Operator: Our next question comes from Meyer Shields, from KBW. Please go ahead.
Meyer Shields: Great. Thanks. Bret, I guess, two related questions, both in terms of recruitment. So hoping to get an update, first of all on what trends you’re seeing in terms of just new teachers entering the workforce and your successes in recruiting agents to Horace Mann.
Marita Zuraitis: Yes, thanks for the question. We’ve talked about this before, I think the teacher shortage that is clear across the country is really not good for the education system. But in an odd way, it’s good for Horace Mann, meaning we don’t necessarily kick the retired or previous teachers out of the club, the attributes that they have, as to why they chose the profession tend to carry through. But we also have the ability to attract those new teachers. When we think about new teacher seminars, when we think about teaching retirement, and state retirement programs in the schools, what our agents do for new teachers entering the system, it gives us more opportunity to get access to more educators. As it relates to agent recruiting.
And we said this, I believe on the last call, if not the one before. Our recruiting numbers post pandemic are actually stronger than they were even prior to the pandemic, we feel good about our ability not only to attract agents, who become full blown exclusive agents, but our ability to attract licensed producers, and expand the size and strength of the agents that we already have. So on a recruiting front, I believe that it was very difficult during the pandemic, let’s face it, we’re in the worksite. And when you can’t be in the worksite, that’s a little more difficult to do sales the way you would normally do sales. But with everything we learned during the pandemic, and our ability now to attract agents to this value proposition, we feel good about where that stands.
And that’s coming as well in the growth numbers.
Meyer Shields: Yes, that’s what I wanted to understand. Because I guess I had naively thought that in states where pricing isn’t where you need it to be, you would hold off, I guess the diversification of product means that you don’t need to do that.
Marita Zuraitis: That’s exactly right. I mean, what we start with, and how we engage with these educators, if you think about it, we can tailor it, by state and by geography, right, what our agents do, what they lead with, where they spend their time. Having a captive exclusive agent system gives us a little more control over where our agents emphasize their time. And that’s really done on a state by state basis, and that’s very helpful for us. Matt mentioned the cross sell, we certainly see that. So, where we put agents, where we hire agents, if you got a particularly difficult geography, you might not obviously be recruiting in that geography. So having more ways, more products, more solutions to address and have conversations with these educators, we can really do on a geography, by geography.
And agent recruitment, to give you a number is up 50% year-over-year. And we would expect that, considering the environment we were — that we were in and feel good about the future there as well.
Meyer Shields: Okay, that’s very helpful. Thank you. The second question is, in terms of how we look at and I’m thinking more in fee, the level of discretionary spend, or like the expense ratio, because I’m thinking, it’s not like you’re doing a ton of advertising that you’re pulling back, but there’s more offsets from business tech to other carriers. Especially think about how much that should move, like how much the expense ratio, which was really good in the quarter rises when we get back to normal?
