[ The transcript was presubmitted by CNA Financial Corporation. No live call was conducted for the fourth quarter earnings call. ] Before we discuss our results for the quarter, on behalf of all our employees, I want to take a moment to express our deepest sympathies to the victims of the tragic wildfires in California. We have all seen the heartbreaking devastation caused by this disaster, and our thoughts are with everyone who has suffered such profound losses. Our CNA colleagues have been on the ground and we remain steadfast in our commitment and unwavering support to assist our customers who have been affected by this tragedy. In the fourth quarter, we produced very strong results, with record underlying underwriting gain, the highest level of net investment income of the year, and at 10%, the highest quarterly net written premium growth of the year. Net investment income increased 5% for the quarter and 10% for the full year. We achieved continued rate improvement in the classes of business most impacted by social inflation where rates in our commercial casualty classes of business were up a point to 10%, which continues to exceed loss cost trends. Core income was $342 million in the fourth quarter. Net investment income was $644 million, up $33 million over the prior year quarter, with strong performance in our fixed income portfolio and strong contributions from limited partnerships and common stock. The P&C all-in combined ratio was 93.1%, an increase of 1.0 point compared to the prior year quarter. The increase is principally from higher catastrophe losses of $45 million, or 1.8 points, compared to a fairly benign $22 million, or 1.0 point of catastrophe losses, in the prior year period. Catastrophe losses this quarter were primarily related to Hurricane Milton. The catastrophe loss ratio in…

CNA's fourth quarter core Income of $342 million is down 6% compared to the prior year quarter but continues to reflect strong underwriting and investment results. Full year 2024 core income of $1,316 million is a best on record leading to a core return on equity of 10.5% and reflects a record P&C underlying underwriting gain and net investment income growth of 10% as compared to 2023. Our P&C expense ratio was 30.0% for the fourth quarter and 30.2% for the full year. The expense ratio for both periods benefited from higher net earned premiums and continued expense discipline and also reflected continued investment in technology and talent. While there is always a certain amount of variability quarter to quarter, we currently believe an expense ratio of about 30.5% is a reasonable run rate heading into 2025. The P&C net prior period development impact on the combined ratio was negligible in the current quarter. In the Specialty segment, prior period development was neutral overall, and this was mostly attributable to $22 million of favorable development in surety offset by $21 million of unfavorable development in professional and management liability mostly in accident years 2018 and prior. In the Commercial segment, prior period development was neutral overall with $96 million of favorable development in workers' compensation the majority of which is attributable to accident years 2018 and prior, $61 million of unfavorable development from continued pressure in commercial auto in recent accident years and $28 million of unfavorable development in general liability, the majority of which is attributable to accident years 2018 and prior. Our Corporate segment produced a core loss of $91 million in the fourth quarter compared to a $76 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2023. The loss this quarter includes the results of our annual fourth…

Before providing some concluding remarks on our results, I want to take the opportunity to convey, on behalf of the entire organization, our thanks to Dino Robusto. During his eight-year tenure as Chief Executive Officer, he led the Company to record levels of profitability and top quartile underwriting performance with incredible vision and tireless focus. I have been fortunate to work alongside him and am honored to have succeeded Dino in the CEO role, where my goal will be to continue executing the successful strategies we have developed and implemented over the last several years. I am excited to lead an incredible team of highly talented professionals as we work with our CNA colleagues across the entire enterprise to continue our laser focus on optimizing CNA's strategic direction, with the goal of continued top quartile performance. Our strong fourth quarter capped off a fantastic year in 2024. We achieved a record level of core income for the second consecutive year. Our P&C operations performed extremely well, reflecting the results of our strategic initiatives, with record underlying underwriting gains and robust all-in underwriting performance despite elevated catastrophes compared to the prior year. We achieved high single-digit growth in both gross written premiums excluding captives and net written premiums, along with a record volume of new business. The market dynamics across our segments and products are distinctly unique, requiring focused strategies, which we are successfully executing. Our loss cost trends remained stable this quarter, and we continue to achieve rate increases that exceed long-run loss cost trends in classes impacted by social inflation. As we look ahead, we anticipate a dynamic market with disciplined pricing in most business classes. Our relentless commitment to underwriting excellence and best-in-class execution ensures that CNA is well-positioned to navigate these dynamics to reinforce our market leadership and deliver sustained profitable growth.

We invite shareholders and analysts to submit questions for management in advance of each quarter's earnings release. Below we address some questions we have received as well as some timely and topical focus areas for CNA and our industry.

Net written premium growth was higher than gross written premium growth excluding captives in all three segments. What is driving the higher net written premium growth? Net written premium growth was favorable to gross growth due to mix of business related impacts in Commercial and Specialty and favorable adjustments on prior year reinsurance treaties in International.

CNA's expectations for income from fixed income and other investments implies a 2% increase from 2024 results. Why would there not be a higher increase given a continued higher interest rate environment? While we expect long-term interest rates will continue to benefit the reinvestment outlook of our fixed income portfolio, we expect our other investments, which includes our short-term portfolio, will see lower income next year as short-term rates have come down in recent months and may continue to do so in 2025. We expect the growth in our long-term, fixed income portfolio to be closer to 4% in 2025, which is more comparable to the growth we saw in 2024.

In review of CNA's Financial Supplement, for the International segment in the other expenses line for the fourth quarter there is a $21 million variance from a $6 million gain last year to a $15 million loss this year -- can you tell me what is happening here?

The International segment's core income was unfavorably impacted in the current quarter by a pretax foreign currency exchange (FX) loss of approximately $15 million compared to a pretax gain of approximately $6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, which drove the variance in the other expenses line. The FX loss this quarter was driven by the U.S. dollar strengthening against the British pound during the quarter. Our Lloyd's syndicate has U.S. dollar insurance reserves that revalue to the syndicate's functional currency of the British pound through the income statement. Note that economically our Lloyd's investment portfolio is also denominated in the U.S. dollar, thus effectively hedging our currency risk and the change in invested asset value due to foreign currency rate movement is reflected through other comprehensive income within stockholders' equity.