NYSE:PRA ProAssurance Q1 2023 Earnings Report $22.90 -0.01 (-0.04%) As of 05/9/2025 03:59 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast ProAssurance EPS ResultsActual EPS-$0.15Consensus EPS $0.15Beat/MissMissed by -$0.30One Year Ago EPS$0.14ProAssurance Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$272.70 millionExpected Revenue$283.40 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$10.70 millionYoY Revenue Growth-3.70%ProAssurance Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2023Date5/9/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, May 10, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by ProAssurance Q1 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 10, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone. Welcome to ProAssurance's conference call to discuss the company's Q1 2023 results. These results were reported in a news release issued May 9, 2023, and in the company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q, which was also filed on May 9, 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. Operator00:00:36Management 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 May 10, 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. Operator00:01:12The 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 there will be a time for questions after the conclusion of prepared remarks. This morning, we will discuss selected aspects of our quarterly results and remind investors that they should review our filing on Form 10 Q and accompanying press release for full and complete information. Speakers on the call today will be Ned Rand, President and CEO and Dana Hendricks, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining on the call today are executive leadership team members Rob Francis, Kevin Shook, Ross Taubman and Karen Murphy. Operator00:01:52Ned, will you start us off, please? Speaker 100:01:54Thank you, Jason, and good morning. Today, Dan and I are looking forward to giving you some insight into the Q1 numbers that we released last night and outlining some of the challenges in the medical professional liability and workers' compensation markets. I'll talk about the market dynamics that we're seeing and then Dan will provide the consolidated results and key drivers of our investment results and book value. I'd also like to welcome Rob, President of our Healthcare Professional Liability Business Ross, President of our Small Business Unit and Karen, President of our Life Sciences business to the call today and to thank Kevin for his continued participation in this quarterly call. As we announced in February of this year, Mike Boguski will be retiring from his role of President of Specialty Property and Casualty on June 30. Speaker 100:02:43After carefully considering the leadership structure that will best serve ProAssurance going forward. We decided to add Rob, Ross and Karen to the executive leadership team, with each of them reporting directly to me. This decision reflects the excellent and conscientious guidance that these individuals shown in managing their respective portions of our business. If any specific questions arise during the Q and A session that are better answered by one of them rather than by Dan or me, We will direct the question to allow them to respond in their area of expertise. The results we released last night reflect what we see as a continuation of the challenging claims environment for medical professional liability carriers. Speaker 100:03:25The past 3 years have seen significant disruption and change and as a consequence, increasing uncertainty. While COVID did not result in the increase in claims that initially concerned the industry, its effects were manifest in other ways. The delay in jury trial outcomes resulted in changes to claim reporting and payment patterns, which in turn impacted the actuarial process and increased the range of possible outcomes for our reserve estimates. As we've entered the post pandemic period, trends we first saw prior to the pandemic, in particular social inflation and an increased number of larger verdicts across the industry have returned and in some instances grown. We continue to be vigilant in monitoring the impact of these trends on our reserves. Speaker 100:04:11We have seen their effects in the broader claims environment as well, in some cases, specific to ProAssurance, as I will detail shortly. With that background, I'll walk you through the results reported in our key segments. The Specialty P and C segment produced an operating loss in the Q1 of 2023, driven primarily by unfavorable prior accident year reserve adjustments. The current accident year loss ratio was 87.2%, essentially unchanged from last year after excluding the effects of purchase accounting adjustments. We recognized unfavorable prior accident year reserve development of $8,000,000 in the quarter in contrast to favorable development in the same period of 2022. Speaker 100:04:55This unfavorable development in the quarter is attributable several excess verdicts and settlements that occurred during the quarter as well as recently observed loss severity trends. I want to take a moment to describe the claims environment that all NPL carriers are facing. After a pause in 2020 and much of 2021, the number of excess verdicts being churned by juries against healthcare providers is back near or above all time highs. ProAssurance's insured largely avoided such verdicts last year as our policyholders received favorable verdicts in over 85% of the 2 29 cases we took to trial. In the Q1 of 2023, we and our insureds did not avoid them completely. Speaker 100:05:37We believe these outsized jury awards reflect a number of trends, including a level of underlying anger in the jury pools, a disconnect between proof of fault and the desire to compensate injured parties, and the view that large awards have no consequences. All of these may lead juries to occasionally ignoring the facts regarding the care rendered in a given case and assuming instead that if an unfavorable outcome occurs with a patient, compensation should follow without regard for actual liability. Such awards can also result from the view of insurance carriers as deep pocketed targets rather than protectors of our healthcare workers, allowing them to practice medicine without fear of financial ruin in a litigious society. These issues won't go away as a result of hope or wishful thinking. Rather we must work to educate our lawmakers, regulators and the general public about the need for a robust and functioning professional liability market and a jury system that fairly assigns liability where it is appropriate and provides vindication where it is not. Speaker 100:06:42Looking at our top line, gross written premium decreased by 7% from a year ago as we faced competitive market conditions and continued to focus on underwriting efforts on achieving rate over retaining business. Premium retention for the segment was 85% in the quarter, an improvement over last year. Retention in both the standard physician and specialty healthcare books contributed to the improvement from 2022. This was despite the loss of a large hospital account in our specialty book. Pricing increased by 6% in the quarter and we wrote $11,000,000 to new business. Speaker 100:07:17In our expenses, we are seeing increases in acquisition costs and professional fees. With a base of lower in premium this quarter, results. This exerts upward pressure on the expense ratio. This was offset by a $4,000,000 payroll tax refund from the employer retention credit program and a decrease in the NorCal accrued contingent consideration, resulting in a segment expense ratio of 22.8%. Turning to the Workers' Compensation Insurance segment. Speaker 100:07:45Gross written premium increased by $1,000,000 in the quarter as we saw increases in audit premium and new business compared to last year. Top line growth continues to be a challenge in the highly competitive workers' compensation market. We were encouraged by the new business in our traditional book increasing to $6,600,000 this year. In our traditional business, renewal pricing was down percent and retention was 83% for the quarter, both reflecting the competition we are seeing in this market. Our strategies continue to focus on working with our valued distribution partners to secure quality new business opportunities and retain profitable accounts. Speaker 100:08:23Our current accident year loss ratio was 72.6% for the quarter, less than a point higher than last year. A portion of this increase was due to higher headcount and compensation costs, which flow into our loss ratio through unallocated loss adjustment expense. The increase in the calendar year loss ratio is primarily due unfavorable prior year development of $1,200,000 in contrast to favorable development last year. The development was primarily on an older open claim from the 1997 accident year. The segment maintained discipline in our underwriting, policy acquisition and operating expenses, with these expenses coming in slightly lower than the quarter than a year ago. Speaker 100:09:04The expense ratio improved compared to last year due to the effect of higher audit premium this quarter. We may see an expense ratio increase in future quarters due to the timing of general expenses, which may not be evenly distributed throughout the calendar year. I'll finish with the Segregated Portfolio Cell Reinsurance segment, which posted a profit of just under $1,000,000 for the quarter and the Lloyd's Syndicate segment, which also was profitable at a similar level just below $1,000,000 Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dana to share our consolidated results and some highlights from the balance sheet and investment returns. Dana? Speaker 200:09:38Thanks, Ned, and good morning, everyone. For the Q1, we reported a net loss of $6,200,000 or $0.11 per share and an operating loss of $8,000,000 or $0.15 per share. The main difference between the two is the impact of the change in fair value of investments and contingent consideration. The operating loss in the quarter reflected a challenging operating environment, which led to a modest increase in our current accident year loss ratio, coupled with unfavorable prior year development. Gross premiums written declined to $316,000,000 with most of the decline occurring in our Specialty P and C segment. Speaker 200:10:17Premium increased slightly in the Workers' Compensation Insurance segment and Lloyd's premium declined to $3,500,000 Excluding the impact of purchase accounting and prior year transaction related costs, our consolidated combined ratio increased 7 percentage points from the Q1 of 2022, driven mostly by the change in prior accident year reserve development. Investment results provided a 5 point benefit to the consolidated operating ratio. Therefore, the operating ratio increased two points from last year. Our consolidated current accident year net loss ratio after excluding the impact purchase accounting and prior year ceded premium adjustments changed slightly compared to the Q1 of 2022. The primary driver behind the change in consolidated net loss ratio for the quarter was the change in prior year reserve development. Speaker 200:11:13In the Q1 of 2022, we recognized $5,000,000 of favorable development. As a result of the excess verdicts that Ned mentioned and a significant reserve increase on an older workers' compensation claim, we booked $7,000,000 of unfavorable development in 2023. The unfavorable development was driven by a handful of claims, largely from what we feel were outsized verdicts based on the facts underlying the cases. These reserve increases primarily relate to older accident years for which there was little IBNR to absorb the loss. Our consolidated expense ratio was pressured by a decrease in net premiums earned along with the impact of higher operating expenses such as IT consulting fees and travel related expense. Speaker 200:12:01These pressures were partially offset $54,000,000 payroll tax refund available under the CARES Act and a $1,000,000 reduction to the contingent consideration liability related to the NorCal acquisition. In total, the consolidated expense ratio increased 1.3 points to 28.3%. Net investment income grew nearly 50 percent to $30,000,000 in the quarter as our reinvestment rate has exceeded that of the maturing assets in each of the last 7 quarters and our floating rate assets reset to higher yields as well. With the scale of our investment leverage, we see the significant positive impact this 2019 guidance on operating performance and we expect the increases to continue in the coming quarters. In the Q1, We reinvest in maturing bonds that yields approximately 200 basis points higher than the portfolio's average book yield. Speaker 200:12:56Results from our investment in LPs and LLCs, which are typically reported to us on a 1 quarter lag, decreased to a loss of $1,000,000 in the quarter, driven by the performance of 1 LP, which reflected lower market valuations during the Q4 of 2022. This particular LP is a private equity fund and the decline in results was driven by the markdown to a single portfolio company due to the performance of its public company comps. Given the performance of those same public comps this quarter, we do not expect this fund to rebound next quarter. Further to provide additional context on our entire LP and LLC portfolio, the results in the quarter excludes 4th quarter results of 8 funds due to the timing of when those funds report to us. The majority of these 8 funds are in private credit and private equity and based on market movements during the Q4 and Q1, we would expect positive marks on most of those funds next quarter. Speaker 200:13:57Net investment gains, which are excluded from operating income and drive the difference between operating loss and net loss $3,000,000 in the quarter. Unrealized holding gains resulting from changes in the fair value of our equity investments and convertible securities more than offset almost $3,000,000 of credit related impairment losses, which were primarily on bond positions in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in the net investment gain. Other income declined $2,000,000 in the quarter due to changes in foreign currency exchange rate and the impact of foreign currency denominated loss reserves in our Specialty P and C segment. This quarter, the effect foreign currency movements with a loss of $1,000,000 due to strengthening of the euro in the quarter compared to a gain of $1,300,000 in the prior year period. We mitigate foreign exchange exposure by generally matching the currency and duration of associated investments to the corresponding loss reserves. Speaker 200:14:57The impact of unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency denominated investments flows directly to equity through other comprehensive income or loss, while the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates on loss reserves is reflected through our results as a component of other income. These items should roughly offset each other economically, though only the FX impact on the reserves flows through the income statement. Our book value per share at quarter end was $21.07 up 3% from year end, driven by after tax holding gains of $40,000,000 on our fixed maturity portfolio, which flows directly to equity. Adjusted book value per share, which excludes $4.74 of accumulated other comprehensive loss, primarily from unrealized holding losses, is $25.81 as of March 31. We consider these unrealized losses to be temporary as we have both the intent and ability to hold to maturity. Speaker 200:16:03Before I conclude, I will briefly touch on the refinance of our maturing senior notes due this November. As you may have seen, we filed an 8 ks last week announcing the renegotiation and extension of our $250,000,000 revolving credit agreement, which includes a $125,000,000 delayed term loan delayed draw term loan and the execution of 2 corresponding interest rate swap agreements. Our intent is to use the proceeds from the $125,000,000 term loan plus a draw of $125,000,000 on the revolver to retire the $250,000,000 senior notes in November. The interest rate swaps effectively fixed the floating base rate on any borrowings under the revolver and term loan to roughly 3.2%. However, there is also a margin component of the interest rate that's based on our debt to cap ratio that will remain variable. Speaker 200:17:04Based on our current debt to cap ratio, The total interest rate for the revolver and term loan would be approximately 5.1% and 5.2% respectively. And the current lending environment of considerably higher borrowing rates and on the heels of the turmoil in the banking sector, We're very pleased to have actually reduced our borrowing costs with these transactions. In summary, we continue to operate in a challenging environment. However, we did see a number of positives in the quarter, including rate gains and solid retention in our HCPL business, along with increasing investment income and book value given our investment leverage and changes in the interest rate environment. With that, I'll turn it back over to Jason. Operator00:17:50Thank you, Dana. Glenn, that concludes our prepared remarks. We are ready for questions. Speaker 300:17:59Thank Speaker 400:18:11We have our first question comes from Greg Peters from Raymond James. Rick, your line is now open. Speaker 500:18:20Good morning, everyone. I guess, I'd just like to go back in your comments about the excess verdicts. And I guess, Is there any sort of rhyme or reason from a geography standpoint on where the problems are popping up? And I'm there's obviously a segue question into how are you adjusting your pricing as a result of what you're seeing in the marketplace. Speaker 100:18:53Yes, Greg, those are both good questions. We really don't see and this is and really to look at the question around geography, you have to look beyond ProAssurance, I think, and look at just the market itself. And while there remain some very challenging jurisdictions, there have been a number of very large verdicts, for example, in Illinois and around Cook County, Illinois. More broadly, The answer to your question, I think, is no. These verdicts kind of can pop up and happen in very surprising places. Speaker 100:19:30So it's hard to pinpoint a geography. From a pricing and underwriting point of view. I think it's about a couple of things. It's about driving rate and I think we're doing an excellent job at driving rate and have been doing a good job driving rate over the last 3 to 4 years. And that's compounded into the rate that we are charging today and recognize that These claims, some of these claims date back to the early 2000s, right? Speaker 100:19:58We have a long tail on some of this business. Our view is that the pricing we're getting today is adequate. I think the other piece of that is around the business that we are writing. And the other thing that we've done over the last 3 years is take a really, really hard look at those risks that we want to write and those risks that we've done and the book looks significantly different today than it did 5 years ago. And so it's always hard when you're dealing with things that occurred 20 years ago to say what are you doing today about them. Speaker 100:20:30But I think the things that we have done over the last 3 to 5 years differentiate the book today from where it was then, as well as with pricing. Can you just when Speaker 500:20:45I think of excess verdicts, I think you mean in excess of policy limits, but maybe you can help us understand what you're talking about. Speaker 100:20:55Absolutely. So to put some numbers out there, as we mentioned, we made it through 2022 without really seeing any very large verdicts. We have had insureds take Vertex, 2 in the area of $15,000,000 and 2 in the area of $40,000,000 to $45,000,000 this year. Speaker 500:21:17And is the 40 to 40, the 2 that go to 40 to 40, Is that all retained on your balance sheet or is there a Speaker 100:21:25shared Yes. The vast majority of that's reinsured, correct? We do retain a portion of those risks. We have a co participation in some of the reinsurance layers. Some of this goes back to very old reinsurance treaties. Speaker 100:21:40But the vast majority of all of this is reinsured. Speaker 500:21:47So I guess just to close the loop on this issue, when I think about the net policy limits on any NPL policy that you're writing, I think about it in the single 7 figure range, not going beyond that. Is that the right perception to have? Yes. Speaker 100:22:07So actually in each and every one of these, the verdict itself was far in excess of policy limits that we'd written. What you then have to deal with is protecting your insured and concerns around bad faith, which oftentimes cause claims to be settled at above policy limits. And that's why we buy insurance that protects against that and have other measures that protect us against that because we know that's a possibility. Important to say that these while we've put up reserves for these claims, 2 of them are resolved, 2 of them are not. And it will be a long time before the other 2 finally play out and we know exactly what the ultimate ability. Speaker 100:22:551 of them did have a $20,000,000 limit. So it was one of the $15,000,000 losses had a $20,000,000 limit. So it was within the limits that we wrote and so principally covered by insurance reinsurance, excuse me. Speaker 500:23:10Got it. And then the other question I had just would be, If I look at the specialty segments, with the decline shrinking top line, How do I think about this in terms of go forward? Is this losing policies your underwriting away from certain policies or is this the market pressure on rate or is it a combination of both factors? Speaker 100:23:43It's not market pressure on rate. We're getting rate gains, right? So, it is more about new business opportunities and losing some business because of rate. And then as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have 1 large hospital count that we lost that really contributed to that decline. And I believe in the Q1 of last year, we also had a large tail policy that was written. Speaker 100:24:07That kind of inflated the Q1 of last year from a comparison standpoint. We continue to get positive rate. We think that's really important in the marketplace. And we're going to walk away from business that we don't think is adequately priced. And as long as we have competitors out there that are willing to write business to what we believe to be underpriced and oftentimes significantly underpriced rates. Speaker 100:24:30We're going to walk away from that and protect the balance sheet and there will be times to grow. This may not be one of them. Speaker 500:24:42Sounds reasonable. Thank you for your answers. Speaker 100:24:45Thanks, Greg. Speaker 400:24:47Thank you, Greg. Our next question comes from Mark Hughes from Tuohy. Mark, your line is now open. Speaker 100:24:57Yes. Speaker 300:24:58Thank you very much. Good morning. Ned, is this changing your view on settlement. Is it difficult to mount an adequate defense because the juries aren't listening? It presumably Is the motivation to go ahead and get things settled before you get to that stage? Speaker 300:25:25Is that something that is more common? I'll leave it at that. Yes. That's part of the strategy now. Speaker 100:25:35Yes. It's a very good question. And And some of you have heard this story before, so apologies for those that you have. But when Daryl Crow was our CEO, He would have told you that the medicine trumped everything and he put a hard period at the end of that sentence. And when Stan came in, He'd like to talk about the fact that he'd erase that period and he'd put a comment there and said the medicine trumps everything, comma except when the facts and circumstances surrounding the medicine don't allow for a fair hearing of the facts. Speaker 100:26:09And that's been the kind of the mode that we've operated in under and contingent under my leadership. I'd say the difference is that we've now increased the font on that second part of the phrase to maybe 40 points and put it in bold. We have to be judicious in what we do take to trial. We use high lows where we can, where we are going to trial to protect us against outsized verdicts. So there are measures that we are taking, but a reasonable resolution through settlement is not always achievable. Speaker 100:26:46And so there we will continue to go to trial in support of our insureds. Speaker 300:26:55I think there's AM Best webinar going on pretty soon. I know you've participated in that in the past. I didn't get a chance to look at the A and best report on medical professional liability. Anything in that report that suggests Your competitors are more aware of these issues. I think you said you're going to walk away from bad business if Other people are willing to write it at the too low price. Speaker 300:27:30Is there any raise of hope out there? Speaker 100:27:34Yes, I think there are, I mean, from an awareness standpoint, yes, I would say that there is awareness across the entire industry. I We took some lumps this quarter with some large losses, but the industry took a lot more. And if you look back at 2022. The industry I think it was record level of losses in excess of $25,000,000 TransRe does a nice job of tracking that data. So, yes, the market is taking notice. Speaker 100:28:04And I'd say, by and large, The market is responding to that and that's in part why we are able to achieve the rate gains that we have achieved. But every now and then, companies will do things that you kind of scratch your head at. And I think that always is the case and that probably prevents affirming of the overall marketplace that might otherwise be warranted. But We're not going to let that interfere with what we need to do. It does mean that growing the top line is a challenge, But the team is extremely committed to ensuring we get adequate rate going forward for the organization. Speaker 100:28:49And the other piece of that, mentioned in the press release. We've invested heavily in data analytics over the last number of years and continue to do so to allow ourselves to become better underwriters, better understanders of risk. And I think we are doing a better job today of risk selection than we ever have. Speaker 300:29:12Is 6% rate increase, is that adequate outlook for Speaker 100:29:18concern. Yes, again, I think you got to look at what we've done over the last 4 years or so and kind of recognize that that's compounding on top of high single digit, low double digit rates over the last 4 years. Yes, and we expect it probably will push up as the year goes on. So yes, we feel good about where we are. But again, the claims in the quarter that kind of hurt us this quarter were some large verdicts dating back, I think one of them was 2000 early 2000s even. Speaker 100:29:49So, yes, when you think about the compounded effect of rate that we've taken. Yes, now as I said in my prepared remarks, we continue to operate under and I believe this is your phrase, a fog of war with the loss environment. And that continues to be the case, right? I mean, we've seen jury trials and other things began to return to normal levels, but there's still a sizable backlog for us and for the industry that just makes the actuarial analysis more opaque and as a consequence of that more volatile, with maybe volatile is not the right word, but with a wider spread potential outcomes and we tend to try to on the cautious side of that. Speaker 300:30:34It was either me or Claus West that said it, but When we think about the potential for reserve development in the future, you all We have a long extended track record of conservative, careful underwriting and then being positioned to generate gains and things that usually turn out better than expected. Does this trend, I mean, is this more likely that even if you see some good signs in coming quarters that you're going to be more careful about protecting the balance sheet under these circumstances. I know you're when you said your reserves, it's based on the best information you've got. But I just wonder if there's any shading to that based on how you see the current circumstances emerging? Speaker 100:31:43Yes. It's a nice question, Mark. I think We have historically been and continued to be an organization that probably responds more rapidly to negative trends than we do positive trends, because we think there's prudence in that. And so yes, I think that Assuming we can see improved results and kind of underlying trends in the coming quarters, we'll probably be slow to give credit to that until we have a much more certain feeling about it. Speaker 300:32:18Thank you very much. Speaker 400:32:22Thank you, Mark. Our next question comes from Paul Newsome from Piper Sandler. Paul, your line is now open. Speaker 600:32:46Good morning. Thanks for the call. The just to kind of touch space. When we look at the current accident year, are you trying to fully incorporate these large losses or are you assuming that there's some level of normalization of those losses respectively. And is there a difference in how you're putting reserves aside versus how you're pricing your policies. Speaker 100:33:26Okay. There's a lot to unpack in that question, Paul. So I'll try to do my best. Speaker 600:33:32Thank you. I succeeded. Speaker 100:33:37The number of claims that kind of influenced the quarter, I would not say we are responding specifically to those claims or the influence of those claims and reserving and or pricing. What I would say is with both reserving and pricing that the claims environment that we are operating in and the one that we've observed going back pre COVID with increasing volatility, increasing large verdicts is something that we are pricing to and something that we are considering when we're establishing our reserves. So I do think that kind of the environment that we sit in is reflective there. And ultimately whether there's redundancy in those reserves will be determined on kind of how those trends play out over the next 10 years. But we are certainly taking all of that into consideration as we establish reserves. Speaker 100:34:41To your question of kind of trying to type pricing to reserving, I know that's something that we did in the past we tried to talk about. I think just because of some of the variability that's out there today that's It's harder to link one to the other right now. I think the reserving is very much being driven by what we're seeing in the loss environment and trying to peg losses based upon that. And pricing, likewise, is doing that, but I would not draw a connection necessarily between the 2, if that makes sense. Speaker 600:35:17And then maybe sort of pull back to an industry question. I was just looking at the statutory data for the industry. And it looks like your loss ratio is ProAssurance's loss ratio is significantly higher than what the industry was last year. And obviously, the Q1 equates to a pretty launch increase versus what the industry put up last year. Maybe we could talk about what just I mean, is it Do you believe you're just more conservatively reserved or Is there something about your particular business mix that would mean I'm just looking at medical malpractice, you want to say that would make it so much higher than the rest of the industry. Speaker 100:36:14Yes. So, no, I don't think our business mix would be dramatically different than the industry. And so I don't think that would equate any change. I can't speak for what others are doing and what they may be seeing within their individual books of business. What we are doing is we believe being cautious in a very challenging marketplace where you can kind of Think about your analysis, you can kind of think that the trends are going to get better, they're going to get worse, they're going to stay the same. Speaker 100:36:48I imagine there are those out there that are perhaps thinking trends are going to get better and building that down. We don't think that's the prudent thing to do, but I can't speak specifically to what others are doing. But we see the same data that you do and recognize that perhaps we're a bit of an outlier and perhaps that's because of our caution. Speaker 600:37:11Would the same thing be true on your workers' comp book, which is also running a loss ratio significantly higher than the industry. Speaker 100:37:20Yes. I think on the work comp book, Maybe it's a little bit different. I think we are faster to recognize trends than the industry. When you look at the work comp book, We resolved claims, closed claims a lot faster than the industry. And as a consequence, I think we are kind of ahead of others in recognizing trends. Speaker 100:37:44And so, I feel a little more confident saying that with the work comp business that I think we have a better understanding of some of the underlying claim trends that are going on and because we close claims faster owning up to those trends and perhaps others in the marketplace are doing. Speaker 600:38:05Okay. Thank you for the help. Much appreciated. Speaker 100:38:08Thanks, Paul. Speaker 400:38:12Thank you, Paul. We have no further questions on the line. Operator00:38:34Thank you to everyone that joined us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on next quarter's conference call. Speaker 400:38:44Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallProAssurance Q1 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) ProAssurance Earnings HeadlinesProAssurance Corporation (PRA): The Single Largest Contributor to The Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund’s PerformanceMay 9 at 7:56 AM | insidermonkey.comLe BPA de ProAssurance a manqué les attentes de 0,06$, le CA a surpassé les prévisionsMay 8 at 10:35 PM | fr.investing.comURGENT: This Altcoin Opportunity Won’t Wait – Act NowMy friends Joel and Adam have a simple motto: "For us, it's always a bull market." That’s because their 92% win rate trading system is built to profit in any market – whether Bitcoin is mooning, correcting, or chopping sideways. No more guessing. No more stress. Just precision trades that put you in control.May 10, 2025 | Crypto Swap Profits (Ad)ProAssurance Reports Results for First Quarter 2025May 6, 2025 | gurufocus.comProAssurance Reports Q1 2025 Net Loss Amid Acquisition NewsMay 6, 2025 | tipranks.comProAssurance Reports Results for First Quarter 2025 | PRA Stock NewsMay 6, 2025 | gurufocus.comSee More ProAssurance Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like ProAssurance? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on ProAssurance and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About ProAssuranceProAssurance (NYSE:PRA), through its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty insurance, and reinsurance products in the United States. The company operates through Specialty Property and Casualty, Workers' Compensation Insurance, and Segregated Portfolio Cell Reinsurance segments. It offers professional liability insurance to healthcare providers and institutions, and attorneys and their firms; medical technology liability insurance to medical technology and life sciences companies; and custom alternative risk solutions, including assumed reinsurance, loss portfolio transfers, and captive cell programs for healthcare professional liability insureds. The company also provides workers' compensation insurance products, such as guaranteed cost policies, policyholder dividend policies, retrospectively rated policies, and deductible policies, as well as alternative market solutions that include program design, fronting, claims administration, risk management, SPC rental, asset management, and SPC management services for individual companies, agencies, groups, and associations. The company also participates in Syndicate 1729 at Lloyd's of London for underwriting. It markets its products through independent agencies and brokers, as well as an internal business development team. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.View ProAssurance ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Why Nearly 20 Analysts Raised Meta Price Targets Post-EarningsOXY Stock Rebound Begins Following Solid Earnings BeatMonolithic Power Systems: Will Strong Earnings Spark a Recovery?Datadog Earnings Delight: Q1 Strength and an Upbeat Forecast Upwork's Earnings Beat Fuels Stock Rally—Is Freelancing Booming?DexCom Stock: Earnings Beat and New Market Access Drive Bull CaseDisney Stock Jumps on Earnings—Is the Magic Sustainable? 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, everyone. Welcome to ProAssurance's conference call to discuss the company's Q1 2023 results. These results were reported in a news release issued May 9, 2023, and in the company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q, which was also filed on May 9, 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. Operator00:00:36Management 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 May 10, 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. Operator00:01:12The 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 there will be a time for questions after the conclusion of prepared remarks. This morning, we will discuss selected aspects of our quarterly results and remind investors that they should review our filing on Form 10 Q and accompanying press release for full and complete information. Speakers on the call today will be Ned Rand, President and CEO and Dana Hendricks, Chief Financial Officer. Also joining on the call today are executive leadership team members Rob Francis, Kevin Shook, Ross Taubman and Karen Murphy. Operator00:01:52Ned, will you start us off, please? Speaker 100:01:54Thank you, Jason, and good morning. Today, Dan and I are looking forward to giving you some insight into the Q1 numbers that we released last night and outlining some of the challenges in the medical professional liability and workers' compensation markets. I'll talk about the market dynamics that we're seeing and then Dan will provide the consolidated results and key drivers of our investment results and book value. I'd also like to welcome Rob, President of our Healthcare Professional Liability Business Ross, President of our Small Business Unit and Karen, President of our Life Sciences business to the call today and to thank Kevin for his continued participation in this quarterly call. As we announced in February of this year, Mike Boguski will be retiring from his role of President of Specialty Property and Casualty on June 30. Speaker 100:02:43After carefully considering the leadership structure that will best serve ProAssurance going forward. We decided to add Rob, Ross and Karen to the executive leadership team, with each of them reporting directly to me. This decision reflects the excellent and conscientious guidance that these individuals shown in managing their respective portions of our business. If any specific questions arise during the Q and A session that are better answered by one of them rather than by Dan or me, We will direct the question to allow them to respond in their area of expertise. The results we released last night reflect what we see as a continuation of the challenging claims environment for medical professional liability carriers. Speaker 100:03:25The past 3 years have seen significant disruption and change and as a consequence, increasing uncertainty. While COVID did not result in the increase in claims that initially concerned the industry, its effects were manifest in other ways. The delay in jury trial outcomes resulted in changes to claim reporting and payment patterns, which in turn impacted the actuarial process and increased the range of possible outcomes for our reserve estimates. As we've entered the post pandemic period, trends we first saw prior to the pandemic, in particular social inflation and an increased number of larger verdicts across the industry have returned and in some instances grown. We continue to be vigilant in monitoring the impact of these trends on our reserves. Speaker 100:04:11We have seen their effects in the broader claims environment as well, in some cases, specific to ProAssurance, as I will detail shortly. With that background, I'll walk you through the results reported in our key segments. The Specialty P and C segment produced an operating loss in the Q1 of 2023, driven primarily by unfavorable prior accident year reserve adjustments. The current accident year loss ratio was 87.2%, essentially unchanged from last year after excluding the effects of purchase accounting adjustments. We recognized unfavorable prior accident year reserve development of $8,000,000 in the quarter in contrast to favorable development in the same period of 2022. Speaker 100:04:55This unfavorable development in the quarter is attributable several excess verdicts and settlements that occurred during the quarter as well as recently observed loss severity trends. I want to take a moment to describe the claims environment that all NPL carriers are facing. After a pause in 2020 and much of 2021, the number of excess verdicts being churned by juries against healthcare providers is back near or above all time highs. ProAssurance's insured largely avoided such verdicts last year as our policyholders received favorable verdicts in over 85% of the 2 29 cases we took to trial. In the Q1 of 2023, we and our insureds did not avoid them completely. Speaker 100:05:37We believe these outsized jury awards reflect a number of trends, including a level of underlying anger in the jury pools, a disconnect between proof of fault and the desire to compensate injured parties, and the view that large awards have no consequences. All of these may lead juries to occasionally ignoring the facts regarding the care rendered in a given case and assuming instead that if an unfavorable outcome occurs with a patient, compensation should follow without regard for actual liability. Such awards can also result from the view of insurance carriers as deep pocketed targets rather than protectors of our healthcare workers, allowing them to practice medicine without fear of financial ruin in a litigious society. These issues won't go away as a result of hope or wishful thinking. Rather we must work to educate our lawmakers, regulators and the general public about the need for a robust and functioning professional liability market and a jury system that fairly assigns liability where it is appropriate and provides vindication where it is not. Speaker 100:06:42Looking at our top line, gross written premium decreased by 7% from a year ago as we faced competitive market conditions and continued to focus on underwriting efforts on achieving rate over retaining business. Premium retention for the segment was 85% in the quarter, an improvement over last year. Retention in both the standard physician and specialty healthcare books contributed to the improvement from 2022. This was despite the loss of a large hospital account in our specialty book. Pricing increased by 6% in the quarter and we wrote $11,000,000 to new business. Speaker 100:07:17In our expenses, we are seeing increases in acquisition costs and professional fees. With a base of lower in premium this quarter, results. This exerts upward pressure on the expense ratio. This was offset by a $4,000,000 payroll tax refund from the employer retention credit program and a decrease in the NorCal accrued contingent consideration, resulting in a segment expense ratio of 22.8%. Turning to the Workers' Compensation Insurance segment. Speaker 100:07:45Gross written premium increased by $1,000,000 in the quarter as we saw increases in audit premium and new business compared to last year. Top line growth continues to be a challenge in the highly competitive workers' compensation market. We were encouraged by the new business in our traditional book increasing to $6,600,000 this year. In our traditional business, renewal pricing was down percent and retention was 83% for the quarter, both reflecting the competition we are seeing in this market. Our strategies continue to focus on working with our valued distribution partners to secure quality new business opportunities and retain profitable accounts. Speaker 100:08:23Our current accident year loss ratio was 72.6% for the quarter, less than a point higher than last year. A portion of this increase was due to higher headcount and compensation costs, which flow into our loss ratio through unallocated loss adjustment expense. The increase in the calendar year loss ratio is primarily due unfavorable prior year development of $1,200,000 in contrast to favorable development last year. The development was primarily on an older open claim from the 1997 accident year. The segment maintained discipline in our underwriting, policy acquisition and operating expenses, with these expenses coming in slightly lower than the quarter than a year ago. Speaker 100:09:04The expense ratio improved compared to last year due to the effect of higher audit premium this quarter. We may see an expense ratio increase in future quarters due to the timing of general expenses, which may not be evenly distributed throughout the calendar year. I'll finish with the Segregated Portfolio Cell Reinsurance segment, which posted a profit of just under $1,000,000 for the quarter and the Lloyd's Syndicate segment, which also was profitable at a similar level just below $1,000,000 Now I'd like to turn the call over to Dana to share our consolidated results and some highlights from the balance sheet and investment returns. Dana? Speaker 200:09:38Thanks, Ned, and good morning, everyone. For the Q1, we reported a net loss of $6,200,000 or $0.11 per share and an operating loss of $8,000,000 or $0.15 per share. The main difference between the two is the impact of the change in fair value of investments and contingent consideration. The operating loss in the quarter reflected a challenging operating environment, which led to a modest increase in our current accident year loss ratio, coupled with unfavorable prior year development. Gross premiums written declined to $316,000,000 with most of the decline occurring in our Specialty P and C segment. Speaker 200:10:17Premium increased slightly in the Workers' Compensation Insurance segment and Lloyd's premium declined to $3,500,000 Excluding the impact of purchase accounting and prior year transaction related costs, our consolidated combined ratio increased 7 percentage points from the Q1 of 2022, driven mostly by the change in prior accident year reserve development. Investment results provided a 5 point benefit to the consolidated operating ratio. Therefore, the operating ratio increased two points from last year. Our consolidated current accident year net loss ratio after excluding the impact purchase accounting and prior year ceded premium adjustments changed slightly compared to the Q1 of 2022. The primary driver behind the change in consolidated net loss ratio for the quarter was the change in prior year reserve development. Speaker 200:11:13In the Q1 of 2022, we recognized $5,000,000 of favorable development. As a result of the excess verdicts that Ned mentioned and a significant reserve increase on an older workers' compensation claim, we booked $7,000,000 of unfavorable development in 2023. The unfavorable development was driven by a handful of claims, largely from what we feel were outsized verdicts based on the facts underlying the cases. These reserve increases primarily relate to older accident years for which there was little IBNR to absorb the loss. Our consolidated expense ratio was pressured by a decrease in net premiums earned along with the impact of higher operating expenses such as IT consulting fees and travel related expense. Speaker 200:12:01These pressures were partially offset $54,000,000 payroll tax refund available under the CARES Act and a $1,000,000 reduction to the contingent consideration liability related to the NorCal acquisition. In total, the consolidated expense ratio increased 1.3 points to 28.3%. Net investment income grew nearly 50 percent to $30,000,000 in the quarter as our reinvestment rate has exceeded that of the maturing assets in each of the last 7 quarters and our floating rate assets reset to higher yields as well. With the scale of our investment leverage, we see the significant positive impact this 2019 guidance on operating performance and we expect the increases to continue in the coming quarters. In the Q1, We reinvest in maturing bonds that yields approximately 200 basis points higher than the portfolio's average book yield. Speaker 200:12:56Results from our investment in LPs and LLCs, which are typically reported to us on a 1 quarter lag, decreased to a loss of $1,000,000 in the quarter, driven by the performance of 1 LP, which reflected lower market valuations during the Q4 of 2022. This particular LP is a private equity fund and the decline in results was driven by the markdown to a single portfolio company due to the performance of its public company comps. Given the performance of those same public comps this quarter, we do not expect this fund to rebound next quarter. Further to provide additional context on our entire LP and LLC portfolio, the results in the quarter excludes 4th quarter results of 8 funds due to the timing of when those funds report to us. The majority of these 8 funds are in private credit and private equity and based on market movements during the Q4 and Q1, we would expect positive marks on most of those funds next quarter. Speaker 200:13:57Net investment gains, which are excluded from operating income and drive the difference between operating loss and net loss $3,000,000 in the quarter. Unrealized holding gains resulting from changes in the fair value of our equity investments and convertible securities more than offset almost $3,000,000 of credit related impairment losses, which were primarily on bond positions in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in the net investment gain. Other income declined $2,000,000 in the quarter due to changes in foreign currency exchange rate and the impact of foreign currency denominated loss reserves in our Specialty P and C segment. This quarter, the effect foreign currency movements with a loss of $1,000,000 due to strengthening of the euro in the quarter compared to a gain of $1,300,000 in the prior year period. We mitigate foreign exchange exposure by generally matching the currency and duration of associated investments to the corresponding loss reserves. Speaker 200:14:57The impact of unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency denominated investments flows directly to equity through other comprehensive income or loss, while the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates on loss reserves is reflected through our results as a component of other income. These items should roughly offset each other economically, though only the FX impact on the reserves flows through the income statement. Our book value per share at quarter end was $21.07 up 3% from year end, driven by after tax holding gains of $40,000,000 on our fixed maturity portfolio, which flows directly to equity. Adjusted book value per share, which excludes $4.74 of accumulated other comprehensive loss, primarily from unrealized holding losses, is $25.81 as of March 31. We consider these unrealized losses to be temporary as we have both the intent and ability to hold to maturity. Speaker 200:16:03Before I conclude, I will briefly touch on the refinance of our maturing senior notes due this November. As you may have seen, we filed an 8 ks last week announcing the renegotiation and extension of our $250,000,000 revolving credit agreement, which includes a $125,000,000 delayed term loan delayed draw term loan and the execution of 2 corresponding interest rate swap agreements. Our intent is to use the proceeds from the $125,000,000 term loan plus a draw of $125,000,000 on the revolver to retire the $250,000,000 senior notes in November. The interest rate swaps effectively fixed the floating base rate on any borrowings under the revolver and term loan to roughly 3.2%. However, there is also a margin component of the interest rate that's based on our debt to cap ratio that will remain variable. Speaker 200:17:04Based on our current debt to cap ratio, The total interest rate for the revolver and term loan would be approximately 5.1% and 5.2% respectively. And the current lending environment of considerably higher borrowing rates and on the heels of the turmoil in the banking sector, We're very pleased to have actually reduced our borrowing costs with these transactions. In summary, we continue to operate in a challenging environment. However, we did see a number of positives in the quarter, including rate gains and solid retention in our HCPL business, along with increasing investment income and book value given our investment leverage and changes in the interest rate environment. With that, I'll turn it back over to Jason. Operator00:17:50Thank you, Dana. Glenn, that concludes our prepared remarks. We are ready for questions. Speaker 300:17:59Thank Speaker 400:18:11We have our first question comes from Greg Peters from Raymond James. Rick, your line is now open. Speaker 500:18:20Good morning, everyone. I guess, I'd just like to go back in your comments about the excess verdicts. And I guess, Is there any sort of rhyme or reason from a geography standpoint on where the problems are popping up? And I'm there's obviously a segue question into how are you adjusting your pricing as a result of what you're seeing in the marketplace. Speaker 100:18:53Yes, Greg, those are both good questions. We really don't see and this is and really to look at the question around geography, you have to look beyond ProAssurance, I think, and look at just the market itself. And while there remain some very challenging jurisdictions, there have been a number of very large verdicts, for example, in Illinois and around Cook County, Illinois. More broadly, The answer to your question, I think, is no. These verdicts kind of can pop up and happen in very surprising places. Speaker 100:19:30So it's hard to pinpoint a geography. From a pricing and underwriting point of view. I think it's about a couple of things. It's about driving rate and I think we're doing an excellent job at driving rate and have been doing a good job driving rate over the last 3 to 4 years. And that's compounded into the rate that we are charging today and recognize that These claims, some of these claims date back to the early 2000s, right? Speaker 100:19:58We have a long tail on some of this business. Our view is that the pricing we're getting today is adequate. I think the other piece of that is around the business that we are writing. And the other thing that we've done over the last 3 years is take a really, really hard look at those risks that we want to write and those risks that we've done and the book looks significantly different today than it did 5 years ago. And so it's always hard when you're dealing with things that occurred 20 years ago to say what are you doing today about them. Speaker 100:20:30But I think the things that we have done over the last 3 to 5 years differentiate the book today from where it was then, as well as with pricing. Can you just when Speaker 500:20:45I think of excess verdicts, I think you mean in excess of policy limits, but maybe you can help us understand what you're talking about. Speaker 100:20:55Absolutely. So to put some numbers out there, as we mentioned, we made it through 2022 without really seeing any very large verdicts. We have had insureds take Vertex, 2 in the area of $15,000,000 and 2 in the area of $40,000,000 to $45,000,000 this year. Speaker 500:21:17And is the 40 to 40, the 2 that go to 40 to 40, Is that all retained on your balance sheet or is there a Speaker 100:21:25shared Yes. The vast majority of that's reinsured, correct? We do retain a portion of those risks. We have a co participation in some of the reinsurance layers. Some of this goes back to very old reinsurance treaties. Speaker 100:21:40But the vast majority of all of this is reinsured. Speaker 500:21:47So I guess just to close the loop on this issue, when I think about the net policy limits on any NPL policy that you're writing, I think about it in the single 7 figure range, not going beyond that. Is that the right perception to have? Yes. Speaker 100:22:07So actually in each and every one of these, the verdict itself was far in excess of policy limits that we'd written. What you then have to deal with is protecting your insured and concerns around bad faith, which oftentimes cause claims to be settled at above policy limits. And that's why we buy insurance that protects against that and have other measures that protect us against that because we know that's a possibility. Important to say that these while we've put up reserves for these claims, 2 of them are resolved, 2 of them are not. And it will be a long time before the other 2 finally play out and we know exactly what the ultimate ability. Speaker 100:22:551 of them did have a $20,000,000 limit. So it was one of the $15,000,000 losses had a $20,000,000 limit. So it was within the limits that we wrote and so principally covered by insurance reinsurance, excuse me. Speaker 500:23:10Got it. And then the other question I had just would be, If I look at the specialty segments, with the decline shrinking top line, How do I think about this in terms of go forward? Is this losing policies your underwriting away from certain policies or is this the market pressure on rate or is it a combination of both factors? Speaker 100:23:43It's not market pressure on rate. We're getting rate gains, right? So, it is more about new business opportunities and losing some business because of rate. And then as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have 1 large hospital count that we lost that really contributed to that decline. And I believe in the Q1 of last year, we also had a large tail policy that was written. Speaker 100:24:07That kind of inflated the Q1 of last year from a comparison standpoint. We continue to get positive rate. We think that's really important in the marketplace. And we're going to walk away from business that we don't think is adequately priced. And as long as we have competitors out there that are willing to write business to what we believe to be underpriced and oftentimes significantly underpriced rates. Speaker 100:24:30We're going to walk away from that and protect the balance sheet and there will be times to grow. This may not be one of them. Speaker 500:24:42Sounds reasonable. Thank you for your answers. Speaker 100:24:45Thanks, Greg. Speaker 400:24:47Thank you, Greg. Our next question comes from Mark Hughes from Tuohy. Mark, your line is now open. Speaker 100:24:57Yes. Speaker 300:24:58Thank you very much. Good morning. Ned, is this changing your view on settlement. Is it difficult to mount an adequate defense because the juries aren't listening? It presumably Is the motivation to go ahead and get things settled before you get to that stage? Speaker 300:25:25Is that something that is more common? I'll leave it at that. Yes. That's part of the strategy now. Speaker 100:25:35Yes. It's a very good question. And And some of you have heard this story before, so apologies for those that you have. But when Daryl Crow was our CEO, He would have told you that the medicine trumped everything and he put a hard period at the end of that sentence. And when Stan came in, He'd like to talk about the fact that he'd erase that period and he'd put a comment there and said the medicine trumps everything, comma except when the facts and circumstances surrounding the medicine don't allow for a fair hearing of the facts. Speaker 100:26:09And that's been the kind of the mode that we've operated in under and contingent under my leadership. I'd say the difference is that we've now increased the font on that second part of the phrase to maybe 40 points and put it in bold. We have to be judicious in what we do take to trial. We use high lows where we can, where we are going to trial to protect us against outsized verdicts. So there are measures that we are taking, but a reasonable resolution through settlement is not always achievable. Speaker 100:26:46And so there we will continue to go to trial in support of our insureds. Speaker 300:26:55I think there's AM Best webinar going on pretty soon. I know you've participated in that in the past. I didn't get a chance to look at the A and best report on medical professional liability. Anything in that report that suggests Your competitors are more aware of these issues. I think you said you're going to walk away from bad business if Other people are willing to write it at the too low price. Speaker 300:27:30Is there any raise of hope out there? Speaker 100:27:34Yes, I think there are, I mean, from an awareness standpoint, yes, I would say that there is awareness across the entire industry. I We took some lumps this quarter with some large losses, but the industry took a lot more. And if you look back at 2022. The industry I think it was record level of losses in excess of $25,000,000 TransRe does a nice job of tracking that data. So, yes, the market is taking notice. Speaker 100:28:04And I'd say, by and large, The market is responding to that and that's in part why we are able to achieve the rate gains that we have achieved. But every now and then, companies will do things that you kind of scratch your head at. And I think that always is the case and that probably prevents affirming of the overall marketplace that might otherwise be warranted. But We're not going to let that interfere with what we need to do. It does mean that growing the top line is a challenge, But the team is extremely committed to ensuring we get adequate rate going forward for the organization. Speaker 100:28:49And the other piece of that, mentioned in the press release. We've invested heavily in data analytics over the last number of years and continue to do so to allow ourselves to become better underwriters, better understanders of risk. And I think we are doing a better job today of risk selection than we ever have. Speaker 300:29:12Is 6% rate increase, is that adequate outlook for Speaker 100:29:18concern. Yes, again, I think you got to look at what we've done over the last 4 years or so and kind of recognize that that's compounding on top of high single digit, low double digit rates over the last 4 years. Yes, and we expect it probably will push up as the year goes on. So yes, we feel good about where we are. But again, the claims in the quarter that kind of hurt us this quarter were some large verdicts dating back, I think one of them was 2000 early 2000s even. Speaker 100:29:49So, yes, when you think about the compounded effect of rate that we've taken. Yes, now as I said in my prepared remarks, we continue to operate under and I believe this is your phrase, a fog of war with the loss environment. And that continues to be the case, right? I mean, we've seen jury trials and other things began to return to normal levels, but there's still a sizable backlog for us and for the industry that just makes the actuarial analysis more opaque and as a consequence of that more volatile, with maybe volatile is not the right word, but with a wider spread potential outcomes and we tend to try to on the cautious side of that. Speaker 300:30:34It was either me or Claus West that said it, but When we think about the potential for reserve development in the future, you all We have a long extended track record of conservative, careful underwriting and then being positioned to generate gains and things that usually turn out better than expected. Does this trend, I mean, is this more likely that even if you see some good signs in coming quarters that you're going to be more careful about protecting the balance sheet under these circumstances. I know you're when you said your reserves, it's based on the best information you've got. But I just wonder if there's any shading to that based on how you see the current circumstances emerging? Speaker 100:31:43Yes. It's a nice question, Mark. I think We have historically been and continued to be an organization that probably responds more rapidly to negative trends than we do positive trends, because we think there's prudence in that. And so yes, I think that Assuming we can see improved results and kind of underlying trends in the coming quarters, we'll probably be slow to give credit to that until we have a much more certain feeling about it. Speaker 300:32:18Thank you very much. Speaker 400:32:22Thank you, Mark. Our next question comes from Paul Newsome from Piper Sandler. Paul, your line is now open. Speaker 600:32:46Good morning. Thanks for the call. The just to kind of touch space. When we look at the current accident year, are you trying to fully incorporate these large losses or are you assuming that there's some level of normalization of those losses respectively. And is there a difference in how you're putting reserves aside versus how you're pricing your policies. Speaker 100:33:26Okay. There's a lot to unpack in that question, Paul. So I'll try to do my best. Speaker 600:33:32Thank you. I succeeded. Speaker 100:33:37The number of claims that kind of influenced the quarter, I would not say we are responding specifically to those claims or the influence of those claims and reserving and or pricing. What I would say is with both reserving and pricing that the claims environment that we are operating in and the one that we've observed going back pre COVID with increasing volatility, increasing large verdicts is something that we are pricing to and something that we are considering when we're establishing our reserves. So I do think that kind of the environment that we sit in is reflective there. And ultimately whether there's redundancy in those reserves will be determined on kind of how those trends play out over the next 10 years. But we are certainly taking all of that into consideration as we establish reserves. Speaker 100:34:41To your question of kind of trying to type pricing to reserving, I know that's something that we did in the past we tried to talk about. I think just because of some of the variability that's out there today that's It's harder to link one to the other right now. I think the reserving is very much being driven by what we're seeing in the loss environment and trying to peg losses based upon that. And pricing, likewise, is doing that, but I would not draw a connection necessarily between the 2, if that makes sense. Speaker 600:35:17And then maybe sort of pull back to an industry question. I was just looking at the statutory data for the industry. And it looks like your loss ratio is ProAssurance's loss ratio is significantly higher than what the industry was last year. And obviously, the Q1 equates to a pretty launch increase versus what the industry put up last year. Maybe we could talk about what just I mean, is it Do you believe you're just more conservatively reserved or Is there something about your particular business mix that would mean I'm just looking at medical malpractice, you want to say that would make it so much higher than the rest of the industry. Speaker 100:36:14Yes. So, no, I don't think our business mix would be dramatically different than the industry. And so I don't think that would equate any change. I can't speak for what others are doing and what they may be seeing within their individual books of business. What we are doing is we believe being cautious in a very challenging marketplace where you can kind of Think about your analysis, you can kind of think that the trends are going to get better, they're going to get worse, they're going to stay the same. Speaker 100:36:48I imagine there are those out there that are perhaps thinking trends are going to get better and building that down. We don't think that's the prudent thing to do, but I can't speak specifically to what others are doing. But we see the same data that you do and recognize that perhaps we're a bit of an outlier and perhaps that's because of our caution. Speaker 600:37:11Would the same thing be true on your workers' comp book, which is also running a loss ratio significantly higher than the industry. Speaker 100:37:20Yes. I think on the work comp book, Maybe it's a little bit different. I think we are faster to recognize trends than the industry. When you look at the work comp book, We resolved claims, closed claims a lot faster than the industry. And as a consequence, I think we are kind of ahead of others in recognizing trends. Speaker 100:37:44And so, I feel a little more confident saying that with the work comp business that I think we have a better understanding of some of the underlying claim trends that are going on and because we close claims faster owning up to those trends and perhaps others in the marketplace are doing. Speaker 600:38:05Okay. Thank you for the help. Much appreciated. Speaker 100:38:08Thanks, Paul. Speaker 400:38:12Thank you, Paul. We have no further questions on the line. Operator00:38:34Thank you to everyone that joined us today. We look forward to speaking with you again on next quarter's conference call. Speaker 400:38:44Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by