Good morning and welcome to the Erie Indemnity Company's First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. This call was prerecorded, and there will be no question-and-answer session following the recording. Now, I'd like to introduce your host for the call, Vice President of Investor Relations, Scott Beilharz.

Thank you and welcome, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for this recorded discussion about our 2020 first quarter results. This recording will include remarks from Tim NeCastro, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Greg Gutting, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings release and financial supplement were issued yesterday afternoon after the market close and are available within the Investor Relations section of our Web site, erieinsurance.com. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's discussion may contain forward-looking remarks that reflect the company's current views about future events. These remarks are based on assumptions subject to known and unexpected risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties may cause results to differ materially from those described in these remarks. For information on important factors that may cause such differences, please see the safe harbor statements in our Form 10-K filing with the SEC, dated May 7, 2020, and in the related press release. This prerecorded call is the property of Erie Indemnity Company. It may not be reproduced or rebroadcast by any other party without the prior written consent of Erie Indemnity Company. With that, we will move on to Tim's remarks.

Thanks, Scott. And thanks to all of you for taking time to learn more about Erie's performance in the first quarter of 2020. I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and staying safe. These last few months have demanded a lot from all of us, deeply impacting how we live, how we work, and how we connect with one another. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the pandemic. I want to extend our sincere appreciation to those serving on the frontlines, the first responders and healthcare providers, and to the workers on the job every day making sure we have deliveries, food, and other necessities. I also want to express my gratitude to our nearly 6,000 employees and the 13,000 license agents who make up the Erie family. As members of an essential industry, all of us have adapted, and adapted quickly to new ways of working and serving our customers. Every day our agents and customer care team have challenging conversations with our customers. Some have lost loved ones. Others are no longer working or are facing the potential loss of the business they built. These complex situations not only require a high level of care and empathy, which our agents and employees are showing, but also actions that will give our customers some relief and piece of mind in these uncertain times. I'd like to talk more about how we're doing that before we get into Erie's performance for the first quarter. Next week, we'll start mailing policyholder dividends to our personal auto and commercial auto customers, providing roughly $200 million in immediate financial relief. The divided reflects the significant decline in both miles driven and auto insurance claims that we've seen across our territory due to stay-at-home directives. This immediate relief represents…

Thanks, Tim. Good morning everyone and thank you for your time today. I am happy to be sharing with you today the first quarter financial results for Erie Indemnity Company. Before I begin, I'd like to comment on the obvious. These are unprecedented times, and it is in times such as these that our above all in service mantra is earned. Tim shared with you earlier the many ways in which we are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. I want to assure you that because of the financial strength of both the Erie Insurance exchange and Erie Indemnity Company, we are well-positioned to continue our mission in support of our customers, agents, employees and shareholders in this difficult time. In fact, on April 20, the Board of Directors again approved the quarterly dividend of 96-and-half cents per Class A share to be paid in July. Also on April 20, Erie Indemnity Company held its 95th annual shareholders meeting because of the current state home order in place in Pennsylvania. We held this year's meeting virtually, although the meeting had a very different feel than years past. The message of continued outstanding financial results and superior financial strength were the same. Now let's turn our focus to the first quarter results for 2020. Starting with the exchange, the insurance operations we manage, direct written premium growth for the first quarter was 3.5%. While the combined ratio for the quarter was 95%. The exchange's policyholder surplus remains strong at $8.8 billion, down from $9.5 billion at the end of 2019, due to unrealized losses in the investment portfolio. Now shifting to Indemnity, first quarter 2020 net income was $59 million, or $1.13 per diluted share, compared to $75 million, or $1.44 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2019. Operating income…

Thanks Greg. COVID-19 has presented challenges unlike anything many of us experienced or expected, but with our strong financial position, as Greg just reported, we have a lot working in our favor at Erie. We now have the benefit of being past the initial surprise that came in March when much of the United States was directed to stay at home. We've since become accustomed to the rhythm of change and uncertainty. Over the past several weeks, we've shown how well we can respond and adapt. Within just one week in March, we grew our remote workforce from 34% to 95%. Ours is an essential industry. And well we and our agents have continued operations and service to our customers. We are seeing impacts on our business as a result of the pandemic. Starting with the top line, we like the rest of the property, casualty industry expect pressure on premium growth in 2020 due to the economic challenges. We're delivering on plans to shore up our competitive position in the auto insurance market. We also continue to invest in key initiatives to support our agent's growth with Erie. I'll talk more about some of those efforts and early results in a moment. As always, we continue to be disciplined in our spending and we'll make decisions that protect our strong financial foundation. The other piece of our financial picture impacted by COVID-19 is our losses. Some states have made moves to expand the scope of business interruption and workers compensation to provide coverage for COVID-19 related losses, we continue to monitor those efforts and are working closely with our industry partners like the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, to make sure that our lawmakers and regulators have the complete understanding of the insurance model and the impacts of their…

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. End of Q&A: