W R Berkley Corp Q1 2025 Earnings Call Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Andrew Kligerman - TD Securities - Analyst : Hey, good evening. I was particularly interested in the short-tail lines up 13%, Rob, what areas did you get excited about? Because as I'm thinking about the property subset. And you called out rates being up ex property, meaning like?

Question: Andrew Kligerman - TD Securities - Analyst : I see A&H and property. And within the property component, I mean, I guess, property pricing is there's so many sublines, but I'm hearing kind of down mid-single digit. Could you maybe elaborate a little bit on that? Like what property lines do you like? And what are you seeing in rate in property?

Question: Andrew Kligerman - TD Securities - Analyst : Got it. And in the reinsurance segment, I mean, again, you put up another fabulous combined ratio. I guess you did an 85.4 and that's even with 10.9 points of cats. Should we be thinking about that as a stable kind of run rate for reinsurance? I mean.

Question: Elyse Greenspan - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : Hi, thanks. My first question, I know I think in the prepared remarks, you guys said -- you pointed out the $1 million of development in the quarter. And I think said it seems like nothing to call out in the segments. Would you be willing to give us just if it's immaterial numbers, just how much reserves in the quarter moved in both insurance and reinsurance.

Question: Elyse Greenspan - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : Thanks. And then my second question was on the underlying loss ratio. I think you guys said mix, right? And the prior question, right, on reinsurance, which which had a strong improvement in the quarter. We did see some year-over-year deterioration in insurance in the Q1. Can you just -- I'm assuming maybe mix was also attributed to that segment. Can you just walk us through what was going on within the underlying loss ratio and insurance in the Q1? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. APRIL 21, 2025 / 9:00PM, WRB.N - Q1 2025 W R Berkley Corp Earnings Call

Question: Elyse Greenspan - Wells Fargo Securities - Analyst : And then my last one. Obviously, you guys recently announced that Misumi Sumitomo is going to take right the 15% stake in the company. I know in the presentation that was put out, it pointed to them starting in May. I'm not sure if this is a question for you or them, but is there an update on the regulatory process? And is that May time frame still intact?

Question: Robert Cox - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Hey, I wanted to zone back in on the tariff impact. I know you guys are still assessing. But maybe specifically on the property lines of business and the high net worth homeowners, how are you thinking about what the impact of tariffs might be?

Question: Robert Cox - Goldman Sachs - Analyst : Got it. That's very helpful. And then maybe just as a follow-up on the pricing. It sounds like it accelerated 60 basis points or so in the quarter. What are you seeing in terms of outliers by line of business? Is that any different from recent quarters? And what kind of the acceleration?

Question: Michael Zaremsk - EMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Hey, good afternoon. I guess going back to the macro and appreciating that with the tariffs, there's lots of uncertainty. But maybe curious if you can kind of talk high level about your view on work comp profitability under a recession scenario? I know you just kind of basically said keeping an eye on tariffs impact on pharma costs. But I'm -- I guess curious more specifically has higher than historical wage inflation levels, has that been a material tailwind in recent years that we should be thinking about to under a recession scenario? Or just any kind of high-level thoughts given that this line of business continues to be just highly profitable and we're getting a lot of recession questions.

Question: Michael Zaremsk - EMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. That's very helpful. maybe switching gears a bit to lawsuits social inflation. If thinking kind of looking at Berkeley's past disclosure and just the industry as well. Other liability occurrence continues to be. I know you said no analogies, but kind of pig through the python. Do you feel pricing levels for other liability occurrence, I know that it works its way through different lines. But do you feel that pricing is that kind of a level where directionally roughly can start playing offense? Or do we really need to see -- continue to see a material increase in pricing there to really feel like the coast is clear?

Question: Michael Zaremsk - EMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Okay. Got it. We'll sneak in just a follow-up question to Rob Cox's question and your answer about tariffs impacting more than just the auto line. I probably just need to do more homework myself. But is there -- have you been willing to quantify just directionally commercial property, would tariffs under their current form potentially impact loss ratio by like just I don't know if you have a corridor like very low-single digits?

Question: Michael Zaremsk - EMO Capital Markets - Analyst : Understood. Thank you.

Question: Joshua Shanker - Bank of America - Analyst : We're doing great. I wanted to dig in just some of the comments. You mentioned in your prepared remarks that you have to concentrate on specialty workers' comp to understand why Berkley grew in the quarter in otherwise tepid comp environment. But you always have a specialty as what you're writing. Is it -- were there a few unique opportunities that you saw in 1Q '25? And should we expect that workers' comp is going to be a unique area that Berkeley is able to grow for the next few quarters while the industry struggles?

Question: Joshua Shanker - Bank of America - Analyst : And is there anything we can use by looking at this number to think about the remainder of the year?

Question: Joshua Shanker - Bank of America - Analyst : So if I could ask the same question, but about a different market about commercial auto liability. It's been a tough market for a while. But this is the first time that I've really seen Berkeley's premium volume are really fade compared to the prior quarters. Has something changed in the last three months?

Question: Joshua Shanker - Bank of America - Analyst : Okay. And if I can sneak one other in. Andrew mentioned about the cats. Notably, Berkeley has no exposure to California homeowners, which avoided the -- didn't completely obviously, being avoided the line of business that was most exposed to the biggest cat in the quarter, yet this was quite a big quarter for catastrophe losses for Berkley. Has the premium footprint change as you've moved into short tail line and expose yourself more to property such that we should revise our priors and how we think Berkeleys cat loss exposure evolves relative to the market more broadly?

Question: Joshua Shanker - Bank of America - Analyst : Well, thank you for all the answers. Appreciate it.

Question: David Motemaden - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Hey, good afternoon, Rob. I had just a follow-up question on the reserve development within the Insurance segment, the $11 million. I was hoping to get a little bit more detail in terms of some of the moving pieces there?

Question: David Motemaden - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Great. And then I was -- I know not a big line for you guys either, but the property reinsurance growth was a pretty nice tailwind this quarter. ticked up quite a bit, I guess, how should we think about how sustainable growth is in that market within the property cat market?

Question: David Motemaden - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Got it. And then maybe just lastly. So there's been some efforts at tort reform in Georgia. I know you guys are a decent-sized player in Georgia within GL and commercial auto. I guess just curious on your thoughts in terms of what that does to sort of address some of the social inflation issues that have been problematic there?

Question: David Motemaden - Evercore ISI - Analyst : Great. Thank you

Question: Mark Hughes - Truist Securities - Analyst : Anything to say on admitted versus E&S and the mix shift, it seems like it's continued in E&S. How did you see that play out this quarter? And any commentary on submission growth would be great.

Question: Mark Hughes - Truist Securities - Analyst : And then, Rich, on the reinsurance purchasing that you talked about influencing the mix which influenced the current accident year. Is that an ongoing phenomenon, do you think? Or is that -- is there some timing about the purchasing of the reinsurance that might have influenced Q1 more than others?

Question: Mark Hughes - Truist Securities - Analyst : Very good. Thank you.

Question: Andrew Anderson - Jefferies - Analyst : Hey, good afternoon. Just on casualty reinsurance, you had mentioned the professional liability component. I was just hoping you could touch on kind of the rate and discipline that you're seeing in the market. And expectations or thoughts of that may be improving as we go through the year? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. APRIL 21, 2025 / 9:00PM, WRB.N - Q1 2025 W R Berkley Corp Earnings Call

Question: Andrew Anderson - Jefferies - Analyst : Got it. So maybe still some non-renewals as we go throughout the year on that line perhaps?

Question: Andrew Anderson - Jefferies - Analyst : Okay. And then just on specialty workers' comp. Is the rate there kind of similar to traditional workers' comp? Or what are you seeing in that market?

Question: Andrew Anderson - Jefferies - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS - Analyst : Yeah, thanks. Hey, how are you? Two quick ones here for you. First one, just on the property reinsurance, again, were there any reinstatement premiums or anything in there that may have kind of elevated the growth on a year-over-year basis, just given the cat losses.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS - Analyst : Okay. Excellent. And actually, the next one is for Bill. Just curious, Bill, during the 1970s, we had stagflation. Maybe give us -- tell us what that kind of means for the commercial insurance industry and kind of what it was like back then with stagflationary environment.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS - Analyst : Thank you.

Question: Wes Carmichael - Autonomous Research - Analyst : Hey, good evening. I wanted to come back quickly to the increase in the underlying loss ratio that was driven by mix. And Rich, I heard your commentary on reinsurance. And I don't think it sounds like it, but I just want to confirm, is there any mix standpoint on the expense ratio that you're seeing?

Question: Wes Carmichael - Autonomous Research - Analyst : Okay. Understood. And then just in the insurance segment, I wonder if you could just unpack growth a bit more. And Rob, you talked about workers' comp for a while. So any more color on the other lines, including other liability that you might call out in the quarter going forward?

Question: Meyer Shields - KBW - Analyst : Thanks. If I go back to the specialty workers' compensation driving the growth, are the underwriting and claims handling tools different from the prior book of workers' compensation at Berkley.

Question: Meyer Shields - KBW - Analyst : So the legacy, in other words, the workers compensation business that you've written over the last few years.

Question: Meyer Shields - KBW - Analyst : Okay. And then completely changing topics. So in the press release confirming Mitsui Sumitomo, their President and CEO talked about deploying their network to grow the value of their investment, which I think means Berkley. I was hoping you could flesh out what that means in terms of growth potential for Berkeley.

Question: Meyer Shields - KBW - Analyst : Okay. But that's nothing in 2025?

Question: Meyer Shields - KBW - Analyst : Okay. Fair enough. Thank you very much.