Kemper Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
November 5, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Negative Sentiment: The company reported a net loss of $21 million (‑$0.34/share) and an adjusted consolidated net operating income of $20.4 million, while specialty P&C underlying combined ratios widened to 99.9% (personal auto 102.1%), driven by elevated bodily‑injury severity in California and intensified pricing competition.
  • Negative Sentiment: Kemper strengthened reserves by $51 million pre‑tax ($41 million after‑tax), concentrated in commercial auto for accident years 2023 and prior, citing higher severity, greater attorney involvement and latent large‑loss development that could persist.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management launched a restructuring (a $16.2 million after‑tax charge) and leadership changes in claims and IT, aiming for roughly $30 million of annual run‑rate cost savings plus pricing and non‑rate actions to improve execution and underwriting discipline.
  • Positive Sentiment: The balance sheet and cash flow remain strong with over $1 billion in available liquidity, $585 million of trailing‑12‑month operating cash flow, and $266 million of share repurchases (5.1M shares) executed July–October under the $500M authorization.
  • Positive Sentiment: Kemper Life delivered steady results with operating earnings of $19 million, favorable mortality trends and disciplined expense management, providing stable earnings and cash generation for the company.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Kemper Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Kemper's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Constantine, and I will be your conference coordinator for today. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference call, Michael Marinaccio, Kemper's Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations. Mr. Marinaccio, you may begin.

Michael Marinaccio
Michael Marinaccio
VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Kemper

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Kemper's discussion of our Third Quarter 2025 results. This afternoon, you'll hear from Tom Evans, Kemper's Interim CEO; Brad Camden, Kemper's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Matt Hunton, Kemper's Executive Vice President and President of Kemper Auto; and Chris Flint, Kemper's Executive Vice President and President of Kemper Life. We'll make a few opening remarks to provide context around our Third Quarter results, followed by a Q&A session. During the interactive portion of the call, our presenters will be joined by John Boschelli, Kemper's Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer. After the markets closed today, we issued our earnings release, filed our Form 10-Q with the SEC, and published our earnings presentation and financial supplement. You can find these documents in the investor section of our website, kemper.com.

Michael Marinaccio
Michael Marinaccio
VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Kemper

Our discussion today may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, the company's outlook on its future results of operation and financial condition. Actual future results and financial condition may differ materially from these statements. For information on additional risks that may impact these forward-looking statements, please refer to our 2024 Form 10-K and our Third Quarter Earnings Release. This afternoon's discussion also includes non-GAAP financial measures we believe are meaningful to investors. In our financial supplement, earnings presentation, and earnings release, we've defined and reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP where required in accordance with SEC rules. You can find each of these documents in the investor section of our website, kemper.com. All comparative references will be to the corresponding 2024 period unless otherwise stated.

Michael Marinaccio
Michael Marinaccio
VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Kemper

I'll now turn the call over to Tom.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Thank you, Michael, and good afternoon, everyone. First, I'd like to begin by introducing myself. I'm Tom Evans, and as many of you know, three weeks ago, the Board of Directors asked me to step in as Kemper's Interim CEO. Over the past 33 years, I've had the privilege of serving in a variety of roles at Kemper, most recently as General Counsel. During this time, I've gained a deep understanding of our business and, just as importantly, our people. I believe strongly in this Organization, its purpose, its potential, and the exceptional talent of our team. We are united by a commitment to serving markets that are often overlooked by other carriers, and I'm proud to be part of a company that embraces that responsibility with integrity and focus.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

As you know, our board has commenced a search to identify our next CEO, and I'm confident they'll find the right person to lead us through the next chapter of our story. We'll provide an update on the search when we have more information to share. Let's begin the substantive portion of this call with a straightforward comment. Our results this quarter were disappointing. Today, we'll address what happened, why it happened, and, above all, what we're doing about it. Without question, we continue to believe strongly in both our strategy and our opportunities, but it's clear our Execution has fallen short at times. Some of the challenges we faced were driven by external conditions, but others were within our control. We know that we need to be better operators to deliver the consistent results that investors expect and that we know we're capable of.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

To that end, the board and leadership team have taken significant steps, including recent changes in leadership and a Restructuring Initiative, to improve Execution and accountability and ensure that we deliver on our strategic priorities. This isn't about changing our direction. It's about reinforcing the disciplines that drive performance. If we do those things, we can better leverage our scale and our capabilities to improve efficiency, broaden our reach across markets, and deliver more stable, sustainable results. With that, I'll now provide some context around the key drivers of our performance, and then Brad and Matt will provide more detail and commentary on each. We'll also get a quick update from Chris, who leads Kemper Life, about what's going on in that business. I'd like to start by discussing the broader Specialty Auto environment, which, in 2025, has rapidly evolved.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Historically, it's always been a more sensitive, fast-moving segment, with shifts often appearing there before becoming visible in the broader Auto Insurance space, and that kind of dynamic certainly held true this year. One of the most notable developments here has been the sharp increase in competition, particularly over the spring and summer. In several of our key markets, we've seen other carriers aggressively pursue market share through pricing tactics. While we're responding to these pressures, we won't abandon our underwriting standards, and we remain committed to disciplined underwriting and driving Profitable Growth. In addition to competitive pressure, we're seeing elevated severity trends due to medical cost inflation and higher attorney involvement in claims. The impact of Bodily Injury severity has been especially pronounced in our largest market, California, where the January 1st changes to minimum financial responsibility limits are showing up in our results more significantly than initially anticipated.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

We had expected adjustments to be needed once real Claims Experience began to emerge, and we're actively making those adjustments. Matt will provide further detail later. As for the litigation environment, whether you call it social inflation or Legal System abuse, the effect is the same: upward pressure on loss costs and overall claims inflation. Ultimately, this leads to increased customer premiums and prolonged claims resolution processes. As I stated earlier, we believe in our strategy, and we remain committed to it. We know what we have to do. We're taking actions to enhance our competitive advantages, improve profitability, and achieve consistent TIF Growth. We're in a solid financial position, and we're confident these actions will help us succeed. With that, I'll turn it over to Brad.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Thank you, Tom, and good afternoon, everyone. Before diving into the presentation, as Tom mentioned, our financial results this quarter fell short of expectations due to a combination of factors including intensified competition, elevated severity trends in claims, and a handful of infrequent items. In response, we're implementing a targeted Restructuring Initiative, taking segmented pricing actions, and making operational improvements. Additionally, we made some changes in our senior management team, including new leadership in Claims and Information Technology, which were designed to accelerate and enable these efforts. Our immediate priority is to enhance Execution, improve profitability, and position the company for growth. Let's now turn to slide five to discuss our financial results in more detail. For the quarter, we reported a net loss of $21 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, and adjusted consolidated net operating income was $20.4 million, or $0.33 per diluted share.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

These results generated a negative 3% Return on Equity and year-over-year Book Value per Share growth of 4.8%. Our trailing 12-month Operating Cash Flow remained strong at $585 million, holding near our all-time high. In our P&C segment, the underlying Combined Ratio increased 6 percentage points sequentially to 99.6%. Reflecting elevated California Bodily Injury claim severity and competitive pricing pressure. Policies enforced and our premium grew 0.6% and 10.7% year-over-year, respectively. Matt will discuss this in detail later. Our Life Business delivered solid results this quarter, supported by favorable mortality trends and disciplined expense management. These fundamentals continue to reinforce the segment's reliability and stable contribution to overall earnings and Cash Flow. Chris briefly discussed this later in the call. Additionally, our balance sheet is strong with substantial capital and liquidity positions, providing financial flexibility.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

This strength enables us to support organic growth, invest in strategic initiatives, and distribute capital to shareholders. From the beginning of July to the end of October, we've repurchased a total of 5.1 million shares at an average price of $52.65. For a total cost of $266 million. This activity includes the $150 million accelerated Share Repurchase Program announced in August, which was successfully completed in mid-October. Moving to slide six, here we take a look at the key sources of earnings volatility during the quarter. These include a Restructuring Charge, the write-off of internally developed software, and adverse prior development. I'll provide some additional color on each. During September, we initiated actions to drive operational efficiencies and reduce costs. These initial actions are expected to generate approximately $30 million in annualized run-rate savings.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

We continue to look across the business to identify additional expense savings opportunities focused on enhancing cost discipline and Organizational effectiveness. These savings are intended to do two things. First, improve our Combined Ratio, and second, to support growth in Specialty Personal Auto business and accelerate geographic diversification. As a result of these actions, we recorded a $16.2 million after-tax restructuring charge in the quarter. In Kemper's Preferred Business. Which is reported below the line in Non-Core Operations, we lost $21 million, primarily due to a $22 million expense related to the write-off of internally developed software. Approximately 90% of this business has now run off. As a result, an expense was recognized this quarter, and all remaining software amortization has been completed. And finally, we strengthened our reserves by $51 million pre-tax, or $41 million after-tax in our Specialty Auto segment.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

The vast majority of the Adverse Development was concentrated in our Commercial Auto business. Primarily from Bodily Injury and Defense costs related to accident years 2023 and prior. As Tom noted, and consistent with broader industry trends, we continue to see elevated Bodily Injury severity. This is caused by several factors, including rising medical care costs, increased use of innovative treatments, and higher attorney involvement rates. In response, we've taken proactive steps to address these challenges, including Rate and Non-Rate actions and further enhancements to our Claim Management processes. Turning to slide seven, our balance sheet remains strong and provides financial flexibility. As of quarter end, we maintained over $1 billion in available liquidity, and our insurance subsidiaries remain well-capitalized. Our debt-to-capital ratio stands at 24.2%. Near our long-term target and reflective of our disciplined capital management.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Notably, we generated $585 million in Operating Cash Flow over the past 12 months, remaining near an all-time high for the company, underscoring the resilience of our business model and the consistency of our Cash Flow generation. Moving to slide eight. Quarterly Net Investment Income totaled $105 million, up $9 million sequentially, driven by improved performance in our alternative investment portfolio. We maintain a high-quality, well-diversified investment portfolio that demonstrates thoughtful asset allocation and prudent risk management. As the portfolio grows and benefits from favorable new money rates, we anticipate Net Investment Income will continue to trend upward over time, contributing meaningfully to overall earnings. In summary, our disciplined approach to capital deployment, strong balance sheet, and resilient Cash Flow generation position us for success. With initiatives underway to improve Profitable Growth and operational discipline, we're well-equipped to navigate evolving market conditions and deliver value to our stakeholders.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

I'll now turn it over to Matt to discuss the specialty P&C segment.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to slide nine, the specialty P&C segment produced an underlying Combined Ratio of 99.9% this quarter. Personal Auto's Combined Ratio increased to 102.1%, while Commercial remained relatively stable at 91.1%. The increase in our Personal Auto underlying Combined Ratio was driven primarily by Bodily Injury loss trends. While we're observing signs of elevation across all geographies, this was particularly evident in California. As you will recall, on January 1st of this year, the industry-wide mandatory increase in state minimum limits went into effect. This change doubled the BI limit from $15,000 to $30,000 to $30,000 to $60,000, while also increasing Physical Damage from $5,000 to $15,000. At the time of our initial rate filings for the new limits, our pricing analysis was based on our California loss experience, complemented by our experience with similar limit increases in non-California markets.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Our selected pricing factors were on the higher end of the actuarially supported range. With that said, our early read of actual post-change severity has come in higher than forecasted. BI is a long-tail coverage, and at three-month evaluation, is only about 35% developed. Also, more severe, higher-cost claims, which have a greater propensity to reach policy limits, tend to be resolved sooner. Therefore, we moved quickly to take Rate and Non-Rate actions to ensure pricing meets lifetime targets. We'll continue to closely monitor severity patterns and adjust accordingly. As earlier noted, the Specialty Auto market tends to experience emerging patterns earlier than the Standard market. With Specialty Auto customers being higher frequency, loss patterns become visible more rapidly. To that end, an increasingly clear driver of liability cost challenge is higher attorney involvement and Legal System abuse.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

We continue to see Attorneys attached to claim files much earlier in the process. The combination of growing Medical Inflation and the greater use of elective procedures is driving a more expensive Treatment Mix. This dynamic is not unique to our business. It's an industry-wide trend that will require more proactive and disciplined management. With that said, 95% of our book is at state minimum limits, which places an upper bound on further cost escalation. As Brad discussed, in addition to our Underwriting and Pricing actions, we've launched a Restructuring initiative aimed at creating a more competitive Cost Structure to further diversify our book. These efficiencies are supporting expansion efforts in Florida, Texas, and other non-core states, funding market entry work, improving Product Competitiveness, and expanding Distribution Partnerships in priority regions where we see strong growth potential.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Shifting to production, California moved quickly from a Hard Market to a more normalized market with competition intensifying. We're taking Rate and Non-Rate actions to address liability costs to ensure pricing economics remain sound. These actions are aligned with our goal of tracking Profitable Growth through the cycle. Our pricing actions to date in Florida and Texas have helped stabilize our Enforced Book. Ongoing Expense Efficiency initiatives and enhancements to our Product Capabilities are targeted at supporting Profitable Growth in these markets. In Commercial Auto, underlying margins remain strong and TIF Growth was 14%. The competitive market remains stable with regional nuances. Similar to our Personal Auto business, we continue to be aggressive on rate actions across all coverages with heightened focus on Bodily Injury. Our Competitive Advantages position us well to capitalize on these opportunities.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

And finally, we're focused on Execution, rolling out new Product Features, improving end-to-end Claim Handling, and driving Cost Efficiencies, all to enhance Price Competitiveness. By strengthening operational discipline in these areas, we can grow strategically, diversify our footprint beyond Core Markets, and deliver Profitable Growth. I'll now turn the call over to Chris to cover the Life Business.

Chris Flint
Chris Flint
EVP and President of Kemper Life at Kemper

Thank you, Matt. Turning to our Life Business on slide 10, the life segment delivered solid quarterly results with operating earnings of $19 million, driven by favorable Claims Experience to Expense levels tightly aligned with Product Economics. Despite a modest decline in Premium Volume, the business remains well-positioned to sustain strong returns on capital and robust Cash Generation. I'll now turn the call back to Tom to cover Closing Comments.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Thanks, Chris. In closing, I hope we've described not only what happened this quarter and why, but more importantly, the actions we're taking to improve Profitability and Growth. We're reinforcing the disciplines that drive Performance through Management Changes, a Restructuring Initiative, and a renewed focus on Execution. As I said at the top, I have tremendous confidence in this Organization, its Purpose, its Potential, and the Talent of our People. I want to thank our entire team for their commitment and hard work to make Kemper a stronger Organization. As we navigate this environment, we remain certain of our ability to deliver long-term value to all of our Stakeholders. Operator, we may now take questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touch-tone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. If you would like to withdraw from the polling process, please press star followed by the number two. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure to lift your handset before pressing any case. Your first question comes from the line of Andrew Kligerman from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Hey, thanks for taking my question. Good evening. Maybe start with the Commercial Auto segment. I calculate an unfavorable prior year development of. 18.7 points. And that follows the second quarter at 8.4 points of unfavorable. And. If I—and correct me if I'm wrong—but if I recall the. Management Commentary on the last call, it seemed that it had been nipped; they had really captured it. We talked on the call, I think, about. The social inflation environment. So. What happened between 2Q and 3Q on the Commercial. End, and why should we. Not expect another unfavorable prior year development there?

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Good afternoon, Andrew. This is Brad. Thank you for the question. You are correct in comments from prior quarter. We did have Adverse Development in the second quarter. And obviously, we've also had Adverse Development here in the third quarter. In the second quarter, we discussed. The Adverse Development being latent, large loss activity, not due to frequency, but higher severity. We've experienced the same thing here in the third quarter on large losses, so continued latent development in accident years 2023 and prior. Additionally, we're also seeing. BI severity trends from social inflation. And continued attorney attachments. In non-large losses, which is how we describe that as anything below $250,000. So the BI severity trends that Matt discussed in the call previously, not only in PPA, is also prevalent in Commercial Vehicle, and it has been prevalent across the industry to date. With respect to.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Us capturing this and not being. A consistent issue. We've adjusted our expectations on what each of those cases. Are today and what they're going to expect to develop to. And we've also adjusted our IBNR Development Factors to capture what we think is probable in the future. We're confident in that. But as the environment remains extremely dynamic, there may be further Adverse Development, but we're confident with what we have today.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Okay. Thank you for that. And my follow-up question. Shifting back to Private Passenger Auto. Coming at an underlying combined of 102.1. And a lot of your competitors. We've seen are coming in around 90%. So. I guess you've got geographic. Differences. So I guess the question is. One, what gives you confidence in your Data and Analytics? Are you up to speed with that? Are you in line with your peers with your Data and Analytics in terms of capturing this stuff? And I suspect the part B of it is I suspect you probably need some rate, and California has historically been a very tough state. Do you think they'll give you the. Approvals that you need?

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Andrew, this is Matt. I'll start with just highlighting the nuanced difference between us and some of the Main Street competitors that we're up against. I think primarily one is we're predominantly a Minimum Limits Customer Base. We have a different Frequency Profile and Loss Profile. It's sort of the definition of Non-Standard. The other is 60%+ of our book is in California. And that's really where the driver of the. Inflection was in the loss from quarter over quarter. Frequency came in line within expectations. It was slightly elevated, but within normal sort of seasonal expectations. The driver was heightened severity, and it was really the BI PD dynamic that. It's not new for the industry. This has been a dynamic in the industry for the last decade or so. But it was heightened due to the. FR changes in California earlier this year. Right?

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

And so this effectively acts as a one-time step up in cost. And this isn't normal. The last time California had a. Limit Increase was in 1967. And so with California representing the percentage of the Portfolio for us that it does, naturally, it's more pronounced in our Results relative to peers. And as our California Book converted over to the new limits, and as Brad mentioned, with the latent development or the slow development of BI coverage, we observed the. Elevated paid patterns in the mid part of the third quarter, and we took immediate action. I don't think we have any concern about our analytics or insights. We have a perspective view in terms of where costs are going, and we're trying to be as aggressive as we can in achieving that.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Regarding the rate to be filed that is currently filed with the CDI, that is with the CDI, we are having proactive conversations with them. Our goal is to get the rate effective as soon as possible, and the dialogues are moving along as we expect them to.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Got it. And maybe just if I could sneak one last one in. There was a lot of discussion in the investment community about. Kemper's willingness to. Be acquired. I know you can't be specific, but. What's your thinking right now on that topic? Is that something that Kemper is open to?

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Andrew, this is Tom Evans. That's not really something we can comment on. We're a public company. We're for sale every day.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Okay. Very fair. And thank you for your detailed answers to my questions.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

You're welcome. Thanks for the questions.

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mitch Rubin from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Mitch Rubin
Mitch Rubin
Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Hey, good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I wanted to ask about the restructuring. Could you please elaborate on some of the specific areas where you guys are targeting cost savings from? Thanks.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Thanks, Mitch. This is Brad. Really in three areas. One is in Organizational Design. We've restructured some of the reporting lines and, as a result, have had some Cost Savings. So Organizational Structure. Second bucket is Process Efficiencies. So think about with some new product launches, we have lower Commissions. With. Improved process, we expect to reduce some Print/Postage, some Bad Debt, other things. So increased overall Efficiency in the Organization is. Key and critical. And lastly, there are various one-off things that maybe we've made investments in in the Organization that we're looking to change on how we do business and how we operate going forward. So total, as we mentioned, we did a $16.2 million after-tax charge. That's going to save us on a run-rate basis approximately $30 million annually.

Mitch Rubin
Mitch Rubin
Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Thank you for the color there. And my follow-up on page nine of the presentation, I see that. Policies enforced in Florida and Texas came down about 7% year-over-year. Could you provide some color on what you're seeing in the competitive environment there?

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Yeah. This is Matt again. I'll start with overall. We still are bullish on the markets that we operate in. Obviously, California being our largest. We talked a lot about California being a hard market over the past few quarters as it worked its way through the pandemic. That is normalizing. Competition is increasing on the new business side. With that said, our Policy Retentions are. Stable there, but some competitors continue to get increasingly aggressive. And as we are making the changes we're making on the pricing and underwriting side to address the Liability Trends, we think those are the right changes. And we're remaining disciplined as we work through the cycle. In terms of Florida and Texas, those markets are very competitive marketplaces. I think we've talked about that for the last few quarters. We've done. Quite a few changes in our Products from a Segmentation Pricing perspective.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

That have stabilized our enforced book of business. And as Brad mentioned in the prepared comments, the restructuring and Cost Efficiencies that we're driving through the business. Along with additional product enhancements, are focused on those markets. So to accelerate growth in those markets and help us. Move towards our strategic end state of being a more diversified Geographic Portfolio.

Mitch Rubin
Mitch Rubin
Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Great. Thank you. That's helpful. If I could just ask one more thing. You mentioned some non-rate actions you guys have been taking. Could you give any insight towards that?

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Yeah. Non-rate actions are effectively tightening some Underwriting Aperture, managing agents in terms of capacity with a bit more aggressiveness. Adjusting Billing Features, among other things, that help us manage. Profile and. The expected losses associated with the profile.

Mitch Rubin
Mitch Rubin
Equity Research Associate at Raymond James

Thank you. Appreciate all the answers.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by the number one on your touch-tone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure to lift your handset before pressing any case. Your next question comes from the line of Brian Meredith from UBS. Please go ahead.

Brian Meredith
Brian Meredith
Managing Director at UBS

Yeah. Thanks. A couple of questions here for you. The first one, I think it's related to some run-off stuff, but I'm just curious. The software right off in the quarter, what is that exactly related to? And did that have any effect. Or a part of your, call it, specialty business?

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Hey, Brian. This is Brad. Good afternoon. The Write-Off of the Internally Developed Software is solely related to the Kemper Preferred business, which is reported below the line in Non-Core Operations. As a result of our premium forecasts and the acceleration of the Run-Off of that business. We determined that the premium receiving is no longer. Enough to support those Assets. So as a result, we've written them off this quarter. It has no relation to the Specialty Auto business. It's solely related to Kemper Preferred.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

I'd also like to highlight that that business is now 90% run-off, and the remaining policy is predominantly in the state of New York, which we are. Close to working with a regulator to accelerate the run-off of that business.

Brian Meredith
Brian Meredith
Managing Director at UBS

Makes sense. And then my next question is. I mean, I guess the Chief Claims Officer and the Chief Information Officer, CIO, are gone. What changes are you making. In the Claims and the Information Technology area. As a result of the departures?

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Well, we publicly—Brian, this is Tom Evans. We've announced that. Andy Ramamoorthy has stepped in as chief claims officer. So that responds to that part of your question. With regard to. The IT space. We currently have an office of the CIO that's comprised of three members of our executive team: Andy, who I already mentioned. Matt, and Brad are the other two members. And we are—I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Yeah. I meant more about process, right? Underlying process or changes that maybe the changes within claims or systems processes, not so much the new people coming in.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

Brian, this is Matt. On the claim side, there are a few sort of process points of evolution that we're working on. And some of this has been work in process for the last few years. But the biggest one is sort of having an end-to-end orientation around how. We manage total cost of ownership and value generation. We worked pretty aggressively on the material damage side the last couple of years, and the efforts are paying off in terms of stemming some of the tariff pressure that I think the industry is seeing.

Matt Hunton
Matt Hunton
EVP and President of Kemper Auto at Kemper

We have been working that on the liability side, and we're accelerating some of that work so we could aggressively manage some of the headwinds from a liability trend perspective. That's one example. Another example is we're taking our data science capabilities that we built on the pricing front, and we're accelerating that into claim to help us process more effectively sort of next best action, drive some automation, leveraging AI and other toolkits to really drive efficiency in the engine. And on the technology side, similarly, connecting that more to the business to drive value in a more expeditious and agile way.

Brian Meredith
Brian Meredith
Managing Director at UBS

Great. Thanks. And then, Tom, you're—yeah.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Sorry, Brian. Just going to add one more comment. The other thing that we've done is we've repositioned some of the players in our claims team, particularly to respond to some of the more active things we're seeing in the litigation environment to better respond to those issues.

Brian Meredith
Brian Meredith
Managing Director at UBS

Makes sense. And then last question, I guess, more from Brad. So I'm assuming there was some kind of current year catch-up in the underlying kind of loss picks in the quarter. What's the run-rate underlying loss ratio right now in the third quarter x current year development? And maybe you can break that out between Personal Auto and the commercial.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Great question, Brian. What I'll give you as the detail is essentially. Underlying loss ratio from Q2 to Q3 increased 6% points, 93.6% to 99.6%. When you think about. The Current-Year Adjustments, no significant Current-Year Adjustments. What we're seeing is favorable development on comp and collision and Metals Coverages. And we can see some Adverse Development even in the Current Accident Year on BI. So it's a mixed development with no significant changes either in Commercial Vehicle or PPA.

Brian Meredith
Brian Meredith
Managing Director at UBS

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Your last question is from the line of Andrew Kligerman from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Yeah. Thanks for taking one last question. On the Share Repurchases. You did a pretty active. I think it was, what, $266 million through October from July 1st. And you still have about 300 million left. So maybe some color on your thoughts around Share Repurchase going forward.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Thanks, Andrew. You are correct with the numbers. 5.1 million shares, roughly $266 million. From a Share Repurchase standpoint, we continue to think the stock is attractive. That said, I will. Point you to our capital deployment strategy, which is first to Fund Organic Growth. Matt talked about what we're doing there as we invest some of the restructuring savings into. Florida and Texas. So we want to make sure we have enough for. Internal organic growth. Secondly, we want to make sure we have enough. Capital to. Have financial flexibility. And then third, if there's anything that's additional, we will distribute that to shareholders. So you are correct. There's still a significant amount remaining in the authorization that was granted last quarter, that $500 million. And we'll continue to be. Tactical with that as we go forward.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

And maybe just as a quick follow-on to that. In terms of Policy Enforced Growth, and you've talked about it, Brad, that. TIF would be a little lighter, maybe very low single digit in the back half of 2025. Are you thinking, just in light of all these pricing changes, that you can kind of maintain that? You came in close at 0.6. And then when you get into 2026, do you feel like you could really. Target that—what was it?—mid-single digit growth that you were looking for in. TIF next year, maybe upper mid?

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

Yeah. So you got the numbers correct, Andrew. We came in at 0.6% year-over-year, down sequentially. I'll highlight that. We've talked about this a lot in the past. Going from Q3 to Q4, we typically see. Lower shopping activity as a result. TIF naturally declines just as a result of seasonality in our business. So I would expect TIF to modestly decline, maybe 1% or 2%, maybe 3% from Q3 to Q4. Then I'd expect us back to growing in the first quarter as we get into the buying season. As a reminder, that buying season typically starts mid-February and goes through late April, early May. As far as TIF Growth. What we expect in the first half of next year, I think that depends. On a competitive environment. As Matt mentioned, our goal is to. Grow profitably.

Brad Camden
Brad Camden
EVP and CFO at Kemper

And so we're going to protect our margins and be thoughtful around growth, particularly in some key states like California.

Andrew Kligerman
Andrew Kligerman
Managing Director at TD Securities

Super. Thank you so much.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I'll hand the call over back to Tom Evans for closing comments. Sir, please go ahead.

Tom Evans
Tom Evans
Interim CEO at Kemper

Thank you. I want to thank everybody for taking the time to join us today and to provide the thoughtful questions. We appreciate everyone's continued support as we move through this transition, and we look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. In the meantime, the team here at Kemper remains focused on Execution and continuing to focus on delivering value for our shareholders. Thanks very much. Take care.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you very much for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Tom Evans
      Tom Evans
      Interim CEO
    • Michael Marinaccio
      Michael Marinaccio
      VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations
    • Chris Flint
      Chris Flint
      EVP and President of Kemper Life
    • Brad Camden
      Brad Camden
      EVP and CFO
    • Matt Hunton
      Matt Hunton
      EVP and President of Kemper Auto
Analysts
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