American Financial Group, Inc.

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. And welcome to American Financial Group's second quarter 2022 results conference call. 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 a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker host, Diane Whiteman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to American Financial Group's second quarter 2022 earnings results conference call. We released our 2022 second 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 CFO. Before I turn the discussion over to Carl, I would 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 in responses to questions. A reconciliation of net earnings attributable to shareholders to core net operating earnings is included in our earnings release. And finally, if you're reading a transcript of this call, please note that it may not be authorized or reviewed for accuracy, and as a result, it may contain factual or transcription errors that could materially alter the intent or meaning of our statements. 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 2022 second quarter results, after which Craig, Brian, and I will be glad to respond to your questions. AFG's financial performance during the second quarter was outstanding. We're pleased to report an annualized core operating return of nearly 21 percent in the quarter, including record second-quarter underwriting profit, alongside double-digit premium growth. Strategic positioning of our investment portfolio enabled us to invest opportunistically, and the returns in our alternative investment portfolio continued to exceed our expectations. Our entrepreneurial, opportunistic culture and disciplined operating philosophy have positioned us well in this increasing interest rate environment and favorable property and casualty market. Craig and I thank God, our talented management team, and all of our employees for helping us to achieve these exceptionally strong results. I now turn the discussion over to Craig to walk us through AFG's second quarter results, investment performance, and our overall financial position at June 30th.