The underwriting expense ratio at RLI Corp. settles in at about 40 percent year in and year out, yet RLI’s overall combined ratio is regularly among the best in the industry.
Executive Summary
RLI's recipe for continued success can be summed up in three words: an ownership culture, according to RLI COO Jen Klobnak. She discussed RLI's formula for achieving an underwriting profit for 27 consecutive years and also provided some insights on what it takes to lead the operations of a property/casualty insurer.Coming in at 86.8 in 2021 and 84.4 in 2022, combined ratios for the property/casualty insurer writing more than $1.2 billion in net written premiums last year look vastly different from industrywide commercial lines averages in the mid-90s or higher.
“Different Works” is the company’s tagline.
RLI’s full-year 2022 result marked the latest in a string of 27 years of underwriting profit. And with its net written premiums climbing more than 18 percent so far this year, RLI’s combined ratio for the first quarter dipped under 80 to 77.8.
