What the stories had in common was that they each started with a loss and ended with a means of help.

Transcription

1 Erie Indemnity Company 2014 Annual Shareholder Meeting Presentation April 15, :30 a.m. TERRENCE W. CAVANAUGH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: Good Morning. Here at ERIE, it s not unusual to meet someone in the cafeteria or in one of my monthly Employee get togethers who was hired right out of high school or college. Like them, I, too, got an early start in the insurance business. It goes back to the family table when I was growing up in Chicago. During the holidays, the whole extended family got together. Two of my uncles were Chicago cops and I know why my mother liked having them around they kept me and my brothers in line. Another of my uncles was a meat salesman and during those loud family gatherings, I quickly learned there s only so much you can say about meat. But another uncle Uncle Art was an independent insurance agent, and he was full of stories about the neighborhood. Uncle Art had an agency in downtown Chicago and would tell us about a fire that left a family in need or about a woman with small children whose husband just died in a factory accident. What the stories had in common was that they each started with a loss and ended with a means of help. This uncle was, perhaps, the one who left the greatest impression on me. He helped me understand that insurance was truly about helping people at their most difficult moments and that working in this industry required equal parts compassion, emotional intelligence and business acumen. That s what prompted me go into insurance and it s what has continued to inspire me over nearly four decades. Every one of us here has a story of how we ended up here today, connected by this industry and profession this mission called insurance, and by this company called ERIE. Back in the early part of the 20th century, H.O. Hirt and O.G. Crawford had a path, too. Theirs was borne of opportunity. In December 1924, the two salesmen and colleagues resigned their jobs. They saw great potential for auto insurance with the mass production of the automobile. Henry Ford s 1

2 assembly lines made cars affordable for many, allowing people for the first time to leave their front porches for the open road. That created an incredible opportunity and ability to sell. It was an opportunity that the two young entrepreneurs didn t want to miss. Their path connects us to this day 89 years later. And the company they forged with the motto, Above all in SERVICE, is, in fact, quite connected to the environment ERIE s founders faced in the Roaring 20s: Game changing technology Rapid growth in industries Economic turbulence And a free wheeling popular culture. What Customers needed THEN, they still DESIRE TODAY. Reliable financial protection in the kind of difficult moments no one wishes for. Compassionate, accessible and prompt customer service. And sound business judgment that ensures the promise behind the policy is one they can trust. In 2013, we met those needs in incredible ways. Our financials for the Exchange and Indemnity tell part of the story: Over $5 billion in direct written premium Over $6 billion in policyholder surplus A combined ratio of 97 percent And earnings per share of $3.08. Those are impressive numbers. And they reflect not just the efforts of a single year, but the achievements built over decades. A few weeks ago, we celebrated those results with the people who helped create them our Employees. On a Friday in March, we gathered the whole ERIE team together in the atrium and by webcast to thank them. In a sense, we were recreating something that has been done again and again since Susie Hagen cut the ribbon out in the atrium at the 1983 grand opening. The atrium is ERIE s town square the place we gather to share important news and celebrate the moments that connect us as an organization, a culture, a team, and a family. Of course, today we do so using technology to bring in our Employees who work from their homes or from field offices in our 12 state footprint. As it does with our Customers and Agents, technology allows us to engage and stay connected with our more than 4,500 Employees. 2

3 And when we gather what we celebrate is not so much about the milestones whether it s a significant company anniversary or a benchmark in revenue. Instead, it s recognition of the efforts that led to those successes. In 2013, many of our achievements were borne out of multi year planning and investments in business processes and Employee capabilities. For example, over the last few years, we ve talked about the buildout of the DSpro Web platform. That s the Web based system for our flagship personal lines business. Every Agent throughout our footprint can now quote and write personal lines business with ERIE on DSpro Web. Today, nearly 3 out of 4 personal auto and home applications are submitted through DSpro Web. And later this year, the system will automatically equip Agents with a life quote, to enable cross selling at the point of sale. Our focus on technology, customer focused product enhancements and brand awareness have helped our Agents and improved our position in the marketplace. Once again, our market share in 2013 increased in every one of our states, and in each of our major property casualty business lines auto, home and commercial. The benchmarks we look to for service also showed our efforts are continuing to resonate strongly with Customers. In 2013, we were recognized as highest in customer satisfaction by J.D. Power for both its Auto Insurance Shopping Study and its inaugural Small Business Commercial Insurance Study. ERIE s reputation continues to be built on our commitment to service. In 2013, our Claims team responded to nearly a half million claims, and distributed nearly $3 billion to our Policyholders needs for everything from a fender bender on an icy road to devastating tornadoes that leveled the town of Washington, Illinois. These are the times my Uncle Art spoke about the times you turn financial and emotional loss into recovery and restoration. That s what being Above all in Service looks like. Our Employees extend it to our Customers, our Agents, to each other and to the communities in which we live. In a world dominated by online transactions, nothing trumps the impact of real people helping real people with real problems. Enabling the human touch is what makes ERIE different and what drives our success both in the Exchange, and Indemnity. Here s Marcia to talk about the value that creates. Then I ll discuss our plans to keep ERIE relevant and successful in the years to come. Marcia 3

4 TERRENCE W. CAVANAUGH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER: (continued) Thanks, Marcia. We adhere to the same purpose in 2014 that we did in It s what drives us. But that doesn t mean our business is the same, and it doesn t mean that the customer and customer s needs are the same. It also doesn t mean that our Agents and the way they connect with Customers are the same. That reality is something ERIE s management and Board of Directors had to deal with in 1945 and in 1975, and in 1995 and will have to deal with in the decades to come. Ours is a business that must continually change to meet the evolving needs of the people we protect. It s important for us to always be competitive in the marketplace and relevant to consumers. If we re to uphold our promise for the long term, we need to constantly re evaluate what nearperfect protection and service means today with more demanding consumers who havemore ways to access higher levels of service. This is why we continue to make strategic investments in technology. It allows us to collect and analyze critical data that maintains our alignment with the needs of the market. And it gives us other channels through which to deliver the superb service Customers have come to expect from ERIE. As part of our planning process, we take a critical look at our business to ensure we are strengthening our core capabilities and securing our future. Strengthening our core means enhancing our position as a preferred carrier for our Agents, and striving to be an employer of choice with our existing work force, as well as other talent we want to attract to the ERIE team. And it means maintaining the financial strength that comes from effectively balancing today s operational needs with smart investments for the future. Securing our future means looking outward to the market to identify, reach and deliver ERIE s best in class products and service. And it means stoking the fires of innovation with our talented Employees. They are looking for big ideas as well as the everyday efficiencies in process, productivity and speed to market. 4

5 With this as our strategic foundation, we re focusing on four key priorities in Let me touch on each one of these. The first is enhancing the Customer and Agent experience. We want to make the Customer journey as fluid as possible so that consumers can easily learn about us, connect with an Agent and build lasting relationships. This is accomplished through relevant product offerings, tailored service opportunities and convenient points of engagement. The second priority is expanding our products beyond our successful RateLock and ERIE SecureHome to include more flexible personal lines coverages and additional protection options. We will also be developing more compelling life insurance products and new commercial offerings that better respond to our existing customer needs and reach untapped markets. Our next priority is refreshing our claims experience. We re opening a new technical training center this year that will include home construction and hands on auto training for all of our service teams. And our fourth priority is geographic expansion. We re preparing for our 12th state, Kentucky. We ve assembled our team and will be cutting the ribbon for a new branch office by the new year. Our sales strategy for Kentucky is built around existing Agents who are already representing us in the surrounding states. We re recruiting these Agents to extend their reach and ERIE s service brand into the commonwealth of Kentucky. This strategy allows us to enter this new territory with trusted partners who know how to sell ERIE products and service in the ERIE way. The benefit is improved sales momentum and profitability. Additionally, our operational work around Kentucky will help us not only extend our footprint, but standardize the process for expansion to make it easier and more efficient to enter other new territories. So, as you can see we are continuing our focus on ERIE s long term growth and success, push harder and discover even better ways to serve our Customers. H.O. once said that thinking and compassion put the ERIE where it is today and I still witness this every day. Our company continues to combine market savvy and underwriting discipline with a commitment to service and genuine empathy for the Customer. Next year, when you cross the street from the Perry Square Building, you ll be able to see that tradition of service and compassion in a newly renovated, historic building called the Heritage Center. This is the C.F. Adams Building, one of ERIE s early headquarters and our first owned real estate asset. 5

6 Certainly, the center will be a further testament to our support for the city that is our namesake. It will also showcase our company s history, evolution and future possibilities what it means to work at ERIE, and why we re so committed to the noble purpose of insurance. We re committed to this purpose and ERIE s success by being there for our Customers when it means the most to them, and by providing the coverage they need, backed by a strong balance sheet and serviced by dedicated Agents and Employees. No matter how successful we are and may become, we will always be a company that is truly ABOVE ALL IN SERVICE to our Customers, our Agents, our fellow Employees, and to you, our Shareholders. Thank you. 6