The Baldwin Insurance Group, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Baldwin Group First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Bonnie Bishop, Executive Director of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Welcome to the Baldwin Group's First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. First quarter financial results, supplemental information, and Form 10-Q were issued earlier this afternoon and are available on the company's website at ir.baldwin.com. Please note that remarks made today may include forward-looking statements subject to various assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. The company's actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. For a more detailed discussion... please refer to the note regarding forward-looking statements in the company's earnings release and our recent Form 10-Q, both of which are available on the Baldwin website. During the call today, the company may also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. For a more detailed discussion of these non-GAAP financial measures and historical reconciliation to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, please refer to the company's earnings release and supplemental information. both of which have been posted on the company's website at ir.baldwin.com. I will now turn the call over to Trevor Baldwin, Chief Executive Officer of the Baldwin Group.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us to discuss our first quarter results reported earlier today. I'm joined by Brad Hale, Chief Financial Officer, and Bonnie Bishop, Executive Director of Investor Relations. We were extremely pleased with the first quarter overall as we continued our track record of industry-leading organic growth, ongoing margin expansion, and double-digit growth in earnings. In the first quarter, we generated organic revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth of 10% and 12%, respectively, while delivering 80 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin improvement and 16% growth in adjusted diluted earnings per share. Normalizing to the sale of our wholesale business, Connected Risk Solutions, adjusted EBITDA grew 14%, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 28%. Adjusted free cash flow was $26 million, up 6% from the prior year period. We paid $123 million of earnouts in cash in the first quarter and an additional $37 million in April. We expect to pay another $22 million in the second quarter, which will extinguish the vast majority of our remaining earn-out obligations and result in the steady improvement in net leverage and adjusted free cash flow that we've expected. Turning to our segment results in insurance advisory solutions, overall organic revenue growth for the quarter was 3%. As we mentioned on our fourth quarter earnings call, we anticipated single digit organic revenue growth in IES in the first quarter due to the timing of net new business. Sales velocity remained strong at 14% compared to 17% in the prior year period, and client retention improved year over year to approximately 92%. The impact of rate and exposure or premium change on renewals for the quarter was negative 3.5%, largely driven by a more competitive insurance rate environment for our clients across many lines, particularly in large coastal property, as well as muted project-based revenue. When compared to the 4.5% benefit provided by rate and exposure in the first quarter of 2024, The aggregate headwind to this quarter was approximately 800 basis points. Our underwriting capacity and technology solution segment had an outstanding quarter, with organic revenue growth accelerating to 32% versus 21% in the first quarter of 2024, driven by continued outperformance across our multifamily and home portfolios, which saw 17% and 29% organic commissions and fees growth, respectively. Continued momentum at Juniper Re and the introduction of our multifamily captive also supported the strong organic growth print in UCTS for the quarter. In April, we announced the finalization of our third-party-led capitalization of our inaugural reciprocal insurance exchange named Builder Reciprocal Insurance Exchange or BRII for short, to support continued growth in our builder channel. As of today, we have closed on the $110 million capitalization of the reciprocal and will imminently begin migrating the builder book. This marks a meaningful milestone in our continued journey to vertically integrate across the value chain and bring innovative third-party risk capital solutions to market in support of more efficient risk transfer outcomes for our clients. As a reminder, we do not intend to consolidate Bree's financial results and will account to the attorney in fact as an equity method investment. As such, the surplus notes used to capitalize the reciprocal do not represent additional debt of Baldwin or its affiliates. Our Main Street Insurance Solutions segment delivered total organic revenue growth of 10%. driven by strong new business generation across our builder and national mortgage and real estate franchises, along with our Medicare division, which outperformed during the annual enrollment period. New business momentum helped offset a deceleration in rate and exposure, as well as capacity challenges in certain markets, such as California. In summary, we're pleased with our first quarter results despite the macro uncertainty at play and remain confident in the resilience and durability of our business model, as well as the overall position and trajectory of our business. Our strengthening financial profile, immense operating leverage, diverse and durable drivers of outsized new business, and leading talent franchise position our business well to execute at a high level and thrive through the current and any insurance market, and economic environment. Thank you to our clients for their continued trust in our ability to provide guidance, advice, and creative solutions to mitigate increasingly complex risks and to our colleagues for their dedication and commitment to deliver meaningful outcomes for both our clients and insurance company partners. With that, I will turn it over to Brad, who will detail our financial results.