It seems like just yesterday I was sharing our business plan for 2018 with you; yet here we are already in November with the end of the year in view (and the sights and sounds of the holidays just around the corner). Fortunately, the year so far has been full of positives, including a relatively mild catastrophe storm season, another year among the Ward’s 50 list recognizing financial strength and stability, and enhancements to our online user experience for the benefit of our agency partners. Equally important is the work of our Claims Team in delivering — promptly, fairly, and consistently — on our promise to pay valid claims of our mutual policyholders.

Taking a quick look at the third quarter numbers (not including affiliate Michigan Millers): Through September 30, written premium for the Group is at $502.3 million — putting us slightly behind goal with some ground yet to make up in the remaining months of the year (and early October info says we are making even more progress toward that goal). Our Group’s loss ratio is at 55.3% (vs. goal of 57.0%), our loss adjustment expense ratio is at 9.7% (vs. goal of 10.2%), and our underwriting expense ratio is at 28.6% (vs. goal of 27.8%) — adding up to a combined ratio of 93.6%. That’s a good profitability result for this point in the year, but we still have plenty of work to do over the remaining weeks of 2018 to make our premium goal and our overall annual goals.

Looking beyond the numbers, we continue to prioritize enhancements to your overall experience working with Western National. To that end, we recently released two searchable online libraries in AgentsOnline, giving our agency partners easy access to find the personal lines forms and Western National marketing materials you’re looking for (in addition to those that already exist in our online Commercial Lines Forms Library). For additional details, check out the “In Case You Missed It” section of this Announce edition. We look forward to rolling out additional enhancements to AgentsOnline and our other agency-facing systems in the months ahead — stay tuned!

As always, thank you for your continued partnership as we work together to serve our mutual policyholders. I look forward to reporting a strong finish to 2018 and a productive start to 2019 in the months ahead.

~ Stu Henderson