PROGRESSIVE CORP/OH/ (PGR)
SIC breadcrumb: Finance, Insurance, And Real Estate > Insurance Carriers > SIC 6331 Fire, Marine & Casualty Insurance
SEC company page: https://www.sec.gov/edgar/browse/?CIK=80661. Latest filing source: 0000080661-26-000086.
Informational only - descriptive public-record data, not investment advice.
Selected Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Unit | FY | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 87,671,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-03-02 |
| Net income | 11,308,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-03-02 |
| Assets | 123,039,000,000 | USD | 2025 | 2026-03-02 |
Financials
Annual standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-03-02. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000080661.json. Derived margins, ratios, and free cash flow are computed from the extracted annual SEC facts.
| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 23,441,400,000 | 26,839,000,000 | 31,979,000,000 | 39,022,300,000 | 42,658,100,000 | 47,702,000,000 | 49,611,000,000 | 62,109,000,000 | 75,372,000,000 | 87,671,000,000 |
| Net income | 1,031,000,000 | 1,592,200,000 | 2,615,300,000 | 3,970,300,000 | 5,704,600,000 | 3,350,900,000 | 722,000,000 | 3,903,000,000 | 8,480,000,000 | 11,308,000,000 |
| Diluted EPS | 1.76 | 2.72 | 4.42 | 6.72 | 9.66 | 5.66 | 1.18 | 6.58 | 14.40 | 19.23 |
| Operating cash flow | 2,732,700,000 | 3,756,800,000 | 6,284,800,000 | 6,261,600,000 | 6,905,600,000 | 7,761,700,000 | 6,849,000,000 | 10,643,000,000 | 15,119,000,000 | 17,548,000,000 |
| Capital expenditures | 215,000,000 | 155,700,000 | 266,000,000 | 363,500,000 | 223,500,000 | 243,500,000 | 292,000,000 | 252,000,000 | 285,000,000 | 348,000,000 |
| Dividends paid | 519,000,000 | 395,400,000 | 654,900,000 | 1,643,200,000 | 1,551,000,000 | 3,746,500,000 | 234,000,000 | 234,000,000 | 674,000,000 | 2,871,000,000 |
| Assets | 33,427,500,000 | 38,701,200,000 | 46,575,000,000 | 54,910,500,000 | 64,098,300,000 | 71,132,300,000 | 75,465,000,000 | 88,691,000,000 | 105,745,000,000 | 123,039,000,000 |
| Liabilities | 24,986,700,000 | 28,912,700,000 | 35,538,700,000 | 41,011,700,000 | 47,059,700,000 | 52,900,700,000 | 59,574,000,000 | 68,414,000,000 | 80,154,000,000 | 92,716,000,000 |
| Stockholders' equity | 7,957,100,000 | 9,284,800,000 | 10,821,800,000 | 13,673,200,000 | 17,038,600,000 | 18,231,600,000 | 15,891,000,000 | 20,277,000,000 | 25,591,000,000 | 30,323,000,000 |
| Free cash flow | 2,517,700,000 | 3,601,100,000 | 6,018,800,000 | 5,898,100,000 | 6,682,100,000 | 7,518,200,000 | 6,557,000,000 | 10,391,000,000 | 14,834,000,000 | 17,200,000,000 |
Ratios
| Metric | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 4.40% | 5.93% | 8.18% | 10.17% | 13.37% | 7.02% | 1.46% | 6.28% | 11.25% | 12.90% |
| Return on equity | 12.96% | 17.15% | 24.17% | 29.04% | 33.48% | 18.38% | 4.54% | 19.25% | 33.14% | 37.29% |
| Return on assets | 3.08% | 4.11% | 5.62% | 7.23% | 8.90% | 4.71% | 0.96% | 4.40% | 8.02% | 9.19% |
| Liabilities / equity | 3.14 | 3.11 | 3.28 | 3.00 | 2.76 | 2.90 | 3.75 | 3.37 | 3.13 | 3.06 |
Financial Charts
Quarterly
Quarterly standardized facts from SEC companyfacts as of latest extracted filing date 2026-05-04. Source: https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000080661.json.
| Quarter | End Date | Revenue | Net Income | Diluted EPS | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-Q2 | 2022-06-30 | -0.94 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2022-Q3 | 2022-09-30 | 0.20 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q1 | 2023-03-31 | 0.75 | reported discrete quarter | ||
| 2023-Q2 | 2023-06-30 | 15,353,500,000 | 345,400,000 | 0.57 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q3 | 2023-09-30 | 15,560,600,000 | 1,121,300,000 | 1.89 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2023-Q4 | 2023-12-31 | 16,891,200,000 | 1,987,800,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2024-Q1 | 2024-03-31 | 17,242,500,000 | 2,331,400,000 | 3.94 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q2 | 2024-06-30 | 18,134,300,000 | 1,458,700,000 | 2.48 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q3 | 2024-09-30 | 19,719,000,000 | 2,333,400,000 | 3.97 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2024-Q4 | 2024-12-31 | 20,276,200,000 | 2,356,500,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2025-Q1 | 2025-03-31 | 20,409,000,000 | 2,567,000,000 | 4.37 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q2 | 2025-06-30 | 22,004,000,000 | 3,175,000,000 | 5.40 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q3 | 2025-09-30 | 22,512,000,000 | 2,615,000,000 | 4.45 | reported discrete quarter |
| 2025-Q4 | 2025-12-31 | 22,746,000,000 | 2,951,000,000 | derived Q4 = FY annual - nine-month YTD | |
| 2026-Q1 | 2026-03-31 | 22,188,000,000 | 2,818,000,000 | 4.80 | reported discrete quarter |
Quarterly Charts
Macro Cross-References
- CPIAUCSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items in U.S. City Average
- UNRATE - Unemployment Rate
- FEDFUNDS - Federal Funds Effective Rate
- CES0500000003 - Average Hourly Earnings of All Employees, Total Private
- DFEDTARU - Federal Funds Target Range - Upper Limit
- DFEDTARL - Federal Funds Target Range - Lower Limit
- DGS3MO - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 3-Month Constant Maturity
- DGS2 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 2-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS10 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 10-Year Constant Maturity
- DGS30 - Market Yield on U.S. Treasury Securities at 30-Year Constant Maturity
- T10Y2Y - 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 2-Year Treasury Constant Maturity
- CPILFESL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: All Items Less Food and Energy
- CPIUFDSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Food
- CPIENGSL - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Energy
- CUSR0000SAH1 - Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers: Shelter
- PCEPI - Personal Consumption Expenditures: Chain-type Price Index
- PCEPILFE - Personal Consumption Expenditures Excluding Food and Energy: Chain-type Price Index
- PPIACO - Producer Price Index by Commodity: All Commodities
- T10YIE - 10-Year Breakeven Inflation Rate
- U6RATE - Total Unemployed, Plus All Marginally Attached Workers Plus Total Employed Part Time for Economic Reasons
- PAYEMS - All Employees, Total Nonfarm
- CIVPART - Labor Force Participation Rate
- EMRATIO - Employment-Population Ratio
- UNEMPLOY - Unemployed
- CE16OV - Employment Level
- ICSA - Initial Claims
- JTSJOL - Job Openings: Total Nonfarm
- JTSQUR - Quits: Total Nonfarm
- GDPC1 - Real Gross Domestic Product
- A191RL1Q225SBEA - Real Gross Domestic Product: Percent Change from Preceding Period
- INDPRO - Industrial Production: Total Index
- TCU - Capacity Utilization: Total Index
- HOUST - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Started: Total Units
- PERMIT - New Privately-Owned Housing Units Authorized in Permit-Issuing Places: Total Units
- RSAFS - Advance Retail Sales: Retail Trade
- PCE - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- DSPIC96 - Real Disposable Personal Income
- PSAVERT - Personal Saving Rate
- M2SL - M2
- BOPGSTB - U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services: Balance
- MSPUS - Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States
- HSN1F - New One Family Houses Sold: United States
- RHORUSQ156N - Homeownership Rate in the United States
- TTLCONS - Total Construction Spending: Total Construction in the United States
- RRVRUSQ156N - Rental Vacancy Rate in the United States
- TOTALSL - Total Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- REVOLSL - Revolving Consumer Credit Owned and Securitized
- DRCCLACBS - Delinquency Rate on Credit Card Loans, All Commercial Banks
- GDP - Gross Domestic Product
- GPDI - Gross Private Domestic Investment
- GCE - Government Consumption Expenditures and Gross Investment
- PCEC - Personal Consumption Expenditures
- NETEXP - Net Exports of Goods and Services
- GFDEBTN - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt
- GFDEGDQ188S - Federal Debt: Total Public Debt as Percent of Gross Domestic Product
- FYFSD - Federal Surplus or Deficit
- FGRECPT - Federal Government Current Receipts
- FGEXPND - Federal Government: Current Expenditures
- MANEMP - All Employees, Manufacturing
- USCONS - All Employees, Construction
- USTRADE - All Employees, Retail Trade
- USFIRE - All Employees, Financial Activities
- USGOVT - All Employees, Government
- AWHAETP - Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private
- DGORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Durable Goods
- NEWORDER - Manufacturers' New Orders: Nondefense Capital Goods Excluding Aircraft
- BUSINV - Total Business Inventories
- EXPGS - Exports of Goods and Services
- IMPGS - Imports of Goods and Services
- IR - Import Price Index (End Use): All Commodities
- PPIFIS - Producer Price Index by Commodity: Final Demand
Latest quarter (10-Q)
Latest 10-Q source: 0000080661-26-000177.
ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive Corporation’s insurance subsidiaries maintained an underwriting profit better than our 4% companywide calendar-year underwriting profit goal during the first quarter 2026 and reported strong growth year over year in both premiums and policies in force. During the first quarter 2026, we maintained strong profitability, with a companywide underwriting profit margin of 13.6%. We wrote $23.6 billion of companywide net premiums written in the first quarter 2026, which was $1.4 billion, or 6%, more than we generated during the same period last year, with an 8% increase in net premiums earned. We ended the first quarter 2026 with 3.3 million, or 9%, more policies in force than at March 31, 2025; adding nearly one million policies in force in the first quarter 2026 alone.
Both our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments generated strong profitability during the first quarter 2026, reporting underwriting profit margins of 14.0% and 11.0%, respectively, fairly consistent with the underwriting margins of 14.3% and 12.5% reported for the first quarter last year.
Our Personal Lines segment experienced year-over-year growth for the first quarter 2026, with net premiums written increasing 7% and policies in force up 9%, over the significant growth of 20% in net premiums written and 18% in policies in force we experienced in the first quarter last year. The current period growth was primarily driven by policies in force growth in our personal auto products, which were up 11% compared to March 2025.
In Commercial Lines, we experienced an increase in both net premiums written and policies in force of 3% for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year. The increase in net premiums written was primarily driven by an increase in transportation network company (TNC) premiums, due to the renewal of certain TNC policies that have higher projected mileage, which is the basis for computing premiums, and an increase in the percentage of premiums retained, compared to the TNC policies renewed in the first quarter 2025. Excluding TNC, Commercial Lines net premiums written would have decreased 1% for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year. In our core commercial auto business (which excludes our TNC business, our Progressive Fleet & Specialty Programs (Fleet & Specialty) products, and our business owners’ policy (BOP) product) we continued to experience a shift to a greater mix of policies with 6-month terms in our contractor and business auto business market targets (BMT), which have about half the amount of net premiums written as 12-month policies, and a shift to a greater mix of BMTs with lower average written premium.
For the first quarter 2026, the $251 million year-over-year increase in net income, compared to the first quarter 2025, reflected an increase in both underwriting profit and total net investment income. Total comprehensive income decreased $1.2 billion for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year, driven by net unrealized losses on our fixed-maturity securities, compared to net unrealized gains during the same period last year.
At March 31, 2026, total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) was $40.4 billion, which was an increase of $3.2 billion from year-end 2025. This increase was primarily driven by the $2.2 billion of comprehensive income earned in the first three months of 2026 and the March 2026 issuances of $500 million of 4.60% Senior Notes due 2031, and $1.0 billion of 5.15% Senior Notes due 2036, partially offset by the repurchase of 2.3 million of our common shares, at a total cost of $478 million.
A. Insurance Operations
Our companywide underwriting profit margin was 13.6% during the first quarter 2026, compared to 14.0% during the first quarter 2025. For the first quarter 2026, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) ratio and our underwriting expense ratio were relatively stable, compared to the same period last year.
We closely manage our expenses, monitoring both acquisition expenses and non-acquisition expenses, which we view as an important measure of operational efficiency as we seek to deliver our most competitive rates to consumers. During the first quarter 2026, our advertising spend was $1.5 billion, or 20% greater than the first quarter last year. The current period impact of the increase in advertising spend on our expense ratio was partially offset by the increase in net premiums earned, contributing 0.7 more points to the underwriting expense ratio in the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year. We will continue to advertise to maximize growth as long as the advertising spend is efficient and we remain on track to achieve our calendar-year profitability goal.
Our Personal Lines segment represented 83% of our companywide net premiums written at period end and is comprised of our personal vehicle and property products. Personal Lines vehicles include both personal auto and special lines products, with the latter typically having higher losses during the warmer weather months, due to the seasonal nature of these products (e.g., recreational vehicles, such as motorcycles, RVs, and watercraft). Our Personal Lines underwriting margin for the first quarter 2026 was 14.0%, with personal vehicle and personal property products reporting 13.7% and 21.7%, respectively. Profitability in our special lines products had about a one point favorable impact to our personal vehicle
23
combined ratio during the first quarter 2026. The strong underwriting profit margin in our personal property products was primarily driven by the low level of incurred catastrophe losses and frequency of loss during the period and increased rates.
For the first quarter 2026, Personal Lines generated net premiums written growth of 7%, with our agency and direct personal vehicle businesses growing 5% and 10%, respectively, while our personal property business decreased 5%, each compared to the same period last year. Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), retention, business mix, and premium per policy.
Relative to the significant growth we experienced in our personal vehicle products during the first quarter 2025, we experienced a 2% increase in total personal vehicle new business applications during the first quarter 2026. Total personal vehicle renewal business applications increased 14% during the first quarter, primarily driven by the renewal of new business applications gained over the past twelve months. Our personal vehicle business continued to demonstrate sustained net premiums written and application growth despite increased competition in the marketplace during the first quarter 2026.
Homeowners products are defined as our total personal property business excluding renters and umbrella products. For the first quarter 2026, the new business applications in our homeowners product were flat, compared to the same period last year, with the decrease in the less volatile weather-related markets, offset by an increase in the more volatile (e.g., coastal, wildfire, and hail-prone states) weather-related markets. In our renters product, new business applications experienced a 2% decline.
During the first quarter 2026, in our personal property business, we continued to focus on improving profitability and reducing exposure in more volatile weather-related markets, and, where permitted, on slowing growth and non-renewing policies. We continued to prioritize insuring lower-risk properties (e.g., new construction, existing homes with newer roofs), accepting new business for our homeowners product only when bundled with a Progressive personal auto policy, where permitted, and continued to restrict new business in the non-owner-occupied home market. In addition, we maintained our cost sharing through mandatory wind and hail deductibles and roof depreciation schedules in most markets. We believe these actions adversely impacted new business application growth. During late 2025, we began to take actions in certain markets to generate new business growth at the state level based on our concentration risks, product segmentation, rate adequacy, cost sharing execution, and regulatory and market conditions. Some of these actions include expanding independent agency relationships, reopening new business in certain agency and direct channel markets, and lifting underwriting restrictions on older roofs, medium- to high-value homes, and non-
bundled homeowners products in certain markets. We are now selectively increasing the availability of our personal property products throughout the remainder of 2026.
During the first quarter 2026, on a countrywide basis, in the aggregate, we decreased personal auto rates less than 1% and increased our personal property rates about 1%.
We believe a key element in improving the accuracy of our personal auto rating is Snapshot®, our usage-based insurance offering. For the first quarter 2026, the personal auto adoption rates for consumers enrolling in the program decreased 5% in agency and 1% in direct, compared to the same period last year. The decrease in the agency adoption rate is due to lifting certain agent restrictions during the second half of 2025, expanding Snapshot access to a broader agent base with lower adoption rates. Snapshot is available in all states, other than California, and our latest segmentation model was available in states that represented 80% of our countrywide personal auto net premiums written (excluding California) on a trailing 12-month basis at quarter end. We continue to invest in our mobile application, with the majority of new enrollments choosing mobile devices for Snapshot monitoring.
Our Commercial Lines segment includes our core commercial auto products, TNC business, Fleet & Specialty products, and BOP product. Our total Commercial Lines underwriting profitability for the first quarter 2026 was 11.0%. The total Commercial Lines net premiums written increased 3% for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period in the prior year, primarily attributable to the renewal of certain TNC policies, as previously discussed.
Total applications in our core commercial auto products increased 4% for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year. New business applications decreased 6%, with a decline in the business auto, contractor, and for-hire transportation BMTs, and were impacted by rate and non-rate actions taken to address profitability challenges. Despite a 3% increase in Commercial Lines policies in force, excluding the TNC business, total Commercial Lines net premiums written were down 1% for the first quarter 2026, on a year-over-year basis. In our core commercial auto business, in aggregate, rates remained flat during the first quarter 2026.
We continue to believe we are currently adequately priced in our personal auto and core commercial auto products in most states and expect to continue increasing rates modestly in our personal property products through the remainder of the year. However, we regularly model the potential impact tariffs could have on vehicle loss costs, the supply chain, the availability of parts, and general inflation, among other factors, although the dynamic international trade environment adds uncertainty in predicting how tariffs will ultimately impact our business over time. While our focus has been on trying to maintain stable rates for customers, increases in tariffs and other
24
retaliatory actions may result in higher loss costs, which could result in a reduction in profitability and the possible need for higher than currently anticipated rate increases throughout 2026.
For the first quarter 2026, on a year-over-year basis, average written premium per policy decreased 2%, 7%, and 4% i
[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]
Latest 10-K MD&A
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) is intended to help the reader understand our financial condition and results of operations. MD&A should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and supplemental information.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive insurance organization has been offering insurance to consumers since 1937. The Progressive Corporation is a holding company that does not have any revenue producing operations, physical property, or employees of its own. The Progressive Corporation, together with its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries and affiliates, comprise what we refer to as Progressive.
We report two operating segments. Our Personal Lines segment, which represents 87% of companywide net premiums written, writes insurance for personal vehicles, which include personal auto and special lines products (e.g., recreational vehicles, such as motorcycles, RVs, and watercraft), personal residential property insurance for homeowners and renters, umbrella insurance, and flood insurance through the “Write Your Own” program for the National Flood Insurance Program. Our personal auto product represents about 90% of our Personal Lines net premiums written and just under 80% of our companywide premiums, and contributes the largest impact to our underwriting results. Our special lines and personal property insurance products each represent about 5% of our total Personal Lines premiums.
Our Commercial Lines segment writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, business-related general liability and commercial property insurance predominantly for small businesses, and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry. Commercial Lines includes our core commercial auto products, transportation network company (TNC) business, Progressive Fleet & Specialty Programs (Fleet & Specialty) products, and business owners’ policy (BOP) product and represents 13% of our companywide net premiums written. Our core commercial auto products represented about 80% of our total Commercial Lines net premiums written and about 10% of companywide premiums.
We operate both segments throughout the United States, through both the independent agency and direct distribution channels. Based on 2024 premiums written, in the United States, we are the second largest private passenger auto insurer, the largest writer of motorcycle insurance, the twelfth largest homeowners insurance carrier, and the largest writer of commercial auto insurance.
Our underwriting operations, combined with our service and investment operations, make up the consolidated group.
A. Operating Results
During 2025, Progressive maintained an underwriting profit better than our 4% companywide calendar-year underwriting profit goal and reported excellent results year over year in both premiums and policies in force. Our underwriting profit margin was 12.6%, which was 1.4 points better than the 11.2% margin earned in 2024. We wrote $83.2 billion of net premiums written during 2025, which was $8.8 billion, or 12%, more than we generated during 2024, with a 15% increase in net premiums earned. We ended 2025 with 3.7 million, or 10%, more policies in force than at December 31, 2024.
Both our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments generated strong profitability during the year, reporting underwriting profit margins of 12.5% and 13.0%, respectively, compared to 11.4% and 10.6% for 2024. Several factors contributed to the increase in our underwriting profit, including lower personal and commercial auto accident frequency, lower weather-related catastrophe losses, and favorable prior accident years development. Partially offsetting the positive impact on profitability in Personal Lines was 1.7 points of policyholder credit expense related to personal auto excess profits earned in Florida.
Since Florida insurance reform was enacted in early 2023, we have seen lower loss costs on certain types of personal auto accident claims and favorable reserve development, and we have experienced strong profitability in our Florida personal auto business. Despite actions to lower rates, beginning in the fourth quarter 2024 and through 2025, our personal auto profit in Florida for the 2023 to 2025 period exceeded the statutory profit limit that a Florida statute imposes on the profit that any insurance group can earn on personal auto insurance over any three-accident-year period. As a result, in 2025, we recorded a $1.2 billion policyholder credit expense (Florida policyholder credits), which represents our current estimate of the profit we earned on the three-accident-year period ending December 31, 2025, in excess of the permitted profit limit. See II. Financial Condition for further information.
App.-A-48
Our Personal Lines segment experienced year-over-year growth for 2025, with net premiums written increasing 14% and policies in force up 11%, over the significant growth of 23% in net premiums written and 18% in policies in force we experienced during 2024. This growth was primarily driven by our personal auto products’ strong renewal application growth, driven by new applications gained over 2024 renewing during 2025.
In Commercial Lines, we experienced a decrease in net premiums written of 3% for 2025, compared to 2024, despite experiencing policies in force growth of 4%. The decline in net premiums written was primarily due to certain TNC policies that were not renewed in 2025. To a lesser extent, the net premiums written decline was due to a shift to a greater mix of policies with 6-month terms in our contractor and business auto business market targets (BMT), which have about half the amount of net premiums written as 12-month policies, and to a mix shift to lower average written premium BMTs in our core commercial auto business. Excluding TNC, Commercial Lines net premiums written would have decreased 1% for 2025, compared to 2024.
During 2025, in the aggregate, we decreased personal auto rates less than 1% and increased our personal property rates about 10%. In our core commercial auto business, we increased rates about 9% in the aggregate during 2025.
While we currently continue to believe we are adequately priced in our personal auto products in most states, starting in the first quarter 2025, the U.S. government announced additional tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. from numerous countries, which have, in response, resulted in additional tariffs against the U.S. We regularly model the potential impact tariffs could have on vehicle loss costs, the supply chain, the availability of parts, and general inflation, among other factors, although the dynamic international trade environment adds uncertainty in predicting how tariffs will ultimately impact our business over time. While our focus has been on trying to maintain stable rates for customers, effective tariffs and other retaliatory actions may result in higher loss costs, which could result in a reduction in profitability and the possible need for rate increases throughout 2026.
While we expect to continue increasing rates modestly in our personal property and core commercial auto products during 2026, we will continue to monitor the impact from tariffs and other potential changes in the regulatory environment as we evaluate the possible need for additional rate increases.
For 2025, the year-over-year increase in companywide underwriting profitability was the primary contributor to the $2.8 billion increase in net income. The remainder of the net income increase reflected an increase in recurring investment income during 2025, primarily reflecting investing new cash from insurance operations and proceeds from maturing bonds in higher coupon rate securities. Total
comprehensive income increased $4.2 billion, primarily reflecting the increase in net income and the increase in net unrealized gains on our fixed-maturity securities in 2025.
We ended 2025 with total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $37.2 billion, which was an increase of $4.7 billion from year-end 2024, primarily driven by the $12.8 billion of comprehensive income earned in 2025, partially offset by $8.1 billion of quarterly and annual-variable common share dividends declared during 2025.
B. Insurance Operations
Our companywide underwriting profit margin was 12.6% during 2025, compared to 11.2% during 2024. For 2025, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) ratio decreased 3.2 points, and our underwriting expense ratio increased 1.8 points, compared to 2024. The decrease in the loss and LAE ratio was primarily driven by lower personal and commercial auto accident frequency, lower weather-related catastrophe losses, and favorable prior accident years development, compared to the prior year. The increase in the underwriting expense ratio was primarily driven by the Florida policyholder credits, previously discussed, which contributed 1.5 points to the companywide ratio. Our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments both generated strong profitability for 2025, with margins of 12.5% and 13.0%, respectively. Excluding the Florida policyholder credits, the Personal Lines underwriting margin would have been 14.2%.
We closely manage our expenses, monitoring both acquisition expenses and non-acquisition expenses, which we view as important measures of operational efficiency as we seek to deliver our most competitive rates to consumers. During 2025, our advertising spend was $5.1 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion, or 0.6 points, greater than 2024. We plan to continue to advertise to maximize growth as long as the advertising spend is efficient and we remain on track to achieve our target profitability.
Our Personal Lines segment is comprised of our personal vehicle and property products. Personal Lines vehicles include both personal auto and special lines products. For 2025, our personal vehicle and personal property underwriting margins were 11.9% and 24.9%, respectively, with Florida policyholder credits reducing the personal vehicles margin by 1.8 points. Profitability in our special lines products had a favorable 0.4 point impact on our personal vehicle combined ratio during 2025. The substantially higher underwriting profit margin in our personal property products during 2025 was primarily driven by the low level of catastrophe losses incurred, lower loss frequency, favorable development on prior year losses, and increased rates.
Our Personal Lines segment experienced year-over-year growth for 2025, with our agency and direct personal vehicle businesses and personal property business net premiums written growing 11%, 19%, and 1%,
App.-A-49
respectively, compared to 2024, and policies in force growing 9%, 13%, and 4%.
Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), business mix, premium per policy, and retention.
Relative to the significant growth we experienced in our Personal Lines new business applications during 2024, we experienced a moderate increase in total new business applications during 2025. Total Personal Lines renewal business applications increased substantially, primarily driven by the significant new business application growth experienced in our personal vehicle products in prior periods. New and renewal personal auto applications increased 9% and 20%, respectively, in 2025, compared to the prior year.
In our personal property business, strong growth in new applications in our renters policies was more than offset by a decrease in our homeowners product, which we define as our total personal property business excluding renters and umbrella products. For 2025, the new business applications in our homeowners product decreased about 45%, compared to 2024, with a significant decrease in both the less volatile and more volatile (e.g., coastal and hail-prone states) weather-related markets throughout the year.
During 2025, in our personal property business, we continued to focus on improving profitability and reducing exposure in more volatile weather-related markets, and, where permitted, on slowing growth and non-renewing policies. We prioritized insuring lower-risk properties (e.g., new construction, existing homes with newer roofs), accepting new business for our homeowners product only when bundled with a Progressive personal auto policy, where permitted, and continued to exit the non-owner-occupied home market. In addition, we maintained our cost sharing through mandatory wind and hail deductibles and roof depreciation schedules in most markets. We believe these actions adversely impacted new business application growth. During late 2025, we began to take actions in certain markets to generate new business growth at the state level based on our concentration risks, product segmentation, rate adequacy, cost sharing execution, and regulatory and market conditions. Some of these actions include expanding agency relationships, lifting certain agency restrictions put in place in 2024, and reopening new business in our direct channel. We plan to continue these actions in 2026.
The total Commercial Lines net premiums written decreased 3% for 2025, compared to 2024, primarily reflecting certain TNC policies not renewing in 2025, and, to a lesser extent, a shift to a greater mix of policies with 6-month terms, and a mix shift to lower average written premium BMTs, all compared to 2024. Excluding the TNC business, total Commercial Lines net premiums written was down 1% for 2025, on a year-over-year basis.
New and renewal business applications in our core commercial auto products increased 1% and 6%, respectively, for 2025, compared to the prior year. The low new business application growth was predominantly influenced by the for-hire transportation BMT, reflecting the impact of rate and non-rate actions taken to address profitability challenges and, to a lesser extent, the continued decline in the number of active motor carriers in this BMT. Excluding the impact of this BMT, our core commercial auto new application growth would have been 5% for 2025.
During 2025, on a year-over-year basis, average written premium per policy decreased 1%, 7%, and 6% in the personal auto, personal property, and core commercial auto products, respectively. In aggregate, we took minimal personal auto rate actions during 2025. The decrease in personal property average written premium per policy primarily was due to a shift in the mix of business to more renters policies, which have lower average written premiums, and our continued focus on slowing growth in more volatile weather-related markets, which generally have higher risk and, therefore, higher average premiums per policy. These mix shifts in our personal property business were partially offset by aggregate rate increases of 10% taken during 2025 and higher premium coverages reflecting increased property values.
The decrease in average written premium per policy in our core commercial auto products was due to a shift in the mix of business, as previously discussed. This decrease was partially offset by rate increases of 9%, in the aggregate, for 2025. Given that our personal property and commercial auto policies are predominately written for 12-month terms, rate actions take longer to earn into premium for these products.
We will continue to monitor the factors that could impact our loss costs for both segments, which may include tariffs, as previously discussed, new and used car prices, miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, building materials, construction costs, inflation, and other factors, on a state-by-state basis.
We believe a key element in improving the accuracy of our personal auto rating is Snapshot®, our usage-based insurance offering. For 2025, the personal auto adoption rates for consumers enrolling in the program decreased 2% in agency and increased 6% in direct, compared to the same period last year. Snapshot is available in all states, other than California, and our latest segmentation model was available in states that represented 81% of our countrywide personal auto net premiums written (excluding California) at year-end 2025. We continue to invest in our mobile application, with the majority of new enrollments choosing mobile devices for Snapshot monitoring.
We realize that to grow policies in force, it is critical that we retain our customers for longer periods. Consequently,
App.-A-50
increasing retention continues to be one of our most important priorities. Our efforts to increase our share of Progressive personal auto and personal property bundled households (i.e., Robinsons) remains a key initiative, and we plan to continue to make investments to improve the customer experience in order to support that goal. Policy life expectancy, which is our actuarial estimate of the average length of time that a newly written policy will remain in force before cancellation or lapse in coverage, is our primary measure of customer retention in our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses.
In personal auto, we evaluate retention using a trailing 12-month and a trailing 3-month policy life expectancy. Although the latter can reflect more volatility and is more sensitive to seasonality, we believe this measure is more responsive to current experience and may be an indicator for the future trend of our 12-month measure. Our trailing 12-month total personal auto policy life expectancy was down 7% year over year for 2025, with agency personal auto down 6% and direct auto down 8%. On a trailing 3-month basis, our personal auto policy life expectancy was down 10% for 2025, compared to 2024. We believe these decreases are primarily due to increased shopping and competition in the marketplace, and a shift in our mix of business, including changes in billing plans offered to customers. Due, in part, to the efforts of our customer preservation team, during 2025 we saw an increase in existing customers who went through our new customer quote process to either modify existing coverage or to find a lower rate. As a result, some of these customers replaced their existing policies with new Progressive policies, which resulted in retention of the customer but negatively impacted the policy life expectancy measure.
Our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy was down 12% for our personal property products year over year for 2025. We believe this decrease primarily reflected a mix shift to more renters policies, which generally have a lower policy life expectancy.
For our core commercial auto products, our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy increased 10% in 2025, compared to 2024, which we believe is due to a shift in the mix of business to BMTs with historically higher policy life expectancies, the moderation of our rate increases, and various initiatives, such as payment and renewal reminders. The increase in the core commercial auto policy life expectancy was across all BMTs, except in for-hire specialty.
C. Investments
The fair value of our investment portfolio was $97.4 billion at December 31, 2025, compared to $80.3 billion at December 31, 2024. The increase from year-end 2024 primarily reflected positive cash flows from insurance operations and investment returns, partially offset by the payment of our quarterly and 2024 annual-variable common share dividends.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities (the securities allocated to Group I and II are defined below under Results of Operations – Investments). At December 31, 2025 and 2024, 6% of our portfolio was allocated to Group I securities with the remainder to Group II securities.
Our recurring investment income generated a pretax book yield of 4.1% for 2025, compared to 3.9% for 2024. The increase from the prior year primarily reflected investing new cash from insurance operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, in higher coupon rate securities. Our investment portfolio produced a fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return of 7.3% for 2025 and of 4.6% for 2024. Our fixed-income and common stock portfolios had FTE total returns of 7.0% and 16.8%, respectively, for 2025, compared to 3.8% and 22.9%, respectively, for 2024. The increase in the fixed-income portfolio FTE total return primarily reflected movement in U.S. Treasury yields year over year. The decrease in the common stock portfolio FTE total return reflected general market conditions.
At both December 31, 2025 and 2024, the fixed-income portfolio had a weighted average credit quality of AA-. At December 31, 2025, the fixed-income portfolio duration was 3.4 years, compared to 3.3 years at December 31, 2024. During 2025, we increased our duration to take advantage of higher yields in the market.
At December 31, 2025, we continued to maintain a relatively conservative investment portfolio with a greater allocation to cash and treasuries. We believe that this portfolio allocation positions us well to benefit from the continuing dynamic market environment. We believe the investment portfolio is in a very strong position as we move into 2026.
App.-A-51
II. FINANCIAL CONDITION
A. Liquidity and Capital Resources
The Progressive Corporation receives cash through subsidiary dividends, capital raising, and other transactions, and uses these funds to contribute to its subsidiaries (e.g., to support growth), to make payments to shareholders and debt holders (e.g., dividends and interest, respectively), to repurchase its common shares, and to redeem or pay off debt, as well as for acquisitions and other business purposes that may arise.
During 2025, The Progressive Corporation received $10.0 billion, in the form of dividends, from its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
The Progressive Corporation deployed capital through the following actions in 2025:
•Common Share Dividends - declared aggregate dividends of $13.90 per common share, or $8.1 billion.
•Common Share Repurchases - acquired 0.7 million of our common shares at a total cost of $166 million either in the open market or to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of equity awards under our employee equity compensation plan.
◦Pursuant to our financial policies, we repurchase common shares to neutralize dilution from equity-based compensation granted during the year or opportunistically when we believe our shares are trading below our determination of long-term fair value.
•Capital Contributions - contributed a net $94 million to its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
Over the last three years, The Progressive Corporation received dividends from its subsidiaries, net of capital contributions, of $13.2 billion.
Aggregate payments, not including accruals, made for the last three years, were as follows:
•$3.8 billion for common share dividends and $0.4 billion to repurchase our common shares;
•$0.8 billion for interest on our outstanding debt; and
•$0.6 billion for preferred share redemptions and dividends.
The covenants on The Progressive Corporation’s existing debt securities do not include any rating or credit triggers that would require an adjustment of the interest rate or an acceleration of principal payments in the event that our debt securities are downgraded by a rating agency. While we had an unsecured discretionary line of credit available to us during each of the last three years in the amount of $300 million, we did not borrow under this arrangement, or engage in other short-term borrowings, to fund our operations or for liquidity purposes.
Progressive’s insurance operations create liquidity by collecting and investing premiums from new and renewal business in advance of paying claims, as well as from our
insurance subsidiaries producing aggregate calendar-year underwriting profits and positive cash flows. As primarily an auto insurer, our claims liabilities generally have a short-term duration. At December 31, 2025, our loss and LAE reserves were $43.3 billion. Typically, at any point in time, approximately 50% of our outstanding loss and LAE reserves are paid within the following twelve months and less than 20% are still outstanding after three years. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for further information on the timing of claims payments.
For the three years ended December 31, 2025, operations generated positive cash flows of $43.3 billion. In 2025, operating cash flows increased $2.4 billion, compared to 2024, primarily driven by the increase in underwriting profit. We believe cash flows will remain positive in the foreseeable future and do not anticipate the need to raise capital to support our operations in that timeframe, although changes in market or regulatory conditions affecting the insurance industry, or other unforeseen events, may necessitate otherwise.
As of December 31, 2025, we held $53.3 billion in short-term investments and U.S. Treasury securities, which represented nearly 55% of our total portfolio’s fair value at year end. Based on our portfolio allocation and investment strategies, we believe that we have sufficient readily available marketable securities to cover our claims payments and short-term obligations in the event our cash flows from operations were to be negative. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2025 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of certain matters that may affect our portfolio and capital position.
Insurance companies are required to satisfy regulatory surplus and premiums-to-surplus ratio requirements. As of December 31, 2025, our consolidated statutory surplus was $28.4 billion, compared to $27.2 billion at December 31, 2024. Our net premiums written-to-surplus ratio was 2.9 to 1 at year-end 2025, 2.7 to 1 at year-end 2024, and 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2023. At December 31, 2025, we also had access to $13.0 billion of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company that can be used to fund corporate obligations, provide additional capital to the insurance subsidiaries to fund potential future growth, and to fund other opportunities. In January 2026, a portion of these securities were used to pay the $8.0 billion common share dividends declared in December 2025.
Insurance companies are also required to satisfy risk-based capital ratios. These ratios are determined by a series of dynamic surplus-related calculations required by the laws of various states that contain a variety of factors that are applied to financial balances based on the degree of certain risks (e.g., asset, credit, and underwriting). One prominent ratio monitored by regulators is the amount of net
App.-A-52
premiums written as a ratio of surplus. Although the ratio of written premiums to surplus that the regulators will allow is a function of a number of factors (including applicable laws, the type of business being written, the adequacy of the insurer’s reserves, and the quality of the insurer’s assets), the annual net premiums that an insurer may write historically have been perceived to be limited to a specified multiple of the insurer’s total surplus. This limit is generally 3 to 1 for property and casualty insurance and is generally the maximum target for our vehicle businesses. However, two states have permitted us to target a premiums-to-surplus ratio for our vehicle businesses to a maximum ratio of 3.5 to 1 based on our strong financial condition. This approval reduces the amount of capital we may need to hold at our applicable insurance subsidiaries relative to premium, subject to the other factors previously mentioned. For 2025, these subsidiaries represented 91% of our companywide total net premiums written. The pace and extent to which we move to this ratio is yet to be determined. Our insurance subsidiaries’ risk-based capital ratios were in excess of applicable minimum regulatory requirements at year-end 2025. The payment of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are subject to certain limitations. See Note 8 – Statutory Financial Information for additional information on insurance subsidiary dividends.
We seek to deploy our capital in a prudent manner and use multiple data sources and modeling tools to estimate the frequency, severity, and correlation of identified exposures, including, but not limited to, catastrophic and other insured losses, natural disasters, and other significant business interruptions, to estimate our potential capital needs. Management views our capital position as consisting of three layers, each with a specific size and purpose:
•The first layer of capital is the amount of capital we need to satisfy state insurance regulatory requirements and support our objective of writing all the business we can write and service, consistent with our underwriting discipline of achieving a combined ratio of 96 or better. This first layer of capital, which we refer to as “regulatory capital,” is held by our various insurance entities.
•While our regulatory capital layer is, by definition, a cushion for absorbing financial consequences of adverse events, such as loss reserve development, litigation, weather catastrophes, and investment market changes, we view that as a base and hold a second layer of capital for even more extreme conditions. The modeling used to quantify capital needs for these conditions is extensive, including tens of thousands of simulations, representing our best estimates of such contingencies based on historical experience. This capital is held either at a consolidated non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company or in our insurance entities, where it is potentially eligible for a dividend to the holding company.
•The third layer is capital in excess of the sum of the first two layers and provides maximum flexibility to fund other business opportunities, repurchase stock or other securities, and pay dividends to shareholders, among other purposes. This capital is largely held at a consolidated non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company.
We monitor our total capital position regularly throughout the year to ensure we have adequate capital to support our insurance operations. At December 31, 2025, we held total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $37.2 billion, compared to $32.5 billion at December 31, 2024. Our debt-to-total capital ratios at December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, were 18.5%, 21.2%, and 25.4%, respectively. Our debt-to-total capital ratios were consistent with our financial policy of maintaining a ratio of less than 30%.
At December 31, 2025, we had various noncancelable contractual obligations that were outstanding. We had outstanding $7.0 billion principal amount of Senior Notes with maturity dates ranging from 2027 through 2052, with $3.6 billion of future interest payment obligations related to our outstanding debt. The next debt repayments of $1.0 billion, in the aggregate, are due in 2027 upon the maturity of our 2.45% Senior Notes and our 2.50% Senior Notes. See Note 4 – Debt for additional information on our long-term debt.
At year-end 2025, we also had $3.0 billion of purchase obligations that are noncancelable commitments for goods and services (e.g., software licenses, maintenance on information technology equipment, and media placements). Just over 45% of our purchase obligations are payable within one year and just over 25% will be outstanding for longer than three years. In addition, we have $317 million of minimum commitments for reinsurance agreements, primarily related to multiple-layer property catastrophe reinsurance contracts with various reinsurers for terms ranging from one to three years. See Note 1 – Reporting and Accounting Policies, Commitments and Contingencies for a discussion of these obligations. We do not have, and do not expect to enter into, any material commitments for capital expenditures in the reasonably foreseeable future.
On July 4, 2025, H.R. 1, “An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14” (the Act) was signed into law by the President of the United States. The Act contains numerous tax provisions applicable to corporations. These provisions did not have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of operations.
As previously discussed, during 2025, we recorded $1.2 billion of Florida policyholder credit expense, which represents the profit we expect we earned on the three-accident-year period ending December 31, 2025, in excess of the permitted profit limit. In early 2026, we began to provide credits to Florida personal auto policyholders active at December 31, 2025. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in
App.-A-53
our 2025 Form 10-K, for a description of other factors that may impact our ability to establish accurate loss reserves.
Based upon our capital planning and forecasting efforts, we believe we have sufficient capital resources and cash flows from operations to support our current business, scheduled principal and interest payments on our debt, anticipated quarterly dividends on our common shares, Florida policyholder credits, our contractual obligations, and other expected capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, we may decide to raise additional capital to take advantage of attractive terms in the market and
provide additional financial flexibility. We currently have an effective shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so that we may periodically offer and sell an indeterminate aggregate amount of senior or subordinated debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, purchase contracts, warrants, and units. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds, subject to market conditions, from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof.
III. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – UNDERWRITING
A. Segment Overview
We report our underwriting operations in two segments: Personal Lines and Commercial Lines. Our Personal Lines segment includes our personal vehicles (auto and special lines) and personal property products. Since our personal auto products represented about 90% of our Personal Lines segment net premiums written for 2025, much of the following discussion will focus on our personal auto products, both in total and by distribution channel. We will also discuss our personal property products as we continue to focus on improving profitability and reducing our concentration and exposure in more volatile weather-related markets.
Our Commercial Lines segment includes our core commercial auto products, TNC business, Fleet & Specialty products, and BOP business. Of our total Commercial Lines segment, our core commercial auto products represented 82% of net premiums written and our TNC business represented 14% as of year-end 2025. Therefore, much of the following discussion will focus only on our core commercial auto products.
The following table shows the composition of our companywide net premiums written, by segment, for the years ended December 31:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | ||||||||
| Vehicles | ||||||||
| Agency | 36 | % | 36 | % | 36 | % | ||
| Direct | 47 | 45 | 43 | |||||
| Property | 4 | 4 | 5 | |||||
| Total Personal Lines | 87 | 85 | 84 | |||||
| Commercial Lines | 13 | 15 | 16 | |||||
| Total underwriting operations | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
Within our Personal Lines segment, we often categorize our personal auto product policyholders into four consumer segments:
•Sam - inconsistently insured;
•Diane - consistently insured and maybe a renter;
•Wrights - homeowners who do not bundle auto and home; and
•Robinsons - homeowners who bundle auto and home.
While our personal auto policies primarily have 6-month terms, to promote bundled personal auto and property growth, we write 12-month term personal auto policies in our Platinum agencies. At year-end 2025 and 2024, 10% and 12%, respectively, of our agency personal auto policies in force were 12-month policies. To the extent our agency application mix of annual personal auto policies changes, the shift in policy term could impact our average written premiums in the agency channel, as 12-month policies have about twice the amount of net premiums written, compared to 6-month policies.
Our special lines and personal property products are written for 12-month terms. In our special lines products and personal property business 57% and 72%, respectively, of net premiums written was generated through the independent agency channel, with the balance through the direct channel.
App.-A-54
Within our Commercial Lines segment, our core commercial auto business operates in the following five traditional business market targets (BMT):
•for-hire specialty;
•for-hire transportation;
•tow;
•contractor; and
•business auto.
At year-end 2025, about 85% of our Commercial Lines policies in force had 12-month terms. The majority of our Commercial Lines business is written through the independent agency channel, although we continue to focus on growing our direct business, with about 10% of our core commercial auto premiums written through the direct channel for each of the last three years.
B. Profitability
Profitability for our underwriting operations is defined by pretax underwriting profit or loss, which is calculated as net premiums earned plus fees and other revenues less losses and loss adjustment expenses, policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and policyholder credit expense. We also use underwriting margin, which is underwriting profit or loss expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned, to analyze our results. For the three years ended December 31, our underwriting profitability results were as follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | |||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency1 | $ | 4,293 | 14.6 | % | $ | 3,559 | 13.9 | % | $ | 1,029 | 4.9 | % | |||||
| Direct1 | 3,786 | 9.9 | 3,231 | 10.3 | 1,828 | 7.3 | |||||||||||
| Property | 775 | 24.9 | 50 | 1.7 | 28 | 1.1 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 8,854 | 12.5 | 6,840 | 11.4 | 2,885 | 5.9 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,416 | 13.0 | 1,136 | 10.6 | 123 | 1.2 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity2 | (21) | NM | (18) | NM | (16) | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 10,249 | 12.6 | % | $ | 7,958 | 11.2 | % | $ | 2,992 | 5.1 | % |
1 Included in the underwriting profit of the personal vehicles agency and direct businesses is $560 million and $664 million, respectively, of expense related to Florida policyholder credit expense for 2025.
2 Underwriting margins for our other indemnity businesses are not meaningful (NM) due to the low level of premiums earned by, and the variability of loss costs in, such businesses.
The increase in our underwriting profit margin on a year-over-year basis for 2025 was primarily due to a 3.2 point decrease in our companywide loss and LAE ratio, mostly driven by lower personal and commercial auto accident frequency, lower weather-related catastrophe losses, and favorable prior accident years development. The impact of the more favorable loss and LAE experience in 2025 was partially offset by a 1.8 point increase in our companywide underwriting expense ratio, driven in part by the 1.5 point increase related to the Florida policyholder credits expense in 2025.
See the Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE) section below for further discussion of our catastrophe losses, auto frequency and severity trends, and reserve development recognized during the periods and the Underwriting Expenses section for further discussion of our advertising and non-acquisition expenses.
App.-A-55
Further underwriting results for our Personal Lines business, Commercial Lines business, and our underwriting operations in total, were as follows:
| Underwriting Performance1 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | |||||
| Vehicles | |||||
| Agency | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 65.3 | 67.7 | 77.0 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio2 | 20.1 | 18.4 | 18.1 | ||
| Combined ratio2 | 85.4 | 86.1 | 95.1 | ||
| Direct | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 68.0 | 69.8 | 78.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio2 | 22.1 | 19.9 | 14.3 | ||
| Combined ratio2 | 90.1 | 89.7 | 92.7 | ||
| Property | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 45.7 | 69.3 | 69.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 29.4 | 29.0 | 29.3 | ||
| Combined ratio | 75.1 | 98.3 | 98.9 | ||
| Total Personal Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 65.9 | 68.9 | 77.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio2 | 21.6 | 19.7 | 16.7 | ||
| Combined ratio2 | 87.5 | 88.6 | 94.1 | ||
| Commercial Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 66.4 | 70.1 | 79.0 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 20.6 | 19.3 | 19.8 | ||
| Combined ratio | 87.0 | 89.4 | 98.8 | ||
| Total Underwriting Operations | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 65.9 | 69.1 | 77.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 21.5 | 19.7 | 17.3 | ||
| Combined ratio | 87.4 | 88.8 | 94.9 | ||
| Accident year – Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio3 | 67.6 | 69.7 | 75.7 |
1 Ratios are expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. Fees and other revenues are netted against either loss adjustment expenses or underwriting expenses in the ratio calculations, based on the underlying activity that generated the revenue.
2 Included in both the underwriting expense and the combined ratios for the personal vehicles agency and direct businesses are 1.9 points and 1.7 points, respectively, of expense related to the Florida policyholder credit for 2025. Excluding the policyholder credit, the total Personal Lines underwriting expense and combined ratios would have been 1.7 points lower for 2025.
3 The accident year ratios include only the losses that occurred during each respective year. As a result, accident period results will change over time, either favorably or unfavorably, as we revise our estimates of loss costs when payments are made or reserves for that accident year are reviewed.
App.-A-56
Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE)
| (millions) | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in net loss and LAE reserves | $ | 4,933 | $ | 4,970 | $ | 4,800 | ||
| Paid losses and LAE | 49,026 | 44,090 | 40,855 | |||||
| Total incurred losses and LAE | $ | 53,959 | $ | 49,060 | $ | 45,655 |
Claims costs, our most significant expense, represent payments made, and estimated future payments to be made, to or on behalf of our policyholders, including expenses needed to adjust or settle claims. Claims costs are a function of loss severity and frequency and, for our personal auto and core commercial auto businesses, are influenced by inflation and driving patterns, among other factors, some of which are discussed below. In our personal property business, severity is primarily a function
of construction costs and the age and complexity of the structure, among other factors. Accordingly, anticipated changes in these factors are taken into account when we establish premium rates and loss reserves. Loss reserves are estimates of future costs and our reserves are adjusted as underlying assumptions change and information develops. See V. Critical Accounting Estimates for a discussion of the effect of changing estimates.
Our total loss and LAE ratio decreased 3.2 points in 2025 and 8.5 points in 2024, each compared to the prior year. During 2025, the decrease in the ratio was primarily driven by lower auto accident frequency, a decrease in catastrophe losses, and favorable prior accident years reserve development. On an accident year basis, our loss and LAE ratio decreased 2.1 points and 6.0 points in 2025 and 2024, respectively, compared to the prior years.
We experienced severe weather conditions in several areas of the country during each of the last three years. Hurricanes, hail storms, tornadoes, and wind activity generally contribute to catastrophe losses. The following table shows our consolidated catastrophe losses and related combined ratio point impact, excluding loss adjustment expenses, for the years ended December 31:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | Points1 | $ | Points1 | $ | Points1 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | $ | 1,113 | 1.6 | pts. | $ | 1,693 | 3.0 | pts. | $ | 1,094 | 2.4 pts. | ||||||
| Property | 324 | 10.4 | 741 | 24.8 | 659 | 25.8 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 1,437 | 2.0 | 2,434 | 4.1 | 1,753 | 3.6 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 41 | 0.4 | 80 | 0.7 | 41 | 0.4 | |||||||||||
| Total catastrophe losses incurred | $ | 1,478 | 1.8 | pts. | $ | 2,514 | 3.6 | pts. | $ | 1,794 | 3.1 | pts. |
1 Represents catastrophe losses incurred during the year, including the impact of reinsurance, as a percent of net premiums earned for each segment.
During 2025, our catastrophe losses reflected severe weather throughout the United States. We have responded, and plan to continue to respond, promptly to catastrophic events when they occur in order to provide high-quality claims service to our customers.
Changes in our estimate of our ultimate losses on catastrophes currently reserved, along with potential future catastrophes, could have a material impact on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. We reinsure various risks including, but not limited to, catastrophic losses. We do not have catastrophe-specific reinsurance for our personal auto, special lines, or core commercial auto businesses. For our personal property business and certain BOP product coverages, reinsurance programs include catastrophe per occurrence excess of loss contracts and aggregate excess of loss contracts. We also purchase excess of loss reinsurance on our workers’ compensation insurance and our higher-limit commercial auto liability product offered by our Fleet & Specialty business and on certain BOP product coverages.
We evaluate our reinsurance programs during the renewal process, if not more frequently, to ensure our programs continue to effectively address the company’s risk
tolerance. As a result, during 2025, we entered into new reinsurance contracts under our per occurrence excess of loss program for our property business that covers losses from June 1, 2025 through May 31, 2026. This program is comprised of privately placed reinsurance, reinsurance placed through catastrophe bond transactions, and coverage obtained through the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF). The reinsurance program has a retention threshold for losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) from a single catastrophic event of $200 million for a storm outside of Florida and $75 million for a storm in Florida. For losses that exceed $200 million, we also retain a percent of the first reinsurance layer, up to $48 million, after applying FHCF coverage. In general, as of December 31, 2025, this program includes coverage for $2.0 billion in losses and ALAE with additional substantial coverage for a second or third hurricane. When including coverage specific to Florida, including the FHCF, this program’s coverage reaches an estimated $2.2 billion.
From June 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025, which covers the hurricane season, we had shared limit coverage in our reinsurance program that provided $175 million of coverage for named storms. We renewed this coverage from May 31, 2026 through December 31, 2026. This reinsurance arrangement can, depending on the
App.-A-57
circumstances, provide coverage for a significant covered event, or provide coverage for aggregate losses under our occurrence excess of loss retention. During 2025, we ceded no losses under this coverage.
During 2025, our personal property business also had an aggregate excess of loss program structure with multiple layers providing for catastrophe losses and ALAE. No losses were ceded under this aggregate excess of loss agreement during 2025. In January 2026, a new aggregate excess of loss program was entered for claims occurring in 2026. The 2026 program provides a higher coverage limit than the 2025 program and includes coverage for named storms and other types of perils (e.g., wildfires, winter storms, severe thunderstorms). This program has retention thresholds of $550 million and $750 million and provides coverage up to $300 million.
While the total coverage limit and per-event retention will evolve to fit the growth of our business, we expect to remain a consistent purchaser of reinsurance coverage. While the availability of reinsurance is subject to many forces outside of our control, the types of reinsurance that we elected to purchase during 2025 and in early 2026, were readily available and competitively priced. On a year-over-year basis, we did not incur a material change in the aggregate costs of our reinsurance programs. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2025 Form 10-K, for a discussion of certain risks related to catastrophe events. For further details and additional discussion on our reinsurance programs, see Item 1, Business – Reinsurance in our 2025 Form 10-K and Note 7 – Reinsurance for a discussion of our various reinsurance programs.
The following discussion of our severity and frequency trends in our personal auto business excludes comprehensive coverage because of its inherent volatility, as it is typically linked to catastrophic losses generally resulting from adverse weather. For our core commercial auto business, the reported frequency and severity trends include comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage insures against damage to a customer’s vehicle due to various causes other than collision, such as windstorm, hail, theft, falling objects, and glass breakage.
On a calendar-year basis, the change in total personal auto incurred severity (i.e., average cost per claim, including both paid losses and the change in case reserves) over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Coverage Type | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury | 10 | % | 6 | % | 10 | % |
| Collision | 3 | (2) | 5 | |||
| Personal injury protection | (2) | (2) | 2 | |||
| Property damage | 4 | (1) | 9 | |||
| Total | 6 | 1 | 8 |
The year-over-year increase in total severity was predominantly driven by more large losses, higher medical costs, and increased bodily injury coverage reserves due to a higher rate of plaintiff-attorney represented claims.
On a calendar-year basis, the incurred severity in our core commercial auto products increased 4% in 2025, compared to 9% and 6% in 2024 and 2023, respectively. The increase in 2025 was due, in part, to an increase in large losses and more litigated claims in bodily injury, partially offset by a shift in the mix of business to lower severity BMTs. Since the loss patterns in the core commercial auto products are not indicative of our other commercial auto products (i.e., TNC and Fleet & Specialty businesses), disclosing severity and frequency trends excluding those businesses is more representative of our overall experience for the majority of our commercial auto products.
It is a challenge to estimate future severity, but we continue to monitor changes in the underlying costs, such as tariffs, general inflation, used car prices, vehicle repair costs, medical costs, health care reform, court decisions, and jury verdicts, along with regulatory changes and other factors that may affect severity.
The change in total personal auto products incurred frequency, on a calendar-year basis, over the prior-year periods, was as follows:
| Coverage Type | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bodily injury | (1) | % | (3) | % | 2 | % |
| Collision | (5) | (8) | (7) | |||
| Personal injury protection | (4) | (4) | 2 | |||
| Property damage | (2) | (4) | 0 | |||
| Total | (3) | (5) | (2) |
App.-A-58
The year-over-year decrease in frequency for 2025, in part, reflects a shift in the mix of business to a more preferred tier of customers (i.e., Wrights and Robinsons).
On a calendar-year basis, our core commercial auto products’ incurred frequency decreased 10% in 2025 and 7% in 2024, compared to an increase of 2% in 2023. The decrease in frequency for 2025 was, in part, due to a shift in the mix of business and lower vehicle miles traveled, compared to 2024.
We closely monitor changes in frequency, but the degree or direction of near-term frequency change is not
something that we are able to predict with any certainty. We will continue to analyze trends to distinguish changes in our experience from other external factors, such as changes in the number of vehicles per household, miles driven, vehicle usage, gasoline prices, advances in vehicle safety, and unemployment rates, versus those resulting from shifts in the mix of our business, changes in driving patterns, and the ridesharing economy, to allow us to react quickly to price for these trends and to reserve more accurately for our loss exposures.
The table below presents the actuarial adjustments implemented and the loss reserve development experienced on a companywide basis in the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actuarial Adjustments | ||||||||
| Reserve decrease (increase) | ||||||||
| Prior accident years | $ | 317 | $ | (123) | $ | (454) | ||
| Current accident year | 390 | 530 | (587) | |||||
| Calendar-year actuarial adjustments | $ | 707 | $ | 407 | $ | (1,041) | ||
| Prior Accident Years Development | ||||||||
| Favorable (unfavorable) | ||||||||
| Actuarial adjustments | $ | 317 | $ | (123) | $ | (454) | ||
| All other development | 1,077 | 539 | (640) | |||||
| Total development | $ | 1,394 | $ | 416 | $ | (1,094) | ||
| (Increase) decrease to calendar-year combined ratio | 1.7 | pts. | 0.6 | pts. | (1.9) | pts. |
Total development consists of both actuarial adjustments and “all other development” on prior accident years. We use “accident year” generically to represent the year in which a loss occurred. The actuarial adjustments represent the net changes made by our actuarial staff to both current and prior accident year reserves based on regularly scheduled reviews. Through these reviews, our actuaries identify and measure variances in the projected frequency and severity trends, which allow them to adjust the reserves to reflect current cost trends.
For the Personal Lines vehicle products and the Commercial Lines business, development for catastrophe losses would be reflected in “all other development,” to the extent they relate to prior year reserves. For our Personal Lines property business, 100% of catastrophe losses are reviewed monthly, and any development on catastrophe reserves are included as part of the actuarial adjustments. We report these actuarial adjustments separately for the current and prior accident years to reflect these adjustments as part of the total prior accident years development.
“All other development” represents claims settling for more or less than reserved, emergence of unrecorded claims at rates different than anticipated in our incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves, and changes in reserve estimates on specific claims. Our objective is to establish case and IBNR reserves that are adequate to cover all loss costs, while incurring minimal variation from the date the reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. Our ability to meet this objective is impacted by many factors, such as the factors impacting estimates described above.
As reflected in the table above, we experienced favorable prior accident years development during 2025 and 2024, compared to unfavorable development in 2023. The favorable development during 2025 was, in part, due to lower than anticipated severity and frequency in Florida, and to a lesser extent, lower than anticipated litigation defense costs in the majority of states and lower than anticipated personal auto payments related to reopened property damage claims that were previously closed. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves and V. Critical Accounting Estimates for a more detailed discussion of our prior accident years development.
App.-A-59
Underwriting Expenses
Underwriting expenses include policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and policyholder credit expense. The underwriting expense ratio is our underwriting expenses, net of certain fees and other revenues, expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. For 2025, our underwriting expense ratio increased 1.8 points, compared to 2024, primarily attributable to the $1.2 billion of Florida policyholder credit expense recorded during 2025, which contributed a 1.5 point unfavorable impact.
We invested heavily in advertising during 2025 to capture consumer shopping, and will continue to advertise to maximize growth, as long as we remain on track to achieve our profitability goal and can acquire customers at or below our target acquisition cost. For 2025, our total companywide advertising costs were $5.1 billion,
compared to $4.0 billion in 2024, or 0.6 points greater, and exceeded the amount of advertising spend for any previous annual period.
To analyze underwriting expenses, we also review our non-acquisition expense ratio (NAER), which excludes costs related to policy acquisition (e.g., advertising and agency commissions) from our underwriting expense ratio. By excluding acquisition costs from our underwriting expense ratio, we are able to understand costs other than those necessary to acquire new policies and grow the business. In 2025, our NAER decreased 0.2 points in our personal vehicle business (excluding policyholder credit expense), compared to 2024, and increased 1.0 points and 0.7 points in our personal property and core commercial auto businesses, respectively. We remain committed to efficiently managing operational non-acquisition expenses.
App.-A-60
C. Growth
For our underwriting operations, we analyze growth in terms of both premiums and policies. Net premiums written represent the premiums from policies written during the period, less any premiums ceded to reinsurers. Net premiums earned, which are a function of the premiums written in the current and prior periods, are generally earned as revenue over the life of the policy using a daily earnings convention. Policies in force, our preferred measure of growth since it removes the variability due to rate changes or mix shifts, represents all policies for which coverage was in effect as of the end of the period specified.
| For the years ended December 31, | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | % Change | $ | % Change | $ | % Change | |||||||||||
| Net Premiums Written | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 29,825 | 11 | % | $ | 26,967 | 21 | % | $ | 22,278 | 22 | % | |||||
| Direct | 39,631 | 19 | 33,432 | 27 | 26,303 | 26 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,102 | 1 | 3,071 | 8 | 2,831 | 18 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 72,558 | 14 | 63,470 | 23 | 51,412 | 23 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 10,613 | (3) | 10,953 | 8 | 10,138 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 3 | NM | 1 | NM | 0 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 83,174 | 12 | % | $ | 74,424 | 21 | % | $ | 61,550 | 20 | % | |||||
| Net Premiums Earned | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 29,382 | 15 | % | $ | 25,640 | 21 | % | $ | 21,198 | 19 | % | |||||
| Direct | 38,280 | 22 | 31,458 | 26 | 25,015 | 24 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,116 | 4 | 2,993 | 17 | 2,552 | 12 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 70,778 | 18 | 60,091 | 23 | 48,765 | 21 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 10,881 | 2 | 10,707 | 8 | 9,899 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 2 | NM | 1 | NM | 1 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 81,661 | 15 | % | $ | 70,799 | 21 | % | $ | 58,665 | 19 | % | |||||
| NM = Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Includes other underwriting business and run-off operations. | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||||||
| (# in thousands) | # | % Change | # | % Change | # | % Change | |||||||||||
| Policies in Force | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency – auto | 10,787 | 10 | % | 9,778 | 17 | % | 8,336 | 7 | % | ||||||||
| Direct – auto | 15,993 | 14 | 13,996 | 25 | 11,190 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Special lines | 6,998 | 7 | 6,520 | 9 | 5,969 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,650 | 4 | 3,517 | 14 | 3,096 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 37,428 | 11 | 33,811 | 18 | 28,591 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,191 | 4 | 1,141 | 4 | 1,099 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Total | 38,619 | 10 | % | 34,952 | 18 | % | 29,690 | 9 | % |
To analyze growth, we review new policies, rate levels, and the retention characteristics of our segments. Although new policies are necessary to maintain a growing book of business, we recognize the importance of retaining our current customers as a critical component of our continued growth.
App.-A-61
D. Personal Lines
Our Personal Lines segment offers personal vehicle (personal auto and special lines) and residential property insurance products to consumers, with the operating goal of optimizing the number of insured products within our policyholders’ households. In our discussion below, we report our personal auto and personal property business results separately as components of our Personal Lines segment to provide a further understanding of our products. Our personal auto business discussions are further separated between the agency and direct distribution channels. For 2025, 42% of our personal auto business net premiums was written through the agency channel and 58% was written through the direct channel. For 2025, consumer segment results varied by channel, as discussed below, and our total personal auto business experienced overall growth in policies in force, new business applications, quotes, and conversion, compared to 2024.
Personal Auto - Agency
The year-over-year changes in our personal auto agency business were as follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 5 | % | 32 | % | 15 | % |
| Renewal | 17 | 8 | 6 | |||
| Total | 15 | 13 | 8 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | (5) | 5 | 7 | |||
| Renewal | (3) | 9 | 13 | |||
| Total | (3) | 8 | 12 | |||
| Policy life expectancy | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (7) | (3) | 23 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (6) | 2 | 29 |
The personal auto agency business includes business written by more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies that represent Progressive, as well as brokerages in New York and California. During 2025, we generated new agency personal auto application growth in 31 states and the District of Columbia, including 7 of our top 10 largest agency states.
Compared to the prior year, new application and policies in force growth varied by consumer segment:
•Sams experienced a single digit increase in policies in force, with substantial growth in new applications during 2025;
•Dianes experienced moderate policies in force and new application growth during 2025;
•Wrights experienced strong policies in force growth, with flat new application growth; and
•Robinsons experienced flat policies in force growth, with negative new application growth due to restrictions on new homeowners applications.
During 2025, on a year-over-year basis, we experienced an increase in agency personal auto quote volume of 6%, with a rate of conversion (i.e., converting a quote to a sale) decrease of 1%. All consumer segments saw an increase in quote volume, except Robinsons, who saw a moderate decrease, compared to 2024. Conversion decreased for Robinsons and Wrights, while Sams and Dianes saw a low single digit increase.
The decline in new applications, quotes, and conversion for Robinsons, compared to 2024, was due to several initiatives implemented in our personal property business that were focused on improving profitability, as discussed in the Personal Property section below. These initiatives, which began during the second half of 2024, focused primarily on home and condo coverages and impacted growth in bundled personal auto and homeowners policies.
Our personal agency auto rates experienced a slight decrease during 2025. The decrease in written premium per policy for new and renewal personal auto agency business during 2025, compared to 2024, was, in part, attributable to rate decreases in certain markets, including Florida, and a shift in the mix of business, including a shift to a higher percentage of 6-month policies, which have about half the amount of net premiums written as policies with 12-month terms.
The trailing 3- and 12-month policy life expectancy in the personal auto agency business experienced decreases during 2025 on year-over-year basis. We believe the decreases were primarily driven by a shift in the mix of business, including changes in billing plans offered to customers, as well as policy replacements due to increased consumer shopping and price sensitivity. As previously discussed, due in part to the efforts of our customer preservation team, during the year we saw an increase in existing customers who went through our new customer quote process to either modify existing coverage or to find a lower rate. As a result, some of these customers replaced their existing policies with new Progressive policies, which negatively impacted policy life expectancy, but retained the customer.
App.-A-62
Personal Auto - Direct
The year-over-year changes in our personal auto direct business were as follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 11 | % | 51 | % | 15 | % |
| Renewal | 21 | 11 | 13 | |||
| Total | 19 | 19 | 13 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | 3 | 9 | 5 | |||
| Renewal | 1 | 8 | 11 | |||
| Total | 1 | 7 | 10 | |||
| Policy life expectancy | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (12) | (3) | 6 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (8) | (7) | 19 |
The personal auto direct business includes business written directly by Progressive online or by phone. For 2025, we generated new direct personal auto application growth in 42 states and the District of Columbia, including 8 of our top 10 largest direct states, with Sams and Dianes experiencing strong new application growth, while Wrights and Robinsons experienced moderate growth during the period. At the end of 2025, policies in force grew around 15% in each consumer segment, compared to the end of 2024.
During 2025, we experienced an increase in direct personal auto quote volume of 5% with a rate of conversion increase of 6%, compared to 2024, primarily driven by the increased advertising spend and our competitiveness in the marketplace. All consumer segments saw an increase in quote volume in 2025, with all consumer segments experiencing an increase in the rate of conversion, except Robinsons, who saw a slight decline.
The personal property profitability initiatives that negatively affected Robinsons new application, quote, and conversion growth in the agency channel were not as impactful to the direct channel as the majority of the property business bundled with personal auto in the direct channel is written through unaffiliated third-party carriers, which remained available even when we restricted writing our personal property products.
Our personal direct auto rates were relatively stable during 2025, resulting in relatively steady written premium per policy for 2025, compared to 2024.
Our trailing 3- and 12-month policy life expectancy in the direct auto business experienced decreases in retention during 2025, compared to 2024. We believe the driver of these changes was due to a shift in the mix of business, including changes in billing plans offered to customers, and increased shopping and price sensitivity where we saw an increase in the number of existing customers who went through our new customer quote process to either modify
existing coverage or to find a lower rate. As a result, some of these customers replaced their existing policies with new Progressive policies, which negatively impacted policy life expectancy, but retained the customer.
Personal Property
The year-over-year changes in our personal property business were as follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | ||||||
| New | (4) | % | 31 | % | 15 | % |
| Renewal | 12 | 6 | 5 | |||
| Total | 6 | 14 | 8 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | (26) | (15) | 5 | |||
| Renewal | (5) | 2 | 13 | |||
| Total | (7) | (5) | 10 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (12) | (12) | 15 |
Our personal property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners and renters, umbrella, and flood insurance through the “Write Your Own” program for the National Flood Insurance Program. Our personal property business insurance is written in the agency and direct channels.
In addition to reducing our geographic footprint in more volatile weather-related markets (e.g., coastal and hail-prone states), we continued to focus on achieving profitability goals in markets that are less susceptible to catastrophes for our homeowners product, which we define as our total personal property business excluding renters and umbrella products. In the growth-oriented markets, homeowners product policies in force decreased 1% on a year-over-year basis as of December 31, 2025. Policies in force decreased 16% in the volatile weather-related markets as of the end of 2025, compared to 2024.
We believe our actions taken to address profitability, which began in the second half of 2024 and continued through 2025, adversely impacted new business application growth. During 2025, we continued several initiatives, including: (i) prioritizing insuring lower-risk properties (e.g., new construction, existing homes with newer roofs); (ii) having underwriting restrictions in place in the majority of states, to only accept new homeowners product business when the property policy is bundled with a Progressive personal auto policy, where permitted; (iii) restricting new business and non-renewing policies that provide coverage for non-owner-occupied properties (e.g., short-term vacation rental, secondary residence, etc.) in the majority of states; and, (iv) expanding our cost sharing with policyholders through mandatory wind and hail deductibles and roof depreciation schedules in markets where permitted. During the third quarter 2025, we began to take actions in certain markets to generate new business growth at the state level based on our concentration risks, product segmentation, rate
App.-A-63
adequacy, cost sharing execution, and regulatory and market conditions. Some of these actions include expanding agency relationships and reopening new business in certain agency and direct channel markets.
Our written premium per policy decreased on a year-over-year basis for 2025, primarily attributable to a shift in the mix of business to more renters policies, which have lower average written premiums, and a decline in homeowners policies in force in both volatile weather-related markets and non-owner-occupied properties, which both have higher average premiums. The effect of these declines were partially offset by rate increases taken during the last 12 months and higher premium coverages reflecting increased property values. During 2025, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 10% in our personal property business. We intend to continue to make targeted rate increases in states where we are not achieving our profitability goals.
The policy life expectancy in our personal property business shortened as of the end of 2025, compared to 2024, which we believe is primarily driven by a shift in the mix of business to more renters policies, our previously discussed rate increases, increased competition in the marketplace, and the non-renewals for certain policies in volatile weather markets.
E. Commercial Lines
The following table and discussion focuses on our core commercial auto products, which accounted for about 80% of our Commercial Lines segment 2025 net premiums written. Year-over-year changes in our core commercial auto products were as follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 1 | % | 8 | % | 4 | % |
| Renewal | 6 | 1 | 4 | |||
| Total | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | (7) | (1) | (3) | |||
| Renewal | (6) | 8 | 6 | |||
| Total | (6) | 5 | 3 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | 10 | (14) | (12) |
For 2025, on a year-over-year basis, core commercial auto new application growth was positive in all BMTs, except for-hire transportation, which was impacted by rate and non-rate actions taken to address profitability challenges and, to a lesser extent, the continued decline in the number of active motor carriers in this BMT. Policies in force grew in all of our BMTs, except in the for-hire transportation and for-hire specialty BMTs, compared to 2024. For 2025, quote volume and the rate of conversion increased about 3% and decreased about 2%, respectively, in our core commercial auto products, compared to 2024.
The effect the previously discussed rate increases had on written premium per policy for our core commercial auto business was offset by a shift in the mix of business, primarily driven by decreased demand for products in our for-hire transportation BMT. Written premium per policy was also impacted by a shift to a greater mix of policies with 6-month terms in our contractor and business auto BMTs, which have about half the amount of net premiums written as 12-month policies. During 2025, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 9% in our core commercial auto products. We will continue to evaluate our rate need and adjust rates as we deem necessary.
Our policy life expectancy increased in all BMTs, except in for-hire specialty, as of the end of 2025, compared to 2024. We believe this improvement was due to a shift in the mix of business to BMTs with historically higher policy life expectancies, moderation of our rate increases, and various initiatives, such as payment and renewal reminders.
App.-A-64
IV. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – INVESTMENTS
A. Investment Results
Our management philosophy governing the portfolio is to evaluate investment results on a total return basis. The fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return includes recurring investment income, adjusted to a fully taxable amount for certain securities that receive preferential tax treatment (e.g., municipal securities), and total net realized, and changes in total net unrealized, gains (losses) on securities.
The following summarizes investment results for the years ended December 31:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretax recurring investment book yield | 4.1 | % | 3.9 | % | 3.1 | % |
| FTE total return: | ||||||
| Fixed-income securities | 7.0 | 3.8 | 5.4 | |||
| Common stocks | 16.8 | 22.9 | 26.7 | |||
| Total portfolio | 7.3 | 4.6 | 6.3 |
The increase in the book yield during 2025 and 2024, primarily reflected investing new cash from insurance operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, in higher coupon rate securities. For each year, the change in the fixed-income portfolio FTE total return, compared to prior year, primarily reflected movement in U.S. Treasury yields year-over-year. The common stock FTE total return reflected general market conditions.
A further break-down of our FTE total returns for our fixed-income portfolio for the years ended December 31, follows:
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-income securities: | ||||||
| U.S. government | 7.1 | % | 2.2 | % | 4.6 | % |
| State and local government | 6.2 | 3.9 | 5.9 | |||
| Foreign government | 8.2 | (3.7) | 6.4 | |||
| Corporate and other debt | 7.0 | 4.9 | 7.1 | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed | 6.7 | 7.8 | 9.2 | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed | 7.7 | 10.4 | 6.9 | |||
| Other asset-backed | 5.5 | 6.2 | 7.2 | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 6.8 | 8.8 | 1.4 | |||
| Short-term investments | 4.5 | 5.8 | 5.0 |
App.-A-65
B. Portfolio Allocation
The composition of the investment portfolio at December 31, was:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Duration (years) | Average Rating1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | |||||||
| U.S. government | $ | 43,298 | 44.5 | % | 5.4 | AA+ | |
| State and local government | 3,303 | 3.4 | 2.6 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government | 17 | 0 | 0.7 | AAA | |||
| Corporate and other debt | 19,991 | 20.5 | 2.6 | BBB+ | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed | 3,175 | 3.3 | 2.3 | AA+ | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed | 5,973 | 6.1 | 1.4 | AA- | |||
| Other asset-backed | 7,109 | 7.3 | 1.2 | AA | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 404 | 0.4 | 1.0 | BB+ | |||
| Short-term investments | 10,005 | 10.3 | 0.1 | AA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 93,275 | 95.8 | 3.4 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 4,098 | 4.2 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 97,373 | 100.0 | % | 3.4 | AA- | |
| 2024 | |||||||
| U.S. government | $ | 45,988 | 57.3 | % | 4.1 | AA+ | |
| State and local government | 2,778 | 3.5 | 2.5 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government | 16 | 0 | 1.6 | AAA | |||
| Corporate and other debt | 13,954 | 17.4 | 2.6 | BBB+ | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed | 1,601 | 2.0 | 2.6 | AA | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed | 4,352 | 5.4 | 1.9 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed | 6,643 | 8.3 | 1.2 | AA+ | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 728 | 0.9 | 1.4 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 615 | 0.7 | 0.1 | AA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 76,675 | 95.5 | 3.3 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 3,575 | 4.5 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 80,250 | 100.0 | % | 3.3 | AA- | |
| na = not applicable |
1 Represents ratings at period end. Credit quality ratings are assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. To calculate the weighted average credit quality ratings, we weight individual securities based on fair value and assign a numeric score of 0-5, with non-investment-grade and non-rated securities assigned a score of 0-1. To the extent the weighted average of the ratings falls between AAA and AA+, we assign an internal rating of AAA-.
2 At December 31, 2025 and 2024, we had $200 million and $125 million, respectively, of net unsettled security transactions included in accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets.
The total fair value of the portfolio at December 31, 2025 and 2024, included $13.0 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively, of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company, net of any unsettled security transactions. A portion of these investments were sold and proceeds used to pay our common share dividends in January 2026 and 2025; see Note 14 – Dividends for additional information.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities.
Group I securities, 6% of the total portfolio at December 31, 2025, include:
•common equities,
•nonredeemable preferred stocks,
•redeemable preferred stocks, except for 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends, which are included in Group II, and
•all other non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities.
Group II securities, 94% of the total portfolio at December 31, 2025, include:
•short-term investments, and
•all other fixed-maturity securities, including 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends.
App.-A-66
We believe this asset allocation strategy allows us to appropriately assess the risks associated with these securities for capital purposes and is in line with the treatment by our regulators. Non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities are determined by National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) as applicable.
Our common equities portfolio is primarily indexed to the Russell 1000, with a goal of a +/- 50bps GAAP income targeted total return tracking error.
See Note 2 – Investments for a further break-out of our portfolio.
Unrealized Gains and Losses
As of December 31, 2025, our fixed-maturity portfolio had a total after-tax net unrealized gain, which is recorded as part of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) on our consolidated balance sheet, of $0.1 billion, compared to a total after-tax net unrealized loss of $1.4 billion at December 31, 2024. The improvement of the total net unrealized balance over the prior year, and shift from a loss to a gain, was due to valuation increases across all fixed-maturity sectors. Our U.S. government, corporate and other debt, and commercial mortgage-backed portfolios had the most significant valuation increases. Lower interest rates and, in some cases, tighter credit spreads drove strong portfolio performance.
See Note 2 – Investments for a further break-out of our gross unrealized gains (losses).
Fixed-Income Securities
The fixed-income portfolio is managed internally and includes fixed-maturity securities, short-term investments, and nonredeemable preferred stocks. Following are the primary exposures for the fixed-income portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk This risk includes the change in value resulting from movements in the underlying market rates of debt securities held. We manage this risk by maintaining the portfolio’s duration (a measure of the portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates) between 1.5 and 5.0 years. The duration of the fixed-income portfolio was 3.4 years at December 31, 2025, compared to 3.3 years at December 31, 2024. The distribution of duration and convexity (i.e., a measure of the speed at which the duration of a security is expected to change based on a rise or fall in interest rates) is monitored on a regular basis.
The duration distribution of our fixed-income portfolio, excluding short-term investments, represented by the interest rate sensitivity of the comparable benchmark U.S. Treasury Notes, at December 31, was:
| Duration Distribution | 2025 | 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 11.8 | % | 9.6 | % |
| 2 years | 9.2 | 8.2 | ||
| 3 years | 19.5 | 29.5 | ||
| 5 years | 28.2 | 43.6 | ||
| 7 years | 19.4 | 8.2 | ||
| 10 years | 11.9 | 0.9 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
Credit Risk This exposure is managed by maintaining a minimum weighted average portfolio credit quality rating, as defined by NRSROs. Effective January 1, 2025, we moved our internal rating guideline to A, down from an A+, in light of the downgrade of the U.S. government securities.
At both December 31, 2025 and 2024, our weighted average credit quality rating was AA-. The credit quality distribution of our fixed-income portfolio at December 31, was:
| Average Rating1 | 2025 | 2024 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | 13.2 | % | 12.6 | % |
| AA | 59.6 | 64.2 | ||
| A | 8.8 | 6.4 | ||
| BBB | 17.1 | 15.7 | ||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||
| BB | 1.1 | 0.8 | ||
| B | 0.1 | 0.2 | ||
| Non-rated | 0.1 | 0.1 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
1 The ratings in the table above are assigned by NRSROs.
Concentration Risk Our investment constraints limit investment in a single issuer, other than U.S. Treasury Notes or a state’s general obligation bonds, to 2.5% of shareholders’ equity, while the single issuer guideline on preferred stocks and/or non-investment-grade debt is 1.25% of shareholders’ equity. Additionally, the guideline applicable to any state’s general obligation bonds is 6% of shareholders’ equity. We consider concentration risk both overall and in the context of individual asset classes and sectors in our portfolio. At December 31, 2025 and 2024, we were within all of the constraints described above.
App.-A-67
Prepayment and Extension Risk We are exposed to this risk especially in our asset-backed (i.e., structured product) and preferred stock portfolios. Prepayment risk includes the risk of early redemption of security principal that may need to be reinvested at less attractive rates. Extension risk includes the risk that a security will not be redeemed when anticipated, and that the security that is extended will have a lower yield than a security we might be able to obtain by reinvesting the expected redemption principal. Our holdings of different types of structured debt and preferred securities help manage this risk. During 2025 and 2024, we did not experience significant adverse prepayment or extension of principal relative to our cash flow expectations in the portfolio.
Liquidity Risk Our overall portfolio remains very liquid and we believe that it is sufficient to meet expected near-term liquidity requirements. The short-to-intermediate duration of our portfolio provides a source of liquidity. During 2026, we expect approximately $9.6 billion, or 24%, of principal repayment from our fixed-income
portfolio, excluding U.S. government securities and short-term investments. Cash from interest and dividend payments provides an additional source of recurring liquidity.
The duration of our U.S. government securities, which are included in the fixed-income portfolio, was comprised of the following at December 31, 2025:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Duration (years) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than one year1 | $ | 257 | 0.6 | ||
| One to two years | 462 | 1.2 | |||
| Two to three years | 2,311 | 2.5 | |||
| Three to five years | 10,265 | 3.9 | |||
| Five to seven years | 20,958 | 5.5 | |||
| Seven to ten years | 9,045 | 8.0 | |||
| Total U.S. government | $ | 43,298 | 5.4 |
1 Excludes $7,919 million of U.S. treasury bills included in short-term investments.
ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our asset-backed securities at December 31, 2025:
| (millions)Average Rating1 | Residential Mortgage-Backed | Commercial Mortgage-Backed | Other Asset-Backed | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | $ | 2,361 | $ | 3,182 | $ | 4,751 | $ | 10,294 | |||
| AA | 118 | 1,013 | 95 | 1,226 | |||||||
| A | 555 | 578 | 811 | 1,944 | |||||||
| BBB | 139 | 831 | 1,415 | 2,385 | |||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 356 | 37 | 393 | |||||||
| B | 0 | 13 | 0 | 13 | |||||||
| CCC and lower | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| Non-rated | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 3,175 | $ | 5,973 | $ | 7,109 | $ | 16,257 |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs.
Our residential mortgage-backed portfolio consists of deals that are backed by high-credit quality borrowers and/or those that have strong structural protections through underlying loan collateralization. The fair value of this portfolio grew by $1.6 billion in 2025 and new purchases were concentrated in high-quality investment-grade securities and contained both fixed-rate and adjustable residential mortgages. We viewed this sector as having attractive risk-adjusted spreads and potential returns.
The commercial mortgage-backed portfolio fair value grew by $1.6 billion in 2025 as we viewed the absolute and relative value of commercial mortgage-backed spreads as attractive. The growth in the portfolio was primarily a result of purchases of new issue investment-grade securities backed by single-borrower transactions across various sectors including apartments, logistics, grocery-anchored retail, life sciences, and self-storage. We maintained a preference for geographically diversified portfolios or high-quality single assets leased to creditworthy tenants.
App.-A-68
A further break-down of our other asset-backed securities (OABS) at December 31, 2025:
| (millions) Average Rating | Automobile | Collateralized Loan Obligations | Student Loan | Whole Business Securitizations | Equipment | Other | Total | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | $ | 2,271 | $ | 1,339 | $ | 41 | $ | 0 | $ | 815 | $ | 285 | $ | 4,751 | ||||||
| AA | 3 | 49 | 1 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 95 | |||||||||||||
| A | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 174 | 637 | 811 | |||||||||||||
| BBB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,374 | 0 | 41 | 1,415 | |||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 37 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 2,274 | $ | 1,388 | $ | 42 | $ | 1,374 | $ | 1,031 | $ | 1,000 | $ | 7,109 |
The OABS portfolio fair value grew by $0.5 billion in 2025. The growth in the portfolio was primarily the result of security purchases that were partially offset by principal paydowns on securities during the year. We selectively added securities in highly-rated senior and short-tenor debt tranches that we viewed as having attractive spreads and potential returns. Additions were made in both the new issue and secondary markets.
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our state and local government (municipal) securities at December 31, 2025:
| (millions) Average Rating | General Obligations | Housing Revenue | Other Revenue | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | $ | 779 | $ | 329 | $ | 495 | $ | 1,603 | |||
| AA | 465 | 595 | 440 | 1,500 | |||||||
| A | 0 | 0 | 200 | 200 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,244 | $ | 924 | $ | 1,135 | $ | 3,303 |
The municipal portfolio fair value grew by $0.5 billion in 2025. There was an increase in new issuances in the market and we selectively added high-quality securities with shorter maturities, which we viewed as having more favorable risk/reward profiles.
CORPORATE AND OTHER DEBT SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our corporate and other debt securities at December 31, 2025:
| (millions) Average Rating | Consumer | Industrial | Communication | Financial Services | Technology | Basic Materials | Energy | Total | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | $ | 31 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 97 | $ | 128 | ||||||||
| AA | 92 | 0 | 186 | 1,130 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 1,452 | ||||||||||||||||
| A | 751 | 484 | 127 | 3,520 | 209 | 100 | 483 | 5,674 | ||||||||||||||||
| BBB | 4,145 | 1,967 | 438 | 2,126 | 1,654 | 192 | 1,522 | 12,044 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 198 | 128 | 59 | 35 | 3 | 45 | 116 | 584 | ||||||||||||||||
| B | 106 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 106 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 5,323 | $ | 2,579 | $ | 810 | $ | 6,811 | $ | 1,869 | $ | 337 | $ | 2,262 | $ | 19,991 |
The corporate and other debt portfolio fair value grew by $6.0 billion in 2025. At December 31, 2025, corporate and other debt securities made up approximately 21% of our fixed-income portfolio compared to 18% at December 31, 2024. We continued to predominately focus on shorter-maturity investment-grade securities, which we viewed as having more favorable risk/reward profiles.
App.-A-69
NONREDEEMABLE PREFERRED STOCKS
The following table details the credit quality rating of our nonredeemable preferred stocks at December 31, 2025:
| Financial Services | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | U.S. Banks | Foreign Banks | Insurance | Other Financial | Industrials | Utilities | Total | |||||||||||||
| BBB | $ | 218 | $ | 14 | $ | 0 | $ | 33 | $ | 0 | $ | 39 | $ | 304 | ||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 | |||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 20 | 19 | 21 | 0 | 60 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 258 | $ | 14 | $ | 20 | $ | 52 | $ | 21 | $ | 39 | $ | 404 |
The majority of our nonredeemable preferred securities have fixed-rate dividends until a call date and then, if not called, generally convert to floating-rate dividends. The interest rate duration is calculated to reflect the call, floor, and floating-rate features. Although a nonredeemable preferred stock will remain outstanding if not called, its interest rate duration will reflect the variable nature of the dividend. At year-end 2025, our non-investment-grade nonredeemable preferred stocks were with issuers that maintain investment-grade senior debt ratings.
We also face the risk that dividend payments could be deferred for one or more periods or skipped entirely. As of December 31, 2025, we expect all of these securities to pay their dividends in full and on time. Approximately 97% of our nonredeemable preferred stocks pay dividends that have tax preferential characteristics, while the balance pay dividends that are fully taxable.
The nonredeemable preferred stock portfolio fair value decreased by $0.3 billion in 2025. This decline was primarily due to nonredeemable preferred stocks that were called during the year.
V. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING ESTIMATES
Progressive is required to make certain estimates and assumptions when preparing its financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Actual results could differ from those estimates in a variety of areas. The area we view as most critical with respect to the application of estimates and assumptions is the establishment of our loss and LAE reserves.
A. Loss and LAE Reserves
Loss and LAE reserves represent our best estimate of our ultimate liability for losses and LAE relating to events that occurred prior to the end of any given accounting period but have not yet been paid. At December 31, 2025, we had $39.5 billion of net loss and LAE reserves (net of reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses), which included $30.7 billion of case reserves and $8.8 billion of IBNR reserves. The following discussion focuses on our personal auto liability and commercial auto liability, including TNC, reserves since these businesses represent approximately 93% of our total carried net reserves.
We do not review our loss reserves on a macro level and, therefore, do not derive a companywide range of reserves to compare to a standard deviation. Instead, we review a large majority of our reserves by product/state subset combinations on a quarterly time frame, with the remaining reserves generally reviewed on a semiannual basis. A change in our scheduled reviews of a particular subset of the business depends on the size of the subset or emerging issues relating to the product or state. By reviewing the
reserves at such a detailed level, we have the ability to identify and measure variances in the trends by state, product, and line coverage that otherwise would not be seen on a consolidated basis. We believe our comprehensive process of reviewing at a subset level provides us more meaningful estimates of our aggregate loss reserves.
In analyzing the ultimate accident-year loss and LAE experience, our actuarial staff reviews in detail, at the subset level, frequency (number of losses per exposure) and severity (dollars of loss per each claim), as well as the frequency and severity of our LAE costs. The loss ratio, a primary measure of loss experience, is equal to the product of frequency times severity divided by the average premium (dollars of premium per exposure). The average premium for personal and commercial auto businesses is not estimated. The actual frequency experienced will vary depending on the change in the mix in class of drivers we insure, but the IBNR frequency projections for these lines of business are generally stable in the short term, because a large majority of the parties involved in an accident report their claims within a short time period after the occurrence. The severity experienced by Progressive is much more difficult to estimate, especially for injury claims, since severity is affected by changes in underlying costs, such as medical costs, jury verdicts, judicial interpretations, and regulatory changes. In addition, severity will vary relative to the change in our mix of business by limit.
App.-A-70
Assumptions regarding needed reserve levels made by the actuarial staff take into consideration influences on available historical data that reduce the predictive nature of our projected future loss costs. Internal considerations that are process related, which generally result from changes in our claims organization’s activities, include claim closure rates, the number of claims that are closed without payment, and the level of the claims representatives’ estimates of the needed case reserve for each claim. These changes and their effect on the historical data are studied at the state level versus on a larger, less indicative, countrywide basis.
External items considered include the litigation atmosphere, changes in medical costs, and the availability of services to resolve claims. These also are better understood at the state level versus at a more macro,
countrywide level. These items, as well as additional considerations such as the type of accident and change in reporting patterns, are closely monitored.
At December 31, 2025, we had $43.3 billion of carried gross reserves and $39.5 billion of net reserves. Our net reserve balance assumes that the loss and LAE severity for accident year 2025 over accident year 2024 would be 7.2% higher for personal auto liability and 6.5% higher for commercial auto liability. As discussed above, the severity estimates are influenced by many variables that are difficult to precisely quantify and which influence the final amount of claims settlements. That, coupled with changes in internal claims practices, the legal environment, and state regulatory requirements, requires significant judgment in the estimate of the needed reserves to be carried.
The following table highlights what the effect would be to our carried loss and LAE reserves, on a net basis, as of December 31, 2025, if during 2026 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the 2025 accident year (i.e., claims that occurred in 2025):
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Year 2025 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 23,828 | $ | 24,402 | $ | 24,976 | $ | 25,550 | $ | 26,124 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 11,368 | 11,486 | 11,604 | 11,722 | 11,840 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 38,119 | $ | 38,811 | $ | 39,503 | $ | 40,195 | $ | 40,887 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2025 accident year would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $287 million and our commercial auto liability reserves by $59 million.
App.-A-71
Our 2025 year-end loss and LAE reserve balance also includes claims from prior years. Claims that occurred in 2025, 2024, and 2023, in the aggregate, accounted for approximately 93% of our reserve balance. If during 2026 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the total of the prior three accident years (i.e., 2025, 2024, and 2023), the effect to our year-end 2025 reserve balances would be as follows:
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Years 2025, 2024, and 2023 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 22,140 | $ | 23,558 | $ | 24,976 | $ | 26,394 | $ | 27,812 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 10,908 | 11,256 | 11,604 | 11,952 | 12,300 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | 2,923 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 35,971 | $ | 37,737 | $ | 39,503 | $ | 41,269 | $ | 43,035 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2025, 2024, and 2023 accident years would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $709 million and our commercial auto liability reserves by $174 million.
Our best estimate of the appropriate amount for our reserves as of year-end 2025 is included in our financial statements for the year. Our goal is to ensure that total reserves are adequate to cover all loss costs, while sustaining minimal variation from the time reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. At the point in time when reserves are set, we have no way of knowing whether our reserve estimates will prove to be high or low, or whether one of the alternative scenarios discussed above is reasonably likely to occur. The above tables show the potential favorable or unfavorable development we will realize if our estimates miss by 2% or 4%.
App.-A-72
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this report not based upon historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often use words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “goal,” “target,” “anticipate,” “will,” “could,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” and other words and terms of similar meaning, or are tied to future periods, in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on current expectations and projections about future events, and are subject to certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainties related to:
•our ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and to charge adequate rates to policyholders;
•our ability to establish accurate loss reserves;
•the impact of severe weather, other catastrophe events, and climate change;
•the effectiveness of our reinsurance programs and the continued availability of reinsurance and performance by reinsurers;
•the secure and uninterrupted operation of the systems, facilities, and business functions and the operation of various third-party systems that are critical to our business;
•the impacts of a security breach or other attack involving our technology systems or the systems of one or more of our vendors;
•our ability to maintain a recognized and trusted brand and reputation;
•whether we innovate effectively and respond to our competitors’ initiatives;
•whether we effectively manage complexity as we develop and deliver products and customer experiences;
•the highly competitive nature of property-casualty insurance markets;
•whether we adjust claims accurately;
•compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
•the impact of misconduct or fraudulent acts by employees, agents, and third parties to our business and/or exposure to regulatory assessments;
•our ability to attract, develop, and retain talent and maintain appropriate staffing levels;
•litigation challenging our business practices, and those of our competitors and other companies;
•the success of our business strategy and efforts to acquire or develop new products or enter into new areas of business and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•how intellectual property rights affect our competitiveness and our business operations;
•the success of our development and use of new technology and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•the performance of our fixed-income and equity investment portfolios;
•the impact on our investment returns and strategies from regulations and societal pressures relating to environmental, social, governance and other public policy matters;
•our continued ability to access our cash accounts and/or convert investments into cash on favorable terms;
•the impact if one or more parties with which we enter into significant contracts or transact business fail to perform;
•legal restrictions on our insurance subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to The Progressive Corporation;
•our ability to obtain capital when necessary to support our business, our financial condition, and potential growth;
•evaluations and ratings by credit rating and other rating agencies;
•the variable nature of our common share dividend policy;
•whether our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects generate the anticipated returns;
•the impact from not managing to short-term earnings expectations in light of our goal to maximize the long-term value of the enterprise;
•the impacts of epidemics, pandemics, or other widespread health risks; and
•other matters described from time to time in our releases and publications, and in our periodic reports and other documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2025.
Any forward-looking statements are made only as of the date presented. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.
In addition, investors should be aware that accounting principles generally accepted in the United States prescribe when a company may reserve for particular risks, including litigation exposures. Accordingly, results for a given reporting period could be significantly affected if and when we establish reserves for one or more contingencies. Also, our regular reserve reviews may result in adjustments of varying magnitude as additional information regarding claims activity becomes known. Reported results, therefore, may be volatile in certain accounting periods.
App.-A-73
MD&A history
Prior-year 10-K MD&A spans are extracted from SEC filings with the same bounded parser used for the latest filing. The latest 10-K appears above; prior years are below.
FY 2024 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000080661-25-000007.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) is intended to help the reader understand our financial condition and results of operations. MD&A should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and supplemental information.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive insurance organization has been offering insurance to consumers since 1937. The Progressive Corporation is a holding company that does not have any revenue producing operations, physical property, or employees of its own. The Progressive Corporation, together with its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries and affiliates, comprise what we refer to as Progressive.
For the year ended December 31, 2024, we are reporting two operating segments – Personal Lines and Commercial Lines. Our Personal Lines segment, which represents 85% of companywide net premiums written, writes insurance for personal vehicles, which include autos and special lines products (e.g, recreational vehicles, such as motorcycles, RVs, and watercraft), personal residential property insurance for homeowners and renters, umbrella insurance, and flood insurance through the “Write Your Own” program for the National Flood Insurance Program. Our personal auto product comprises 90% of our Personal Lines net premiums written and just over 75% of our companywide premiums and has the biggest impact on our underwriting results. Our special lines and personal property insurance products each represent about 5% of our total Personal Lines premiums.
Our Commercial Lines segment writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, business-related general liability and commercial property insurance predominantly for small businesses, and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry and represents 15% of our companywide net premiums written. Our core commercial auto products, which excludes our transportation network company (TNC) business, our Progressive Fleet & Specialty Programs (Fleet & Specialty) products, and our business owners’ policy (BOP) product, represented 80% of our total Commercial Lines net premiums written and just over 10% of companywide premiums.
We operate both segments throughout the United States through both the independent agency and direct distribution channels. We are the second largest private passenger auto insurer in the U.S., the largest writer of motorcycle insurance, the eleventh largest homeowners insurance carrier, and the number one writer of commercial auto insurance, in each case based on 2023 premiums written.
Our underwriting operations, combined with our service and investment operations, make up the consolidated group.
A. Operating Results
Progressive reported strong year-over-year growth in both premiums written and policies in force, an underwriting profit better than our 4% companywide calendar-year underwriting profit goal in 2024, and a 50% increase in recurring investment income, compared to 2023.
We wrote $74.4 billion of net premiums written during 2024, which was $12.9 billion more than we generated during 2023. We ended 2024 with 35 million policies in force, or just over 5 million more policies in force than at the end of 2023. Our underwriting profit margin was 11.2%, which was 6.1 points better than the 5.1% underwriting margin we earned in 2023.
During 2024, companywide net premiums written and earned each increased 21%, over the prior year, and policies in force increased 18%. Both segments contributed to premium and policies in force growth year over year. Net premiums written and earned both grew 23% in Personal Lines and 8% in Commercial Lines. In Personal Lines and Commercial Lines, policies in force grew 18% and 4%, respectively. The Personal Lines growth was mainly attributable to increases in new personal auto applications generated from greater advertising spend, the lifting the non-rate actions we put in place in the personal auto business in 2023, and our continued efforts to work closely with our independent agents to leverage our agent compensation program to reward writing profitable business. In addition to new application growth, during 2024, we increased personal auto and core commercial auto rates 3% and 5% in the aggregate, respectively, compared to rate increases of 19% and 17% during 2023.
Both our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments generated strong profitability during the year, reporting underwriting profit margins of 11.4% and 10.6%, respectively, compared to 5.9% and 1.2% for 2023. Several factors contributed to the change in our underwriting profit. First, the average earned premium per policy was higher in our personal and commercial auto businesses than during 2023, primarily due to the rate increases we took during 2023 to meet our companywide profitability target.
App.-A-50
Second, in addition to rate increases, on a year-over-year basis for 2024, our incurred personal auto accident frequency decreased 5% and severity trends remained relatively stable, with a 1% increase over 2023. The companywide favorable prior accident years reserve development of 0.6 points during 2024, compared to unfavorable development during 2023 of 1.9 points, also contributed to our increased underwriting profitability. Our incurred catastrophe losses were fairly consistent on a year-over-year basis.
Lastly, partially offsetting the impact the improved loss ratio had on profitability, was a 2.4 point increase in our expense ratio over 2023, primarily driven by increased advertising expenses. During 2024, on a year-over-year basis, our companywide advertising spend increased 150%, bringing our 2024 advertising costs to $4.0 billion. We will continue to advertise to maximize growth as long as the advertising spend is efficient and we remain on track to achieve our target profitability.
For 2024, the year-over-year increase in underwriting profitability was the primary contributor to the $4.6 billion increase in net income. The remainder of the increase reflected an increase in recurring investment income, during 2024, primarily due to investing new cash from insurance operations and proceeds from maturing bonds in higher coupon rate securities.
Comprehensive income increased $3.6 billion over 2023. The increase in net income was in part offset by a relatively modest decrease of $0.2 billion in net unrealized losses on our fixed-maturity securities, compared to a $1.2 billion decrease in unrealized losses during 2023, which were primarily driven by the then-current economic environment.
We ended 2024 with total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $32.5 billion, which was up $5.3 billion from year-end 2023, primarily due to the $8.7 billion of comprehensive income earned during 2024, offset by the $2.9 billion, quarterly and annual-variable common share dividends declared during 2024 and the $0.5 billion redemption of our outstanding Serial Preferred Shares, Series B, in the first quarter 2024, as discussed in further detail below under Financial Condition.
B. Insurance Operations
Personal Lines is comprised of our personal vehicle and property products. Our Personal Lines vehicles include both personal autos and our special lines products. Our personal vehicle and property products produced underwriting profits of 11.9% and 1.7%, respectively, for 2024. In total, our special lines products had a minimal impact on our total Personal Lines vehicle combined ratio for the year. Our personal property business generated an underwriting profit for the second consecutive year.
Our Commercial Lines segment includes our core commercial auto products, our TNC business, our Fleet & Specialty products, and our BOP product. Our total Commercial Lines underwriting profitability for 2024 was 10.6%.
During 2024, our personal auto and core commercial auto businesses’ profitability benefited from higher average earned premium per policy, lower incurred loss frequency trends, and, in personal auto, favorable prior accident years reserve development. As a result of the rate actions we took during 2023 to help achieve our target profit margin, we currently believe that, in most states, we are adequately priced in our personal auto product and in our core commercial auto product we expect to have relatively modest rate increases in 2025. Our TNC business generated a calendar-year underwriting profit in 2024, as a result of the rate increases taken on this business in 2024 and prior years to achieve our target profitability.
We will continue to monitor the factors that could impact our loss costs for both our personal vehicle and property businesses, which may include new and used car prices, miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, building materials, construction costs, inflation, tariffs, and other factors, on a state-by-state basis. Aggregate personal auto rate changes during 2024 were modest, relative to the prior two years, and we expect rates to stay relatively stable in 2025. In our personal property business, we increased rates about 19% countrywide, in the aggregate during 2024, and we expect continued rate increases in 2025.
Throughout the first half 2024, we continued to lift the temporary non-rate actions implemented in prior years in our personal auto and core commercial auto businesses, as our focus shifted from achieving our target profit margin to driving growth, delivering competitive rates to consumers, and continuing to provide a high-quality customer experience to our policyholders.
For 2024, both segments generated strong net premiums written growth. Personal Lines net premiums written grew 23%, with the agency and direct personal vehicle businesses growing 21% and 27%, respectively, and personal property growing 8%. Commercial Lines net premiums written also grew 8%, with the majority of the growth generated from our contractor and business auto business market targets (BMT).
Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), business mix, premium per policy, and retention.
During 2024, we experienced a significant increase in total Personal Lines new business applications, with increases in both our personal vehicle and personal property products. The increase in the total segment new business applications was primarily driven by our personal auto business, and reflects increased advertising spend, the lifting of the
App.-A-51
personal auto non-rate restrictions, and our efforts to get back into the independent agents’ quote flows. New personal auto applications increased 44% in 2024, compared to the prior year.
New applications in our personal property business were up 31%, driven by significant growth in our renters policies. The new application growth in our homeowners/condo products was up 3% on a year-over-year basis for 2024, with growth in less volatile weather-related states being almost fully offset by decreases in new applications in more volatile weather-related states (e.g., coastal and hail-prone states).
Throughout 2024, in our personal property business, we continued to focus on improving profitability and reducing exposure in more volatile markets and, where permitted, slowed growth and non-renewed policies. We prioritized insuring lower-risk properties (e.g., new construction, existing homes with newer roofs), accepting new business for homeowners/condo products only when bundled with a Progressive personal auto policy, where permitted, and began exiting the non-owner occupied home market. In addition, we expanded our cost sharing through mandatory wind and hail deductibles and roof depreciation schedules in markets where permitted. We plan to continue these actions to improve our personal property profitability and reduce exposure during 2025 in the more volatile markets.
New applications in our core commercial auto business increased 8% during 2024, compared to 2023, primarily due to an increase in quote volume and improved conversion in all of our BMTs, other than for-hire transportation and for-hire specialty, as discussed below. Excluding the impact of the for-hire transportation BMT, which had a year-over-year decrease in new applications, our core commercial auto new application growth would have been 15% during 2024. The for-hire transportation BMT continues to be adversely impacted by challenging freight market conditions that have caused a decline in the active number of motor carriers in this BMT.
During 2024, on a year-over-year basis, average written premium per policy grew 8% in personal auto and 5% in core commercial auto products. The growth in our personal and commercial auto products primarily reflected rate increases taken throughout 2023. The rate increases taken in commercial auto were, in part, offset by a shift in the mix of business, primarily driven by decreased demand in our for-hire transportation BMT.
For our personal property business, average written premium per policy was down 5% year over year. Our mix of business shifted as we continued to focus on growing in less volatile weather states, which generally have less risk and, therefore, lower average premiums per policy than more volatile weather-related states. We are also seeing a mix shift towards more renters policies, which have lower average written premiums. These mix shifts in our personal property business were partially offset by rate increases
taken over the last 12 months and higher premium coverages reflecting increased property values. Given that our commercial auto and personal property policies are predominately written for 12-month terms, rate actions take longer to earn in for these products.
We believe a key element in improving the accuracy of our personal auto rating is Snapshot®, our usage-based insurance offering. During 2024, the adoption rates for consumers enrolling in the program decreased 9% in agency auto and increased 6% in direct auto, compared to 2023. During the second half of 2024, the agency auto adoption rate was up significantly, compared to the first half of the year, due to a shift in the mix of agencies through which we wrote new business, as we continued to relax restrictions on new business throughout 2024 and get back into the independent agents’ quote flows. The increase in the direct auto adoption rate primarily reflected enhancements in the direct quoting process, in addition to the continued rollout of our newest Snapshot model. Snapshot is available in all states, other than California, and our latest segmentation model was available in states that represented about 75% of our countrywide personal auto net premiums written (excluding California) at year-end 2024. We continue to invest in our mobile application, with the majority of new enrollments choosing mobile devices for Snapshot monitoring.
We realize that to grow policies in force, it is critical that we retain our customers for longer periods. Consequently, increasing retention continues to be one of our most important priorities. Our efforts to increase our share of Progressive auto and home bundled households (i.e., Robinsons) remains a key initiative and we plan to continue to make investments to improve the customer experience in order to support that goal. Policy life expectancy, which is our actuarial estimate of the average length of time that a policy will remain in force before cancellation or lapse in coverage, is our primary measure of customer retention in our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses.
We evaluate personal auto retention using a trailing 12-month and a trailing 3-month policy life expectancy. Although the latter can reflect more volatility and is more sensitive to seasonality, this measure is more responsive to current experience and may be an indicator for the future trend of our 12-month measure. Our trailing 12-month total personal auto policy life expectancy was down 4% year over year, with agency personal auto up 2% and direct down 7%. On a trailing 3-month basis, our personal auto policy life expectancy was down 4% year over year, which we believe is due to increased shopping and the competitiveness in the marketplace.
Our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy was flat for special lines products and decreased 12% and 14% for personal property and core commercial auto, respectively. Our personal property retention decreased primarily as a result of a mix shift to more renters policies, which
App.-A-52
generally have a lower policy life expectancy, while rate increases and our plans to non-renew policies also contributed to the decrease. The decrease in the core commercial auto policy life expectancy was across all BMTs, and reflected rate and non-rate actions taken in 2023 to achieve our target profitability, as well as the continued decrease in demand in the for-hire transportation BMT.
C. Investments
The fair value of our investment portfolio was $80.3 billion at December 31, 2024, compared to $66.0 billion at December 31, 2023. The increase from year-end 2023 primarily reflected cash flows from insurance operations and positive investment returns, partially offset by the payment of our quarterly and annual variable common share dividends and the redemption of all of our outstanding Serial Preferred Shares, Series B.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities (the securities allocated to Group I and II are defined below under Results of Operations – Investments). At December 31, 2024 and 2023, 6% and 7%, respectively, of our portfolio was allocated to Group I securities with the remainder to Group II securities.
Our recurring investment income generated a pretax book yield of 3.9% for 2024, compared to 3.1% for 2023. The
increase from prior year primarily reflected investing new cash from insurance operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, in higher coupon rate securities. Our investment portfolio produced a fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return of 4.6% for 2024 and of 6.3% for 2023. Our fixed-income and common stock portfolios had FTE total returns of 3.8% and 22.9%, respectively, for 2024, compared to 5.4% and 26.7%, respectively, for 2023. The decrease in the fixed-income portfolio FTE total return primarily reflected movement in U.S. Treasury yields year over year. The increase in the common stock portfolio FTE total return reflected general market conditions.
At both December 31, 2024 and 2023, the fixed-income portfolio had a weighted average credit quality of AA- . At December 31, 2024, the fixed-income portfolio duration was 3.3 years, compared to 3.0 years at December 31, 2023. During 2024, we increased our duration to take advantage of higher yields in the market.
At December 31, 2024, we continued to maintain a relatively conservative investment portfolio with a greater allocation to cash and treasuries. We believe that this portfolio allocation, coupled with a lack of maturities of our outstanding debt until 2027, positions us well to benefit from the current dynamic interest rate environment. We believe that we are in a very strong position as we move into 2025.
II. FINANCIAL CONDITION
A. Liquidity and Capital Resources
The Progressive Corporation receives cash through subsidiary dividends, capital raising, and other transactions, and uses these funds to contribute to its subsidiaries (e.g., to support growth), to make payments to shareholders and debt holders (e.g., dividends and interest, respectively), to repurchase its common shares, and to redeem or pay off debt, as well as for acquisitions and other business purposes that may arise.
During 2024, The Progressive Corporation received $3.7 billion, in the form of dividends, from its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
The Progressive Corporation deployed capital through the following actions in 2024:
•Common Share Dividends - declared aggregate dividends of $4.90 per common share, or $2.9 billion.
•Common Share Repurchases - acquired 0.7 million of our common shares at a total cost of $134 million either in the open market or to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of equity awards under our employee equity compensation plan.
◦Pursuant to our financial policies, we repurchase common shares to neutralize dilution from equity-based compensation granted during the year and opportunistically
when we believe our shares are trading below our determination of long-term fair value.
•Preferred Share Redemption and Dividends - redeemed all of the outstanding Serial Preferred Shares, Series B, for $500 million in aggregate and declared and paid aggregate dividends of $8 million.
•Capital Contributions - contributed a net $182 million to its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
Over the last three years, The Progressive Corporation received dividends from its subsidiaries, net of capital contributions, of $3.0 billion, and issued $2.0 billion, in the aggregate, of senior notes.
Aggregate payments made for the last three years, were as follows:
•$1.1 billion for common share dividends and $0.4 billion to repurchase our common shares;
•$0.8 billion for interest on our outstanding debt; and
•$0.6 billion for preferred share redemptions and dividends.
The covenants on The Progressive Corporation’s existing debt securities do not include any rating or credit triggers that would require an adjustment of the interest rate or an acceleration of principal payments in the event that our debt securities are downgraded by a rating agency. While
App.-A-53
we had an unsecured discretionary line of credit available to us during each of the last three years in the amount of $300 million for 2024 and 2023, and $250 million for 2022, we did not borrow under this arrangement, or engage in other short-term borrowings, to fund our operations or for liquidity purposes.
Progressive’s insurance operations create liquidity by collecting and investing premiums from new and renewal business in advance of paying claims, as well as our insurance subsidiaries producing aggregate calendar-year underwriting profits and positive cash flows. As primarily an auto insurer, our claims liabilities generally have a short-term duration. At December 31, 2024, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves were $39.1 billion. Typically, at any point in time, approximately 50% of our outstanding loss and LAE reserves are paid within the following twelve months and less than 20% are still outstanding after three years. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for further information on the timing of claims payments.
For the three years ended December 31, 2024, operations generated positive cash flows of $32.6 billion. In 2024, operating cash flows increased $4.5 billion, compared to 2023. The increase in operating cash flow, compared to the prior year, was primarily driven by the growth in underwriting profitability. We believe cash flows will remain positive in the reasonably foreseeable future and do not expect we will need to raise capital to support our operations in that timeframe, although changes in market or regulatory conditions affecting the insurance industry, or other unforeseen events, may necessitate otherwise.
As of December 31, 2024, we held $46.6 billion in short-term investments and U.S. Treasury securities, which represented nearly 60% of our total portfolio at year end. Based on our portfolio allocation and investment strategies, we believe that we have sufficient readily available marketable securities to cover our claims payments and short-term obligations in the event our cash flows from operations were to be negative. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2024 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of certain matters that may affect our portfolio and capital position.
Insurance companies are required to satisfy regulatory surplus and premiums-to-surplus ratio requirements. As of December 31, 2024, our consolidated statutory surplus was $27.2 billion, compared to $22.2 billion at December 31, 2023. Our net premiums written-to-surplus ratio was 2.7 to 1 at year-end 2024, 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2023, and 2.9 to 1 at year-end 2022. At December 31, 2024, we also had access to $6.2 billion of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company that can be used to fund corporate obligations and provide additional capital to the insurance subsidiaries to fund potential future growth and other opportunities. In January 2025, a portion of these securities were used to pay the
$2.7 billion common share dividends declared in December 2024.
Insurance companies are also required to satisfy risk-based capital ratios. These ratios are determined by a series of dynamic surplus-related calculations required by the laws of various states that contain a variety of factors that are applied to financial balances based on the degree of certain risks (e.g., asset, credit, and underwriting). Our insurance subsidiaries’ risk-based capital ratios were in excess of applicable minimum regulatory requirements at year-end 2024. Nonetheless, the payment of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are subject to certain limitations. See Note 8 – Statutory Financial Information for additional information on insurance subsidiary dividends.
We seek to deploy our capital in a prudent manner and use multiple data sources and modeling tools to estimate the frequency, severity, and correlation of identified exposures, including, but not limited to, catastrophic and other insured losses, natural disasters, and other significant business interruptions, to estimate our potential capital needs. Management views our capital position as consisting of three layers, each with a specific size and purpose:
•The first layer of capital is the amount of capital we need to satisfy state insurance regulatory requirements and support our objective of writing all the business we can write and service, consistent with our underwriting discipline of achieving a combined ratio of 96 or better. This first layer of capital, which we refer to as “regulatory capital,” is held by our various insurance entities.
•While our regulatory capital layer is, by definition, a cushion for absorbing financial consequences of adverse events, such as loss reserve development, litigation, weather catastrophes, and investment market changes, we view that as a base and hold a second layer of capital for even more extreme conditions. The modeling used to quantify capital needs for these conditions is extensive, including tens of thousands of simulations, representing our best estimates of such contingencies based on historical experience. This capital is held either at a consolidated non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company or in our insurance entities, where it is potentially eligible for a dividend to the holding company.
•The third layer is capital in excess of the sum of the first two layers and provides maximum flexibility to fund other business opportunities, repurchase stock or other securities, and pay dividends to shareholders, among other purposes. This capital is largely held at a consolidated non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company.
We monitor our total capital position regularly throughout the year to ensure we have adequate capital to support our insurance operations. At December 31, 2024, we held total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $32.5 billion, compared to $27.2 billion at December 31, 2023. Our debt-
App.-A-54
to-total capital ratios at December 31, 2024, 2023, and 2022, were 21.2%, 25.4%, and 28.7%, respectively. Our debt-to-total capital ratios were consistent with our financial policy of maintaining a ratio of less than 30%.
At December 31, 2024, we had various noncancelable contractual obligations that were outstanding. We had outstanding $7.0 billion principal amount of Senior Notes with maturity dates ranging from 2027 through 2052, with $3.9 billion of future interest payment obligations related to our outstanding debt. The next debt repayments of $1.0 billion, in the aggregate, are due in 2027 upon the maturity of our 2.45% Senior Notes and our 2.50% Senior Notes. See Note 4 – Debt for additional information on our long-term debt.
At year-end 2024, we also had $1.6 billion of purchase obligations that are noncancelable commitments for goods and services (e.g., software licenses, maintenance on information technology equipment, and media placements). About 60% of our purchase obligations are payable within one year and just over 10% will be outstanding for longer than three years. In addition, we have $341 million of minimum commitments for reinsurance contracts, primarily related to several multiple-layer property catastrophe reinsurance contracts with various reinsurers for terms ranging from one to three years. See Note 1 –
Reporting and Accounting Policies, Commitments and Contingencies for a discussion of these obligations. We do not have, and do not expect to enter into, any material commitments for capital expenditures in the reasonably foreseeable future.
Based upon our capital planning and forecasting efforts, we believe we have sufficient capital resources and cash flows from operations to support our current business, scheduled principal and interest payments on our debt, anticipated quarterly dividends on our common shares, our contractual obligations, and other expected capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, we may decide to raise additional capital to take advantage of attractive terms in the market and provide additional financial flexibility. We currently have an effective shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so that we may periodically offer and sell an indeterminate aggregate amount of senior or subordinated debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, purchase contracts, warrants, and units. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds, subject to market conditions, from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof.
III. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – UNDERWRITING
A. Segment Overview
We report our underwriting operations in two segments: Personal Lines and Commercial Lines. As a component of our Personal Lines segment, we include personal vehicles (auto and special lines products) and, beginning in the fourth quarter 2024, personal property products. Since our personal auto products represent 90% of our Personal Lines segment, our discussion will focus primarily on personal auto products, in addition to discussing our personal property products. To provide a further understanding of our personal auto products by distribution channel, we report our agency and direct personal auto business results separately in this MD&A.
Our Commercial Lines segment includes our core commercial auto products, TNC business, Fleet & Specialty products, and BOP business. Of our total Commercial Lines segment, our core commercial auto products represent about 80% of net premiums written and our TNC business represents about 15%. Therefore, much of the following discussion will focus only on our core commercial auto products.
The following table shows the composition of our companywide net premiums written, by segment, for the years ended December 31:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | ||||||||
| Vehicles | ||||||||
| Agency | 36 | % | 36 | % | 36 | % | ||
| Direct | 45 | 43 | 41 | |||||
| Property | 4 | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Total Personal Lines | 85 | 84 | 82 | |||||
| Commercial Lines | 15 | 16 | 18 | |||||
| Total underwriting operations | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
Within our Personal Lines segment, we often categorize our personal auto product policyholders into four consumer segments:
•Sam - inconsistently insured;
•Diane - consistently insured and maybe a renter;
•Wrights - homeowners who do not bundle auto and home; and
•Robinsons - homeowners who bundle auto and home.
App.-A-55
While our personal auto policies primarily have 6-month terms, to promote bundled personal auto and property growth, we write 12-month term personal auto policies in our Platinum agencies. At year-end 2024 and 2023, 12% and 14%, respectively, of our agency personal auto policies in force were 12-month policies. To the extent our agency application mix of annual personal auto policies changes, the shift in policy term could impact our written premium mix in the agency channel, as 12-month policies have about twice the amount of net premiums written, compared to 6-month policies.
Our special lines and personal property products are written for 12-month terms. About 55% and 75%, respectively, of our special lines products and personal property business net premiums written was generated through the independent agency channel, with the balance through the direct channel.
Within our Commercial Lines business, our core commercial auto business operates in the following five traditional business market targets (BMT):
• for-hire specialty;
• for-hire transportation;
• tow;
• contractor; and
• business auto.
At year-end 2024, about 90% of our Commercial Lines policies in force had 12-month terms. The majority of our Commercial Lines business is written through the independent agency channel, although we continue to focus on growing our direct business, with about 10% of our core commercial auto premiums written through the direct channel for each of the last three years. To serve our direct channel customers, we continue to expand our product offerings, including adding states where we can offer our BOP product, as well as adding these product offerings to our digital platform that allows direct small business consumers to obtain quotes for our products and products offered from a select group of unaffiliated carriers (BusinessQuote Explorer®).
B. Profitability
Profitability for our underwriting operations is defined by pretax underwriting profit or loss, which is calculated as net premiums earned plus fees and other revenues less losses and loss adjustment expenses, policy acquisition costs, and other underwriting expenses. We also use underwriting margin, which is underwriting profit or loss expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned, to analyze our results. For the three years ended December 31, our underwriting profitability results were as follows:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | |||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 3,559 | 13.9 | % | $ | 1,029 | 4.9 | % | $ | 734 | 4.1 | % | |||||
| Direct | 3,231 | 10.3 | 1,828 | 7.3 | 769 | 3.8 | |||||||||||
| Property | 50 | 1.7 | 28 | 1.1 | (238) | (10.5) | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 6,840 | 11.4 | 2,885 | 5.9 | 1,265 | 3.2 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,136 | 10.6 | 123 | 1.2 | 810 | 8.9 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | (18) | NM | (16) | NM | (11) | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 7,958 | 11.2 | % | $ | 2,992 | 5.1 | % | $ | 2,064 | 4.2 | % |
1 Underwriting margins for our other indemnity businesses are not meaningful (NM) due to the low level of premiums earned by, and the variability of loss costs in, such businesses.
Several factors contributed to the change in companywide underwriting profit for the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. First, as a result of the rate actions we took in our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines segments, our personal auto and core commercial auto products average written premium per policy were up 8% and 5%, respectively, for 2024, compared to the prior year.
Second, as a result of the favorable loss trends during 2024, we experienced companywide favorable prior accident years reserve development, compared to unfavorable prior year development for 2023. During 2024, our personal auto and core commercial auto products experienced an incurred loss frequency decrease of 5% and 7%, respectively, compared to 2023. In total, our catastrophe losses were 0.5 points higher in 2024, compared to the prior year. See the Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE) section below for further discussion of our catastrophe losses, frequency and severity trends, and reserve development recognized during the periods.
App.-A-56
Lastly, year-over-year change in underwriting profitability included a 2.4 point increase in our companywide expense ratio, primarily due to a 150% increase in advertising spend over 2023. Our total advertising spend for 2024, was $4.0 billion, compared to $1.6 billion in 2023. Throughout the year we increased our media spend to maximize growth and will continue to spend at or above this level as long as we remain on track to achieve our target profitability and can acquire customers at or below our target acquisition cost.
Further underwriting results for our Personal Lines business, Commercial Lines business, and our underwriting operations in total, were as follows:
| Underwriting Performance1 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | |||||
| Vehicles | |||||
| Agency | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 67.7 | 77.0 | 78.1 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 18.4 | 18.1 | 17.8 | ||
| Combined ratio | 86.1 | 95.1 | 95.9 | ||
| Direct | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 69.8 | 78.4 | 78.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.9 | 14.3 | 17.6 | ||
| Combined ratio | 89.7 | 92.7 | 96.2 | ||
| Property | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 69.3 | 69.6 | 83.3 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 29.0 | 29.3 | 27.2 | ||
| Combined ratio | 98.3 | 98.9 | 110.5 | ||
| Total Personal Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 68.9 | 77.4 | 78.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.7 | 16.7 | 18.2 | ||
| Combined ratio | 88.6 | 94.1 | 96.8 | ||
| Commercial Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 70.1 | 79.0 | 71.5 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.3 | 19.8 | 19.6 | ||
| Combined ratio | 89.4 | 98.8 | 91.1 | ||
| Total Underwriting Operations | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 69.1 | 77.6 | 77.3 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.7 | 17.3 | 18.5 | ||
| Combined ratio | 88.8 | 94.9 | 95.8 | ||
| Accident year – Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio2 | 69.7 | 75.7 | 77.5 |
1 Ratios are expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. Fees and other revenues are netted against either loss adjustment expenses or underwriting expenses in the ratio calculations, based on the underlying activity that generated the revenue.
2 The accident year ratios include only the losses that occurred during each respective year. As a result, accident period results will change over time, either favorably or unfavorably, as we revise our estimates of loss costs when payments are made or reserves for that accident year are reviewed.
App.-A-57
Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE)
| (millions) | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in net loss and LAE reserves | $ | 4,970 | $ | 4,800 | $ | 3,370 | ||
| Paid losses and LAE | 44,090 | 40,855 | 34,753 | |||||
| Total incurred losses and LAE | $ | 49,060 | $ | 45,655 | $ | 38,123 |
Claims costs, our most significant expense, represent payments made, and estimated future payments to be made, to or on behalf of our policyholders, including expenses needed to adjust or settle claims. Claims costs are a function of loss severity and frequency and, for our personal auto and core commercial auto businesses, are influenced by inflation and driving patterns, among other factors, some of which are discussed below. In our personal property business, severity is primarily a function of construction costs and the age and complexity of the structure, among other factors. Accordingly, anticipated changes in these factors are taken into account when we
establish premium rates and loss reserves. Loss reserves are estimates of future costs and our reserves are adjusted as underlying assumptions change and information develops. See Critical Accounting Policies – A. Loss and LAE Reserves for a discussion of the effect of changing estimates.
Our total loss and LAE ratio decreased 8.5 points in 2024 and increased 0.3 points in 2023, each compared to the prior year. During 2024, the decrease in the loss ratio was driven by lower personal auto and core commercial auto loss frequency, relatively stable personal auto severity, higher personal auto and core commercial auto premium per policy, and companywide favorable prior accident years reserve development, compared to unfavorable development for 2023. Our accident year loss and LAE ratio, which excludes the impact of prior accident year reserve development during each calendar year, decreased 6.0 points and 1.8 points in 2024 and 2023, respectively, compared to the prior years.
We experienced severe weather conditions in several areas of the country during each of the last three years. Hurricanes, hail storms, tornadoes, and wind activity contributed to catastrophe losses each year. The following table shows our consolidated catastrophe losses and related combined ratio point impact, excluding loss adjustment expenses, for the years ended December 31:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | $ | 1,693 | 3.0 | pts. | $ | 1,094 | 2.4 pts. | $ | 1,046 | 2.8 pts. | |||||||
| Property | 741 | 24.8 | 659 | 25.8 | 580 | 25.6 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 2,434 | 4.1 | 1,753 | 3.6 | 1,626 | 4.0 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 80 | 0.7 | 41 | 0.4 | 34 | 0.4 | |||||||||||
| Total catastrophe losses incurred | $ | 2,514 | 3.6 | pts. | $ | 1,794 | 3.1 | pts. | $ | 1,660 | 3.4 | pts. |
1 Represents catastrophe losses incurred during the year, including the impact of reinsurance, as a percentage of net premiums earned for each segment.
During 2024, our catastrophe losses reflected severe weather events throughout the United States, with Hurricanes Helene and Milton accounting for nearly one third of the total losses for the year. We have responded, and plan to continue to respond, promptly to catastrophic events when they occur in order to provide high-quality claims service to our customers.
Changes in our estimate of our ultimate losses on catastrophes currently reserved, along with potential future catastrophes, could have a material impact on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. We reinsure various risks, including, but not limited to, catastrophic losses. We do not have catastrophe-specific reinsurance for our personal auto, special lines, or core commercial auto businesses, but we reinsure portions of our personal property business. The personal property business reinsurance programs include catastrophe per occurrence excess of loss contracts and aggregate excess of loss contracts. We also purchase excess of loss reinsurance on our workers’ compensation insurance and our higher-limit
commercial auto liability product offered by our Fleet & Specialty business, and on certain BOP product coverages.
We evaluate our reinsurance programs during the renewal process, if not more frequently, to ensure our programs continue to effectively address the company’s risk tolerance. As a result, during 2024, we entered into new reinsurance contracts under our per occurrence excess of loss program for our personal property business that covers losses from June 1, 2024 through May 31, 2025. This program is comprised of privately placed reinsurance, reinsurance placed through catastrophe bond transactions, and coverage obtained through the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF). The reinsurance program has a retention threshold for losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) from a single catastrophic event of $200 million, which is unchanged from the retention threshold on prior contracts. In general, as of December 31, 2024, this program, including the shared limit coverage discussed below, includes coverage for $1.8 billion in losses and ALAE with additional substantial coverage for a second or
App.-A-58
third hurricane. When including the FHCF, which is specific to Florida, this coverage reaches an estimated $2.1 billion.
From June 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024, which is considered the hurricane season, we had shared limit coverage in our reinsurance program that provided $175 million of coverage for named storms. We renewed this coverage from June 1, 2025 through December 31, 2025, with the same terms. This reinsurance arrangement can, depending on the circumstances, provide additional coverage for a significant covered event, or provide coverage for aggregate losses under our occurrence excess of loss retention. During 2024, we ceded no losses under this coverage.
During 2024, our personal property business also had an aggregate excess of loss program structure with multiple layers providing for catastrophe losses and ALAE. No losses were ceded under this aggregate excess of loss agreement during 2024. In January 2025, a new aggregate excess of loss program was entered for claims occurring in 2025. Under the 2025 program, which is substantially the same as the 2024 program, the first retention layer threshold ranges from $450 million to $475 million, excluding named tropical storms and hurricanes, and the second retention layer threshold is $525 million, including named tropical storms and hurricanes. The first and second layers provide coverage up to $75 million and $100 million, respectively. As part of the 2025 aggregate excess of loss program, we also entered into a severe convective storm modeled loss aggregate coverage, which covers a type of thunderstorm characterized by strong winds, heavy rain, large hail, thunder, lightning, and sometimes tornadoes. This modeled loss coverage provides $15 million of coverage, net of a retention of $665 million.
For further details and additional discussion on our reinsurance programs, see Item 1, Business – Reinsurance in our 2024 Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for the year ended December 31, 2024 and Note 7 – Reinsurance for a discussion of our various reinsurance programs.
While the total coverage limit and per-event retention will evolve to fit the growth of our business, we expect to remain a consistent purchaser of reinsurance coverage. While the availability of reinsurance is subject to many forces outside of our control, the types of reinsurance that we elected to purchase during 2024 and in early 2025, were readily available and competitively priced. On a year-over-year basis, we did not incur a material change in the aggregate costs of our reinsurance programs. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our Form 10-K, for a discussion of certain risks related to catastrophe events.
The following discussion of our severity and frequency trends in our personal auto business excludes comprehensive coverage because of its inherent volatility, as it is typically linked to catastrophic losses generally
resulting from adverse weather. For our core commercial auto business, the reported frequency and severity trends include comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage insures against damage to a customer’s vehicle due to various causes other than collision, such as windstorm, hail, theft, falling objects, and glass breakage.
On a calendar-year basis, the change in total personal auto incurred severity (i.e., average cost per claim, including both paid losses and the change in case reserves) over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||
| Bodily injury | 6 | % | 10 | % | 8 | % |
| Collision | (2) | 5 | 16 | |||
| Personal injury protection | (2) | 2 | (9) | |||
| Property damage | (1) | 9 | 20 | |||
| Total | 1 | 8 | 13 |
On a calendar-year basis, the incurred severity in our core commercial auto products increased 9% in 2024, compared to 6% in both 2023 and 2022. Since the loss patterns in the core commercial auto products are not indicative of our other commercial auto products (i.e., TNC and Fleet & Specialty businesses), disclosing severity and frequency trends excluding those businesses is more representative of our overall experience for the majority of our commercial auto products.
It is a challenge to estimate future severity, but we continue to monitor changes in the underlying costs, such as general inflation, used car prices, vehicle repair costs, medical costs, health care reform, tariffs, court decisions, and jury verdicts, along with regulatory changes and other factors that may affect severity.
The change in calendar-year incurred frequency, over the prior-year periods, in our total personal auto products was as follows:
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||
| Bodily injury | (3) | % | 2 | % | (4) | % |
| Collision | (8) | (7) | (8) | |||
| Personal injury protection | (4) | 2 | (5) | |||
| Property damage | (4) | 0 | (5) | |||
| Total | (5) | (2) | (6) |
The year-over-year decrease in frequency, in part, reflects a shift in the mix of business to a more preferred tier of customers (i.e., Wrights and Robinsons).
On a calendar-year basis, our core commercial auto products’ incurred frequency decreased 7% in 2024, compared to an increase of 2% in 2023 and 3% in 2022.
We closely monitor the changes in frequency, but the degree or direction of near-term frequency change is not
App.-A-59
something that we are able to predict with any certainty. We will continue to analyze trends to distinguish changes in our experience from other external factors, such as changes in the number of vehicles per household, miles driven, vehicle usage, gasoline prices, advances in vehicle
safety, and unemployment rates, versus those resulting from shifts in the mix of our business or changes in driving patterns, and the ridesharing economy to allow us to react quickly to price for these trends and to reserve more accurately for our loss exposures.
The table below presents the actuarial adjustments implemented and the loss reserve development experienced on a companywide basis in the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actuarial Adjustments | ||||||||
| Reserve decrease (increase) | ||||||||
| Prior accident years | $ | (123) | $ | (454) | $ | (106) | ||
| Current accident year | 530 | (587) | (83) | |||||
| Calendar year actuarial adjustments | $ | 407 | $ | (1,041) | $ | (189) | ||
| Prior Accident Years Development | ||||||||
| Favorable (unfavorable) | ||||||||
| Actuarial adjustments | $ | (123) | $ | (454) | $ | (106) | ||
| All other development | 539 | (640) | 192 | |||||
| Total development | $ | 416 | $ | (1,094) | $ | 86 | ||
| (Increase) decrease to calendar year combined ratio | 0.6 | pts. | (1.9) | pts. | 0.2 | pts. |
Total development consists of both actuarial adjustments and “all other development” on prior accident years. We use “accident year” generically to represent the year in which a loss occurred. The actuarial adjustments represent the net changes made by our actuarial staff to both current and prior accident year reserves based on regularly scheduled reviews. Through these reviews, our actuaries identify and measure variances in the projected frequency and severity trends, which allow them to adjust the reserves to reflect current cost trends.
For the Personal Lines auto and special lines products and Commercial Lines business, development for catastrophe losses would be reflected in “all other development,” discussed below, to the extent they relate to prior year reserves. For our Personal Lines property business, 100% of catastrophe losses are reviewed monthly and any development on catastrophe reserves are included as part of the actuarial adjustments. We report these actuarial adjustments separately for the current and prior accident years to reflect these adjustments as part of the total prior accident years development.
“All other development” represents claims settling for more or less than reserved, emergence of unrecorded claims at rates different than anticipated in our incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves, and changes in reserve estimates on specific claims. Although we believe the development from both the actuarial adjustments and “all other development” generally results from the same factors, we are unable to quantify the portion of the reserve development that might be applicable to any one or more of those underlying factors.
Our objective is to establish case and IBNR reserves that are adequate to cover all loss costs, while incurring minimal variation from the date the reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. Our ability to meet this objective is impacted by many factors, such as changes in case law.
As reflected in the table above, we experienced slightly favorable prior accident years development during 2024 and 2022, compared to unfavorable development in 2023. The favorable development during 2024 was, in part, due to lower than anticipated personal auto frequency and severity in Florida and lower than anticipated personal auto property damage severity across the majority of states. This was partially offset by unfavorable development resulting from higher than anticipated LAE costs in our personal property products and higher than anticipated severity in core commercial auto products for California, New York, and Texas.
For 2023, about two-thirds of the unfavorable development was in our personal auto products with the remaining one-third in our Commercial Lines business. The personal auto products unfavorable development was equally attributable to higher than anticipated severity in personal auto property and physical damage coverages and increased loss costs in Florida injury and medical coverages and, to a lesser extent, higher than anticipated late reported injury claims, which was partially offset by lower than anticipated LAE. For our Commercial Lines segment, the unfavorable development was mainly due to both late reported and large loss emergence on injury claims, with about half of this development attributable to our TNC business.
App.-A-60
See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves, for a more detailed discussion of our prior accident years development.
Underwriting Expenses
Underwriting expenses include policy acquisition costs and other underwriting expenses. The underwriting expense ratio is our underwriting expenses, net of certain fees and other revenues, expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. For 2024, our underwriting expense ratio increased 2.4 points, compared to the prior year, primarily driven by increases in our advertising spend, partially offset by growth in net premiums earned. In total, our companywide advertising spend increased 150%, or 2.9 points for 2024, compared to 2023.
For 2024, our total companywide advertising costs were $4.0 billion, compared to $1.6 billion in 2023, and exceeded the amount of advertising spend for any previous annual period. As previously discussed, we increased our media spend to maximize growth and will continue to spend at or above this level as long as the advertising spend is efficient and we remain on track to achieve our target profitability.
To analyze underwriting expenses, we also review our non-acquisition expense ratio (NAER), which excludes costs related to policy acquisition (e.g., advertising and agency commissions) from our underwriting expense ratio. By excluding acquisition costs from our underwriting expense ratio, we are able to understand costs other than those necessary to acquire new policies and grow the business. In 2024, our NAER decreased 0.4 points and 0.6 points in our personal vehicle and core commercial auto businesses, respectively, compared to 2023, and increased 0.3 points in our personal property business. The increase in the property NAER was, in part, due to our investment in headcount and related compensation. We remain committed to efficiently managing operational non-acquisition expenses.
App.-A-61
C. Growth
For our underwriting operations, we analyze growth in terms of both premiums and policies. Net premiums written represent the premiums from policies written during the period, less any premiums ceded to reinsurers. Net premiums earned, which are a function of the premiums written in the current and prior periods, are earned as revenue over the life of the policy using a daily earnings convention. Policies in force, our preferred measure of growth since it removes the variability due to rate changes or mix shifts, represents all policies for which coverage was in effect as of the end of the period specified.
| For the years ended December 31, | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | |||||||||||
| Net Premiums Written | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 26,967 | 21 | % | $ | 22,278 | 22 | % | $ | 18,334 | 6 | % | |||||
| Direct | 33,432 | 27 | 26,303 | 26 | 20,944 | 11 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,071 | 8 | 2,831 | 18 | 2,402 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 63,470 | 23 | 51,412 | 23 | 41,680 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 10,953 | 8 | 10,138 | 8 | 9,399 | 17 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 1 | NM | 0 | NM | 2 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 74,424 | 21 | % | $ | 61,550 | 20 | % | $ | 51,081 | 10 | % | |||||
| Net Premiums Earned | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Vehicles | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 25,640 | 21 | % | $ | 21,198 | 19 | % | $ | 17,745 | 5 | % | |||||
| Direct | 31,458 | 26 | 25,015 | 24 | 20,135 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,993 | 17 | 2,552 | 12 | 2,270 | 11 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 60,091 | 23 | 48,765 | 21 | 40,150 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 10,707 | 8 | 9,899 | 9 | 9,088 | 31 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 1 | NM | 1 | NM | 3 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 70,799 | 21 | % | $ | 58,665 | 19 | % | $ | 49,241 | 11 | % | |||||
| NM = Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Includes other underwriting business and run-off operations. | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||
| (# in thousands) | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | |||||||||||
| Policies in Force | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency – auto | 9,778 | 17 | % | 8,336 | 7 | % | 7,767 | (1) | % | ||||||||
| Direct – auto | 13,996 | 25 | 11,190 | 10 | 10,131 | 6 | |||||||||||
| Special lines1 | 6,520 | 9 | 5,969 | 7 | 5,558 | 5 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,517 | 14 | 3,096 | 9 | 2,851 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 33,811 | 18 | 28,591 | 9 | 26,307 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,141 | 4 | 1,099 | 5 | 1,046 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Companywide total | 34,952 | 18 | % | 29,690 | 9 | % | 27,353 | 3 | % |
1 Includes insurance for motorcycles, RVs, watercraft, snowmobiles, and similar items.
To analyze growth, we review new policies, rate levels, and the retention characteristics of our segments. Although new policies are necessary to maintain a growing book of business, we recognize the importance of retaining our current customers as a critical component of our continued growth.
App.-A-62
D. Personal Lines
Our Personal Lines business offers vehicle (personal auto and special lines) and residential property insurance products to personal consumers, with the operating goal of optimizing the number of insured products within our policyholders’ households. In our discussion below, we report our personal auto and personal property business results separately as components of our Personal Lines segment to provide a further understanding of our products. Our personal auto business discussions are further separated between the agency and direct distribution channel. At year-end 2024, 44% of our personal auto business is written through the agency channel and 56% is written through the direct channel.
Personal Auto - Agency
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 32 | % | 15 | % | (3) | % |
| Renewal | 8 | 6 | (3) | |||
| Total | 13 | 8 | (3) | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | 5 | 7 | 9 | |||
| Renewal | 9 | 13 | 11 | |||
| Total | 8 | 12 | 11 | |||
| Policy life expectancy | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (3) | 23 | (11) | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 2 | 29 | (24) |
The personal auto agency business includes business written by more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies that represent Progressive, as well as brokerages in New York and California. During 2024, 46 states generated new agency personal auto application growth, including 8 of our top 10 largest agency states.
Compared to the prior year, new application and policies in force growth varied by consumer segment:
•Sams experienced a single digit increase in policies in force, with a low double digit increase in new application growth during 2024; and
•Dianes, Wrights, and Robinsons all experienced very strong policies in force and new application growth during 2024, with the Wrights having the largest year-over-year increases.
During 2024, on a year-over-year basis, we experienced an increase in agency personal auto quote volume of 17%, with a rate of conversion (i.e., converting a quote to a sale) increase of 13%. All four consumer segments experienced an increase in both quote volume and conversion compared to 2023.
The increase in written premium per policy for new and renewal personal auto agency business during 2024,
compared to 2023, was primarily attributable to the rate increases previously discussed.
The trailing 12-month policy life expectancy in the personal auto agency business lengthened during 2024. We believe this increase was primarily driven by a shift in the mix of business. During 2023, as part of our efforts to slow growth to achieve our target profitability, we focused our efforts to attract a more preferred tier of customers, including more Robinsons, who tend to stay with us longer. We believe the trailing 3-month measure was down slightly primarily due to increased shopping and competitiveness in the marketplace.
Personal Auto - Direct
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 51 | % | 15 | % | 6 | % |
| Renewal | 11 | 13 | 3 | |||
| Total | 19 | 13 | 3 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | 9 | 5 | 6 | |||
| Renewal | 8 | 11 | 8 | |||
| Total | 7 | 10 | 8 | |||
| Policy life expectancy | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (3) | 6 | (6) | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (7) | 19 | (19) |
The personal auto direct business includes business written directly by Progressive online or by phone. As we increased advertising spend and lifted certain non-rate restrictions during 2024, we saw significant direct personal auto new application growth in all states and across all consumer segments, compared to 2023. At the end of 2024, policies in force grew between 17% and 28% in each consumer segment, compared to the end of 2023.
During 2024, we experienced an increase in direct personal auto quote volume of 65%, compared to 2023, primarily driven by the increased advertising spend and increased shopping in the marketplace. The rate of conversion decreased 9%, compared to 2023, which we believe was primarily due to a greater number of casual shoppers obtaining quotes, who were less committed to purchasing a new insurance policy. All consumer segments saw an increase in quotes and a decrease in the rate of conversion during 2024.
The written premium per policy increase for new and renewal personal auto direct business during 2024, compared to 2023, was primarily driven by the rate increases previously discussed.
App.-A-63
Our trailing 3- and 12-month policy life expectancy in the direct auto business experienced a decrease in retention during 2024, compared to 2023. We believe the drivers of the change were due to increased shopping and competitiveness in the marketplace.
Personal Property
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our personal property business:
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 31 | % | 15 | % | (8) | % |
| Renewal | 6 | 5 | 8 | |||
| Total | 14 | 8 | 3 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | (15) | 5 | (2) | |||
| Renewal | 2 | 13 | 6 | |||
| Total | (5) | 10 | 6 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (12) | 15 | (7) |
Our personal property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners and renters, umbrella, and flood insurance through the “Write Your Own” program for the National Flood Insurance Program. Our personal property business insurance is written in the agency and direct channels.
In addition to reducing our geographic footprint in more volatile weather-related states (e.g., coastal and hail-prone states), we continued to focus on accelerating growth in markets that are less susceptible to catastrophes for our homeowners products, which we define as our total personal property business excluding renters and umbrella products. Homeowners policies in force in the growth-oriented states increased 15% on a year-over-year basis for 2024.
Policies in force decreased 13% in the volatile weather states at the end of 2024, compared to 2023. Improving profitability and reducing our concentration and exposure in more volatile weather-related markets continued to be the top priority for our personal property business and, during 2024, we continued to move forward on several initiatives, including: (i) prioritizing insuring lower-risk properties (e.g., new construction, existing homes with
newer roofs); (ii) putting underwriting restrictions in place in about half of the country, by the end of 2024, to only
accept new personal property business (e.g., home or condo) when the property policy is bundled with a Progressive personal auto policy, where permitted; (iii) began restricting new business and non-renewing policies that provide coverage for non-owner occupied properties (e.g., short-term vacation rental, secondary residence, etc.) in the majority of states; and, (iv) expanding our cost sharing with policyholders through mandatory wind and hail deductibles and roof depreciation schedules in markets where permitted.
In addition, beginning in the second quarter 2024, following the required filings and notices, we began our efforts to non-renew up to 115,000 Property policies in Florida. This effort slowed while the moratoriums were in place in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which temporarily limited an insurer’s ability to non-renew policies, but resumed once the moratoriums expired in December 2024.
To try to ease the disruption of the non-renewals to our customers and agents, we reached an agreement with an unaffiliated Florida insurer to offer replacement policies to many of these policyholders, subject to the insurer’s underwriting and financial guidelines and agent appointments where applicable.
Our written premium per policy decreased on a year-over-year basis, primarily attributable to a decline in homeowners policies in force in volatile states and in non-owner occupied properties, which both have higher average premiums, and a shift in the mix to more renters policies, which have lower average premiums. The effect of these declines were partially offset by rate increases taken during 2024 and higher premium coverages reflecting increased property values. During 2024, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 19% in our personal property business. We intend to continue to make targeted rate increases in states where we believe it is necessary to achieve our profitability targets.
The policy life expectancy in our personal property business shortened during 2024, compared to 2023, which we believe is primarily driven by a shift in the mix of business to more renters policies, our previously discussed rate increases, and the non-renewals for certain policies in volatile weather states.
App.-A-64
E. Commercial Lines
The following table and discussion focuses on our core commercial auto products, which account for about 80% of our Commercial Lines segment 2024 net premiums written. Year-over-year changes in our core commercial auto products were as follows:
| Change Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 8 | % | 4 | % | (1) | % |
| Renewal | 1 | 4 | 12 | |||
| Total | 4 | 4 | 7 | |||
| Written premium per policy | ||||||
| New | (1) | (3) | 6 | |||
| Renewal | 8 | 6 | 16 | |||
| Total | 5 | 3 | 11 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (14) | (12) | (12) |
The increases in net premiums written reflected growth in all of our BMTs, except our for-hire transportation BMT, which continued to be adversely impacted by challenging freight market conditions that have continued to cause a decline in the active number of motor carriers in the for-hire transportation market. The most significant premium growth came from our contractor and business auto BMTs, primarily driven by the aggregate core commercial auto rate increases of 17% taken during 2023.
During 2024, core commercial auto new application growth was positive in each of our BMTs, except for the for-hire transportation and for-hire specialty BMTs. We experienced a 6% increase in quote volume and a 2% increase in the rate of conversion in our commercial auto products during 2024, compared to 2023.
The effect the previously discussed rate increases had on written premium per policy for our new core commercial auto business was offset by the change in the mix of business written, compared to 2023, while the increase for renewal business primarily reflected the previously discussed rate increases. During 2024, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 5% in our core commercial auto products. We will continue to evaluate our rate need and adjust rates as we deem necessary.
Our policy life expectancy decreased in all BMTs, which we believe is due to rate and non-rate actions.
App.-A-65
IV. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – INVESTMENTS
A. Portfolio Summary
At year-end 2024, the fair value of our investment portfolio was $80.3 billion, compared to $66.0 billion at year-end 2023. The increase in value from year-end 2023, primarily reflected cash flows from insurance operations
and positive investment returns, partially offset by the
redemption of all of our outstanding Serial Preferred
Shares, Series B, and the payment of our annual-variable and quarterly common share dividends. Our investment income (interest and dividends) increased 50% in both 2024 and 2023, compared to prior year. Growth in invested assets and an increase in pretax recurring investment book yield contributed to the increase in investment income.
B. Investment Results
Our management philosophy governing the portfolio is to evaluate investment results on a total return basis. The fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return includes recurring investment income, adjusted to a fully taxable amount for certain securities that receive preferential tax treatment (e.g., municipal securities), and total net realized, and changes in total unrealized, gains (losses) on securities.
The following summarizes investment results for the years ended December 31:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretax recurring investment book yield | 3.9 | % | 3.1 | % | 2.4 | % |
| FTE total return: | ||||||
| Fixed-income securities | 3.8 | 5.4 | (6.6) | |||
| Common stocks | 22.9 | 26.7 | (19.4) | |||
| Total portfolio | 4.6 | 6.3 | (7.8) |
The increase in the book yield during 2024 and 2023, primarily reflected investing new cash from insurance operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, in higher coupon rate securities. For each year, the change in the fixed-income portfolio FTE total return, compared to prior year, primarily reflected movement in U.S. Treasury yields year-over-year. The common stock FTE total return reflected general market conditions.
A further break-down of our FTE total returns for our fixed-income portfolio for the years ended December 31, follows:
| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-income securities: | ||||||
| U.S. government obligations | 2.2 | % | 4.6 | % | (7.8) | % |
| State and local government obligations | 3.9 | 5.9 | (8.3) | |||
| Foreign government obligations | (3.7) | 6.4 | (12.3) | |||
| Corporate and other debt securities | 4.9 | 7.1 | (6.0) | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 7.8 | 9.2 | 0.6 | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 10.4 | 6.9 | (9.5) | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 6.2 | 7.2 | (1.6) | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 8.8 | 1.4 | (8.3) | |||
| Short-term investments | 5.8 | 5.0 | 1.5 |
App.-A-66
C. Portfolio Allocation
The composition of the investment portfolio at December 31, was:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Duration (years) | Average Rating1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 45,988 | 57.3 | % | 4.1 | AA+ | |
| State and local government obligations | 2,778 | 3.5 | 2.5 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 16 | 0 | 1.6 | AAA | |||
| Corporate and other debt securities | 13,954 | 17.4 | 2.6 | BBB+ | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 1,601 | 2.0 | 2.6 | AA | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,352 | 5.4 | 1.9 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 6,643 | 8.3 | 1.2 | AA+ | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 728 | 0.9 | 1.4 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 615 | 0.7 | 0.1 | AA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 76,675 | 95.5 | 3.3 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 3,575 | 4.5 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 80,250 | 100.0 | % | 3.3 | AA- | |
| 2023 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 36,869 | 55.9 | % | 3.6 | AA+ | |
| State and local government obligations | 2,203 | 3.3 | 3.0 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 16 | 0.1 | 2.6 | AAA | |||
| Corporate and other debt securities | 11,358 | 17.2 | 2.7 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 417 | 0.6 | 0.5 | A+ | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 3,940 | 6.0 | 2.3 | A | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 5,575 | 8.4 | 1.2 | AA+ | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 902 | 1.4 | 2.1 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 1,790 | 2.7 | 0.1 | AA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 63,070 | 95.6 | 3.0 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 2,929 | 4.4 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 65,999 | 100.0 | % | 3.0 | AA- | |
| na = not applicable |
1 Represents ratings at period end. Credit quality ratings are assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. To calculate the weighted average credit quality ratings, we weight individual securities based on fair value and assign a numeric score of 0-5, with non-investment-grade and non-rated securities assigned a score of 0-1. To the extent the weighted average of the ratings falls between AAA and AA+, we assign an internal rating of AAA-.
2 At December 31, 2024, we had $125 million of net unsettled security transactions included in other liabilities, compared to $46 million of net unsettled security transactions included in other assets at December 31, 2023.
The total fair value of the portfolio at December 31, 2024 and 2023, included $6.2 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company, net of any unsettled security transactions. A portion of these investments were sold and proceeds used to pay our common share dividends in January 2025; see Note 14 – Dividends for additional information.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities.
We define Group I securities to include:
•common equities,
•nonredeemable preferred stocks,
•redeemable preferred stocks, except for 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends, which are included in Group II, and
•all other non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities.
Group II securities include:
•short-term securities, and
•all other fixed-maturity securities, including 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends.
We believe this asset allocation strategy allows us to appropriately assess the risks associated with these securities for capital purposes and is in line with the treatment by our regulators.
App.-A-67
The following table shows the composition of our Group I and Group II securities at December 31:
| 2024 | 2023 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | |||||||
| Group I securities: | |||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade fixed maturities | $ | 385 | 0.5 | % | $ | 532 | 0.8 | % | |||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 728 | 0.9 | 902 | 1.4 | |||||||
| Common equities | 3,575 | 4.5 | 2,929 | 4.4 | |||||||
| Total Group I securities | 4,688 | 5.9 | 4,363 | 6.6 | |||||||
| Group II securities: | |||||||||||
| Other fixed maturities | 74,947 | 93.4 | 59,846 | 90.7 | |||||||
| Short-term investments | 615 | 0.7 | 1,790 | 2.7 | |||||||
| Total Group II securities | 75,562 | 94.1 | 61,636 | 93.4 | |||||||
| Total portfolio | $ | 80,250 | 100.0 | % | $ | 65,999 | 100.0 | % |
To determine the allocation between Group I and Group II, we use the credit ratings from models provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to classify our residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, excluding interest-only (IO) securities, and the credit ratings from nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) to classify all other debt securities. NAIC ratings are based on a model that considers the book price of our securities when assessing the probability of future losses in assigning a credit rating. As a result, NAIC ratings can vary from credit ratings issued by NRSROs. Management believes NAIC ratings more accurately reflect our risk profile when determining the asset allocation between Group I and II securities.
Unrealized Gains and Losses
As of December 31, 2024, our fixed-maturity portfolio had total after-tax net unrealized losses, which are recorded as part of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) on our consolidated balance sheets, of $1.4 billion, compared to $1.6 billion at December 31, 2023. The decrease in total unrealized losses year over year, was due to valuation increases across fixed-maturity sectors, excluding the U.S. Treasury portfolio. The valuation increase was most prominently in our corporate and other debt and commercial mortgage-backed portfolios as lower interest rates and tighter credit spreads drove strong portfolio performance. The U.S. Treasury valuation decrease was due to rising U.S. Treasury yields.
See Note 2 – Investments for a further break-out of our gross unrealized gains (losses).
App.-A-68
Holding Period Gains (Losses)
The following table provides the balance and activity for both the gross and net holding period gains (losses) for 2024:
| (millions) | Gross Holding Period Gains | Gross Holding Period Losses | Net Holding Period Gains (Losses) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at December 31, 2023 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | $ | 5 | $ | (34) | $ | (29) | ||
| Equity securities1 | 2,234 | (86) | 2,148 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | 2,239 | (120) | 2,119 | |||||
| Current year change in holding period securities | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 3 | 22 | 25 | |||||
| Equity securities1 | 604 | 50 | 654 | |||||
| Total changes in holding period securities | 607 | 72 | 679 | |||||
| Balance at December 31, 2024 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 8 | (12) | (4) | |||||
| Equity securities1 | 2,838 | (36) | 2,802 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | $ | 2,846 | $ | (48) | $ | 2,798 |
1Equity securities include common equities and nonredeemable preferred stocks.
Changes in holding period gains (losses), similar to unrealized gains (losses) in our fixed-maturity portfolio, are the result of changes in market conditions as well as sales of securities based on various portfolio management decisions.
Fixed-Income Securities
The fixed-income portfolio is managed internally and includes fixed-maturity securities, short-term investments, and nonredeemable preferred stocks. Following are the primary exposures for the fixed-income portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk This risk includes the change in value resulting from movements in the underlying market rates of debt securities held. We manage this risk by maintaining the portfolio’s duration (a measure of the portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates) between 1.5 and 5.0 years. The duration of the fixed-income portfolio was 3.3 years at December 31, 2024, compared to 3.0 years at December 31, 2023. The distribution of duration and convexity (i.e., a measure of the speed at which the duration of a security is expected to change based on a rise or fall in interest rates) is monitored on a regular basis.
The duration distribution of our fixed-income portfolio, excluding short-term investments, represented by the interest rate sensitivity of the comparable benchmark U.S. Treasury Notes, at December 31, was:
| Duration Distribution | 2024 | 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 9.6 | % | 18.1 | % |
| 2 years | 8.2 | 12.0 | ||
| 3 years | 29.5 | 25.7 | ||
| 5 years | 43.6 | 27.4 | ||
| 7 years | 8.2 | 14.6 | ||
| 10 years | 0.9 | 2.2 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
Credit Risk This exposure is managed by maintaining an A+ minimum weighted average portfolio credit quality rating, as defined by NRSROs. At both December 31, 2024 and 2023, our weighted average credit quality rating was AA-. The credit quality distribution of our fixed-income portfolio at December 31, was:
| Average Rating | 2024 | 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | 12.6 | % | 10.7 | % |
| AA | 64.2 | 65.1 | ||
| A | 6.4 | 7.0 | ||
| BBB | 15.7 | 15.7 | ||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated:1 | ||||
| BB | 0.8 | 1.2 | ||
| B | 0.2 | 0.2 | ||
| CCC and lower | 0 | 0 | ||
| Non-rated | 0.1 | 0.1 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
1 The ratings in the table above are assigned by NRSROs.
Effective January 1, 2025, in light of the downgrade of the U.S. government obligations, to manage our credit risk exposure, we moved our internal ratings guideline for our portfolio down from an A+ to an A minimum weighted average portfolio credit rating.
Concentration Risk Our investment constraints limit investment in a single issuer, other than U.S. Treasury Notes or a state’s general obligation bonds, to 2.5% of shareholders’ equity, while the single issuer guideline on preferred stocks and/or non-investment-grade debt is 1.25% of shareholders’ equity. Additionally, the guideline
App.-A-69
applicable to any state’s general obligation bonds is 6% of shareholders’ equity. We consider concentration risk both overall and in the context of individual asset classes and sectors, including, but not limited to, common equities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, and high-yield bonds. At December 31, 2024 and 2023, we were within all of the constraints described above.
Prepayment and Extension Risk We are exposed to this risk especially in our asset-backed (i.e., structured product) and preferred stock portfolios. Prepayment risk includes the risk of early redemption of security principal that may need to be reinvested at less attractive rates. Extension risk includes the risk that a security will not be redeemed when anticipated, and that the security that is extended will have a lower yield than a security we might be able to obtain by reinvesting the expected redemption principal. Our holdings of different types of structured debt and preferred securities help manage this risk. During 2024 and 2023, we did not experience significant adverse prepayment or extension of principal relative to our cash flow expectations in the portfolio.
Liquidity Risk Our overall portfolio remains very liquid and we believe that it is sufficient to meet expected near-term liquidity requirements. The short-to-intermediate duration of our portfolio provides a source of liquidity. During 2025, we expect approximately $7.6 billion, or 25%, of principal repayment from our fixed-income portfolio, excluding U.S. Treasury Notes and short-term investments. Cash from interest and dividend payments provides an additional source of recurring liquidity.
The duration of our U.S. government obligations, which are included in the fixed-income portfolio, was comprised of the following at December 31, 2024:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Duration (years) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Treasury Notes | |||||
| Less than one year | $ | 104 | 0.4 | ||
| One to two years | 807 | 1.6 | |||
| Two to three years | 3,002 | 2.6 | |||
| Three to five years | 36,320 | 4.0 | |||
| Five to seven years | 5,722 | 5.7 | |||
| Seven to ten years | 33 | 7.1 | |||
| Total U.S. Treasury Notes | $ | 45,988 | 4.1 |
ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES
Included in the fixed-income portfolio are asset-backed securities, which were comprised of the following at December 31:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Net Unrealized Gains (Losses) | % of Asset- Backed Securities | Duration (years) | Average Rating(at period end)1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 1,601 | $ | (2) | 12.7 | % | 2.6 | AA | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,352 | (369) | 34.6 | 1.9 | A+ | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 6,643 | (39) | 52.7 | 1.2 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 12,596 | $ | (410) | 100.0 | % | 1.6 | AA | |||
| 2023 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 417 | $ | (10) | 4.2 | % | 0.5 | A+ | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 3,940 | (596) | 39.7 | 2.3 | A | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 5,575 | (91) | 56.1 | 1.2 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 9,932 | $ | (697) | 100.0 | % | 1.6 | AA- |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs.
App.-A-70
Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our RMBS, along with the loan classification and a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2024, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2024) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Non-Agency | Government/GSE2 | Total | % of Total | ||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 1,100 | $ | 0 | $ | 1,100 | 68.7 | % | ||||||
| AA | 23 | 1 | 24 | 1.5 | ||||||||||
| A | 202 | 0 | 202 | 12.6 | ||||||||||
| BBB | 273 | 0 | 273 | 17.0 | ||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| Non-rated | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,600 | $ | 1 | $ | 1,601 | 100.0 | % | ||||||
| Decrease in value | 0 | % | (2.7) | % | 0 | % |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our RMBS, 88% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
2 The securities in this category are insured by a Government Sponsored Entity (GSE) and/or collateralized by mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
Our RMBS portfolio consists of deals that are backed by high-credit quality borrowers and/or those that have strong structural protections through underlying loan collateralization. During 2024, we continued to increase our exposure in this portfolio. Our additions during the year were primarily concentrated in investment-grade securities with most purchases in qualified mortgage securitizations. We also continued to grow our existing exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac credit risk transfer securities.
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our CMBS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2024, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2024) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Multi-Borrower | Single-Borrower | Total | % of Total | |||||||
| AAA | $ | 142 | $ | 1,735 | $ | 1,877 | 43.1 | % | |||
| AA | 0 | 848 | 848 | 19.5 | |||||||
| A | 0 | 431 | 431 | 9.9 | |||||||
| BBB | 0 | 836 | 836 | 19.2 | |||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 348 | 348 | 8.0 | |||||||
| B | 0 | 12 | 12 | 0.3 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 142 | $ | 4,210 | $ | 4,352 | 100.0 | % | |||
| Decrease in value | (5.1) | % | (7.9) | % | (7.8) | % |
1The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our CMBS, 92% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
Growth in our portfolio during 2024 was primarily due to new additions in AAA securities in multi-family and industrial sectors, and an increase in the value of the portfolio as spreads tightened, which were in part offset by redemptions of certain single borrower deals. The CMBS market ended the year on a high note as new issuances continued throughout the year at a robust pace and spreads tightened. As of December 31, 2024, we had no delinquencies in our CMBS portfolio.
App.-A-71
The following table shows the composition of our CMBS portfolio by maturity year and sector:
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Sector Details (at December 31, 2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Maturity1 | Office | Lab Office | Multi-family | Multi-family IO | Industrial | Self-storage | Casino | Total | Average Original LTV | Average Current DSCR | |||||||||||||||||
| 2025 | $ | 0 | $ | 47 | $ | 0 | $ | 38 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 85 | 69.9 | % | 1.6 | ||||||||
| 2026 | 394 | 67 | 270 | 34 | 91 | 64 | 114 | 1,034 | 61.3 | 1.7 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2027 | 376 | 0 | 50 | 31 | 0 | 257 | 0 | 714 | 61.5 | 1.9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2028 | 273 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 297 | 60.5 | 2.4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2029 | 479 | 129 | 418 | 11 | 388 | 160 | 70 | 1,655 | 62.5 | 2.3 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2030 | 80 | 59 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 96 | 239 | 55.5 | 3.4 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2031 | 237 | 91 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 328 | 66.5 | 2.0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,839 | $ | 393 | $ | 738 | $ | 142 | $ | 479 | $ | 481 | $ | 280 | $ | 4,352 | |||||||||||
| LTV= loan to value | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DSCR= debt service coverage ratio |
1The floating-rate securities were extended to their full maturity and fixed-rate securities are shown to their anticipated repayment date (if applicable) or otherwise, their maturity date.
We show the average loan to value (LTV) of each maturity year when the loans were originated. The LTV ratio that management uses, which is commonly expressed as a percentage, compares the size of the entire mortgage loan to the appraised value of the underlying property collateralizing the loan at issuance. A LTV ratio less than 100% indicates excess collateral value over the loan amount. LTV ratios greater than 100% indicate that the loan amount exceeds the collateral value. We believe this ratio provides a conservative view of our actual risk of loss, as this number displays the entire mortgage LTV, while our ownership is only a portion of the structure of the mortgage loan-backed security. For many of the mortgage loans in our portfolio, our exposure is in a more senior part of the structure, which means that the LTV on our actual exposure is even lower than the ratios presented.
In addition to the LTV ratio, we also examine the credit of our CMBS portfolio by reviewing the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of the securities. The DSCR compares the underlying property’s annual net operating income to its annual debt service payments. A DSCR less than 1.0 times indicates that property operations do not generate enough income over the debt service payments, while a DSCR greater than 1.0 times indicates that there is an excess of operating income over the debt service payments. A number above 1.0 generally indicates that there would not be an incentive for the borrower to default in light of the borrower’s excess income. The DSCR reported in the table is calculated based on the most currently available net operating income and mortgage payments for the borrower, which, for many securities, is data as of December 31, 2023.
App.-A-72
Other Asset-Backed Securities (OABS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our OABS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2024, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Other Asset-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) Average Rating | Automobile | Collateralized Loan Obligations | Student Loan | Whole Business Securitizations | Equipment | Other | Total | % of Total | |||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 3,029 | $ | 526 | $ | 49 | $ | 0 | $ | 1,039 | $ | 258 | $ | 4,901 | 73.8 | % | |||||||
| AA | 1 | 117 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 160 | 2.4 | |||||||||||||||
| A | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 139 | 294 | 436 | 6.6 | |||||||||||||||
| BBB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,072 | 0 | 39 | 1,111 | 16.7 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 35 | 0.5 | |||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 3,033 | $ | 643 | $ | 51 | $ | 1,072 | $ | 1,218 | $ | 626 | $ | 6,643 | 100.0 | % | |||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | 0.5 | % | (0.1) | % | (6.3) | % | (3.6) | % | 0.4 | % | (2.1) | % | (0.6) | % |
During 2024, we selectively added securities to the OABS portfolio that we viewed as having attractive spreads and potential returns. The securities we acquired were predominantly in the automobile and equipment categories in highly-rated, senior, and short-tenor debt tranches in the new issue markets. Additionally, we increased our holdings in whole business securitization assets, in both new issue and secondary markets, and decreased our collateralized loan obligation assets, due to elevated call redemptions.
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OBLIGATIONS
The following table details the credit quality rating of our state and local government obligations (municipal securities) at December 31, 2024, without the benefit of credit or bond insurance:
| Municipal Securities (at December 31, 2024) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | General Obligations | Revenue Bonds | Total | |||||
| AAA | $ | 761 | $ | 497 | $ | 1,258 | ||
| AA | 567 | 862 | 1,429 | |||||
| A | 0 | 61 | 61 | |||||
| BBB | 0 | 30 | 30 | |||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Total | $ | 1,328 | $ | 1,450 | $ | 2,778 |
Included in revenue bonds were $593 million of single-family housing revenue bonds issued by state housing finance agencies, of which $305 million were supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies and $288 million were supported by mortgage-backed securities.
Of the revenue bonds supported by individual mortgages held by state housing finance agencies, the overall credit quality rating was AA+. Most of these mortgages were supported by the FHA, VA, or private mortgage insurance providers. Of the revenue bonds supported by mortgage-backed securities, 80% were collateralized by Ginnie Mae mortgages, which are fully guaranteed by the U.S. government, and the remaining 20% were collateralized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.
Although credit spreads of tax-exempt municipal bonds widened during 2024, we still viewed most of the market as relatively unattractive. Credit spreads for taxable municipal bonds tightened during 2024. We selectively added to the municipal portfolio during 2024, with a focus on high-quality securities with shorter maturities, which we viewed as having more favorable risk/reward profiles.
App.-A-73
CORPORATE AND OTHER DEBT SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our corporate and other debt securities at December 31, 2024:
| Corporate and Other Debt Securities (at December 31, 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | Consumer | Industrial | Communication | Financial Services | Technology | Basic Materials | Energy | Total | ||||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 122 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 40 | $ | 162 | ||||||||
| AA | 92 | 0 | 0 | 568 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 703 | ||||||||||||||||
| A | 643 | 345 | 62 | 2,134 | 59 | 106 | 442 | 3,791 | ||||||||||||||||
| BBB | 3,344 | 1,523 | 384 | 1,508 | 949 | 69 | 1,200 | 8,977 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 88 | 47 | 56 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 205 | ||||||||||||||||
| B | 103 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 111 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 4,270 | $ | 1,915 | $ | 502 | $ | 4,334 | $ | 1,019 | $ | 183 | $ | 1,731 | $ | 13,954 |
The size of our corporate and other debt portfolio increased over the year to $14.0 billion at December 31, 2024, from $11.4 billion at December 31, 2023. At both December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, corporate and other debt securities made up approximately 18% of our fixed-income portfolio.
The duration of the corporate and other debt portfolio decreased slightly to 2.6 years at December 31, 2024, from 2.7 years at December 31, 2023, as we continued to focus on shorter-maturity investment-grade securities, which we viewed as having more favorable risk/reward profiles.
NONREDEEMABLE PREFERRED STOCKS
The table below shows the exposure break-down for our nonredeemable preferred stocks by sector and rating at year end:
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks (at December 31, 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Services | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (millions) Average Rating | U.S. Banks | Foreign Banks | Insurance | Other Financial | Industrials | Utilities | Total | |||||||||||||
| BBB | $ | 462 | $ | 14 | $ | 63 | $ | 30 | $ | 0 | $ | 38 | $ | 607 | ||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 64 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68 | |||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 23 | 14 | 16 | 0 | 53 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 526 | $ | 18 | $ | 86 | $ | 44 | $ | 16 | $ | 38 | $ | 728 |
The majority of our nonredeemable preferred securities have fixed-rate dividends until a call date and then, if not called, generally convert to floating-rate dividends. The interest rate duration is calculated to reflect the call, floor, and floating-rate features. Although a nonredeemable preferred stock will remain outstanding if not called, its interest rate duration will reflect the variable nature of the dividend. At year-end 2024, our non-investment-grade nonredeemable preferred stocks were with issuers that maintain investment-grade senior debt ratings.
We also face the risk that dividend payments could be deferred for one or more periods or skipped entirely. As of December 31, 2024, we expect all of these
securities to pay their dividends in full and on time. Approximately 97% of our nonredeemable preferred stocks pay dividends that have tax preferential characteristics, while the balance pay dividends that are fully taxable.
At December 31, 2024, our nonredeemable preferred stock portfolio fair value was $0.7 billion, which is a decrease from $0.9 billion at December 31, 2023. This decline was primarily due to nonredeemable preferred stocks that were called or sold because they had less attractive risk/reward profiles.
App.-A-74
Common Equities
Common equities, as reported on our consolidated balance sheets at December 31, were comprised of the following:
| ($ in millions) | 2024 | 2023 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common stocks | $ | 3,550 | 99.3 | % | $ | 2,908 | 99.3 | % | |||
| Other risk investments1 | 25 | 0.7 | 21 | 0.7 | |||||||
| Total common equities | $ | 3,575 | 100.0 | % | $ | 2,929 | 100.0 | % |
1The other risk investments consist of limited partnership interests.
The majority of our common stock portfolio consists of individual holdings selected based on their contribution to the correlation with the Russell 1000 Index. We held 772 out of 1,007, or 77%, of the common stocks comprising the index at December 31, 2024, which made up 95% of the total market capitalization of the index. At December 31,
2024, the full year GAAP income total return did not meet our targeted tracking error of +/- 50 basis points. We expect to be within our targeted tracking error over the longer term. At December 31, 2023, the full year GAAP income total return was within our targeted tracking error.
The following is a summary of our indexed common stock portfolio holdings by sector compared to the Russell 1000 Index composition:
| Sector | Equity Portfolio Allocation at December 31, 2024 | Russell 1000 Allocation at December 31, 2024 | Russell 1000 Sector Return in 2024 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer discretionary | 15.0 | % | 16.4 | % | 30.3 | % |
| Consumer staples | 3.8 | 4.0 | 5.7 | |||
| Financial services | 11.3 | 10.7 | 31.8 | |||
| Health care | 9.9 | 9.5 | 3.5 | |||
| Materials and processing | 1.6 | 1.5 | (3.7) | |||
| Other energy | 3.7 | 3.3 | 6.6 | |||
| Producer durable | 12.1 | 12.2 | 18.3 | |||
| Real estate | 2.3 | 2.3 | 5.1 | |||
| Technology | 35.9 | 35.4 | 38.2 | |||
| Telecommunications | 1.9 | 2.3 | 22.2 | |||
| Utilities | 2.5 | 2.4 | 23.7 | |||
| Total common stocks | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 24.5 | % |
For 2024, our common stock portfolio FTE total return was 22.9%, compared to 24.5% for the Russell 1000 Index, due to common stocks we hold outside of the index.
V. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Progressive is required to make certain estimates and assumptions when preparing its financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with GAAP. Actual results could differ from those estimates in a variety of areas. The two areas we view as most critical with respect to the application of estimates and assumptions is the establishment of our loss reserves and the methods for measuring expected credit losses on financial instruments.
A. Loss and LAE Reserves
Loss and LAE reserves represent our best estimate of our ultimate liability for losses and LAE relating to events that occurred prior to the end of any given accounting period but have not yet been paid. At December 31, 2024, we had $34.6 billion of net loss and LAE reserves (net of reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses), which included $26.4 billion of case reserves and $8.2 billion of IBNR
reserves. The following discussion focuses on our personal auto liability and commercial auto liability, including TNC, reserves since these businesses represent approximately 91% of our total carried net reserves.
We do not review our loss reserves on a macro level and, therefore, do not derive a companywide range of reserves to compare to a standard deviation. Instead, we review a large majority of our reserves by product/state subset combinations on a quarterly time frame, with the remaining reserves generally reviewed on a semiannual basis. A change in our scheduled reviews of a particular subset of the business depends on the size of the subset or emerging issues relating to the product or state. By reviewing the reserves at such a detailed level, we have the ability to identify and measure variances in the trends by state, product, and line coverage that otherwise would not be
App.-A-75
seen on a consolidated basis. We believe our comprehensive process of reviewing at a subset level provides us more meaningful estimates of our aggregate loss reserves.
In analyzing the ultimate accident year loss and LAE experience, our actuarial staff reviews in detail, at the subset level, frequency (number of losses per exposure), severity (dollars of loss per each claim), and average premium (dollars of premium per earned car year), as well as the frequency and severity of our LAE costs. The loss ratio, a primary measure of loss experience, is equal to the product of frequency times severity divided by the average premium. The average premium for personal and commercial auto businesses is not estimated. The actual frequency experienced will vary depending on the change in the mix in class of drivers we insure, but the IBNR frequency projections for these lines of business are generally stable in the short term, because a large majority of the parties involved in an accident report their claims within a short time period after the occurrence. The severity experienced by Progressive is much more difficult to estimate, especially for injury claims, since severity is affected by changes in underlying costs, such as medical costs, jury verdicts, judicial interpretations, and regulatory changes. In addition, severity will vary relative to the change in our mix of business by limit.
Assumptions regarding needed reserve levels made by the actuarial staff take into consideration influences on available historical data that reduce the predictive nature of
our projected future loss costs. Internal considerations that are process-related, which generally result from changes in our claims organization’s activities, include claim closure rates, the number of claims that are closed without payment, and the level of the claims representatives’ estimates of the needed case reserve for each claim. These changes and their effect on the historical data are studied at the state level versus on a larger, less indicative, countrywide basis.
External items considered include the litigation atmosphere, changes in medical costs, and the availability of services to resolve claims. These also are better understood at the state level versus at a more macro, countrywide level. These items, as well as additional considerations such as the type of accident and change in reporting patterns, are closely monitored.
At December 31, 2024, we had $39.1 billion of carried gross reserves and $34.6 billion of net reserves. Our net reserve balance assumes that the loss and LAE severity for accident year 2024 over accident year 2023 would be 8.8% higher for personal auto liability and 1.7% higher for commercial auto liability. As discussed above, the severity estimates are influenced by many variables that are difficult to precisely quantify and which influence the final amount of claims settlements. That, coupled with changes in internal claims practices, the legal environment, and state regulatory requirements, requires significant judgment in the estimate of the needed reserves to be carried.
The following table highlights what the effect would be to our carried loss and LAE reserves, on a net basis, as of December 31, 2024, if during 2025 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the 2024 accident year (i.e., claims that occurred in 2024):
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Year 2024 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 20,105 | $ | 20,573 | $ | 21,041 | $ | 21,509 | $ | 21,977 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 10,306 | 10,424 | 10,542 | 10,660 | 10,778 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 33,398 | $ | 33,984 | $ | 34,570 | $ | 35,156 | $ | 35,742 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2024 accident year would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $234 million and our commercial auto liability reserves by $59 million.
App.-A-76
Our 2024 year-end loss and LAE reserve balance also includes claims from prior years. Claims that occurred in 2024, 2023, and 2022, in the aggregate, accounted for approximately 93% of our reserve balance. If during 2025 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the total of the prior three accident years (i.e., 2024, 2023, and 2022), the effect to our year-end 2024 reserve balances would be as follows:
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Years 2024, 2023, and 2022 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 18,649 | $ | 19,845 | $ | 21,041 | $ | 22,237 | $ | 23,433 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 9,874 | 10,208 | 10,542 | 10,876 | 11,210 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | 2,987 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 31,510 | $ | 33,040 | $ | 34,570 | $ | 36,100 | $ | 37,630 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2024, 2023, and 2022 accident years would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $598 million and our commercial auto liability reserves by $167 million.
Our best estimate of the appropriate amount for our reserves as of year-end 2024 is included in our financial statements for the year. Our goal is to ensure that total reserves are adequate to cover all loss costs, while sustaining minimal variation from the time reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. At the point in time when reserves are set, we have no way of knowing whether our reserve estimates will prove to be high or low, or whether one of the alternative scenarios discussed above is reasonably likely to occur. The above tables show the potential favorable or unfavorable development we will realize if our estimates miss by 2% or 4%.
B. Credit Losses on Financial Instruments
An allowance for credit losses is established when the ultimate realization of a financial instrument is determined to be impaired due to a credit event. Measurement of expected credit losses is based on judgment when considering relevant information about past events, including historical loss experience, current conditions, and forecasts of the collectability of the reported financial instrument. The allowance for expected credit losses is measured and recorded at the point ultimate recoverability of the financial instrument is expected to be impaired, including upon the initial recognition of the financial instrument, where warranted. We evaluate financial instrument credit losses related to our available-for-sale securities, reinsurance recoverables, and premiums receivables. Due to the complex nature in evaluating credit loss for our available-for-sale financial instruments, we view the estimates and assumptions used in our analysis as critical.
We routinely monitor our fixed-maturity portfolio for pricing changes that might indicate potential losses exist and perform detailed reviews of securities with unrealized losses to determine if an allowance for credit losses, a change to an existing allowance (recovery or additional loss), or a write-off for an amount deemed uncollectible needs to be recorded. In such cases, changes in fair value are evaluated to determine the extent to which such changes are attributable to: (i) credit-related losses, which are specific to the issuer (e.g., financial conditions, business prospects) where the present value of cash flows expected to be collected is lower than the amortized cost basis of the security, or (ii) market related factors, such as interest rates or credit spreads.
If we do not expect to hold the security to allow for a potential recovery of those expected losses, we will write down the security to fair value and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement.
For securities whose losses are credit-related losses, and for which we do not intend to sell in the near term, we will review the non-market components to determine if a potential future credit loss exists, based on available financial data related to the fixed-maturity securities. If we project that a credit loss exists, we will record an allowance for the credit loss and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement. For all securities for which an allowance for credit losses has been established, we will re-evaluate the securities, at least quarterly, to determine if further deterioration has occurred or if we project a subsequent recovery in the expected losses, which would require an adjustment to the allowance for credit losses. To the extent we determine that we will likely sell a security prior to recovery of the credit loss, or if the loss is deemed uncollectible, we will write down the security to its fair value and reverse any credit loss allowance that may have been previously recorded.
For an unrealized loss that is determined to be related to current market conditions, we will not record an allowance for credit losses or a write down to fair value. We will continue to monitor these securities to determine if underlying factors other than the current market conditions are contributing to the loss in value.
Based on an analysis of our fixed-maturity portfolio, we have determined our allowance for credit losses related to available-for-sale securities was not material to our financial condition or results of operations for the periods ending December 31, 2024 and 2023.
App.-A-77
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this report not based upon historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often use words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “goal,” “target,” “anticipate,” “will,” “could,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” and other words and terms of similar meaning, or are tied to future periods, in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on current expectations and projections about future events, and are subject to certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainties related to:
•our ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and to charge adequate rates to policyholders;
•our ability to establish accurate loss reserves;
•the impact of severe weather, other catastrophe events, and climate change;
•the effectiveness of our reinsurance programs and the continued availability of reinsurance and performance by reinsurers;
•the secure and uninterrupted operation of the systems, facilities, and business functions and the operation of various third-party systems that are critical to our business;
•the impacts of a security breach or other attack involving our technology systems or the systems of one or more of our vendors;
•our ability to maintain a recognized and trusted brand and reputation;
•whether we innovate effectively and respond to our competitors’ initiatives;
•whether we effectively manage complexity as we develop and deliver products and customer experiences;
•the highly competitive nature of property-casualty insurance markets;
•whether we adjust claims accurately;
•compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
•the impact of misconduct or fraudulent acts by employees, agents, and third parties to our business and/or exposure to regulatory assessments;
•our ability to attract, develop, and retain talent and maintain appropriate staffing levels;
•litigation challenging our business practices, and those of our competitors and other companies;
•the success of our business strategy and efforts to acquire or develop new products or enter into new areas of business and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•how intellectual property rights affect our competitiveness and our business operations;
•the success of our development and use of new technology and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•the performance of our fixed-income and equity investment portfolios;
•the impact on our investment returns and strategies from regulations and societal pressures relating to environmental, social, governance and other public policy matters;
•our continued ability to access our cash accounts and/or convert investments into cash on favorable terms;
•the impact if one or more parties with which we enter into significant contracts or transact business fail to perform;
•legal restrictions on our insurance subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to The Progressive Corporation;
•our ability to obtain capital when necessary to support our business, our financial condition, and potential growth;
•evaluations and ratings by credit rating and other rating agencies;
•the variable nature of our common share dividend policy;
•whether our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects generate the anticipated returns;
•the impact from not managing to short-term earnings expectations in light of our goal to maximize the long-term value of the enterprise;
•the impacts of epidemics, pandemics, or other widespread health risks; and
•other matters described from time to time in our releases and publications, and in our periodic reports and other documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2024.
Any forward-looking statements are made only as of the date presented. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.
In addition, investors should be aware that accounting principles generally accepted in the United States prescribe when a company may reserve for particular risks, including litigation exposures. Accordingly, results for a given reporting period could be significantly affected if and when we establish reserves for one or more contingencies. Also, our regular reserve reviews may result in adjustments of varying magnitude as additional information regarding claims activity becomes known. Reported results, therefore, may be volatile in certain accounting periods.
App.-A-78
FY 2023 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000080661-24-000007.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) is intended to help the reader understand our financial condition and results of operations. MD&A should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and supplemental information.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive insurance organization has been offering insurance to consumers since 1937. The Progressive Corporation is a holding company that does not have any revenue producing operations, physical property, or employees of its own. The Progressive Corporation, together with its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries and affiliates, comprise what we refer to as Progressive.
We report three operating segments. Our Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (referred to as our special lines products). Our Commercial Lines segment writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, business-related general liability and property insurance predominantly for small businesses, and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry. Our Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters. We operate throughout the United States through both the independent agency and direct distribution channels. We are the second largest private passenger auto insurer in the country, the number one writer of commercial auto insurance, and the 10th largest homeowners insurance carrier, in each case based on 2022 premiums written.
Our underwriting operations, combined with our service and investment operations, make up the consolidated group.
A. Operating Results
During 2023, Progressive reported strong growth in both premiums written and policies in force, compared to 2022, and generated an underwriting profit better than our 4% companywide calendar-year underwriting profit goal.
During 2023, net premiums written and earned increased 20% and 19%, respectively, over 2022, and policies in force increased 9% companywide. We were able to generate this growth despite the actions we took during the year to slow growth as part of our efforts to ensure we met our profitability target, indicating that we remained competitive in the marketplace. We surpassed $60 billion in net premiums written to end 2023 at $61.6 billion, which was $10.5 billion more than we generated during 2022, which is roughly about the size of the 8th largest U.S. private passenger auto insurer. Companywide policies in force increased 2.3 million, over year-end 2022, to end 2023 at 29.7 million.
For 2023, our underwriting profit margin was 5.1%, which was better than our companywide target profit margin of 4% and better than the 4.2% underwriting margin we earned in 2022. Exceeding our underwriting profit target was a tremendous accomplishment especially since we reported a 99.7 combined ratio for the first six months of 2023.
Our incurred catastrophe losses were fairly consistent on a year-over-year basis. During 2023, we experienced companywide unfavorable prior accident year reserve development of 1.9 points, compared to 0.2 points of favorable development for 2022. About two-thirds of the unfavorable development for the year was in our Personal Lines business with the remainder primarily in our Commercial Lines business. Higher than anticipated personal auto severity and increased loss costs in Florida were the primary drivers for the Personal Lines development during the year, while Commercial Lines injury claims experienced higher than anticipated severity and frequency of late reports and large loss emergence. Throughout the year, we continued to see volatility in our severity trends as inflation continued to increase the average cost to settle a claim over last year, while personal auto frequency trends continued to be favorable.
In response to the loss trends we were experiencing and to focus on achieving our target profitability margin for 2023, all of our operating segments took rate and non-rate actions, as discussed below. We also reduced advertising spend and took other measures to slow growth until we felt that we were able to grow profitably and continue to provide high-quality customer service.
On a year-over-year basis, net income and comprehensive income increased 441% and 340%, respectively, primarily due to significant valuation increases in both our equity and fixed-maturity security portfolios during 2023, compared to the prior year. During 2023, the value of our equity and hybrid securities increased, reflecting general market conditions, which resulted in a year-over-year increase in the value of these securities of $1.9 billion, after tax. We saw even greater valuation changes in our fixed-maturity securities on a year-over-year basis. The fair value of our fixed-maturity securities increased $1.2 billion during 2023, compared to valuation declines of $2.8 billion during 2022. The strong portfolio performance for 2023, compared to 2022, was primarily due to tightening credit spreads.
App.-A-50
In addition to greater underwriting profit and the increase in the valuation in both our equity and fixed-maturity securities, the increase in our net and comprehensive income also benefited from the 50% increase in our recurring investment income during 2023. The investment income increase primarily reflected increases in both interest rates on floating-rate securities in our portfolio and in average assets, resulting from premium growth, as well as from investing new cash and cash from maturities in higher interest rate securities given the interest rate environment. For 2023, our pretax recurring book yield was 3.1%, compared to 2.4% in 2022.
We ended 2023 with total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $27.2 billion, which was up $4.9 billion from year-end 2022, primarily due to the $5.1 billion of comprehensive income earned during the year. Due to our strong capital position, the Board of Directors declared a $0.75 per common share annual-variable dividend, which was in addition to the quarterly $0.10 per common share dividend, and we elected to redeem all of our outstanding Serial Preferred Shares, Series B, in February 2024, as discussed in further detail below under Financial Condition.
B. Insurance Operations
All three of our operating segments grew net premiums written and policies in force during 2023 and generated an underwriting profit for the year. During the year, our primary focus was profitability over growth. We took rate and non-rate actions, which, in turn, had the effect of slowing our new business growth during the year. Even though we took these actions to focus on profitability, our year-over-year net premiums written grew 24% in Personal Lines, 8% in Commercial Lines, and 18% in Property, which contributed to our companywide net premiums written growth of 20%. We also added 2.3 million policies in force companywide in 2023, with Personal Lines adding 2.0 million and Commercial Lines and Property adding 0.1 million and 0.2 million, respectively. We ended the year with companywide profitability of 5.1%, which was better than our target of 4%, with Personal Lines reporting 6.2%, Commercial Lines 1.2%, and Property 1.1%.
Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), premium per policy, and retention.
The Personal Lines growth in net premiums written and policies in force was generated from both our Agency and Direct distribution channels. On a year-over-year basis, for 2023, Personal Lines new applications grew 14%, with both Agency and Direct personal auto new applications up 15% on a year-over-year basis. Finishing the year with this application growth was a significant change from the first half of 2023. Through the first six months of 2023, Personal Lines new applications were up 49%, with Agency and Direct personal auto applications both up 60%, when compared to the same period in the prior year. During the latter half of the year, new applications
decreased as we continued to take rate increases and non-rate actions to slow new business growth to help reach our profitability target by year end, as discussed in more detail below.
The increase in net premiums written in our Commercial Lines business reflected growth in all of our business market targets (BMT), except the for-hire transportation BMT. The largest growth was in our contractor and business auto BMTs. The Commercial Lines growth was also aided, to a lesser extent, by an increase in our transportation network company (TNC) business, due to increased rates to address profitability issues in the TNC business, an increase in the miles driven (which is the basis for determining premiums written for this business), and changes that were made in 2022 to the reinsurance program structure of certain TNC products whereby we wrote less direct premiums and, therefore, ceded less premiums than in prior year.
Our commercial auto product, excluding our TNC business and Protective Insurance Corporation and subsidiaries (Protective Insurance) products, new applications increased 4% for 2023, compared to the prior year, mainly driven by increased demand in the contractor and business auto BMTs, partially offset by a decrease in our for-hire transportation BMT, due to unfavorable trucking market conditions. When analyzing growth in certain metrics for our Commercial Lines business, we focus on the commercial auto BMT products since our TNC, Protective Insurance, and business owners’ policy (BOP) products represented less than 5% of our policies in force at year-end 2023.
The Property business net premiums written growth was primarily due to rate increases and new and renewal policy in force growth in 2023. Our Property business new applications increased 15% for the year. During 2023, we focused our efforts to grow in states that traditionally have less catastrophe exposure and limited growth in coastal and hail-prone states to reduce concentration mix among states. Compared to year-end 2022, new applications in the states where we are focused on growth were up about 45% and were down about 20% in the more volatile weather states. We currently plan to continue this approach to growth in 2024.
In our Property business, in regions where our appetite to write new business is limited, we are prioritizing Progressive auto bundles, as well as lower risk properties, such as new construction or homes with newer roofs. In addition, to continue to rebalance this business, we began a non-renewal effort of up to 115,000 Property policies in Florida. Following the required notices, the first of these non-renewals will go into effect in the second quarter of 2024 and will continue over the following 12 months. To try to ease disruption to our customers and agents, we reached an agreement with another unaffiliated Florida insurer to offer replacement policies to these policyholders, subject to the insurer’s underwriting and financial
App.-A-51
guidelines and agent appointments where applicable. Despite this non-renewal effort, we plan to continue to provide for the insurance needs of about 3 million Florida policyholders across all of our lines of business, including about 200,000 Florida homeowners.
While growth is important, we strongly believe that achieving target profitability is our most important objective and will take precedence over growth. Our Personal Lines business ended the year with an underwriting profit margin of 6.2%, which was 2.2% better than both our target profitability and the prior-year underwriting profit margin. To achieve these results, we increased personal auto rates in 48 states during 2023, with an aggregate increase of about 19%, which followed the personal auto rate increases we took during 2022 of about 13%. We will continue to monitor the factors that could impact our loss costs for our personal auto business, which can include new and used car prices, miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, inflation, and other components, on a state-by-state basis, and will file for rate adjustments where we deem it necessary.
We believe a key element in improving the accuracy of our personal auto rating is Snapshot®, our usage-based insurance offering. During 2023, the adoption rates for consumers enrolling in the program increased about 20% in Agency auto and about 5% in Direct auto, compared to 2022. Snapshot is available in all states, other than California. Our latest segmentation model was available in states that represented about 50% of our countrywide personal auto premium at year-end 2023 and, through continued roll out, it was available in states representing about 70% of personal auto premium by the end of February 2024.
In addition to rate actions, we routinely monitor non-rate actions, including our advertising spend. During 2023, we maintained discipline in our media budget and reduced targeted media spend in certain types of advertising, based on performance against our media and underwriting targets. Our total advertising spend was 21% lower in 2023, compared to the prior year. Toward the end of 2023 and into 2024, we began to slowly increase certain types of advertising in select markets.
During the year, we also implemented measures to support the goal of achieving our target profit margin that included slowing new business growth through verification activities, bill plan offerings, and through ongoing general operational expense discipline. We began to slowly lift these underwriting restrictions in certain states in the last few months of 2023. As a result of the actions taken during the year, we believe that we are well positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities in 2024. Nevertheless, consistent with rate actions, management will continue to assess where additional non-rate actions, including adjusting underwriting criteria, bill plans, or advertising spend, may be needed.
While our Commercial Lines business generated an underwriting profit of 1.2% for 2023, it was 7.7 points lower than last year and short of our target profitability goal. The uncertainty in the economy and business environment made 2023 a particularly challenging year for our Commercial Lines business. During the year, we experienced persistent upward pressure on our expense structure, from rising costs to settle claims and, to a lesser extent, our operating expenses. We increased our aggregate commercial auto rates, excluding our TNC and Protective Insurance businesses, about 17% countrywide, following rate increases of about 6% in 2022. In addition, we lowered our expenses and increased our underwriting actions to supplement rate increases during 2023. Since approximately 90% of our Commercial Lines policies are written on an annual term, it will take time for the full effect of those rate and underwriting changes to be realized in our results.
Improving profitability continues to be our top priority for our Property business. For 2023, our Property business generated an underwriting profit of 1.1%, compared to an underwriting loss of 10.5% in the prior year. While our Property catastrophe losses were fairly consistent year over year, our non-catastrophe loss ratio was about 12 points lower in 2023, compared to 2022.
Due to our concentration of policies in catastrophe-exposed states, severe weather events generally have greater impact on our results, compared to other national carriers. In response, we began implementing underwriting changes during the second half of 2021, which continued during both 2022 and 2023, to focus on improving profitability in the Property business, as discussed above. In addition, we increased rates an average of about 16% in our Property segment during 2023, with some of the larger increases in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana and in hail-prone states, such as Minnesota, Arkansas, Colorado, and Missouri. About one-third of these rate increases occurred in the fourth quarter of 2023.
During 2023, our written premiums per policy increased in all of our operating segments, primarily due to the rate increases taken during the year, as discussed above. On a year-over-year basis, personal auto written premium per policy increased 12% and 10% in our Agency and Direct businesses, respectively, compared to the prior year. In our core commercial auto products, we experienced a 3% increase in written premium per policy in 2023, compared to 2022, reflecting rate increases being offset by a reduction in our for-hire transportation BMT, which has higher premiums per policy. The 10% increase in our Property business written premium per policy is substantially less than the rate increases discussed above primarily as a result of taking a portion of the increases later in the year and slower homeowners growth in volatile states that have higher average premiums.
App.-A-52
We realize that to grow policies in force, it is critical that we retain our customers for longer periods. Consequently, increasing retention continues to be one of our most important priorities. A key initiative to lengthening our retention is to increase our share of multi-product households. We will continue to make investments to improve the customer experience in order to support that goal.
Policy life expectancy, which is our actuarial estimate of the average length of time that a policy will remain in force before cancellation or lapse in coverage, is our primary measure of customer retention in our Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property businesses.
We evaluate personal auto retention using a trailing 12-month and a trailing 3-month policy life expectancy. The latter can reflect more volatility and is more sensitive to seasonality. Our trailing 12-month total personal auto policy life expectancy was up 24% year over year, with Agency up 29% and Direct up 19%. We saw improvement in our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy on a month-over-prior month basis throughout the second half of 2023. On a trailing 3-month basis, our personal auto policy life expectancy was up 14% year over year, which is a significant improvement from the 9% decrease in policy life expectancy we reported for 2022. We believe that the improved retention on a trailing 3-month basis reflects our continued competitiveness in the marketplace despite our rate increases.
Our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy increased 5% and 15% for special lines and Property, respectively, and decreased 12% for Commercial Lines. While the decrease in the Commercial Lines policy life expectancy was across all BMTs, the for-hire transportation BMT saw the largest year-over-year decrease in retention. Commercial auto retention is being negatively impacted by our rate and
underwriting actions and unfavorable trucking market
conditions, which we believe are driving increased shopping and causing motor carriers to exit the industry.
C. Investments
The fair value of our investment portfolio was $66.0 billion at December 31, 2023, compared to $53.5 billion at December 31, 2022. The increase in value from year-end 2022, primarily reflected cash flows from operations and increases in the valuations of our portfolio during the year.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities (the securities allocated to Group I and II are defined below under Results of Operations – Investments). At December 31, 2023, 7% of our portfolio was allocated to Group I securities and 93% to Group II securities, compared to 10% and 90%, respectively, at December 31, 2022. The decrease in our allocation to Group I securities, which are the riskier securities in our portfolio, reflects our intent to maintain a more conservative posture in our investment portfolio that includes a greater allocation to U.S. Treasuries.
Our recurring investment income generated a pretax book yield of 3.1% for 2023, compared to 2.4% for 2022, due to the increase in interest rates on the floating-rate securities in our portfolio and the investment of cash and maturities at relatively higher interest rates. Our investment portfolio produced a fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return of 6.3% for 2023 and of (7.8)% for 2022. Our fixed-income and common stock portfolios had FTE total returns of 5.4% and 26.7%, respectively, for 2023, compared to (6.6)% and (19.4)%, for 2022. The increase in the fixed-income portfolio total return, compared to last year, reflected valuation increases across all sectors due to lower interest rates and tighter credit spreads. The increase in the common stock portfolio return reflected general market conditions in 2023.
At December 31, 2023, the fixed-income portfolio had a weighted average credit quality of AA- and a duration of 3.0 years, compared to AA and 2.9 years at December 31, 2022. Our decrease in weighted average credit quality since December 31, 2022, was mainly due to a second major credit rating agency downgrading U.S. Treasury debt to AA+ from AAA, which led us to lower our U.S. Treasury positions to AA+. Our duration was raised from last year to take advantage of the higher yields in the market.
App.-A-53
II. FINANCIAL CONDITION
A. Liquidity and Capital Resources
The Progressive Corporation receives cash through subsidiary dividends, capital raising, and other transactions, and uses these funds to contribute to its subsidiaries (e.g., to support growth), to make payments to shareholders and debt holders (e.g., dividends and interest, respectively), to repurchase its common shares, and to redeem or pay off debt, as well as for acquisitions and other business purposes that may arise.
During 2023, The Progressive Corporation received cash from the following sources:
•Debt issuance - issued $500 million of 4.95% Senior Notes due 2033 in an underwritten public offering.
•Dividends from subsidiaries - received $400.9 million from its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
The Progressive Corporation deployed capital through the following actions in 2023:
•Dividends
◦Common shares - declared aggregate dividends of $1.15 per common share, or $673.4 million.
◦Preferred shares - declared aggregate Series B Preferred dividends of $30.2 million.
•Common Share Repurchases - acquired 1.0 million of our common shares at a total cost of $140.7 million either in the open market or to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of equity awards under our employee equity compensation plan. Pursuant to our financial policies, we repurchase common shares to neutralize dilution from equity-based compensation granted during the year and opportunistically when we believe our shares are trading below our determination of long-term fair value.
•Capital Contributions - contributed a net $621.5 million to its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
Over the last three years, The Progressive Corporation received dividends from its subsidiaries, net of capital contributions, of $2.0 billion, and issued $2.0 billion, in the aggregate, of senior notes.
The covenants on The Progressive Corporation’s existing debt securities do not include any rating or credit triggers that would require an adjustment of the interest rate or an acceleration of principal payments in the event that our debt securities are downgraded by a rating agency. While we had an unsecured discretionary line of credit available to us during each of the last three years in the amount of $300 million, currently, and $250 million for the prior periods, we did not borrow under this arrangement, or engage in other short-term borrowings, to fund our operations or for liquidity purposes.
In the aggregate for the last three years, we made the following payments:
•$4.2 billion for common share dividends and $0.1 billion for preferred share dividends;
•$0.7 billion for interest on our outstanding debt;
•$0.5 billion for the maturity of debt;
•$0.5 billion to repurchase our common shares; and
•$0.3 billion related to acquisitions.
Beginning March 15, 2023, the annual dividend rate for the Series B Preferred Shares switched to a floating rate equal to the three-month LIBOR plus a spread of 2.539% applied to the stated amount per share. During the floating rate period, dividends on the Series B Preferred Shares are payable quarterly, if and when declared by the Board of Directors.
We, as calculation agent under our Series B Preferred Shares, determined that the reference rate for the Series B Preferred Shares, for any determination date after June 30, 2023, would be the sum of (i) 3-Month CME Term SOFR plus (ii) a tenor spread adjustment of 0.26161%, and (iii) a spread of 2.539%. The new reference rate became effective for the dividend period determination date commencing September 15, 2023. The reference rate was determined in accordance with the successor base rate provisions of the Series B Preferred Shares and the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act and the regulation issued by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on December 16, 2022, implementing the LIBOR Act.
Pursuant to authorization from our Board of Directors, we redeemed all of the outstanding Series B Preferred Shares at the stated amount of $1,000 per share for an aggregate payout of $507.8 million, including accrued and unpaid dividends to, but excluding, February 22, 2024, which was the redemption date.
Progressive’s insurance operations create liquidity by collecting and investing premiums from new and renewal business in advance of paying claims, as well as from our objective for our insurance subsidiaries to produce an aggregate calendar-year underwriting profit of at least 4%. As primarily an auto insurer, our claims liabilities generally have a short-term duration. At December 31, 2023, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves were $34.4 billion. Typically, at any point in time, approximately 50% of our outstanding loss and LAE reserves are paid within the following twelve months and less than 20% are still outstanding after three years. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for further information on the timing of claims payments.
For the three years ended December 31, 2023, operations generated positive cash flows of $25.3 billion. In 2023, operating cash flows increased $3.8 billion, compared to 2022. The increase in operating cash flow, compared to the prior year, is primarily attributable to collecting more premiums in 2023 relative to paying losses. The increase in premiums collected were mostly driven by rate increases and volume growth. While loss payments also increased
App.-A-54
during 2023, primarily due to higher loss severity trends, the increase in loss payments was not as substantial as the increase in premiums. We believe cash flows will remain positive in the reasonably foreseeable future and do not expect we will have a need to raise capital to support our operations in that timeframe, although changes in market or regulatory conditions affecting the insurance industry, or other unforeseen events, may necessitate otherwise.
As of December 31, 2023, we held $38.7 billion in short-term investments and U.S. Treasury securities, which represented 58.6% of our total portfolio at year end. Based on our portfolio allocation and investment strategies, we believe that we have sufficient readily available marketable securities to cover our claims payments and short-term obligations in the event our cash flow from operations were to be negative. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2023 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of certain matters that may affect our portfolio and capital position.
Insurance companies are required to satisfy regulatory surplus and premiums-to-surplus ratio requirements. As of December 31, 2023, our consolidated statutory surplus was $22.2 billion, compared to $17.9 billion at December 31, 2022. Our net premiums written-to-surplus ratio was 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2023, 2.9 to 1 at year-end 2022, and 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2021. At year-end 2023, we also had access to $4.2 billion of securities held in a non-insurance subsidiary, portions of which could be contributed to the capital of our insurance subsidiaries to support growth or for other purposes.
Insurance companies are also required to satisfy risk-based capital ratios. These ratios are determined by a series of dynamic surplus-related calculations required by the laws of various states that contain a variety of factors that are applied to financial balances based on the degree of certain risks (e.g., asset, credit, and underwriting). Our insurance subsidiaries’ risk-based capital ratios were in excess of applicable minimum regulatory requirements at year-end 2023. Nonetheless, the payment of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are subject to certain limitations. See Note 8 – Statutory Financial Information for additional information on insurance subsidiary dividends.
We seek to deploy our capital in a prudent manner and use multiple data sources and modeling tools to estimate the frequency, severity, and correlation of identified exposures, including, but not limited to, catastrophic and other insured losses, natural disasters, and other significant business interruptions, to estimate our potential capital needs. Management views our capital position as consisting of three layers, each with a specific size and purpose:
•The first layer of capital is the amount of capital we need to satisfy state insurance regulatory requirements and support our objective of writing all the business we can write and service, consistent with our underwriting discipline of achieving a combined ratio of 96 or better. This first layer of capital, which we refer to as
“regulatory capital,” is held by our various insurance entities.
•While our regulatory capital layer is, by definition, a cushion for absorbing financial consequences of adverse events, such as loss reserve development, litigation, weather catastrophes, and investment market changes, we view that as a base and hold a second layer of capital for even more extreme conditions. The modeling used to quantify capital needs for these conditions is extensive, including tens of thousands of simulations, representing our best estimates of such contingencies based on historical experience. This capital is held either at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company or in our insurance entities, where it is potentially eligible for a dividend to the holding company.
•The third layer is capital in excess of the sum of the first two layers and provides maximum flexibility to fund other business opportunities, repurchase stock or other securities, and pay dividends to shareholders, among other purposes. This capital is largely held at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company.
We monitor our total capital position regularly throughout the year to ensure we have adequate capital to support our insurance operations. At December 31, 2023, we held total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $27.2 billion, compared to $22.3 billion at December 31, 2022. Our debt-to-total capital ratios at December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, were 25.4%, 28.7%, and 21.2%, respectively. Giving effect to the redemption of our Serial Preferred Shares, our debt-to-total capital ratio would have been 25.8% at December 31, 2023. Our debt-to-total capital ratios were consistent with our financial policy of maintaining a ratio of less than 30%.
While our financial policies include a goal of maintaining debt below 30% of total capital at book value, we recognize that various factors, including rising interest rates, widening credit spreads, declines in the equity markets, or erosion in operating results, may result in that ratio exceeding 30% at times. In such a situation, as we experienced at the end of a couple of months during 2022, we may choose to remain above 30% for some time, dependent upon market conditions and the capital needs of our operating businesses. We will continue to monitor this ratio, market conditions, and our capital needs going forward.
At December 31, 2023, we had various noncancelable contractual obligations that were outstanding. We had outstanding $7.0 billion principal amount of Senior Notes with maturity dates ranging from 2027 through 2052, with $4.1 billion of future interest payment obligations related to our outstanding debt. The next debt repayment of $1.0 billion, in the aggregate, is due in 2027 upon the maturity of our 2.45% Senior Notes and our 2.50% Senior Notes. See Note 4 – Debt for additional information on our long-term debt.
App.-A-55
At year-end 2023, we also had $1.0 billion of purchase obligations that are noncancelable commitments for goods and services (e.g., software licenses, maintenance on information technology equipment, and media placements). About 75% of our purchase obligations are payable within one year and less than 5% will be outstanding for longer than three years. In addition, our Property business has $291.5 million of minimum commitments under several multiple-layer property catastrophe reinsurance contracts with various reinsurers with terms ranging from one to three years. See Note 1 – Reporting and Accounting Policies, Commitments and Contingencies for a discussion of these obligations. We do not have, and do not expect to enter into, any material commitments for capital expenditures in the reasonably foreseeable future.
Based upon our capital planning and forecasting efforts, we believe we have sufficient capital resources and cash flows
from operations to support our current business, scheduled principal and interest payments on our debt, anticipated quarterly dividends on our common shares, our contractual obligations, and other expected capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, we may decide to raise additional capital to take advantage of attractive terms in the market and provide additional financial flexibility. We currently have an effective shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so that we may periodically offer and sell an indeterminate aggregate amount of senior or subordinated debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, purchase contracts, warrants, and units. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof, subject to market conditions.
III. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – UNDERWRITING
A. Segment Overview
We report our underwriting operations in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. As a component of our Personal Lines segment, we report our Agency and Direct business results to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel.
The following table shows the composition of our companywide net premiums written, by segment, for the years ended December 31:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | ||||||||
| Agency | 36 | % | 36 | % | 37 | % | ||
| Direct | 43 | 41 | 41 | |||||
| Total Personal Lines | 79 | 77 | 78 | |||||
| Commercial Lines | 16 | 18 | 17 | |||||
| Property | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Total underwriting operations | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
Our Personal Lines business writes insurance for personal autos (which accounts for about 94% of the segment’s total net premiums written) and special lines products (e.g., motorcycles, RVs, watercraft, and snowmobiles). Within Personal Lines, we often refer to our four consumer segments:
•Sam - inconsistently insured;
•Diane - consistently insured and maybe a renter;
•Wrights - homeowners who do not bundle auto and home; and
•Robinsons - homeowners who bundle auto and home.
While our personal auto policies are primarily written for 6-month terms, we write 12-month auto policies in our Platinum agencies to promote bundled auto and home growth. At year-end 2023 and 2022, 14% of our Agency auto policies in force were 12-month policies. To the extent our Agency application mix of annual policies grows, the shift in policy term could increase our written premium mix by channel as 12-month policies have about twice the amount of net premiums written compared to 6-month policies. Our special lines products are written for 12-month terms.
Our Commercial Lines business writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, business-related general liability and property insurance predominately for small businesses, and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry. At year-end 2023, we wrote about 90% of our Commercial Lines policies for 12-month terms. The majority of our Commercial Lines business is written through the independent agency channel although we continue to focus on growing our direct business. To serve our direct channel customers, we continue to expand our product offerings, including adding states where we offer BOP, as well as adding these product offerings to our digital platform that serves direct small business consumers (BusinessQuote Explorer®). Our commercial auto business (excluding our TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance products) written through the direct channel represented about 10% of our total commercial auto premiums written for each of the last three years.
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, renters, and umbrella insurance. We write about three-fourths of our Property business through the independent agency channel with the balance written in the direct channel. All of our Property policies are written for 12 months.
App.-A-56
B. Profitability
Profitability for our underwriting operations is defined by pretax underwriting profit or loss, which is calculated as net premiums earned plus fees and other revenues less losses and loss adjustment expenses, policy acquisition costs, and other underwriting expenses. We also use underwriting margin, which is underwriting profit or loss expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned, to analyze our results. For the three years ended December 31, our underwriting profitability results were as follows:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | |||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 1,029.2 | 4.9 | % | $ | 734.1 | 4.1 | % | $ | 992.1 | 5.9 | % | |||||
| Direct | 1,828.2 | 7.3 | 769.4 | 3.8 | 619.2 | 3.4 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 2,857.4 | 6.2 | 1,503.5 | 4.0 | 1,611.3 | 4.6 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 123.0 | 1.2 | 810.3 | 8.9 | 767.8 | 11.1 | |||||||||||
| Property | 28.1 | 1.1 | (238.4) | (10.5) | (312.3) | (15.3) | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | (16.2) | NM | (11.4) | NM | (1.4) | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 2,992.3 | 5.1 | % | $ | 2,064.0 | 4.2 | % | $ | 2,065.4 | 4.7 | % |
1 Underwriting margins for our other indemnity businesses are not meaningful (NM) due to the low level of premiums earned by, and the variability of loss costs in, such businesses.
The improvement in our companywide underwriting profit margin for 2023, compared to 2022, reflects a reduction in our underwriting expenses, predominately due to lower advertising expenses, as well as rate increases. For the last three years, our catastrophe losses had a fairly consistent impact on our companywide underwriting results. During 2023, we recognized 1.9 points of unfavorable prior accident year development, compared to minimal favorable development for the prior two years. We quickly responded to this unfavorable development and other loss trends that we experienced in 2023, by raising rates in all of our segments to focus on achieving our underwriting target profit margin for the year.
App.-A-57
Further underwriting results for our Personal Lines business, including results by distribution channel, the Commercial Lines business, the Property business, and our underwriting operations in total, were as follows:
| Underwriting Performance1 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines – Agency | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 77.0 | 78.1 | 75.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 18.1 | 17.8 | 18.5 | ||
| Combined ratio | 95.1 | 95.9 | 94.1 | ||
| Personal Lines – Direct | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 78.4 | 78.6 | 77.2 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 14.3 | 17.6 | 19.4 | ||
| Combined ratio | 92.7 | 96.2 | 96.6 | ||
| Total Personal Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 77.8 | 78.3 | 76.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 16.0 | 17.7 | 19.0 | ||
| Combined ratio | 93.8 | 96.0 | 95.4 | ||
| Commercial Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 79.0 | 71.5 | 69.3 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.8 | 19.6 | 19.6 | ||
| Combined ratio | 98.8 | 91.1 | 88.9 | ||
| Property | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 69.6 | 83.3 | 86.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 29.3 | 27.2 | 28.9 | ||
| Combined ratio | 98.9 | 110.5 | 115.3 | ||
| Total Underwriting Operations | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 77.6 | 77.3 | 75.7 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 17.3 | 18.5 | 19.6 | ||
| Combined ratio | 94.9 | 95.8 | 95.3 | ||
| Accident year – Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio2 | 75.7 | 77.5 | 75.7 |
1 Ratios are expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. Fees and other revenues are netted against either loss adjustment expenses or underwriting expenses in the ratio calculations, based on the underlying activity that generated the revenue.
2 The accident year ratios include only the losses that occurred during each respective year. As a result, accident period results will change over time, either favorably or unfavorably, as we revise our estimates of loss costs when payments are made or reserves for that accident year are reviewed.
App.-A-58
Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE)
| (millions) | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in net loss and LAE reserves | $ | 4,800.1 | $ | 3,369.6 | $ | 4,233.7 | ||
| Paid losses and LAE | 40,854.5 | 34,753.1 | 29,393.9 | |||||
| Total incurred losses and LAE | $ | 45,654.6 | $ | 38,122.7 | $ | 33,627.6 |
Claims costs, our most significant expense, represent payments made, and estimated future payments to be made, to or on behalf of our policyholders, including expenses needed to adjust or settle claims. Claims costs are a function of loss severity and frequency and, for our vehicle businesses, are influenced by inflation and driving patterns, among other factors, some of which are discussed below. In our Property business, severity is primarily a function of construction costs and the age of the structure. Accordingly, anticipated changes in these factors are taken
into account when we establish premium rates and loss reserves. Loss reserves are estimates of future costs and our reserves are adjusted as underlying assumptions change and information develops. See Critical Accounting Policies – A. Loss and LAE Reserves for a discussion of the effect of changing estimates.
Our total loss and LAE ratio increased 0.3 points in 2023 and 1.6 points in 2022, each compared to the prior year. During 2023, the increase in incurred severity and the unfavorable prior accident years reserve development, both discussed below, was partially offset by higher premiums per policy due to rate increases. Our accident year loss and LAE ratio, which excludes the impact of prior accident year reserve development during each calendar year, decreased 1.8 points in 2023 and increased 1.8 points in 2022, compared to the prior year.
We experienced severe weather conditions in several areas of the country during each of the last three years. Hurricanes, hail storms, tornadoes, and wind activity contributed to catastrophe losses each year. The following table shows our consolidated catastrophe losses and related combined ratio point impact, excluding loss adjustment expenses, for the years ended December 31:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | $ | 1,093.4 | 2.4 pts. | $ | 1,045.6 | 2.8 pts. | $ | 652.0 | 1.8 pts. | ||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 41.2 | 0.4 | 34.4 | 0.4 | 26.7 | 0.4 | |||||||||||
| Property | 659.2 | 25.8 | 580.4 | 25.6 | 633.4 | 31.0 | |||||||||||
| Total catastrophe losses incurred | $ | 1,793.8 | 3.1 | pts. | $ | 1,660.4 | 3.4 | pts. | $ | 1,312.1 | 3.0 | pts. |
1 Represents catastrophe losses incurred during the year, including the impact of reinsurance, as a percentage of net premiums earned for each segment.
During 2023, our catastrophe losses reflected severe weather events throughout the United States, with Texas, Florida, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Minnesota contributing to just over half of the losses. We have responded, and plan to continue to respond, promptly to catastrophic events when they occur in order to provide high-quality claims service to our customers.
Changes in our estimate of our ultimate losses on current catastrophes along with potential future catastrophes could have a material impact on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. We reinsure various risks, including, but not limited to, catastrophic losses. We do not have catastrophe-specific reinsurance for our Personal Lines or commercial auto businesses, but we reinsure portions of our Property business. The Property business reinsurance programs include catastrophe occurrence excess of loss contracts and aggregate excess of loss contracts. We also purchase excess of loss reinsurance on our Protective Insurance workers’ compensation insurance business.
We evaluate our reinsurance programs during the renewal process, if not more frequently, to ensure our programs continue to effectively address the company’s risk tolerance. As a result, during 2023, we entered into new
reinsurance contracts under our occurrence excess of loss program for our Property business. The reinsurance program has retention thresholds for losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) from a single catastrophic event of $200 million, which is unchanged from the retention threshold on prior contracts. As of December 31, 2023, our reinsurance program included coverage, net of retention, of up to $2.0 billion in damages with substantial coverage for a second or third covered event. When including the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and the Reinsurance Assistance to Policyholder programs that are specific to Florida, this coverage reached $2.4 billion.
During 2023, we also entered into new catastrophe aggregate excess of loss reinsurance contracts that have multiple layers of coverage. The first retention layer threshold ranges from $500 million to $575 million, excluding named tropical storms and hurricanes. We exceeded the first layer annual retention threshold by $17.9 million during 2023. The second retention layer threshold is $600 million, and includes named tropical storms and hurricanes. The first and second layers provide coverage up to $100 million and $85 million, respectively.
App.-A-59
For 2024, we entered into a new catastrophe aggregate excess of loss reinsurance contract that has multiple layers of coverage, with the first retention layer threshold ranging from $450 million to $475 million, excluding named tropical storms and hurricanes, and the second retention layer threshold of $525 million, including named tropical storms and hurricanes. The first and second layers provide coverage up to $85 million and $100 million, respectively.
While the total coverage limit and per-event retention will evolve to fit the growth of our business, we expect to remain a consistent purchaser of reinsurance coverage. We were able to place our desired coverage at both June 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, renewal events. While the cost of reinsurance in the markets in which we participate increased for the coverages placed during 2023 and the beginning of 2024, compared to the prior years, and the availability of reinsurance is subject to many forces outside of our control, we did not, and do not expect to in the near term, experience a significant lack of availability of any of the types of reinsurance that we typically purchase. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2023 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for the year ended December 31, 2023, for a discussion of certain risks related to catastrophe events and the potential impact of climate change. See Item 1, Business – Reinsurance on Form 10-K and Note 7 – Reinsurance for a discussion of our various reinsurance programs.
The following discussion of our severity and frequency trends in our personal auto business excludes comprehensive coverage because of its inherent volatility, as it is typically linked to catastrophic losses generally resulting from adverse weather. For our commercial auto products, the reported frequency and severity trends include comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage insures against damage to a customer’s vehicle due to various causes other than collision, such as windstorm, hail, theft, falling objects, and glass breakage.
Total personal auto incurred severity (i.e., average cost per claim, including both paid losses and the change in case reserves) on a calendar-year basis, over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2023 | 2022 | 20211 | |||
| Bodily injury | 10 | % | 8 | % | 11 | % |
| Collision | 5 | 16 | 11 | |||
| Personal injury protection | 2 | (9) | 7 | |||
| Property damage | 9 | 20 | 8 | |||
| Total | 8 | 13 | 9 | |||
| 1Annualized year-over-2019 year to mitigate the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on frequency during 2020. |
The year-over-year increase for 2023, compared to 2022, in part, reflects the impact of inflation, which continues to
increase the valuation of used vehicles and total loss, repair, and medical costs.
On a calendar-year basis, our commercial auto products’ incurred severity, excluding our TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance products, increased 6% in 2023 and 2022, compared to 14% in 2021. Since the loss patterns in the TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance businesses are not indicative of our other commercial auto products, disclosing severity and frequency trends excluding those businesses is more representative of our overall experience for the majority of our commercial auto products.
It is a challenge to estimate future severity, but we continue to monitor changes in the underlying costs, such as general inflation, used car prices, vehicle repair costs, medical costs, health care reform, court decisions, and jury verdicts, along with regulatory changes and other factors that may affect severity.
Our personal auto incurred frequency on a calendar-year basis, over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2023 | 2022 | 20211 | |||
| Bodily injury | 2 | % | (4) | % | (11) | % |
| Collision | (7) | (8) | (3) | |||
| Personal injury protection | 2 | (5) | (10) | |||
| Property damage | 0 | (5) | (11) | |||
| Total | (2) | (6) | (7) | |||
| 1Annualized year-over-2019 year to mitigate the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on frequency during 2020. |
On a calendar-year basis, our commercial auto products’ incurred frequency, excluding our TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance products, saw an increase of about 2% in 2023, 3% in 2022, and 9% in 2021. On an annualized basis, for 2021, incurred frequency decreased 4% compared to 2019.
We closely monitor the changes in frequency, but the degree or direction of near-term frequency change is not something that we are able to predict with any certainty. We will continue to analyze trends to distinguish changes in our experience from other external factors, such as changes in the number of vehicles per household, miles driven, vehicle usage, gasoline prices, advances in vehicle safety, and unemployment rates, versus those resulting from shifts in the mix of our business or changes in driving patterns, to allow us to react quickly to price for these trends and to reserve more accurately for our loss exposures.
App.-A-60
The table below presents the actuarial adjustments implemented and the loss reserve development experienced on a companywide basis in the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actuarial Adjustments | ||||||||
| Reserve decrease (increase) | ||||||||
| Prior accident years | $ | (453.9) | $ | (105.5) | $ | (78.5) | ||
| Current accident year | (586.6) | (83.8) | 103.9 | |||||
| Calendar year actuarial adjustments | $ | (1,040.5) | $ | (189.3) | $ | 25.4 | ||
| Prior Accident Years Development | ||||||||
| Favorable (unfavorable) | ||||||||
| Actuarial adjustments | $ | (453.9) | $ | (105.5) | $ | (78.5) | ||
| All other development | (640.1) | 191.8 | 83.2 | |||||
| Total development | $ | (1,094.0) | $ | 86.3 | $ | 4.7 | ||
| (Increase) decrease to calendar year combined ratio | (1.9) | pts. | 0.2 | pts. | 0 | pts. |
Total development consists of both actuarial adjustments and “all other development” on prior accident years. We use “accident year” generically to represent the year in which a loss occurred. The actuarial adjustments represent the net changes made by our actuarial staff to both current and prior accident year reserves based on regularly scheduled reviews. Through these reviews, our actuaries identify and measure variances in the projected frequency and severity trends, which allow them to adjust the reserves to reflect current cost trends.
For our Property business, 100% of catastrophe losses are reviewed monthly and any development on catastrophe reserves are included as part of the actuarial adjustments. For the Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses, development for catastrophe losses in the vehicle businesses would be reflected in “all other development,” discussed below, to the extent they relate to prior year reserves. We report these actuarial adjustments separately for the current and prior accident years to reflect these adjustments as part of the total prior accident years development.
“All other development” represents claims settling for more or less than reserved, emergence of unrecorded claims at rates different than anticipated in our incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves, and changes in reserve estimates on specific claims. Although we believe the development from both the actuarial adjustments and “all other development” generally results from the same factors, we are unable to quantify the portion of the reserve development that might be applicable to any one or more of those underlying factors.
Our objective is to establish case and IBNR reserves that are adequate to cover all loss costs, while incurring minimal variation from the date the reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. Our ability to meet this objective is impacted by many factors. Changes in case law, particularly related to personal injury protection, can make it difficult to estimate reserves timely
and with minimal variation. As reflected in the table above, we experienced unfavorable prior year development during 2023, compared to favorable prior year development in both 2022 and 2021.
About 65% of the total unfavorable development for 2023 was in our personal auto products with our Agency and Direct auto businesses contributing nearly equally. Just over half of the unfavorable development was attributable to higher than anticipated severity in auto property and physical damage coverages, and the remainder primarily due to increased loss costs in Florida injury and medical coverages and, to a lesser extent, higher than anticipated late reported injury claims. This was partially offset by lower than anticipated loss adjustment expenses.
While it is difficult to quantify the direct impact of insurance legislation that went into effect during 2023 in Florida, Florida contributed approximately half of the total prior accident year reserve development across all personal auto product lines during 2023. We continue to believe that the Florida tort reform will likely have a positive impact on the insurance industry in Florida over the long term and began seeing some of this occur in late 2023. We will continue to monitor the ever-changing legislative and regulatory environment and will respond as we deem necessary.
Coverages related to fixing vehicles have seen unprecedented increases in severity trends on previously closed claims during 2023, relative to the last couple of years, and continued to be the major driver of prior year unfavorable development countrywide. The contributors to the increased trends came from a variety of sources, including longer vehicle repair times, longer rental times, and higher parts prices and labor rates. Fixing vehicle coverages are short-tailed, which explains why about 85% of the total year-to-date prior year development is from the 2022 accident year. Excluding Florida, accident years prior to 2022 have developed favorably.
App.-A-61
Our current year actuarial adjustments during the first half of the year were also primarily due to fixing vehicles. Since fixing vehicle coverages are short-tailed, most of the claims that are affected by emerging trends occurred in the later part of 2022. Accordingly, the steeper trends in fixing vehicle coverages increasingly affected claims that occurred in the current accident year. Florida litigation has been a relatively small part of current year actuarial adjustments since the increase in litigation largely affected claims that occurred before March 2023. During the second half of 2023, we saw current year actuarial adjustments moderate. About 40% of current year actuarial adjustments during the second half of the year related to our TNC business. We continue to monitor loss trends across all states and coverages and will remain vigilant to adjust reserves to reflect those trends.
Our Commercial Lines business represented about one-third of the unfavorable development during 2023, mainly due to higher than anticipated severity and frequency of late reported injury claims and large loss emergence on injury claims, with about half of the unfavorable development attributable to our TNC business. The trend in loss costs during 2023 was steep, as costs for medical care and vehicle repair labor continued to climb. Although we have seen the inflationary environmental trends moderate, we believe the impact of these trends will continue to affect loss costs for the foreseeable future.
See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves, for a more detailed discussion of our prior accident years development.
Underwriting Expenses
Underwriting expenses include policy acquisition costs and other underwriting expenses. The underwriting expense ratio is our underwriting expenses, net of certain fees and other revenues, expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. For 2023, our underwriting expense ratio was down 1.2 points, compared to the prior year, primarily reflecting growth in net premiums earned and decreases in our advertising spend. In total, our companywide advertising spend decreased 21%, compared to 2022, as part of our efforts to focus on profitability during the year. The reduction in advertising spend, in concert with premium growth, reduced the contribution of advertising to our combined ratio by 1.4 points during 2023, compared to 2022.
To analyze underwriting expenses, we also review our non-acquisition expense ratio (NAER), which excludes costs related to policy acquisition, including advertising and agency commissions, from our underwriting expense ratio. By excluding acquisition costs from our underwriting expense ratio, we are able to understand costs other than those necessary to acquire new policies and grow the business. In 2023, our NAER increased 0.1 points, 0.4 points, and 1.3 points in our Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property businesses, respectively, compared to 2022. In addition to employee compensation, which impacted all of the businesses’ NAER, the increase in our Property NAER primarily reflected additional investments we made during the year in underwriting and pricing functions.
App.-A-62
C. Growth
For our underwriting operations, we analyze growth in terms of both premiums and policies. Net premiums written represent the premiums from policies written during the period, less any premiums ceded to reinsurers. Net premiums earned, which are a function of the premiums written in the current and prior periods, are earned as revenue over the life of the policy using a daily earnings convention. Policies in force, our preferred measure of growth since it removes the variability due to rate changes or mix shifts, represents all policies for which coverage was in effect as of the end of the period specified.
| For the years ended December 31, | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | |||||||||||
| Net Premiums Written | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 22,277.9 | 22 | % | $ | 18,334.2 | 6 | % | $ | 17,257.9 | 7 | % | |||||
| Direct | 26,303.1 | 26 | 20,944.3 | 11 | 18,910.9 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 48,581.0 | 24 | 39,278.5 | 9 | 36,168.8 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 10,138.3 | 8 | 9,398.8 | 17 | 8,015.9 | 51 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,830.6 | 18 | 2,401.7 | 8 | 2,216.2 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 0.3 | (86) | 2.1 | (51) | 4.3 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 61,550.2 | 20 | % | $ | 51,081.1 | 10 | % | $ | 46,405.2 | 14 | % | |||||
| Net Premiums Earned | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 21,198.2 | 19 | % | $ | 17,744.7 | 5 | % | $ | 16,881.0 | 7 | % | |||||
| Direct | 25,015.1 | 24 | 20,135.5 | 9 | 18,492.3 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 46,213.3 | 22 | 37,880.2 | 7 | 35,373.3 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 9,898.7 | 9 | 9,088.3 | 31 | 6,945.2 | 42 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,551.4 | 12 | 2,270.0 | 11 | 2,042.5 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 1.0 | (63) | 2.7 | (65) | 7.7 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 58,664.4 | 19 | % | $ | 49,241.2 | 11 | % | $ | 44,368.7 | 13 | % | |||||
| NM = Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Includes other underwriting business and run-off operations. | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||||||
| (# in thousands) | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | |||||||||||
| Policies in Force | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency auto | 8,335.5 | 7 | % | 7,766.3 | (1) | % | 7,879.0 | 3 | % | ||||||||
| Direct auto | 11,190.4 | 10 | 10,131.0 | 6 | 9,568.2 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Total auto | 19,525.9 | 9 | 17,897.3 | 3 | 17,447.2 | 6 | |||||||||||
| Special lines1 | 5,968.6 | 7 | 5,558.1 | 5 | 5,288.5 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines — total | 25,494.5 | 9 | 23,455.4 | 3 | 22,735.7 | 6 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,098.5 | 5 | 1,046.4 | 8 | 971.2 | 18 | |||||||||||
| Property | 3,096.5 | 9 | 2,851.3 | 3 | 2,776.2 | 12 | |||||||||||
| Companywide total | 29,689.5 | 9 | % | 27,353.1 | 3 | % | 26,483.1 | 7 | % |
1 Includes insurance for motorcycles, RVs, watercraft, snowmobiles, and similar items.
To analyze growth, we review new policies, rate levels, and the retention characteristics of our segments. Although new policies are necessary to maintain a growing book of business, we recognize the importance of retaining our current customers as a critical component of our continued growth.
App.-A-63
D. Personal Lines
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Personal Lines business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 14 | % | 1 | % | (2) | % |
| Renewal | 10 | 1 | 11 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 10 | 9 | 0 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | 14 | (9) | (1) | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 24 | (22) | 2 |
In our Personal Lines business, compared to the prior year periods, personal auto new applications grew 60% in the first half of 2023, but decreased dramatically during the second half of 2023, as a result of targeted rate and non-rate actions we took to focus on profitability over growth in an effort to achieve our calendar-year underwriting profitability goal. For 2023, our new applications grew 15% in personal auto and 11% in special lines, compared to 2022. Compared to the prior year, our personal auto renewal applications for 2023 were up 10% and our special lines products recorded a 6% increase in renewal applications.
Results for 2023 varied by consumer segment. Personal auto policies in force grew between 1% and 14% across all consumer segments, compared to the prior year, with Sam reporting the lowest increase and the Wrights and Robinsons having the largest growth. New business application growth was up across all segments. Quote volume decreased in all consumer segments, except the Wrights, with all consumer segments seeing an increased rate of conversion.
Our focus on achieving our target underwriting profitability takes precedence over growth. We will continue to manage growth and profitability in accordance with our long-standing goal of growing as fast as we can as long as we can provide high-quality customer service, at or below a companywide 96 combined ratio on a calendar-year basis. During 2023, in addition to rate increases, we took measures to achieve our target profit margin that included slowing new business growth through verification activities, bill plan offerings, and we also continued to exercise general operational expense discipline.
During 2023, we implemented personal auto rate increases in 48 states that, on an aggregate basis, increased rates about 19% during the year, following a 13% rate increase during 2022. In response to rising costs, we started taking rate increases in the second quarter 2021 and continued taking rate increases throughout 2023. We believe that our prior-year rate increases had a negative impact on our 2022 policy life expectancy, and as competitors also raised rates,
our retention started to lengthen as evidenced by the growth in our trailing 3- and 12-month policy life expectancy in 2023. Our written premium per policy increased during 2023 and 2022, primarily due to the rate increases taken in those years.
We report our Agency and Direct business results separately as components of our Personal Lines segment to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel. The channel discussions below are focused on personal auto insurance since this product accounted for 94% of the Personal Lines segment net premiums written during 2023.
The Agency Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | 15 | % | (3) | % | (8) | % |
| Renewal | 6 | (3) | 8 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 12 | 11 | 1 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | 23 | (11) | (3) | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 29 | (24) | 1 |
The Agency business includes business written by more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies that represent Progressive, as well as brokerages in New York and California. During 2023, 40 states and the District of Columbia generated new Agency auto application growth, including 9 of our top 10 largest Agency states. Total Agency auto applications increased 8% with growth in both new and renewal applications. New applications and policies in force increased during 2023, across all consumer segments, except Sam, who saw a low single digit decline in both measures, compared to 2022.
During 2023, we experienced a 1% year-over-year increase in Agency auto quotes and a 13% increase in the rate of conversion. While all consumer segments contributed to the increase in conversion, compared to 2022, only the Wrights saw an increase in quote volume year over year in 2023. Written premium per policy for new and renewal Agency auto business increased 7% and 13%, respectively, compared to 2022, primarily driven by rate increases.
Policy life expectancy in the Agency business lengthened significantly during 2023, following substantial declines in 2022. During 2023, as part of our efforts to slow growth to achieve our target profitability, we focused our efforts to attract a more preferred tier of customers, along with more Robinsons, who tend to stay with us longer.
App.-A-64
The Direct Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | 15 | % | 6 | % | 0 | % |
| Renewal | 13 | 3 | 13 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 10 | 8 | (1) | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | 6 | (6) | 2 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 19 | (19) | 3 |
The Direct business includes business written directly by Progressive online, through our Progressive mobile app, or by the phone. During 2023, we generated new Direct auto application growth in 46 states and the District of Columbia, including 8 of our top 10 largest Direct states. Total auto applications increased 13% with growth in both new and renewal applications. New applications increased across all consumer segments and policies in force grew between 4% and 13% in each consumer segment, compared to 2022.
During 2023, we experienced an increase in Direct auto quote volume and conversion of 5% and 9%, respectively, compared to 2022. All consumer segments saw an increase in quote volume except Sam, who experienced a low single digit decline, with all consumer segments seeing an increase in the rate of conversion, compared to 2022.
Written premium per policy for new and renewal Direct auto business increased 5% and 11%, respectively, during 2023, compared to 2022, primarily driven by rate increases.
The Direct business experienced a lengthening of retention in 2023, following decreases in policy life expectancy in 2022. The drivers of the change in policy life expectancy were similar to the Agency business where the focus was to grow more bundled customers and those in a more preferred market tier.
E. Commercial Lines
Our Commercial Lines business operates in five traditional BMTs, which include business auto, for-hire transportation, contractor, for-hire specialty, and tow markets, primarily written through the agency channel. We also write TNC business, BOP insurance, and, through Protective Insurance, larger fleet and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry, along with trucking industry independent contractors, and affinity programs.
The following table and discussion focuses on our commercial auto product, excluding our TNC and Protective Insurance products. Year-over-year changes in our commercial auto product were as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 4 | % | (1) | % | 27 | % |
| Renewal | 4 | 12 | 12 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 3 | 11 | 17 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (12) | (12) | 11 |
The increases in net premiums written in our Commercial Lines business reflected growth in all of our BMTs, except our for-hire transportation BMT, which continued to be impacted by a slowdown in the rate of economic activity and challenging freight market conditions. The most significant growth was in our contractor and business auto BMTs. We believe the increase in our contractor BMT was influenced by increased construction, employment, and commercially based economic spending trends during 2023.
During 2023, commercial auto new application growth was positive in each of our BMTs, except for our for-hire transportation BMT, as previously discussed. We experienced a 7% increase in quote volume and a 3% decrease in the rate of conversion in our commercial auto products during 2023, compared to 2022.
During 2023, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 17% in our commercial auto products. Written premium per policy for new commercial auto business decreased 3% for 2023, compared to 2022. Shifts in the mix of business from for-hire trucking, which has higher premiums, to lower premium products, like business auto and contractor BMTs, more than offset the rate increases we took in commercial auto on our new business. Written premium per policy on renewal commercial auto products increased 6%, compared to 2022.
Our policy life expectancy decreased in all BMTs. We believe increased rates and non-rate actions as well as unfavorable trucking market conditions drove increased shopping and motor carriers exited the industry, resulting in negative effects on policy life expectancy.
App.-A-65
F. Property
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Property business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 15 | % | (8) | % | 20 | % |
| Renewal | 5 | 8 | 10 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 10 | 6 | 1 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | 15 | (7) | (9) |
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, and umbrella insurance in the agency and direct channels.
Improving profitability and reducing concentration exposure continued to be the top priority for our Property business during 2023. We concentrated our growth in the Property business in markets that are less susceptible to catastrophes and lowered our exposure to coastal and hail-prone states for all products, excluding renters and umbrella. New applications in the growth-oriented states were up about 45%, compared to 2022. In regions where our appetite to write new business is limited, we continued to prioritize Progressive auto bundles, as well as lower risk properties, such as new construction or homes with newer roofs.
New applications were down about 20% during 2023 in the more volatile weather states, compared to last year. In addition, to continue to rebalance our Property business, we began a non-renewal effort of up to 115,000 Property policies in Florida. Following the required notices, the first of these non-renewals will go into effect in the second quarter of 2024 and will continue over the following 12 months. To try to ease disruption to our customers and agents, we reached an agreement with another unaffiliated Florida insurer to offer replacement policies to these policyholders, subject to the insurer’s underwriting and financial guidelines and agent appointments where applicable.
Our written premium per policy increased on a year-over-year basis, primarily attributable to rate increases taken over the last 12 months and higher premium coverages reflecting increased property values. During 2023, we increased rates, in aggregate, about 16% in our Property segment, with larger increases in coastal and hail-prone states. The written premium per policy increase was partially offset by less homeowners growth in volatile states that have higher average premiums. We intend to continue to make targeted rate increases in states where we believe it is necessary to achieve our profitability targets.
The policy life expectancy in our Property business lengthened during 2023, compared to decreases in policy life expectancy during 2022, primarily driven by a slowdown in the housing market and a shift in the mix of business.
G. Litigation
The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries are named as defendants in various lawsuits arising out of claims made under insurance policies issued by its subsidiaries in the ordinary course of business. We consider all legal actions relating to such claims in establishing our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves.
In addition, various Progressive entities are named as defendants in a number of alleged class/collective/representative actions or individual lawsuits arising out of the operations of the insurance subsidiaries. We plan to contest these suits vigorously, but may pursue settlement negotiations in some cases, as we deem appropriate. In the event that any one or more of these cases results in a substantial judgment against us, or settlement by us, or if our accruals (if any) prove to be inadequate, the resulting liability could have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial condition, cash flows, and/or results of operations or our liquidity. During the last three years, we have settled several class/collective action and individual lawsuits. These settlements did not have a material effect on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. See Note 12 – Litigation for a more detailed discussion.
H. Income Taxes
At December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had net current income taxes payable of $311.8 million and $10.9 million, respectively, which were reported in accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. This balance, which represented our estimated tax liability for the year less payments made during the year, may fluctuate from period to period due to normal timing differences and the portion of earnings generated during the fourth quarter relative to our annual earnings. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
A deferred tax asset or liability is a tax benefit or expense, respectively, that is expected to be realized in a future tax return. At December 31, 2023 and 2022, we reported net deferred tax assets. We are required to assess our deferred tax assets for recoverability, and, based on our analysis, we determined that we did not need a valuation allowance on our gross deferred tax assets for either year. Although realization of the gross deferred tax assets is not assured, management believes it is more likely than not that the gross deferred tax assets will be realized based on our expectation we will be able to fully utilize the deductions that are recognized for tax purposes.We believe our deferred tax asset related to net unrealized losses on fixed-maturity securities will be realized based on the existence of prior-year capital gains and current temporary
App.-A-66
differences related to unrealized gains in our equity portfolio.
Our effective tax rate was 20% for 2023 and 2021, compared to 22% for 2022. The decrease in the effective tax rate during 2023, compared to 2022, was in part attributable to the goodwill impairment in 2022, which is not deductible for income tax purposes.
Consistent with prior years, we had no uncertain tax positions. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
IV. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – INVESTMENTS
A. Portfolio Summary
At year-end 2023, the fair value of our investment portfolio was $66.0 billion, compared to $53.5 billion at year-end 2022. The increase in value from year-end 2022 primarily reflected cash flows from operations and increases in the valuation of our portfolio. Our investment income (interest and dividends) increased 50% and 46% in 2023 and 2022, respectively. The increases in both years were primarily due to investing new cash from operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, at higher coupon rates, and an increase in interest rates on our floating-rate securities.
B. Investment Results
Our management philosophy governing the portfolio is to evaluate investment results on a total return basis. The fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return includes recurring investment income, adjusted to a fully taxable amount for certain securities that receive preferential tax treatment (e.g., municipal securities), and total net realized, and changes in total unrealized, gains (losses) on securities.
The following summarizes investment results for the years ended December 31:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretax recurring investment book yield | 3.1 | % | 2.4 | % | 1.9 | % |
| FTE total return: | ||||||
| Fixed-income securities | 5.4 | (6.6) | (0.1) | |||
| Common stocks | 26.7 | (19.4) | 33.4 | |||
| Total portfolio | 6.3 | (7.8) | 2.6 |
The increase in the book yield during 2023 and 2022, primarily reflected investing new cash from operations, and proceeds from maturing bonds, at higher coupon rates, and an increase in interest rates on our floating-rate securities. The increase in the fixed-income portfolio total return, compared to last year, reflected valuation increases across all sectors due to lower interest rates and tighter credit spreads, while the increase in the common stock return reflected general market conditions.
A further break-down of our FTE total returns for our fixed-income portfolio for the years ended December 31, follows:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-income securities: | ||||||
| U.S. Treasury Notes | 4.6 | % | (7.8) | % | (1.2) | % |
| Municipal bonds | 5.9 | (8.3) | (0.2) | |||
| Corporate bonds | 7.1 | (6.0) | (0.4) | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 9.2 | 0.6 | 1.3 | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6.9 | (9.5) | 0.5 | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 7.2 | (1.6) | 0.7 | |||
| Preferred stocks | 2.5 | (8.3) | 6.9 | |||
| Short-term investments | 5.0 | 1.5 | 0.1 |
App.-A-67
C. Portfolio Allocation
The composition of the investment portfolio at December 31, was:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Duration (years) | Average Rating1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 36,869.4 | 55.9 | % | 3.6 | AA+ | |
| State and local government obligations | 2,202.8 | 3.3 | 3.0 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 16.3 | 0.1 | 2.6 | AAA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 11,183.7 | 16.9 | 2.7 | BBB+ | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 417.2 | 0.6 | 0.5 | A+ | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 3,939.7 | 6.0 | 2.3 | A | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 5,575.4 | 8.4 | 1.2 | AA+ | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,075.8 | 1.7 | 2.4 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 1,789.9 | 2.7 | 0.1 | AA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 63,070.2 | 95.6 | 3.0 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 2,928.4 | 4.4 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 65,998.6 | 100.0 | % | 3.0 | AA- | |
| 2022 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 25,167.4 | 47.0 | % | 3.7 | AAA | |
| State and local government obligations | 1,977.1 | 3.7 | 3.5 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 15.5 | 0.1 | 3.5 | AAA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 9,412.7 | 17.6 | 2.8 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 666.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | A | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,663.5 | 8.7 | 2.7 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,564.6 | 8.5 | 1.1 | AA+ | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,397.5 | 2.6 | 2.8 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 2,861.7 | 5.4 | 0.1 | AAA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 50,726.8 | 94.8 | 2.9 | AA | |||
| Common equities | 2,821.5 | 5.2 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 53,548.3 | 100.0 | % | 2.9 | AA | |
| na = not applicable |
1 Represents ratings at period end. Credit quality ratings are assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. To calculate the weighted average credit quality ratings, we weight individual securities based on fair value and assign a numeric score of 0-5, with non-investment-grade and non-rated securities assigned a score of 0-1. To the extent the weighted average of the ratings falls between AAA and AA+, we assign an internal rating of AAA-.
2 At December 31, 2023 and 2022, we had $45.6 million and $34.4 million, respectively, of net unsettled security transactions included in other assets.
The total fair value of the portfolio at December 31, 2023 and 2022, included $4.2 billion and $4.4 billion, respectively, of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company, net of any unsettled security transactions.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities.
We define Group I securities to include:
•common equities,
•nonredeemable preferred stocks,
•redeemable preferred stocks, except for 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends, which are included in Group II, and
•all other non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities.
Group II securities include:
•short-term securities, and
•all other fixed-maturity securities, including 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends.
We believe this asset allocation strategy allows us to appropriately assess the risks associated with these securities for capital purposes and is in line with the treatment by our regulators.
App.-A-68
The following table shows the composition of our Group I and Group II securities at December 31:
| 2023 | 2022 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | |||||||
| Group I securities: | |||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade fixed maturities | $ | 532.6 | 0.8 | % | $ | 1,249.2 | 2.3 | % | |||
| Redeemable preferred stocks1 | 86.9 | 0.1 | 92.1 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 902.1 | 1.4 | 1,213.2 | 2.3 | |||||||
| Common equities | 2,928.4 | 4.4 | 2,821.5 | 5.2 | |||||||
| Total Group I securities | 4,450.0 | 6.7 | 5,376.0 | 10.0 | |||||||
| Group II securities: | |||||||||||
| Other fixed maturities | 59,758.7 | 90.6 | 45,310.6 | 84.6 | |||||||
| Short-term investments | 1,789.9 | 2.7 | 2,861.7 | 5.4 | |||||||
| Total Group II securities | 61,548.6 | 93.3 | 48,172.3 | 90.0 | |||||||
| Total portfolio | $ | 65,998.6 | 100.0 | % | $ | 53,548.3 | 100.0 | % |
1 We held no non-investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks at December 31, 2023 or 2022.
To determine the allocation between Group I and Group II, we use the credit ratings from models provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to classify our residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, excluding interest-only (IO) securities, and the credit ratings from nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) to classify all other debt securities. NAIC ratings are based on a model that considers the book price of our securities when assessing the probability of future losses in assigning a credit rating. As a result, NAIC ratings can vary from credit ratings issued by NRSROs. Management believes NAIC ratings more accurately reflect our risk profile when determining the asset allocation between Group I and II securities.
Unrealized Gains and Losses
As of December 31, 2023, our fixed-maturity portfolio had total after-tax net unrealized losses, which are recorded as part of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) on our consolidated balance sheets, of $1.6 billion, compared to $2.8 billion at December 31, 2022. The decrease in total unrealized loss year over year, was due to valuation increases across all fixed-maturity sectors, most prominently in our U.S. Treasury, corporate debt, and other asset-backed portfolios as lower interest rates and tighter credit spreads drove strong portfolio performance.
See Note 2 – Investments for a further break-out of our gross unrealized gains (losses).
App.-A-69
Holding Period Gains (Losses)
The following table provides the balance and activity for both the gross and net holding period gains (losses) for 2023:
| (millions) | Gross Holding Period Gains | Gross Holding Period Losses | Net Holding Period Gains (Losses) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at December 31, 2022 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | $ | 1.3 | $ | (75.8) | $ | (74.5) | ||
| Equity securities1 | 2,026.6 | (182.2) | 1,844.4 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | 2,027.9 | (258.0) | 1,769.9 | |||||
| Current year change in holding period securities | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 4.0 | 41.4 | 45.4 | |||||
| Equity securities1 | 207.3 | 95.7 | 303.0 | |||||
| Total changes in holding period securities | 211.3 | 137.1 | 348.4 | |||||
| Balance at December 31, 2023 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 5.3 | (34.4) | (29.1) | |||||
| Equity securities1 | 2,233.9 | (86.5) | 2,147.4 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | $ | 2,239.2 | $ | (120.9) | $ | 2,118.3 |
1Equity securities include common equities and nonredeemable preferred stocks.
Changes in holding period gains (losses), similar to unrealized gains (losses) in our fixed-maturity portfolio, are the result of changes in market performance as well as sales of securities based on various portfolio management decisions.
Fixed-Income Securities
The fixed-income portfolio is managed internally and includes fixed-maturity securities, short-term investments, and nonredeemable preferred stocks. Following are the primary exposures for the fixed-income portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk This risk includes the change in value resulting from movements in the underlying market rates of debt securities held. We manage this risk by maintaining the portfolio’s duration (a measure of the portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates) between 1.5 and 5.0 years. The duration of the fixed-income portfolio was 3.0 years at December 31, 2023, compared to 2.9 years at December 31, 2022. The distribution of duration and convexity (i.e., a measure of the speed at which the duration of a security is expected to change based on a rise or fall in interest rates) is monitored on a regular basis.
The duration distribution of our fixed-income portfolio, excluding short-term investments, represented by the interest rate sensitivity of the comparable benchmark U.S. Treasury Notes, at December 31, was:
| Duration Distribution | 2023 | 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 18.1 | % | 17.5 | % |
| 2 years | 12.0 | 16.9 | ||
| 3 years | 25.7 | 21.3 | ||
| 5 years | 27.4 | 25.1 | ||
| 7 years | 14.6 | 14.0 | ||
| 10 years | 2.2 | 5.2 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
Credit Risk This exposure is managed by maintaining an A+ minimum weighted average portfolio credit quality rating, as defined by NRSROs. At December 31, 2023 and 2022, our weighted average credit quality rating was AA- and AA, respectively. The credit quality distribution of the fixed-income portfolio at December 31, was:
| Average Rating | 2023 | 2022 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | 10.7 | % | 65.5 | % |
| AA | 65.1 | 6.4 | ||
| A | 7.0 | 7.6 | ||
| BBB | 15.7 | 17.2 | ||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated:1 | ||||
| BB | 1.2 | 2.5 | ||
| B | 0.2 | 0.5 | ||
| CCC and lower | 0 | 0.1 | ||
| Non-rated | 0.1 | 0.2 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
1 The ratings in the table above are assigned by NRSROs.
The year-over-year rating shift between the AAA and AA categories was primarily due to a second major credit rating agency downgrading U.S. Treasury debt to AA+ from AAA, which led us to lower our U.S. Treasury positions to AA+.
Concentration Risk Our investment constraints limit investment in a single issuer, other than U.S. Treasury Notes or a state’s general obligation bonds, to 2.5% of shareholders’ equity, while the single issuer guideline on preferred stocks and/or non-investment-grade debt is 1.25% of shareholders’ equity. Additionally, the guideline
App.-A-70
applicable to any state’s general obligation bonds is 6% of shareholders’ equity. We consider concentration risk both overall and in the context of individual asset classes and sectors, including, but not limited to, common equities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, and high-yield bonds. At December 31, 2023 and 2022, we were within all of the constraints described above.
Prepayment and Extension Risk We are exposed to this risk especially in our asset-backed (i.e., structured product) and preferred stock portfolios. Prepayment risk includes the risk of early redemption of security principal that may need to be reinvested at less attractive rates. Extension risk includes the risk that a security will not be redeemed when anticipated, and that the security that is extended will have a lower yield than a security we might be able to obtain by reinvesting the expected redemption principal. Our holdings of different types of structured debt and preferred securities help manage this risk. During 2023 and 2022, we did not experience significant adverse prepayment or extension of principal relative to our cash flow expectations in the portfolio.
Liquidity Risk Our overall portfolio remains very liquid and we believe that it is sufficient to meet expected near-term liquidity requirements. The short-to-intermediate duration of our portfolio provides a source of liquidity. During 2024, we expect approximately $6.1 billion, or 25%, of principal repayment from our fixed-income portfolio, excluding U.S. Treasury Notes and short-term investments. Cash from interest and dividend payments provides an additional source of recurring liquidity.
The duration of our U.S. government obligations, which are included in the fixed-income portfolio, was comprised of the following at December 31, 2023:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Duration (years) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Treasury Notes | |||||
| Less than one year | $ | 3,402.9 | 0.6 | ||
| One to two years | 4,309.2 | 1.4 | |||
| Two to three years | 4,226.8 | 2.5 | |||
| Three to five years | 16,153.5 | 3.9 | |||
| Five to seven years | 7,207.9 | 5.6 | |||
| Seven to ten years | 1,569.1 | 7.4 | |||
| Total U.S. Treasury Notes | $ | 36,869.4 | 3.6 |
ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES
Included in the fixed-income portfolio are asset-backed securities, which were comprised of the following at December 31:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Net Unrealized Gains (Losses) | % of Asset- Backed Securities | Duration (years) | Average Rating(at period end)1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 417.2 | $ | (9.8) | 4.2 | % | 0.5 | A+ | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 3,939.7 | (595.5) | 39.7 | 2.3 | A | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 5,575.4 | (91.4) | 56.1 | 1.2 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 9,932.3 | $ | (696.7) | 100.0 | % | 1.6 | AA- | |||
| 2022 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 666.8 | $ | (17.2) | 6.7 | % | 0.4 | A | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,663.5 | (782.5) | 47.1 | 2.7 | A+ | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,564.6 | (259.6) | 46.2 | 1.1 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 9,894.9 | $ | (1,059.3) | 100.0 | % | 1.8 | AA- |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs.
App.-A-71
Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our RMBS, along with the loan classification and a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2023, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2023) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Non-Agency | Government/GSE2 | Total | % of Total | ||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 64.7 | $ | 0.3 | $ | 65.0 | 15.6 | % | ||||||
| AA | 33.4 | 1.1 | 34.5 | 8.2 | ||||||||||
| A | 267.8 | 0 | 267.8 | 64.2 | ||||||||||
| BBB | 44.1 | 0 | 44.1 | 10.6 | ||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||
| BB | 0.3 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 1.4 | 0 | 1.4 | 0.3 | ||||||||||
| Non-rated | 4.1 | 0 | 4.1 | 1.0 | ||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 415.8 | $ | 1.4 | $ | 417.2 | 100.0 | % | ||||||
| Decrease in value | (2.2) | % | (4.6) | % | (2.3) | % |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our RMBS, 97% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
2 The securities in this category are insured by a Government Sponsored Entity (GSE) and/or collateralized by mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
In the residential mortgage-backed sector, our portfolio consists of deals that are backed by either high-credit quality borrowers or those that have strong structural protections through underlying loan collateralization. During 2023, the RMBS portfolio decreased as a result of principal paydowns, maturities, and tender offers on securities that we participated in.
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our CMBS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2023, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2023) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Multi-Borrower | Single-Borrower | Total | % of Total | |||||||
| AAA | $ | 179.6 | $ | 971.5 | $ | 1,151.1 | 29.2 | % | |||
| AA | 0 | 924.7 | 924.7 | 23.5 | |||||||
| A | 0 | 727.7 | 727.7 | 18.5 | |||||||
| BBB | 0 | 733.1 | 733.1 | 18.6 | |||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 393.1 | 393.1 | 10.0 | |||||||
| B | 0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 179.6 | $ | 3,760.1 | $ | 3,939.7 | 100.0 | % | |||
| Decrease in value | (4.1) | % | (13.5) | % | (13.1) | % |
1The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our CMBS, 62% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
The CMBS portfolio experienced heightened volatility throughout 2023 due to ongoing challenges around the commercial real estate market and higher financing costs for commercial properties. In general, delinquencies in the CMBS market have increased as some loans that reached their maturity date have had difficulty refinancing. New CMBS issuances continued to remain slow in the single-asset single-borrower market and liquidity has continued to be challenged. During 2023, we selectively reduced certain positions that we believed would be sensitive to potential future economic uncertainty. As of December 31, 2023, we had no delinquencies in our CMBS portfolio.
App.-A-72
With focus on the commercial real estate sector, the following table shows the composition of our CMBS portfolio by maturity year and sector:
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Sector Details (at December 31, 2023) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Maturity1 | Office | Lab Office | Multi-family | Multi-family IO | Retail | Industrial | Self-storage | Casino | Defeased | Total | Average Original LTV | Average Current DSCR | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2024 | $ | 121.3 | $ | 24.4 | $ | 22.2 | $ | 41.5 | $ | 35.2 | $ | 180.0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 158.8 | $ | 583.4 | 58.2 | % | 2.0 | ||||||||||
| 2025 | 0 | 41.9 | 0 | 37.0 | 63.9 | 43.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 186.6 | 65.7 | 2.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2026 | 426.5 | 81.6 | 281.7 | 33.4 | 0 | 90.6 | 60.7 | 109.4 | 0 | 1,083.9 | 60.9 | 1.9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2027 | 405.1 | 0 | 38.9 | 30.2 | 0 | 94.0 | 245.7 | 0 | 0 | 813.9 | 60.1 | 1.9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2028 | 249.0 | 0 | 0 | 22.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 271.9 | 51.9 | 3.3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2029 | 383.0 | 0 | 0 | 10.9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66.8 | 0 | 460.7 | 58.8 | 3.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2030 | 72.1 | 59.2 | 0 | 3.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 89.9 | 0 | 224.9 | 55.5 | 3.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 2031 | 223.1 | 91.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 314.4 | 66.5 | 2.1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,880.1 | $ | 298.4 | $ | 342.8 | $ | 179.6 | $ | 99.1 | $ | 408.4 | $ | 306.4 | $ | 266.1 | $ | 158.8 | $ | 3,939.7 | |||||||||||||
| LTV= loan to value | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DSCR= debt service coverage ratio |
1The floating-rate securities were extended to their full maturity and fixed-rate securities are shown to their anticipated repayment date (if applicable) or otherwise, their maturity date.
We show the average loan to value (LTV) of each maturity year when the loans were originated. The LTV ratio that management uses, which is commonly expressed as a percentage, compares the size of the entire mortgage loan to the appraised value of the underlying property collateralizing the loan at issuance. A LTV ratio less than 100% indicates excess collateral value over the loan amount. LTV ratios greater than 100% indicate that the loan amount exceeds the collateral value. We believe this ratio provides a conservative view of our actual risk of loss, as this number displays the entire mortgage LTV, while our ownership is only a portion of the structure of the mortgage loan-backed security. For many of the mortgage loans in our portfolio, our exposure is in a more senior part of the structure, which means that the LTV on our actual exposure is even lower than the ratios presented.
In addition to the LTV ratio, we also examine the credit of our CMBS portfolio by reviewing the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) of the securities. The DSCR compares the underlying property’s annual net operating income to its annual debt service payments. A DSCR less than 1.0 times indicates that property operations do not generate enough income over the debt service payments, while a DSCR greater than 1.0 times indicates that there is an excess of operating income over the debt service payments. A number above 1.0 generally indicates that there would not be an incentive for the borrower to default in light of the borrower’s excess income. The DSCR reported in the table is calculated based on the most currently available net operating income and mortgage payments for the borrower, which, for most securities, is 2023 data.
Other Asset-Backed Securities (OABS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our OABS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2023, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Other Asset-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2023) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) Average Rating | Automobile | Collateralized Loan Obligations | Student Loan | Whole Business Securitizations | Equipment | Other | Total | % of Total | |||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 2,022.6 | $ | 1,018.9 | $ | 35.1 | $ | 0 | $ | 764.4 | $ | 175.1 | $ | 4,016.1 | 72.0 | % | |||||||
| AA | 20.4 | 391.9 | 9.4 | 0 | 41.3 | 0 | 463.0 | 8.3 | |||||||||||||||
| A | 9.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 151.4 | 131.9 | 292.3 | 5.2 | |||||||||||||||
| BBB | 6.8 | 0 | 0 | 728.8 | 0 | 36.2 | 771.8 | 13.9 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32.2 | 32.2 | 0.6 | |||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 2,058.8 | $ | 1,410.8 | $ | 44.5 | $ | 728.8 | $ | 957.1 | $ | 375.4 | $ | 5,575.4 | 100.0 | % | |||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | 0.4 | % | (0.7) | % | (9.1) | % | (7.4) | % | (0.1) | % | (6.8) | % | (1.6) | % |
App.-A-73
We selectively added to the OABS portfolio throughout 2023 as we viewed spreads and potential returns to be attractive in certain sectors. Investments were predominantly made in the automobile and equipment categories in highly rated, senior, and short-tenor debt tranches. The additions were primarily in new issue markets, but some selective secondary purchases were also made.
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OBLIGATIONS
The following table details the credit quality rating of our state and local government obligations (municipal securities) at December 31, 2023, without the benefit of credit or bond insurance:
| Municipal Securities (at December 31, 2023) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | General Obligations | Revenue Bonds | Total | |||||
| AAA | $ | 683.2 | $ | 331.9 | $ | 1,015.1 | ||
| AA | 435.6 | 701.0 | 1,136.6 | |||||
| A | 0 | 50.6 | 50.6 | |||||
| BBB | 0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | |||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||||
| Total | $ | 1,118.8 | $ | 1,084.0 | $ | 2,202.8 |
Included in revenue bonds were $495.9 million of single-family housing revenue bonds issued by state housing finance agencies, of which $280.5 million were supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies and $215.4 million were supported by mortgage-backed securities.
Of the revenue bonds supported by individual mortgages held by state housing finance agencies, the overall credit quality rating was AA+. Most of these mortgages were supported by the FHA, VA, or private mortgage insurance providers. Of the revenue bonds supported by mortgage-backed securities, 85% were collateralized by Ginnie Mae mortgages, which are fully guaranteed by the U.S. government, and the remaining 15% were collateralized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages.
Credit spreads of tax-exempt and taxable municipal bonds tightened during 2023. While we modestly increased our holding in the portfolio during the year, municipals as a percentage of the fixed-income portfolio declined, due to the lack of what we viewed as compelling investment opportunities. Our additions to the portfolio were focused on shorter-maturity general obligation, single family housing, and revenue bonds, which is reflected in the shorter municipal portfolio duration at year end 2023.
CORPORATE SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our corporate securities at December 31, 2023:
| Corporate Securities (at December 31, 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | Consumer | Industrial | Communication | Financial Services | Technology | Basic Materials | Energy | Total | ||||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 80.6 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 80.6 | ||||||||
| AA | 139.2 | 0 | 0 | 303.7 | 0 | 0 | 45.1 | 488.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| A | 548.4 | 351.2 | 179.5 | 1,404.8 | 16.4 | 116.7 | 462.6 | 3,079.6 | ||||||||||||||||
| BBB | 2,432.7 | 1,405.7 | 400.4 | 1,270.5 | 548.0 | 43.5 | 1,086.2 | 7,187.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 86.1 | 36.9 | 61.2 | 0 | 11.1 | 0 | 6.0 | 201.3 | ||||||||||||||||
| B | 119.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24.9 | 0 | 144.2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 3,325.7 | $ | 1,793.8 | $ | 641.1 | $ | 3,059.6 | $ | 578.5 | $ | 185.1 | $ | 1,599.9 | $ | 11,183.7 |
While the size of our corporate debt portfolio varied throughout the year, the portfolio grew modestly during 2023, as we increased our holdings, on an absolute basis. At December 31, 2023, our corporate debt securities made up approximately 18% of the fixed-income portfolio, compared to approximately 19% at December 31, 2022.
We slightly reduced the maturity profile of the corporate debt portfolio during 2023. The duration of the corporate debt portfolio was 2.7 years at December 31, 2023, compared to 2.8 years at December 31, 2022, as we sold some of the longer duration securities with less attractive risk/reward profiles and added securities with shorter durations.
App.-A-74
PREFERRED STOCKS – REDEEMABLE AND NONREDEEMABLE
The table below shows the exposure break-down for our preferred stocks by sector and rating at year end:
| Preferred Stocks (at December 31, 2023) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Services | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (millions) Average Rating | U.S. Banks | Foreign Banks | Insurance | Other Financial | Industrials | Utilities | Total | |||||||||||||
| BBB | $ | 576.3 | $ | 41.6 | $ | 74.1 | $ | 27.7 | $ | 141.2 | $ | 44.8 | $ | 905.7 | ||||||
| Non-investment-grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 83.6 | 22.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 106.2 | |||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 39.9 | 9.2 | 14.8 | 0 | 63.9 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 659.9 | $ | 64.2 | $ | 114.0 | $ | 36.9 | $ | 156.0 | $ | 44.8 | $ | 1,075.8 |
The majority of our preferred securities have fixed-rate dividends until a call date and then, if not called, generally convert to floating-rate dividends. The interest rate duration of our preferred securities is calculated to reflect the call, floor, and floating-rate features. Although a preferred security will remain outstanding if not called, its interest rate duration will reflect the variable nature of the dividend. At year-end 2023, our non-investment-grade preferred stocks were with issuers that maintain investment-grade senior debt ratings.
We also face the risk that dividend payments on our preferred stock holdings could be deferred for one or more periods or skipped entirely. As of December 31, 2023, we
expect all of these securities to pay their dividends in full and on time. Approximately 78% of our preferred stock securities pay dividends that have tax preferential characteristics, while the balance pay dividends that are fully taxable.
During 2023, our preferred portfolio declined to $1.1 billion at December 31, 2023, from $1.4 billion at December 31, 2022. The decline was primarily due to preferred stocks that were called or sold due to our view of their less attractive risk/reward profiles, which was partially offset by an increase in valuation on preferred securities during the fourth quarter of 2023, as credit spreads tightened and interest rates decreased.
Common Equities
Common equities, as reported on our consolidated balance sheets at December 31, were comprised of the following:
| ($ in millions) | 2023 | 2022 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common stocks | $ | 2,907.8 | 99.3 | % | $ | 2,801.7 | 99.3 | % | |||
| Other risk investments1 | 20.6 | 0.7 | 19.8 | 0.7 | |||||||
| Total common equities | $ | 2,928.4 | 100.0 | % | $ | 2,821.5 | 100.0 | % |
1The other risk investments consist of limited partnership interests.
The majority of our common stock portfolio consists of individual holdings selected based on their contribution to the correlation with the Russell 1000 Index. We held 792 out of 1,010, or 78%, of the common stocks comprising the index at December 31, 2023, which made up 95% of the
total market capitalization of the index. At December 31, 2023 and 2022, the year-to-date total return of the indexed portfolio, based on GAAP income, was within our targeted tracking error, which is +/- 50 basis points.
App.-A-75
The following is a summary of our indexed common stock portfolio holdings by sector compared to the Russell 1000 Index composition:
| Sector | Equity Portfolio Allocation at December 31, 2023 | Russell 1000 Allocation at December 31, 2023 | Russell 1000 Sector Return in 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer discretionary | 14.2 | % | 15.4 | % | 36.8 | % |
| Consumer staples | 4.4 | 4.9 | (2.6) | |||
| Financial services | 10.8 | 10.3 | 15.4 | |||
| Health care | 12.2 | 11.6 | 2.4 | |||
| Materials and processing | 2.4 | 2.0 | 13.4 | |||
| Other energy | 4.1 | 3.8 | (2.4) | |||
| Producer durable | 13.0 | 12.7 | 20.3 | |||
| Real estate | 2.6 | 2.7 | 11.9 | |||
| Technology | 31.8 | 31.7 | 66.9 | |||
| Telecommunications | 2.1 | 2.4 | 12.6 | |||
| Utilities | 2.4 | 2.5 | (4.7) | |||
| Total common stocks | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 26.5 | % |
For 2023, our common stock portfolio FTE total return was 26.7%, compared to 26.5% for the Russell 1000 Index, due to common stocks we hold outside of the index.
V. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Progressive is required to make certain estimates and assumptions when preparing its financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with GAAP. Actual results could differ from those estimates in a variety of areas. The two areas we view as most critical with respect to the application of estimates and assumptions is the establishment of our loss reserves and the methods for measuring expected credit losses on financial instruments.
A. Loss and LAE Reserves
Loss and LAE reserves represent our best estimate of our ultimate liability for losses and LAE relating to events that occurred prior to the end of any given accounting period but have not yet been paid. At December 31, 2023, we had $29.6 billion of net loss and LAE reserves (net of reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses), which included $22.5 billion of case reserves and $7.1 billion of IBNR reserves. Personal auto liability and commercial auto liability reserves represent approximately 92% of our total carried net reserves. For this reason, the following discussion focuses on our vehicle businesses.
We do not review our loss reserves on a macro level and, therefore, do not derive a companywide range of reserves to compare to a standard deviation. Instead, we review a large majority of our reserves by product/state subset combinations on a quarterly time frame, with the remaining reserves generally reviewed on a semiannual basis. A change in our scheduled reviews of a particular subset of the business depends on the size of the subset or emerging issues relating to the product or state. By reviewing the reserves at such a detailed level, we have the ability to identify and measure variances in the trends by state, product, and line coverage that otherwise would not be
seen on a consolidated basis. We believe our comprehensive process of reviewing at a subset level provides us more meaningful estimates of our aggregate loss reserves.
In analyzing the ultimate accident year loss and LAE experience, our actuarial staff reviews in detail, at the subset level, frequency (number of losses per exposure), severity (dollars of loss per each claim), and average premium (dollars of premium per earned car year), as well as the frequency and severity of our LAE costs. The loss ratio, a primary measure of loss experience, is equal to the product of frequency times severity divided by the average premium. The average premium for personal and commercial auto businesses is not estimated. The actual frequency experienced will vary depending on the change in the mix in class of drivers we insure, but the IBNR frequency projections for these lines of business are generally stable in the short term, because a large majority of the parties involved in an accident report their claims within a short time period after the occurrence. The severity experienced by Progressive is much more difficult to estimate, especially for injury claims, since severity is affected by changes in underlying costs, such as medical costs, jury verdicts, judicial interpretations, and regulatory changes. In addition, severity will vary relative to the change in our mix of business by limit.
Assumptions regarding needed reserve levels made by the actuarial staff take into consideration influences on available historical data that reduce the predictive nature of our projected future loss costs. Internal considerations that are process-related, which generally result from changes in our claims organization’s activities, include claim closure
App.-A-76
rates, the number of claims that are closed without payment, and the level of the claims representatives’ estimates of the needed case reserve for each claim. These changes and their effect on the historical data are studied at the state level versus on a larger, less indicative, countrywide basis.
External items considered include the litigation atmosphere, changes in medical costs, and the availability of services to resolve claims. These also are better understood at the state level versus at a more macro, countrywide level. These items, as well as additional considerations such as the type of accident and change in reporting patterns, are closely monitored.
At December 31, 2023, we had $34.4 billion of carried gross reserves and $29.6 billion of net reserves. Our net reserve balance assumes that the loss and LAE severity for accident year 2023 over accident year 2022 would be 7.4% higher for personal auto liability and 5.7% higher for commercial auto liability. As discussed above, the severity estimates are influenced by many variables that are difficult to precisely quantify and which influence the final amount of claims settlements. That, coupled with changes in internal claims practices, the legal environment, and state regulatory requirements, requires significant judgment in the estimate of the needed reserves to be carried.
The following table highlights what the effect would be to our carried loss and LAE reserves, on a net basis, as of December 31, 2023, if during 2024 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the 2023 accident year (i.e., claims that occurred in 2023):
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Year 2023 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 17,159.3 | $ | 17,563.1 | $ | 17,966.9 | $ | 18,370.7 | $ | 18,774.5 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 9,075.3 | 9,190.1 | 9,304.9 | 9,419.7 | 9,534.5 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 28,563.0 | $ | 29,081.6 | $ | 29,600.2 | $ | 30,118.8 | $ | 30,637.4 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2023 accident year would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $201.9 million and our commercial auto reserves by $57.4 million.
Our 2023 year-end loss and LAE reserve balance also includes claims from prior years. Claims that occurred in 2023, 2022, and 2021, in the aggregate, accounted for approximately 93% of our reserve balance. If during 2024 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the total of the prior three accident years (i.e., 2023, 2022, and 2021), the effect to our year-end 2023 reserve balances would be as follows:
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Years 2023, 2022, and 2021 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 15,860.1 | $ | 16,913.5 | $ | 17,966.9 | $ | 19,020.3 | $ | 20,073.7 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 8,720.5 | 9,012.7 | 9,304.9 | 9,597.1 | 9,889.3 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | 2,328.4 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 26,909.0 | $ | 28,254.6 | $ | 29,600.2 | $ | 30,945.8 | $ | 32,291.4 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2023, 2022, and 2021 accident years would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $526.7 million and our commercial auto reserves by $146.1 million.
Our best estimate of the appropriate amount for our reserves as of year-end 2023 is included in our financial statements for the year. Our goal is to ensure that total reserves are adequate to cover all loss costs, while sustaining minimal variation from the time reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. At the point in time when reserves are set, we have no way of knowing whether our reserve estimates will prove to be high or low, or whether one of the alternative scenarios discussed above is reasonably likely to occur. The above tables show the potential favorable or unfavorable development we will realize if our estimates miss by 2% or 4%.
App.-A-77
B. Credit Losses on Financial Instruments
An allowance for credit losses is established when the ultimate realization of a financial instrument is determined to be impaired due to a credit event. Measurement of expected credit losses is based on judgment when considering relevant information about past events, including historical loss experience, current conditions, and forecasts of the collectability of the reported financial instrument. The allowance for expected credit losses is measured and recorded at the point ultimate recoverability of the financial instrument is expected to be impaired, including upon the initial recognition of the financial instrument, where warranted. We evaluate financial instrument credit losses related to our available-for-sale securities, reinsurance recoverables, and premiums receivables. Due to the complex nature in evaluating credit loss for our available-for-sale financial instruments, we view the estimates and assumptions used in our analysis as critical.
We routinely monitor our fixed-maturity portfolio for pricing changes that might indicate potential losses exist and perform detailed reviews of securities with unrealized losses to determine if an allowance for credit losses, a change to an existing allowance (recovery or additional loss), or a write-off for an amount deemed uncollectible needs to be recorded. In such cases, changes in fair value are evaluated to determine the extent to which such changes are attributable to: (i) credit related losses, which are specific to the issuer (e.g., financial conditions, business prospects) where the present value of cash flows expected to be collected is lower than the amortized cost basis of the security or (ii) market related factors, such as interest rates or credit spreads.
If we do not expect to hold the security to allow for a potential recovery of those expected losses, we will write down the security to fair value and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement.
For securities whose losses are credit related losses, and for which we do not intend to sell in the near term, we will review the non-market components to determine if a potential future credit loss exists, based on available financial data related to the fixed-maturity securities. If we project that a credit loss exists, we will record an allowance for the credit loss and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement. For all securities for which an allowance for credit losses has been established, we will re-evaluate the securities, at least quarterly, to determine if further deterioration has occurred or if we project a subsequent recovery in the expected losses, which would require an adjustment to the allowance for credit losses. To the extent we determine that we will likely sell a security prior to recovery of the credit loss, or if the loss is deemed uncollectible, we will write down the security to its fair value and reverse any credit loss allowance that may have been previously recorded.
For an unrealized loss that is determined to be related to current market conditions, we will not record an allowance for credit losses or a write down to fair value. We will continue to monitor these securities to determine if underlying factors other than the current market conditions are contributing to the loss in value.
Based on an analysis of our fixed-maturity portfolio, we have determined our allowance for credit losses related to available-for-sale securities was not material to our financial condition or results of operations for the periods ending December 31, 2023 and 2022.
App.-A-78
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this report not based upon historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often use words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “goal,” “target,” “anticipate,” “will,” “could,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” and other words and terms of similar meaning, or are tied to future periods, in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on current expectations and projections about future events, and are subject to certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainties related to:
•our ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and to charge adequate rates to policyholders;
•our ability to establish accurate loss reserves;
•the impact of severe weather, other catastrophe events, and climate change;
•the effectiveness of our reinsurance programs and the continued availability of reinsurance and performance by reinsurers;
•the secure and uninterrupted operation of the systems, facilities, and business functions and the operation of various third-party systems that are critical to our business;
•the impacts of a security breach or other attack involving our technology systems or the systems of one or more of our vendors;
•our ability to maintain a recognized and trusted brand and reputation;
•whether we innovate effectively and respond to our competitors’ initiatives;
•whether we effectively manage complexity as we develop and deliver products and customer experiences;
•our ability to attract, develop, and retain talent and maintain appropriate staffing levels;
•the impact of misconduct or fraudulent acts by employees, agents, and third parties to our business and/or exposure to regulatory assessments;
•the highly competitive nature of property-casualty insurance markets;
•whether we adjust claims accurately;
•compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
•litigation challenging our business practices, and those of our competitors and other companies;
•the success of our business strategy and efforts to acquire or develop new products or enter into new areas of business and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•how intellectual property rights affect our competitiveness and our business operations;
•the success of our development and use of new technology and our ability to navigate the related risks;
•the performance of our fixed-income and equity investment portfolios;
•the impact on our investment returns and strategies from regulations and societal pressures relating to environmental, social, governance and other public policy matters;
•our continued ability to access our cash accounts and/or convert investments into cash on favorable terms;
•the impact if one or more parties with which we enter into significant contracts or transact business fail to perform;
•legal restrictions on our insurance subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to The Progressive Corporation;
•our ability to obtain capital when necessary to support our business and potential growth;
•evaluations and ratings by credit rating and other rating agencies;
•the variable nature of our common share dividend policy;
•whether our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects generate the anticipated returns;
•the impact from not managing to short-term earnings expectations in light of our goal to maximize the long-term value of the enterprise;
•the impacts of epidemics, pandemics, or other widespread health risks; and
•other matters described from time to time in our releases and publications, and in our periodic reports and other documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2023.
Any forward-looking statements are made only as of the date presented. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.
In addition, investors should be aware that accounting principles generally accepted in the United States prescribe when a company may reserve for particular risks, including litigation exposures. Accordingly, results for a given reporting period could be significantly affected if and when we establish reserves for one or more contingencies. Also, our regular reserve reviews may result in adjustments of varying magnitude as additional information regarding claims activity becomes known. Reported results, therefore, may be volatile in certain accounting periods.
App.-A-79
FY 2022 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000080661-23-000006.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) is intended to help the reader understand our financial condition and results of operations. MD&A should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and supplemental information.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive insurance organization has been offering insurance to consumers since 1937. The Progressive Corporation is a holding company that does not have any revenue producing operations, physical property, or employees of its own. The Progressive Corporation, together with its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries and affiliates, comprise what we refer to as Progressive.
We report three operating segments. Our Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (referred to as our special lines products). Our Commercial Lines segment writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry, and business-related general liability and property insurance, predominately for small businesses. Our Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters. We operate throughout the United States through both the independent agency and direct distribution channels. We are the third largest private passenger auto insurer in the country, the number one writer of commercial auto insurance, and one of the top 15 homeowners insurance carriers, in each case based on 2021 premiums written.
Our underwriting operations, combined with our service and investment operations, make up the consolidated group.
A. Operating Results
On a year-over-year basis, net income and comprehensive income decreased 78% and 186%, respectively, primarily due to significant valuation declines in both our equity and fixed-maturity security portfolios during 2022. Net holding period losses, primarily from our equity security portfolio, were $2.1 billion in 2022, compared to net holding period gains of $0.9 billion in 2021. The market value of our fixed-maturity securities decreased $2.8 billion during 2022 due to the rise in interest rates throughout the year, compared to valuation declines of $0.9 billion during 2021.
Another factor contributing to the decrease in net income was the write off of $224.8 million of goodwill related to the 2015 acquisition of ARX Holding Corp. and its subsidiaries (ARX) during the year. Based on our analysis, we concluded that the fair value of our Property segment was less than the carrying value at the time of the review, primarily based on changes in forecasted expectations relative to the magnitude of weather events during the first half of 2022, as well as other factors impacting our plans to
restore our Property business to target profitability in a timely fashion. There was no other indication of impairment on the remaining goodwill.
While the rise in interest rates decreased valuations, it also contributed to the 46% increase in our recurring investment income during the year. For 2022, our pretax recurring book yield was 2.4%, compared to 1.9% for 2021, reflecting an increase in interest rates on our floating-rate securities and the investment of cash and maturities at relatively higher interest rates.
Our underwriting income was $2.1 billion for both 2022 and 2021. During 2022, we had an underwriting profit margin of 4.2%, which was above our companywide target profit margin of 4%, compared to 4.7% in 2021. Throughout the year, we continued to see volatility in our severity trends as inflation continued to increase the average costs to settle a claim over last year, while frequency trends continued to be favorable. In 2022, we experienced the largest hurricane in our history when Hurricane Ian made landfall multiple times on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. In total, catastrophe losses were 0.4 points greater in 2022 than 2021.
Although net income was lower in 2022, we did generate top-line growth. Net premiums written and earned increased 10% and 11%, respectively, over 2021. During the year, we surpassed $50 billion in net premiums written to end 2022 at $51.1 billion. Companywide policies in force increased 0.9 million, or 3%, over last year to reach 27.4 million at December 31, 2022. As expected, the rate and non-rate actions described below, which began in 2021 and continued into 2022, slowed volume growth on a year-over-year basis, primarily in the first half of 2022.
We ended 2022 with total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $22.3 billion, which was down $0.9 billion from year-end 2021. The year-over-year decrease primarily reflects our comprehensive loss for 2022, in part offset by our $1.5 billion debt issuance during the year.
B. Insurance Operations
Our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments were profitable with underwriting margins of 4.0% and 8.9%, respectively, while our Property segment had an underwriting loss margin of 10.5% for the year, which included 25.6 points of catastrophe losses.
App.-A-51
While growth is an important objective, we strongly believe that achieving our target profit margin takes precedence over growing premiums when we are challenged to achieve both. With focus on achieving our underwriting profitability target of 4%, we increased personal auto rates in 49 states during 2022, with an aggregate increase of about 13%. We took countrywide net increases of 9% during the first half of 2022, which followed the personal auto rate increases we took during 2021 of about 8%. The rate increases taken during the second half of 2022 were much smaller and at a pace closer to the inflationary pressure we were then experiencing. We will continue to monitor the factors that could impact our loss costs for our personal auto business, which can include new and used car prices, miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, inflation, and other components, on a state-by-state basis, and will file for rate adjustments where we deem it necessary.
We believe a key element in improving the accuracy of our personal auto rating is Snapshot®, our usage-based insurance offering. During 2022, the adoption rates for consumers enrolling in the program increased about 25% in Agency auto and nearly 15% in Direct auto, compared to 2021. Snapshot is available in all states, other than California, and our latest segmentation model is available in states that represented about 25% of our countrywide personal auto premium at year-end 2022. We continue to invest in our mobile application, with mobile devices being chosen for Snapshot monitoring for the majority of new enrollments.
In addition to rate actions to achieve our target profit margin in Personal Lines, we maintained discipline in our media budget and reduced targeted media spend in certain types of advertising, based on performance against our media and underwriting targets. Our total advertising spend was 5% lower in 2022, compared to the prior year. Consistent with rate actions, management will continue to assess where additional non-rate actions, including adjusting underwriting criteria, bill plans, or advertising spend, may be needed.
During 2022, our overall incurred frequency in our personal auto business decreased about 6%, while severity increased about 13%, compared to the prior year. We continued to see inflationary pressure in the average costs to settle a claim, driven primarily by the increase in the valuation of new and used vehicles on a year-over-year basis.
During the year, on a companywide basis, we recognized 3.4 loss ratio points related to catastrophe losses, compared to 3.0 points in 2021. Hurricane Ian contributed 1.6 points in total, with 1.5 points attributable to our Personal Lines business and 8.8 points to our Property business. The remaining catastrophe losses were attributable to other hurricanes, wind, hail, tornadoes, and winter storms throughout the United States.
Improving profitability continues to be our top priority for our Property business. Due to our concentration of policies in catastrophe-exposed states, severe weather events generally have greater impact on our results compared to other national carriers. In response, we began implementing underwriting changes during the second half of 2021, which continued during 2022, to focus on improving profitability in the Property business. In addition, we increased rates an average of about 19% in our Property segment during 2022, with some of the larger increases in Florida and in hail-prone states, such as Colorado and Oklahoma. About half of this increase occurred in late 2022.
Our companywide net premiums written grew 10% with growth in each of our segments on a year-over-year basis. Personal Lines grew 9%, Commercial Lines 17%, and Property 8%. The Personal Lines increase reflected growth in both our Agency and Direct businesses. The increase in net premiums written in our Commercial Lines business reflected growth in all of our business market targets, but especially in our contractor and auto business market targets. The Commercial Lines growth was also aided, to a lesser extent, by an increase in our transportation network company (TNC) business, due to an increase in the miles driven (which is the basis for determining premiums written for this business), as well as increased rates to address profitability issues in the TNC business. The Property business growth was primarily due to renewal business since, during 2022, we restricted new business growth, especially in Florida.
Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), premium per policy, and retention. Policies in force grew 3% companywide, with Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property growing 3%, 8%, and 3%, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, for 2022, Personal Lines new applications grew 1%. Through the first six months of 2022, Personal Lines new applications decreased 18%, reflecting the significant rate increases taken during 2021 and the first half of 2022. As our competitors raised rates during 2022, our new applications started to grow significantly in the latter part of the year, resulting in the overall growth in new applications for 2022.
New personal auto applications grew 2% on a year-over-year basis, with our Agency auto decreasing 3% and Direct auto increasing 6%. While total new application growth was up for the year, Agency auto new applications were down compared to the prior year, as a result of the actions taken to address profitability, as discussed above.
For our Commercial Lines business, [excluding our TNC, business owners’ policy (BOP), and Protective Insurance Corporation and subsidiaries (Protective Insurance) products], which we refer to as our core commercial auto product, new applications decreased 1% for 2022, compared to the prior year, mainly driven by decreased
App.-A-52
demand, primarily in the second half of 2022, in our for-hire transportation product, due to the general weakening of the economy, and the significant new application growth experienced during 2021.
Our Property business new applications decreased 8% for the year, primarily due to rate and other actions taken to address the profitability concerns as discussed above.
During 2022, our written premiums per policy increased in all of our operating segments primarily due to the rate increases taken during the year as discussed above. On a year-over-year basis, written premium per policy increased 11% in Agency personal auto, 8% in Direct personal auto, and 5% for our special lines products, compared to the prior year. In our core commercial auto products, we experienced an 11% increase in written premium per policy, reflecting rate increases of about 6%, in the aggregate, in 2022. The 6% increase in our Property business written premium per policy is substantially less than the 19% rate increases discussed above as a result of taking a portion of the increases later in the year, a shift in the mix of business to a larger share of renters policies, which have lower written premium per policy, and slower homeowners growth in volatile states that have higher average premiums.
We realize that to grow policies in force, it is critical that we retain our customers for longer periods. Consequently, increasing retention continues to be one of our most important priorities. A key initiative to lengthening our retention is to increase our share of multi-product households. We will continue to make investments to improve the customer experience in order to support that goal.
Policy life expectancy, which is our actuarial estimate of the average length of time that a policy will remain in force before cancellation or lapse in coverage, is our primary measure of customer retention in our Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property businesses.
We evaluate personal auto retention using a trailing 12-month policy life expectancy and a trailing 3-month policy life expectancy. The latter can reflect more volatility and is more sensitive to seasonality. On a trailing 3-month basis, our personal auto policy life expectancy was down 9% year over year, which is an improvement from the 32% decrease in policy life expectancy we reported at June 30, 2022. Our trailing 12-month total personal auto policy life expectancy was down 22% year over year, with Agency down 24% and Direct down 19%. Our trailing 12-month policy life expectancy increased 3% for special lines, and decreased 12% for Commercial Lines and 7% for Property.
C. Investments
The fair value of our investment portfolio was $53.5 billion at December 31, 2022, compared to $51.5 billion at December 31, 2021. The increase in value from year-end 2021, primarily reflected the proceeds of the $1.5 billion
debt issuance in March 2022 and positive cash flows from our underwriting operations, offset by declines in the valuations of our portfolio, as discussed below.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities (the securities allocated to Group I and II are defined below under Results of Operations – Investments). At December 31, 2022, 10% of our portfolio was allocated to Group I securities and 90% to Group II securities, compared to 17% and 83%, respectively, at December 31, 2021. The decrease in the percentage of Group I securities since year end 2021 was primarily driven by sales in our common equity portfolio and, to a lesser extent, high-yield bonds and preferred stocks with proceeds reinvested in Group II short-term investments.
Our recurring investment income generated a pretax book yield of 2.4% for 2022, compared to 1.9% for 2021, due to the increase in interest rates on our floating-rate securities and the investment of cash and maturities at relatively higher interest rates. Our investment portfolio produced a fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return of (7.8)% for 2022 and of 2.6% for 2021. Our fixed-income and common stock portfolios had FTE total returns of (6.6)% and (19.4)%, respectively, for 2022, compared to (0.1)% and 33.4%, for 2021. The year-over-year decrease in the fixed-income return reflected lower valuations primarily due to the market impact of higher interest rates and wider credit spreads during the last twelve months. The common stock return decline reflected general market conditions during 2022.
At December 31, 2022, the fixed-income portfolio had a weighted average credit quality of AA and a duration of 2.9 years, compared to AA- and 3.0 years at December 31, 2021. We have shortened our portfolio duration during the year, which we believe provides some protection against further increases in interest rates.
The end of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as an official reference rate will be June 30, 2023. The Federal Reserve Board identified the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) as the recommended replacement to U.S. LIBOR. As of December 31, 2022, we owned 175 unique securities with an aggregate par value of $3.6 billion that are still based on LIBOR, with our other asset-backed securities, mainly collateralized loan obligations, making up the majority of these securities. Due to the provisions in the terms of the securities, which allows a change in the underlying rate if a rate is discontinued, we are expecting a relatively smooth transition to an alternate reference rate.
App.-A-53
II. FINANCIAL CONDITION
A. Liquidity and Capital Resources
The Progressive Corporation receives cash through subsidiary dividends, capital raising and other transactions, and uses these funds to contribute to its subsidiaries (e.g., to support growth), to make payments to shareholders and debt holders (e.g., dividends and interest, respectively), to repurchase its common shares, and to redeem or pay off debt, as well as for acquisitions and other business purposes that may arise.
During 2022, The Progressive Corporation received cash from the following sources:
•Debt issuance - issued $500 million of 2.50% Senior Notes due 2027, $500 million of 3.00% Senior Notes due 2032, and $500 million of 3.70% Senior Notes due 2052, in an underwritten public offering.
•Dividends from subsidiaries - received $538.6 million from its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
The Progressive Corporation deployed capital through the following actions in 2022:
•Dividends
◦Common shares - declared aggregate dividends of $0.40 per common share, or $233.7 million.
◦Preferred shares - declared aggregate Series B Preferred dividends of $26.8 million.
•Common Share Repurchases - acquired 0.9 million of our common shares at a total cost of $99.0 million either in the open market or to satisfy tax withholding obligations in connection with the vesting of equity awards under our employee equity compensation plan. Pursuant to our financial policies, we repurchase common shares to neutralize dilution from equity-based compensation granted during the year and opportunistically when we believe our shares are trading below our determination of long-term fair value.
•Capital Contributions - contributed a net $797.8 million to its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries.
The Board decided not to declare an annual-variable dividend for 2022 after assessing our capital position, existing capital resources, and expected future capital needs, including the then current market conditions that could present opportunities for further growth in 2023.
Over the last three years, The Progressive Corporation received dividends from its subsidiaries, net of capital contributions, of $6.2 billion, and issued $2.5 billion, in the aggregate, of senior notes.
The covenants on The Progressive Corporation’s existing debt securities do not include any rating or credit triggers that would require an adjustment of the interest rate or an acceleration of principal payments in the event that our debt securities are downgraded by a rating agency. While we had an unsecured discretionary line of credit available to us during each of the last three years in the amount of $250 million, we did not borrow under this arrangement, or
engage in other short-term borrowings, to fund our operations or for liquidity purposes.
In the aggregate for the last three years, we made the following payments:
•$5.5 billion for common share dividends and $0.1 billion for preferred share dividends;
•$0.7 billion for interest on our outstanding debt;
•$0.6 billion related to acquisitions;
•$0.5 billion for the maturity of debt; and
•$0.4 billion to repurchase our common shares.
For the three years ended December 31, 2022, operations generated positive cash flows of about $21.5 billion. In 2022, operating cash flows decreased $0.9 billion, compared to 2021. While we continued to collect premiums at a faster rate than losses were paid, the decrease in operating cash flow for the year was primarily driven by higher paid losses, compared to last year. We believe cash flows will remain positive in the reasonably foreseeable future and do not expect we will have a need to raise capital to support our operations in that timeframe, although changes in market or regulatory conditions affecting the insurance industry, or other unforeseen events, may necessitate otherwise.
As of December 31, 2022, we held $28.0 billion in short-term investments and U.S. Treasury securities, which represented 52% of our total portfolio at year end. Based on our portfolio allocation and investment strategies, we believe that we have sufficient readily available marketable securities to cover our claims payments and short-term obligations in the event our cash flow from operations were to be negative. While U.S. Treasury securities are viewed as having lower risk than many other investment opportunities, the U.S. Treasury recently announced it had reached its authorized borrowing limit and defaults under government obligations, including payments related to U.S. Treasury securities, could occur as soon as this summer. Although perhaps unlikely, it is possible that the federal government could fail to raise the federal debt ceiling to avoid default. Any such default would likely have a materially adverse impact on our cash flows and the value of our portfolio and our capital position. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2022 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of certain matters that may affect our portfolios and capital position.
Progressive’s insurance operations create liquidity by collecting and investing premiums from new and renewal business in advance of paying claims. As primarily an auto insurer, our claims liabilities are generally short in duration. At December 31, 2022, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves were $30.4 billion. Typically, at any point in time, approximately 50% of our outstanding loss and LAE reserves are paid within the
App.-A-54
following twelve months and only about 20% are still outstanding after three years. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for further information on the timing of claims payments.
Insurance companies are required to satisfy regulatory surplus and premiums-to-surplus ratio requirements. As of December 31, 2022, our consolidated statutory surplus was $17.9 billion, compared to $16.4 billion at December 31, 2021. Our net premiums written-to-surplus ratio was 2.9 to 1 at year-end 2022, 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2021, and 2.7 to 1 at year-end 2020. At year-end 2022, we also had access to $4.4 billion of securities held in a non-insurance subsidiary, portions of which could be contributed to the capital of our insurance subsidiaries to support growth or for other purposes.
Insurance companies are also required to satisfy risk-based capital ratios. These ratios are determined by a series of dynamic surplus-related calculations required by the laws of various states that contain a variety of factors that are applied to financial balances based on the degree of certain risks (e.g., asset, credit, and underwriting). Our insurance subsidiaries’ risk-based capital ratios were in excess of applicable minimum regulatory requirements at year-end 2022. Nonetheless, the payment of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are subject to certain limitations. See Note 8 – Statutory Financial Information for additional information on insurance subsidiary dividends.
We seek to deploy our capital in a prudent manner and use multiple data sources and modeling tools to estimate the frequency, severity, and correlation of identified exposures, including, but not limited to, catastrophic and other insured losses, natural disasters, and other significant business interruptions, to estimate our potential capital needs. Management views our capital position as consisting of three layers, each with a specific size and purpose:
•The first layer of capital is the amount of capital we need to satisfy state insurance regulatory requirements and support our objective of writing all the business we can write and service, consistent with our underwriting discipline of achieving a combined ratio of 96 or better. This first layer of capital, which we refer to as “regulatory capital,” is held by our various insurance entities.
•While our regulatory capital layer is, by definition, a cushion for absorbing financial consequences of adverse events, such as loss reserve development, litigation, weather catastrophes, and investment market changes, we view that as a base and hold a second layer of capital for even more extreme conditions. The modeling used to quantify capital needs for these conditions is extensive, including tens of thousands of simulations, representing our best estimates of such contingencies based on historical experience. This capital is held either at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company or in our insurance entities, where it is potentially eligible for a dividend to the holding company.
•The third layer is capital in excess of the sum of the first two layers and provides maximum flexibility to fund other business opportunities, repurchase stock or other securities, and pay dividends to shareholders, among other purposes. This capital is largely held at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company.
We monitor our total capital position regularly throughout the year to ensure we have adequate capital to support our insurance operations. At December 31, 2022, we held total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $22.3 billion, compared to $23.1 billion at December 31, 2021. Our debt-to-total capital ratios at December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, were 28.7%, 21.2%, and 24.1%, respectively, and were consistent with our financial policy of maintaining a ratio of less than 30%. While our financial policies include a goal of maintaining debt below 30% of total capital at book value, we recognize that various factors, including rising interest rates, widening credit spreads, declines in the equity markets, or erosion in operating results, may result in that ratio exceeding 30% at times, as it did at the end of a couple of months during 2022. In such a situation, as we did during 2022, we may choose to remain above 30% for some time, dependent upon market conditions and the capital needs of our operating businesses. We will continue to monitor this ratio, market conditions, and our capital needs going forward.
At December 31, 2022, we had various noncancelable contractual obligations that were outstanding. We held $6.5 billion of Senior Notes with maturity dates ranging from 2027 through 2052, with $4.2 billion of future interest payment obligations related to our outstanding debt. The next debt repayment of $1.0 billion, in the aggregate, is due upon the maturity of our 2.45% Senior Notes due 2027 and our 2.50% Senior Notes due 2027. See Note 4 – Debt for additional information on our long-term debt.
At year-end 2022, we also had $1.0 billion of purchase obligations that are noncancelable commitments for goods and services (e.g., software licenses, maintenance on information technology equipment, and media placements). About 90% of our purchase obligations are payable within one year and less than 1% will be outstanding for longer than three years. In addition, our Property business has
App.-A-55
$205.4 million of minimum commitments under several multiple-layer property catastrophe reinsurance contracts with various reinsurers with terms ranging from one to three years. During 2022, we funded $3.1 million to limited partnership investments, which are included in our common equity investments in our consolidated balance sheets, and have funding commitments related to these investments of $15.7 million at December 31, 2022. See Note 1 – Reporting and Accounting Policies, Commitments and Contingencies for a discussion of these obligations. We do not have, and do not expect to enter into, any material commitments for capital expenditures in the reasonably foreseeable future.
At least annually, we perform recoverability tests to determine if any of our assets are impaired. We test our goodwill balance for impairment at the reporting unit level annually as of October 1, or more frequently if indicators of impairment exist. As discussed above, in conjunction with the preparation of our second quarter 2022 financial results, we performed a quantitative analysis of the goodwill attributable to our Property segment based on indications that impairment might exist. Based on this analysis, we wrote down the entire $224.8 million of goodwill attributable to our Property segment during the
second quarter 2022. See Note 15 – Goodwill and Intangible Assets for further discussion.
Based upon our capital planning and forecasting efforts, we believe we have sufficient capital resources and cash flows from operations to support our current business, scheduled principal and interest payments on our debt, anticipated quarterly dividends on our common shares and dividends on our Series B Preferred Shares, our contractual obligations, and other expected capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, we may decide to raise additional capital to take advantage of attractive terms in the market and provide additional financial flexibility. We have an effective shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so that we may periodically offer and sell an indeterminate aggregate amount of senior or subordinated debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, purchase contracts, warrants, and units. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof, subject to market conditions.
III. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – UNDERWRITING
A. Segment Overview
We report our underwriting operations in three operating segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. As a component of our Personal Lines segment, we report our Agency and Direct business results to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel.
The following table shows the composition of our companywide net premiums written, by segment, for the years ended December 31:
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | ||||||||
| Agency | 36 | % | 37 | % | 40 | % | ||
| Direct | 41 | 41 | 42 | |||||
| Total Personal Lines | 77 | 78 | 82 | |||||
| Commercial Lines | 18 | 17 | 13 | |||||
| Property | 5 | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Total underwriting operations | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
Our Personal Lines business writes insurance for personal autos (which accounts for about 94% of the segment’s net premiums written) and special lines products (e.g., motorcycles, RVs, watercraft, and snowmobiles). Within Personal Lines, we often refer to our four consumer segments, which we refer to as:
•Sam - inconsistently insured;
•Diane - consistently insured and maybe a renter;
•Wrights - homeowners who do not bundle auto and home; and
•Robinsons - homeowners who bundle auto and home.
While our personal auto policies are primarily written for 6-month terms, we write 12-month auto policies in our Platinum agencies to promote bundled auto and home growth. At year-end 2022 and 2021, 14% of our Agency auto policies in force were 12-month policies. To the extent our Agency application mix of annual policies grows, the shift in policy term could increase our written premium mix by channel as 12-month policies have about twice the amount of net premiums written compared to 6-month policies. Our special lines products are written for 12-month terms.
App.-A-56
Our Commercial Lines business writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, business-related general liability and property insurance predominately for small businesses, and workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry. The majority of our Commercial Lines business is written through the independent agency channel although we continue to focus on growing our direct business. To serve our direct channel customers, we continue to expand our product offerings, including adding states where we offer BOP and including it on our digital platform serving direct small business consumers (BusinessQuote Explorer®). The direct commercial auto business, excluding our TNC business, represented about 10% of premiums written for
2022 and 2021, compared to 9% for 2020. About 90% of our Commercial Lines auto policies are written for 12-month terms.
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters. We write the majority of our Property business through the independent agency channel; however, we continue to expand the distribution of our Property product offerings in the direct channel, which represented about 25% of premiums written for 2022, compared to 23% and 18% for 2021 and 2020, respectively. Property policies are written for 12-month terms.
B. Profitability
Profitability for our underwriting operations is defined by pretax underwriting profit or loss, which is calculated as net premiums earned plus fees and other revenues less losses and loss adjustment expenses, policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and for 2020, policyholder credits. We also use underwriting margin, which is underwriting profit or loss expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned, to analyze our results. For the three years ended December 31, our underwriting profitability was as follows:
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | |||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 734.1 | 4.1 | % | $ | 992.1 | 5.9 | % | $ | 2,236.5 | 14.2 | % | |||||
| Direct | 769.4 | 3.8 | 619.2 | 3.4 | 2,076.5 | 12.3 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 1,503.5 | 4.0 | 1,611.3 | 4.6 | 4,313.0 | 13.2 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 810.3 | 8.9 | 767.8 | 11.1 | 634.8 | 13.0 | |||||||||||
| Property1 | (238.4) | (10.5) | (312.3) | (15.3) | (125.1) | (7.1) | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity2 | (11.4) | NM | (1.4) | NM | 0 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 2,064.0 | 4.2 | % | $ | 2,065.4 | 4.7 | % | $ | 4,822.7 | 12.3 | % |
1 During 2022, 2021, and 2020, pretax profit (loss) includes $29.1 million, $56.6 million, and $56.9 million, respectively, of amortization expense associated with acquisition-related intangible assets attributable to our Property segment. The year-over-year decrease in amortization expense reflects intangible assets that were fully amortized during the first quarter 2022.
2 Underwriting margins for our other indemnity businesses are not meaningful (NM) due to the low level of premiums earned by, and the variability of loss costs in, such businesses.
We have taken significant rate increases since the first quarter of 2021 and through 2022. In spite of the rate increases, our underwriting profit margin decreased in 2022, compared to 2021, primarily driven by higher catastrophe losses and higher loss severity. See the Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE) section below for further discussion of our frequency and severity trends and catastrophe losses incurred during the period.
The onset and continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted consumer behavior and impacted general economic conditions through 2022. We have seen volatility in our severity trends as inflation continued to influence higher vehicle prices and costs to repair vehicles. We have responded, and will continue to respond when necessary, to these market changes through rate increases, underwriting restrictions, and other non-rate actions. Our focus on achieving our target underwriting profitability takes precedence over growth.
App.-A-57
Further underwriting results for our Personal Lines business, including results by distribution channel, the Commercial Lines business, the Property business, and our underwriting operations in total, were as follows:
| Underwriting Performance1 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines – Agency | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 78.1 | 75.6 | 63.5 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 17.8 | 18.5 | 22.3 | ||
| Combined ratio | 95.9 | 94.1 | 85.8 | ||
| Personal Lines – Direct | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 78.6 | 77.2 | 62.9 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 17.6 | 19.4 | 24.8 | ||
| Combined ratio | 96.2 | 96.6 | 87.7 | ||
| Total Personal Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 78.3 | 76.4 | 63.2 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 17.7 | 19.0 | 23.6 | ||
| Combined ratio | 96.0 | 95.4 | 86.8 | ||
| Commercial Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 71.5 | 69.3 | 64.5 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.6 | 19.6 | 22.5 | ||
| Combined ratio | 91.1 | 88.9 | 87.0 | ||
| Property | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 83.3 | 86.4 | 77.3 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio2 | 27.2 | 28.9 | 29.8 | ||
| Combined ratio2 | 110.5 | 115.3 | 107.1 | ||
| Total Underwriting Operations | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 77.3 | 75.7 | 64.0 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 18.5 | 19.6 | 23.7 | ||
| Combined ratio | 95.8 | 95.3 | 87.7 | ||
| Accident year – Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio3 | 77.5 | 75.7 | 63.5 |
1 Ratios are expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. The portion of fees and other revenues related to our loss adjustment activities are netted against loss adjustment expenses and the portion of fees and other revenues related to our underwriting operations are netted against underwriting expenses in the ratio calculations.
2 Included in 2022, 2021, and 2020, are 1.3 points, 2.8 points, and 3.2 points, respectively, of amortization expense on acquisition-related intangible assets attributable to our Property segment. Excluding this expense, the Property business would have reported expense ratios of 25.9, 26.1, and 26.6, and combined ratios of 109.2, 112.5, and 103.9, for 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively.
3 The accident year ratios include only the losses that occurred during the period noted. As a result, accident period results will change over time, either favorably or unfavorably, as we revise our estimates of loss costs when payments are made or reserves for that accident period are reviewed.
App.-A-58
Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE)
| (millions) | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in net loss and LAE reserves | $ | 3,369.6 | $ | 4,233.7 | $ | 1,574.4 | ||
| Paid losses and LAE | 34,753.1 | 29,393.9 | 23,547.4 | |||||
| Total incurred losses and LAE | $ | 38,122.7 | $ | 33,627.6 | $ | 25,121.8 |
Claims costs, our most significant expense, represent payments made, and estimated future payments to be made, to or on behalf of our policyholders, including expenses needed to adjust or settle claims. Claims costs are a function of loss severity and frequency and, for our vehicle businesses, are influenced by inflation and driving patterns, among other factors, some of which are discussed below. In our Property business, severity is primarily a function of construction costs and the age of the structure. Accordingly, anticipated changes in these factors are taken
into account when we establish premium rates and loss reserves. Loss reserves are estimates of future costs and our reserves are adjusted as underlying assumptions change and information develops. See Critical Accounting Policies – A. Loss and LAE Reserves for a discussion of the effect of changing estimates.
Our total loss and LAE ratio increased 1.6 points in 2022 and 11.7 points in 2021, each compared to the prior year. Our accident year loss and LAE ratio, which excludes the impact of prior accident year reserve development during each calendar year, increased 1.8 points in 2022 and 12.2 points in 2021. Several factors that contributed to the year-over-year changes are discussed below and include the impact of catastrophe losses, changes in severity and frequency, and prior accident year reserve development.
We experienced severe weather conditions in several areas of the country during each of the last three years. Hurricanes, hail storms, tornadoes, and wind activity contributed to catastrophe losses each year. The following table shows our consolidated catastrophe losses and related combined ratio point impact, excluding loss adjustment expenses, for the years ended December 31:
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | $ | Point1 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | $ | 1,045.6 | 2.8 | $ | 652.0 | 1.8 | $ | 439.4 | 1.3 | ||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 34.4 | 0.4 | 26.7 | 0.4 | 14.8 | 0.3 | |||||||||||
| Property | 580.4 | 25.6 | 633.4 | 31.0 | 423.8 | 24.0 | |||||||||||
| Total catastrophe losses incurred | $ | 1,660.4 | 3.4 | pts. | $ | 1,312.1 | 3.0 | pts. | $ | 878.0 | 2.2 | pts. |
1 Represents catastrophe losses incurred during the period, including the impact of reinsurance, as a percentage of net premiums earned for each segment.
Hurricane Ian accounted for approximately 45% of the catastrophe losses in 2022, while Hurricane Ida accounted for about 30% of the 2021 losses. The remainder of the catastrophe losses were generally attributable to other hurricanes, wind and hail storms, and other severe weather events throughout the United States.
In total, our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses incurred $575 million of losses from Hurricane Ian. About half of the vehicle losses were on our special lines products, including boats and recreational vehicles with boat losses comprising nearly 70% of all the special lines losses. In our boat product, we mitigate hurricane/coastal exposure with a) underwriting restrictions that limit the insured value and length of the boats, compared to non-hurricane exposed areas, and b) increased deductibles for named storms. Additionally, we segment and price our hurricane risk by territory and set rate levels with a catastrophe load based on historical losses.
For our Property business, we retained $200 million of losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE), net of reinsurance, related to Hurricane Ian. On a gross basis, prior to giving effect to our excess of loss reinsurance contract, we estimated our Property catastrophe losses and ALAE from Hurricane Ian were $1.0 billion at the end of
2022. We have responded, and plan to continue to respond, promptly to catastrophic events when they occur in order to provide exemplary claims service to our customers.
Changes in our estimate of our ultimate losses on current catastrophes along with potential future catastrophes could have a material impact on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. We reinsure various risks, including, but not limited to, catastrophic losses. We do not have catastrophe-specific reinsurance for our Personal Lines or commercial auto businesses, but we reinsure portions of our Property business. The Property business reinsurance programs include catastrophe occurrence excess of loss contracts and aggregate excess of loss contracts. We also purchase excess of loss reinsurance on our Protective Insurance workers’ compensation insurance.
We evaluate our reinsurance programs during the renewal process, if not more frequently, to ensure our programs continue to effectively address the company’s risk tolerance. As a result, during 2022, we entered into new reinsurance contracts under our occurrence excess of loss program for our Property business. The reinsurance program provides coverage, net of retention, of up to $2.5 billion if the first covered event occurs in Florida and up to $2.0 billion if the first covered event occurs outside of
App.-A-59
Florida. Coverage for a second event (and, potentially, for subsequent covered events) would depend on several factors, including the location and the extent of covered losses of the earlier events in the contract period. The per occurrence excess of loss program had a retention threshold for losses and ALAE from the first catastrophic event of $200 million, which is unchanged from the prior contracts, and a retention threshold for a second catastrophic event of $100 million. For 2023, the second catastrophic event retention for this coverage has been increased to $200 million. Portions of our reinsurance programs include reinstatement limits providing coverage for subsequent events, with some portions having an obligatory reinstatement of coverage. Reinstatement premiums would have no effect on our results of operations since, per our contracts, we have separate reinsurance to cover these situations.
For 2023, we entered into a new aggregate excess of loss reinsurance contract that has multiple layers of coverage, with the first retention layer threshold ranging from $500 million to $575 million, excluding named tropical storms and hurricanes, and the second retention layer threshold of $600 million, including named tropical storms and hurricanes. The first and second layers provide coverage up to $100 million and $85 million, respectively.
While the total coverage limit and per-event retention will evolve to fit the growth of our business, we expect to remain a consistent purchaser of reinsurance coverage. We were able to place our desired coverage at both June 1, 2022 and January 1, 2023 renewal events. While the cost of reinsurance in the markets in which we participate has continued to increase over the last two years and the availability of reinsurance is subject to many forces outside of our control, we did not, and do not expect to in the near term, experience a significant lack of availability of any of the types of reinsurance that we typically purchase. See Item 1A, Risk Factors in our 2022 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for the year ended December 31, 2022, for a discussion of certain risks related to catastrophe events and the potential impact of climate change. See Item 1, Business–Reinsurance on Form 10-K and Note 7 – Reinsurance for a discussion of our various reinsurance programs.
The following discussion of our severity and frequency trends in our personal auto business excludes comprehensive coverage because of its inherent volatility, as it is typically linked to catastrophic losses generally resulting from adverse weather. For our commercial auto products, the reported frequency and severity trends include comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage insures against damage to a customer’s vehicle due to various causes other than collision, such as windstorm, hail, theft, falling objects, and glass breakage.
Total personal auto incurred severity (i.e., average cost per claim, including both paid losses and the change in case
reserves) on a calendar-year basis, over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2022 | 20211 | 2020 | |||
| Bodily injury | 8 | % | 11 | % | 12 | % |
| Collision | 16 | 11 | 5 | |||
| Personal injury protection | (9) | 7 | 14 | |||
| Property damage | 20 | 8 | 9 | |||
| Total | 13 | 9 | 10 | |||
| 1Annualized year-over-2019 year |
The year-over-year increase for 2022, compared to 2021, in part, reflects the impact of inflation, which continues to increase the valuation of used vehicles and total loss, repair, and medical costs.
Consistent with our prior year reporting, the year-over-year changes for 2021 are compared to 2019 on a two-year annualized basis, which we believe is more insightful when trying to understand our loss results. We believe that the 2021 trends compared to 2020 would not be meaningful for our personal auto business due to the significant impacts that COVID-19 had on our 2020 trends as a result of many factors, including shelter-in-place requirements and the timing of salvage and subrogation collections.
On a calendar-year basis, our commercial auto products’ incurred severity, excluding Protective Insurance and our TNC business, increased 6% in 2022, compared to 14% in 2021 and 10% in 2020. In addition to general trends in the marketplace, the increase in our commercial auto products’ severity primarily reflects shifts in the mix of business to for-hire transportation, which has higher average severity than the business auto and contractor business market targets. Since the loss patterns in the TNC business are not indicative of our other commercial auto products, disclosing severity and frequency trends excluding that business is more representative of our overall experience for the majority of our commercial auto products.
It is a challenge to estimate future severity, but we continue to monitor changes in the underlying costs, such as general inflation, used car prices, vehicle repair costs, medical costs, health care reform, court decisions, and jury verdicts, along with regulatory changes and other factors that may affect severity.
App.-A-60
Our personal auto incurred frequency on a calendar-year basis, over the prior-year periods was as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage Type | 2022 | 20211 | 20202 | |||
| Bodily injury | (4) | % | (11) | % | (25) | % |
| Collision | (8) | (3) | (23) | |||
| Personal injury protection | (5) | (10) | (28) | |||
| Property damage | (5) | (11) | (27) | |||
| Total | (6) | (7) | (24) | |||
| 1Annualized year-over-2019 year | ||||||
| 2 Significant decreases reflected the decrease in vehicle miles traveled as a result of the shelter-in-place restrictions put in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19. |
As with our personal auto severity trends, comparing 2021 to 2019 instead of 2020 provides more meaningful comparisons due to the significant impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on frequency during 2020. For example, our total personal auto frequency increased 14% for 2021, compared to 2020, reflecting the decrease in vehicle miles travelled during 2020 that significantly reduced auto accident frequency.
On a calendar-year basis, our commercial auto products’ incurred frequency, excluding Protective Insurance and our TNC business, saw an increase of about 3% in 2022 and 9% in 2021, compared to a decrease of about 15% in 2020. On a calendar-year annualized basis, for 2021, incurred frequency decreased 4% compared to 2019. The frequency increase in 2022 was in part due to an uneven recovery across different commercial auto business markets in 2021, some of which have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels and are continuing to recover at varying rates since the COVID-19 pandemic lows.
We closely monitor the changes in frequency, but the degree or direction of near-term frequency change is not something that we are able to predict with any degree of confidence, and this challenge is exacerbated by the uncertainty of the current environment. We will continue to analyze trends to distinguish changes in our experience from other external factors, such as changes in the number of vehicles per household, miles driven, vehicle usage, gasoline prices, advances in vehicle safety, and unemployment rates, versus those resulting from shifts in the mix of our business or changes in driving patterns, to allow us to react quickly to price for these trends and to reserve more accurately for our loss exposures.
The table below presents the actuarial adjustments implemented and the loss reserve development experienced on a companywide basis in the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACTUARIAL ADJUSTMENTS | ||||||||
| Reserve decrease (increase) | ||||||||
| Prior accident years | $ | (105.5) | $ | (78.5) | $ | (27.5) | ||
| Current accident year | (83.8) | 103.9 | 68.4 | |||||
| Calendar year actuarial adjustments | $ | (189.3) | $ | 25.4 | $ | 40.9 | ||
| PRIOR ACCIDENT YEARS DEVELOPMENT | ||||||||
| Favorable (unfavorable) | ||||||||
| Actuarial adjustments | $ | (105.5) | $ | (78.5) | $ | (27.5) | ||
| All other development | 191.8 | 83.2 | (167.8) | |||||
| Total development | $ | 86.3 | $ | 4.7 | $ | (195.3) | ||
| (Increase) decrease to calendar year combined ratio | 0.2 | pts. | 0 | pts. | (0.5) | pts. |
Total development consists of both actuarial adjustments and “all other development” on prior accident years. The actuarial adjustments represent the net changes made by our actuarial staff to both current and prior accident year reserves based on regularly scheduled reviews. Through these reviews, our actuaries identify and measure variances in the projected frequency and severity trends, which allow them to adjust the reserves to reflect the current cost trends. For our Property business, 100% of catastrophe losses are reviewed monthly, and any development on catastrophe reserves are included as part of the actuarial adjustments. For the Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses, development for catastrophe losses in the vehicle businesses would be reflected in “all other development,” discussed below, to the extent they relate to prior year
reserves. We report these actuarial adjustments separately for the current and prior accident years to reflect these adjustments as part of the total prior accident years development.
“All other development” represents claims settling for more or less than reserved, emergence of unrecorded claims at rates different than anticipated in our incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves, and changes in reserve estimates on specific claims. Although we believe the development from both the actuarial adjustments and “all other development” generally results from the same factors, we are unable to quantify the portion of the reserve development that might be applicable to any one or more of those underlying factors.
App.-A-61
Our objective is to establish case and IBNR reserves that are adequate to cover all loss costs, while incurring minimal variation from the date the reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. Our ability to meet this objective is impacted by many factors. Changes in case law, particularly related to personal injury protection (PIP), can make it difficult to estimate reserves timely and with minimal variation. As reflected in the table above, we experienced favorable prior year development during both 2022 and 2021, compared to unfavorable prior year development in 2020.
Reserve development primarily related to the following:
•2022- Favorable development of $169 million in our Personal Lines segment was partially offset by unfavorable development of $82 million in Commercial Lines. The Personal Lines favorable development was primarily attributable to more subrogation and salvage recoveries and lower LAE than originally anticipated, partially offset by the higher than anticipated severity and frequency of auto property damage payments on previously closed claims and late reported injury claims. The unfavorable development in Commercial Lines was mostly driven by our TNC business, due to higher than anticipated severity of injury case reserves and higher than anticipated severity and frequency of late reported claims.
•2021- Favorable development of $127 million in our Personal Lines segment was offset by unfavorable development of $87 million in Commercial Lines and $36 million in Property. The Personal Lines development primarily reflected revised estimates of our per claim settlement costs, favorable PIP reform and litigation, partially offset by higher than anticipated bodily injury severity in our personal auto business. The unfavorable development in Commercial Lines was mostly due to an increase in bodily injury severity and the emergence of large bodily injury claims, while the Property business saw more previously closed claims reopen.
•2020 - Personal and Commercial Lines recognized unfavorable development of $111 million and $98 million, respectively, while our Property business had $14 million of favorable development. Higher than anticipated frequency of reopened PIP claims in our personal auto business and an increase in bodily injury severity and the emergence of large bodily injury claims in our Commercial Lines business drove the unfavorable development.
See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves, for a more detailed discussion of our prior accident years development.
Underwriting Expenses
Underwriting expenses include policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and, for 2020 only, policyholder credits. The underwriting expense ratio is our underwriting expenses, net of certain fees and other revenues, expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned. For 2022, our underwriting expense ratio was down 1.1 points, compared to the prior year. The decrease in the point impact reflects a year-over-year decrease in advertising spend during 2022 and a decrease in the costs related to our annual cash-incentive program (Gainshare), which measures segment profitability and growth in policies in force. In total, our advertising spend decreased 5% during 2022, compared to the prior year, as a result of an effort to improve profitability to reach our 96 combined ratio goal.
To analyze underwriting expenses, we also review our non-acquisition expense ratio (NAER), which excludes costs related to policy acquisition, including advertising and agency commissions, from our underwriting expense ratio. By excluding acquisition costs from our underwriting expense ratio, we are able to understand costs other than those necessary to acquire new policies and grow the business. In 2022, our NAER decreased 0.2 points and 0.3 points in our Personal Lines and Property businesses, respectively, and increased 0.2 points in our Commercial Lines business, compared to 2021.
App.-A-62
C. Growth
For our underwriting operations, we analyze growth in terms of both premiums and policies. Net premiums written represent the premiums from policies written during the period, less any premiums ceded to reinsurers. Net premiums earned, which are a function of the premiums written in the current and prior periods, are earned as revenue over the life of the policy using a daily earnings convention. Policies in force, our preferred measure of growth since it removes the variability due to rate changes or mix shifts, represents all policies under which coverage was in effect as of the end of the period specified.
| For the years ended December 31, | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | |||||||||||
| NET PREMIUMS WRITTEN | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 18,334.2 | 6 | % | $ | 17,257.9 | 7 | % | $ | 16,133.8 | 5 | % | |||||
| Direct | 20,944.3 | 11 | 18,910.9 | 10 | 17,208.8 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 39,278.5 | 9 | 36,168.8 | 8 | 33,342.6 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 9,398.8 | 17 | 8,015.9 | 51 | 5,315.3 | 11 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,401.7 | 8 | 2,216.2 | 16 | 1,910.8 | 13 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 2.1 | (51) | 4.3 | NM | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 51,081.1 | 10 | % | $ | 46,405.2 | 14 | % | $ | 40,568.7 | 8 | % | |||||
| NET PREMIUMS EARNED | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 17,744.7 | 5 | % | $ | 16,881.0 | 7 | % | $ | 15,789.5 | 6 | % | |||||
| Direct | 20,135.5 | 9 | 18,492.3 | 10 | 16,830.6 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 37,880.2 | 7 | 35,373.3 | 8 | 32,620.1 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 9,088.3 | 31 | 6,945.2 | 42 | 4,875.8 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,270.0 | 11 | 2,042.5 | 16 | 1,765.7 | 14 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 2.7 | (65) | 7.7 | NM | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 49,241.2 | 11 | % | $ | 44,368.7 | 13 | % | $ | 39,261.6 | 8 | % | |||||
| NM = Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Includes other underwriting business and run-off operations. | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||||||
| (# in thousands) | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | |||||||||||
| POLICIES IN FORCE | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency auto | 7,766.3 | (1) | % | 7,879.0 | 3 | % | 7,617.0 | 9 | % | ||||||||
| Direct auto | 10,131.0 | 6 | 9,568.2 | 8 | 8,881.4 | 13 | |||||||||||
| Total auto | 17,897.3 | 3 | 17,447.2 | 6 | 16,498.4 | 11 | |||||||||||
| Special lines1 | 5,558.1 | 5 | 5,288.5 | 8 | 4,915.1 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines — total | 23,455.4 | 3 | 22,735.7 | 6 | 21,413.5 | 10 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 1,046.4 | 8 | 971.2 | 18 | 822.0 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,851.3 | 3 | 2,776.2 | 12 | 2,484.4 | 13 | |||||||||||
| Companywide total | 27,353.1 | 3 | % | 26,483.1 | 7 | % | 24,719.9 | 11 | % |
1 Includes insurance for motorcycles, watercraft, RVs, and similar items.
To analyze growth, we review new policies, rate levels, and the retention characteristics of our segments. Although new policies are necessary to maintain a growing book of business, we recognize the importance of retaining our current customers as a critical component of our continued growth.
As shown in the tables below, we measure retention by policy life expectancy. We review our customer retention for our personal auto products using both a trailing 3-
month and a trailing 12-month period. We believe change in policy life expectancy using a trailing 12-month period measure is indicative of recent experience, mitigates the effects of month-to-month variability, and addresses seasonality. Although using a trailing 3-month measure is sensitive to seasonality and can reflect more volatility, this measure is more responsive to current experience and generally can be an indicator of how retention rates are moving.
App.-A-63
D. Personal Lines
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Personal Lines business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 1 | % | (2) | % | 3 | % |
| Renewal | 1 | 11 | 8 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 9 | 0 | (1) | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (9) | (1) | 7 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (22) | 2 | 10 |
New application growth in our Personal Lines products was up 1% during 2022, in part driven by competitor rate increases, primarily during the second half of the year, and targeted media spend. Our personal auto new application growth was up 2% and our special lines new application growth was down 5% during the year, with the special lines decrease primarily reflecting the significant new application growth experienced during 2021, due to growth in boat, RV, and motorcycle demand. During the year, our personal auto renewal applications were relatively unchanged from the prior year and our special lines products recorded an 8% increase in renewal applications.
Results varied by consumer segment. Personal auto policies in force grew by single digits across all segments except Sam, which experienced a single digit decline. New business application growth was also up across all segments except Sam during 2022. Quote volume increased in all consumer segments, with all consumer segments seeing a decreased rate of conversion. The increases we experienced in our quote volume primarily reflected competitors raising rates.
During 2022, we implemented personal auto rate increases in 49 states that, in the aggregate, on a countrywide basis, increased rates about 13% for the year. The rate increases, which started in the second quarter 2021 and continued throughout 2022, had a negative impact on our new and renewal business applications and policy life expectancy during 2022. During the second half of 2022, our trailing 3-month policy life expectancy, while still below the prior year, began to show signs of improvement.
Our written premium per policy increased during 2022, primarily due to the rate increases previously discussed. Our focus on achieving our target underwriting profitability takes precedence over growth. We will continue to manage growth and profitability in accordance with our long-standing goal of growing as fast as we can as long as we can provide high-quality customer service at or below a companywide 96 combined ratio on a calendar-year basis.
We report our Agency and Direct business results separately as components of our Personal Lines segment to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel. The channel discussions below are focused on personal auto insurance since this product accounted for 94% of the Personal Lines segment net premiums written during 2022.
The Agency Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | (3) | % | (8) | % | (5) | % |
| Renewal | (3) | 8 | 7 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 11 | 1 | 0 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (11) | (3) | 6 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (24) | 1 | 10 |
The Agency business includes business written by more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies that represent Progressive, as well as brokerages in New York and California. During 2022, 19 states generated new Agency auto application growth, including 3 of our top 10 largest Agency states. New applications decreased for the Sam and Robinsons consumer segments by low double and single digits, respectively, and increased for the Wrights and Diane by single digits through the Agency channel. Policies in force decreased in all consumer segments except the Wrights.
During 2022, we experienced a 15% year-over-year increase in Agency auto quotes and a 15% decrease in the rate of conversion, primarily due to the rate increases taken during 2021 and the first half of 2022. During the fourth quarter 2022, our rate of conversion increased over the same period in 2021, reflecting the rate increases that our competitors took during 2022. All consumer segments saw an increase in quote volume and a decrease in conversion compared to the prior year. Written premium per policy for new and renewal Agency auto business increased 9% and 11%, respectively, compared to 2021. The decreases in policy life expectancy were expected given the rate actions taken over the last year.
App.-A-64
The Direct Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | 6 | % | 0 | % | 5 | % |
| Renewal | 3 | 13 | 11 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 8 | (1) | (1) | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (6) | 2 | 6 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | (19) | 3 | 10 |
The Direct business includes business written directly by Progressive online, through our Progressive mobile app, and over the phone. During 2022, we generated new Direct auto application growth in 30 states and the District of Columbia, including 3 of our top 10 largest Direct states. Total auto applications increased 3% due to growth in both new and renewal applications, primarily in the second half of 2022. New applications and policies in force increased across all consumer segments except Sam.
During 2022, we experienced an increase in Direct auto quote volume of 8%, while our rate of conversion decreased 2% for the year but began increasing toward the end of the third quarter of 2022. In addition to competitors raising rates, we also experienced gains in the efficiency of our media spend during the second half of the year, which contributed to the increase in quotes and new applications. All consumer segments saw an increase in quotes. Sam and Diane saw declines in the rate of conversion, while Wrights and Robinsons saw low single digit increases.
Written premium per policy for new and renewal Direct auto business increased 6% and 8%, respectively, during 2022, compared to last year, primarily driven by rate increases. Consistent with our Agency business, the Direct business decrease in policy life expectancy reflected the rate actions taken over the last year.
E. Commercial Lines
Our Commercial Lines business operates in five traditional business markets, which include business auto, for-hire transportation, contractor, for-hire specialty, and tow markets, primarily written through the agency channel. We also write TNC business and BOP insurance. With the acquisition of Protective Insurance during 2021, we expanded our portfolio of offerings to larger fleet and workers’ compensation insurance for trucking, along with trucking industry independent contractors, and affinity programs.
The following table and discussion shows our Commercial Lines business, excluding our TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance products, which we refer to as our commercial auto product. Year-over-year changes in our commercial auto product were as follows:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | (1) | % | 27 | % | 5 | % |
| Renewal | 12 | 12 | 6 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 11 | 17 | 4 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (12) | 11 | 5 |
Our commercial auto product experienced a year-over-year decline in new application growth in 2022, primarily reflecting a slow down from the significant amount of growth experienced in 2021, mainly in our for-hire transportation and for-hire specialty business markets, and the softening of the freight market during the year. We experienced a 3% decrease in quote volume and a 3% increase in the rate of conversion in our commercial auto business during 2022, compared to 2021, primarily driven by the for-hire transportation market.
Written premium per policy for our new and renewal commercial auto policies increased 6% and 16%, respectively, in 2022, compared to last year. The increases were primarily due to rate increases. In aggregate, rate increases for commercial auto were about 6% in 2022. Our policy life expectancy decreased compared to 2021, mainly driven by our for-hire transportation business market. Given the rise in costs to operate a trucking business, many independent owner/operators have begun to migrate back to leasing with larger motor carriers.
App.-A-65
F. Property
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Property business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | (8) | % | 20 | % | 12 | % |
| Renewal | 8 | 10 | 14 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 6 | 1 | 0 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (7) | (9) | (3) |
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, in the agency and direct channels. During 2022, the Property business experienced a decrease in new applications, primarily due to rate increases and other non-rate actions taken to address the profitability concerns.
Improving profitability and reducing concentration exposure continued to be the top priority for our Property business during 2022. Due to our concentration of policies in catastrophe-exposed states, severe weather events generally have greater impact on our results compared to other national carriers. In response, we began implementing underwriting changes during the second half of 2021, which continued during 2022, to focus on improving profitability and reducing growth in coastal and hail-prone states. In addition, we increased rates an average of about 19% in our Property segment during 2022, with some of the larger increases in Florida and in hail-prone states, such as Colorado and Oklahoma.
The targeted rate increases taken during the year are beginning to be earned into the book of business; however, we realize that our rate actions and underwriting activities to limit growth in the coastal and hail-prone states and to increase our exposure in states with traditionally less catastrophe exposure will require more time than originally anticipated. Combined with the continued extent of the weather-related losses, this prompted us to reevaluate the portion of goodwill related to our 2015 acquisition of ARX and assigned to our Property business for impairment during the year, resulting in a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $224.8 million, which represented the entire amount of goodwill assigned to the Property business.
Our written premium per policy increased on a year-over-year basis, primarily attributable to rate increases, a portion of which were taken later in the year, and providing higher premium coverages to account for inflation. The written premium per policy increase was partially offset by a shift in the mix of business to a larger share of renters policies, which have lower written premiums per policy, and slower homeowners growth in volatile states that have higher average premiums. Our policy life expectancy decreased
compared to last year, primarily due to the targeted rate increases in states where we were not achieving our profitability targets. We intend to continue to make targeted rate increases in states where we believe it is necessary to achieve our profitability targets.
G. Litigation
The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries are named as defendants in various lawsuits arising out of claims made under insurance policies issued by its subsidiaries in the ordinary course of business. We consider all legal actions relating to such claims in establishing our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves.
In addition, various Progressive entities are named as defendants in a number of alleged class/collective/representative actions or individual lawsuits arising out of the operations of the insurance subsidiaries. These cases include those alleging damages as a result of, among other things, our practices in evaluating or paying medical or injury claims or benefits, including, but not limited to, personal injury protection, medical payments, uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist, bodily injury benefits, and workers’ compensation, and for reimbursing medical costs incurred by Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries; our practices in evaluating or paying physical damage claims, including, but not limited to, our payment of total loss claims, application of a negotiation adjustment in calculating total loss valuations, and labor rates paid to auto body repair shops; our insurance product design, including our response to the COVID-19 pandemic; employment matters; commercial disputes, including breach of contract; and cases challenging other aspects of our claims or marketing practices or other business operations. Other insurance companies and/or large employers face many of these same issues. During the last three years, we have settled several class/collective action and individual lawsuits. These settlements did not have a material effect on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. See Note 12 – Litigation for a more detailed discussion.
H. Income Taxes
At December 31, 2022, we had net current income taxes payable of $10.9 million, which were reported in accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities, compared to recoverable income taxes of $19.2 million at December 31, 2021, which were reported in other assets on our consolidated balance sheets. This balance may fluctuate between an asset and a liability from period to period due to normal timing differences. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
A deferred tax asset or liability is a tax benefit or expense, respectively, that is expected to be realized in a future tax return. At December 31, 2022, we reported a net deferred tax asset, compared to a net deferred tax liability at December 31, 2021. The change to a deferred asset from a
App.-A-66
deferred liability was primarily due to unrealized losses on securities in the fixed-income and equity portfolios occurring in 2022.
We are required to assess our deferred tax assets for recoverability and, based on our analysis, determined that we did not need a valuation allowance on our gross deferred tax assets for either year. Although realization of the gross deferred tax assets is not assured, management believes it is more likely than not that the gross deferred tax assets will be realized based on our expectation we will be able to fully utilize the deductions that are ultimately recognized for tax purposes. We believe our deferred tax asset related to net unrealized losses on fixed-maturity
securities will be realized based on the existence of prior year capital gains, current temporary differences related to unrealized gains in our equity portfolio, and other tax planning strategies.
Our effective tax rate was 22% for 2022, compared to 20% in both 2021 and 2020. The increase in the effective tax rate during 2022, compared to 2021 and 2020, was in part attributable to the goodwill impairment in 2022, which is not deductible for income tax purposes.
Consistent with prior years, we had no uncertain tax positions. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
IV. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – INVESTMENTS
A. Portfolio Summary
At year-end 2022, the fair value of our investment portfolio was $53.5 billion, compared to $51.5 billion at year-end 2021. The increase in value from year-end 2021 primarily reflected the proceeds of the $1.5 billion debt issuance in March 2022 and positive cash flows from our underwriting operations, offset by declines in the valuations of our portfolio. Our investment income (interest and dividends) increased 46% in 2022 and decreased 8% in 2021. This increase in 2022 was primarily due to an increase in interest rates on floating-rate securities in our portfolio and purchases of new investments with higher coupon rates, while the decrease in the prior year reflected lower yields partially offset by an increase in invested assets.
B. Investment Results
Our management philosophy governing the portfolio is to evaluate investment results on a total return basis. The fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return includes recurring investment income, adjusted to a fully taxable amount for certain securities that receive preferential tax treatment (e.g., municipal securities), and total net realized, and changes in total unrealized, gains (losses) on securities.
The following summarizes investment results for the years ended December 31:
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretax recurring investment book yield | 2.4 | % | 1.9 | % | 2.4 | % |
| FTE total return: | ||||||
| Fixed-income securities | (6.6) | (0.1) | 6.7 | |||
| Common stocks | (19.4) | 33.4 | 24.3 | |||
| Total portfolio | (7.8) | 2.6 | 7.9 |
The increase in the book yield during 2022 primarily reflected investing new cash from operations and proceeds from maturing bonds at higher interest rates and an increase in interest rates on our floating-rate securities. The decrease in the fixed-income total return, compared to last year, reflected the impact of rising interest rates during the last twelve months, as well as widening credit spreads, while the decrease in common stocks reflected general market conditions.
A further break-down of our FTE total returns for our fixed-income portfolio for the years ended December 31, follows:
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-income securities: | ||||||
| U.S. Treasury Notes | (7.8) | % | (1.2) | % | 7.4 | % |
| Municipal bonds | (8.3) | (0.2) | 9.4 | |||
| Corporate bonds | (6.0) | (0.4) | 8.4 | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 0.6 | 1.3 | 3.0 | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | (9.5) | 0.5 | 4.2 | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | (1.6) | 0.7 | 2.8 | |||
| Preferred stocks | (8.3) | 6.9 | 6.6 | |||
| Short-term investments | 1.5 | 0.1 | 1.0 |
App.-A-67
C. Portfolio Allocation
The composition of the investment portfolio at December 31, was:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Duration (years) | Average Rating1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 25,167.4 | 47.0 | % | 3.7 | AAA | |
| State and local government obligations | 1,977.1 | 3.7 | 3.5 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 15.5 | 0.1 | 3.5 | AAA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 9,412.7 | 17.6 | 2.8 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 666.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | A | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,663.5 | 8.7 | 2.7 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,564.6 | 8.5 | 1.1 | AA+ | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,397.5 | 2.6 | 2.8 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 2,861.7 | 5.4 | 0.1 | AAA- | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 50,726.8 | 94.8 | 2.9 | AA | |||
| Common equities | 2,821.5 | 5.2 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 53,548.3 | 100.0 | % | 2.9 | AA | |
| 2021 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 18,488.2 | 35.9 | % | 3.6 | AAA | |
| State and local government obligations | 2,185.3 | 4.2 | 3.6 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 17.9 | 0.1 | 4.5 | AAA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 10,692.1 | 20.7 | 2.9 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 790.0 | 1.5 | 0.4 | A- | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,535.6 | 12.7 | 3.2 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,982.3 | 9.7 | 1.2 | AA | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,821.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 942.6 | 1.8 | 0.2 | AA | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 46,455.6 | 90.2 | 3.0 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 5,058.5 | 9.8 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 51,514.1 | 100.0 | % | 3.0 | AA- | |
| na = not applicable |
1 Represents ratings at period end. Credit quality ratings are assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. To calculate the weighted average credit quality ratings, we weight individual securities based on fair value and assign a numeric score of 0-5, with non-investment-grade and non-rated securities assigned a score of 0-1. To the extent the weighted average of the ratings falls between AAA and AA+, we assign an internal rating of AAA-.
2 At December 31, 2022, we had $34.4 million of net unsettled security transactions included in other assets, compared to $143.4 million included in other liabilities at December 31, 2021.
The total fair value of the portfolio at December 31, 2022 and 2021, included $4.4 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company, net of any unsettled security transactions.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities.
We define Group I securities to include:
•common equities,
•nonredeemable preferred stocks,
•redeemable preferred stocks, except for 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends, which are included in Group II, and
•all other non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities.
Group II securities include:
•short-term securities, and
•all other fixed-maturity securities, including 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends.
We believe this asset allocation strategy allows us to appropriately assess the risks associated with these securities for capital purposes and is in line with the treatment by our regulators.
App.-A-68
The following table shows the composition of our Group I and Group II securities at December 31:
| 2022 | 2021 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | |||||||
| Group I securities: | |||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade fixed maturities | $ | 1,249.2 | 2.3 | % | $ | 2,032.4 | 3.9 | % | |||
| Redeemable preferred stocks1 | 92.1 | 0.2 | 90.9 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 1,213.2 | 2.3 | 1,639.9 | 3.2 | |||||||
| Common equities | 2,821.5 | 5.2 | 5,058.5 | 9.8 | |||||||
| Total Group I securities | 5,376.0 | 10.0 | 8,821.7 | 17.1 | |||||||
| Group II securities: | |||||||||||
| Other fixed maturities | 45,310.6 | 84.6 | 41,749.8 | 81.1 | |||||||
| Short-term investments | 2,861.7 | 5.4 | 942.6 | 1.8 | |||||||
| Total Group II securities | 48,172.3 | 90.0 | 42,692.4 | 82.9 | |||||||
| Total portfolio | $ | 53,548.3 | 100.0 | % | $ | 51,514.1 | 100.0 | % |
1 We held no non-investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks at December 31, 2022 or 2021.
To determine the allocation between Group I and Group II, we use the credit ratings from models provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for classifying our residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, excluding interest-only securities, and the credit ratings from nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) to classify all other debt securities. NAIC ratings are based on a model that considers the book price of our securities when assessing the probability of future losses in assigning a credit rating.
As a result, NAIC ratings can vary from credit ratings issued by NRSROs. Management believes NAIC ratings more accurately reflect our risk profile when determining the asset allocation between Group I and II securities.
The decrease in the percentage of Group I securities in 2022 was driven by sales and valuation declines in our common equity portfolio, with the proceeds from the common equity sales and the $1.5 billion debt offering in March 2022 reinvested in Group II short-term investments.
Unrealized Gains and Losses
As of December 31, 2022, our fixed-maturity portfolio had pretax net unrealized losses, recorded as part of accumulated other comprehensive income, of $3,537.6 million, compared to net unrealized gains of $71.4 million at December 31, 2021. The decrease from 2021 was due to increasing interest rates across our fixed-maturity portfolio and wider credit spreads outside of our short-term and Treasury portfolios. See Note 2 – Investments for a further break-out of our gross unrealized gains (losses).
App.-A-69
Holding Period Gains (Losses)
The following table provides the balance and activity for both the gross and net holding period gains (losses) for 2022:
| (millions) | Gross Holding Period Gains | Gross Holding Period Losses | Net Holding Period Gains (Losses) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at December 31, 2021 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | $ | 13.0 | $ | (5.5) | $ | 7.5 | ||
| Equity securities1 | 3,877.2 | (14.7) | 3,862.5 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | 3,890.2 | (20.2) | 3,870.0 | |||||
| Current year change in holding period securities | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | (11.7) | (70.3) | (82.0) | |||||
| Equity securities1 | (1,850.6) | (167.5) | (2,018.1) | |||||
| Total changes in holding period securities | (1,862.3) | (237.8) | (2,100.1) | |||||
| Balance at December 31, 2022 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 1.3 | (75.8) | (74.5) | |||||
| Equity securities1 | 2,026.6 | (182.2) | 1,844.4 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | $ | 2,027.9 | $ | (258.0) | $ | 1,769.9 |
1Equity securities include common equities and nonredeemable preferred stocks.
Changes in holding period gains (losses), similar to unrealized gains (losses) in our fixed-maturity portfolio, are the result of changes in market performance as well as sales of securities based on various portfolio management decisions.
Fixed-Income Securities
The fixed-income portfolio is managed internally and includes fixed-maturity securities, short-term investments, and nonredeemable preferred stocks. Following are the primary exposures for the fixed-income portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk This risk includes the change in value resulting from movements in the underlying market rates of debt securities held. We manage this risk by maintaining the portfolio’s duration (a measure of the portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates) between 1.5 and 5 years. The duration of the fixed-income portfolio was 2.9 years at December 31, 2022, compared to 3.0 years at December 31, 2021. The distribution of duration and convexity (i.e., a measure of the speed at which the duration of a security is expected to change based on a rise or fall in interest rates) is monitored on a regular basis.
The duration distribution of our fixed-income portfolio, excluding short-term investments, represented by the interest rate sensitivity of the comparable benchmark U.S. Treasury Notes, at December 31, was:
| Duration Distribution | 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 17.5 | % | 22.0 | % |
| 2 years | 16.9 | 18.8 | ||
| 3 years | 21.3 | 23.5 | ||
| 5 years | 25.1 | 17.6 | ||
| 7 years | 14.0 | 13.1 | ||
| 10 years | 5.2 | 5.0 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
Credit Risk This exposure is managed by
maintaining an A+ minimum average portfolio credit
quality rating, as defined by NRSROs. At December 31, 2022, our credit quality rating was AA and at December 31, 2021 our credit quality rating was AA-. The credit quality distribution of the fixed-income portfolio at December 31, was:
| Average Rating | 2022 | 2021 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | 65.5 | % | 54.7 | % |
| AA | 6.4 | 8.7 | ||
| A | 7.6 | 8.6 | ||
| BBB | 17.2 | 21.7 | ||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated:1 | ||||
| BB | 2.5 | 4.8 | ||
| B | 0.5 | 1.1 | ||
| CCC and lower | 0.1 | 0.1 | ||
| Non-rated | 0.2 | 0.3 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
1 The ratings in the table above are assigned by NRSROs.
Concentration Risk Our investment constraints limit investment in a single issuer, other than U.S. Treasury Notes or a state’s general obligation bonds, to 2.5% of shareholders’ equity, while the single issuer guideline on preferred stocks and/or non-investment-grade debt is 1.25% of shareholders’ equity. Additionally, the guideline applicable to any state’s general obligation bonds is 6% of shareholders’ equity. We consider concentration risk both overall and in the context of individual asset classes and sectors, including but not limited to common equities,
App.-A-70
residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, and high-yield bonds. At December 31, 2022 and 2021, we were within all of the constraints described above.
Prepayment and Extension Risk We are exposed to this risk especially in our asset-backed (i.e., structured product) and preferred stock portfolios. Prepayment risk includes the risk of early redemption of security principal that may need to be reinvested at less attractive rates. Extension risk includes the risk that a security will not be redeemed when anticipated, and that the security that is extended will have a lower yield than a security we might be able to obtain by reinvesting the expected redemption principal. Our holdings of different types of structured debt and preferred securities help manage this risk. During 2022 and 2021, we did not experience significant adverse prepayment or extension of principal relative to our cash flow expectations in the portfolio.
Liquidity Risk Our overall portfolio remains very liquid and we believe that it is sufficient to meet expected near-term liquidity requirements. The short-to-intermediate duration of our portfolio provides a source of liquidity, as we expect approximately $7.8 billion, or 36.0%, of principal repayment from our fixed-income portfolio, excluding U.S. Treasury Notes and short-term investments, during 2023. Cash from interest and dividend payments provides an additional source of recurring liquidity.
The duration of our U.S. government obligations, which are included in the fixed-income portfolio, was comprised of the following at December 31, 2022:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Duration (years) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Treasury Notes | |||||
| Less than one year | $ | 834.0 | 0.7 | ||
| One to two years | 5,565.6 | 1.5 | |||
| Two to three years | 3,984.0 | 2.5 | |||
| Three to five years | 8,303.4 | 4.1 | |||
| Five to seven years | 4,476.4 | 5.6 | |||
| Seven to ten years | 2,004.0 | 7.9 | |||
| Total U.S. Treasury Notes | $ | 25,167.4 | 3.7 |
ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES
Included in the fixed-income portfolio are asset-backed securities, which were comprised of the following at December 31:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Net Unrealized Gains (Losses) | % of Asset- Backed Securities | Duration (years) | Average Rating(at period end)1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 666.8 | $ | (17.2) | 6.7 | % | 0.4 | A | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 4,663.5 | (782.5) | 47.1 | 2.7 | A+ | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,564.6 | (259.6) | 46.2 | 1.1 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 9,894.9 | $ | (1,059.3) | 100.0 | % | 1.8 | AA- | |||
| 2021 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 790.0 | $ | 1.7 | 6.4 | % | 0.4 | A- | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,535.6 | (25.4) | 53.1 | 3.2 | A+ | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,982.3 | 0.9 | 40.5 | 1.2 | AA | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 12,307.9 | $ | (22.8) | 100.0 | % | 2.2 | AA- |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs.
App.-A-71
Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our RMBS, along with the loan classification and a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2022, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2022) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Non-Agency | Government/GSE2 | Total | % of Total | ||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 124.4 | $ | 1.2 | $ | 125.6 | 18.8 | % | ||||||
| AA | 24.7 | 0.4 | 25.1 | 3.8 | ||||||||||
| A | 392.2 | 0 | 392.2 | 58.8 | ||||||||||
| BBB | 115.3 | 0 | 115.3 | 17.3 | ||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||
| BB | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 | 0.1 | ||||||||||
| B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 2.1 | 0 | 2.1 | 0.3 | ||||||||||
| Non-rated | 6.0 | 0 | 6.0 | 0.9 | ||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 665.2 | $ | 1.6 | $ | 666.8 | 100.0 | % | ||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | (4.2) | % | (4.1) | % | (4.2) | % |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our RMBS, 98% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
2 The securities in this category are insured by a Government Sponsored Entity (GSE) and/or collateralized by mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
In the residential mortgage-backed sector, our portfolio consists of bonds that are backed by high-quality borrowers in the underlying mortgages or have strong structural protections. During 2022, we selectively added to our portfolio and opportunistically sold some of the securities at attractive levels.
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our CMBS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2022, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2022) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Average Rating1 | Multi-Borrower | Single-Borrower | Total | % of Total | |||||||
| AAA | $ | 216.9 | $ | 1,213.9 | $ | 1,430.8 | 30.7 | % | |||
| AA | 0 | 989.2 | 989.2 | 21.2 | |||||||
| A | 0 | 933.8 | 933.8 | 20.0 | |||||||
| BBB | 0 | 931.6 | 931.6 | 20.0 | |||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 378.1 | 378.1 | 8.1 | |||||||
| B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 216.9 | $ | 4,446.6 | $ | 4,663.5 | 100.0 | % | |||
| Increase (decrease) in value | (6.4) | % | (14.7) | % | (14.4) | % |
1The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our CMBS, 31% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
The CMBS portfolio experienced wider spreads and high volatility in 2022. New issuance in the single-asset single-borrower (SASB) market slowed significantly in the second half of the year due to less favorable market conditions, as well as low trading volumes and liquidity in
the secondary trading market. Given ongoing uncertainty about future trajectory of the economy and its impact on real estate, we reduced certain positions that we believed would be sensitive to potential future economic weakness.
App.-A-72
Other Asset-Backed Securities (OABS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our OABS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2022, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Other Asset-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2022) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) Average Rating | Automobile | Collateralized Loan Obligations | Student Loan | Whole Business Securitizations | Equipment | Other | Total | % of Total | |||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 1,007.6 | $ | 1,115.2 | $ | 41.3 | $ | 0 | $ | 535.0 | $ | 185.6 | $ | 2,884.7 | 63.2 | % | |||||||
| AA | 96.5 | 575.0 | 5.2 | 0 | 79.7 | 21.6 | 778.0 | 17.0 | |||||||||||||||
| A | 15.8 | 0 | 6.9 | 0 | 110.2 | 135.1 | 268.0 | 5.9 | |||||||||||||||
| BBB | 6.7 | 0 | 0 | 563.4 | 0 | 34.2 | 604.3 | 13.2 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29.6 | 29.6 | 0.7 | |||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,126.6 | $ | 1,690.2 | $ | 53.4 | $ | 563.4 | $ | 724.9 | $ | 406.1 | $ | 4,564.6 | 100.0 | % | |||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | (1.5) | % | (5.0) | % | (10.5) | % | (13.7) | % | (1.9) | % | (10.2) | % | (5.4) | % |
As valuations across other asset classes were more attractive, we maintained our allocation to the OABS portfolio fairly consistently over the last 12 months.
MUNICIPAL SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our municipal securities at December 31, 2022, without the benefit of credit or bond insurance:
| Municipal Securities (at December 31, 2022) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | General Obligations | Revenue Bonds | Total | |||||
| AAA | $ | 588.0 | $ | 238.7 | $ | 826.7 | ||
| AA | 432.0 | 678.6 | 1,110.6 | |||||
| A | 0 | 37.5 | 37.5 | |||||
| BBB | 0 | 2.1 | 2.1 | |||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | |||||
| Total | $ | 1,020.0 | $ | 957.1 | $ | 1,977.1 |
Included in revenue bonds were $480.2 million of single-family housing revenue bonds issued by state housing finance agencies, of which $314.1 million were supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies and $166.1 million were supported by mortgage-backed securities.
Of the programs supported by mortgage-backed securities, 84% were collateralized by Ginnie Mae mortgages, which are fully guaranteed by the U.S. government; the remaining 16% were collateralized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. Of the programs supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies, the overall credit quality rating was AA+. Most of these mortgages were supported by FHA, VA, or private mortgage insurance providers.
Credit spreads of tax-exempt municipal bonds tightened during 2022, while spreads of taxable municipal bonds widened. Our allocation to this sector declined modestly during the year.
App.-A-73
CORPORATE SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our corporate securities at December 31, 2022:
| Corporate Securities (at December 31, 2022) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Average Rating | Consumer | Industrial | Communication | Financial Services | Technology | Basic Materials | Energy | Total | ||||||||||||||||
| AA | $ | 22.4 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 329.0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 41.4 | $ | 392.8 | ||||||||
| A | 386.6 | 281.7 | 158.4 | 1,066.5 | 28.5 | 113.4 | 183.7 | 2,218.8 | ||||||||||||||||
| BBB | 2,178.0 | 1,228.8 | 114.7 | 935.3 | 472.9 | 12.6 | 901.4 | 5,843.7 | ||||||||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 204.7 | 107.2 | 194.5 | 91.5 | 33.2 | 0 | 31.0 | 662.1 | ||||||||||||||||
| B | 214.7 | 7.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 24.4 | 0 | 246.2 | ||||||||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 49.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49.1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 3,055.5 | $ | 1,624.8 | $ | 467.6 | $ | 2,422.3 | $ | 534.6 | $ | 150.4 | $ | 1,157.5 | $ | 9,412.7 |
The size of our corporate debt portfolio decreased to $9.4 billion at December 31, 2022 from $10.7 billion at December 31, 2021. This decrease was due to securities that matured and a decline in the portfolio valuation due to the increase in interest rates.
We slightly shortened the maturity profile of the corporate debt portfolio during 2022. The duration of the corporate portfolio was 2.8 years at December 31, 2022, compared to
2.9 years at December 31, 2021. Overall, our corporate securities, as a percentage of the fixed-income portfolio, decreased during 2022. At December 31, 2022, our corporate debt securities made up approximately 19% of the fixed-income portfolio, compared to approximately 23% at December 31, 2021. This decrease reflects our more conservative stance in the economic environment prevailing during the year.
PREFERRED STOCKS – REDEEMABLE AND NONREDEEMABLE
The table below shows the exposure break-down for our preferred stocks by sector and rating at year end:
| Preferred Stocks (at December 31, 2022) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial services | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (millions) Average Rating | U.S. Banks | Foreign Banks | Insurance | Other Financial | Industrials | Utilities | Total | |||||||||||||
| BBB | $ | 742.9 | $ | 34.4 | $ | 95.2 | $ | 27.9 | $ | 134.7 | $ | 42.7 | $ | 1,077.8 | ||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 135.4 | 38.1 | 0 | 0 | 24.8 | 37.6 | 235.9 | |||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 43.8 | 23.6 | 16.4 | 0 | 83.8 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 878.3 | $ | 72.5 | $ | 139.0 | $ | 51.5 | $ | 175.9 | $ | 80.3 | $ | 1,397.5 |
The majority of our preferred securities have fixed-rate dividends until a call date and then, if not called, generally convert to floating-rate dividends. The interest rate duration of our preferred securities is calculated to reflect the call, floor, and floating-rate features. Although a preferred security will remain outstanding if not called, its interest rate duration will reflect the variable nature of the dividend. Our non-investment-grade preferred stocks were with issuers that maintain investment-grade senior debt ratings.
We also face the risk that dividend payments on our preferred stock holdings could be deferred for one or more
periods or skipped entirely. As of December 31, 2022, all of our preferred securities continued to pay their dividends in full and on time. Approximately 80% of our preferred stock securities pay dividends that have tax preferential characteristics, while the balance pay dividends that are fully taxable.
During 2022, our preferred portfolio declined to $1.4 billion at December 31, 2022, from $1.8 billion at December 31, 2021. This decline is primarily due to a decrease in the market valuation of preferred securities as credit spreads widened and interest rates increased.
App.-A-74
Common Equities
Common equities, as reported on the consolidated balance sheets at December 31, were comprised of the following:
| ($ in millions) | 2022 | 2021 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common stocks | $ | 2,801.7 | 99.3 | % | $ | 5,041.6 | 99.7 | % | |||
| Other risk investments1 | 19.8 | 0.7 | 16.9 | 0.3 | |||||||
| Total common equities | $ | 2,821.5 | 100.0 | % | $ | 5,058.5 | 100.0 | % |
1The other risk investments consist of limited partnership interests.
The majority of our common stock portfolio consists of individual holdings selected based on their contribution to the correlation with the Russell 1000 Index. We held 789 out of 1,010, or 78%, of the common stocks comprising the index at December 31, 2022, which made up 95% of the total market capitalization of the index. At December 31, 2022 and 2021, the year-to-date total return of the indexed
portfolio, based on GAAP income, was within our targeted tracking error, which is +/- 50 basis points.
During 2022, we sold common equity securities, which were in a realized gain position, as part of our plan to incrementally reduce risk in the portfolio in response to the likelihood of a more difficult economic environment over the near term.
The following is a summary of our indexed common stock portfolio holdings by sector compared to the Russell 1000 Index composition:
| Sector | Equity Portfolio Allocation at December 31, 2022 | Russell 1000 Allocation at December 31, 2022 | Russell 1000 Sector Return in 2022 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer discretionary | 13.5 | % | 14.1 | % | (34.8) | % |
| Consumer staples | 5.9 | 6.3 | 3.5 | |||
| Financial services | 12.0 | 11.3 | (11.0) | |||
| Health care | 15.1 | 14.4 | (4.0) | |||
| Materials and processing | 2.0 | 2.2 | (8.8) | |||
| Other energy | 5.1 | 5.2 | 61.5 | |||
| Producer durable | 13.7 | 13.3 | (13.2) | |||
| Real estate | 2.8 | 3.1 | (25.4) | |||
| Technology | 24.0 | 24.1 | (34.6) | |||
| Telecommunications | 2.9 | 2.7 | (21.2) | |||
| Utilities | 3.0 | 3.3 | 0.6 | |||
| Total common stocks | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | (19.1) | % |
For 2022, our common stock portfolio FTE total return was (19.4)%, compared to (19.1)% for the Russell 1000 Index, due to common stocks we hold outside of the index.
App.-A-75
V. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Progressive is required to make certain estimates and assumptions when preparing its financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with GAAP. Actual results could differ from those estimates in a variety of areas. The two areas we view as most critical with respect to the application of estimates and assumptions is the establishment of our loss reserves and the methods for measuring expected credit losses on financial instruments.
A. Loss and LAE Reserves
Loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves represent our best estimate of our ultimate liability for losses and LAE relating to events that occurred prior to the end of any given accounting period but have not yet been paid. At December 31, 2022, we had $24.8 billion of net loss and LAE reserves (net of reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses), which included $19.7 billion of case reserves and $5.1 billion of incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves. Personal auto liability and commercial auto liability reserves represent approximately 90% of our total carried net reserves. For this reason, the following discussion focuses on our vehicle businesses.
We do not review our loss reserves on a macro level and, therefore, do not derive a companywide range of reserves to compare to a standard deviation. Instead, we review a large majority of our reserves by product/state subset combinations on a quarterly time frame, with the remaining reserves generally reviewed on a semiannual basis. A change in our scheduled reviews of a particular subset of the business depends on the size of the subset or emerging issues relating to the product or state. By reviewing the reserves at such a detailed level, we have the ability to identify and measure variances in the trends by state, product, and line coverage that otherwise would not be seen on a consolidated basis. We believe our comprehensive process of reviewing at a subset level provides us more meaningful estimates of our aggregate loss reserves.
In analyzing the ultimate accident year loss and LAE experience, our actuarial staff reviews in detail, at the subset level, frequency (number of losses per earned car year), severity (dollars of loss per each claim), and average premium (dollars of premium per earned car year), as well as the frequency and severity of our LAE costs. The loss ratio, a primary measure of loss experience, is equal to the product of frequency times severity divided by the average premium. The average premium for personal and
commercial auto businesses is not estimated. The actual frequency experienced will vary depending on the change in the mix in class of drivers we insure, but the IBNR frequency projections for these lines of business are generally stable in the short term, because a large majority of the parties involved in an accident report their claims within a short time period after the occurrence. The severity experienced by Progressive is much more difficult to estimate, especially for injury claims, since severity is affected by changes in underlying costs, such as medical costs, jury verdicts, judicial interpretations, and regulatory changes. In addition, severity will vary relative to the change in our mix of business by limit.
Assumptions regarding needed reserve levels made by the actuarial staff take into consideration influences on available historical data that reduce the predictiveness of our projected future loss costs. Internal considerations that are process-related, which generally result from changes in our claims organization’s activities, include claim closure rates, the number of claims that are closed without payment, and the level of the claims representatives’ estimates of the needed case reserve for each claim. These changes and their effect on the historical data are studied at the state level versus on a larger, less indicative, countrywide basis.
External items considered include the litigation atmosphere, changes in medical costs, and the availability of services to resolve claims. These also are better understood at the state level versus at a more macro, countrywide level. These items, as well as additional considerations such as the type of accident and change in reporting patterns, are closely monitored.
At December 31, 2022, we had $30.4 billion of carried gross reserves and $24.8 billion of net reserves. Our net reserve balance assumes that the loss and LAE severity for accident year 2022 over accident year 2021 would be 9.1% higher for personal auto liability and 8.9% higher for commercial auto liability. As discussed above, the severity estimates are influenced by many variables that are difficult to precisely quantify and which influence the final amount of claims settlements. That, coupled with changes in internal claims practices, the legal environment, and state regulatory requirements, requires significant judgment in the estimate of the needed reserves to be carried.
App.-A-76
The following table highlights what the effect would be to our carried loss and LAE reserves, on a net basis, as of December 31, 2022, if during 2023 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the 2022 accident year (i.e., claims that occurred in 2022):
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Year 2022 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 14,368.4 | $ | 14,695.0 | $ | 15,021.6 | $ | 15,348.2 | $ | 15,674.8 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 7,144.1 | 7,239.7 | 7,335.3 | 7,430.9 | 7,526.5 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 23,955.7 | $ | 24,377.9 | $ | 24,800.1 | $ | 25,222.3 | $ | 25,644.5 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2022 accident year would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $163.3 million and our commercial auto reserves by $47.8 million.
Our 2022 year-end loss and LAE reserve balance also includes claims from prior years. Claims that occurred in 2022, 2021, and 2020, in the aggregate, accounted for approximately 92% of our reserve balance. If during 2023 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the total of the prior three accident years (i.e., 2022, 2021, and 2020), the effect to our year-end 2022 reserve balances would be as follows:
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Years 2022, 2021, and 2020 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 13,259.2 | $ | 14,140.4 | $ | 15,021.6 | $ | 15,902.8 | $ | 16,784.0 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 6,889.7 | 7,112.5 | 7,335.3 | 7,558.1 | 7,780.9 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | 2,443.2 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 22,592.1 | $ | 23,696.1 | $ | 24,800.1 | $ | 25,904.1 | $ | 27,008.1 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2022, 2021, and 2020 accident years would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $440.6 million and our commercial auto reserves by $111.4 million.
Our best estimate of the appropriate amount for our reserves as of year-end 2022 is included in our financial statements for the year. Our goal is to ensure that total reserves are adequate to cover all loss costs, while sustaining minimal variation from the time reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. At the point in time when reserves are set, we have no way of knowing whether our reserve estimates will prove to be high or low, or whether one of the alternative scenarios discussed above is reasonably likely to occur. The above tables show the potential favorable or unfavorable development we will realize if our estimates miss by 2% or 4%.
B. Credit Losses on Financial Instruments
An allowance for credit losses is established when the ultimate realization of a financial instrument is determined to be impaired due to a credit event. Measurement of expected credit losses is based on judgment when considering relevant information about past events, including historical loss experience, current conditions, and forecasts of the collectability of the reported financial instrument. The allowance for expected credit losses is measured and recorded at the point ultimate recoverability of the financial instrument is expected to be impaired, including upon the initial recognition of the financial instrument, where warranted. We evaluate financial instrument credit losses related to our available-for-sale securities, reinsurance recoverables, and premiums receivables. Due to the complex nature in evaluating credit loss for our available-for-sale financial instruments, we view the estimates and assumptions used in our analysis as critical.
We routinely monitor our fixed-maturity portfolio for pricing changes that might indicate potential losses exist and perform detailed reviews of securities with unrealized losses to determine if an allowance for credit losses, a change to an existing allowance (recovery or additional loss), or a write-off for an amount deemed uncollectible needs to be recorded. In such cases, changes in fair value are evaluated to determine the extent to which such changes are attributable to: (i) credit related losses, which are specific to the issuer (e.g., financial conditions, business prospects) where the present value of cash flows expected to be collected is lower than the amortized cost basis of the security or (ii) market related factors, such as interest rates or credit spreads.
If we do not expect to hold the security to allow for a potential recovery of those expected losses, we will write down the security to fair value and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement.
App.-A-77
For securities whose losses are credit related losses, and for which we do not intend to sell in the near term, we will review the non-market components to determine if a potential future credit loss exists, based on available financial data related to the fixed-maturity securities. If we project that a credit loss exists, we will record an allowance for the credit loss and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement. For all securities for which an allowance for credit losses has been established, we will re-evaluate the securities, at least quarterly, to determine if further deterioration has occurred or if we project a subsequent recovery in the expected losses, which would require an adjustment to the allowance for credit losses. To the extent we determine that we will likely sell a security prior to recovery of the credit loss, or if the loss is
deemed uncollectible, we will write down the security to its fair value and reverse any credit loss allowance that may have been previously recorded.
For an unrealized loss that is determined to be related to current market conditions, we will not record an allowance for credit losses or a write down to fair value. We will continue to monitor these securities to determine if underlying factors other than the current market conditions are contributing to the loss in value.
Based on an analysis of our fixed-maturity portfolio, we have determined our allowance for credit losses related to available-for-sale securities was not material to our financial condition or results of operations for the periods ending December 31, 2022 and 2021.
App.-A-78
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this report not based upon historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often use words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “goal,” “target,” “anticipate,” “will,” “could,” “likely,” “may,” “should,” and other words and terms of similar meaning, or are tied to future periods, in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, are based on current expectations and projections about future events, and are subject to certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainties related to:
•our ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and to charge adequate rates to policyholders;
•our ability to establish accurate loss reserves;
•the impact of severe weather, other catastrophe events and climate change;
•the effectiveness of our reinsurance programs and the continued availability of reinsurance and performance by reinsurers;
•the secure and uninterrupted operation of the systems, facilities and business functions and the operation of various third-party systems that are critical to our business;
•the impacts of a security breach or other attack involving our technology systems or the systems of one or more of our vendors;
•our ability to maintain a recognized and trusted brand and reputation;
•whether we innovate effectively and respond to our competitors’ initiatives;
•whether we effectively manage complexity as we develop and deliver products and customer experiences;
•our ability to attract, develop and retain talent and maintain appropriate staffing levels;
•the impact of misconduct or fraudulent acts by employees, agents, and third parties to our business and/or exposure to regulatory assessments;
•the highly competitive nature of property-casualty insurance markets;
•whether we adjust claims accurately;
•compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
•litigation challenging our business practices, and those of our competitors and other companies;
•the success of our business strategy and efforts to acquire or develop new products or enter into new areas of business and navigate related risks;
•how intellectual property rights affect our competitiveness and our business operations;
•the performance of our fixed-income and equity investment portfolios;
•the impact on our investment returns and strategies from regulations and societal pressures relating to environmental, social, governance and other public policy matters;
•the elimination of the London Interbank Offered Rate;
•our continued ability to access our cash accounts and/or convert investments into cash on favorable terms;
•the impact if one or more parties with which we enter into significant contracts or transact business fail to perform;
•legal restrictions on our insurance subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to The Progressive Corporation;
•limitations on our ability to pay dividends on our common shares under the terms of our outstanding preferred shares;
•our ability to obtain capital when necessary to support our business and potential growth;
•evaluations by credit rating and other rating agencies;
•the variable nature of our common share dividend policy;
•whether our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects generate the anticipated returns;
•the impact from not managing to short-term earnings expectations in light of our goal to maximize the long-term value of the enterprise;
•the impacts of epidemics, pandemics or other widespread health risks; and
•other matters described from time to time in our releases and publications, and in our periodic reports and other documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2022.
Any forward-looking statements are made only as of the date presented. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments or otherwise.
In addition, investors should be aware that accounting principles generally accepted in the United States prescribe when a company may reserve for particular risks, including litigation exposures. Accordingly, results for a given reporting period could be significantly affected if and when we establish reserves for one or more contingencies. Also, our regular reserve reviews may result in adjustments of varying magnitude as additional information regarding claims activity becomes known. Reported results, therefore, may be volatile in certain accounting periods.
App.-A-79
FY 2021 10-K MD&A
SEC filing source: 0000080661-22-000046.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A) is intended to help the reader understand our financial condition and results of operations. MD&A should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes, and supplemental information.
I. OVERVIEW
The Progressive insurance organization has been offering insurance to consumers since 1937. The Progressive Corporation is a holding company that does not have any revenue producing operations, physical property, or employees of its own. The Progressive Corporation, together with its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries and affiliates, comprise what we refer to as Progressive.
We report three operating segments. Our Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos and recreational vehicles (referred to as our special lines products). Our Commercial Lines segment writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, workers’ compensation insurance primarily for the transportation industry, and business-related general liability and property insurance, predominately for small businesses. Our Property segment writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters. We operate throughout the United States through both the independent agency and direct distribution channels. We are the third largest private passenger auto insurer in the country, the number one writer of commercial auto insurance, and one of the top 15 homeowners insurance carriers, in each case, based on premiums written.
Our underwriting operations, combined with our service and investment operations, make up the consolidated group.
A. Operating Results
On a year-over-year basis, net income and comprehensive income decreased 41% and 61%, respectively. Underwriting income decreased 57% on a year-over-year basis, and investment income was down 8%, which reflects a lower portfolio yield in 2021, compared to 2020, partially offset by an increase in average assets during the year. In addition, unrealized gains on our fixed-maturity securities decreased $891.1 million in 2021, compared to an increase of $586.5 million in the prior year, primarily reflecting an increase in interest rates and narrowing credit spreads during 2021.
We generated a 4.7% underwriting profit margin during 2021, which was better than our goal of achieving an aggregate 4% margin for the year, although well below the 12.3% underwriting profit margin in 2020. The strong profitability in 2020, reflected the lower losses we incurred due to the federal, state, and local social distancing and shelter-in-place restrictions that were put in place to stop or
slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. We continued to enjoy strong margins at the beginning of 2021, however, starting in the second quarter, as states started to lift restrictions and miles driven started to return to near pre-pandemic levels, we began to see frequency and severity patterns shift.
The decreased underwriting profitability in 2021 primarily reflected an increase in the loss and loss adjustment expense ratio due to a 14% increase in personal auto accident frequency and a 9% increase in personal auto accident severity on a year-over-year basis. We saw both vehicle miles traveled and claims frequency per mile traveled increase relative to 2020. During the year, U.S. inflation rates experienced their largest annual increase in nearly 40 years and used car values increased materially, which put pressure on our average claims cost. In addition to rising frequency and severity, Hurricane Ida, our costliest storm in terms of loss costs, reduced our profitability with nearly $420 million in losses, or 0.9 points.
With our dedication to achieve our target goal of a 96 combined ratio for our underwriting operations, throughout 2021, we filed personal auto rate changes where appropriate, including rate increases in 35 states, with net rate increases, in the aggregate of about 8%. Management continues to assess miles driven, driving patterns, loss severity, weather events, inflation, and other components of expected loss costs on a state-by-state basis and will continue to file for rate adjustments where deemed necessary.
In addition to rate actions, we also tightened underwriting criteria and took other non-rate measures during the year where losses indicated rate inadequacy. We reduced spend, in certain types of advertising, based on performance against our media and underwriting targets. Our total advertising spend during 2021 was 2% lower than the prior year. Consistent with rate actions, management will continue to assess where additional non-rate actions may be needed.
These rate and non-rate measures resulted in fewer new business auto applications during the year, and could impact growth in future periods. Nevertheless, we strongly believe that reaching our target profit margin takes precedence over growing premiums and these steps are necessary to get us well positioned for the future.
App.-A-51
Despite raising rates, implementing underwriting restrictions, and taking other non-rate actions, we recognized growth in both policies in force and premiums during 2021. We added 1.8 million policies bringing companywide policies in force to 26.5 million at December 31, 2021, a 7% increase over last year end. Net premiums written grew 14% to end the year at $46.4 billion, $5.8 billion more premiums written than 2020.
We ended 2021 with total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $23.1 billion, $0.7 billion more than 2020. The year-over-year increase primarily reflects our comprehensive income, in part offset by our common and preferred share dividends of $1.1 billion, the maturity of our $500 million 3.75% Senior Notes, and common share repurchases of $223 million during the year.
B. Insurance Operations
For 2021, our companywide underwriting profit margin was 4.7%, compared to 12.3% in 2020. Our Personal Lines and Commercial Lines operating segments were profitable with underwriting margins of 4.6% and 11.1%, respectively, while our Property segment had an underwriting loss of 15.3% for the year, which included 31.0 points of catastrophe losses.
Our overall incurred frequency in our personal auto business increased about 14%, while severity increased about 9%, compared to the prior year. The frequency of vehicle accidents were higher than the prior year as vehicle miles driven began to increase during 2021, although at year end driving patterns still had not yet returned to pre-COVID levels.
During the year, on a companywide basis, we recognized 3.0 loss ratio points related to catastrophe losses, compared to 2.2 points in 2020. Hurricane Ida contributed 0.9 loss ratio points, with the remaining catastrophe losses attributable to other hurricanes, wind, hail, and tornadoes throughout the United States.
On a year-over-year basis, net premiums written grew in each of our segments with Personal Lines growing 8%, Commercial Lines 51%, and Property 16%. Changes in net premiums written are a function of new business applications (i.e., policies sold), premium per policy, and retention. Policies in force grew 7% companywide, with Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property growing 6%, 18%, and 12%, respectively.
During 2021, total new personal auto application growth decreased 3% on a year-over-year basis, with our Agency auto decreasing 8% and Direct auto flat. Agency auto new applications were down compared to the prior year, as a result of the actions taken to address profitability, as discussed above.
The increase in net premiums written in our Commercial Lines business reflected growth in all of our business market targets, but especially in our for-hire transportation
business market target, driven by greater demand for shipping services in light of the pandemic. The Commercial Lines growth was also aided, to a lesser extent, by an increase in our transportation network company (TNC) business, due to an increase in the miles driven, which is the basis for determining premiums written for this business. For our commercial auto business (excluding TNC) new applications increased 27% for 2021, compared to the prior year, driven by both increased quote volume and rate of conversion.
Our Property business new applications increased 20% for the year, primarily driven by growth in our direct channel.
During 2021, on a year-over-year basis, written premium per policy increased 1% in our Agency personal auto and decreased 1% in our Direct personal auto businesses. The rate increases implemented in 2021 did not have a significant effect on written premium per policy since they were predominately effective the second half of the year. Written premium per policy for our special lines products increased 4%, compared to the prior year.
Commercial Lines experienced a 17% increase in written premium per policy in our commercial auto products, which primarily reflected more vehicles per policy and a shift in the mix of business toward higher premium coverages. In aggregate, rate increases for commercial auto were about 4% in 2021.
Written premium per policy for our Property business grew 1% year over year, despite net rate increases of about 7% for 2021. During the year, the Property business recognized a shift in the mix of business to a larger share of renters policies, which have lower written premium per policy.
While we are taking actions to address profitability as discussed above, we remain focused on growth and realize that to grow policies in force, it is critical that we retain our customers for longer periods. Consequently, increasing retention continues to be one of our most important priorities. Our efforts to increase our share of multi-product households remains a key initiative and we will continue to make investments to improve the customer experience in order to support that goal. Policy life expectancy, which is our actuarial estimate of the average length of time that a policy will remain in force before cancellation or lapse in coverage, is our primary measure of customer retention in our Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property businesses.
We evaluate retention using a trailing 12-month total auto policy life expectancy and a trailing 3-month policy life expectancy. The trailing 3-month measure does not address seasonality and can reflect more volatility. On a trailing 3-month basis, our personal auto policy life expectancy was down 1% year over year. Our trailing 12-month total personal auto policy life expectancy was up 2% year over year, with Agency up 1% and Direct up 3%. Our trailing
App.-A-52
12-month policy life expectancy increased 5% for special lines, 11% for Commercial Lines, and decreased 9% for Property.
C. Investments
The fair value of our investment portfolio was $51.5 billion at December 31, 2021, compared to $47.5 billion at December 31, 2020. The $4.0 billion increase from year-end 2020, primarily reflects positive investment results and solid cash flows from operations, net of common and preferred share dividend payments, common stock repurchases, and payment of Senior Notes that matured during the year.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0%-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities (the securities allocated to Group I and II are defined below under Results of Operations – Investments). At December 31, 2021, 17% of our portfolio was allocated to Group I securities and 83% to Group II securities, compared to 14% and 86%, respectively, at December 31, 2020. The increase in the percentage of Group I securities during 2021 was primarily driven by common equity appreciation and an increase in non-investment-grade fixed maturities, in which we increased our exposure to short-duration credit bonds where the underlying loans had meaningful appreciation.
Our recurring investment income generated a pretax book yield of 1.9% for 2021, compared to 2.4% for 2020, primarily due to investing new cash at lower interest rates. Our investment portfolio produced a fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return of 2.6% for 2021 and of 7.9% for 2020. Our fixed-income and common stock portfolios had FTE total returns (0.1)% and 33.4%, respectively, for 2021, compared to 6.7% and 24.3%, for 2020. The year-over-year decrease in our fixed-income FTE total return was the result of an increase in interest rates and narrowing credit spreads during the year. Our common stock portfolio’s FTE total return primarily reflected positive market performance within the Russell 1000 index.
At both December 31, 2021 and 2020, the fixed-income portfolio had a weighted average credit quality of AA- with a duration of 3.0 years at year end 2021, compared to 2.9 years at December 31, 2020. We lengthened our portfolio duration slightly over the previous twelve months and it remains slightly below the midpoint of our 1.5 year to 5 year range, which we believe provides some protection against an increase in interest rates.
II. FINANCIAL CONDITION
A. Liquidity and Capital Resources
The Progressive Corporation receives cash through subsidiary dividends, capital raising and other transactions, and uses these funds to contribute to its subsidiaries (e.g., to support growth), to make payments to shareholders and debt holders (e.g., dividends and interest, respectively), to repurchase its common shares, and to redeem or pay off debt, as well as for acquisitions and other business purposes that may arise.
During 2021, The Progressive Corporation received cash dividends of $2.4 billion, net of capital contributions, from its insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries. There were no capital raising transactions during the year.
The Progressive Corporation deployed capital through the following actions in 2021:
•Dividends
◦Common shares - declared aggregate dividends of $1.90 per common share, or $1.1 billion.
◦Preferred shares - declared aggregate Series B Preferred dividends of $26.8 million.
•Debt Payment - paid $500 million at maturity for our 3.75% Senior Notes.
•Common Share Repurchases - acquired 2.4 million of our common shares at a total cost of $223.0 million to neutralize dilution from equity-based compensation granted during the year, consistent with our financial
policies, and opportunistically when we believed our shares were trading below our determination of long-term fair value. The repurchases were made in the open market or pursuant to our equity compensation plans (i.e., repurchased shares to cover tax obligations upon vesting of restricted stock units).
•Acquisitions - acquired all of the outstanding Class A and Class B common shares of Protective Insurance Corporation for $23.30 per share, or approximately $338 million in aggregate.
Over the last three years, The Progressive Corporation received dividends from its subsidiaries, net of capital contributions, of $8.6 billion, and issued $1.0 billion of senior notes. The covenants on The Progressive Corporation’s existing debt securities do not include any rating or credit triggers that would require an adjustment of the interest rate or an acceleration of principal payments in the event that our debt securities are downgraded by a rating agency. While we had an unsecured discretionary line of credit available to us during each of the last three years in the amount of $250 million, we did not borrow under this arrangement, or engage in other short-term borrowings, to fund our operations or for liquidity purposes.
App.-A-53
In the aggregate for the last three years, we made the following payments:
•$7.0 billion for common and preferred share dividends;
•$0.6 billion for interest on our outstanding debt;
•$0.5 billion for the maturity of debt;
•$0.4 billion to repurchase our common shares; and
•$0.6 billion related to acquisitions.
For the three years ended December 31, 2021, operations generated positive cash flows of about $20.9 billion, and cash flows are expected to remain positive in the reasonably foreseeable future. In 2021, operating cash flows increased $0.9 billion, compared to 2020, in part due to the $1.1 billion of policyholder credits paid out of operating cash flows in 2020, partially offset by paying losses at a faster rate than premiums were being collected during 2021. We do not believe we will have a need to raise capital to support our operations in the foreseeable future, although changes in market conditions affecting the insurance industry may necessitate otherwise.
As of December 31, 2021, we held $19.4 billion in short-term investments and U.S. Treasury securities. Based on our portfolio allocation and investment strategies, we believe that we have sufficient readily available marketable securities to cover our claims payments in the event our cash flow from operations were to be negative. See Item 1A – Risk Factors in our 2021 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a discussion of certain matters that may affect our portfolios and capital position.
Progressive’s insurance operations create liquidity by collecting and investing premiums from new and renewal business in advance of paying claims. As primarily an auto insurer, our claims liabilities are generally short in duration. At December 31, 2021, our loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves were $26.2 billion. Typically, at any point in time, approximately 50% of our outstanding loss and LAE reserves are paid within the following twelve months and less than 20% are still outstanding after three years. See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for further information on the timing of claims payments.
Insurance companies are required to satisfy regulatory surplus and premiums-to-surplus ratio requirements. As of December 31, 2021, our consolidated statutory surplus was $16.4 billion, compared to $15.2 billion at December 31, 2020. Our net premiums written-to-surplus ratio was 2.8 to 1 at year-end 2021 and 2.7 to 1 at year-end 2020 and 2019. At year-end 2021, we also had access to $4.2 billion of securities held in a non-insurance subsidiary, portions of which could be contributed to the capital of our insurance subsidiaries to support growth or for other purposes.
Insurance companies are also required to satisfy risk-based capital ratios. These ratios are determined by a series of dynamic surplus-related calculations required by the laws of various states that contain a variety of factors that are
applied to financial balances based on the degree of certain risks (e.g., asset, credit, and underwriting). Our insurance subsidiaries’ risk-based capital ratios are in excess of applicable minimum regulatory requirements. Nonetheless, the payment of dividends by our insurance subsidiaries are subject to certain limitations. See Note 8 – Statutory Financial Information for additional information on insurance subsidiary dividends.
We seek to deploy our capital in a prudent manner and use multiple data sources and modeling tools to estimate the frequency, severity, and correlation of identified exposures, including, but not limited to, catastrophic and other insured losses, natural disasters, and other significant business interruptions, to estimate our potential capital needs. Management views our capital position as consisting of three layers, each with a specific size and purpose:
•The first layer of capital, which we refer to as “regulatory capital,” is the amount of capital we need to satisfy state insurance regulatory requirements and support our objective of writing all the business we can write and service, consistent with our underwriting discipline of achieving a combined ratio of 96 or better. This capital is held by our various insurance entities.
•The second layer of capital we call “extreme contingency.” While our regulatory capital is, by definition, a cushion for absorbing financial consequences of adverse events, such as loss reserve development, litigation, weather catastrophes, and investment market corrections, we view that as a base and hold additional capital for even more extreme conditions. The modeling used to quantify capital needs for these conditions is extensive, including tens of thousands of simulations, representing our best estimates of such contingencies based on historical experience. This capital is held either at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company or in our insurance entities, where it is potentially eligible for a dividend to the holding company.
•The third layer is capital in excess of the sum of the first two layers and provides maximum flexibility to fund other business opportunities, repurchase stock or other securities, satisfy acquisition-related commitments, and pay dividends to shareholders, among other purposes. This capital is largely held at a non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company.
At all times measured during the last two years, which at a minimum occurs at the end of each month, our total capital exceeded the sum of our regulatory capital layer plus our self-constructed extreme contingency layer. At December 31, 2021, we held total capital (debt plus shareholders’ equity) of $23.1 billion, compared to $22.4 billion at December 31, 2020. Our debt-to-total capital ratios at December 31, 2021, 2020, and 2019, were 21.2%, 24.1%, and 24.4%, respectively, and were consistent with our financial policy of maintaining a ratio of less than 30%, which we target to meet annually.
App.-A-54
At December 31, 2021, we have various noncancelable contractual obligations that were outstanding. We held $4.9 billion of Senior Notes with maturity dates ranging from 2027 through 2050, with $3.6 billion of future interest payment obligations related to our outstanding debt. The next debt repayment of $500 million is due upon the maturity of our 2.45% Senior Notes due 2027. See Note 4 – Debt for additional information on our long-term debt.
At year-end 2021, we also had $1.0 billion of purchase obligations that are noncancelable commitments for goods and services (e.g., software licenses, maintenance on information technology equipment, and media placements). About 80% of our purchase obligations are paid within one year and less than 1% are outstanding for three years or longer. In addition, our Property business has $132.1 million of minimum commitments under several multiple-layer property catastrophe reinsurance contracts with various reinsurers with terms ranging from one to three years. See Note 1 – Reporting and Accounting Policies, Commitments and Contingencies for a discussion of these obligations. We do not have any material commitments for capital expenditures in the reasonably foreseeable future.
As of December 31, 2021, we recorded a liability related to our obligation to refund $541.5 million to eligible Michigan policyholders in conjunction with a refund from
the surplus of the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA) to its member insurance companies. This obligation will be fully funded by the MCCA. Therefore, this transaction will have no effect on our liquidity, financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations.
Based upon our capital planning and forecasting efforts, we believe we have sufficient capital resources and cash flows from operations to support our current business, scheduled principal and interest payments on our debt, anticipated quarterly dividends on our common shares and Series B Preferred Shares, our contractual obligations, and other expected capital requirements for the foreseeable future.
Nevertheless, we may determine to raise additional capital to take advantage of attractive terms in the market and provide additional financial flexibility. We have an effective shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so that we may periodically offer and sell an indeterminate aggregate amount of senior or subordinated debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, purchase contracts, warrants, and units. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof, subject to market conditions.
III. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – UNDERWRITING
A. Segment Overview
We report our underwriting operations in three segments: Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property. As a component of our Personal Lines segment, we report our Agency and Direct business results to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel.
The following table shows the composition of our companywide net premiums written, by segment, for the years ended December 31:
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | ||||||||
| Agency | 37 | % | 40 | % | 41 | % | ||
| Direct | 41 | 42 | 42 | |||||
| Total Personal Lines | 78 | 82 | 83 | |||||
| Commercial Lines | 17 | 13 | 13 | |||||
| Property | 5 | 5 | 4 | |||||
| Total underwriting operations | 100 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
Our Personal Lines segment writes insurance for personal autos (which accounts for about 94% of the segment’s net premiums written) and special lines products (e.g., motorcycles, watercraft, and RVs). Within Personal Lines we often refer to our four consumer segments, which include:
•Sam - inconsistently insured;
•Diane - consistently insured and maybe a renter;
•Wrights - homeowners who do not bundle auto and home; and
•Robinsons - homeowners who bundle auto and home.
While our personal auto policies are primarily written for 6-month terms, we write 12-month auto policies in our Platinum agencies to promote bundled auto and home growth. At year-end 2021, 14% of our Agency auto policies in force were 12-month policies, compared to about 12% a year earlier. While the shift to 12-month policies is slow, to the extent our Agency new business application mix of annual policies grows, that shift in policy term could increase our written premium mix by channel as 12-month policies have about twice the amount of net premiums written compared to 6-month policies. The special lines products are written for 12-month terms.
App.-A-55
Our Commercial Lines business writes auto-related liability and physical damage insurance, workers’ compensation coverage primarily for the transportation industry, and business-related general liability and property insurance, predominately for small businesses. The majority of our Commercial Lines business is written through the independent agency channel although our direct business is growing. The amount of commercial auto business written through the direct channel, excluding our TNC business, grew 66% year over year and represented about 10% of premiums written for 2021, compared to 9% for 2020 and 8% for 2019. To serve our direct channel customers, we continued to expand our product offerings, including adding states where we offer our business owners policy and include the product on our digital
platform serving direct small business consumers (BusinessQuote Explorer®). About 90% of our Commercial Lines auto policies are written for 12-month terms.
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters.We write the majority of our Property business through the independent agency channel; however, we continue to expand the distribution of our Property product offerings in the direct channel, which represented about 23% of premiums written for 2021, compared to 18% and 16% for 2020 and 2019, respectively. Property policies are written for 12-month terms.
B. Profitability
Profitability for our underwriting operations is defined by pretax underwriting profit, which is calculated as net premiums earned plus fees and other revenues less losses and loss adjustment expenses, policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and for 2020, policyholder credits. We also use underwriting margin, which is underwriting profit or loss expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned, to analyze our results. For the three years ended December 31, our underwriting profitability results were as follows:
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | Underwriting Profit (Loss) | |||||||||||||||
| ($ in millions) | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | $ | Margin | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 992.1 | 5.9 | % | $ | 2,236.5 | 14.2 | % | $ | 1,673.2 | 11.2 | % | |||||
| Direct | 619.2 | 3.4 | 2,076.5 | 12.3 | 1,181.4 | 7.7 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 1,611.3 | 4.6 | 4,313.0 | 13.2 | 2,854.6 | 9.5 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 767.8 | 11.1 | 634.8 | 13.0 | 458.8 | 10.4 | |||||||||||
| Property1 | (312.3) | (15.3) | (125.1) | (7.1) | (26.1) | (1.7) | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity2 | (1.4) | NM | 0 | NM | 0 | NM | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 2,065.4 | 4.7 | % | $ | 4,822.7 | 12.3 | % | $ | 3,287.3 | 9.1 | % |
1 During 2021, 2020, and 2019, pretax profit (loss) includes $56.6 million, $56.9 million, and $66.3 million, respectively, of amortization expense associated with acquisition-related intangible assets attributable to our Property segment.
2 Underwriting margins for our other indemnity businesses are not meaningful (NM) due to the low level of premiums earned by, and the variability of loss costs in, such businesses.
The decreases in underwriting profit margin in 2021, compared to 2020, primarily reflects higher accident frequency and severity in both our personal and commercial auto products, as well as higher catastrophe losses during 2021. Profitability in 2020 also reflects the favorable impact that we recognized due to the lower frequency experienced during the year as a result of restrictions in place to help slow the pace of the spread of COVID-19.
The pandemic has shifted consumer behavior and impacted general economic conditions. We have seen volatility in our severity trends as vehicle prices continue to rise and the cost to repair vehicles is increasing. We have responded, and will continue to respond, to these market changes through rate increases, underwriting restrictions, and other non-rate actions. Our focus on achieving our target underwriting profitability takes precedence over growth. See Item 1A – Risk Factors Section VII. Other in our 2021 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for the year ended December 31, 2021, for a further discussion of the risks associated with COVID-19.
App.-A-56
Further underwriting results for our Personal Lines business, including results by distribution channel, the Commercial Lines business, the Property business, and our underwriting operations in total, were as follows:
| Underwriting Performance1 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines – Agency | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 75.6 | 63.5 | 69.8 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 18.5 | 22.3 | 19.0 | ||
| Combined ratio | 94.1 | 85.8 | 88.8 | ||
| Personal Lines – Direct | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 77.2 | 62.9 | 71.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.4 | 24.8 | 20.9 | ||
| Combined ratio | 96.6 | 87.7 | 92.3 | ||
| Total Personal Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 76.4 | 63.2 | 70.6 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.0 | 23.6 | 19.9 | ||
| Combined ratio | 95.4 | 86.8 | 90.5 | ||
| Commercial Lines | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 69.3 | 64.5 | 68.5 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.6 | 22.5 | 21.1 | ||
| Combined ratio | 88.9 | 87.0 | 89.6 | ||
| Property | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 86.4 | 77.3 | 71.2 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio2 | 28.9 | 29.8 | 30.5 | ||
| Combined ratio2 | 115.3 | 107.1 | 101.7 | ||
| Total Underwriting Operations | |||||
| Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio | 75.7 | 64.0 | 70.4 | ||
| Underwriting expense ratio | 19.6 | 23.7 | 20.5 | ||
| Combined ratio | 95.3 | 87.7 | 90.9 | ||
| Accident year – Loss & loss adjustment expense ratio3 | 75.7 | 63.5 | 69.8 |
1 Ratios are expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned; fees and other revenues are netted with underwriting expenses in the ratio calculations.
2 Included in 2021, 2020, and 2019, are 2.8 points, 3.2 points, and 4.3 points, respectively, of amortization expense on acquisition-related intangible assets attributable to our Property segment. Excluding this expense, the Property business would have reported expense ratios of 26.1, 26.6, and 26.2, and combined ratios of 112.5, 103.9, and 97.4, for 2021, 2020, and 2019, respectively.
3 The accident year ratios include only the losses that occurred during the period noted. As a result, accident period results will change over time, either favorably or unfavorably, as we revise our estimates of loss costs when payments are made or reserves for that accident period are reviewed.
App.-A-57
Losses and Loss Adjustment Expenses (LAE)
| (millions) | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change in net loss and LAE reserves | $ | 4,233.7 | $ | 1,574.4 | $ | 2,065.1 | ||
| Paid losses and LAE | 29,393.9 | 23,547.4 | 23,405.4 | |||||
| Total incurred losses and LAE | $ | 33,627.6 | $ | 25,121.8 | $ | 25,470.5 |
Claims costs, our most significant expense, represent payments made, and estimated future payments to be made, to or on behalf of our policyholders, including expenses needed to adjust or settle claims. Claims costs are a function of loss severity and frequency and, for our vehicle businesses, are influenced by inflation and driving patterns, among other factors, some of which are discussed below. In our Property business, severity is primarily a function of construction costs and the age of the structure. Accordingly, anticipated changes in these factors are taken
into account when we establish premium rates and loss reserves. Loss reserves are estimates of future costs and our reserves are adjusted as underlying assumptions change and information develops. See Critical Accounting Policies - A. Loss and LAE Reserves for a discussion of the effect of changing estimates.
Our total loss and LAE ratio increased 11.7 points in 2021 and decreased 6.4 points in 2020, each compared to the prior year. Our accident year loss and LAE ratio, which excludes the impact of prior accident year reserve development during each calendar year, increased 12.2 points in 2021 and decreased 6.3 points in 2020. Several factors that contributed to the year-over-year changes are discussed below and include the impact of catastrophe losses, changes in severity and frequency, and prior accident year reserve development.
We experienced severe weather conditions in several areas of the country during each of the last three years. Hurricanes, hail storms, tornadoes, and wind activity contributed to catastrophe losses each year. The following table shows catastrophe losses incurred, net of reinsurance, for the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Lines | $ | 652.0 | $ | 439.4 | $ | 323.4 | ||
| Commercial Lines | 26.7 | 14.8 | 13.6 | |||||
| Property | 633.4 | 423.8 | 214.5 | |||||
| Total catastrophe losses incurred | $ | 1,312.1 | $ | 878.0 | $ | 551.5 | ||
| Combined ratio effect | 3.0 | pts. | 2.2 | pts. | 1.5 | pts. |
Approximately 30% of the catastrophe losses in 2021 were attributable to Hurricane Ida, with the remainder attributable to severe weather throughout the United States. We have responded, and plan to continue to respond, promptly to catastrophic events when they occur in order to provide exemplary claims service to our customers.
Future catastrophes could have a material impact on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. As a result, we reinsure various risks, including, but not limited to, catastrophic losses. We do not have catastrophe-specific reinsurance for our Personal Lines or Commercial Lines businesses, but we reinsure portions of our Property business. The Property business reinsurance programs include multi-year catastrophe excess of loss and aggregate excess of loss contracts.
We evaluate our reinsurance programs during the renewal process, if not more frequently, to ensure our programs continue to effectively respond to the company’s risk tolerance. As a result, during 2021, we renewed our occurrence excess of loss program and increased our retention from $80 million to $200 million. During 2021, we also added $100 million of reinsurance coverage that, depending on the circumstances, could provide additional coverage for named storms or reduce our retention level for a second or later covered storm. For 2022, we entered into
a new aggregate excess of loss program that raised our retention level by $100 million and reduced aggregate potential coverage by $50 million, compared to our 2021 program. In each case, these decisions involved our evaluation of complex considerations relating to our ability to assume more direct risk on a companywide basis, the nature of the risk being insured, and the rising costs for these types of contracts. In our view, our capital position and growing balance sheet enabled us to assume more of these risks via higher retention levels, which largely offset the increasing premium costs for such insurance that we saw during 2021, resulting in slightly lower aggregate premiums for the year. We did not experience a significant lack of availability of any of the types of reinsurance that we typically purchase. See Item 1A – Risk Factors in our 2021 Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for the year ended December 31, 2021, for a discussion of certain risk related to catastrophe events and the potential impact of climate change. See Item 1 – Description of Business-Reinsurance on Form 10-K and Note 7 – Reinsurance for a discussion of our various reinsurance programs.
App.-A-58
Under our various Property catastrophe-specific reinsurance, we ceded the following losses and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE), including development on prior year storms, during the years ended December 31:
| (in millions) | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregate excess of loss | ||||||||
| Current accident year | $ | 0 | $ | 120.9 | NA | |||
| Prior accident years | 27.4 | NA | NA | |||||
| Per occurrence excess of loss: | ||||||||
| Current accident year1 | 200.0 | 10.0 | $ | 0 | ||||
| Prior accident years2 | 139.6 | 117.5 | 191.4 | |||||
| Total | $ | 367.0 | $ | 248.4 | $ | 191.4 |
NA = Not applicable; this reinsurance coverage was entered into on January 1, 2020.
1 Amount for 2021 was solely attributable to Hurricane Ida.
2 Amount for 2021 was primarily attributable to Hurricane Irma, which exceeded the excess of loss retention threshold in 2017 and, therefore, all development on this prior accident year storm has been fully ceded.
The following discussion of our severity and frequency trends in our personal auto business excludes comprehensive coverage because of its inherent volatility, as it is typically linked to catastrophic losses generally resulting from adverse weather. For our commercial auto products, the reported frequency and severity trends include comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage insures against damage to a customer’s vehicle due to various causes other than collision, such as windstorm, hail, theft, falling objects, and glass breakage.
Due to the impacts of shelter-in-place requirements that occurred throughout much of 2020, we believe that comparing current year frequency and severity to the prior year are not meaningful for our personal auto business. The trend comparisons for 2021 compare a two-year annualized change between 2021 and 2019 for personal auto frequency and severity for all coverages, excluding comprehensive coverage, which we believe are more insightful when trying to understand our current year profitability given the impact that COVID-19 restrictions had on our 2020 trends.
During 2021, we saw vehicle miles traveled and claims frequency per mile traveled increase relative to 2020, as states started lifting restrictions that were originally put in place in 2020 to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Total personal auto incurred severity (i.e., average cost per claim, including both paid losses and the change in case reserves) on a calendar-year basis was up over the prior-year periods 9% in 2021, 10% in 2020, and 7% in 2019. On a calendar-year annualized basis, for 2021, incurred severity increased 9% compared to 2019. While the total change in severity is fairly consistent when comparing to prior year as well as to 2019, we believe the individual line coverages are not indicative of the underlying trends, primarily in the auto property damage and collision coverages due in part to the timing of salvage and
subrogation collections in 2020. Therefore, we continue to believe comparisons to 2019 are more insightful.
•2021 - On a 2021 year-over-2019 year annualized basis, severity increased 11% for our collision and bodily injury coverages, 8% for our property damage coverage, and 7% for our personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.
•2020 - Severity increased 14% for our PIP coverage, 12% for our bodily injury coverage, 9% for our property damage coverage, and 5% for our collision coverage.
•2019 - Severity increased 8% for our bodily injury coverage, 7% for our PIP coverage, and 6% for our collision and property damage coverages.
On a calendar-year basis, our commercial auto products incurred severity, excluding our TNC business, increased 14% in 2021, compared to 10% in 2020 and 19% in 2019. On a calendar-year annualized basis, for 2021, incurred severity increased 12% compared to 2019. Since the loss patterns in the TNC business are not indicative of our other commercial auto products, disclosing severity and frequency trends excluding that business is more indicative of our overall experience for the majority of our commercial auto products. In addition to general trends in the marketplace, the increase in our commercial auto products severity reflects increased medical costs and actuarially determined reserves due to accelerating paid loss trends and shifts in the mix of business to for-hire transportation, which has higher average severity than the business auto and contractor business market targets.
It is a challenge to estimate future severity, but we continue to monitor changes in the underlying costs, such as general inflation, used car prices, vehicle repair costs, medical costs, health care reform, court decisions, and jury verdicts, along with regulatory changes and other factors that may affect severity.
Our personal auto incurred frequency, on a calendar-year basis, was up 14% in 2021, down 24% in 2020, and down 3% in 2019. On a calendar-year annualized basis for 2021, incurred frequency was down 7% compared to 2019.
•2021 - On a 2021 year-over-2019 year annualized basis, frequency decreased 11% for our property damage and bodily injury coverages, 10% for our PIP coverage, and 3% for our collision coverage.
•2020 - Frequency decreased 28% for our PIP coverage, 27% for our property damage coverage, 25% for our bodily injury coverage, and 23% for our collision coverage. The significant decreases in 2020 reflect the decrease in vehicle miles traveled as a result of the shelter-in-place restrictions put in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
App.-A-59
•2019 - Frequency decreased 5% for our PIP coverage, 4% for our collision and property damage coverages, and 3% for our bodily injury coverage.
We closely monitor the changes in frequency, but the degree or direction of near-term frequency change is not something that we are able to predict with any degree of confidence, given the uncertainty of the current environment. We will continue to analyze trends to distinguish changes in our experience from other external factors, such as changes in the number of vehicles per household, miles driven, vehicle usage, gasoline prices, advances in vehicle safety, and unemployment rates, versus
those resulting from shifts in the mix of our business or changes in driving patterns, to allow us to react quickly to price for these trends and to reserve more accurately for our loss exposures.
On a year-over-year basis, incurred frequency in our Commercial Lines business, excluding TNC, saw an increase of about 9% in 2021, compared to decreases of about 15% in 2020 and 4% in 2019. On a calendar-year annualized basis, for 2021, incurred frequency decreased 4% compared to 2019. The frequency decrease was in part due to continued product segmentation and underwriting, which created a mix shift toward more preferred, lower-frequency, business.
The table below presents the actuarial adjustments implemented and the loss reserve development experienced on a companywide basis in the years ended December 31:
| ($ in millions) | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACTUARIAL ADJUSTMENTS | ||||||||
| Reserve decrease (increase) | ||||||||
| Prior accident years | $ | (78.5) | $ | (27.5) | $ | (65.8) | ||
| Current accident year | 103.9 | 68.4 | (120.4) | |||||
| Calendar year actuarial adjustments | $ | 25.4 | $ | 40.9 | $ | (186.2) | ||
| PRIOR ACCIDENT YEARS DEVELOPMENT | ||||||||
| Favorable (unfavorable) | ||||||||
| Actuarial adjustments | $ | (78.5) | $ | (27.5) | $ | (65.8) | ||
| All other development | 83.2 | (167.8) | (166.5) | |||||
| Total development | $ | 4.7 | $ | (195.3) | $ | (232.3) | ||
| (Increase) decrease to calendar year combined ratio | 0 | pts. | (0.5) | pts. | (0.6) | pts. |
Total development consists of both actuarial adjustments and “all other development” on prior accident years. The actuarial adjustments represent the net changes made by our actuarial staff to both current and prior accident year reserves based on regularly scheduled reviews. Through these reviews, our actuaries identify and measure variances in the projected frequency and severity trends, which allow them to adjust the reserves to reflect the current cost trends. For our Property business, 100% of catastrophe losses are reviewed monthly, and any development on catastrophe reserves are included as part of the actuarial adjustments. For the Personal Lines and Commercial Lines businesses, development for catastrophe losses for the vehicle businesses would be reflected in “all other development,” discussed below, to the extent they relate to prior year reserves. We report these actuarial adjustments separately for the current and prior accident years to reflect these adjustments as part of the total prior accident years development.
“All other development” represents claims settling for more or less than reserved, emergence of unrecorded claims at rates different than anticipated in our incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves, and changes in reserve estimates on specific claims. Although we believe the development from both the actuarial adjustments and “all
other development” generally results from the same factors, we are unable to quantify the portion of the reserve development that might be applicable to any one or more of those underlying factors.
Our objective is to establish case and IBNR reserves that are adequate to cover all loss costs, while incurring minimal variation from the date the reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. Our ability to meet this objective is impacted by many factors. Changes in case law, particularly related to PIP, can make it difficult to estimate reserves timely and with minimal variation. As reflected in the table above, we experienced favorable prior year development during 2021, compared to unfavorable prior year development in both 2020 and 2019.
App.-A-60
Reserve development primarily related to the following:
•2021- The favorable development of $127 million in our Personal Lines segment was offset by unfavorable development of $87 million in Commercial Lines and $36 million in Property. The Personal Lines development primarily reflects revised estimates of our per claim settlement costs, favorable PIP reform and litigation, partially offset by higher than anticipated bodily injury severity in our personal auto business. The unfavorable development in Commercial Lines is mostly due to an increase in bodily injury severity and the emergence of large bodily injury claims, while the Property business saw more previously closed claims reopen.
•2020 - Personal and Commercial Lines both recognized unfavorable development of $111 million and $98 million, respectively, while our Property business had $14 million of favorable development. Higher than anticipated frequency of reopened PIP claims in our personal auto business and an increase in bodily injury severity and the emergence of large bodily injury claims in our Commercial Lines business drove the unfavorable development.
•2019 - All segments recognized unfavorable prior year development in 2019. Higher than anticipated claims occurring in late 2018 but not reported until 2019, a higher than anticipated frequency of reopened PIP claims in our personal auto business and less salvage and subrogation recoveries for our special lines products contributed to the $135 million unfavorable development in Personal Lines. The $83 million of unfavorable development in Commercial Lines reflected increased bodily injury severity. Higher than anticipated homeowners and dwelling costs
drove the $12 million unfavorable development in the Property business.
See Note 6 – Loss and Loss Adjustment Expense Reserves for a more detailed discussion of our prior accident years development.
Underwriting Expenses
The companywide underwriting expense ratio (i.e., policy acquisition costs, other underwriting expenses, and, for 2020 only, policyholder credits, all net of fees and other revenues, expressed as a percentage of net premiums earned) decreased 4.1 points for 2021, compared to the prior year, primarily reflecting 2.7 points of policyholder credits issued in 2020. During 2021, we also decreased our advertising spend in an effort to improve profitability to reach our 96 combined ratio goal. In total, our advertising spend decreased 2% on a year-over-year basis, which had a 0.7 point impact on our companywide expense ratio. We also recognized a decrease in expense for uncollectible premium receivable accounts in 2021, compared to 2020, which contributed a favorable 0.4 point impact on the expense ratio, reflecting a change in consumer spending habits during the year.
To analyze underwriting expenses, we also review our non-acquisition expense ratio (NAER), which excludes costs related to policy acquisition, including advertising and agency commissions, from our underwriting expense ratio. By excluding acquisition costs from our underwriting expense ratio, we are able to understand costs other than those necessary to acquire new policies and grow the business. In 2021, our NAER decreased 3.7 points, 2.3 points, and 0.4 points in our Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and Property businesses, respectively, compared to 2020. The decrease in the Personal and Commercial Lines NAER are primarily due to the policyholder credits issued in 2020. In comparing the 2021 NAER to 2019, the ratio decreased 0.7 points for Personal Lines, 0.9 points for Commercial Lines, and 0.8 points for Property.
App.-A-61
C. Growth
For our underwriting operations, we analyze growth in terms of both premiums and policies. Net premiums written represent the premiums from policies written during the period, less any premiums ceded to reinsurers. Net premiums earned, which are a function of the premiums written in the current and prior periods, are earned as revenue over the life of the policy using a daily earnings convention. Policies in force, our preferred measure of growth since it removes the variability due to rate changes or mix shifts, represents all policies under which coverage was in effect as of the end of the period specified.
| For the years ended December 31, | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | $ | % Growth | |||||||||||
| NET PREMIUMS WRITTEN | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 17,257.9 | 7 | % | $ | 16,133.8 | 5 | % | $ | 15,336.5 | 13 | % | |||||
| Direct | 18,910.9 | 10 | 17,208.8 | 9 | 15,765.7 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 36,168.8 | 8 | 33,342.6 | 7 | 31,102.2 | 15 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 8,015.9 | 51 | 5,315.3 | 11 | 4,791.8 | 20 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,216.2 | 16 | 1,910.8 | 13 | 1,683.9 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 4.3 | NM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 46,405.2 | 14 | % | $ | 40,568.7 | 8 | % | $ | 37,577.9 | 15 | % | |||||
| NET PREMIUMS EARNED | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal Lines | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency | $ | 16,881.0 | 7 | % | $ | 15,789.5 | 6 | % | $ | 14,904.1 | 14 | % | |||||
| Direct | 18,492.3 | 10 | 16,830.6 | 10 | 15,305.9 | 18 | |||||||||||
| Total Personal Lines | 35,373.3 | 8 | 32,620.1 | 8 | 30,210.0 | 16 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 6,945.2 | 42 | 4,875.8 | 10 | 4,427.6 | 23 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,042.5 | 16 | 1,765.7 | 14 | 1,554.8 | 21 | |||||||||||
| Other indemnity1 | 7.7 | NM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||
| Total underwriting operations | $ | 44,368.7 | 13 | % | $ | 39,261.6 | 8 | % | $ | 36,192.4 | 17 | % | |||||
| NM = Not meaningful | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 Represents Protective Insurance’s run-off business. | |||||||||||||||||
| December 31, | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||||||||||||
| (# in thousands) | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | # | % Growth | |||||||||||
| POLICIES IN FORCE | |||||||||||||||||
| Agency auto | 7,879.0 | 3 | % | 7,617.0 | 9 | % | 6,994.3 | 10 | % | ||||||||
| Direct auto | 9,568.2 | 8 | 8,881.4 | 13 | 7,866.5 | 12 | |||||||||||
| Total auto | 17,447.2 | 6 | 16,498.4 | 11 | 14,860.8 | 11 | |||||||||||
| Special lines1 | 5,288.5 | 8 | 4,915.1 | 8 | 4,547.8 | 4 | |||||||||||
| Personal Lines - total | 22,735.7 | 6 | 21,413.5 | 10 | 19,408.6 | 9 | |||||||||||
| Commercial Lines | 971.2 | 18 | 822.0 | 9 | 751.4 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Property | 2,776.2 | 12 | 2,484.4 | 13 | 2,202.1 | 14 | |||||||||||
| Companywide total | 26,483.1 | 7 | % | 24,719.9 | 11 | % | 22,362.1 | 10 | % |
1 Includes insurance for motorcycles, watercraft, RVs, and similar items.
To analyze growth, we review new policies, rate levels, and the retention characteristics of our segments. Although new policies are necessary to maintain a growing book of business, we recognize the importance of retaining our current customers as a critical component of our continued growth.
As shown in the tables below, we measure retention by policy life expectancy. We review our customer retention for our personal auto products using both a trailing 3-
month and a trailing 12-month period. We believe change in policy life expectancy using a trailing 12-month period measure is indicative of recent experience, mitigates the effects of month-to-month variability, and addresses seasonality. Although using a trailing 3-month measure does not address seasonality and can reflect more volatility, this measure is more responsive to current experience and generally can be an indicator of how retention rates are moving.
App.-A-62
At year-end 2021, we had 1.8 million more policies in force than at the end of 2020, with all of our segments contributing to this unit growth at varying degrees.
D. Personal Lines
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Personal Lines business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | (2) | % | 3 | % | 8 | % |
| Renewal | 11 | 8 | 13 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 0 | (1) | 2 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (1) | 7 | 0 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 2 | 10 | 0 |
New application growth in our Personal Lines products was down 2% during 2021, with our personal auto new application growth down 3% and our special lines new application growth up 4% during the year, driven by high demand in the new RV market.
We continued to see strong personal auto renewal application growth, which we believe was aided, in part, by our competitive product offerings, position in the marketplace, and rate decreases taken throughout 2020.
Personal auto quote volumes and rates of conversion (i.e., converting a quote to a sale) started the year strong. The beginning of 2021 benefited from the rate decreases taken in 2020 in response to lower vehicle miles driven caused by COVID-19 restrictions. As we started raising rates during the second half of 2021, both quotes and conversion began decreasing to end the year lower than the prior year.
Results varied by consumer segment. New business application growth was up slightly in our Diane consumer segment but down in the Sams, Wrights, and Robinsons during 2021. While quote volume decreased for Dianes, the rate of conversion increased. The Robinsons were the only consumer segment to see an increase in quote volume but a drop in conversion, which led to a decrease in Robinsons new business applications. Strong renewal growth for the Robinsons contributed to higher year-over-year growth in personal auto policies in force that outpaced our other consumer segments.
The decrease in our total personal auto new applications reflected actions taken during 2021 to address rising loss costs due to higher auto accident frequency and severity as vehicle miles traveled increased. In addition, new applications were elevated in 2020, due in part to the impact from PIP reform in Michigan, government stimulus checks, and resumed consumer shopping during the second half of 2020, following a significant decline in shopping early in the pandemic.
During 2021, rate increases became effective in 35 states, which had an average increase of about 11%. In the aggregate, on a countrywide basis, personal auto net rate increases, were up about 8% for the year. We also reduced advertising spend and tightened underwriting criteria in consumer segments where losses indicated rate inadequacy. These actions may have a negative impact on our policy life expectancy in the near term, as indicated by the decline in the trailing 3-month policy life expectancy.
Overall, our written premium per policy remained flat during 2021, compared to 2020. The rate increases implemented in 2021 were predominately effective later in the year and, therefore, did not have a significant impact on the written premium per policy.
We will continue to manage growth and profitability in accordance with our long-standing goal of growing as fast as we can as long as we can provide good customer service at or below a companywide 96 combined ratio on a calendar-year basis.
We report our Agency and Direct business results separately as components of our Personal Lines segment to provide further understanding of our products by distribution channel. The channel discussions below are focused on personal auto insurance since this product accounted for 94% of the Personal Lines segment net premiums written during 2021.
The Agency Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | (8) | % | (5) | % | 7 | % |
| Renewal | 8 | 7 | 12 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | 1 | 0 | 3 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | (3) | 6 | 4 | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 1 | 10 | 3 |
The Agency business includes business written by more than 40,000 independent insurance agencies that represent Progressive, as well as brokerages in New York and California. During 2021, only 20 states and the District of Columbia generated new Agency auto application growth, including only two of our top 10 largest Agency states. Each of our consumer segments experienced a reduction in new applications through the Agency channel and, due to growth in policy renewals, growth in policies in force, except Sams who saw a decrease in policies in force.
App.-A-63
During 2021, we experienced a 1% year-over-year increase in Agency auto quotes and an 8% decrease in the rate of conversion. The Robinsons and Dianes saw an increase in quote volume, while Wrights and Sams saw a decrease. The rate of conversion was down significantly during 2021, compared to last year, reflecting rate increases and the impact from tightening underwriting criteria this year, along with elevated conversion rates last year due in part to coverage reform in Michigan and government stimulus. Written premium per policy increased 1% for both new and renewal Agency auto business compared to 2020.
The Direct Business
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
| Applications - Auto | ||||||
| New | 0 | % | 5 | % | 9 | % |
| Renewal | 13 | 11 | 17 | |||
| Written premium per policy - Auto | (1) | (1) | 2 | |||
| Policy life expectancy - Auto | ||||||
| Trailing 3 months | 2 | 6 | (3) | |||
| Trailing 12 months | 3 | 10 | (3) |
The Direct business includes business written directly by Progressive on the Internet, through mobile devices, and over the phone. During 2021, we generated new Direct auto application growth in 36 states and the District of Columbia, including four of our top 10 largest Direct states. In total, new applications were flat and renewal applications increased on a year-over-year basis. Strong growth in policy renewals contributed to the increase in policies in force across all consumer segments despite no overall growth in new business applications.
During 2021, we experienced a decrease in Direct auto quote volume of 4%, while our rate of conversion increased 3%. The decreases we experienced in our quote volume primarily reflect the decrease in advertising spending during 2021. All consumer segments saw a decrease in quotes of about 3% to 5%, with flat to a 2% increase in conversion on a year-over-year basis.
Written premium per policy for new and renewal Direct auto business decreased 3% and 1%, respectively, during 2021, compared to last year.
E. Commercial Lines
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Commercial Lines business, excluding our TNC, BOP, and Protective Insurance products:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 27 | % | 5 | % | 11 | % |
| Renewal | 12 | 6 | 9 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 17 | 4 | 8 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | 11 | 5 | (2) |
Our Commercial Lines business operates in five traditional business markets, which include business auto, for-hire transportation, contractor, for-hire specialty, and tow markets, primarily written through the agency channel. We also write transportation network company (TNC) business and business owners policy (BOP) insurance. With the acquisition of Protective Insurance Corporation and its subsidiaries (Protective Insurance) during 2021, we expanded our portfolio of offerings to larger fleet, workers’ compensation coverage for trucking and public transportation fleets, along with trucking industry independent contractors, and affinity programs (see Note 17 – Acquisition for further discussion). Protective Insurance represented 1% of our 2021 companywide net premiums written from the date of acquisition.
Our commercial auto product experienced significant year-over-year new application growth in 2021, reflecting continued improvement in the economy and our competitiveness in the marketplace. Similar to our experience in our personal auto business, our Commercial Lines business volume for 2020 was negatively impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, which influenced the demands and general consumer habits for goods and services provided by our Commercial Lines customers and required that certain businesses undergo temporary closure. During the second half of 2020 and throughout 2021, Commercial Lines experienced a greater demand for shipping services in light of the pandemic, primarily in our for-hire transportation business market target. During 2021, demand in the for-hire transportation market was the primary driver of new customer shopping, which resulted in a 22% increase in quote volume and a 4% increase in the rate of conversion in our commercial auto business during 2021, compared to 2020.
App.-A-64
Written premium per policy for new and renewal commercial auto business increased 17% in 2021, compared to last year. The increases were primarily due to more vehicles per policy and a shift in the mix of business toward higher premium coverages. In aggregate, rate increases for commercial auto were about 4% in 2021. Our policy life expectancy increased compared to 2020, primarily due to shifts in the mix of business and product model enhancements.
Our TNC business experienced a strong increase in miles traveled, compared to 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were in place. Our TNC net premiums written are impacted by miles driven and our 2021 net premiums written reflected the increase in rideshare miles that started to recover during the second half of 2020.
F. Property
The following table shows our year-over-year changes for our Property business:
| Growth Over Prior Year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
| Applications | ||||||
| New | 20 | % | 12 | % | (1) | % |
| Renewal | 10 | 14 | 22 | |||
| Written premium per policy | 1 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Policy life expectancy Trailing 12 months | (9) | (3) | (1) |
Our Property business writes residential property insurance for homeowners, other property owners, and renters, in the agency and direct channels. During 2021, the Property business experienced an increase in new applications, primarily driven by growth in our direct channel. Since our Property segment was not significantly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions during 2020, the year-over-year comparisons are not as impacted as they are in the Personal and Commercial Lines segments.
During 2021, we made targeted rate increases in hail prone and more volatile weather states and will continue to increase rates where needed to get us more closely in line with our profitability target. In the aggregate, on a countrywide basis, Property net rate increases, were up about 7% for the year. We plan to take non-rate actions to reduce volatility in our results, which are primarily attributable to the impact from weather-related catastrophe losses. We plan to focus our growth efforts in states with traditionally less catastrophe exposure and limit growth in the coastal and hail prone states. We began implementing underwriting changes during the second half of 2021 and will continue to take steps to reduce our concentration risk. In the second quarter of 2022, we will start non-renewing about 60,000 policies in Florida and expect that it will take about one year to complete the process.
Despite rate increases taken during the last 12 months in our home product, we did not experience the same rate of change in written premium per policy on a year-over-year basis, primarily attributable to a shift in the mix of business to a larger share of renters policies, which have lower written premiums per policy. Our policy life expectancy decreased compared to last year, primarily due to targeted underwriting changes being made in states where losses indicate rate inadequacy.
G. Litigation
The Progressive Corporation and/or its insurance subsidiaries are named as defendants in various lawsuits arising out of claims made under insurance policies issued by its subsidiaries in the ordinary course of business. We consider all legal actions relating to such claims in establishing our loss and loss adjustment expense reserves.
In addition, various Progressive entities are named as defendants in a number of alleged class/collective/representative actions or individual lawsuits arising out of the operations of the insurance subsidiaries. These cases include those alleging damages as a result of, among other things, our practices in evaluating or paying medical or injury claims or benefits, including, but not limited to, personal injury protection, medical payments, uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist, bodily injury benefits, and workers’ compensation, and for reimbursing medical costs incurred by Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries; our practices in evaluating or paying physical damage claims, including, but not limited to, our payment of total loss claims and labor rates paid to auto body repair shops; our insurance product design, including our response to the COVID-19 pandemic; employment matters; commercial disputes, including breach of contract; and cases challenging other aspects of our claims or marketing practices or other business operations. Other insurance companies and/or large employers face many of these same issues. During the last three years, we have settled several class/collective action and individual lawsuits. These settlements did not have a material effect on our financial condition, cash flows, or results of operations. See Note 12 – Litigation for a more detailed discussion.
H. Income Taxes
At December 31, 2021, we had recoverable income taxes of $19.2 million, which was reported as part of other assets, compared to net current income taxes payable of $163.5 million at December 31, 2020, which was reported as part of accounts payable, accrued expenses, and other liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets. The application of $103.3 million of the deposit that we made in 2019, to protect us against additional taxes and interest owed for 2017, reduced the liability that was recorded at December 31, 2020. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
App.-A-65
A deferred tax asset or liability is a tax benefit or expense, respectively, that is expected to be realized in a future tax return. At December 31, 2021 and 2020, we reported net deferred tax liabilities. We determined that we did not need a valuation allowance on our gross deferred tax assets for either year. Although realization of the gross deferred tax assets is not assured, management believes it is more likely than not that the gross deferred tax assets will be realized based on our expectation we will be able to fully utilize the deductions that are ultimately recognized for tax purposes.
Our effective tax rate was 20% for 2021 and 2020, compared to 23% for 2019. The decrease in the effective tax rate during 2021 and 2020, compared to 2019, was primarily attributable to the reversal of prior year tax credits in 2019, partially offset by $38.1 million of federal tax benefits resulting from our investments in renewable energy. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for a discussion of the reversal of prior year tax credits.
Consistent with prior years, we had no uncertain tax positions. See Note 5 – Income Taxes for further information.
IV. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS – INVESTMENTS
A. Portfolio Summary
At year-end 2021, the fair value of our investment portfolio was $51.5 billion, compared to $47.5 billion at year-end 2020. The $4.0 billion increase from year-end 2020 primarily reflects positive investment results and solid cash flows from operations, net of shareholder dividends, common stock repurchases, and the payment of Senior Notes that matured during the year. Our investment income (interest and dividends) decreased 8% in 2021 and 10% in 2020 due to a decrease in the portfolio yield, which was partially offset by an increase in average assets.
B. Investment Results
Our management philosophy governing the portfolio is to evaluate investment results on a total return basis. The fully taxable equivalent (FTE) total return includes recurring investment income, adjusted to a fully taxable amount for certain securities that receive preferential tax treatment (e.g., municipal securities), and total net realized, and changes in total unrealized, gains (losses) on securities.
The following summarizes investment results for the years ended December 31:
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pretax recurring investment book yield | 1.9 | % | 2.4 | % | 3.1 | % |
| FTE total return: | ||||||
| Fixed-income securities | (0.1) | 6.7 | 6.0 | |||
| Common stocks | 33.4 | 24.3 | 30.5 | |||
| Total portfolio | 2.6 | 7.9 | 7.9 |
The decrease in the book yield during 2021 reflects investing new cash from operations and portfolio turnover during the year in lower interest rate securities. The year-over-year decrease in our fixed-income total return was the result of an increase in interest rates and narrowing credit spreads during the year.
A further break-down of our FTE total returns for our fixed-income portfolio for the years ended December 31, follows:
| 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-income securities: | ||||||
| U.S. Treasury Notes | (1.2) | % | 7.4 | % | 4.9 | % |
| Municipal bonds | (0.2) | 9.4 | 5.5 | |||
| Corporate bonds | (0.4) | 8.4 | 8.9 | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 1.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 0.5 | 4.2 | 6.2 | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 0.7 | 2.8 | 3.4 | |||
| Preferred stocks | 6.9 | 6.6 | 13.8 | |||
| Short-term investments | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.4 |
App.-A-66
C. Portfolio Allocation
The composition of the investment portfolio at December 31, was:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Duration (years) | Rating1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 18,488.2 | 35.9 | % | 3.6 | AAA | |
| State and local government obligations | 2,185.3 | 4.2 | 3.6 | AA+ | |||
| Foreign government obligations | 17.9 | 0.1 | 4.5 | AAA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 10,692.1 | 20.7 | 2.9 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 790.0 | 1.5 | 0.4 | A- | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,535.6 | 12.7 | 3.2 | A+ | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,982.3 | 9.7 | 1.2 | AA | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,821.6 | 3.6 | 3.6 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments | 942.6 | 1.8 | 0.2 | AA | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 46,455.6 | 90.2 | 3.0 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 5,058.5 | 9.8 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 51,514.1 | 100.0 | % | 3.0 | AA- | |
| 2020 | |||||||
| U.S. government obligations | $ | 12,740.0 | 26.8 | % | 3.3 | AAA | |
| State and local government obligations | 3,221.8 | 6.8 | 4.4 | AA | |||
| Corporate debt securities | 10,185.2 | 21.4 | 3.8 | BBB | |||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | 509.5 | 1.1 | 1.0 | AA | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,175.1 | 13.0 | 3.2 | AA- | |||
| Other asset-backed securities | 3,784.6 | 7.9 | 1.0 | AA+ | |||
| Preferred stocks | 1,617.6 | 3.4 | 3.6 | BBB- | |||
| Short-term investments3 | 5,218.5 | 11.0 | 0.1 | AA | |||
| Total fixed-income securities | 43,452.3 | 91.4 | 2.9 | AA- | |||
| Common equities | 4,078.0 | 8.6 | na | na | |||
| Total portfolio2 | $ | 47,530.3 | 100.0 | % | 2.9 | AA- | |
| na = not applicable |
1 Represents ratings at December 31, 2021 and 2020. Credit quality ratings are assigned by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations. To calculate the weighted average credit quality ratings, we weight individual securities based on fair value and assign a numeric score of 0-5, with non-investment-grade and non-rated securities assigned a score of 0-1. To the extent the weighted average of the ratings falls between AAA and AA+, we assign an internal rating of AAA-.
2 Includes $143.4 million and $95.5 million of net unsettled security purchase transactions at December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, with the offsetting payable included in other liabilities.
The total fair value of the portfolio at December 31, 2021 and 2020, included $4.2 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively, of securities held in a consolidated, non-insurance subsidiary of the holding company, net of any unsettled security transactions.
3 A portion of these investments were used to fund our common share dividends in January 2021. See Note 14 – Dividends for additional information.
Our asset allocation strategy is to maintain 0-25% of our portfolio in Group I securities, with the balance (75%-100%) of our portfolio in Group II securities.
We define Group I securities to include:
•common equities,
•nonredeemable preferred stocks,
•redeemable preferred stocks, except for 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends, which are included in Group II, and
•all other non-investment-grade fixed-maturity securities.
Group II securities include:
•short-term securities, and
•all other fixed-maturity securities, including 50% of investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks with cumulative dividends.
App.-A-67
We believe this asset allocation strategy allows us to appropriately assess the risks associated with these securities for capital purposes and is in line with the treatment by our regulators. Included in our Group I
securities are investments entered into by our corporate development group and the asset allocation strategy for these investments is 1.5% of our total portfolio fair value.
The following table shows the composition of our Group I and Group II securities at December 31:
| 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | Fair Value | % of Total Portfolio | |||||||
| Group I securities: | |||||||||||
| Non-investment-grade fixed maturities | $ | 2,032.4 | 3.9 | % | $ | 1,006.4 | 2.1 | % | |||
| Redeemable preferred stocks1 | 90.9 | 0.2 | 97.3 | 0.2 | |||||||
| Nonredeemable preferred stocks | 1,639.9 | 3.2 | 1,422.9 | 3.0 | |||||||
| Common equities | 5,058.5 | 9.8 | 4,078.0 | 8.6 | |||||||
| Total Group I securities | 8,821.7 | 17.1 | 6,604.6 | 13.9 | |||||||
| Group II securities: | |||||||||||
| Other fixed maturities | 41,749.8 | 81.1 | 35,707.2 | 75.1 | |||||||
| Short-term investments | 942.6 | 1.8 | 5,218.5 | 11.0 | |||||||
| Total Group II securities | 42,692.4 | 82.9 | 40,925.7 | 86.1 | |||||||
| Total portfolio | $ | 51,514.1 | 100.0 | % | $ | 47,530.3 | 100.0 | % |
1 We held no non-investment-grade redeemable preferred stocks at December 31, 2021 or 2020.
To determine the allocation between Group I and Group II, we use the credit ratings from models provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for classifying our residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, excluding interest-only securities, and the credit ratings from nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) for all other debt securities.
NAIC ratings are based on a model that considers the book price of our securities when assessing the probability of future losses in assigning a credit rating. As a result, NAIC ratings can vary from credit ratings issued by NRSROs. Management believes NAIC ratings more accurately reflect our risk profile when determining the asset allocation between Group I and II securities.
Unrealized Gains and Losses
As of December 31, 2021, our fixed-maturity portfolio had pretax net unrealized gains, recorded as part of accumulated other comprehensive income, of $71.4 million, compared to $1,206.6 million at December 31, 2020. The decrease in unrealized gains from 2020 was primarily due to increasing interest rates and narrowing credit spreads, which resulted in valuation declines in all fixed-maturity sectors, most
prominently in the U.S. government, corporate debt, and commercial mortgage-backed portfolios.
See Note 2 – Investments for further details on our gross unrealized gains (losses).
App.-A-68
Holding Period Gains (Losses)
The following table provides the balance and activity for both the gross and net holding period gains (losses) for 2021:
| (millions) | Gross Holding Period Gains | Gross Holding Period Losses | Net Holding Period Gains (Losses) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balance at December 31, 2020 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | $ | 15.2 | $ | 0 | $ | 15.2 | ||
| Equity securities | 2,961.5 | (6.6) | 2,954.9 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | 2,976.7 | (6.6) | 2,970.1 | |||||
| Current year change in holding period securities | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | (2.2) | (5.5) | (7.7) | |||||
| Equity securities | 915.7 | (8.1) | 907.6 | |||||
| Total changes in holding period securities | 913.5 | (13.6) | 899.9 | |||||
| Balance at December 31, 2021 | ||||||||
| Hybrid fixed-maturity securities | 13.0 | (5.5) | 7.5 | |||||
| Equity securities | 3,877.2 | (14.7) | 3,862.5 | |||||
| Total holding period securities | $ | 3,890.2 | $ | (20.2) | $ | 3,870.0 |
Changes in holding period gains (losses), similar to unrealized gains (losses) in our fixed-maturity portfolio, are the result of changes in market performance as well as sales of securities based on various portfolio management decisions.
Fixed-Income Securities
The fixed-income portfolio is managed internally and includes fixed-maturity securities, short-term investments, and nonredeemable preferred stocks. Following are the primary exposures for the fixed-income portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk This risk includes the change in value resulting from movements in the underlying market rates of debt securities held. We manage this risk by maintaining the portfolio’s duration (a measure of the portfolio’s exposure to changes in interest rates) between 1.5 and 5 years. The duration of the fixed-income portfolio was 3.0 years at December 31, 2021, compared to 2.9 years at December 31, 2020. The distribution of duration and convexity (i.e., a measure of the speed at which the duration of a security is expected to change based on a rise or fall in interest rates) is monitored on a regular basis.
The duration distribution of our fixed-income portfolio, excluding short-term investments, represented by the interest rate sensitivity of the comparable benchmark U.S. Treasury Notes, at December 31, was:
| Duration Distribution | 2021 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 22.0 | % | 19.5 | % |
| 2 years | 18.8 | 18.7 | ||
| 3 years | 23.5 | 24.9 | ||
| 5 years | 17.6 | 18.5 | ||
| 7 years | 13.1 | 10.9 | ||
| 10 years | 5.0 | 7.5 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
Credit Rate Risk This exposure is managed by maintaining an A+ minimum average portfolio credit quality rating, as defined by NRSROs. Our credit quality rating was above the minimum threshold during both 2021 and 2020.
The credit quality distribution of the fixed-income portfolio at December 31, was:
| Rating | 2021 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAA | 54.7 | % | 53.3 | % |
| AA | 8.7 | 9.8 | ||
| A | 8.6 | 11.1 | ||
| BBB | 21.7 | 22.9 | ||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated:1 | ||||
| BB | 4.8 | 2.4 | ||
| B | 1.1 | 0.2 | ||
| CCC and lower | 0.1 | 0.1 | ||
| Non-rated | 0.3 | 0.2 | ||
| Total fixed-income portfolio | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % |
1 The ratings in the table above are assigned by NRSROs. The increase in 2021 reflects a shift in the mix of our investments and not credit rating downgrades.
Concentration Risk Our investment constraints limit investment in a single issuer, other than U.S. Treasury Notes or a state’s general obligation bonds, to 2.5% of shareholders’ equity, while the single issuer guideline on preferred stocks and/or non-investment-grade debt is 1.25% of shareholders’ equity. Additionally, the guideline applicable to any state’s general obligation bonds is 6% of shareholders’ equity. We consider concentration risk both overall and in the context of individual asset classes and
App.-A-69
sectors, including but not limited to common equities, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, municipal bonds, and high-yield bonds. At December 31, 2021 and 2020, we were within all of the constraints described above.
Prepayment and Extension Risk We are exposed to this risk especially in our asset-backed (i.e., structured product) and preferred stock portfolios. Prepayment risk includes the risk of early redemption of security principal that may need to be reinvested at less attractive rates. Extension risk includes the risk that a security will not be redeemed when anticipated, and that the security that is extended will have a lower yield than a security we might be able to obtain by reinvesting the expected redemption principal. Our holdings of different types of structured debt and preferred securities help manage this risk. During 2021 and 2020, we did not experience significant adverse prepayment or extension of principal relative to our cash flow expectations in the portfolio.
Liquidity Risk Our overall portfolio remains very liquid and we believe that it is sufficient to meet expected near-term liquidity requirements. The short-to-intermediate duration of our portfolio provides a source of liquidity, as we expect approximately $4.5 billion, or 16.8%, of principal repayment from our fixed-income portfolio, excluding U.S. Treasury Notes and short-term investments, during 2022. Cash from interest and dividend payments provides an additional source of recurring liquidity.
The duration of our U.S. government obligations, which are included in the fixed-income portfolio, was comprised of the following at December 31, 2021:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Duration (years) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Treasury Notes | |||||
| Less than one year | $ | 1,112.9 | 0.7 | ||
| One to two years | 3,913.3 | 1.5 | |||
| Two to three years | 4,628.5 | 2.4 | |||
| Three to five years | 4,533.1 | 4.1 | |||
| Five to seven years | 3,172.3 | 6.2 | |||
| Seven to ten years | 1,128.1 | 8.6 | |||
| Total U.S. Treasury Notes | $ | 18,488.2 | 3.6 |
ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES
Included in the fixed-income portfolio are asset-backed securities, which were comprised of the following at December 31:
| ($ in millions) | Fair Value | Net Unrealized Gains (Losses) | % of Asset- Backed Securities | Duration (years) | Rating(at period end)1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 790.0 | $ | 1.7 | 6.4 | % | 0.4 | A- | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,535.6 | (25.4) | 53.1 | 3.2 | A+ | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 4,982.3 | 0.9 | 40.5 | 1.2 | AA | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 12,307.9 | $ | (22.8) | 100.0 | % | 2.2 | AA- | |||
| 2020 | |||||||||||
| Residential mortgage-backed securities | $ | 509.5 | $ | 6.2 | 4.9 | % | 1.0 | AA | |||
| Commercial mortgage-backed securities | 6,175.1 | 132.5 | 59.0 | 3.2 | AA- | ||||||
| Other asset-backed securities | 3,784.6 | 39.6 | 36.1 | 1.0 | AA+ | ||||||
| Total asset-backed securities | $ | 10,469.2 | $ | 178.3 | 100.0 | % | 2.3 | AA |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs.
App.-A-70
Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our RMBS, along with the loan classification and a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2021, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2021) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Rating1 | Non-Agency | Agency | Government/GSE2 | Total | % of Total | |||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 194.7 | $ | 0.1 | $ | 1.6 | $ | 196.4 | 24.9 | % | ||||||
| AA | 38.5 | 0 | 0.5 | 39.0 | 4.9 | |||||||||||
| A | 166.6 | 0 | 0 | 166.6 | 21.1 | |||||||||||
| BBB | 164.4 | 0 | 0 | 164.4 | 20.8 | |||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||
| BB | 191.7 | 0 | 0 | 191.7 | 24.3 | |||||||||||
| B | 15.8 | 0 | 0 | 15.8 | 2.0 | |||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 5.2 | 0 | 0 | 5.2 | 0.6 | |||||||||||
| Non-rated | 10.9 | 0 | 0 | 10.9 | 1.4 | |||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 787.8 | $ | 0.1 | $ | 2.1 | $ | 790.0 | 100.0 | % | ||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | 0.3 | % | (1.4) | % | 6.5 | % | 0.3 | % |
1 The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our RMBS, 92% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
2 The securities in this category are insured by a Government Sponsored Entity (GSE) and/or collateralized by mortgage loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
In the residential mortgage-backed sector, our portfolio consists of bonds that are backed by high-quality borrowers in the underlying mortgages or have strong structural protections. During 2021, we increased our exposure to short-duration credit bonds where the underlying loans had meaningful home price appreciation.
Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our CMBS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2021, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2021) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions)Rating1 | Multi-Borrower | Single-Borrower | Total | % of Total | |||||||
| AAA | $ | 279.3 | $ | 1,669.4 | $ | 1,948.7 | 29.8 | % | |||
| AA | 0 | 1,648.8 | 1,648.8 | 25.2 | |||||||
| A | 0 | 1,202.8 | 1,202.8 | 18.4 | |||||||
| BBB | 0 | 1,261.1 | 1,261.1 | 19.3 | |||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 474.0 | 474.0 | 7.3 | |||||||
| B | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 0 | |||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 279.5 | $ | 6,256.1 | $ | 6,535.6 | 100.0 | % | |||
| Increase (decrease) in value | 3.7 | % | (0.6) | % | (0.4) | % |
1The credit quality ratings are assigned by NRSROs; when we assigned the NAIC ratings for our CMBS, 57% of our non-investment-grade securities were rated investment grade and reported as Group II securities, with the remainder classified as Group I.
The CMBS portfolio experienced lower volatility in 2021. New issuance in the single-asset single-borrower (SASB) market were at a record high in 2021 and were the primary source of additions into our portfolio. Credit spreads in the investment-grade SASB market were range-bound throughout the year, reaching their tightest levels in late second quarter and early third quarter. As a result, our net
purchases slowed and were asset- and deal-specific based on both credit spreads and our assessment of underlying collateral quality. As credit spreads widened in the third and fourth quarters of 2021, we continued to add to the portfolio at a measured pace, with a particular focus on high-quality office and multi-family apartments.
App.-A-71
Other Asset-Backed Securities (OABS) The following table details the credit quality rating and fair value of our OABS, along with a comparison of the fair value at December 31, 2021, to our original investment value (adjusted for returns of principal, amortization, and write-downs):
| Other Asset-Backed Securities (at December 31, 2021) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ($ in millions) Rating | Automobile | Collateralized Loan Obligations | Student Loan | Whole Business Securitizations | Equipment | Other | Total | % of Total | |||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 927.0 | $ | 1,203.1 | $ | 76.4 | $ | 0 | $ | 634.1 | $ | 215.8 | $ | 3,056.4 | 61.3 | % | |||||||
| AA | 290.2 | 567.7 | 12.5 | 0 | 65.3 | 14.1 | 949.8 | 19.1 | |||||||||||||||
| A | 22.3 | 0 | 8.7 | 0 | 127.3 | 160.6 | 318.9 | 6.4 | |||||||||||||||
| BBB | 7.1 | 0 | 0 | 570.9 | 0 | 41.5 | 619.5 | 12.4 | |||||||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37.7 | 37.7 | 0.8 | % | ||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,246.6 | $ | 1,770.8 | $ | 97.6 | $ | 570.9 | $ | 826.7 | $ | 469.7 | $ | 4,982.3 | 100.0 | % | |||||||
| Increase (decrease) in value | (0.1) | % | (0.1) | % | 0.8 | % | 0.2 | % | 0.3 | % | (0.3) | % | 0 | % |
As valuations across other asset classes were more attractive, our OABS portfolio offered less relative value. During 2021, our allocation to collateralized loan obligation securities increased as they provided better return opportunities than other sectors.
MUNICIPAL SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our municipal securities at December 31, 2021, without the benefit of credit or bond insurance:
| Municipal Securities (at December 31, 2021) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Rating | General Obligations | Revenue Bonds | Total | |||||
| AAA | $ | 653.1 | $ | 245.2 | $ | 898.3 | ||
| AA | 484.7 | 720.7 | 1,205.4 | |||||
| A | 0 | 80.3 | 80.3 | |||||
| BBB | 0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | |||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | |||||
| Total | $ | 1,137.8 | $ | 1,047.5 | $ | 2,185.3 |
Included in revenue bonds were $488.4 million of single-family housing revenue bonds issued by state housing finance agencies, of which $358.7 million were supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies and $129.7 million were supported by mortgage-backed securities.
Of the programs supported by mortgage-backed securities, 78% were collateralized by Ginnie Mae mortgages, which are fully guaranteed by the U.S. government; the remaining 22% were collateralized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages. Of the programs supported by individual mortgages held by the state housing finance agencies, the overall credit quality rating was AA+. Most of these mortgages were supported by FHA, VA, or private mortgage insurance providers.
As spreads tightened during 2021, we reduced our allocation to the municipal sector. Our sales were primarily in revenue bonds that were purchased in 2020 when spreads were wider and offered attractive performance opportunities. At 2021 valuations, municipal bonds were less attractive to us on a relative value basis.
App.-A-72
CORPORATE SECURITIES
The following table details the credit quality rating of our corporate securities at December 31, 2021:
| Corporate Securities (at December 31, 2021) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) Rating | Consumer | Industrial | Communication | Financial Services | Agency | Technology | Basic Materials | Energy | Total | |||||||||||||||||
| AAA | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 30.0 | $ | 0 | $ | 1.7 | $ | 0 | $ | 0 | $ | 31.7 | ||||||||
| AA | 62.3 | 0 | 0 | 111.4 | 1.0 | 18.2 | 0 | 13.6 | 206.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| A | 374.4 | 244.2 | 232.4 | 1,008.4 | 0 | 145.7 | 123.6 | 99.8 | 2,228.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| BBB | 2,302.6 | 1,424.6 | 134.0 | 994.5 | 0 | 689.8 | 14.7 | 893.7 | 6,453.9 | |||||||||||||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 532.6 | 129.1 | 204.8 | 166.6 | 0 | 85.5 | 36.0 | 85.1 | 1,239.7 | |||||||||||||||||
| B | 355.3 | 83.3 | 0 | 42.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 481.4 | |||||||||||||||||
| CCC and lower | 50.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50.4 | |||||||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 3,677.6 | $ | 1,881.2 | $ | 571.2 | $ | 2,353.7 | $ | 1.0 | $ | 940.9 | $ | 174.3 | $ | 1,092.2 | $ | 10,692.1 |
During 2021, the size of our corporate debt portfolio saw a modest increase. Activity during the year was primarily a combination of selling some of our investment-grade longer-maturity holdings we believed had exceeded our performance objective, adding investment-grade securities with more favorable risk reward profiles, and continuing to selectively increase our allocation to high-yield securities that we believed would benefit from the continuation of the economic recovery.
We shortened the maturity profile of the corporate portfolio during 2021 to reduce credit risk in a narrowing credit spread environment. The maturity profile was 2.9 years at December 31, 2021, compared to 3.8 years at December 31, 2020. Overall, our corporate securities, as a percentage of the fixed-income portfolio, has remained consistent since the end of 2020 at approximately 23%.
PREFERRED STOCKS – REDEEMABLE AND NONREDEEMABLE
The table below shows the exposure break-down for our preferred stocks by sector and rating at year end:
| Preferred Stocks (at December 31, 2021) | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial services | ||||||||||||||||||||
| (millions) Rating | U.S. Banks | Foreign Banks | Insurance | Other Financial | Industrials | Utilities | Total | |||||||||||||
| BBB | $ | 1,019.2 | $ | 54.5 | $ | 127.4 | $ | 46.1 | $ | 130.8 | $ | 41.3 | $ | 1,419.3 | ||||||
| Non-investment grade/non-rated: | ||||||||||||||||||||
| BB | 201.2 | 23.5 | 0 | 0 | 25.2 | 41.6 | 291.5 | |||||||||||||
| Non-rated | 0 | 0 | 35.0 | 41.4 | 34.4 | 0 | 110.8 | |||||||||||||
| Total fair value | $ | 1,220.4 | $ | 78.0 | $ | 162.4 | $ | 87.5 | $ | 190.4 | $ | 82.9 | $ | 1,821.6 |
The majority of our preferred securities have fixed-rate dividends until a call date and then, if not called, generally convert to floating-rate dividends. The interest rate duration of our preferred securities is calculated to reflect the call, floor, and floating-rate features. Although a preferred security will remain outstanding if not called, its interest rate duration will reflect the variable nature of the dividend. Our non-investment-grade preferred stocks were with issuers that maintain investment-grade senior debt ratings.
We also face the risk that dividend payments on our preferred stock holdings could be deferred for one or more periods or skipped entirely. As of December 31, 2021, all of our preferred securities continued to pay their dividends
in full and on time. Approximately 84% of our preferred stock securities pay dividends that have tax preferential characteristics, while the balance pay dividends that are fully taxable.
During 2021, we had a small net increase in our preferred stock portfolio and the portfolio was 3.9% of our fixed-income portfolio at December 31, 2021, compared to 3.7% at December 31, 2020. We primarily purchased nonredeemable preferred securities that we believe had attractive risk/reward profiles. Certain holdings were called and redeemed at par value during the year. The portfolio valuation increased throughout the year as credit spreads compressed.
App.-A-73
Common Equities
Common equities, as reported on the consolidated balance sheets at December 31, were comprised of the following:
| ($ in millions) | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common stocks | $ | 5,041.6 | 99.7 | % | $ | 4,074.9 | 99.9 | % | |||
| Other risk investments | 16.9 | 0.3 | 3.1 | 0.1 | |||||||
| Total common equities | $ | 5,058.5 | 100.0 | % | $ | 4,078.0 | 100.0 | % |
The majority of our common stock portfolio consists of individual holdings selected based on their contribution to the correlation with the Russell 1000 Index. We held 839 out of 1,030, or 81%, of the common stocks comprising the index at December 31, 2021, which made up 96% of the total market capitalization of the index. At December 31, 2021 and 2020, the year-to-date total return of the indexed portfolio, based on GAAP income, was within the designated tracking error, which is +/- 50 basis points.
The other risk investments consist of limited partnership interests. During 2021, we funded $4.8 million on partnership investments and have an open funding commitment of $7.4 million at December 31, 2021. In addition, partnership investments with a value of $7.4 million at December 31, 2021 were assumed as part of our acquisition of Protective Insurance.
The following is a summary of our indexed common stock portfolio holdings by sector compared to the Russell 1000 Index composition:
| Sector | Equity Portfolio Allocation at December 31, 2021 | Russell 1000 Allocation at December 31, 2021 | Russell 1000 Sector Return in 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer discretionary | 16.0 | % | 17.1 | % | 17.4 | % |
| Consumer staples | 4.8 | 5.0 | 18.2 | |||
| Financial services | 11.1 | 10.3 | 34.9 | |||
| Health care | 12.1 | 12.2 | 23.3 | |||
| Materials and processing | 1.6 | 1.6 | 25.4 | |||
| Other energy | 2.7 | 2.6 | 51.2 | |||
| Producer durable | 12.8 | 12.5 | 16.1 | |||
| Real estate | 3.2 | 3.3 | 38.6 | |||
| Technology | 30.2 | 29.9 | 37.2 | |||
| Telecommunications | 3.1 | 2.9 | 5.4 | |||
| Utilities | 2.4 | 2.6 | 18.7 | |||
| Total common stocks | 100.0 | % | 100.0 | % | 26.4 | % |
For 2021, our common stock portfolio FTE total return was 33.4%, compared to 26.4% for the Russell 1000 Index, due to common stocks we hold outside of the index.
App.-A-74
V. CRITICAL ACCOUNTING POLICIES
Progressive is required to make certain estimates and assumptions when preparing its financial statements and accompanying notes in conformity with GAAP. Actual results could differ from those estimates in a variety of areas. The three areas we view as most critical with respect to the application of estimates and assumptions is the establishment of our loss reserves, the methods for measuring expected credit losses on financial instruments, and our analysis of goodwill for impairment.
A. Loss and LAE Reserves
Loss and loss adjustment expense (LAE) reserves represent our best estimate of our ultimate liability for losses and LAE relating to events that occurred prior to the end of any given accounting period but have not yet been paid. At December 31, 2021, we had $21.4 billion of net loss and LAE reserves, which included $17.3 billion of case reserves and $4.1 billion of incurred but not recorded (IBNR) reserves. Personal auto liability and commercial auto liability reserves represent approximately 90% of our total carried net reserves. For this reason, the following discussion focuses on our vehicle businesses.
We do not review our loss reserves on a macro level and, therefore, do not derive a companywide range of reserves to compare to a standard deviation. Instead, we review a large majority of our reserves by product/state subset combinations on a quarterly time frame, with the remaining reserves generally reviewed on a semiannual basis. A change in our scheduled reviews of a particular subset of the business depends on the size of the subset or emerging issues relating to the product or state. By reviewing the reserves at such a detailed level, we have the ability to identify and measure variances in the trends by state, product, and line coverage that otherwise would not be seen on a consolidated basis. We believe our comprehensive process of reviewing at a subset level provides us more meaningful estimates of our aggregate loss reserves.
In analyzing the ultimate accident year loss and LAE experience, our actuarial staff reviews in detail, at the subset level, frequency (number of losses per earned car year), severity (dollars of loss per each claim), and average premium (dollars of premium per earned car year), as well as the frequency and severity of our LAE costs. The loss ratio, a primary measure of loss experience, is equal to the product of frequency times severity divided by the average premium. The average premium for personal and
commercial auto businesses is not estimated. The actual frequency experienced will vary depending on the change in the mix in class of drivers we insure, but the frequency projections for these lines of business are generally stable in the short term, because a large majority of the parties involved in an accident report their claims within a short time period after the occurrence. The severity experienced by Progressive is much more difficult to estimate, especially for injury claims, since severity is affected by changes in underlying costs, such as medical costs, jury verdicts, and regulatory changes. In addition, severity will vary relative to the change in our mix of business by limit.
Assumptions regarding needed reserve levels made by the actuarial staff take into consideration influences on available historical data that reduce the predictiveness of our projected future loss costs. Internal considerations that are process-related, which generally result from changes in our claims organization’s activities, include claim closure rates, the number of claims that are closed without payment, and the level of the claims representatives’ estimates of the needed case reserve for each claim. These changes and their effect on the historical data are studied at the state level versus on a larger, less indicative, countrywide basis.
External items considered include the litigation atmosphere, changes in medical costs, and the availability of services to resolve claims. These also are better understood at the state level versus at a more macro, countrywide level. The impact COVID-19 has on the items above, as well as additional considerations such as the type of accident and change in reporting patterns, are closely monitored.
At December 31, 2021, we had $26.2 billion of carried gross reserves and $21.4 billion of net reserves (net of reinsurance recoverables on unpaid losses). Our net reserve balance implicitly assumes that the loss and LAE severity for accident year 2021 over accident year 2020 would be 9.2% higher for personal auto liability and 11.5% higher for commercial auto liability. As discussed above, the severity estimates are influenced by many variables that are difficult to precisely quantify and which influence the final amount of claims settlements. That, coupled with changes in internal claims practices, the legal environment, and state regulatory requirements, requires significant judgment in the estimate of the needed reserves to be carried.
App.-A-75
The following table highlights what the effect would be to our carried loss and LAE reserves, on a net basis, as of December 31, 2021, if during 2022 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the 2021 accident year (i.e., claims that occurred in 2021):
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Year 2021 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 13,178.8 | $ | 13,487.8 | $ | 13,796.8 | $ | 14,105.8 | $ | 14,414.8 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 5,274.8 | 5,346.2 | 5,417.6 | 5,489.0 | 5,560.4 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 20,669.7 | $ | 21,050.1 | $ | 21,430.5 | $ | 21,810.9 | $ | 22,191.3 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2021 accident year would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $154.5 million and our commercial auto reserves by $35.7 million.
Our 2021 year-end loss and LAE reserve balance also includes claims from prior years. Claims that occurred in 2021, 2020, and 2019, in the aggregate, accounted for approximately 92% of our reserve balance. If during 2022 we were to experience the indicated change in our estimate of severity for the total of the prior three accident years (i.e., 2021, 2020, and 2019), the effect to our year-end 2021 reserve balances would be as follows:
| Estimated Changes in Severity for Accident Years 2021, 2020, and 2019 | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (millions) | -4% | -2% | As Reported | +2% | +4% | |||||||||
| Personal auto liability | $ | 12,159.2 | $ | 12,978.0 | $ | 13,796.8 | $ | 14,615.6 | $ | 15,434.4 | ||||
| Commercial auto liability | 5,079.6 | 5,248.6 | 5,417.6 | 5,586.6 | 5,755.6 | |||||||||
| Other1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | 2,216.1 | |||||||||
| Total | $ | 19,454.9 | $ | 20,442.7 | $ | 21,430.5 | $ | 22,418.3 | $ | 23,406.1 |
1 Includes reserves for personal and commercial auto physical damage claims and our non-auto lines of business; no change in estimates is presented due to the immaterial level of these reserves.
Note: Every percentage point change in our estimate of severity for the 2021, 2020, and 2019 accident years would affect our personal auto liability reserves by $409.4 million and our commercial auto reserves by $84.5 million.
Our best estimate of the appropriate amount for our reserves as of year-end 2021 is included in our financial statements for the year. Our goal is to ensure that total reserves are adequate to cover all loss costs, while sustaining minimal variation from the time reserves are initially established until losses are fully developed. At the point in time when reserves are set, we have no way of knowing whether our reserve estimates will prove to be high or low, or whether one of the alternative scenarios discussed above is reasonably likely to occur. The above tables show the potential favorable or unfavorable development we will realize if our estimates miss by 2% or 4%.
B. Credit Losses on Financial Instruments
An allowance for credit losses is established when the ultimate realization of a financial instrument is determined to be impaired due to a credit event. Measurement of expected credit losses is based on judgment when considering relevant information about past events, including historical loss experience, current conditions, and forecasts of the collectability of the reported financial instrument. The allowance for expected credit losses is measured and recorded at the point ultimate recoverability of the financial instrument is expected to be impaired, including upon the initial recognition of the financial instrument, where warranted. We evaluate financial instrument credit losses related to our available-for-sale securities, reinsurance recoverables, and premiums receivables.
Available-For-Sale Securities
We routinely monitor our fixed-maturity portfolio for pricing changes that might indicate potential losses exist and perform detailed reviews of securities with unrealized
losses to determine if an allowance for credit losses, a change to an existing allowance (recovery or additional loss), or a write-off for an amount deemed uncollectible needs to be recorded. In such cases, changes in fair value are evaluated to determine the extent to which such changes are attributable to: (i) credit related losses, which are specific to the issuer (e.g., financial conditions, business prospects) where the present value of cash flows expected to be collected is lower than the amortized cost basis of the security or (ii) market related factors, such as interest rates or credit spreads.
If we do not expect to hold the security to allow for a potential recovery of those expected losses, we will write down the security to fair value and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement.
For securities whose losses are credit related losses, and for which we do not intend to sell in the near term, we will review the non-market components to determine if a
App.-A-76
potential future credit loss exists, based on existing financial data available related to the fixed-maturity securities. If we anticipate that a credit loss exists, we will record an allowance for the credit loss and recognize a realized loss in the comprehensive income statement. For all securities for which an allowance for credit losses has been established, we will re-evaluate the securities, at least quarterly, to determine if further deterioration has occurred or if we project a subsequent recovery in the expected losses, which would require an adjustment to the allowance for credit losses. To the extent we determine that we will likely sell a security prior to recovery of the credit loss, or if the loss is deemed uncollectible, we will write-down the security to its fair value and reverse any credit loss allowance that may have been previously recorded.
For an unrealized loss that is determined to be related to current market conditions, we will not record an allowance for credit losses or a write down to fair value. We will continue to monitor these securities to determine if underlying factors other than the current market conditions are contributing to the loss in value.
Based on an analysis of our fixed-maturity portfolio, we have determined our allowance for credit losses related to available-for-sale securities was not material to our financial condition or results of operations for the periods ending December 31, 2021 and 2020.
Reinsurance Recoverables
We routinely monitor changes in the credit quality and concentration risks of the reinsurers who are counterparties to our reinsurance recoverables. At December 31, 2021, approximately 62% of our reinsurance recoverables were held in several mandatory state pools, including the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association, Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, and North Carolina Reinsurance Facility, and in plans where we act as a servicing agent to state-mandated involuntary plans for commercial vehicles (Commercial Automobile Insurance Procedures/Plans) and as a participant in the “Write Your Own” program for federally regulated plans for flood (National Flood Insurance Program). All of these programs
are governed by insurance regulations. The remaining balance of our recoverables are composed of voluntary external contractual arrangements that primarily relate to the Property business and to our transportation network company business written by our Commercial Lines business. For these privately placed reinsurance arrangements, we regularly monitor reinsurer credit strength and analyze our reinsurance recoverable balances for expected credit losses at least quarterly, or more frequently if indicators of reinsurer credit deterioration, either individually or in aggregate, exists. For at-risk uncollateralized recoverable balances, we evaluate a number of reinsurer specific factors, including reinsurer credit quality rating, credit rating outlook, historical experience, reinsurer surplus, recoverable duration, and collateralization composition in respect to our net exposure (i.e., the reinsurance recoverable amount less premiums payable to the reinsurer, where the right to offset exists). Based on this assessment, reinsurers with credit risks will be individually subject to a credit default model, and an allowance for credit loss will be established, where warranted.
Based on the analysis of reinsurers, we have determined our allowance for credit losses related to our reinsurance recoverables was not material to our financial condition or results of operations for the period ending December 31, 2021.
Premium Receivables
We routinely monitor historical premium collections data for our premiums receivable balances, through actuarial analyses, to project the future recoverability of recorded receivables. As part of these analyses, we determine historical collectability rates and modify those rates based on current economic assumptions to establish estimates on default. These rates are applied to the stratified subsets of our consumer receivable balances, based on the age of the receivable to establish an allowance for credit losses. See Note 1 – Reporting and Accounting Policies for a description of our process and a roll forward of the allowance account during 2021 and 2020.
C. Goodwill
Goodwill represents the amount we paid to acquire companies in excess of the company’s fair value at the date of acquisition. At December 31, 2021, we had goodwill of $452.7 million. The goodwill related to the April 1, 2015, acquisition of a controlling interest in ARX Holding Corp. (ARX) accounted for 98% of this balance and, therefore, the detailed discussion is focused on the ARX goodwill balance.
We test our goodwill balance for impairment at the reporting unit level annually as of October 1, or more frequently if indicators of impairment exist. Reporting units represent the lowest operational level of our business for which management regularly reviews discrete financial operating results. To test for impairment, we may elect to
perform a qualitative or quantitative analysis, based on our judgment of the relevant qualitative factors that exist at the time we perform the valuation, including the consideration of the length of time lapsed since the previous quantitative assessment.
The qualitative analysis is performed by assessing certain trends and factors, actual and forecasted operating information (including growth rates and profitability), industry and macroeconomic data, and other relevant qualitative factors.
The quantitative goodwill impairment assessment consists of comparing the fair value of the reporting unit to its carrying value. If the fair value is less than its carrying
App.-A-77
value, an impairment charge must be recognized for the difference. To determine the fair value of a reporting unit, we use discounted cash flow models. The models use assumptions including, but not limited to, discount rate, and forecasted growth, profitability, investment return, and capital requirements. The assumptions and estimates are consistent with those we believe other non-related marketplace participants would use and are based on management’s best estimates at the time of the analysis.
The goodwill from the ARX acquisition of $446 million is allocated equally to the Agency auto reporting unit and the ARX reporting unit. We performed a qualitative impairment analysis over the goodwill allocated to the Agency auto reporting unit. The results of the qualitative analysis did not indicate a need to perform an additional quantitative analysis.
For the $223 million of goodwill allocated to the ARX reporting unit, we elected to perform a quantitative analysis, due to the results generated by ARX over the past several years. While we used the assumptions listed above, we believe that the most significant assumptions used to determine the estimated fair value were the discount rate and projected underwriting profitability of ARX.
The discount rate used was consistent with the weighted average cost of capital that we determined was likely to be expected by a market participant. The discount rate was based on expected rates of return, including consideration of company specific risk premiums. The discount rate used in our discounted cash flow model may be impacted by adverse changes in the macroeconomic environment, volatility in the equity and debt markets, or other industry specific factors, including, but not limited to, changes in catastrophe patterns.
The underwriting profitability assumptions are based on long-term forecasts of ARX’s combined ratio. Underwriting profitability is dependent on ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and factors in weather-related catastrophe losses under historical conditions. In addition, when estimating our future underwriting profitability, we factored in changes currently underway to return ARX to profitability, including raising rates, implementing underwriting restrictions, and non-renewing certain policies in Florida to reduce our concentration risk.
As of the evaluation date, the calculated fair value of ARX was nearly 2.7 times greater than its carrying value and, therefore, there was no indication of impairment to the goodwill related to the ARX acquisition. Changes in our assumptions, strategic decisions, or economic and competitive conditions could result in a decline in fair value and result in a goodwill impairment charge in the future. Using the same growth, investment returns, and capital requirement assumptions in the discounted cash flow model, we determined that our discount factor could change by 4% or the forecasted underwriting profitability for ARX could decline by 6% before the fair value of ARX would be less than the current carrying value of the reporting unit indicating that goodwill might be impaired. We will continue to monitor changes in the reporting unit results and general macroeconomic conditions to determine if future impairment analysis is warranted.
App.-A-78
Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this report not based upon historical fact are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements often use words such as “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” and other words and terms of similar meaning, or are tied to future periods, in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and projections about future events, and are subject to certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those discussed herein. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainties related to:
•our ability to underwrite and price risks accurately and to charge adequate rates to policyholders;
•our ability to establish accurate loss reserves;
•the impact of severe weather, other catastrophe events and climate change;
•the effectiveness of our reinsurance programs and the continued availability of reinsurance and performance by reinsurers;
•the highly competitive nature of property-casualty insurance markets;
•whether we innovate effectively and respond to our competitors’ initiatives;
•whether we effectively manage complexity as we develop and deliver products and customer experiences;
•how intellectual property rights affect our competitiveness and our business operations;
•whether we adjust claims accurately;
•our ability to maintain a recognized and trusted brand;
•our ability to attract, develop and retain talent and maintain appropriate staffing levels;
•compliance with complex and changing laws and regulations;
•litigation challenging our business practices, and those of our competitors and other companies;
•the impacts of a security breach or other attack involving our computer systems or the systems of one or more of our vendors;
•the secure and uninterrupted operation of the facilities, systems, and business functions that are critical to our business;
•the success of our efforts to acquire or develop new products or enter into new areas of business and navigate related risks;
•our continued ability to send and accept electronic payments;
•the possible impairment of our goodwill or intangible assets;
•the performance of our fixed-income and equity investment portfolios;
•the impact on our investment returns and strategies from regulations and societal pressures relating to environmental, social, and other public policy matters;
•the elimination of the London Interbank Offered Rate;
•our continued ability to access our cash accounts and/or convert securities into cash on favorable terms;
•the impact if one or more parties with which we enter into significant contracts or transact business fail to perform;
•legal restrictions on our insurance subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to The Progressive Corporation;
•limitations on our ability to pay dividends on our common shares under the terms of our outstanding preferred shares;
•our ability to obtain capital when necessary to support our business and potential growth;
•evaluations by credit rating and other rating agencies;
•the variable nature of our common share dividend policy;
•whether our investments in certain tax-advantaged projects generate the anticipated returns;
•the impact from not managing to short-term earnings expectations in light of our goal to maximize the long-term value of the enterprise;
•the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken in response; and
•other matters described from time to time in our releases and publications, and in our periodic reports and other documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2021.
In addition, investors should be aware that generally accepted accounting principles prescribe when a company may reserve for particular risks, including litigation exposures. Accordingly, results for a given reporting period could be significantly affected if and when we establish reserves for one or more contingencies. Also, our regular reserve reviews may result in adjustments of varying magnitude as additional information regarding claims activity becomes known. Reported results, therefore, may be volatile in certain accounting periods.
App.-A-79