Ryan Tunis: Got it. And then switching gears, I guess, thinking about the expense ratio, I guess just looking at the model this morning, this cycle, there’s been more underlying combined ratio improvement on the expense ratio than there’s been on the loss ratio, which is a good thing, assuming it’s sticky. You’ve obviously talked about a sub-30 combined, but you didn’t used to have that. So I’m just — want to clarify which is that short term guidance or is like this type of expense ratio level plus or minus a point what you think you can do serve in perpetuity?
Rob Berkley: Our expectation is that it’s going to start with a two indefinitely. Is it possible there could be some extraordinary something or other that could change that? Yes, of course. But at this stage, you know, we feel that we are in a good place and that this is very sustainable.
Ryan Tunis: Thank you.
Rob Berkley: Thank you.
Operator: We’ll go next to Mark Hughes at Truist.
Mark Hughes: Yes. Thank you. Good morning.
Rob Berkley: Good morning.
Mark Hughes: I think you’ve expressed more enthusiasm about the other liability than commercial auto, but commercial auto accelerated a bit and outgrew other liability, which decelerated a little bit in terms of net premiums written. Anything to read into that?
Rob Berkley: I think the takeaway should be how hard we are pushing on the commercial auto rate and the markets accepting it to a great extent.
Mark Hughes: What do you see in terms of pricing in the liability line? You obviously given us the kind of your consolidated non-workers comp number, but anything specifically about the other liability?
Rob Berkley: Rich, my recollection is that we don’t break out how our rate increases by product line, is that correct?
Rich Baio: That’s correct, Rob.
Rob Berkley: Yes. So, Mark, what I would offer you for your consideration is that we feel comfortable that we are outpacing comfortably our view on trend or certainly without a doubt keeping up with it and likely outpacing it.
Rich Baio: Very good. And then final question, the cash from operations is quite strong. If you touched on that earlier, I apologize, but what was the big driver of the year-over-year increase?
Rob Berkley: Richie? My — go ahead, Rich.
Rich Baio: It’s really driven by the underwriting performance. So we had very strong cash collections on a net premiums basis. And then our paid losses, as Rob alluded to earlier from the paid loss ratio perspective was very low as well. And so the combination of those two items was really the biggest driver.
Mark Hughes: Thank you very much.
Operator: We’ll go next to Brian Meredith at UBS.
Rob Berkley: Good morning, Brian.
Brian Meredith: Yes, thanks. Hi, good morning. Two questions. Rich, I’m just curious, could you just give us the actual income that you generated from the Argentina inflation bonds in the quarter? Just so I don’t have to do the math.
Rich Baio: Rob, I’m not sure we’ve then generally given that level of detail. I’m not sure if…
Brian Meredith: I can back into it with what you said in the yield, but I just wanted to know what the actual number was.
Rich Baio: Why don’t we take it offline?
Rob Berkley: Yes, Brian, he’s just going to check with an attorney and call you back. How about that?
Brian Meredith: Okay, fair.
Rob Berkley: The world we live in.
Brian Meredith: Rob, I’m just curious, perhaps you can remind us how much of your, call it short tail business is cat exposed? And how should we think about your kind of cat load here in 2024 based upon just the growth you’re seeing in that short tail business?
Rob Berkley: I’m just trying to — make sure I understand, Brian, you want to know how much of our business is cat exposed?
Brian Meredith: Yes, the short tail business, but you’re seeing really good growth in that business and obviously you said rates good, right? I’m just curious how much of that is actually catastrophe exposed, kind of property versus not cat exposed, where you’re seeing the growth. And then if I look at your, call it cat load that you’ve been had over the last year or two, it’s kind of run around 2% to 3%, is that pretty consistent what you think would look like going forward, given your portfolio?
Rob Berkley: The answer is the 2% to 3% is probably in the right zip code, it may be up a little bit from there. As far as how much of our portfolio is cat exposed? You know, that’s become perhaps a more complicated question than it once was because of what we’ve seen happen with wildfire and SCS over the past several years. So I don’t have a percentage for you as to what’s exposed to quake or particularly as we get earth quake apparently now in the northeast or exactly what is exposed to wind. We’re happy to pick up the conversation offline, but we have a view that cat load has had to evolve from how people thought about it just a few years ago. So the short answer is, I don’t have a percentage for you, but we’re happy to further the conversation if you like.
Brian Meredith: Great. Thanks, Rob.
Rob Berkley: Thank you.
Operator: We’ll go next to Meyer Shields at KBW.
