The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc.

If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star one. Thank you. Susan Spivak, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for our call and webcast on fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings. Yesterday, we reported results and posted all of the earnings-related materials on our website. For the call today, our participants are Chris Swift, Chairman and CEO of the Hartford, Beth Costello, Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Bennett, Group Benefits, Stephanie Bush, Small Commercial and Personal Lines, and Moe Tooker, Middle and Large Commercial and Global Specialty. Just a few comments before Chris begins. Today's call includes forward-looking statements as defined under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could be materially different. We do not assume any obligation to update information of forward-looking statements provided on this call. Investors should also consider the risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ from these statements. A detailed description of those risks and uncertainties can be found in our SEC filings. Our commentary today includes non-GAAP financial measures, explanations and reconciliations of these measures to the comparable GAAP measures are included in our SEC filings as well as in the news release and financial supplement. Finally, please note that no portion of this conference call may be reproduced or rebroadcast in any form without the Hartford's prior written consent. Replays of this webcast and an official transcript will be available on the Hartford's website for one year. I'll now turn the call over to Chris.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I will start with a summary of our fourth quarter and full year 23 results, which are simply stellar. Then I'll turn the call over to Beth to dive deeper into our financial performance and key metrics, after which I will close our prepared remarks with a review of expectations for 2024. We then will be joined by our business leaders as we move into Q&A. So let's get started. The Hartford is pleased to report an excellent fourth quarter capping another outstanding year of financial performance and achievement of our strategic objectives. These results demonstrate the power of the franchise, and in particular, our superior underwriting execution, depth of distribution relationships, and unmatched customer experience. I am grateful for the commitment, dedication, and hard work of our 19,000 employees who show up every day to deliver for our customers, partners, and shareholders. Let me call your attention to some highlights for both the quarter and the year. Top line growth in commercial lines was 9% for the quarter with an underlying combined ratio of 86.6, and growth was 10% for the year with an 87.8 underlying combined ratio. We achieved strong renewal written pricing increases across P&C during the quarter and for the year including notable double-digit increases in commercial property, personal auto, and homeowners in the quarter. Group benefits fully ensured premium growth was 6% for the quarter, with a core earnings margin of 9.8%, and growth was 7% for the year, with a core earnings margin of 8.1%. We delivered strong investment performance with an 80 basis points increase in the portfolio yield, excluding limited partnerships for the full year. All of these items contributed to an outstanding and industry-leading core earnings ROE of 15.8%. Now let me share a few details from each of our businesses. Our Commercial Lines business completed its third straight year of double-digit top-line growth and underlying margin expansion. Written premium growth of 10% for the year was driven by meaningful exposure growth, pricing increases across most lines, and strong new business growth in each of our three businesses. As expected, underlying margins improved a half a point as slight headwinds in workers' compensation were more than offset by earned pricing exceeding lost cost trends across the rest of the portfolio and by improved expense leverage. Small commercial remains a highly profitable growth engine for the Hartford. 2023 included record-breaking annual written premium of $5 billion and a decade-long trend of annual sub-90 underlying combined ratios. Spectrum, our best-in-class package product, continues to outperform in a competitive marketplace, contributing to annual new business premium growth of 20% over prior year. I am incredibly pleased with the overall performance in small commercial. A business we expect will sustain outstanding results with industry-leading products and unmatched ease of conducting business and unrivaled pricing accuracy. Moving to middle and large commercial, the performance has also been truly exceptional. Our team has improved annual underlying margins by approximately 10 points since 2019, while adding over $900 million in written premium at a 7% compounded annual growth rate. In 2023, written premiums grew 9%, reflecting strong rate execution and new business growth. Submissions, quotes, and the hit rate are all up over prior year as we leveraged advanced underwriting capabilities, particularly within the low and of middle market. The stellar results in this business are a direct result of data science advancements, pricing expertise, and industry-leading tools. Combining these advantages with our best-in-class talent and the strength of our distribution relationships, we are well positioned to sustain profitable growth in this business. In global specialty, advanced underwriting capabilities and continued discipline are driving targeted market share gains with excellent underlying margin performance that has hovered in the low to mid-80s for the past seven quarters. Our competitive position, breadth of products, and solid renewal written pricing drove an 11% increase in net written premium for the year, including 33% in our global reinsurance business and mid-double digit growth in U.S. professional liability and international marine and energy. New business growth of 7% for the year and 20% for the fourth quarter was driven by significant increases in both submissions and quotes in wholesale. Renewal written pricing continues to accelerate in wholesale excess casualty and property pricing has been above 20% all year. We remain excited about our position in the wholesale market and across global specialty with execution that has never been stronger. Looking across commercial lines, we are particularly pleased by the growth in property lines, a key area of focus. We will continue to capitalize on favorable market conditions with a thoughtful and disciplined approach. Property written premium of $2.5 billion for the year was approximately 20% higher than 2022. Turning to pricing, commercial lines renewal written pricing was 6%, an increase from 5.5% in the third quarter. Excluding workers' compensation, renewal written pricing rose 4 tenths to 8.5%, with strong property pricing at 11%, auto closing in on double digits, and many liability lines in the high single digits. Public D&O pricing remains pressured although the fourth quarter result was the lowest pricing decrease since the second quarter of 2022. In workers' compensation, renewal written pricing continues to exceed expectations, remaining slightly positive in the quarter. All in, ex-comp renewal written pricing in commercial lines remains comfortably on top of lost cost trends in the fourth quarter. In summary, commercial lines produced an exceptional quarter closing out a very successful 2023. Moving to personal lines, I am pleased with our continued progress to address elevated lost cost trends in both auto and home. During the quarter, we achieved auto renewal written price increases of nearly 22% and new business rate adequacy in over half the states, representing two-thirds of our new business premium. In homeowners, renewal written pricing of 14.7% during the quarter, comprised of net rate and insured value increases, outpaced underlying loss cost trends. Our focus on the preferred market within the personal lines business is a competitive advantage with our modern, innovative, and digitally enhanced offering, Prevail. This product and platform are currently available in 41 states, with additional states coming online in 2024. Turning to group benefits, we had an exceptional year delivering record core earnings of $567 million and an outstanding core earnings margin of 8.1% and strong fully insured ongoing premium growth of 7%, demonstrating focused execution, a resilient economy, improved mortality trends, and continued strong disability results. 2023 disability loss ratio of 67.1 reflects low long-term disability incidence trends and favorable claim recoveries. In 2023, group life mortality trends have improved, though they remain above pre-pandemic levels. We expect the group benefits market to remain dynamic with digital transformation, product innovation, and increasing customer demands. As a result, We are investing in this business and have a clear roadmap that I am confident will only strengthen our market leadership position. For example, building on our historically strong presence in national accounts with an enhanced approach for small to midsize employers. We view this as a key strategic initiative, leveraging our unique expertise in these markets. In addition, as we have discussed before, we struck a partnership with Beam, a dental and vision company, to expand our product offerings for small to mid-sized employers. Overall, the strength of our group benefits diversified product portfolio, our commitment to outstanding customer experience using data and technology resonates in this marketplace, cementing our leadership position. Now, I'll turn the call over to Beth to provide more detailed commentary on the quarter.