Erie Indemnity Company

Good morning, and welcome to the Erie Indemnity Company Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. This call was prerecorded, and there will be no question and answer session following the recording. Now, I'd like to introduce your host for the call, Vice President of Investment Relations, Scott Beilhars.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for this recorded discussion about our 2021 Second Quarter results. This recording will include remarks from Tim DeCastro, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Greg Gutting, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release and financial supplement were issued yesterday afternoon after the market closed and are available within the investor relations section of our website, yourinsurance.com. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion may contain forward-looking remarks that reflect the company's current views about future events. These remarks are based on assumptions subject to known and unexpected risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties may cause results to differ materially from those described in these remarks. For information on important factors that may cause such differences, please see the Safe Harbor Statements in our Form 10Q filing with the SEC dated July 29th, 2021 and in the related press release. This prerecorded call is the property of your indemnity company. It may not be reproduced or rebroadcast by any other party without the prior written consent of your indemnity company. With that, we'll move on to Tim's remarks.

Tim? Thanks, Scott, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking time to learn more about Erie's performance in the second quarter of 2021. Over the past several weeks, many of us have started to return to a more normal way of living, and with that, we're also starting to return to a normal way of working. In early July, we began returning more employees to our offices for the first phase of our workplace reset initiative. Phase two is set to begin in September with a significantly greater number of returning employees. Many of those employees will be among the first to work in our new seven-story office building, which we're planning to dedicate in September after a 17-month delay. The building is spectacular, and I can't wait to see it filled with activity. As we move through this phased return to our workplace and pilot new ways of working, it's important to note that we will be learning and adapting as we go. One of the biggest lessons learned over the past year and a half is that the human touch transcends physical location. So, just as we've been doing since the early days of the pandemic, we're committed to taking a thoughtful and deliberate approach to our decisions. As we pioneer what's next for our workforce at Erie, Our special culture and unique service model remains at the forefront of everything we do. Turning to our second quarter, I'm excited to announce an exciting milestone with a sure symbol of our continued stability and growth, 6 million policies in force. We certainly could not have reached this milestone without our hardworking agency force and dedicated sales and underwriting teams. Our steady-as-you-go approach to pricing and commitment to long-term profitability positions us well for continued growth as we look to 7 million policies in force and a century of service. We had a remarkable first quarter of the year and I'm pleased to report that those strong financial results are holding steady as we reach the halfway point of 2021. As you saw in our press release filed after the market closed yesterday, Erie Indemnity reported net income of $79 million or $1.51 per diluted share for the second quarter. This is compared to a net income of $82 million of 2020. In the second quarter of 2021, we grew a premium by 3.4%. This increase was largely driven by strong retention and an increase in new written premium of almost 40%. Losses remain at lower than normal levels due to a relatively mild spring and continued reduction in driving due to the pandemic, contributing to a combined ratio of 92.6% year-to-date. to expand on our second quarter results.