Employers Holdings, Inc. (EIG)

Item 2.  Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Consolidated Financial Condition and Results of Operations

You should read the following discussion and analysis in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes thereto included in Item 1 of Part I. Unless otherwise indicated, all references to "we," "us," "our," "the Company," or similar terms refer to EHI, together with its subsidiaries. In this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, the Company and its management discuss and make statements based on currently available information regarding their intentions, beliefs, current expectations, and projections of, among other things, the Company's future performance, economic or market conditions, including current or future levels of inflation, potential implications of tariffs, changes in interest rates, labor market expectations, catastrophic events or geopolitical conditions, legislative or regulatory actions or court decisions, business growth, retention rates, loss costs, claim trends and the impact of key business initiatives, future technologies and planned investments. Certain of these statements may constitute "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and are often identified by words such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "target," "project," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "pro forma," "seek," "likely," or "continue," or other comparable terminology and their negatives. The Company and its management caution investors that such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Risks and uncertainties are inherent in the Company’s future performance. Factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements include, among other things, those discussed or identified from time to time in the Company’s public filings with the SEC, including the risks detailed in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K and in the Company's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

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General

We are a Nevada holding company with insurance subsidiaries that are specialty providers of workers’ compensation insurance and related services. Workers’ compensation insurance is provided under a statutory system wherein most employers are required to provide coverage for their employees’ medical, disability, vocational rehabilitation, and/or death benefit costs for work-related injuries or illnesses.

We provide workers’ compensation insurance throughout most of the United States, with a concentration in California, where 47% of our trailing twelve month gross written premiums, excluding adjustments, are generated. In February 2026, we launched a new excess workers’ compensation product focused on self-insured enterprises in several jurisdictions across the United States. We wrote our first excess workers’ compensation policy in June 2026. Our revenues primarily consist of net premiums earned, net investment income, and net realized and unrealized gains and losses on investments.

The insurance industry is highly competitive based on price and quality of services. We compete with other specialty workers’ compensation carriers, state agencies, multi-line insurance companies, professional employer organizations, self-insurance funds, and state insurance pools.

For guaranteed cost workers’ compensation, we believe we can price our policies at levels that are competitive and profitable over the long term given our expertise in underwriting and claims handling and our decades of data and experience. We target small to mid-sized businesses, as we believe this market is traditionally characterized by higher profitability and longer retention. Our distribution strategy consists of establishing and maintaining strong, long-term relationships with traditional and specialty insurance agencies, developing alternative distribution channels, and offering direct-to-consumer workers’ compensation through our website.

For excess workers’ compensation, our approach is to deliver a flexible, data-driven solution that goes beyond traditional excess coverage by incorporating value-added services. We believe these services, resulting in improved organizational performance and reduced long-term loss costs for our policyholders, will serve as a key competitive advantage in the self-insured market, differentiating us from carriers that offer coverage alone.

We believe we have a cost-effective and scalable information technology infrastructure that complements our geographic reach and business model. We continue to invest in technology to automate business processes and further develop our data analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities, which we believe will enable us to reduce our operating costs over the long-term and support our future needs. We believe our technology is a strategic advantage that saves our distribution partners and policyholders considerable time and maintains our competitiveness in our target markets.

We continue to execute ongoing business initiatives focused on achieving process excellence and efficiency, as well as delivering self-service options to policyholders, agents, and injured workers. We are also actively pursuing strategies to diversify our risk exposure across geographies and economic sectors, expand our risk appetite, and broaden our product offerings.

Overview

Summary Financial Results

Our net income was $29.1 million and $39.2 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to $29.7 million and $42.5 million for the corresponding periods of 2025. The key factors that affected our financial performance during the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to the same periods of 2025, included:

•Gross premiums written decreased 19.6% and 17.1%;

•Net premiums earned decreased 12.2% and 6.9%;

•Net investment income increased 1.1% and decreased 5.9%;

•Net realized and unrealized gains on investments of $18.7 million and $17.0 million compared to $20.9 million and $8.1 million;

•Losses and LAE decreased 12.7% and 3.6%;

•Commission expense decreased 14.9% and 6.5%;

•Underwriting expenses decreased 7.9% and 6.3%; and

•Underwriting loss of $10.1 million and $23.0 million compared to $11.0 million and $14.6 million.

Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2026

Our 2026 underwriting results reflect lower net premiums earned, partially offset by reductions in losses and LAE, commission expenses, and underwriting expenses. Our investment results were primarily impacted by favorable net realized and unrealized gains on investments as net investment income was slightly higher for the quarter, but lower in the first half of 2026, as compared to prior year periods.

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Three and Six Months Ended June 30, 2025

Our 2025 underwriting results reflect moderate increases in net premiums earned offset by higher losses and LAE. Commission expense and underwriting expenses were higher in the second quarter, but lower in the first half of 2025 compared to the same periods of 2024. Our 2025 investment results benefited from strong net investment income and favorable net realized and unrealized gains.

Our consolidated financial results of operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025 are as follows:

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I.Review of Underwriting Results

Underwriting income or loss is determined by deducting losses and LAE, commission expense, and underwriting expenses from net premiums earned. Our underwriting results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 and 2025 are as follows:

(1) The LPT Agreement is a non-recurring transaction that no longer provides us with any ongoing cash benefits. We provide our underwriting income and combined ratios excluding the effects of the LPT because we believe that these measures are useful in providing investors, analysts, and other interested parties a meaningful understanding of our ongoing underwriting performance and provides them with a consistent basis for comparison with other companies in our industry. In addition, we believe that these non-GAAP measures, as presented, are helpful to our management in identifying trends in our performance because the LPT has limited significance to our current and ongoing operations.

Gross Premiums Written

Gross premiums written were $163.4 million and $344.2 million for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, respectively, compared to $203.3 million and $415.4 million for the corresponding periods of 2025,

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Item 7.  Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements, the accompanying notes thereto, and the financial statement schedules included in Item 8 and Item 15 of this report. In addition to historical information, the following discussion contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors described in Item 1A of this report. Our actual results in future periods may differ from those referred to herein due to several factors, including the risks described in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" elsewhere in this report.

General

We are a Nevada holding company. Through our insurance subsidiaries, we provide workers' compensation insurance coverage to small and mid-sized businesses engaged in lower hazard industries. Workers' compensation insurance is provided under a statutory system wherein most employers are required to provide coverage for their employees' medical, disability, vocational rehabilitation, and/or death benefit costs for work-related injuries or illnesses. We provide workers' compensation insurance throughout most of the United States, with a concentration in California, where 46% of our 2025 gross written premiums were generated. Our revenues primarily consist of net premiums earned, net investment income, and net realized and unrealized gains and losses on investments.

The insurance industry is highly competitive, and there is significant competition in the national workers' compensation industry that is based on price and quality of services. We compete with other specialty workers' compensation carriers, state agencies, multi-line insurance companies, professional employer organizations, self-insurance funds, and state insurance pools.

We target small to mid-sized businesses, as we believe that this market is traditionally characterized by higher profitability and stronger persistency when compared to the U.S. workers' compensation insurance industry in general. We believe we can price our policies at levels that are competitive and profitable over the long-term given our expertise in underwriting and claims handling in this market segment. Our underwriting approach is to consistently underwrite small to mid-sized business accounts at appropriate and competitive prices without sacrificing long-term profitability and stability for short-term revenue growth.

Overview

Summary Financial Results

Our net income was $10.8 million, $118.6 million, and $118.1 million in 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. The key factors that affected our financial performance during those years included:

•Gross premiums written decreased 2.6% in 2025 and increased 1.1% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Net premiums earned increased 1.7% in 2025 and 3.8% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Net investment income increased 9.1% in 2025 and 0.5% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Net realized and unrealized (losses) gains on investments were $(20.4) million, $24.1 million, and $22.7 million in 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively;

•Losses and LAE increased 27.5% in 2025 and 12.4% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Commission expense decreased 3.3% in 2025 and increased 1.2% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Underwriting expenses decreased 6.3% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2024, each compared to the previous year;

•Underwriting (loss) income was $(83.2) million, $15.6 million, and $36.2 million in 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively; and

•Other non-recurring expenses were $1.1 million in 2025 and $11.0 million 2023. We did not incur any such expenses in 2024.

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Summary of Year Ended December 31, 2025

Our underwriting results for the year ended December 31, 2025 reflect moderate growth in net premiums earned, driven by growth in renewal business premiums, along with reductions in both commission expense and underwriting expenses. These improvements were offset by higher losses and LAE compared to 2024, as well as other non-recurring expenses incurred in 2025. Our 2025 net investment income benefited from increased yields on our fixed maturity investment portfolio and returns from our private equity investments.

Summary of Year Ended December 31, 2024

Our underwriting results for the year ended December 31, 2024 reflect increases in net premiums earned from higher new and renewal business premiums, and lower underwriting expenses, partially offset by lower final audit premiums and endorsements, a decrease in favorable prior year loss reserve development, and a higher current accident year loss and LAE ratio. Our investment results benefited from continued strong net investment income and net realized and unrealized gains.

Summary of Year Ended December 31, 2023

Our underwriting results for the year ended December 31, 2023 reflect increases in net premiums earned from higher new and renewal business premiums, strong final audit premiums, and significant net favorable prior year loss reserve development. Our investment results benefited from a sharp increase in net investment income due to higher bond yields and net realized and unrealized gains. Our non-underwriting expenses in 2023 included the cost of the early lease termination of our former corporate headquarters and a write-off of previously capitalized cloud computing costs associated with a former policy management system.

Our consolidated financial results of operations for the three year period ending December 31, 2025 are as follows:

A primary measure of our financial strength and performance is our ability to increase Adjusted stockholders' equity and Adjusted stockholders' equity per share over the long-term. We believe that these non-GAAP measures are important to our investors, analysts, and other interested parties who benefit from having an objective and consistent basis for comparison with other companies within our industry. Further, the change in our adjusted stockholders' equity per share (after taking into account stockholder dividends declared) serves as the performance measure associated with our 2025, 2024, and 2023 performance share unit awards. The following table shows a reconciliation of our Stockholders' equity on a GAAP basis to our Adjusted stockholders' equity.

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(1) Adjusted stockholders' equity is a non-GAAP measure consisting of total GAAP stockholders' equity plus the Deferred Gain, minus Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax.

During 2025, our Adjusted stockholders’ equity declined by $(208.8) million, primarily due to returning $217.2 million to stockholders through share repurchases and dividends declared on common stock and eligible plan awards, while our Adjusted stockholders' equity per share increased by $0.24 per share due to the accretive nature of the share repurchases. During 2024, we grew our Adjusted stockholders’ equity by $46.1 million (or $3.45 per share), despite returning $71.7 million to stockholders through share repurchases and dividends declared on common stock and eligible plan awards.

I.Review of Underwriting Results

Underwriting income or loss is determined by deducting losses and LAE, commission expenses, and underwriting expenses from net premiums earned. Our underwriting results for the three year period ending December 31, 2025 are as follows:

(1) The LPT Agreement is a non-recurring transaction that no longer provides us with any ongoing cash benefits. We provide our underwriting income and combined ratios excluding the effects of the LPT because we believe that these measures are useful in providing investors, analysts and other interested parties a meaningful understanding of our ongoing underwriting performance and provides them with a consistent basis for comparison with other companies in our industry. In addition, we believe that these non-GAAP measures, as presented, are helpful to our management in identifying trends in our performance because the LPT has limited significance to our current and ongoing operations.

Gross Premiums Written

Gross premiums written were $756.1 million, $776.3 million, and $767.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, respectively. The modest reduction in our premiums written in 2025 was the result of higher renewal business

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premiums, primarily driven by continued strong retention rates, offset by decreases in new business premiums, driven predominately by our pricing and underwriting actions taken to improve underwriting margins, and lower final audit premiums and endorsements. Our premiums written in 2025 were negatively impacted by a $14.7 million decrease to our ending final audit premium accrual, partially offset by $6.7 million of final audit premium pick-up. Lastly, we ended the year wi

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