Conifer Holdings, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Conifer Holdings third quarter 2023 investor call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brian Roney. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Conifer issued its 2023 third quarter financial results after the close of market yesterday. You can find copies of the earnings released on the company's website, ir.cnfrh.com. The slide presentation accompanying management's remarks this morning is available to view or download via webcast or from the investor relations section of Conifer's website. Before we get started, please note that except with regards to historical information, Statements made in this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements relating to trends, the company's operations and financial results, and the business and the products of the company and its subsidiaries. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements, due to various risks and uncertainties underlying our forward-looking statements, as described from time to time in CONIFER's filings with the SEC, including our latest Form 10-K and subsequent reports. CONIFER specifically disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise. In addition, a replay of this call will be provided through a link on the investor relations section of our website. During this call, we'll also discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included when possible in our earnings release and our historical SEC filings. Statutory accounting data is prepared in accordance with statutory accounting rules and is therefore not reconciled to GAAP. We will conduct a Q&A session after management's prepared remarks this morning. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jim Peckhoff, Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Jim?

Thanks, Brian, and good morning, everyone. Also on the call with me today are Nick and Harold. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our third quarter financial results. Like the industry at large where Personal Alliance has had a tough go, our quarter was mostly impacted by recent storm activity. After several years of systemic wind exposure reduction, for example, exiting Florida altogether or our hurricane risk is now almost negligible, yet in the quarter we were significantly impacted by wind in the form of convective storm. More specifically, our personal lines book of business was hit the hardest in Oklahoma. But before the storm activity in the period, we were generally pleased with the improving results. For example, despite the unusual related losses in the period, we saw continued growth in our select key verticals. In total, gross written premiums were up roughly 17% in the third quarter and up nicely for the year as well. Overall, we continue to focus our underwriting efforts on organic growth in our historically profitable core business, which continues to generate substantial top-line growth in our emphasized key specialty verticals. We remain focused on executing in our historically profitable lines, which I believe speaks to the strength of our underwriting teams and their deep expertise in our select markets. While the top line has been moving, we are also pleased to see the expense ratio coming into line with our ongoing expense management efforts. We posted a 34% expense ratio for the third quarter. This continuous improvement demonstrates our persistent drive toward overall expense reduction. Before I hand the call over to Nick for more color on our underwriting results, I'd like to take a moment to note the transition that will take place at the end of this year where Nick will be taking over the role of CEO for Conifer. I'm proud to hand the reins over to Nick, and I'm confident that the company is in good hands and on sound footing moving into a bright future. Nick?