Good morning. My name is Garry and I’ll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the United Fire Group 2015 Third Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Anita Novak, Assistant Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Garry. Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining this call. Earlier today, we issued a news release on our results. To find a copy of this document, please visit our Website at www.unitedfiregroup.com. Press releases and slides are located under the Investor Relations tab. Our speakers today are Randy Ramlo, President and Chief Executive Officer; Michael Wilkins, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; and Dawn Jaffray, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Other members of our executive team are also available for the question-and-answer session that will follow our prepared remarks. Please note that our presentation today may include forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not a guarantee of future performance. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and we assume no obligation to update them. The actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, which are described in our press release and SEC filings. Please also note that in our discussion today, we may use some non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are also available in our press release and SEC filings. At this time, I’m pleased to present Mr. Randy Ramlo, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Fire Group.

Welcome to United Fire’s 2015 third quarter conference call. This morning we have reported another solid quarter. Our operating income was $0.75 per share, net income was $0.77 per share and our GAAP combined ratio was 94.1, Year to date operating income was $2.25 per share. Net income was $2.31 per share and our GAAP combined ratio was 93.9%. Our return on equity as of September 30 was 9.3% and book value was $33.73 per share. There really isn't much I can say that wouldn't be a repeat of discussions over the past four quarters or so. So I thought I would just focus on some of the highlights. On a positive side, we continued to achieve our growth objectives in targeted geographical locations. Currently we are expanding into Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky. We have targeted additional expansion opportunities in certain states in line to business during 2016. We continue to see modest rate increases in both commercial lines and personal lines in some but not all of our regions, rates are still adequate but we will begin to see margin decline as we move into 2016. Overall, rates continue to meet or exceed lost cost strengths. We continue to see acceptable success ratio on quartered accounts. We continually proactively manage underwriting initiatives including managing hazardous classes of businesses in our workers compensation line of business, improved pricing has also been a contributing factor. Large losses which appeared to be trending upward one year ago due to an unusually high number of large fire losses have improved in our within expectations. Catastrophe losses have been slightly below expectations in both the quarter and Year to date. We generally experience higher catastrophe losses in the second and third quarters of any given year, but that was not the case in 2015.…

Competitive market conditions during the quarter increased on renewals while persisting on new business. Commercial lines renewal pricing varied by region with average percentage increases in the low-single digits on smaller accounts. Larger accounts were more competitive, nonetheless this is the 16th consecutive quarter of overall commercial lines pricing increases. We will be monitoring fourth quarter closely to see if that trend continues. Personal lines renewal pricing increased slightly during the third quarter with average percentage increases in the low-single digits. Premiums written from new business declined from the previous quarter, but improved from the same quarter a year ago. Our success ratio on quoted accounts decreased slightly but remains at an acceptable level. Current rate increases continue to meet or exceed lost cost trends depending on the line of business. We continue to believe loss cost trends will remain at low levels in 2015 but the margin between lost costs and rate increases will narrow. We currently believe that lost costs are approximately 3%. We base this belief on data from multiple resources. Policy retention remained strong at 83%, increasing slightly from the prior quarter for the group and most regions. Premium retention was down from the previous quarter, but remained strong at 85%, which is consistent with our expectations as the market trends towards softening. Policies in force were up 2.2% compared to third quarter 2014, mostly in general liability. New policies written were sufficient to offset policies lost or non-renewed. The U.S. economy continues to grow at a slower rate. Premium from endorsements and premium audit continued positive trends, up from the prior quarter and the same quarter a year ago. During the third quarter, direct premiums written increased 12.7%. Approximately 4.5% is attributed to rate and exposure changes, 4% is attributed to premium audits and endorsements,…

Consolidated net income, including net realized investment gains and losses, was $19.5 million or $0.77 per share for the quarter compared to $0.3 million or $0.01 per share last year. Year to date consolidated net income, including net realized investment gains and losses, was $58.2 million or $2.31 per share, compared to $24.3 million or $0.95 per share. Losses and loss settlement expenses decreased by $9.8 million or 6.4% during the third quarter compared to the third quarter of 2014. Year to date losses and loss settlement expenses decreased $1 million or 0.2%. For the third quarter of 2015 the loss ratio was 62.9%, including 3.2 points of catastrophes. As Mike just mentioned, compared to 76.3% with 11.9 points of catastrophes in the third quarter of 2014. 2015 Year to date loss ratio was 63.7% with 4.4 points of cat, compared with 71.6% and 8.4 points of cat for the 2014 Year to date comparative. The 2015 loss ratio including cat therefore improved by 13.4% quarter-over-quarter and 7.9% Year to date. Favorable reserve development for the third quarter was $0.7 million or 0.3 percentage points for the loss ratio compared to $6.8 million or 3.5 percentage points on the loss ratio in the third quarter of 2014. The positive impact on net income for the quarter was $0.02 per share compared to $0.17 per share in 2014. Year to date, favorable reserve development was $24.1 million or 3.8 percentage points on the loss ratio, compared to $32.5 million or 5.8 points on the loss ratio for 2014. The positive impact on 2015 net income Year to date was $0.62 per share after tax, compared to $0.83 per share after tax in 2014. As we have stated on previous occasion, reserve development will vary from quarter to quarter and year to…

Thank you, Gary. This now concludes this conference call. As a reminder, a transcript of this call will be available on the Company website at www.unitedfiregroup.com. On behalf of the management of United Fire Group, I wish all of you a very pleasant day.