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In our last issue of Announce, CEO Stu Henderson introduced Rick Long in his new role as President of Western National. Read on for a short note of introduction from Rick, as he takes the baton from Stu in this quarterly communication to you, our agency partners.
Since we last communicated, I have had the pleasure of diving into this new role with the company. Though the current world situation has created many challenges for businesses, Western National, like many of you, has learned to be nimble and to adapt as information is made available to us. While many of our teams are still working remotely, our continued goal is to provide the excellent customer experience that you expect from Western National.
In my ten years with Western National, the company has grown and changed in many positive ways. As we move towards the end of the year and look to the coming year, our teams are working hard to innovate, find new solutions, and to strengthen our relationships – with each other and with you.
I look forward to the opportunity to meet you in the coming months, and I hope that you and yours are doing well.
Through June 30, 2020, written premium for our Group (not including affiliate Michigan Millers) is at $371.1 million — which is about where we thought we would be, halfway through the year. Our loss ratio is 54.9% (vs. goal of 55.6%), our loss adjustment expense ratio is 10.0% (vs. goal of 10.3%), and our underwriting expense ratio is 29.6% (vs. goal of 29.4%) — adding up to a combined ratio of 94.5%. Regardless of the many challenges that businesses are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are on track and the first half of the year has been solid. We know that with continued flexibility, hard work, and quality underwriting from our employees and agency partners, we can keep up our momentum for the second half of the year.
I’m pleased to share that our Group has once again been named to the Ward’s 50 Benchmark Group of top performing U.S. property-and-casualty companies. Being named to this group recognizes Western National for achieving outstanding financial results in the areas of safety, consistency, and performance over a five-year period (2015 – 2019). This is the 15th time in the past 16 years (and the 12th consecutive year) that Western National has been named to this list of top performers. Thank you for your support in helping us achieve this recognition – it wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of agency partners like you. We look forward to building on this financial foundation for the continued protection of our mutual policyholders in the years to come.
