The Travelers Companies, Inc. (NYSE:TRV) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Alex Scott: Hi, good morning. First one I have is on the Business Insurance underlying loss ratio improvement. I was hoping you could help us unpack it a little in terms of workers’ comp versus maybe the other products. Certainly, the reserve development is sort of a good indication of how healthy things are on workers’ comp, but pricing is down. I mean, is that a business line that’s helping the underlying improvement year-over-year, or is it detracting from it? Could you kind of dimension that and help us think through some of the underlying drivers?

Dan Frey: Yes, Alex. It’s Dan. We’re really – we don’t do profitability by line. We’re not going to go into that level of detail. You call out comp, it has been a good line for us. It continues to be – continues to be a good line for us, but really the way to think about BI is the blend of the products and that’s the level at which we will talk about the underlying.

Alex Scott: Okay. Second question I had is on pricing. There’s, I’d say, more reacceleration in your pricing than we’re hearing from, I guess, Marsh earlier today, and some of the barometers that are out there and so forth. Anything that’s unique around the way you’re approaching the market there? And could you help dimension it all, how much of that reacceleration of pricing is necessary for the reinsurance costs? You mentioned, it sounds like maybe loss cost trend hasn’t moved that much. But help us think a little bit about how much of that can help you to tread water, first allow more underlying improvement?

Alan Schnitzer: Yes, I think, we’re going to try to stay away from forecasting margins, and I think, it may have been David who went to this question earlier, and just said renewal premium change is close to 13% and you’re saying there’s not a lot of movement in loss trend, it was – sort of should we take it on face value? I think, broadly the answer is yes. But really, I think what’s going on here is there are some headwinds. There is – there – reinsurance costs are higher, inflation is higher, we’re in a tight labor market, there’s weather and so on So we’re reacting to all those things. And on the other hand, after years of pretty good pricing returns, we’re in a pretty good place. And so hats off to our field organization. They are threading that needle incredibly well. And returns are excellent, and we’re pricing to continue to maintain and maybe even improve the returns.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Elyse Greenspan of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Elyse Greenspan: Hi, thanks, good morning. My first question, within BI, the underlying loss ratio improved. When we look at the quarter, right, improve – the improvement year-over-year was about 300 basis points. And I know you guys said that there was a 150 basis points from better property results. I think that was 1 point negative last year. So if we’re looking year-over-year, is it right to say, it was 2.5 points better on property, and then the remainder, like 50 basis points is earned rate over trend or is there something else going on, and I know that’s just kind of looking all-in, but something else going on with the margins in the quarter?

Dan Frey: Yes, Elyse. It’s Dan. So I think you’re thinking about the property piece, the right way. And then there’s 50 basis points left over, and Greg mentioned the continued benefit of earned pricing. That’s not the only thing going on in there. As always, there are – there are pluses and minuses. We’re trying to call out the main drivers for you, and those are – those are the two main drivers. If there was anything else of real significance, I think we do a pretty good job of trying to make sure we include that in the commentary.

Elyse Greenspan: Thanks. And then my second question on – the ROCE improved a good amount sequentially. It sounds like that was broad-based in property and liability lines. I know this is obviously a bigger quarter for property in terms of business mix. I just want to get a sense of just confirm that I’m thinking about that right that it was more than just property that drove the improvement in ROCE. And how should we think about – any color you could just give in terms of that ROCE as we think about the Q3 and beyond?

Alan Schnitzer: Are you talking about renewal price change, Elyse, is that?

Elyse Greenspan: I was talking about the renewal rate, but – renewal rate – yes, in BI.

GregToczydlowski: Yes, Elyse, you’re right. I mean, clearly, we had a real strong quarter in terms of both rate and exposure in property. But we also had significant movement across the rest of the portfolio also, again, in both rate and exposure.

Alan Schnitzer: I’d say, at least, if you’re asking whether it was broad-based or narrow, I think the answer to that it was broad-based.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Brian Meredith of UBS. Please go ahead.