The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:HIG) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Chris Swift: Alex, I hate to disappoint you but we’re not going to talk about next year at this point. We’ll talk about next year once we finish this year and what we see. But you’re right, I mean, there is going to be continued pressure coming from pricing. But I think the setup is going to be very similar to this year. As much as there’s pricing pressure, frequencies will, I believe, continue to improve. We’ll pick our same medical severity most likely in that 5% range but knowing that it’s performing better. We’ve been able to out-execute on our rate plan this year, which is providing a modest benefit. So there’s always the opportunities to outperform a rate plan in spite of what the NCC is putting out. And again, you still put all the math and the mechanics together, it’s still going to be a profitable line of business for us in the industry. And I think it’s very manageable from our point of view, at least heading into 2024.

Alex Scott : Got it. Second question I had for you is just on the ROE range you all talk about. I mean, you’re sort of hitting the upper end of it right now. And Personal Lines isn’t making money right now, and with the rate you’re taking, it should start to again. And then investment income, you talked about being a bigger contributor next year. So when I think through all that, I hear the ROE guide and I’m sure — look, you’re not going to adjust your long-term targets. It’s going to be periods that you’re earning more or less than the target potentially. But is that the right way to think about it that, that is a longer-term ROE guide and that you’re not suggesting that there’s some offset to those things necessarily and that we may go through a period where you’re over the top end of it?

Chris Swift: I think you got it right. We’ve said about our franchise, we’re becoming more consistent, more predictable in all our businesses, whether it be Property & Casualty, whether it be group benefits. Personal Lines is going through a tough slog, but we do see a return to profitability in 2025 there. So yeah, the range is the range. We’ve added the word consistently to that range. It’s not a limit. We’ll try to overachieve and outperform that. But I think that is — that 15 is particularly a good anchor point, plus or minus. And we’re going to always try hard to outperform and do our very best. We are sensitive just to a little bit of rate fatigue that may or may not be happening in the marketplace with customers and agents and brokers.

I think we’ve educated people well enough over the years, Alex, at least from our perspective, on the components of loss cost trends and why we need to continue to be disciplined with rate, whether it be commercial auto, whether it be property, whether it be GL, with all the factors that have been discussed by many over a long period of time. So I think that still puts the industry in a conducive place, particularly as we head into 2024 with particularly a rising yield environment and investment returns coming through the portfolio. So yeah, you put it all together, and I still think that’s a good range, but it’s not a limit for us to try to outperform.

Alex Scott : Got it. Thank you.

Operator: And we will take our next question from Greg Peters with Raymond James. Your line is open.

Greg Peters : Good morning. I’m going to pivot to the Group Benefits business. If I look at Page 21 of your supplement, a nice step-up in ROE over the last several quarters. Can you remind us of what kind of economic sensitivity that business has? Because there’s obviously some noise in the marketplace about what the economy might look like next year. And then secondly, when I look at the results in — particularly in the third quarter, wondering if there’s anything you want to call out, unusual good guys that helped that boost the number higher. Thanks.