The Travelers Companies, Inc.

for the question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded on July 17, 2025. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Abby Goldstein, Senior Vice President of Administrative Relations. Ms. Goldstein, you may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Travelers' Discussion of our second quarter 2025 results. We released our press release, financial supplement, and webcast presentation earlier this morning. All of these materials can be found on our website at travelers.com under the Investors section. Speaking today will be Alan Schnitzer, Chairman and CEO, Dan Fry, CFO, and our three-segment presidents, Greg Teslowski of Business Insurance, Jeff Clank of Bond and Specialty Insurance, and Michael Klein of Personal Insurance. They will discuss the financial results of our business and the current market environment. They will refer to the webcast presentation as they go through prepared remarks, and then we will take your questions. Before I turn the call over to Alan, I'd like to draw your attention to the explanatory note included at the end of the webcast presentation. Our presentation today includes forward-looking statements. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statement involves risks and uncertainties and is not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statement due to a variety of factors. These factors are described under forward-looking statements in our earnings press release and in our most recent 10Q and 10K filed with the SEC. We do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements. Also, in our remarks or responses to questions, we may mention some non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations are included in our recent earnings press release, financial supplement, and other materials available in the investor section on our website. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Alan Schnitzer.

Thank you, Abby. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to report exceptional second quarter results driven by excellent underwriting and investment performance. We earned core income of $1.5 billion, or $6.51 per diluted share. Core return on equity for the quarter was 18.8%, bringing our core return on equity for the trailing 12 months to 17.1%. Underwriting income reflects strong net earned premiums and a reported combined ratio that improved almost 10 points to 90.3%. The improvement in the combined ratio benefited from strength across the board, as lower catastrophe losses higher underlying underwriting results, and favorable prior year reserve development all contributed. Underlying underwriting income of $1.6 billion pre-tax was up 35% over the prior year quarter, driven by 7% growth in net earned premiums to $10.9 billion, and an underlying combined ratio that improved three points to an excellent 84.7%. All three segments contributed to these terrific results with strong net earned premiums and excellent reported and underlying profitability. The underlying combined ratio in business insurance improved by almost one point to an excellent 88.3%. The underlying combined ratio in our bond and specialty business was a very strong 87.8%. And the underlying combined ratio in personal insurance improved by seven points to a terrific 79.3%. Our high-quality investment portfolio also continued to perform well, generating after-tax net investment income of $774 million for the quarter, driven by reliable returns from our growing fixed income portfolio. Our underwriting and investment results together with our strong balance sheet enabled us to return more than $800 million of capital to shareholders during the quarter, including $557 million of share repurchases. At the same time, we continued to make strategic investments in our business. Even after this deployment of capital, adjusted book value per share was up by more than 14% as compared to a year ago. Turning to the top line, through skilled execution by our field organization, we grew net written premiums to $11.5 billion in the quarter, with growth in all three segments. In business insurance, we grew net written premiums by 5% to $5.8 billion. Renewal premium change remains strong at 7.7%, with renewal premium change of 8.6% in our Quo Middle Market business and 10.7% in our Small Commercial Select business. Those two markets make up 70% of the net written premiums in business insurance. Given the high quality of the book, we were very pleased with strong retention of 85% in this segment. New business was a record $744 million. a reflection of the relationships we've built with customers and distribution partners by delivering valued products, services, and experiences. In bond and specialty insurance, we grew net written premiums by 4% to $1.1 billion, with retention of 87% in our high-quality management liability business. In our industry-leading surety business, we grew net written premiums by 5% from a particularly strong result in the prior year quarter. In personal insurance, we've re-networked premiums by 3% to $4.7 billion, driven by strong renewal premium change in our homeowner's business. You'll hear more shortly from Greg, Jeff, and Michael about our segment results. In May, we announced an agreement to sell most of our Canadian business to DFINITY for $2.4 billion, or 1.8 times book value, excluding excess local capital. As we noted at the time, the transaction does not include our premier surety business. We also share that we expect to allocate about $700 million of the net cash proceeds for additional share repurchases in 2026, and that we expect the transaction to be slightly accreted to earnings per share in each of the next several years. While this is a relatively small transaction for us, it's noteworthy in reflecting an important point. We are relentless in our commitment to disciplined capital allocation and value creation. Taking a step back, the Canadian marketplace has evolved over the last decade or so in a few significant ways. First, a small number of insurers have built significant scale and market influence, in part through vertical integration with distribution. There were no compelling inorganic opportunities for us to close the market share gap, and we didn't see vertical integration as a realistic opportunity for us. Also, the regulatory environment has become more challenging. While we were confident that we could continue to manage successfully in Canada, the outlook for our Canadian business relative to our other businesses, combined with the very attractive offer from a strategic buyer, made reallocating the capital the better decision. Discipline capital management isn't only about deciding how to deploy the marginal dollar. It's also about continually and rigorously reassessing the capital we've already deployed and whether it's still delivering the best long-term value. I want to thank our outstanding team in Canada and recognize the value they've created over many years. I'm confident that they and our Canadian customers and brokers will benefit from being part of one of the country's leading and fully integrated property cash of the insurers. I also want to reaffirm our commitment to our ongoing international businesses. This deal is not part of a broader geographic repositioning. It's simply a smart transaction. Transactions speak volumes about the way we think about our business. At Travelers, we're optimizers, relentlessly focused on ensuring that both our capital and our retention are invested where we can generate attractive returns, profitable growth, and the greatest long-term value for our shareholders. To sum things up, our results for the first half of the year reflect exceptional underwriting performance, record-operating cash flow, and steadily rising investment returns in our growing fixed income portfolio. We're building on the strong momentum to continue discipline execution of our proven strategy. With our diversified business operating from a position of strength, our outlook for continued premium growth and attractive underwriting margin, orderly conditions generally in our target markets, and a positive trajectory for investment income, we remain highly confident in the outlook for our business. And with that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Dan.