Old Republic International Corporation

Good afternoon. My name is Emma, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Old Republic International Third Quarter Earnings Conference 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, again, press star one. Thank you. Joe Calabrese with the Financial Relations Board. You may now begin your conference.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Old Republic Conference Call to discuss third quarter 2021 results. This morning, we distributed a copy of the press release and posted a separate statistical supplement, which we assume you've seen and otherwise have access to during the call. Both of the documents are available at Old Republic's website, which is www.oldrepublic.org. Please be advised that this call may involve forward-looking statements as discussed in the press release and statistical supplements dated October 28th, 2021. Risks associated with these statements can be found in the company's latest SEC filings. This afternoon's conference call will be led by Craig Schmitty, President and CEO of Old Republic International Corporation, and several other senior executive members as planned for this meeting. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Craig Spinney. Please go ahead, sir.

Okay. Thank you, Joe. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome again to Old Republic's third quarter earnings call. With me today, we have our CFO, Frank Sodaro, and we also have Carolyn Monroe, the president of our title insurance group. Well, our hard work is paying off, and we're very pleased to again report that ORI produced another terrific quarter with general insurance and title insurance each posting exceptional results that drove the strong record-setting consolidated results that you saw. Compared to the third quarter of 20, total net premium and fees earned increased to just over $2 billion, up almost At the same time, our pre-tax operating income increased to just under $300 million, up almost 32%. And the consolidated combined ratio improved to 89.8%. That's a 2.5 percentage point improvement. Still comparing to the third quarter of 20, general insurance saw net written premium increase by 4.3%. And in title insurance, we saw net premiums and fees earned increased by over 33%. So our diverse portfolio of specialty products in both general insurance and title insurance continue to deliver growth and profitability. And with that, I will now turn the discussion over to Frank to discuss some of the per share figures, our investment portfolio, and briefly touch upon our runoff mortgage business. Then he'll turn things back to me to cover general insurance, followed by Carolyn, who will discuss title insurance, and we will follow those discussions by opening up to Q&A. So, Frank, take it away.