Robert Berkley: So it is — as far as medical malpractice, I would separate that as to — that’s a different issue. But as far as the medical costs go, as far as what is the Band-Aid cost today versus what does it cost yesterday for an injured worker, our expectation is that, that is clearly on the rise. Are you going to see it in other product lines? Yes but to a much lesser extent because when you think about a claims dollar, medical plays a far more significant role with workers’ comp than any other product line that we’re in.
Meyer Shields: Okay, perfect. That’s helpful. And then early on, I guess, in Richard’s comments, you talked about — well, I guess, I don’t know if it’s his or your commentary, actually but the expense ratio sit comfortably below 30. Was there any in the quarter’s expense ratio that benefited it? Basically, the premise of the question is that comfortably below 30 doesn’t even seem to be that high of a hurdle to achieve.
Robert Berkley: I think we’re just trying to give people guidance for the long run. And ultimately, our expense ratio can, at any moment in time, be adversely impacted by investments that we are making, whether that be in technology or whether that be in a new business that we are starting that’s early on or in its infancy. So I think we’re just trying to give people guidance as to what they should be expecting going forward longer term.
Meyer Shields: Okay, fair enough. And then one final question, if I can. I know it’s really early in the third quarter but there’s been a school of thought out there that maybe once we went through a full year of professional liability rate decreases that they would calm down. Based on your comments, it doesn’t seem like you’re seeing that…
Robert Berkley: Are we talking specifically about — are you referring to the public D&O?
Meyer Shields: Absolutely, yes.
Robert Berkley: Yes. There’s nothing that we’re seeing as of now that would suggest that it’s bottoming out, or let alone, pivoting.
Operator: Your next question comes from Scott Heleniak with RBC Capital Markets.
Scott Heleniak: The first question I had was just on the investment funds. You had a loss there in the quarter. And I’m just curious if you have changed any allocations there? Or just any kind of update on what’s going on there in the strategy for that — for the second half of the year and into 2024, if there’s any change in that thinking.
Robert Berkley: Yes. Look, the — just to qualify that a little bit, certainly, we weren’t happy with the performance but the loss was about $1 million or so. And what is driving that? It was primarily a participation in some alternative investments or private equity specifically, where there were some marks that they took down on some investments and then that trickled through to us. How do we see that unfolding from here? We’ll let you know. But at this stage, I think that we’re comfortable that people are taking the action that they need to take to make sure that those funds are appropriately marked but we’re dependent on getting that information from the managers.
Scott Heleniak: Okay. Were those marks significant then for the quarter for the alts? Is there a number that you had on there?
Robert Berkley: You can follow up with Rich or Karen for the specifics but it was enough to take what’s been a reasonably healthy run rate and bring it down to essentially zero.
Scott Heleniak: Yes. Okay, got you. And then, just one more question. You mentioned there’ll be a window of opportunity to deploy capital into higher-yielding securities in your durations at 2.3 years now and I’m just wondering if we might be getting close to that window of opportunity and how you see that playing out as well.
