American Financial Group, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the American Financial Group 2021 Third Quarter Resort. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during this session, you will need to press star then 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star then 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today. Diane Widener, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to American Financial Group's third quarter 2021 earnings results conference call. We released our third quarter results yesterday afternoon. Our press release, investor supplement, and webcast presentation are posted on AFG's website under the investor relations section. These materials will be referenced during portions of today's call. I'm joined this morning by Carl Lindner III and Craig Lindner, co-CEOs of American Financial Group, and Brian Hertzman, AFG's CFO. Before I turn the discussion over to Carl, I would like to draw your attention to the notes on slide two of our webcast. Some of the matters to be discussed today are forward-looking. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and or financial condition to differ materially from these statements. A detailed description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in AFG's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are also available on our website. We may include references to core net operating earnings, a non-GAAP financial measure, in our remarks or responses to questions. A reconciliation of net earnings attributable to shareholders to core net operating earnings is included in our earnings release. If you are reading a transcript of this call, please note that it may not be authorized or reviewed for accuracy and And as a result, it may contain factual or transcription errors that could materially alter the intent or meaning of our statement. Now I'm pleased to turn the call over to Carl Lindner III to discuss our results. Good morning.

We're pleased to share highlights of AFG's 2021 third quarter results, after which Craig, Brian, and I will be glad to respond to your questions. This was an outstanding quarter. We're extremely pleased with the company's performance and continued strong market conditions. Third quarter pre-tax core operating earnings in AFG's property and casualty insurance segment were 60% higher than the comparable prior year period. And each of our specialty property and casualty groups reported healthy growth and excellent underwriting margins. Results in our portfolio of alternative investments continued to exceed our expectations and produce strong investment returns in the quarter. This year, market conditions in the property and casualty business remain among the best I've seen in my 40-plus year career. We believe that our disciplined yet opportunistic operating philosophy, a lower net catastrophe exposure than our peers, and a continued economic recovery contributed to these outstanding results. We are excited to welcome our employees back to the office this week, following a staged return that began in mid-May. we're pleased to offer most of our employees the opportunity to select hybrid work schedules upon their return. Craig and I thank God, our talented management team, and our employees for helping us to achieve these exceptionally strong results and position our business for continued success. I now turn the discussion over to Craig to walk us through AFG's third quarter results, investment performance, and our overall financial position at September 30th.