ProAssurance Corporation

Good morning all, I would like to welcome you to Pro Assurance Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. And after the speaker's remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask a question at this time, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads. If you change your mind at any time, please press star two. And for operator assistance at any point, please press star zero. Thank you. I'll now turn the conference over to your host, Jason Gingrich. So, please go ahead, Jason.

Thank you, Brika. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to ProAssurance's conference call to discuss the company's fourth quarter and year-end 2022 results. These results were reported in a news release issued on February 27, 2023, and in the company's annual report on Form 10-K, which was also filed on February 27, 2023. Included in those documents were cautionary statements about the significant risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are out of the company's control and could affect ProAssurance's 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 securities laws and subject to applicable safe harbor protections. The content of this call is accurate only on February 28, 2023, and except as required by law or regulation, ProAssurance will not undertake and expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter information disclosed as part of these 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. I would like to remind you that the call is being recorded and there will be a time for questions after the conclusion of prepared remarks. This morning, we will discuss selected aspects of our results and remind investors that they should review our accompanying press release and filing on Form 10-K for full and complete information. 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? Thank you, Jason. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today, and welcome to our fourth quarter and full-year conference call. I continue to be optimistic about the future at ProAssurance. For the full year, we saw improvement in our operating ratio and our current accident-year loss ratio. reflecting the steady efforts of the team members across the lines of business. Loss ratios are improving as we continue to see the results of re-underwriting in the healthcare line and prompt reaction to industry trends in the workers' compensation business. Our core markets continue to be competitive, offering us opportunities to differentiate ourselves from the competition by outstanding customer service in pursuit of our mission to protect others. The medical professional liability loss environment continues to be challenged in some jurisdictions as claim costs are pressured by social inflation and higher than anticipated severity trends. We do see below historical frequency in some parts of the country, and we are carefully monitoring the impact that these trends have on our current loss picks and prior year development in the healthcare professional liability business. Our investment team did an admirable job in navigating the challenging markets last year, as higher interest rates resulted in declining prices for core fixed income holdings, and recession fears created volatility in broader markets as well. We've been adding to our cash and short-term position, which adjusts quickly to the higher interest rates now available in fixed income markets. In addition, our floating rate holdings also benefit from the higher rates as they reset at higher coupon payments and increase our net investment income. As our core fixed income assets mature, they too benefit from higher returns, and we expect net investment income to be meaningfully higher in 2023 than in recent years. I'm now going to turn things over to Dana to provide insight into our high-level results as she shares the consolidated metrics for the company for the fourth quarter and the full year. Dana?