NASDAQ:JRVR James River Group Q2 2026 Earnings Report $3.69 -0.10 (-2.64%) Closing price 09/18/2026 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$3.69 0.00 (0.00%) As of 09/18/2026 04:17 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast James River Group EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.20Consensus EPS $0.24Beat/MissMissed by -$0.04One Year Ago EPSN/AJames River Group Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$161.34 millionExpected Revenue$135.50 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$25.84 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AJames River Group Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2026Date8/11/2026TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateTuesday, August 11, 2026Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsJames River Group's Q3 2026 earnings is estimated for Monday, November 2, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled on Tuesday, November 3, 2026 at 9:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)SEC FilingEarnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by James River Group Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 11, 2026ShareShareShare This ReportLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: The E&S segment delivered a 92.8% combined ratio, improving from 96.5% in the prior quarter, while net income rose 59% year over year to $4.4 million. Positive Sentiment: Expense discipline continued to benefit results, with general and administrative expenses down 7% year over year in the quarter and 9% year to date; management said further savings remain possible. Negative Sentiment: Premium volume remains under pressure as the company deliberately reduces Specialty Admitted/fronting business and faces increased competition, particularly in property and general casualty. Portfolio rate increases moderated to about 3% in the second quarter from higher single-digit levels in the first quarter. Neutral Sentiment: Reserve trends were stable, with less than $1 million of adverse development, but the E&S adverse development cover was exhausted after absorbing $7.5 million of additional development, primarily tied to legacy product liability years from 2020–2022. Positive Sentiment: Management is targeting smaller insureds and selected specialty lines for profitable growth, supported by higher submissions and quotes, AI-enabled underwriting tools, and a conservative investment portfolio generating $20.3 million of quarterly net investment income. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallJames River Group Q2 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Lacey, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the James River Group second quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Bob Zimardo Senior Vice President, Investments and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Bob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor Relations at James River Group00:00:40Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to James River Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. A reminder that during the call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on current beliefs, intentions, expectations, and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties are detailed in the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in yesterday's earnings release and the risk factors of our most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports and filings we have made with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, during this presentation, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release for a reconciliation of these numbers to GAAP, a copy of which can be found on our website. Bob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor Relations at James River Group00:01:27Lastly, unless otherwise specified, for the reasons described in our earnings press release, all underwriting performance ratios referred to are for our continuing operations and business that is not subject to retroactive reinsurance accounting for loss portfolio transfers. I will now turn the call over to Frank D'Orazio, James River's Chief Executive Officer. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:01:49Thank you for that introduction, Bob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to pick up today's call with the very same theme we have emphasized over the last several quarters. Organizationally, profitability remains our primary focus, and we saw that evidence in the 92.8% combined ratio we achieved for our E&S segment, a meaningful improvement from the 96.5% we recorded last quarter, which was largely impacted by some unique legacy reinsurance dynamics. As you have heard from other competitors this quarter, the property and casualty market continues to transition. As conditions shift, our objectives remain the same, to direct underwriting capacity and capital towards areas offering the most attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining the discipline to walk away from opportunities that do not meet our profitability expectations. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:02:37We are stewarding the portfolio amidst a transitioning market while taking meaningful expense out of our business and strategically capitalizing on more efficient ways to target profitability over growth. A prime example of this activity is evident in our Specialty Admitted segment, where we have significantly downsized our writings and deliberately reduced our net exposures in a competitive fronting market while removing over 40% of the expense base in the segment during the year. While the decrease in the group's overall gross written premium is largely impacted by the intentional downsizing of our Specialty Admitted segment, at the same time, we have increased our gross to net premium retention nine points to 55% this quarter from 47% in the same quarter last year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:03:19With the shift away from fronting, while also taking advantage of several years of underwriting improvements in our E&S segment that we see manifesting in our most recent underwriting year results. As for market conditions, we continue to observe additional capacity entering sectors of the E&S market, primarily through MGAs and other newer market participants. As has been the case for several quarters now, property remains characterized by abundant capacity and a more competitive pricing environment. The story in casualty is more nuanced. Social inflation and elevated loss severity continue to create pressure across many casualty classes, so positive rate opportunities remain available in several areas where we continue to focus, including excess casualty and certain specialty lines. Today's market requires underwriters to pick their spots and for established participants to leverage long-standing distribution and client relationships. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:04:13While the impact of industry competition is prevalent in the property marketplace and also notably pronounced in the larger account casualty space, we have continued to remain focused on smaller insureds as market conditions have softened based on our own historical views of the profitability and renewal retention levels of this sector of the market. During the quarter, submission activity continued to grow. Our submissions for active divisions increased 4%, and 10 of our 13 underwriting divisions quoted more business than they did a year ago, with quotes on new business also increasing by 4%. As we discussed last quarter, the implementation of our AI-enabled underwriting workbench continues to progress, with a handful of departments now employing the initial deliverables from these tools, including excess casualty and small business. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:04:58Our objective is to improve underwriting efficiency, increase quote responsiveness, and more directly focus our underwriters' attention on submissions that fit our appetite and pricing objectives. We are still early in the implementation process, but our initial progress is encouraging. Turning to production. The drivers of the lower premium volume in the quarter are largely tied to a few specific dynamics, including deliberate underwriting appetite changes in the business mix and competitive dynamics within certain areas of the market, reflective of ongoing portfolio management in a shifting marketplace. There are a few important dynamics to cite when analyzing our production, in particular, when comparing levels versus prior year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:05:39First, our previously discussed decisions to put our contract binding department into runoff and to non-renew certain tracked housing exposures within our manufacturer's and contractor's division removed nearly $10 million of renewable premium from the quarter and approximately $25 million of premium from the portfolio over the past year. In particular, the construction accounts also carried average premium sizes that were significantly larger than our overall average premiums per policy. Secondly, the quarter was marked by an unusually significant amount of account premium that remains in force but did not renew because account renewal effective dates have moved to other quarters, as well as a large non-recurring project in our energy department. Production impact from this renewal timing dynamic, as well as the energy project, amounted to over $16 million in gross written premiums. Finally, business mix has become increasingly important as the market continues to transition. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:06:33For example, within our Specialty E&S division, we continue to see attractive opportunities and healthy margins, but the business we are writing today in these areas generally consists of smaller accounts below our average premium per policy levels of recent years. As a result, early growth opportunity is initially seen through increased submissions, quote activity, and policy count before translating into meaningful premium growth. Aided by our technology investment, we believe we are positioning the segment well for future profitable growth. On the other side of the P&L, our focus on expense discipline continues to produce tangible benefits. In the aggregate, our G&A expense was down 9% through the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:07:13Those savings have been driven primarily by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments and represent another example of our continued effort to improve efficiency, particularly in a transitioning market. With that, I'll turn it over to Sarah to discuss our financial results in greater detail. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:07:29Thank you, Frank, and good morning, everyone. This quarter, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $4.4 million, which compares to net income of $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2025, which is a 59% increase. Operating earnings were $10 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, as compared to $11.7 million or $0.23 per share in the prior year quarter. Our annualized operating return ontangible common equity for the quarter was 10%, and tangible common book value per share increased slightly from the start of the year to $9.01. The consolidated combined ratio was 100.2% and consists of a 66.3% loss ratio and 33.9% expense ratio for the quarter. As Frank mentioned, the E&S segment in particular generated a combined ratio of 92.8%. As Frank mentioned, the consolidated results heavily reflect our deliberate actions leading to lower earned premium, particularly within Specialty Admitted. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:08:43We've deliberately shrunk our segment, given the competitive conditions in the fronting and admitted market generally, and have done so while removing a significant part of the expense supporting the business. Expense reduction remains an important contributor to our overall performance and is an active and ongoing effort. General and administrative expenses declined $2.5 million or 7% compared to the prior year quarter and were down 9% on a year-to-date basis. Savings were primarily driven by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments, down 39% and 9% respectively, and reflect the actions we've taken over the last several quarters to simplify the organization, improve efficiency, and better align expenses with the size and composition of the business. The largest portion of these savings came from lower compensation-related expenses, including the impact of organizational efficiencies. We continue to actively improve operating efficiency across our business functions, and expenses remain firmly in focus. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:09:52On taxes, our effective tax rate was 21.8%, in line with the U.S. statutory rate following our redomicile last year. As a reminder, our November 2025 redomicile itself was a significant and lasting expense savings effort, everything from where and how we operate to our financing costs. In the same quarter last year, which was prior to the redomicile, our effective tax rate was over 30%. Turning to reserves, underlying loss trends remained stable during the quarter. We recorded net adverse reserve development of under $1 million compared to $3 million of adverse development reported in the prior year quarter. Our prior year development stems from the pre-2023 timeframe and does not change our overall review of reserve adequacy or the underlying performance, in particular of more recent accident years, which continue to benefit from meaningfully improved risk selection, underwriting governance, and discipline. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:11:03During the quarter, we ceded the remaining $7.5 million of development to the E&S top-up adverse development cover related to accident years 2010 through 2023. Consistent with prior quarters, this development was largely due to our product liability book. Turning to investments, portfolio performance remained stable and continued to support earnings and growth in book value. Net investment income was $20.3 million for the quarter, consistent with the prior year period and supported primarily by income generated from our high-quality fixed income portfolio, where we've been able to put new money to work well above our portfolio book yield. As a reminder, the capital supporting our Specialty Admitted business continues to drive results in our overall net investment income. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:11:57Turning back to the components of net investment income, private investment income was lower than the prior year quarter, reflecting a stronger comparison period in 2025 rather than any meaningful change to portfolio strategy. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:12:11Net realized and unrealized gains contributed approximately $1 million during the quarter. Our portfolio remains conservatively positioned, but well-positioned to support growth in book value. Approximately 75% of invested assets in cash are allocated to high-grade fixed income securities with an average duration of 3.6 years and average credit quality of A+. We remain focused on generating consistent investment income over time while preserving capital. Finally, we completed the third renewal of our E&S reinsurance treaty structure put in place beginning in July 2023. The structure was maintained with modest changes based on current conditions, but retained a similar and consistent panel of quality reinsurance partners and very similar terms and conditions otherwise. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator and open the line for questions. Operator00:13:14At this time, I would like to remind everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Mark Hughes with Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:13:30Yeah, good morning. Frank, just a question about the written premium in the E&S business. Obviously, you had some timing and project impact in the quarter. Maybe that's about five points, I think. How did that competition progress through the quarter kind of month to month when we think about what to expect in Q3? Should we anticipate the sustained pressure will have continuing impact or perhaps will be offset by some of your initiatives around submissions and getting more quotes out? Just a few thoughts about the Q3 second half would be very helpful in a volatile environment. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:14:24Sure. Thanks, Mark. There's a lot there, so let me try to cover it all. I think your last piece was really about outlook. Just in terms of the premium drop-off in E&S, we had a number of, I'll call it noisy dynamics. I think most instances you wouldn't call out some of those items because when you have over 30,000 in-force accounts, you can see some semblance of these items in any given quarter. But when they aggregate into tens of millions of premium dollars, I think they're worth clarifying, particularly for a company of our size. So the runoff of contract binding, the tracked home construction decision, and then some of the timing and non-recurring items accounted for about $26 million at GWP alone. So we had that about a nine-point kind of movement just relative to prior GWP. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:15:15I think you had a little bit less. But in terms of the market conditions, clearly the market's been transitioning for several quarters now. We're seeing increased competition beyond property. And you can see that, I think, probably most evident in the overall rate change for the portfolio. Sometimes rate change jumps around from quarter to quarter, but we were at a higher single-digit range in Q1 and about 3% in Q2. Still positive, but moderating. And we felt the difference in the quarter. You were asking for month to month. I'm not sure I can give you a sense in terms of how that moved from April through June. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:15:53But fortunately, with the significant underwriting changes that we made over the past several years and the continual overlay of the performance monitoring, which we've put in place and has informed our decisions to exit certain classes, I feel the portfolio is in much better position today to navigate changing market conditions and target specific areas that we feel that we can grow profitably focused on underwriting margins. The shift continues within the company, and we continue to really focus on SME and smaller accounts. We believe they're more profitable across market cycles. For Q2 2026 over Q2 2025, our average account premium was down 22.9%, and that's while the rate increases for the portfolio as a whole were still positive. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:16:44So you get a real sense for the shift in the size of the insureds in the portfolio, but also I think some of the pure premium headwinds when looking at prior year comparisons. So we think the trade-off makes sense, particularly in this phase of the market. We've analyzed historical loss ratios across the portfolio by premium band, and our history tells us that there's a comfortable, our view, double-digit spread in loss ratio points between business that we're targeting and, let's say, upper middle market to larger accounts where the premiums drift, let's say, north of $500,000 or so. But again, in terms of competition, I said it earlier, it's hard to deny that we're seeing general competition in the areas that we write increase. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:17:29We've seen some business moving to the admitted markets, especially in property, but I wouldn't say necessarily at a concerning rate elsewhere across the book. Biggest competition remains from MGAs and fronted facilities, particularly in excess property, and I would say in the excess, or excuse me, the general casualty space as well, so basically primary GL. But also from other E&S carriers and newer entrants into the space. So we spent a little bit of time on property, but I think that's pretty well chronicled. In a nutshell, increased capacity supply over the last two years has well outpaced the growth or the need in the market, and the result's pretty tangible. Rates are off significantly, and as an excess player, we see program layers being replaced with much larger stretches. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:18:18of primaries and some terms and condition pressure on deductibles. But I think the more recent development that we've seen really this year is in the general casualty space. We talked a little bit about it in Q1. It's become exceptionally competitive, and the pressures and competition differ regionally, so there are pricing pressures. I think the bigger concerns that we see are on the terms and conditions that the market has fought hard over the last several years to establish, particularly relative to assault and battery supplements. But pick a territory. In the Southeast, there's about 30 MGAs that are going hard after this business without limitations. So, general casualty, excess property, I think those are some areas that we're going to be off our numbers in the quarter, but with good reason. That said, overall for the segment, submissions were up 4% in total in the quarter. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:19:15Quotes were up overall, 10 of 13 underwriting departments increased quote count, and 7 of 13 increased binders overall. Again, just the business that we're writing is typically smaller account premium than we have traditionally. So generally, I don't feel the sector as a whole is in a very significant growth phase, but the areas that we feel most confidently about trying to profitably grow, I would say are in the specialty division, so professional liability, allied health, energy, environmental come to mind. Our small business unit is a place that we feel we can grow. And in all those areas, we feel we've got a strong view relative to the historical underwriting margins, and a strong focus in the class. And then elsewhere, I think, we'll still be able to push rate in certain areas like excess casualty, which is a big part of the book. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:20:11Those are the areas that we're going to continue to focus on and push to offset some of what we're seeing in the marketplace, Mark. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:20:20Yeah. Great. Appreciate that detail, Frank. Sarah, anything on the expenses this quarter, the corporate expenses is obviously a very good progress year-over-year. Anything non-recurring or unusual, or is this a good kind of starting point to go forward? Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:20:38Thanks for the question, Mark. I think it's a fair starting point. There's nothing exceptional in this quarter, only that I would just make the point that we're not finished on our expenses. We're actively managing them as we're managing the business through the rest of the year. But safe to say, and I'd be comfortable with where we are now with obviously giving us some room going forward. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:21:03Understood. Thank you. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:05Thank you. Operator00:21:07Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Brian Meredith with UBS. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:21:16Yeah. Thanks. Hey, Sarah, I appreciate you said that the more recent accident years are looking pretty good on the reserve side. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the reserves associated with the ADC that's now been exhausted. What accident years was the development coming from, and maybe a little bit in-depth on what lines of business is coming from, and just trying to get comfortable that those reserves won't continue to develop adversely. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:41How about I start, and then Frank can give some more color, Brian. The reserves- Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:21:47Sure Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:47the additions were really primarily related to 2022 through 2020. Those were the more significant years of addition. As I mentioned in my comments, it's almost entirely from our product liability book, which we've talked about for the last few quarters. I think Frank is probably better positioned to give you a little bit more color on that, but that answers, I think, your threshold level questions there. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:22:14Yeah. That's it. Great. Thanks. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:22:18Yeah, Brian, let me give you a little bit of additional color in terms of where that stands. Sarah just addressed what was the driver in the quarter. I just want to talk more broadly about the legacy covers in general. We obviously put them in place a few years ago. Looking back, they've allowed us to bolster our reserve base by about $235 million over the last, call it, two years. I take some comfort in the fact that the amounts that we ceded to the legacy structures have generally become progressively smaller. Perhaps more importantly, I focus on the overall reserve position, inclusive of all years, which we feel is adequate. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:23:00The reserve cover has really just been a piece of the overall position. Thankfully, we continue to see that clear demarcation in both claim counts and incurred loss ratios in recent accident year performance that we believe has been a reflection of the underwriting changes that we made over the past few years while we've utilized the legacy cover. We put the legacy structure in place coming out of our 2023 strategic review to retain any volatility coming out of the company's legacy years. Since that time, we've been through a couple annual reviews of our reserves, both internally and externally. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:23:37While our more recent accident years continue to mature with those positive indications, in essence, we never had any type of preconceived notion in terms of when and if the covers would be exhausted, but the structure has, I think, provided the projections as intended, and the recent underwriting years have continued to develop favorably. We talked about it in terms of what does that mean? In essence, if you look at our 2024 year, which is now 30 months on the triangle, you see real improvements in claims counts being down 23% overall, and the incurred loss ratio being down 34% for the same period. Perhaps one of the more helpful indicators just regarding the work that we've done with the underwriting portfolio over the last couple of years. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:24:24The only thing I'd just add a couple of numbers just to contextualize, because I've seen some different data out there, so to speak. Just to be clear, we've got $1.05 billion of total net reserves on our balance sheet. $950 million of those relate to the E&S business. Only about 15% of those, a little bit more than that, relate to the 2023 and prior years. Point being, we are building up a significant balance of reserves in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 years to the tune of over $800 million at this point. That's what you would expect given the tail on our business, but just wanted to lay out a few numbers as Frank has contextualized some of the more recent developments. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:25:14Thanks for the call. I appreciate that. A second question, Frank. I am just curious, on the Specialty Admitted segment, maybe give us a little color on what kind of the medium-term and long-term plans are for that business, and is there any visibility to maybe break even result on an underwriting basis at some point? Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:25:32Sure. Listen, I think that the view on Specialty Admitted, it has been fairly consistent the last couple of years now. The rationale in terms of the steps that we have taken, obviously plenty of carriers in the space, some less obvious but real exposures in the sector with heavy MGA competition for lines like commercial auto and larger casualty accounts. We now have less than one handful of active programs today and are really maintaining just a, I would say, capital-like platform. We still have a need to handle the claims and process the programs in runoff. So we will continue to manage the segment to what are low net retentions and have very diligent focus relative to expense management. But right now, its main contribution is to NAI. I mean, it contributes roughly 25% of our overall NAI. So that we think outshadows the small underwriting loss there. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:26:33But you see kind of the direction that we are taking the business here. It was once dozens of programs, and we are down to less than one handful. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:26:42Great. Thank you. Operator00:26:47Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. There are no Oh, we have a follow-up from Mark Hughes with Truist Securities. You may go ahead. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:27:06Yeah. Thank you. Frank or Sarah, just the crowd into general casualty these days, do you think it's just soft market behavior, properties down, people are stretching for premium, there's more capacity in the market? Or I'm just sort of curious, you talked about the recent accident years developing pretty well. Do you think there's some sense that frequency and severity are really under control, and so therefore, it's leading to more people being comfortable taking these long tail lines? And obviously you've got interest rates that are influencing this. So I'm just sort of curious whether you think or how you would weigh some of those factors when you consider the step-up in competition in the general casualty. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:27:57Yeah, Mark. I'll take a shot. I mean, obviously, the property market has been kind of on this glide path now for about two years. So kind of coming into planning for 2026. I think the general view was that there were more attractive returns in casualty and a heck a lot of new MGA kind of startups focusing in a line where reinsurers were starting to target more capital deployment. And we know what the formula is just relative to how MGAs are viewed as being successful. So we see it really kind of throughout the country but slightly different shades in terms of focus. But I think it's as simple as being able to more readily put together reinsurance support for a primary $1 million and pretty aggressive MGA community. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:28:55Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:28:58Thanks, Mark. Operator00:29:00At this time, there are no further questions. I would like to turn it back over to Frank D'Orazio, CEO, for closing remarks. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:29:11Thank you, moderator, and thank you to everyone for your time and for the questions we received this morning. Before we conclude, I want to recognize and thank Dennis Langwell for his service on our board of directors following his retirement, as we certainly wish him all the best. I'd also like to welcome Rajiv Basu to the board. Rajiv brings decades of insurance industry experience, and we're pleased to have him join the board of James River. Stepping back, we continue to believe the company is well-positioned in today's market. The quarter was not without pressure, and premium trends remained affected by the underwriting and market dynamics we discussed this morning. Our core E&S business remained profitable, expenses continue to improve, and our balance sheet protections have significantly bolstered our reserve balances over the last two years as our more recent underwriting years have continued to mature. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:29:57Undoubtedly, our focus remains clear. We will manage the business for underwriting profitability and long-term value rather than near-term volume. We believe the actions taken over the last several years have created a more focused organization, a more disciplined E&S portfolio, and a stronger foundation for profitable growth over time. Importantly, I want to thank all of my James River colleagues for their efforts and continued commitment to the pursuit of our corporate objectives. For those listening to this call, we appreciate your continued interest in James River and look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Operator00:30:32Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. You may disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor RelationsFrank D'OrazioCEOSarah DoranGroup CFOAnalystsMark HughesAnalyst at Truist SecuritiesBrian MeredithAnalyst at UBSPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) James River Group Earnings HeadlinesJames River Group: Book Value Rose Because The Reserves Went WrongSeptember 1, 2026 | seekingalpha.comJames River Group (JRVR) Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 18, 2026 | fool.comWhy This Small AI Company Holds 150 PatentsJeff Brown, the tech investor who identified Nvidia in 2016 before its 37,000% run, has flagged a new AI company holding 150 patents for technology that processes information up to 1,000 times faster than standard AI. Wall Street projects the company's sales to more than triple in the coming year, and Brown notes it's roughly the same size Nvidia was a decade ago, with a key catalyst set for November 11.September 20 at 1:00 AM | Brownstone Research (Ad)Analysts Offer Insights on Financial Companies: Artisan Partners (APAM), James River Group (JRVR) and Wsfs Financial (WSFS)August 14, 2026 | theglobeandmail.comJames River Group Holdings, Inc. (JRVR) Q2 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptAugust 11, 2026 | seekingalpha.comJames River Announces Second Quarter 2026 ResultsAugust 10, 2026 | markets.businessinsider.comSee More James River Group Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like James River Group? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on James River Group and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About James River GroupJames River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) is a Bermuda-based specialty insurance holding company that operates primarily through insurance subsidiaries in the United States. The company provides specialty property and casualty insurance and reinsurance products for businesses and other insurance organizations. James River’s operations have included excess and surplus lines, specialty admitted insurance and casualty reinsurance. Its products are designed for risks that may not be readily served by standard insurance markets and have included commercial automobile liability, general liability, workers’ compensation and other casualty coverages. The company has served customers across a range of industries, including commercial transportation, construction, energy, manufacturing and healthcare. Through its U.S. insurance platforms and Bermuda-based reinsurance operations, James River has historically focused on commercial insurance and specialty casualty risks. Its business has evolved over time as the company has adjusted its underwriting activities and portfolio to emphasize areas where it believes it has specialized expertise.View James River Group 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 Latest Articles J.B. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is Lacey, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the James River Group second quarter earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Bob Zimardo Senior Vice President, Investments and Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Bob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor Relations at James River Group00:00:40Thank you, operator, and good morning, everybody. Welcome to James River Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. A reminder that during the call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on current beliefs, intentions, expectations, and assumptions that are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. Such risks and uncertainties are detailed in the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in yesterday's earnings release and the risk factors of our most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports and filings we have made with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, during this presentation, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings press release for a reconciliation of these numbers to GAAP, a copy of which can be found on our website. Bob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor Relations at James River Group00:01:27Lastly, unless otherwise specified, for the reasons described in our earnings press release, all underwriting performance ratios referred to are for our continuing operations and business that is not subject to retroactive reinsurance accounting for loss portfolio transfers. I will now turn the call over to Frank D'Orazio, James River's Chief Executive Officer. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:01:49Thank you for that introduction, Bob. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I would like to pick up today's call with the very same theme we have emphasized over the last several quarters. Organizationally, profitability remains our primary focus, and we saw that evidence in the 92.8% combined ratio we achieved for our E&S segment, a meaningful improvement from the 96.5% we recorded last quarter, which was largely impacted by some unique legacy reinsurance dynamics. As you have heard from other competitors this quarter, the property and casualty market continues to transition. As conditions shift, our objectives remain the same, to direct underwriting capacity and capital towards areas offering the most attractive risk-adjusted returns while maintaining the discipline to walk away from opportunities that do not meet our profitability expectations. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:02:37We are stewarding the portfolio amidst a transitioning market while taking meaningful expense out of our business and strategically capitalizing on more efficient ways to target profitability over growth. A prime example of this activity is evident in our Specialty Admitted segment, where we have significantly downsized our writings and deliberately reduced our net exposures in a competitive fronting market while removing over 40% of the expense base in the segment during the year. While the decrease in the group's overall gross written premium is largely impacted by the intentional downsizing of our Specialty Admitted segment, at the same time, we have increased our gross to net premium retention nine points to 55% this quarter from 47% in the same quarter last year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:03:19With the shift away from fronting, while also taking advantage of several years of underwriting improvements in our E&S segment that we see manifesting in our most recent underwriting year results. As for market conditions, we continue to observe additional capacity entering sectors of the E&S market, primarily through MGAs and other newer market participants. As has been the case for several quarters now, property remains characterized by abundant capacity and a more competitive pricing environment. The story in casualty is more nuanced. Social inflation and elevated loss severity continue to create pressure across many casualty classes, so positive rate opportunities remain available in several areas where we continue to focus, including excess casualty and certain specialty lines. Today's market requires underwriters to pick their spots and for established participants to leverage long-standing distribution and client relationships. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:04:13While the impact of industry competition is prevalent in the property marketplace and also notably pronounced in the larger account casualty space, we have continued to remain focused on smaller insureds as market conditions have softened based on our own historical views of the profitability and renewal retention levels of this sector of the market. During the quarter, submission activity continued to grow. Our submissions for active divisions increased 4%, and 10 of our 13 underwriting divisions quoted more business than they did a year ago, with quotes on new business also increasing by 4%. As we discussed last quarter, the implementation of our AI-enabled underwriting workbench continues to progress, with a handful of departments now employing the initial deliverables from these tools, including excess casualty and small business. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:04:58Our objective is to improve underwriting efficiency, increase quote responsiveness, and more directly focus our underwriters' attention on submissions that fit our appetite and pricing objectives. We are still early in the implementation process, but our initial progress is encouraging. Turning to production. The drivers of the lower premium volume in the quarter are largely tied to a few specific dynamics, including deliberate underwriting appetite changes in the business mix and competitive dynamics within certain areas of the market, reflective of ongoing portfolio management in a shifting marketplace. There are a few important dynamics to cite when analyzing our production, in particular, when comparing levels versus prior year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:05:39First, our previously discussed decisions to put our contract binding department into runoff and to non-renew certain tracked housing exposures within our manufacturer's and contractor's division removed nearly $10 million of renewable premium from the quarter and approximately $25 million of premium from the portfolio over the past year. In particular, the construction accounts also carried average premium sizes that were significantly larger than our overall average premiums per policy. Secondly, the quarter was marked by an unusually significant amount of account premium that remains in force but did not renew because account renewal effective dates have moved to other quarters, as well as a large non-recurring project in our energy department. Production impact from this renewal timing dynamic, as well as the energy project, amounted to over $16 million in gross written premiums. Finally, business mix has become increasingly important as the market continues to transition. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:06:33For example, within our Specialty E&S division, we continue to see attractive opportunities and healthy margins, but the business we are writing today in these areas generally consists of smaller accounts below our average premium per policy levels of recent years. As a result, early growth opportunity is initially seen through increased submissions, quote activity, and policy count before translating into meaningful premium growth. Aided by our technology investment, we believe we are positioning the segment well for future profitable growth. On the other side of the P&L, our focus on expense discipline continues to produce tangible benefits. In the aggregate, our G&A expense was down 9% through the first half of the year compared with the same period last year. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:07:13Those savings have been driven primarily by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments and represent another example of our continued effort to improve efficiency, particularly in a transitioning market. With that, I'll turn it over to Sarah to discuss our financial results in greater detail. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:07:29Thank you, Frank, and good morning, everyone. This quarter, we reported net income available to common shareholders of $4.4 million, which compares to net income of $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2025, which is a 59% increase. Operating earnings were $10 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, as compared to $11.7 million or $0.23 per share in the prior year quarter. Our annualized operating return ontangible common equity for the quarter was 10%, and tangible common book value per share increased slightly from the start of the year to $9.01. The consolidated combined ratio was 100.2% and consists of a 66.3% loss ratio and 33.9% expense ratio for the quarter. As Frank mentioned, the E&S segment in particular generated a combined ratio of 92.8%. As Frank mentioned, the consolidated results heavily reflect our deliberate actions leading to lower earned premium, particularly within Specialty Admitted. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:08:43We've deliberately shrunk our segment, given the competitive conditions in the fronting and admitted market generally, and have done so while removing a significant part of the expense supporting the business. Expense reduction remains an important contributor to our overall performance and is an active and ongoing effort. General and administrative expenses declined $2.5 million or 7% compared to the prior year quarter and were down 9% on a year-to-date basis. Savings were primarily driven by our Specialty Admitted and corporate segments, down 39% and 9% respectively, and reflect the actions we've taken over the last several quarters to simplify the organization, improve efficiency, and better align expenses with the size and composition of the business. The largest portion of these savings came from lower compensation-related expenses, including the impact of organizational efficiencies. We continue to actively improve operating efficiency across our business functions, and expenses remain firmly in focus. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:09:52On taxes, our effective tax rate was 21.8%, in line with the U.S. statutory rate following our redomicile last year. As a reminder, our November 2025 redomicile itself was a significant and lasting expense savings effort, everything from where and how we operate to our financing costs. In the same quarter last year, which was prior to the redomicile, our effective tax rate was over 30%. Turning to reserves, underlying loss trends remained stable during the quarter. We recorded net adverse reserve development of under $1 million compared to $3 million of adverse development reported in the prior year quarter. Our prior year development stems from the pre-2023 timeframe and does not change our overall review of reserve adequacy or the underlying performance, in particular of more recent accident years, which continue to benefit from meaningfully improved risk selection, underwriting governance, and discipline. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:11:03During the quarter, we ceded the remaining $7.5 million of development to the E&S top-up adverse development cover related to accident years 2010 through 2023. Consistent with prior quarters, this development was largely due to our product liability book. Turning to investments, portfolio performance remained stable and continued to support earnings and growth in book value. Net investment income was $20.3 million for the quarter, consistent with the prior year period and supported primarily by income generated from our high-quality fixed income portfolio, where we've been able to put new money to work well above our portfolio book yield. As a reminder, the capital supporting our Specialty Admitted business continues to drive results in our overall net investment income. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:11:57Turning back to the components of net investment income, private investment income was lower than the prior year quarter, reflecting a stronger comparison period in 2025 rather than any meaningful change to portfolio strategy. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:12:11Net realized and unrealized gains contributed approximately $1 million during the quarter. Our portfolio remains conservatively positioned, but well-positioned to support growth in book value. Approximately 75% of invested assets in cash are allocated to high-grade fixed income securities with an average duration of 3.6 years and average credit quality of A+. We remain focused on generating consistent investment income over time while preserving capital. Finally, we completed the third renewal of our E&S reinsurance treaty structure put in place beginning in July 2023. The structure was maintained with modest changes based on current conditions, but retained a similar and consistent panel of quality reinsurance partners and very similar terms and conditions otherwise. With that, I'll turn the call back to the operator and open the line for questions. Operator00:13:14At this time, I would like to remind everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Mark Hughes with Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:13:30Yeah, good morning. Frank, just a question about the written premium in the E&S business. Obviously, you had some timing and project impact in the quarter. Maybe that's about five points, I think. How did that competition progress through the quarter kind of month to month when we think about what to expect in Q3? Should we anticipate the sustained pressure will have continuing impact or perhaps will be offset by some of your initiatives around submissions and getting more quotes out? Just a few thoughts about the Q3 second half would be very helpful in a volatile environment. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:14:24Sure. Thanks, Mark. There's a lot there, so let me try to cover it all. I think your last piece was really about outlook. Just in terms of the premium drop-off in E&S, we had a number of, I'll call it noisy dynamics. I think most instances you wouldn't call out some of those items because when you have over 30,000 in-force accounts, you can see some semblance of these items in any given quarter. But when they aggregate into tens of millions of premium dollars, I think they're worth clarifying, particularly for a company of our size. So the runoff of contract binding, the tracked home construction decision, and then some of the timing and non-recurring items accounted for about $26 million at GWP alone. So we had that about a nine-point kind of movement just relative to prior GWP. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:15:15I think you had a little bit less. But in terms of the market conditions, clearly the market's been transitioning for several quarters now. We're seeing increased competition beyond property. And you can see that, I think, probably most evident in the overall rate change for the portfolio. Sometimes rate change jumps around from quarter to quarter, but we were at a higher single-digit range in Q1 and about 3% in Q2. Still positive, but moderating. And we felt the difference in the quarter. You were asking for month to month. I'm not sure I can give you a sense in terms of how that moved from April through June. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:15:53But fortunately, with the significant underwriting changes that we made over the past several years and the continual overlay of the performance monitoring, which we've put in place and has informed our decisions to exit certain classes, I feel the portfolio is in much better position today to navigate changing market conditions and target specific areas that we feel that we can grow profitably focused on underwriting margins. The shift continues within the company, and we continue to really focus on SME and smaller accounts. We believe they're more profitable across market cycles. For Q2 2026 over Q2 2025, our average account premium was down 22.9%, and that's while the rate increases for the portfolio as a whole were still positive. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:16:44So you get a real sense for the shift in the size of the insureds in the portfolio, but also I think some of the pure premium headwinds when looking at prior year comparisons. So we think the trade-off makes sense, particularly in this phase of the market. We've analyzed historical loss ratios across the portfolio by premium band, and our history tells us that there's a comfortable, our view, double-digit spread in loss ratio points between business that we're targeting and, let's say, upper middle market to larger accounts where the premiums drift, let's say, north of $500,000 or so. But again, in terms of competition, I said it earlier, it's hard to deny that we're seeing general competition in the areas that we write increase. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:17:29We've seen some business moving to the admitted markets, especially in property, but I wouldn't say necessarily at a concerning rate elsewhere across the book. Biggest competition remains from MGAs and fronted facilities, particularly in excess property, and I would say in the excess, or excuse me, the general casualty space as well, so basically primary GL. But also from other E&S carriers and newer entrants into the space. So we spent a little bit of time on property, but I think that's pretty well chronicled. In a nutshell, increased capacity supply over the last two years has well outpaced the growth or the need in the market, and the result's pretty tangible. Rates are off significantly, and as an excess player, we see program layers being replaced with much larger stretches. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:18:18of primaries and some terms and condition pressure on deductibles. But I think the more recent development that we've seen really this year is in the general casualty space. We talked a little bit about it in Q1. It's become exceptionally competitive, and the pressures and competition differ regionally, so there are pricing pressures. I think the bigger concerns that we see are on the terms and conditions that the market has fought hard over the last several years to establish, particularly relative to assault and battery supplements. But pick a territory. In the Southeast, there's about 30 MGAs that are going hard after this business without limitations. So, general casualty, excess property, I think those are some areas that we're going to be off our numbers in the quarter, but with good reason. That said, overall for the segment, submissions were up 4% in total in the quarter. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:19:15Quotes were up overall, 10 of 13 underwriting departments increased quote count, and 7 of 13 increased binders overall. Again, just the business that we're writing is typically smaller account premium than we have traditionally. So generally, I don't feel the sector as a whole is in a very significant growth phase, but the areas that we feel most confidently about trying to profitably grow, I would say are in the specialty division, so professional liability, allied health, energy, environmental come to mind. Our small business unit is a place that we feel we can grow. And in all those areas, we feel we've got a strong view relative to the historical underwriting margins, and a strong focus in the class. And then elsewhere, I think, we'll still be able to push rate in certain areas like excess casualty, which is a big part of the book. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:20:11Those are the areas that we're going to continue to focus on and push to offset some of what we're seeing in the marketplace, Mark. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:20:20Yeah. Great. Appreciate that detail, Frank. Sarah, anything on the expenses this quarter, the corporate expenses is obviously a very good progress year-over-year. Anything non-recurring or unusual, or is this a good kind of starting point to go forward? Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:20:38Thanks for the question, Mark. I think it's a fair starting point. There's nothing exceptional in this quarter, only that I would just make the point that we're not finished on our expenses. We're actively managing them as we're managing the business through the rest of the year. But safe to say, and I'd be comfortable with where we are now with obviously giving us some room going forward. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:21:03Understood. Thank you. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:05Thank you. Operator00:21:07Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from Brian Meredith with UBS. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:21:16Yeah. Thanks. Hey, Sarah, I appreciate you said that the more recent accident years are looking pretty good on the reserve side. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the reserves associated with the ADC that's now been exhausted. What accident years was the development coming from, and maybe a little bit in-depth on what lines of business is coming from, and just trying to get comfortable that those reserves won't continue to develop adversely. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:41How about I start, and then Frank can give some more color, Brian. The reserves- Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:21:47Sure Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:21:47the additions were really primarily related to 2022 through 2020. Those were the more significant years of addition. As I mentioned in my comments, it's almost entirely from our product liability book, which we've talked about for the last few quarters. I think Frank is probably better positioned to give you a little bit more color on that, but that answers, I think, your threshold level questions there. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:22:14Yeah. That's it. Great. Thanks. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:22:18Yeah, Brian, let me give you a little bit of additional color in terms of where that stands. Sarah just addressed what was the driver in the quarter. I just want to talk more broadly about the legacy covers in general. We obviously put them in place a few years ago. Looking back, they've allowed us to bolster our reserve base by about $235 million over the last, call it, two years. I take some comfort in the fact that the amounts that we ceded to the legacy structures have generally become progressively smaller. Perhaps more importantly, I focus on the overall reserve position, inclusive of all years, which we feel is adequate. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:23:00The reserve cover has really just been a piece of the overall position. Thankfully, we continue to see that clear demarcation in both claim counts and incurred loss ratios in recent accident year performance that we believe has been a reflection of the underwriting changes that we made over the past few years while we've utilized the legacy cover. We put the legacy structure in place coming out of our 2023 strategic review to retain any volatility coming out of the company's legacy years. Since that time, we've been through a couple annual reviews of our reserves, both internally and externally. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:23:37While our more recent accident years continue to mature with those positive indications, in essence, we never had any type of preconceived notion in terms of when and if the covers would be exhausted, but the structure has, I think, provided the projections as intended, and the recent underwriting years have continued to develop favorably. We talked about it in terms of what does that mean? In essence, if you look at our 2024 year, which is now 30 months on the triangle, you see real improvements in claims counts being down 23% overall, and the incurred loss ratio being down 34% for the same period. Perhaps one of the more helpful indicators just regarding the work that we've done with the underwriting portfolio over the last couple of years. Sarah DoranGroup CFO at James River Group00:24:24The only thing I'd just add a couple of numbers just to contextualize, because I've seen some different data out there, so to speak. Just to be clear, we've got $1.05 billion of total net reserves on our balance sheet. $950 million of those relate to the E&S business. Only about 15% of those, a little bit more than that, relate to the 2023 and prior years. Point being, we are building up a significant balance of reserves in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 years to the tune of over $800 million at this point. That's what you would expect given the tail on our business, but just wanted to lay out a few numbers as Frank has contextualized some of the more recent developments. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:25:14Thanks for the call. I appreciate that. A second question, Frank. I am just curious, on the Specialty Admitted segment, maybe give us a little color on what kind of the medium-term and long-term plans are for that business, and is there any visibility to maybe break even result on an underwriting basis at some point? Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:25:32Sure. Listen, I think that the view on Specialty Admitted, it has been fairly consistent the last couple of years now. The rationale in terms of the steps that we have taken, obviously plenty of carriers in the space, some less obvious but real exposures in the sector with heavy MGA competition for lines like commercial auto and larger casualty accounts. We now have less than one handful of active programs today and are really maintaining just a, I would say, capital-like platform. We still have a need to handle the claims and process the programs in runoff. So we will continue to manage the segment to what are low net retentions and have very diligent focus relative to expense management. But right now, its main contribution is to NAI. I mean, it contributes roughly 25% of our overall NAI. So that we think outshadows the small underwriting loss there. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:26:33But you see kind of the direction that we are taking the business here. It was once dozens of programs, and we are down to less than one handful. Brian MeredithAnalyst at UBS00:26:42Great. Thank you. Operator00:26:47Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. There are no Oh, we have a follow-up from Mark Hughes with Truist Securities. You may go ahead. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:27:06Yeah. Thank you. Frank or Sarah, just the crowd into general casualty these days, do you think it's just soft market behavior, properties down, people are stretching for premium, there's more capacity in the market? Or I'm just sort of curious, you talked about the recent accident years developing pretty well. Do you think there's some sense that frequency and severity are really under control, and so therefore, it's leading to more people being comfortable taking these long tail lines? And obviously you've got interest rates that are influencing this. So I'm just sort of curious whether you think or how you would weigh some of those factors when you consider the step-up in competition in the general casualty. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:27:57Yeah, Mark. I'll take a shot. I mean, obviously, the property market has been kind of on this glide path now for about two years. So kind of coming into planning for 2026. I think the general view was that there were more attractive returns in casualty and a heck a lot of new MGA kind of startups focusing in a line where reinsurers were starting to target more capital deployment. And we know what the formula is just relative to how MGAs are viewed as being successful. So we see it really kind of throughout the country but slightly different shades in terms of focus. But I think it's as simple as being able to more readily put together reinsurance support for a primary $1 million and pretty aggressive MGA community. Mark HughesAnalyst at Truist Securities00:28:55Okay. Appreciate that. Thank you. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:28:58Thanks, Mark. Operator00:29:00At this time, there are no further questions. I would like to turn it back over to Frank D'Orazio, CEO, for closing remarks. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:29:11Thank you, moderator, and thank you to everyone for your time and for the questions we received this morning. Before we conclude, I want to recognize and thank Dennis Langwell for his service on our board of directors following his retirement, as we certainly wish him all the best. I'd also like to welcome Rajiv Basu to the board. Rajiv brings decades of insurance industry experience, and we're pleased to have him join the board of James River. Stepping back, we continue to believe the company is well-positioned in today's market. The quarter was not without pressure, and premium trends remained affected by the underwriting and market dynamics we discussed this morning. Our core E&S business remained profitable, expenses continue to improve, and our balance sheet protections have significantly bolstered our reserve balances over the last two years as our more recent underwriting years have continued to mature. Frank D'OrazioCEO at James River Group00:29:57Undoubtedly, our focus remains clear. We will manage the business for underwriting profitability and long-term value rather than near-term volume. We believe the actions taken over the last several years have created a more focused organization, a more disciplined E&S portfolio, and a stronger foundation for profitable growth over time. Importantly, I want to thank all of my James River colleagues for their efforts and continued commitment to the pursuit of our corporate objectives. For those listening to this call, we appreciate your continued interest in James River and look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Operator00:30:32Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. You may disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesBob ZimardoSVP of Investments and Investor RelationsFrank D'OrazioCEOSarah DoranGroup CFOAnalystsMark HughesAnalyst at Truist SecuritiesBrian MeredithAnalyst at UBSPowered by