Chubb Limited

Thank you for standing by. My name is Jael and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Chubb Limited first quarter 2026 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Susan Spivak, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, and let me add my welcome to our March 31st, 2026 first quarter earnings conference call. Our report today will contain forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the company performance, pricing, and business mix, growth opportunities, and economic and market conditions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. See our recent SEC filings, earnings release, and financial supplement, which are all available on our website at investors.chubb.com for more information on factors that could affect these matters. We will also refer today to non-GAAP financial measures, reconciliations of which to the most direct comparable GAAP measures and related details are provided in our earnings release and financial supplement. Now, I'd like to introduce our speakers. First, we have Evan Greenberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, followed by Peter Enns, our Chief Financial Officer. Then we'll take your questions. Also with us to assist with your questions are several members of our management team. And now it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Evan.

Good morning. We had an excellent quarter and start to the year. Our results speak to the strength and resilience of our company. in a period of elevated uncertainty. They also speak to our globally diversified business opportunities on the one hand and our disciplined approach to underwriting on the other. I want to first start with a few words about the external environment. War in the Middle East raises the specter globally of higher inflation and potentially slower economic growth. To what degree? The timing and the pattern are all unknowable at this time. However, the impact of the war adds a degree of pressure to certain financial, fiscal, and economic stresses, such as underlying inflation, fiscal deficits and sovereign debt, global supply chains, and financial valuations, including equity and credit, and a growing energy shortage, to name a few. In times of stress, I like Chubb's position, given the strength of our balance sheet, earning power, and liquidity. Now, turning to our results, strong growth in P&C underwriting, investment, and life income led to core operating earnings of $2.7 billion, or $6.82 per share, both up substantially over the prior year first quarter, which was, of course, impacted by the California wildfires. Adjusting for this, so excluding cat losses, core operating income was up 10.7%, and EPS was up 13.5%. And most important, tangible book value per share grew 21.5%. Total company net premiums grew 10.7% for the quarter to more than $14 billion. P&C premiums grew 7.2, and life grew more than 33%. Both benefited from foreign exchange. Our underwriting performance in the quarter was excellent. P&C underwriting income was $1.8 billion, with a combined ratio of 84%. And on a current accident year basis, excluding cats, underwriting income grew 9.8%. and a combined ratio of 82.1. On the investment side of our business, adjusted net investment income of $1.8 billion was up more than 10%. Our fixed income portfolio yield was 5.1, and our current new money rate average was 5.5% as of March 31st. Our invested asset now stands at 170 billion, up from 152 billion a year ago. Again, these results, top and bottom line, put a point on the broad-based diversified nature of the company by geography and product, by both commercial and consumer customer segments, and by distribution channel. Our annualized core operating return on tangible equity 20.6 percent, and our core operating ROE was 14. Peter's going to have more to say about financial items. Turning to growth, pricing, and the rate environment, P&C premiums grew 7.2 percent, with consumer up 14.2 and commercial up 4.6 percent. Overseas general grew 14.4 percent, or 6.1 in constant dollar, Total North America was up 4.1, or 7.8%, excluding large account property, both admitted and ENS, which we purposely shrank, given what we judged to be inadequate pricing levels. In a number of important markets, property and financial lines pricing conditions are soft. With property pricing in those markets softening in a price that frankly I'll only describe as dumb. With that as a baseline, I'll give you some more color on the quarter by division and region. I'm going to begin, as I did last quarter, with our international PNC business. Premiums in our international retail business, which operates in 51 countries and is 90% of overseas general, were up more than 15%. Consumer-related premiums, both accident and health and personal lines, were up over 20%, with commercial lines up over 11%. Europe grew 17.5%, with consumer and commercial both up double-digit. Asia grew more than 12%, and Latin America grew almost 18%. In our international retail commercial business, P&C rates were down 2.5%. and financial lines rates were down 7.4. Our selected loss cost trends in our international retail business was 3.7%, or 130 basis points lower than 25. In our London wholesale business, the market has become highly competitive, particularly, but not only in property. and we purposely shrank our open market property business. Premiums in our London wholesale business, which is 10% of international PNC, were up almost 8%. Turning to North America, total premiums, again, grew 4.1%, including 8.3% growth in personal lines and 2.8% in commercial, excluding large account property, both in Mitted and ENFs, and that's shared and layered property. Total North America commercial premiums rose 7.7%, a very good underlying result. Breaking it down further, premiums in major accounts and specialty, where ENFs grew one and a half, were 10.9, excluding shared and layered property, which again, we shrank. Growth was driven by a broad range of casualty, marine, surety, and risk management businesses. Premiums in middle market and small grew 3.3%, with P&C lines up almost 5.5% and financial lines down 5.7% or flat when adjusting for the impact of additional reinsurance we chose to purchase. In North America, pricing for commercial property and casualty, excluding fin lines and comp, was up 4.6 percent, with rates up 2.2 and exposure change of 2.3. Property pricing was down 2.6, with rates down 6.3 and exposure up 4 percent. However, going a step further, property pricing was down 14.3 and shared and layered measure and specialty for the business we wrote. Market pricing for the business we gave up or passed on was down between 30% and 40%. The larger the premium, the greater the price discount. On the other hand, in middle market and small commercial, property pricing was up 1.5%. Casualty pricing in North America was up 9.6%, with rates up 8.4 and exposure up 1.1. Work comp pricing was up 4.3%, and fin lines pricing was about flat. Our overall selected loss cost trend in North America commercial was little changed, with no change in casualty and other long tail lines. On the consumer side of North America, our high net worth personal lines business had a very good quarter with premium growth of 8.3% and renewal retention on an account basis of 92%. Homeowners pricing was up 7.7% in the quarter. And in our international life insurance business, premiums rose 37%. Premiums in North America Chubb Worksite Benefits business were up almost 16%. Our life division produced $316 million of pre-tax income in the quarter, up 8.5%. And adjusted for a few one-time items that benefited last year's first quarter, life was up 11.5%. In sum, we're off to a very good start in 26%. And we had an excellent first quarter. From a macro perspective, over time, difficult environments generally advantage strong companies over weaker ones. Chubb's diversification, market leading presence and capabilities, and operating discipline provide us with resilience when the macro environment is uncertain. We are patient and have many sources of opportunity on both the liability and the asset side of the balance sheet. From what I can see, cash, et cetera, aside, I remain confident in our ability to continue generating strong growth in operating earnings and double-digit growth in EPS, and most important, tangible book value. I'll turn the call over to Peter, and then we're going to come back and take your questions.