RLI Corp. (NYSE:RLI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Dwelle: Well, I was just going to add, Mark, but just in addition, we did after updating our benchmark pricing for the additional reinsurance costs, I mean, we still believe that our business is priced above our benchmark pricing to hit a targeted return. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to try to get more rate and pass some of this along, but we also want people to be comfortable that we believe current market pricing is still in excess of what we think what our benchmark pricing is. So, a lot more of the market, I mean go out

Mark Dwelle: Okay. I mean, that’s helpful. And Jen’s comment, I mean, was actually going to sort of be my next question was, are you seeing any evidence that customers are basically doing what you did in raising retentions and lowering — changing their limit strategy such that — I mean I know from your perspective, you might be getting whatever a 20% rate increase, but in fact, the actual amount of premium growth would be considerably smaller than that. Are you seeing that behavior yet? Or that’s something that we would anticipate over 2023?

Jen Klobnak: Yes, Mark. We are seeing that particularly in Florida, where insurers are buying full-limit coverage for their fire exposure, but not for the wind exposure. And they have to work with their banks or their mortgage providers to make sure that, that all passes muster. But that is something that we’re witnessing starting to creep into this environment.

Mark Dwelle: That’s definitely consistent with some comments that one of the insurance brokers made earlier this week. Was there something you were adding, Craig, I’m sorry?

Craig Kliethermes: Obviously, deductibles are certainly increasing on a percentage basis. So, I mean the management deductibles are increasing pretty much across the market, not just us.

Mark Dwelle: Okay. Thanks for all of that. And then you had mentioned in the comments that you were pulling back from some of the cyber liability business. Is that something you can quantify in terms of how many dollars of annual premium run rate that had been just really to run rate what the outlook would be for the upcoming year?

Jen Klobnak: Sure, Mark. We actually exited that business in the — during the fourth quarter last year. So, this was the year of runoff, which we’ve just completed for large account cyber facility. Yes, no problem.

Mark Dwelle: I had that confused. My mistake. And then changing gears over on the investment side. I almost feel obliged to ask Craig what he’s going to do with the Maui Jim proceeds even though I already know the answer because I’ve been asking it for a year now. But, I guess that’s what I’m going to ask is, are you still considering or evaluating other equity investee opportunities? Or is that something that you’re content with just the prime business and if an opportunity falls in your lap, you’ll look at it, but you’re not really seeking anything there?

Craig Kliethermes: I’ll say some and maybe Aaron will join in. But I mean, we’re certainly always looking for opportunities. Every day, we look for opportunities. So if we find a good opportunity for an investment in that, we would take advantage of that.

Todd Bryant: I’ll only add, Mark, old habits die hard, I guess, in asking those questions around Maui Jim proceeds. We are investing every day, general account assets of the Company. And the Maui Jim situation going all the way back to the mid-’90s was a very unique situation for us, definitely. Then we tend to look a lot more things as Craig mentioned, a little closer to home I’ll call them in terms of in our space or around our space, but we do look a lot.

Mark Dwelle: Okay, thank you. That’s all my questions.

Operator: Our next question comes from Matt Carletti from JMP. Your line is now open.

Matt Carletti: Hey, thanks. Good morning. Apologies in advance for another reinsurance question, but, can you help us – thanks, how are you? Can you help us just with maybe the question is kind of how did the dollar spend change on the property side? And I know rates went up 40%, 45% across the two treaties. But obviously, you’re retaining a lot more of the most expensive layers. So, as we think about kind of gross net retention, like what sort of order magnitude or dollars, if you can, might the dollar spend change there?

Jen Klobnak: Let’s see. This is Jen. I would say our — it will depend, of course, ultimately on what our rate change is for 2023. So, we’re not anticipating a material change given we expect to see — the rate increases will continue to some extent. But there is some additional cost, obviously. So, might be a point or two of retention, that’s lower, but it’s not going to be significant.

Matt Carletti: Okay, great, very helpful. And Craig, best of luck to your cheese this weekend.

Craig Kliethermes: Well, thank you. Will take all help we can get. You have the cheese, that’s gone right now. Will take all the help we can get.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time, so I would turn the conference back over to Mr. Craig Kliethermes for some closing remarks.

Craig Kliethermes: Sure. Thank you all for joining us. Again, we think it was a good quarter, good year. We’re just going to get back to work. Talk to you next quarter. We’re just going to keep you up on what we do. Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to wish to access the replay for this call, you may need to do so by dialing 1 (866) 813-9403 with an ID of 627187. This concludes our conference for today. Thank you all for participating, and have a nice day. All parties may now disconnect.

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