AMERISAFE, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the AmeriSafe third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Catherine Shirley, Chief Administrative Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Welcome to the AmeriSafe 2024 third quarter investor call. If you have not received the earnings release, it is available on our website at AmeriSafe.com. This call is being recorded. a replay of today's call will be available. Details on how to access the replay are in the earnings release. During this call, we will be making forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied in these statements if the underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect or as the results of risks, uncertainties, and other factors including factors discussed in the earnings release, in the comments made during today's call, and in the risk factors section of our Form 10-K, Form 10-Qs, and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement. I will now turn the call over to Janelle Frost, AmeriSafe's President and CEO.

Thank you, Catherine, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased with AmeriSafe's quarterly financial results. particularly in response to a competitive marketplace driven by declining rates and industry-wide profitability. The workers' compensation industry has benefited from multi-year declines in frequency, moderate severity, and growing wages. AmeriSafe's trends have been no different. However, I would argue our specialist nature and the history of underwriting discipline better position AmeriSafe for consistent returns and a strong balance sheet throughout market cycles. which brings stability to our policyholders and agents and value to our shareholders. As such, our board of directors declared a special dividend of $3 for shareholders of record as of December 6, 2024. This special dividend reflects long-term operational excellence and our commitment to shareholder returns. The special dividend is in addition to our regular quarterly dividend of 37 cents. Our capital strength is created by our long-term profitability and our current strategic priorities centered on achieving targeted profitable growth. This quarter, similar to the second, we have maintained positive momentum in terms of production and top-line performance. For policies written in the quarter, premium grew 8.8% over last year's third quarter. I've spoken over the last few quarters about the effectiveness of our agent engagement and creating internal efficiencies to enhance agent experience. Through employee-led initiatives and collaboration, we are seeing wins. And as the saying goes, success breeds success. Working with agents and without changing our appetite, we are improving our ability to incrementally add new business among strong competition. New business growth, coupled with a strong renewal retention of 93.6%, led to higher in-force policy count and gross written premium growth of 5.8%. While audit premiums remain positive and additive to premiums earned, their contribution is moderating compared to the same period last year. Payroll growth and wage inflation are leveling off within the industries we insure. Regarding losses, our accident year loss ratio was consistent with last year at 71%. Loss cost trends remain stable. I believe the threat to the current loss trends for the industry are medical inflation and the viability of current fee schedules. That being said, we have not noted any significant changes. The company also saw $8.5 million in favorable development on prior accident years. stemming from favorable case development in accident years 2017 through 2022. To summarize, we are pleased to see premium growth in the quarter and continued favorable loss experience through our claims management efforts. I will now turn the call over to Andy to discuss expenses, investments, and other financial metrics.