The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:HIG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Beth Costello: Yes, I’ll start with that. So, as I said in my prepared remarks, when you look at that number, and you think about for the full-year or on an annualized basis of 3.2, expecting that 50 basis point to 60 basis point increase. When you look at fourth quarter, just a couple of things I think to highlight on that. Is that included in the yield ex partnerships. It’s not just fixed maturities, it’s also some other items as well. Think about dividends on equities securities and things like that that can sometimes be a little bit lumpy. So, when I think about where we’re ending the quarter at 3.7 and sort of going into Q1, probably not expecting to see a big increase quarter-over-quarter, kind of on a run rate basis and that kind of continues as we go through 2023.

If you really look just at the fixed maturity yield, we’re definitely seeing some increases there and we’d expect to see that as we go through 2023 on that line. And you can see the details in our investor financial supplement of fixed maturities versus some of these other asset classes like equity securities and mortgage loans. So, we see it as a nice trajectory. We obviously had a nice lift this quarter. Our average purchases that we did, the yield was around 6%, which was a bit elevated. I wouldn’t expect that to be the norm as we, kind of go into Q1 was a little bit elevated just because we ended the quarter €“ ended the third quarter with some excess cash because we had divested of some treasury securities and pretty opportunistically invested at pretty high points from a yield perspective, which drove that up.

And I’d expect like looking at January, that 6% is probably more like . Was that helpful?

Andrew Kligerman : Got it. Yes, very helpful. And Chris, I’m just I’m trying to get my arms around this workers’ comp issue and when it’s going to temper. I know you’ve already gotten two questions on it. Maybe you could give us a sense of how much €“ you mentioned renewal written premium slight negative. What was the rate component for that? Was that a pretty heavy negative? Was that four points down, three points down and with the stellar ratios that Hartford €“ and I get that Hartford is probably best-in-class period in workers’ comp. The second part of that question is, with ratios that have been around 90% small and mid, even better than that. Will the regulators allow you to raise rates or will they penalize you for being best-in-class? So, I’m just trying to get my arms around that. Two questions, the rate and then again maybe a little more color on that outlook for getting rate in the future?

Chris Swift: Again, thanks for the question. Andrew, I would say it’s always better to be best-in-class at anything. So, I’m going to disappoint you and say that look, there’s a lot of detail we provided. There’s a lot of metrics that you could try and get laid on to just focus on a sub line with really nuanced details from an operating side. All I said is, I really do think the rate, the net rate and the rate then that we get from increasing exposures. So, the exposure that acts like rate is going to be negative next year, slightly negative. And that’s all I was saying.

Andrew Kligerman: Okay. Maybe I’ll just throw a quick one. I was hoping €“ I wasn’t expecting a detailed answer, but fully insured group benefit sales up 52%, maybe a little color on the products that were quite strong in the quarter?

Chris Swift: Yes. I’ll let Jonathan add his color.