaker Change: Dan will provide more details about our expense ratio and our ongoing expense reduction initiatives in a few minutes.

Speaker Change: In summary, the combined contributions of underwriting and investment income for the third quarter of 2024 resulted in an after tax net income of $16 $8 million compared to a net loss of $805000 for the third quarter of 2023 at.

Speaker Change: We are looking forward to capitalizing on opportunities for profitable growth in 2025, we are making excellent progress on the final two software releases within our systems modernization project in fact over this weekend, we will deploy the first phase of one of these releases, which will facilitate the automated conversion.

Speaker Change: As Kevin stated earlier, we are pleased with this improvement in our net income, particularly considering that the main driver of the favorable performance was an improvement in our core loss ratio.

Speaker Change: For more details about that improvement and specifics about our commercial and personal lines segment results I will now turn the call over to Jeff.

Speaker Change: <unk> of our remaining legacy homeowners and dwelling fire policies converting to our new platform as they renew starting with policies effective in January 2025, as you will hear from the other presenters today, we remain focused on solid execution and I am confident that our strategies and actions will continue to Jen.

Speaker Change: Thank you, Jeff starting with commercial lines net premiums written increased six 4% during the quarter, primarily driven by new business in targeted geographies and classes of business, coupled with strong rate and retention achievement as was already mentioned, we successfully completed our exit of commercial lines business in Georgia.

Kevin Burke: As you will hear from the other presenters today, we remain focused on solid execution, I am confident that our strategies and actions will continue to generate favorable results through Q4 and looking ahead to 2025 and beyond. I will now turn the call over to Jeff Miller to review our Q3 financial results.

Speaker Change: <unk> favorable results through the fourth quarter and looking ahead to 2025 and beyond.

Speaker Change: And Alabama, which was a significant profit improvement measure and partially offset our premium growth over the past year were now fully focused on our go forward strategy in commercial lines seeking outsized growth in small commercial accounts as we expand our automation and service capabilities for that segment.

Speaker Change: I'll now turn the call over to Jeff Miller to review, our third quarter financial results.

Jeffrey Miller: Thanks, Kevin. For Q3 2024, net premiums earned increased 6% to $238 million. Net premiums written increased by 5.9% as strong premium rate increases and retention were offset partially by planned attrition in states and classes of business we have targeted for profit improvement. Rate increases achieved during Q3 2024 remained in double-digit percentages, averaging 12.6% in total and 13.6% when excluding workers' comp. The combined ratio was 96.4% for Q3 2024, compared to 104.5% for the prior year quarter, with a decrease in the loss ratio primarily accounting for the improvement. The core loss ratio declined 6.6 percentage points from the prior year quarter due to a combination of higher earned premiums and improved claim frequency and severity, and we were pleased to see improvement in the core loss ratios of all of our lines of business.

Jeff Miller: Thanks, Kevin for the third quarter of 2024, net premiums earned increased 6% to $238 million.

Speaker Change: We're seeing improvements in our straight through processing rate and hit rates on our new small commercial product and service offerings.

Speaker Change: Which frees up our underwriters to give enhanced time and attention to writing high quality middle market accounts and as a reminder, we.

Jeff Miller: Rate increases achieved during the third quarter of 2024 remained in double digit percentages, averaging 12, 6% in total and 13, 6% when excluding workers' comp.

Speaker Change: We are and will continue to be in all lines account writer and from an exposure or policy count basis, we expect growth rates to be largely similar across all commercial lines of business.

Jeff Miller: The combined ratio was 96, 4% for the third quarter of 2024 compared to 104, 5% for the prior year quarter with a decrease in the loss ratio primarily accounting for the improvement.

Speaker Change: Last quarter I highlighted several profit improvement initiatives that we're continuing to execute to refine our commercial lines book of business.

Speaker Change: These efforts include the utilization of new underwriting tools, such as a comprehensive probable maximum loss fire analysis for property risks.

Speaker Change: Utilization of aerial imagery enhanced with artificial intelligence to identify root issues point of sale integrations to catastrophe modeling tools and multiple third party data analytical tools.

Jeffrey Miller: Weather-related losses of $24.4 million, or 10.3 percentage points of the loss ratio for Q3 2024, were slightly lower than the $25.7 million, or 11.5 percentage points we incurred for Q3 2023. The lower impact was primarily due to reduced severity of commercial property losses, with $5.3 million of losses contributing 10 percentage points to the quarterly Commercial Multi-Peril loss ratio, compared to 17.5 percentage points of the loss ratio for that line of business in Q3 2023. In our homeowners line, weather-related losses totaled $16.3 million, or 45.2 percentage points of the loss ratio, compared to 49.2 points in the prior year quarter. In total, the quarterly weather claim impact was higher than the previous five-year average for Q3 of 9.4 percentage points.

Speaker Change: These tools are not only ensuring the quality of the new business, we're writing, but we're also applying them to our renewal business, resulting in the non renewal of a significant number of property risks that those tools have identified as having higher propensity to loss.

Speaker Change: We're also actively revising underwriting guidelines for certain profit challenged classes of business and rolling out mandatory wind hail deductibles and all catastrophe prone areas across our footprint.

Speaker Change: We believe all of these actions are contributing in part to the core loss ratio improvement we achieved in the current quarter across all of our lines of business.

Speaker Change: Renewal rate increases remained strong in the quarter as we achieved an average 12, 8% rate and exposure increase across our commercial lines, excluding workers' compensation.

Speaker Change: This was led by multi peril at 14, 5% followed by commercial automobile at 11, 6% the commercial.

Speaker Change: <unk> statutory combined ratio for the third quarter was 89, 8% a seven seven point improvement from 97, 5% in the prior year quarter.

Jeffrey Miller: Our insurance subsidiaries incurred $6 million in net losses from Hurricane Helene, which caused significant homeowners' losses in Georgia in late September. That $6 million impact reflected our insurance subsidiaries' whole aggregate reinsurance retention amount under their property catastrophe reinsurance agreement with Donegal Mutual. Large fire losses, which we define as over $50,000 in damages, contributed 3.7 percentage points to the loss ratio for Q3 2024, which was lower than 4.9 percentage points for the prior year quarter. The decrease reflected lower average severity of commercial fire losses as homeowners fire loss activity was comparable to the prior year quarter.

Speaker Change: Large fire loss activity was down 39% year over year with lower average severity driving the decrease we expect to see a continued reduction in the likelihood of large fire losses through the implementation of various strategic actions. We also saw a reduction in our weather related losses within our commercial lines, given the light weather quarter outside the <unk>.

Speaker Change: Line event that occurred at the end of the quarter Hurricane.

Speaker Change: Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a category four hurricane on September 26th devastated key areas of our footprint, including Georgia, The Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee, Fortunately for both our Insureds and our results the impact of the storm had minimal impact in terms of commercial lines reported losses to date.

Speaker Change: Turning to other loss trends for commercial auto we're continuing to see the end of post pandemic frequency increases and a return to our longer term decreasing frequency trend.

Jeffrey Miller: Our insurance subsidiaries had $6.2 million of favorable reserve development for losses incurred in prior accident years, which decreased the loss ratio by 2.6 percentage points for Q3 2024 compared to $7.3 million that decreased the loss ratio by 3.3 percentage points for the prior year Q3. Breaking the development down by line of business, we had favorable development of $4 million in commercial multi-peril, $2.2 million in other commercial, $933,000 in workers' compensation, and $800,000 in personal auto, offset partially by $1.6 million of unfavorable development in commercial auto, due primarily to higher than expected severity of a handful of claims. The expense ratio was 34.5% for Q3 2024 compared to 34.1% for Q3 2023. Dan will provide more details about our expense ratio and our ongoing expense reduction initiatives in a few minutes.

Speaker Change: Auto physical damage severity increases are continuing to moderate and sit in line with our historical trend line.

Speaker Change: While liability severity during the quarter it ticked down just below our historical trend.

Speaker Change: Commercial multi peril loss severity, while still elevated is moderating due to the lower impact of large fire losses, but we are monitoring gradual increases in liability severity trends that reflect industry concerns around the impact of social inflation legal system abuse jewelry anchoring third party litigation financing.

Jeff Miller: Point $2 million in other commercial $933000 in workers' compensation and.

Speaker Change: And higher propensity for nuclear verdicts.

Jeff Miller: And 800000 in personal auto offset partially by $1 6 million of unfavorable development in commercial auto due primarily to higher than expected severity of a handful of claims.

Speaker Change: To date favorable frequency trends have largely offset the increase in severity, but we are monitoring it closely and attempting to adjust our pricing to stay ahead of the trend changes.

Speaker Change: For our workers compensation line of business, we saw medical severity returned to our longer term trend line affirming our assumption of an anomalous increase in the first half of 2024.

Jeff Miller: The expense ratio was 34, 5% for the third quarter of 2024 compared to 34, 1% for the third quarter of 2023.

Speaker Change: Dan will provide more details about our expense ratio and our ongoing expense reduction initiatives in a few minutes.

Speaker Change: Overall workers' compensation loss frequency continues to follow a negative trend even steepening in recent quarters.

Jeffrey Miller: In summary, the combined contributions of underwriting and investment income for Q3 2024 resulted in after-tax net income of $16.8 million, compared to a net loss of $805,000 for Q3 2023. As Kevin stated earlier, we are pleased with this improvement in our net income, particularly considering that the main driver of the favorable performance was an improvement in our core loss ratio. For more details about that improvement and specifics about our commercial and personal lines segment results, I will now turn the call over to Jeff Hay.

Speaker Change: And recent observations of indemnity severity increases are continuing due to wage inflation.

Speaker Change: In summary, the combined contributions of underwriting and investment income for the third quarter of 2024 resulted in an after tax net income of $16 8 million compared to a net loss of $805000 for the third quarter of 2023 as.

Speaker Change: The workers compensation market is very competitive with pressure from continued rate decreases filed by bureaus.

Speaker Change: As we look forward to 2025, we do not see any signs of this downward rate pressure abating in the near term, but nevertheless, we are confident that we can maintain rate adequacy due to the negative frequency trends. We continue to experience in this line of business shift.

Speaker Change: Shifting to our personal lines business segment net premiums written increased five 4% for the third quarter driven by a continuation of aggressive premium rate increases and strong policy retention that were offset by two factors first as we previously shared we are intentionally reducing our new business writings in an effort to maintain profitability given.

Speaker Change: For more details about that improvement and specifics about our commercial and personal lines segment results I will now turn the call over to Jeff Hey.

Jeffery Hay: Thank you, Jeff. Starting with commercial lines, net premiums written increased 6.4% during the quarter, primarily driven by new business in targeted geographies and classes of business, coupled with strong rate and retention achievement. As was already mentioned, we successfully completed our exit of commercial lines business in Georgia and Alabama, which was a significant profit improvement measure and partially offset our premium growth over the past year. We are now fully focused on our go-forward strategy in commercial lines, seeking outsized growth in small commercial accounts as we expand our automation and service capabilities for that segment. We are seeing improvements in our straight-through processing rate and hit rates on our new small commercial product and service offerings, which frees up our underwriters to give enhanced time and attention to writing high-quality middle-market accounts.

Speaker Change: Naturally elevated loss ratios new business typically generates.

Speaker Change: Effective in September we began non renewing our peninsula insurance company subsidiaries legacy personal lines business in the state of Maryland, given recent profitability issues for that book of business that represents approximately $20 million in premiums.

Speaker Change: And Alabama, which was a significant profit improvement measure and partially offset our premium growth over the past year. We are now fully focused on our go forward strategy in commercial lines seeking outsized growth in small commercial accounts as we expand our automation and service capabilities for that segment.

Speaker Change: We expect this initiative to partially offset the impact of rate increases on our personal lines premium growth through August 2025, when that peninsula runoff will be complete.

Speaker Change: We're seeing improvements in our straight through processing rate and hit rates on our new small commercial product and service offerings.

Speaker Change: Primarily as the result of the factors I just described our personal lines policies in force declined seven 3% compared to the prior year period.

Speaker Change: Which frees up our underwriters to give enhanced time and attention to writing high quality middle market accounts.

Jeffery Hay: As a reminder, we are and will continue to be an all lines account writer, and from an exposure or policy count basis, we expect growth rates to be largely similar across all commercial lines of business. Last quarter, I highlighted several profit improvement initiatives that we're continuing to execute to refine our commercial lines book of business. These efforts include the utilization of new underwriting tools, such as a comprehensive probable maximum loss fire analysis for property risks, utilization of aerial imagery enhanced with artificial intelligence to identify roof issues, point-of-sale integrations to catastrophe modeling tools, and multiple third-party data analytical tools. These tools are not only ensuring the quality of the new business we're writing, but we're also applying them to our renewal business, resulting in the non-renewal of a significant number of property risks that those tools have identified as having higher propensity to loss.

Speaker Change: Despite the start of the peninsula run off our overall personal lines retention was consistently strong at 86, 4%, indicating the policy holders continue to accept higher renewal premiums.

Speaker Change: And as a reminder, we.

Speaker Change: Personal auto and homeowners renewal rate and exposure increases were 15, 7% and 13, 2% respectively for the third quarter.

Speaker Change: We estimate we are essentially rate adequate and personal lines overall, and we will continue to pursue rate increases in states and lines of business combinations to offset loss trends.

Speaker Change: Furthermore, our net premium earned now reflects rate increases that exceeded loss cost increases, which is resulting in targeted margin expansion.

Speaker Change: That leads me to a few metrics on personal lines profitability.

Speaker Change: Statutory combined ratio was 104, 7% compared to 119, 4% in the prior year period.

Jeffery Hay: We're also actively revising underwriting guidelines for certain profit-challenged classes of business and rolling out mandatory wind/hail deductibles in all catastrophe-prone areas across our footprint. We believe all of these actions are contributing in part to the core loss ratio improvement we achieved in the current quarter across all of our lines of business. Renewal rate increases remained strong in the quarter as we achieved an average 12.8% rate and exposure increase across our commercial lines, excluding workers' compensation. This was led by multi-peril at 14.5%, followed by commercial automobile at 11.6%. The commercial lines statutory combined ratio for Q3 was an 89.8%, a 7.7-point improvement from 97.5% in the prior year quarter. Large fire loss activity was down 39% year over year, with lower average severity driving the decrease.

Speaker Change: Personal auto loss ratio decreased 10, three points compared to the third quarter of 2023, largely driven by a decrease in core losses and slightly favorable prior year Reserve development.

Speaker Change: Homeowners saw an improvement of nine eight points from the prior year period with comparable large fire impact and slightly improved weather related losses. Despite the impact of hurricane Helene. This major catastrophe, primarily impacted our policyholders in Georgia with ancillary losses in other states contributing $5 8 million in losses.

Speaker Change: As for our personal lines segment.

Speaker Change: We understand that many of the policyholders in the state of Georgia faced significant losses and disruptions during the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and as always it is our top priority to serve our policyholders during severe events and many thanks to our claims team who are well prepared to take action and provide the much needed support.

Jeffery Hay: We expect to see a continued reduction in the likelihood of large fire losses through the implementation of various strategic actions. We also saw a reduction in our weather-related losses within our commercial lines, given the light weather quarter outside the headline event that occurred at the end of the quarter. Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on 26 September 2024, devastated key areas of our footprint, including Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee. Fortunately, for both our insureds and our results, the impact of the storm had minimal impact in terms of commercial lines reported losses to date. Turning to other loss trends, for commercial auto, we're continuing to see the end of post-pandemic frequency increases and a return to the longer-term decreasing frequency trend.

Speaker Change: Just two weeks after hurricane Helene Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. At this time, we have received no claims related to Milton as this was largely a Florida event, where we have no exposure for those across the southeast corridor, we want to extend our heartfelt thoughts to everyone affected by these natural disasters.

Speaker Change: As an offensive component of our personal lines strategy, we're actively diversifying the geographic footprint of our property book to optimize the diversification benefit and mitigate the impact of weather related losses.

Speaker Change: We've identified down to the county level within the 10 states in which we write personal lines, where we're looking to grow and where we're looking to shrink in order to execute this strategy during the third quarter, we successfully reduced our policies in force by 12, 8% and counties, we wanted to shrink exposure compared to only a 3% reduction.

Jeffery Hay: Auto physical damage severity increases are continuing to moderate and sit in line with our historical trend line, while liability severity during the quarter ticked down just below our historical trend. Commercial multi-peril loss severity, while still elevated, is moderating due to the lower impact of large fire losses, but we are monitoring gradual increases in liability severity trends that reflect industry concerns around the impact of social inflation, legal system abuse, jury anchoring, third-party litigation financing, and higher propensity for nuclear verdicts. To date, favorable frequency trends have largely offset the increase in severity, but we are monitoring it closely and attempting to adjust our pricing to stay ahead of the trend changes. For our workers' compensation line of business, we saw medical severity return to our longer-term trend line, affirming our assumption of an anomalous increase in H1 2024.

Speaker Change: In counties, where we view our concentrations is acceptable.

Speaker Change: In line with our historical trend line.

Speaker Change: Our ongoing execution of this strategy will allow us to achieve manageable concentrations within our geographic footprint and resulting in more predictable and stable weather related loss impacts.

Speaker Change: While liability severity during the quarter it ticked down just below our historical trend.

Speaker Change: With that I'll turn the call over to Dan Delamater Dan.

Dan Delamater: Thank you, Jeff I will begin my comments by providing an update on our expense reduction initiative that we discussed in previous calls for.

Dan Delamater: For the third quarter, we operated in an expense ratio of 34, 5% compared to 34, 1% for the third quarter of 2023, the modest increase in the expense ratio, primarily reflected higher underwriting based incentives for our agents and employees incurred during the quarter as a result of the improved loss.

Speaker Change: Higher propensity for nuclear verdicts.

Speaker Change: To date favorable frequency trends have largely offset the increase in severity, but we're monitoring it closely and attempting to adjust our pricing to stay ahead of the trend changes.

Dan Delamater: <unk> ratio versus the third quarter of 2023, excluding.

Jeffery Hay: Overall, workers' compensation loss frequency continues to follow a negative trend, even steepening in recent quarters, and recent observations of indemnity severity increases are continuing due to wage inflation. The workers' compensation market is very competitive, with pressure from continued rate decreases filed by bureaus. As we look forward to 2025, we do not see any signs of this downward rate pressure abating in the near term. Nevertheless, we're confident that we can maintain rate adequacy due to the negative frequency trends we continue to experience in this line of business. Shifting to our personal lines business segment, net premiums written increased 5.4% for Q3, driven by a continuation of aggressive premium rate increases and strong policy retention that were offset by two factors.

Dan Delamater: Excluding those incentives are expense ratio decreased by approximately half of a point compared to the prior year quarter. We.

Speaker Change: Overall workers' compensation loss frequency continues to follow a negative trend even steepening in recent quarters and recent observations of indemnity severity increases are continuing due to wage inflation.

Dan Delamater: We have recognized significant improvement due to the impacts of various expense reduction initiatives, including agency incentive program revisions Commission schedule adjustments targeted staffing reductions and deferred replacement of open employment positions among others.

Speaker Change: The workers compensation market is very competitive with pressure from continued rate decreases filed by bureaus.

Speaker Change: As we look forward to 2025, we do not see any signs of this downward rate pressure abating in the near term, but nevertheless, we are confident that we can maintain rate adequacy due to the negative frequency trends, we continue to experience in this line of business.

Dan Delamater: As a result, we are now operating at a year to date expense ratio of 34%, which compares favorably to 34, 9% in the same period last year.

Dan Delamater: And as a reminder, these expense reductions are even more noteworthy considering we are realizing the peak expense impact of project Nautilus are multi year systems modernization project in 2024.

Jeffery Hay: First, as we previously shared, we're intentionally reducing our new business writings in an effort to maintain profitability, given the naturally elevated loss ratio new business typically generates. Second, effective in September, we began non-renewing our Peninsula Insurance Company subsidiaries legacy personal lines business in the state of Maryland, given recent profitability issues for that book of business that represents approximately $20 million in premiums. We expect this initiative to partially offset the impact of rate increases on our personal lines premium growth through August 2025, when that Peninsula runoff will be complete. Primarily as the result of the factors I just described, our personal lines policies in force declined 7.3% compared to the prior year period. Despite the start of the Peninsula runoff, our overall personal lines retention was consistently strong at 86.4%, indicating that policyholders continue to accept higher renewal premiums.

Dan Delamater: Because of multiple targeted initiatives across virtually every department in the organization, we are on pace toward our expectation to reduce our expense ratio by one full point in 2024 and two points by the end of 2025.

Speaker Change: Naturally elevated loss ratios new business typically generates.

Dan Delamater: We are proud of our team's commitment and resilience they have shown in this effort.

Dan Delamater: These initiatives are difficult and have full visibility across the company.

Dan Delamater: And for every high profile initiative, there are dozens of smaller initiatives that contribute meaningful and sustainable expense improvement.

Dan Delamater: One of the initiatives that is meaningful but reported as a separate income line item rather than an expense reduction is our implementation of a surcharge on credit card payments the.

Dan Delamater: The surcharge became effective in the second quarter of 2024 and explains the substantial increase in installment payment fee income in the third quarter of 2024.

Dan Delamater: In summary, we recognize the need for broader efficiencies and long lasting expense improvement to contribute to our operating profitability.

Jeffery Hay: Personal auto and homeowners renewal rate and exposure increases were 15.7% and 13.2%, respectively, for Q3. We estimate we are essentially rate adequate in personal lines overall and will continue to pursue rate increases in states and lines of business combinations to offset loss trends. Furthermore, our net premiums earned now reflects rate increases that exceed loss cost increases, which is resulting in targeted margin expansion. That leads me to a few metrics on personal lines profitability. The statutory combined ratio was 104.7%, compared to 119.4% in the prior year period. The personal auto loss ratio decreased 10.3 points compared to Q3 2023, largely driven by a decrease in core losses and slightly favorable prior year reserve development.

Dan Delamater: I'd also like to provide an update on our state strategy initiatives that define our desired product mix right targets marketing strategy and growth objectives. In every line of business within each state, where we are active for either commercial lines personal lines or both.

Dan Delamater: We recently completed our annual state strategy meetings, where representatives from a regional product underwriting and marketing teams collaborate with senior leadership to align plans for the year ahead.

Dan Delamater: These efforts are especially important as we actively manage our property concentrations and weather prone areas. They also helped guide our regional and national accounts teams toward intentional product mix and growth plans in all lines and even identifying specific classes of business, we want to emphasize for profitable growth.

Jeffery Hay: Homeowners saw an improvement of 9.8 points from the prior year period, with comparable large fire impact and slightly improved weather-related losses, despite the impact of Hurricane Helene. This major catastrophe primarily impacted our policyholders in Georgia, with ancillary losses in other states, contributing $5.8 million in losses for our personal lines segment. We understand that many of the policyholders in the State of Georgia face significant losses and disruptions during the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. As always, it is our top priority to serve our policyholders during severe events. Many thanks to our claims team who were well prepared to take action and provide the much needed support. Just two weeks after Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida. At this time, we have received no claims related to Milton, as this was largely a Florida event where we have no exposure.

Dan Delamater: Many of those discussions involve action plans to expand our small business strategy and to build on early successes as we leverage our capabilities to provide specialized services to this market segment. It enhances our ability to bolster our middle market presence for our independent agency partners across the country. Furthermore, we collaborated on refining growth postures for each.

Dan Delamater: State to ensure an intentional alignment of our strategic objectives and growth expectations across our operating regions and functional disciplines.

Dan Delamater: This alignment will translate to a cohesive business plan for 2025, resulting in an effective allocation of resources, where needed and cascading down to coordinated regional business plans and ultimately specific plans with our independent agency partners.

Dan Delamater: We are pleased with the progress realized in the third quarter of 2024 and recognized it as a step forward towards the operating results we expect.

Jeffery Hay: For those across the Southeast corridor, we want to extend our heartfelt thoughts to everyone affected by these natural disasters. As an offensive component of our personal line strategy, we're actively diversifying the geographic footprint of our property book to optimize the diversification benefit and mitigate the impact of weather-related losses. We've identified down to the county level within the 10 states in which we write personal lines, where we're looking to grow and where we're looking to shrink in order to execute this strategy. During Q3, we successfully reduced our policies in force by 12.8% in counties we wanted to shrink exposure compared to only a 3% reduction in counties where we view our concentrations as acceptable. Our ongoing execution of the strategy will allow us to achieve manageable concentrations within our geographic footprint and resulting in more predictable and stable weather-related loss impacts.

Dan Delamater: We will continue to obtain appropriate rate increases to offset economic inflation large loss activity social inflation and claims cost generally.

Dan Delamater: And we will continue to maintain discipline in our expense reduction efforts executing on each of these initiatives is paramount to the achievement of sustained excellent financial performance.

Speaker Change: For additional insight into our investment results I'll now turn it over to Tony the Aussie.

Tony Aussie: Thanks, Dan our investment strategy as always aligns with our conservative principles. We continue to focus on holding high quality credits that are characterized by strong investment income and low volatility.

Tony Aussie: Ultimately our goal is not only to preserve capital, but also to managing portfolio that is resilient adaptable and capable of generating consistent returns regardless of market conditions.

Speaker Change: Allow us to achieve manageable concentrations within our geographic footprint and resulting in more predictable and stable weather related loss impacts.

Tony Aussie: During the third quarter of 2024 net investment income increased two 8% from the prior year quarter to $10 8 million.

Jeffery Hay: With that, I'll turn the call over to Dan DeLamater. Dan?

Speaker Change: With that I'll turn the call over to Dan Delamater Dan.

Dan DeLamater: Thank you, Jeff. I will begin my comments by providing an update on our expense reduction initiative that we discussed in previous calls. For Q3, we operated at an expense ratio of 34.5%, compared to 34.1% for Q3 of 2023. The modest increase in the expense ratio primarily reflected higher underwriting-based incentives for our agents and employees incurred during the quarter as a result of the improved loss ratio versus Q3 of 2023. Excluding those incentives, our expense ratio decreased by approximately half of a point compared to the prior year quarter. We have recognized significant improvement due to the impacts of various expense reduction initiatives, including agency incentive program revisions, commission schedule adjustments, targeted staffing reductions, and deferred replacement of open employment positions, among others.

Dan Delamater: Thank you, Jeff I will begin my comments by providing an update on our expense reduction initiative that we discussed in previous calls.

The average net investment income yield for the quarter was $3 two 8% up from 322% for the third quarter of 2023.

Dan Delamater: For the third quarter, we operated at an expense ratio of 34, 5% compared to 34, 1% for the third quarter of 2023.

Tony Aussie: Current market interest rates remained generally elevated compared to the past decade, allowing us to reinvest our portfolio cash flow in two bonds with significantly higher yields.

Dan Delamater: The modest increase in the expense ratio, primarily reflected higher underwriting based incentives for our agents and employees incurred during the quarter as a result of the improved loss ratio versus the third quarter of 2023 excluding.

Tony Aussie: Overall, our average reinvestment rate of 525% during the third quarter represented an 89 basis point improvement over the bond cash flow yield during the quarter.

Dan Delamater: Excluding those incentives are expense ratio decreased by approximately half a point compared to the prior year quarter we.

Tony Aussie: We expect approximately $100 million in cash flow from maturities calls and Paydowns over the next 12 months.

Tony Aussie: The average yield we are currently receiving on those bonds is 370%.

During the third quarter, we continued our move out of agency debt and shifted into corporate debt.

Dan DeLamater: As a result, we are now operating at a year-to-date expense ratio of 34%, which compares favorably to 34.9% in the same period last year. As a reminder, these expense reductions are even more noteworthy considering we are realizing the peak expense impact of Project Nautilus, our multi-year systems modernization project in 2024. Because of multiple targeted initiatives across virtually every department in the organization, we are on pace toward our expectation to reduce our expense ratio by one full point in 2024 and two points by the end of 2025. We are proud of our team's commitment and resilience they have shown in this effort. These initiatives are difficult and have full visibility across the company. For every high-profile initiative, there are dozens of smaller initiatives that contribute meaningful and sustainable expense improvement.

Dan Delamater: As a result, we are now operating at a year to date expense ratio of 34%, which compares favorably to 34, 9% in the same period last year.

Tony Aussie: We actively monitor macroeconomic indicators and market conditions to identify opportunities that may arise during periods of volatility.

Tony Aussie: With that we have continued to increase our equity position gradually with a 39% increase in equity holdings compared to year end 2023.

Tony Aussie: We achieved $1 9 million of net investment gain on equities in the third quarter compared to a loss of $1 $2 million in the prior year third quarter.

Tony Aussie: Year to date net investment gains on equities was $4 7 million compared to $930000 last year to date.

Dan Delamater: We are proud of our team's commitment and resilience. They have shown in this effort. These initiatives are difficult and have full visibility across the company.

Tony Aussie: As of September 32024, our book value per share was $15 22.

Dan Delamater: For every high profile initiative, there are dozens of smaller initiatives that contribute meaningful and sustainable expense improvement.

Dan DeLamater: One of the initiatives that is meaningful but reported as a separate income line item rather than an expense reduction is our implementation of a surcharge on credit card payments. The surcharge became effective in Q2 2024 and explains the substantial increase in installment payment fee income in Q3 2024. In summary, we recognize the need for broader efficiencies and long-lasting expense improvement to contribute to our operating profitability. I'd also like to provide an update on our state strategy initiatives that define our desired product mix, rate targets, marketing strategy, and growth objectives in every line of business within each state where we are active for either commercial lines, personal lines, or both. We recently completed our annual state strategy meetings, where representatives from our regional product, underwriting, and marketing teams collaborate with senior leadership to align plans for the year ahead.

Tony Aussie: An 83 increase compared to $14 39.

Tony Aussie: As of December 31, 2023 to.

Tony Aussie: The increase in book value was primarily attributable to net investment income along with our gains on available for sale bonds and the equity portfolio, which was partially offset by a modest year to date underwriting loss and declared cash dividends.

Speaker Change: With that I will now turn it back to Kevin for closing remarks.

Kevin Burke: Thanks, Tony as we shared throughout the call today, our underlying results are beginning to reflect all of the efforts of our entire team has put forward.

Kevin Burke: For several years I have been optimistic and hopeful that the significant organizational changes and investments in systems capabilities and talent would yield positive results that optimism has led to growing confidence that our strategies will yield the intended results and we look forward to providing further updates to you in our year end call.

Dan DeLamater: These efforts are especially important as we actively manage our property concentrations in weather-prone areas. They also help guide our regional and national accounts teams toward intentional product mix and growth plans in all lines, and even identifying specific classes of business we want to emphasize for profitable growth. Many of those discussions involved action plans to expand our small business strategy and to build on early successes. As we leverage our capabilities to provide specialized services to this market segment, it enhances our ability to bolster our middle market presence for our independent agency partners across the country. Furthermore, we collaborated on refining growth postures for each state to ensure an intentional alignment of our strategic objectives and growth expectations across our operating regions and functional disciplines.

I will now turn the call over to Karen.

Karen: Thank you Kevin while we requested and received questions in advance of today's call. We have worked to answers to these questions into our prepared remarks.

Any additional questions. Please feel free to reach out to US. This now concludes the Donegal group third quarter 2024 earnings webcast you may now disconnect.

Dan DeLamater: This alignment will translate to a cohesive business plan for 2025, resulting in an effective allocation of resources where needed and cascading down to coordinated regional business plans and ultimately, specific plans with our independent agency partners. We are pleased with the progress realized in Q3 2024 and recognize it is a step forward toward the operating results we expect. We will continue to obtain appropriate rate increases to offset economic inflation, large loss activity, social inflation, and claims costs generally. We will continue to maintain discipline in our expense reduction efforts. Executing on each of these initiatives is paramount to the achievement of sustained excellent financial performance. For additional insight into our investment results, I'll now turn it over to Tony Viozzi.

Tony Viozzi: Thanks, Dan. Our investment strategy, as always, aligns with our conservative principles. We continue to focus on holding high-quality credits that are characterized by strong net investment income and low volatility. Ultimately, our goal is not only to preserve capital, but also to manage a portfolio that is resilient, adaptable, and capable of generating consistent returns regardless of market conditions. During Q3 2024, net investment income increased 2.8% from the prior year quarter to $10.8 million. The average net investment income yield for the quarter was 3.28%, up from 3.22% for Q3 2023. Current market interest rates remain generally elevated compared to the past decade, allowing us to reinvest our portfolio cash flow into bonds with significantly higher yields. Overall, our average reinvestment rate of 5.25% during Q3 represented an 89 basis point improvement over the bond cash flow yield during the quarter.

Tony Viozzi: We expect approximately $100 million in cash flow from maturities, calls, and pay downs over the next 12 months. The average yield we are currently receiving on those bonds is 3.70%. During Q3, we continued our move out of agency debt and shifted into corporate debt. We actively monitor macroeconomic indicators and market conditions to identify opportunities that may arise during periods of volatility. With that, we have continued to increase our equity position gradually with a 39% increase in equity holdings compared to year-end 2023. We achieved $1.9 million of net investment gain on equities in Q3, compared to a loss of $1.2 million in the prior year Q3. Year-to-date net investment gains on equities was $4.7 million, compared to $930,000 last year to date.

Dan Delamater: $2 million in the prior year third quarter.

Dan Delamater: Year to date net investment gains on equities was $4 $7 million compared to $930000 last year to date.

Tony Viozzi: As of 30 September 2024, our book value per share was $15.22, an $0.83 increase compared to $14.39 as of 31 December 2023. The increase in book value was primarily attributable to net investment income, along with our gains on available-for-sale bonds and the equity portfolio, which was partially offset by modest year-to-date underwriting loss and declared cash dividends. With that, I will now turn it back to Kevin for closing remarks.

Dan Delamater: As of September 32024, our book value per share was $15 22.

Dan Delamater: An 83 increase compared to $14 39 as.

Dan Delamater: As of December 31, 2023 to.

Dan Delamater: The increase in book value was primarily attributable to net investment income along with our gains on available for sale bonds and the equity portfolio, which was partially offset by a modest year to date underwriting loss and declared cash dividends.

Speaker Change: With that I will now turn it back to Kevin for closing remarks.

Kevin Burke: Thanks, Tony. As we shared throughout the call today, our underlying results are beginning to reflect all the efforts our entire team has put forth. For several years, I've been optimistic and hopeful that the significant organizational changes and investments in systems, capabilities, and talent would yield positive results. That optimism has led to growing confidence that our strategies will yield the intended results. We look forward to providing further updates to you in our year-end call. I will now turn the call over to Karen.

Kevin Burke: Thanks, Tony as we shared throughout the call today are underlying results are beginning to reflect all of the efforts of our entire team has put forth.

For several years I've been optimistic and hopeful that the significant organizational changes and investments in systems capabilities and talent would yield positive results that optimism has led to growing confidence that our strategies will yield the intended results and we look forward to providing further updates to you in our year end call.

Karen: Thank you, Kevin. While we requested and received questions in advance of today's call, we have worked answers to these questions into our prepared remarks. If there are any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to us. This now concludes the Donegal Group Q3 2024 earnings webcast. You may now disconnect.

Speaker Change: I will now turn the call over to Karen.

Karen: Thank you Kevin while we requested and received questions in advance of today's call. We have worked to answers to these questions into our prepared remarks. If there are any additional questions. Please feel free to reach out to US. This now concludes the Donegal group third quarter 2024 earnings webcast you may now disconnect.

Q3 2024 Donegal Group Inc Earnings Call - Pre-Recorded

Request DemoDemo

Donegal Group

Earnings