Good morning and welcome to the Erie Indemnity Company Third 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 today’s 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 third 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 website, 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 these differences, please see the safe harbor statements in our Form 10-Q filing with the SEC, dated October 29, 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 the time to learn more about Erie's performance in the third quarter of 2020. It's hard to believe it's been more than seven months since COVID-19 changed the way we live and work. All of us at Erie remain grateful to those keeping our healthcare system and economy in good standing by providing essential services. And more recently to the teachers, who are navigating this new and challenging territory over virtually and in the classroom. They're all very deserving of our appreciation and our respect. Here at Erie, more than 95% of our workforce continues to work from home, both for their protection and that of the employees who continue to report to our offices to perform essential duties across our 12-state footprint. I'm proud to echo something I mentioned last quarter, even with this new way of working, our productivity is not wavered. I'm continually impressed with how well our nearly 6,000 employees and 13,000 licensed Erie agents have been able to adapt to new challenges and demands presented by the pandemic. We're continuing to focus on production, innovation, and of course, delivering our trademark service. And while some of our competitors have announced significant workforce reductions over the past few months, we've been able to maintain our 95-year track record of security and stability for our employees through proactive cross-training in areas like underwriting and customer care. Along with our employees, our agents have also been able to maintain profitable growth and production, while adapting to a new way of working. That is evident in our premium growth, which continues to outpace the overall industry, as you learn more about in a few minutes. We're facing a very competitive environment. If the demand for digital capabilities was high…

Thanks Tim. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking time today to be a part of the Erie Indemnity Company’s third quarter earnings call. Last quarter, I spoke to you about Erie continually delivering superior performance even when facing a global pandemic. I spoke to you regarding our duty to provide best-in-class products for our agents, a safe work environment for our employees and strong financial performance for our shareholders. I can proudly say that through the amazing examples Tim has provided and the financials that I will address we have yet again, delivered in each area for our key stakeholders, even in a time of immense uncertainty. This month, Erie reached a major milestone, celebrating 25 years on the NASDAQ stock exchange. We are proud of the success and the growth that we have achieved, not only for our company, but for our shareholders as well. Thank you for your continued investment in Erie. Now I'd like to share with you our third quarter results. Starting with the Exchange, the insurance operations we manage, direct written premium growth for the third quarter was 2% driven by strong growth in new business premium, which climbed 10% over the prior year, with a combined ratio for the quarter of 89.6%. The Exchange's policyholder surplus grew to almost $10 billion, up substantially from $9.4 billion in the previous quarter. Now shifting to the Indemnity Company, in the third quarter, Indemnity’s net income was $89 million or $1.71 per diluted share, compared to $94 million or $1.80 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2019. For the first nine months of 2020, net income was $231 million or $4.41 per diluted share, compared to $257 million or $4.92 per diluted share in the first nine months of 2019. Operating income before taxes…

Thank you, Greg. As I touched on earlier, our teams have been doing an amazing job of executing on several key initiatives even in this adapted environment. Just in the last quarter, we've significant progress on some new products and services that will improve the way we work with our agents and provide service to our customers. One of the most notable was the release of a new mobile app in September. Using the mobile app, Erie customers can access their policy information and insurance ID cards, view the status of a claim, check their billing activity, make a payment or get in touch with their agent. A team of employees and agent task force members collaborated on bringing this tool to the market. Throughout every step of the apps design and construction, they tested it with both agents and customers, gathered feedback and implemented changes accordingly. This resulted in a highly user-friendly tool that is quickly gaining traction with customers. In the first month, the app had more than 10,000 downloads. Turning to product updates in late August, we started the rollout of Erie‘s new single product solution for commercial multi-peril, Erie Secure business. Seven standalone legacy policies have been reimagined into one single powerful product delivered on the streamline interface of Erie's commercial quote application and service or QAS system. Agents can quote bind and issue a new policy in less than nine minutes, exceeding our goal for turnaround time. Agents in Tennessee were the first tab access and in just the first month, more than 80% of agencies across the state quoted this new product. Earlier this month, the product was introduced in four more States North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Agents in the remaining States will be quoting Erie Secure business in November. We…

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, you may now disconnect.