Old Republic International Corporation

Good afternoon. My name is David and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Old Republic International Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there'll be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one once again. Thank you, Joe Calabrese. With the Financial Relations Board, you may begin your conference.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the Old Republic Conference Call to discuss fourth quarter 2021 results. This morning, we distributed a copy of the press release and posted a separate statistical supplement, which we assume you have seen and or otherwise have access to during the call. Both of the documents are available at Old Republic's website, which is www.oldrepublic.com. Please be advised this call may involve forward-looking statements as discussed in the press release and statistical supplements dated January 27, 2022. Risk associated with these statements can be found in the company's latest SEC filings. This afternoon's conference call will be led by Craig Schminney, President and CEO of Old Republic International Corporations. and several other senior executive members as planned for this meeting. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Craig Smitty. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Joe. Good afternoon and best wishes to everyone in this new year. Welcome again to Old Republic's fourth quarter earnings call. With me today are Frank Sedaro, CFO, and Carolyn Monroe, president of our title insurance business. Well, we're very pleased to report that ORI produced another terrific quarter, as well as a third consecutive record-setting year. Both our major segments, general insurance and title insurance, posted outstanding results. Net premiums and fees earned increased to $2 billion for the quarter and $8 billion for the year. That's up 19% over the prior year. At the same time, pre-tax operating income increased to $335 million for the quarter and $1.2 billion for the year, eclipsing the $1 billion mark for the first time and up over 40% over the prior year. The consolidated combined ratio improved to 88% for the quarter and 89.9% for the year, a 3.4 point improvement over the prior year. General insurance net premiums earned increased by 5% over the prior year and title net premiums and fees earned increased by 34% over the prior year. So we think it's clear that our diverse portfolio of specialty products in both general insurance and title insurance continue to deliver strong growth and exceptional profitability, as demonstrated by these results. So I'll now turn the discussion over to Frank, and then Frank will turn things back to me to cover general insurance, followed by Carolyn, who will discuss our title insurance business, and then we'll open up the conversation to Q&A. So Frank?