ProAssurance Corporation

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to ProAssurance Conference Call to discuss the company's third quarter 2020 results. These results were reported in a news release issued on November 5, 2020, and in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q, which was also filed on November 5, 2020. Included in these documents were cautionary statements about the significant risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are out of the company's control and could cause ProAssurance business and alter expected results. Please review those statements. Management expects to make statements on this call dealing with projections, estimates, and expectations, and explicitly identifies these as forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. federal security laws and subject to applicable safe harbor protections. The content of this call is accurate only on November 6, 2020, and accept as required by law or regulation. ProAssurance will not undertake and expressly disclaim any obligation to update or alter information disclosed as part of these forward-looking statements. The management team of ProInsurance also expects to reference non-GAAP items during today's call. The company's recent news release provides a reconciliation of these non-GAAP numbers to their GAAP counterparts. Now, as I turn the call over to Mr. Ken McEwen, I would like to remind you that this call is being recorded and that there will be time for questions at the conclusion of prepared remarks. Mr. McEwen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Cole. On our call today, we have Ned Rand, President and CEO, Dana Hendricks, Chief Financial Officer, Mike Bogusky, president of our specialty property and casualty lines, and Kevin Shook, president of our workers' compensation insurance operations. Ned, there's a lot to unpack this quarter. Will you start us off?

Sure, Ken. In the third quarter, we continued to see improvement in our underlying operations as the beneficial results from our re-underwriting and restructuring efforts began to manifest as lower recurring operating expenses and improved loss experience in each of our operating segments. As one-time incurred charges related to these efforts are put behind us, we anticipate a continued favorable trajectory into the fourth quarter and into 2021. Aside from our regular operating results, we continue to learn more about the COVID-19 virus as each day passes, and we gain insight into the impact it has on our business and those of our customers. There is still much to learn about the disease, and while we have seen some favorable claims trends that are likely to result likely the result of the pandemic. We have remained cautious in recognizing these trends and our results, given the uncertainty surrounding the length and severity of the pandemic. Unfortunately, the continued market volatility caused by COVID-19 and sustained depression of our stock price has overshadowed the improvements we've made this year. I'll let Dana expand on the goodwill impairment charge we announced in yesterday's release. But I want to note that the charge has no effect on our liquidity or our statutory entities and is strictly an accounting transaction. As I mentioned in yesterday's release, I remain confident that our solid foundation and the strategic initiatives we have undertaken in the past 16 months will reward our customers, shareholders, and employees in the quarters and years to come. Dana?