Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Nicolas Iacoviello: Got it. Just curious as well, was there a claims handling benefit booked in the quarter?

Frank Wilcox: Yes. That was negligible for the quarter. I believe it was under $1 million.

Nicolas Iacoviello: Thanks. I was just curious on the comment in the press release on 90% of the first event tower being secured. Can you talk about maybe the current expectation for the captive utilization?

Steve Donaghy: Nick, can you repeat that last part of the question? I’m sorry.

Nicolas Iacoviello: No problem. Just like the current expectation for the captive participation in the ’24 and ’25 tower?

Steve Donaghy: Yes. Again, sitting at 90% accomplished for the first tower, Nick, we are very pleased with how our teams performed in the market. The reinsurer now is a year-round effort for myself and our reinsurance team, Matt Palmieri in particular. And we feel really good about where we’re at. I don’t think that we will change our philosophy on how we have used the captive in the past. We haven’t completed it at this point. And if the open market comes in at a competitive rate, we would consider that in lieu of. But as I sit here today, I think we would continue and it worked out very well for the company last year.

Frank Wilcox: It’s proven to be very effective.

Steve Donaghy: Yes.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Steve Donaghy, CEO, for closing remarks.

Steve Donaghy: Thank you. I’d like to thank all of our associates, our insurers, our agency force, our reinsurance partners, and our stakeholders for their continued support of Universal. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.