CBIZ, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the CFIS first quarter conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. And I'd like to turn the conference over to Ms. Lori Novickis, Director of Corporate Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the CBIS first quarter 2022 results conference call. In connection with this call, today's press release and quarterly presentation have been posted to the investor relations page of our website, cbis.com. As a reminder, this call is being webcast, and a link to the live webcast can be found on our site. An archived replay and transcript will also be made available. Before we begin, we would like to remind you that during the call, management may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures can be found in the financial tables of today's press release and in the investor relations presentation on our website. Today's call may also include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, strategies, and prospects. Forward-looking statements represent only estimates on the date of this call and are not intended to give any assurance as to actual future results. Because forward-looking statements relate to matters that have not yet occurred, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause future results to differ materially, and CBIS assumes no obligation to update these statements. A more detailed description of such factors can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today, joining us for today's call are Jerry Grifco, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ware Grove, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Jerry for his opening remarks. Jerry?

Thank you, Lori, and good morning, everyone. We are pleased to share our first quarter performance for 2022 and to discuss our outlook for the remainder of the year. But before we discuss our results this morning, I want to take this opportunity to recognize and honor the life and legacy of Stephen L. Girard, our longtime chairman and former CEO. Steve passed away on April 12th after a brief illness. We were able to gather with Steve's family and friends last week to celebrate a life that impacted so many people and to honor all that Steve did to contribute to the success of Seaboost. I know that many of the people on this call knew Steve, and understand the impact of his leadership on SEVIS during his tenure, both as CEO and chairman. Steve joined SEVIS in 2000 when the company was at a critical juncture in experiencing rapid growth through acquisition. Steve's vision for what our company could become and pragmatic approach to putting the processes and policies in place to enable us to scale were critical to establishing the foundation for the company that we are today. During his tenure as CEO, SEVIS grew revenue by 37%, and the value of Steve's stock increased nearly tenfold. Steve was not only a vocal and enthusiastic champion for our people, but held a deep commitment to the importance and power of a culture based on shared values. Many of the innovative professional development programs and initiatives that Steve established continue to this day. Steve will be remembered as a tremendous leader, mentor, and friend who is quick to give credit for our success to others on our team, and who inspired those around him to reach for even greater heights. He will be greatly missed by all of us. So it feels only fitting as we reflect on Steve's legacy that I share with you our exceptionally strong performance for the first quarter of this year. As we discussed during our last call, 2021 was a historic year for CBiz. As we celebrated our 25th anniversary as a company, we also achieved a high watermark for our performance with sizable increases in total revenue, organic revenue growth, adjusted EPS, and adjusted EBITDA. Our full year growth in 2021 came from nearly every major service line across the business. Our goal for 2022 was to start the year very strong and to build on this momentum, and I'm proud to report that we're doing just that. For the first quarter, our total revenue growth was up over 30% and reflects growth across all major service lines. In addition to strong demand for many of our advisory services, We're also seeing more traction in pricing, which is the result of the investments that we've been making in processes, systems, and tools that support our teams with the pricing and profitability of client engagements. Within our financial services group, we just completed our traditional busy season and are pleased to report continued strong demand for our essential accounting and tax services and for our more project-based advisory services. While we often have only a limited view into the future demand for many of our advisory services, As of today, we're seeing no signs of this demand slowing down, as businesses are moving quickly to capitalize on the opportunities provided by the current business climate. On our last call, I highlighted the somewhat slower growth within our government healthcare consulting visits that we experienced in 2020 and 2021 when compared to prior years. This is one of the areas where we experienced COVID-related impacts as some states were slower to completely reopen, and in some cases, delayed projects. For the first quarter, we began to see some catch-up, but some of these delayed projects kicked off. And we also benefited from the launch of a number of new projects. While we cannot predict the extent to which this momentum will continue, overall we're seeing increased demand for our services as our government clients resume more normal operations. Now turning to our benefits and insurance division. We kicked off this year with historic rates of organic revenue growth, driven by our employee benefits and our property and casualty insurance service lines. Within our employee benefits business, we continue to have strong sales, high client retention, and positive trends. As anticipated, our growth also reflects the impact of the addition of approximately 15% more producers compared to last year. The organic growth posted by our property and casualty insurance business for the first quarter is on record pace. Similar to our employee benefits services business, the growth is coming from strong sales and continued high retention rates. Within our retirement investment services and our payroll service line, we are seeing growth in the low single digits. Specific to payroll, we are pleased to see continued strong demand for our more upmarket payroll platform that serves clients with more complex payroll needs. And we also had some significant wins with larger clients during the first quarter. Finally, while they make up only a small segment of our benefits and insurance division, we We're also experiencing strong demand for advisory and project-based businesses, such as our executive search and our compensation consulting business. Overall, we are very pleased with the outstanding performance of the business through the first quarter and our ability to capitalize on the momentum coming off of a strong 2021. Based on this performance, we are pleased to reaffirm our guidance for the full year at the high end of the ranges that we provided on our call in February. One final note. Similar to last year, I want to caution that we do expect more volatility in our financial results from quarter to quarter than we've historically experienced, due in part to the significant number of acquisitions completed in the past 12 months. As a result, I would advise against comparing any given quarter this year to the same period in the prior year. With this, I'll turn it over to Ware Grove, our Chief Financial Officer, to provide more specific details on our financial performance for the first quarter. Ware?