AMERISAFE, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Janelle Frost: This is a very good point. Yeah these were older treaties prior to 2017 where there were claims that had some adverse development and it just caused that ceding commission or that profit sharing that was associated with those treaties to reverse. So it had been accrued over a period of time. And that — we used the word infrequent. I really didn’t know how to describe it because it’s not something that happens very often, but that profit commission was on older reinsurance treaties. But you’re absolutely right. Obviously it didn’t impact the net aggregate development that we experienced in the quarter. It was just particular to those years.

Mark Hughes: And then I’ll ask one more and I’m being fairly rude but the 2020 and 2021 accident years, kind of, the COVID years you’re obviously taking gains on those. Any observations about how those have been developing?

Janelle Frost: That’s a great question. I would say that within our expectation, the COVID years for us are I think a little bit different than a lot of the industry expected. Yes our claim counts were down per se, but yet we still had severe claims, right? So those claims are developing they’re not developing any differently than any other accident year from that standpoint. So I think they’re within our — at this point I would just say they’re within our expectations for — you’re talking about 2021 and 2022 right or 2020 and 2021 either way. Obviously in 2021 we had the cat claim in the fourth quarter. That hasn’t developed any differently than our expectation that we had at the end of that accident year.

Mark Hughes: Great. Thank you very much.

Janelle Frost: Thank you, Mark.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from Matt Carletti with JMP.

Matt Carletti: Hey, thanks. Good morning.

Janelle Frost: Good morning, Matt.

Matt Carletti: Mark covered a lot of ground there, so I don’t have to…

Janelle Frost: Yes, he did.

Matt Carletti: And he was not being rude. Could you just maybe dive in a little deeper on the question he had about growth and specifically some of the focus on what you’re doing at agencies. I mean, I noted you appointed a new Chief Sales Officer this summer. It feels like there’s a little more concerted effort towards making sure maybe every — no stone is left unturned within your — of course your underwriting appetite. Could you just expand on that a little bit?

Janelle Frost: That’s a great way to put it no stone left unturned. I’ll start with this. Underwriting appetite and our discipline and risk selection has not changed. So I’ll start there. You’re absolutely right. We brought in a Chief Sales Officer, Ray Wise. And how you phrased it was — the way I would phrase it is I feel like we’ve elevated the focus within the company on our agent customers and our agent relationships. We’ve had Head of Sales in the past, but they were not at the executive level. So it’s really having a person sitting at the table when we’re making strategic decisions focused on that agent customer and what we need to be doing from that standpoint. So I look for good things to come from that relationship.

At the same time even — like I said before even within the company, we have had a concerted effort in trying to change — ease of doing business working with our agent customers and our employees have really pushed hard on that. And sometimes it takes a while for these things to take root. And I feel like that momentum is starting to take root.

Matt Carletti: Perfect. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the color.

Janelle Frost: Thank you, Matt.

Operator: And our next question comes from Mark Hughes with Truist.

Mark Hughes: Yes, thanks. Just a couple more.

Janelle Frost: Hey Mark.

Mark Hughes: Any commentary on the construction end market. The concept of the next job is very important. How are you seeing that–?