ProAssurance Corporation

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to ProAssurance's conference call to discuss the company's second quarter 2021 results. These results are reported in a news release issued on August 5th, 2021. Please review that document. 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 securities laws and subject to applicable safe harbor protections. The content of this call is accurate only on August 6, 2021, and except as required by law or regulation, ProAssurance will not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligations to update or alter information disclosed as part of the forward-looking statements. The management team of ProAssurance 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 the call is being recorded, and there will be a time for questions at the conclusion of the prepared remarks. Mr. McEwen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. 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, the floor is yours.

Thanks, Kim. I want to start off this morning with a thank you to everyone at ProAssurance. This has been an exciting quarter on many fronts, thanks to their efforts. We closed the NorCal transaction on May 5, roughly halfway through the reporting period. And the financial teams of our newly combined organization did a great job getting everything ready to report our results. We've made excellent early progress on our integration plan. And already, NorCal is proving its value as we expand our operating model to a truly national platform. As I said in the release yesterday, closing the NorCal transaction was a transformative event for Pro Assurance, and the combined companies are off to a strong beginning. As you will hear from both Mike and Kevin, the strategic changes we've made over the past two years are beginning to show through, and I'm very encouraged by the results of the second quarter. We remain in an uncertain environment due to the continuing effects the pandemic has had on our healthcare and civil court systems, and as workplaces navigate the return to work to an office environment. In spite of these uncertainties, I am confident we have the right team in place, especially as we add in our colleagues from NorCal, to succeed as we move forward. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dana so she can lead us into the results for the quarter. Dana?