UNIVERSAL INSURANCE HOLDINGS INC

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Universal's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Arash Soleimani, Chief Strategy Officer.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to our quarterly earnings call. On the call with me today are Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer, and Frank Wilcox, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information, please see the press release and Universal's SEC filings, all of which are available on the investor section of our website at universalinsuranceholdings.com and on the SEC's website. A reconciliation... of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the quarterly press release and can also be found on Universal's website at universalinsuranceholdings.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.

Thanks, Arash. Good morning, everyone. We reported a 16.9% annualized return on equity despite the challenging external environment, which is a testament to the strength and resilience of our business. Direct premiums written were up 8.5% from the prior year quarter, significantly outpacing a 6.1% policies-enforced decline, as meaningful rate increases benefited premium volumes. We are laser-focused on improving underwriting profitability as we prioritize combined ratio improvement over top-line growth. In addition to raising rates across Florida and our broader footprint, we've reduced exposure to less profitable geographies, tightened underwriting criteria, renegotiated commission rates with our agency partners, and exercised prudent expense management. Lastly, rising yields are benefiting our investment income results and should continue to serve as a tailwind moving forward. Given our strong capital position, the profitability of our business, and the steps we continue to take to improve results, We believe we stand out favorably as reinsurers increasingly differentiate amongst sedents in the current market. Our team has been hard at work over the last several months meeting face-to-face with our reinsurance partners around the globe, securing our desired capacity for the June 1st, 2022 renewal. We recently released our firm order terms to the global reinsurance market for the capacity needed for our All States First Event Catastrophe Reinsurance Tower. With the capacity already locked in via the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, various multi-year deals that will continue into 2022, including the catastrophe bond we issued in 2021, we already have over 85% of our core All States First Event Catastrophe Reinsurance Tower secured. We are pleased with the progress we have made, especially given the current environment. I'll turn it over to Frank to walk through our financial results.