Allstate Corporation (The)

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Allstate's second quarter earnings investor call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star 11 on your telephone. Please limit your inquiry to one question and one follow-up. As a reminder, please be aware that this call is being recorded. And now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Brent Vandermuse, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Jonathan. Good morning. Welcome to Allstate's second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Yesterday, following the close of market, we issued our news release and investor supplement, filed our 10-Q, and posted related material on our website at allstateinvestors.com. Our management team will provide perspective on our strategy and an update on the results. After prepared remarks, we will have a question and answer session. As noted on the first slide of the presentation, our discussion will contain non-GAAP measures for which there are reconciliations in the news release and investor supplement and forward-looking statements about Allstate's operations. Allstate's results may differ materially from these statements, so please refer to our 10-K for 2023 and other public documents for information on potential risks. As some of you know, this will be my final earnings call as the leader of our investor relations team, since I will be transitioning to a new role. Investor relations will be in the capable hands of Alistair Gobin, who will be a great partner for you all. And now I'll turn it over to Tom.

Well, good morning. Thank you for investing your time at Allstate. I'll provide an overview of results. Mario and Jess will go through operating performance, and then we'll address your questions. Let's start on slide two. Allstate's strategy has two components, increased personal property liability market share, and expanded protection provided to customers, which are shown in the two ovals on the left. On the right-hand side, you can see highlights from the second quarter. Net income was $301 million in a quarter with elevated catastrophes. The auto profit improvement plan is being successfully executed. National General continues on a four-year profitable growth trajectory. The homeowner's business had good results with an improved underlying combined ratio and underwriting profit for the first six months of the year. Then investment income was up almost 17% over the prior year quarter as the fixed income portfolio continues to benefit from repositioning into longer duration and higher yielding assets. Protection services has another good quarter led by profitable growth in protection plans. Let's move to slide three. show how that operational execution improved underlying results in the quarter. Revenues increased to $15.7 billion, reflecting higher average property liability earned premiums, and that was mostly from rate increases in auto and homeowners insurance, and increased net investment income. Net investment income for the second quarter was $712 million higher than the prior quarter, reflecting that fixed income duration extension in 2022 and 2023, and then which also included lowering public equity holdings to take advantage of higher fixed income yields. Adjusted net income was $429 million, or $1.61 per diluted share. Now I'll turn it over to Mario for property liability results.