W R Berkley Corp at UBS Financial Services Conference Transcript

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

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : So let's start big picture, Rob. Talk about kind of key strategic priorities for 2025 for W.R. Berkley, how do we think about them? What are you kind of focused on? And maybe even take it a little bit longer like three years because markets kind of in transition?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Interesting. The other thing too, Rob, I often think of W.R. Berkley as a growth company, right? P&C is not necessarily a growth business, but you all -- I think of it as a good growth company, good compounding growth over time, good in the cycles. As we think about 2025, maybe talk about the opportunity set you have in front of you to really drive more top line growth here? I know everybody uses this 10% number and I get it that you can be a little below. But what's the opportunity set look like in 2025 given kind of the big macro landscape?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. Why don't we pivot there then and talk a little bit about the E&S opportunity here. It's been a massive growth market here for the last 8, 10 years, right? And what's going to keep gaining share here and see the good growth that it's been seeing?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. Interesting. And I guess the other thing on some of the big price increases that we're seeing that I always think about is client fatigue, right? And how are clients kind of dealing with these massive rate increases we've seen over the last 5, 6, 7, 8 years?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. And maybe what's pivot there then to the social environment, kind of your thoughts on kind of the social inflation environment. It seems like it's been an increasingly difficult challenging environment for social inflation for a while, continues to be. What's your view of it? What needs to get done to maybe take the curve and flatten it out a little bit here?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. Any green shoots like on the social inflation? I mean, I know we've got some legislation in Florida that went through a year or so ago, anything?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Makes sense. And let's pivot over to the margin question a little bit here. So rate continues to be in excess of loss trend on your Insurance business, been so here for a while. And then last call, you mentioned that you expect underwriting margins to, at a minimum, stay stable to maybe improve here 25%, looking forward. Maybe you can pack that a little bit for us kind of what are the key drivers, expense ratio, loss ratio, reserve releases, how are you thinking about that going forward?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Yesah. And another, I guess, question, right? Good things coming. But when I think about your core loss ratios, underlying core loss ratios the last couple of years, you've been pretty consistently holding it flat, maybe up a little bit given this social inflation environment, right? So are we getting to the point, I guess, where you're significantly above that you're comfortable that you've got it caught and everything?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. Great. Another one I want to ask a little bit about is businesses you've been starting. You're always starting new businesses and you're, I think, somewhat unique in the industry and then you do a lot of organic growth in businesses rather than acquiring them. Maybe you can talk about some areas of interest that you've kind of started businesses recently, where are you investing right now in your business? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 10, 2025 / 3:30PM, WRB.N - W R Berkley Corp at UBS Financial Services Conference

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. I want to see if the audience have any questions before I keep asking? No. I'll keep going. There's one back here. Unidentified Participant (inaudible - microphone inaccessible) Would cyber be an area you would look at as a specialty or does it just come across other parts of the business?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Right. Why don't we pivot over to Berkley One, it's something that you hear more and more about in press and you're getting a lot of good press as far as the product goes, it's your mass affluent homeowners insurance product, can you talk about kind of the growth prospects there? Is that going to be a more and more relevant part of the overall kind of profit and growth story here for Berkley?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. And then maybe adding on to that. So obviously, when we think of homeowners insurance, you think of catastrophe losses, hurricanes, et cetera, volatility, and they don't think of W.R. Berkley as a company that has volatile earnings. So how do you control that? How do you balance it? How are you thinking about that with this business?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. And the other one, I just (inaudible) for you, do you have E&S capabilities at Berkley One because it seems like an area that --

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. Audience, anything? Yeah, another one. Go ahead. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 10, 2025 / 3:30PM, WRB.N - W R Berkley Corp at UBS Financial Services Conference Unidentified Participant (inaudible - microphone inaccessible) and then maybe a little more detail on what gives you confidence that social inflation is, I guess, understood from a reserve standpoint at this point?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Good. Maybe on that topic, talk a little bit about the growth you're seeing in commercial auto rate? Is there any exposure growth there? How do you find this business from attracting this perspective given the current loss trend environment?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. Interesting. On that topic, too, yeah, this interesting chart that you showed and encouraged everybody. I'm sure it can be on your website. They are some great slides that they've put out and they've got the cycle turned. Where are we with commercial auto? It looks like you're getting close to, you think, maybe a growth opportunity here on that kind of?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got it. Great. And then I thought maybe we could talk a little bit right now about your investment portfolio. The extended duration a little bit here in the fourth quarter, do you think that's going to continue here? Kind of what's your outlook on the duration?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : That's great. And then maybe [put] on the investment portfolio over to your investment funds. It's something, I think, is a little unique with you all. You have a great performance historically with the investment funds. Maybe talk a little bit about the strategies in that investment fund and kind of where you put new money, where are the attractive opportunities there?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Makes sense. And let's talk a little bit more. I know Berkley One sits in the short tail lines, but maybe you can talk a little bit about the other short tail lines that you've got in your portfolio, right? That's been a really fast-growing area. The attractiveness, how do we think about the rest of that short tail lines?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. That's been a hot topic recently, medical stop loss, I'm sure you've seen a couple of --

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Interesting. Great. Anything else from the audience? Unidentified Participant On the E&S side, you were talking about the transition of property to liability. Can you talk a little more detail around the drivers behind that? And then what do you think the duration of the growth opportunity is on the liability side?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Anybody else? Why don't we pivot over to another line of business that has been dreadfully and adequate for a long time, professional lines. Maybe give us your kind of thoughts on where we are? Are we getting close to a bottom on pricing? I mean, I see M&A activity and stuff picking up which can cause professional liability claims. Where do you think we are? How far below price at actually are we?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : D&O. Let's talk about D&O.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. Is that an area that you all likely will lean into if we start seeing going the other way?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. Maybe we can pivot over also the workers' comp. I know you're investing some specialty comp, but let's just talk generally about workers' comp pricing. What do we see happening in '25? We've talked about frequency, it seems like it's starting to normalize?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Got you. And when comp turns around, maybe you can talk about a little bit because this is a regulated line of business, right? Is it harder to catch that trend from a pricing perspective because it's regulated versus other commercial lines?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. Anybody -- anyone else? We got a couple others here. Okay. One bigger picture one. I wanted to ask about, there's been a lot of talk about tariffs, right? And what could potentially happen going forward? Maybe give us a perspective on what does tariffs mean to the P&C insurance industry? Does it matter? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 10, 2025 / 3:30PM, WRB.N - W R Berkley Corp at UBS Financial Services Conference

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Interesting. Do you think that could cause the property markets to maybe firm up a little bit more again?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. Anybody else? All right. So one last one here that I want to ask, I try to ask at the end. So elevator pitch, 60 seconds or less, tell the audience why they should own W.R. Berkley stock for the next 12 months, two or three years, whatever?

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Great. (inaudible) I think we'll wrap it up there then. Thank you, Rob. That was really helpful.

Question: Brian Meredith - UBS Investment Bank - Analyst : Appreciate it.