Kinsale Capital Group, Inc.

listed in the company's various FEC filings, including the 2023 annual report on Form 10-K, which should be reviewed carefully. The company has furnished a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission that contains the press release announcing its fourth quarter results. Kinsale's management may also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures in the call today. A reconciliation of GAAP to these measures can be found in the press release, which is available at the company's website at www.kinselstapitalgroup.com. I will now turn the conference over to Kinsel's chairman and CEO, Mr. Michael Kehoe. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. And good morning, everyone. As usual, Brian Petrucelli, our CFO, and Brian Haney, our president and COO, are joining me this morning for the call. In the fourth quarter, 2024, Kinsale's operating earnings per share increased by 19.4%, and gross written premium grew by 12.2% over the fourth quarter of 2023. For the quarter, the company posted a combined ratio of 73.4%, and a full year 2024 operating return on equity of 29%. Also of note, the appreciation of Kinsale's stock price over the course of 2024 exceeded that of the S&P 500 index for the eighth time in the last nine years since our IPO back in 2016. These results largely flow from the Consale business strategy of small E&S account focus, absolute control over our underwriting and claim handling processes, best in class service levels, and risk appetite that we provide our brokers, and technology driven low cost. As we've said in the past, these advantages have real durability to them. Likewise, we are investing heavily in technology, automation, data, and analytics to drive further gains in the years ahead. Progress in these areas should allow us to gradually and continually improve our expense ratio, our customer service, and the accuracy and competitiveness of our underwriting, all to the benefit of our profitability and growth. The Southern California wildfires that occurred in January created considerable insured loss for the PNC industry, with estimates mostly in the $30 to $50 billion range. For ConSale, we expect our pre-tax losses net of reinsurance to be approximately $25 million. These losses arise from a mix of personal lines and commercial property business. The overall ENS market in the fourth quarter was generally steady, but with a continued increase in competition. And with that, I'm going to turn the call over to Brian Petruccelli.

Thanks, Mike. Another solid quarter with net operating earnings increasing by 19.4%. The 73.4% combined ratio for the quarter included 2.6 points from net favorable prior year loss reserve development compared to 2.3 points last year, with 2.2 points in CAT losses this year primarily from Hurricane Milton compared to less than a half point in Q4 of last year. We produced a 21.1% expense ratio in the fourth quarter compared to 19.9% last year. The expense ratio will fluctuate from quarter to quarter And when I point you to the full year expense ratio as a better measure, you can see that our 20.6 expense ratio for the full year compares favorably with the 20.8% last year. That being said, the higher Q4 expense ratio is due primarily to higher variable compensation offset by higher seating commissions. On the investment side, net investment income increased by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. over last year as a result of continued growth in the investment portfolio generated from strong operating cash flows and higher interest rates. The annualized gross return was 4.4% for the year so far compared to 4% last year. New money yields are averaging in the low 5% range and with book yields around 4.5%, so we should see some continued investment income benefit from those higher rates as we move forward. Additionally, we're gradually increasing our allocation to common stock from 8% to 10% of cash and invested assets and will eventually increase the allocation to 12% over the next year or so. Diluted operating earnings per share continues to improve and was $4.62 per share for the quarter compared to $3.87 per share for the fourth quarter of 2023. Just a couple of comments regarding capital management. We repurchased $10 million in shares during the fourth quarter. I would expect similar modest levels of repurchases each quarter on a routine basis with larger purchases made opportunistically from time to time. And with that, I'll pass it over to Brian Haney.