Erie Indemnity Company — 2024 Q1

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for this recorded discussion about our first quarter results. This recording will include remarks from Tim NeCastro, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Julie Pelkowski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release and financial supplement were issued yesterday afternoon after the market closed and are available within the Investor Relations section of our website, erieinsurance.com.

Thanks, Scott, and thanks to all of you for your interest in Erie's performance for the first quarter of 2024. Last week, on April 20, we marked the 99th anniversary of our company's founding. Now on April 23, and we held our annual medium shareholders in person in the Thomas B. Hagen Building. At that meeting, I reflected on a remarkable journey Erie Insurance has been on for nearly a century. Two young men, H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford, opened the doors to the Erie Insurance in 1925 and brought in less than $30,000 in net premiums after the first year.

Thank you, Tim, and good morning, everyone. In 2023, we talked about our proactive approach to addressing the profitability challenge experienced by the Exchange, and that the most significant impact would come as a result of the higher rate increases that were taken. We anticipated a larger impact from these rate increases in 2024, given the fact that we have 12-month policies.

Thanks, Julie. As I've mentioned in previous calls, migrating our legacy technology platforms has been a top priority for us,, and it continues to be in 2024. I'm pleased to share that we successfully modernized more than 1/3 of the legacy applications we've had in place, and we're also working to sunset those older systems as appropriate. This work is tied directly to another key priority, expense management. Upgrades and newer platforms can eliminate many of the inefficiencies and delays created by the older systems.