On Wednesday, Hagerty (NYSE:HGTY) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.

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Summary

Hagerty reported a strong first quarter of 2026, with written premiums increasing by 18% and adjusted EBITDA jumping by 77%, despite a GAAP net loss of $13 million due to amortization costs related to a new arrangement with Markel.

The company added a record 112,000 policies, driven by new business and a high retention rate of 89%. Hagerty Re's combined ratio was 87%, and a $6 million reserve reduction was noted.

Strategic initiatives include strengthening their in-house claims team, expanding partnerships such as State Farm Classic plus, and international expansion of the auction business, with record sales at the Amelia Car Week auction.

Hagerty reaffirmed its full-year guidance for 2026, expecting written premium growth of 15-16% and adjusted EBITDA of $236 to $247 million, indicating confidence in their strategic position and market opportunities.

Management highlighted the structural advantages of increasing asset values in their insured vehicles, contributing to sustained premium growth, and expressed enthusiasm about future growth prospects, including a target to double PIF count by 2030.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to the Hagerty's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants lines are in listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference call, please notify the operator by pressing Star then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jay Koval, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Jay Koval (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you operator and good morning everyone and thank you for joining us to discuss Hagerty's results for the first quarter of 2026. I'm joined this morning by Michiel Hagerty, Chief Executive Officer and chairman and Patrick McClimont, chief financial officer. During this morning's conference call, we will refer to an accompanying presentation that is available on Hagerty's Investor Relations SECtion of the company's corporate website@investor.hagerty.com Our earnings release slides and letter to stockholders covering this period are also posted on the Investor Relations website as well as our 8-K filing. Today's discussion contains forward looking statements and non GAAP financial metrics as described further on slide 2 of the earnings presentation. Forward looking statements include statements about our expected future business and financial performance and are not promises or guarantees of future performance. They are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from our expectations. For a discussion of material risks and important factors that could affect our actual results, please refer to those contained in our filings with the SEC, which are also available on our Investor Relations website and@SEC.gov the appendix of the presentation also contains reconciliations of our non GAAP metrics to the most directly comparable GAAP measures that are further supplemented by this morning's 8-K filing. And with that I'll turn the call over to Michiel.

Michiel Hagerty

Thank you Jay and good morning everyone. Spring has finally arrived in Northern Michigan and with it comes the unmistakable sound of engines turning over after a long winter's rest. Our members have been pulling their cars out of storage, checking all the fluids and tire pressures and getting back out onto the open road. I for one drove a 1963 Corvette split window into the Hagerty headquarters this morning and I am smiling ear to ear and one Team Hagerty has been right there with them and with me, ready to welcome a record number of new members in 2026 as the driving season gets underway. Let me jump to the headline. We are off to an Excellent start to 2026 written premiums increased 18% in the first quarter ahead of our full year expectations. This marks 13 consecutive quarters of executing on our strategy to deliver compounding top line growth while making investments in our team, technology and members that should sustain high rates of growth in the years to come. As we discussed last quarter, 2026 marks the first year in our history that we control 100% of the economics on our own US book of business. This structural milestone shows up clearly in our results 42% growth in earned premium and a 77% jump in adjusted EBITDA. The GAAP presentation of revenue down 5% and our net loss of $13 million are temporarily different due to the new Markel fronting arrangement, but the underlying business performance has never been stronger. GAAP profits in 2026 are negatively impacted by the amortization of deferred seating commissions paid to Markel in 2025 for policies written before January 1st. Think of it as settling the tab on the old structure. These Deferred acquisition costs were 89 million in Q1 and wind down to 0 by the year end 2026. With that, let me walk through our first quarter results shown on Slide 3. We added a record 112,000 policies during what has historically been a seasonally light quarter for us. Top cars added are not surprising as they are the bread and butter for Hagerty Mustangs and Miatas, C10 pickup trucks and Camaros. We are also seeing a rapidly growing contribution from more modern enthusiast vehicles including German and Japanese imports sought after by the rising generations of drivers. Our written premium growth has been and will continue to be powered by new business count unlike the broader industry that fluxes with the cycle. PIP growth jumped 15% as our retention rate remains steady at an industry leading 89%. Retention at that level is not an accident. It is the product of decades of delivering on our brand promise to members who genuinely love their cars and trust Hagerty to protect them. We are delivering this growth with a careful focus on maintaining high quality underwriting. Hagerty Re's combined ratio was 87% and we took down our reserves by $6 million in the first quarter. Our underwriting team is one of the best in the industry and we have been strengthening the capabilities of our in house claims team. Our sustained market share gains are impressive and indicative of the enormous B2B opportunity for us. We are diligently working on additional partnerships as well as deepening existing relationships by earning the right to ask for more. Business is uniquely positioned to help protect the carrier's classic car book of business with automotive expertise and excellent service and we are making the necessary investments to lengthen our lead. State Farm Classic plus is a great example of a tightly integrated partnership where both parties win. We now have an accelerating growth engine with expectations for their 19,000 agents to be selling new business in 40 states by year end. The conversion of State Farm's existing 525,000 collector car policies to the Hagerty platform is also progressing well and we remain on pace to convert most of these members to the new Classic plus program by the end of 2027. In addition to the white space with national carriers, our independent agency channel with 50,000 agents is ripe with potential. We are investing to make it easier for these agents to do business with us, including straight through processing and the automated tools that help them identify enthusiast vehicles already sitting in their existing books of business, likely insured as daily drivers. Our addressable market of 36 million vehicles expands every year and we want to empower these agents to think of Hagerty as the best solution for their customers. Let me move on to something that genuinely stopped all of us in our tracks. During the first quarter in March, Broad Arrow Auctions hosted a two day sale at Amelia Car Week in Jacksonville, Florida and the results were historic $111 million in total sales, 50% higher than any prior Amelia auction and with a 92% sell through rate. The top lot was a 2003 Ferrari Enzo that sold for over $15 million and we set 12 pricing records. The market for modern enthusiast vehicles has never been stronger and every car that trades hands at a Broad Arrow auction is a potential Hagerty insurance policy that is the flywheel in action. Our marketplace is not only a rapidly scaling profit center, but it is also a customer acquisition machine that gets cheaper with every car sold. I want to put that into context. In just four years and through the hard work of an exceptional global team, we have become one of the world's leading collector car auction houses. When you combine Broad Arrow's deep expertise with the Hagerty brand, our global community of members and our unmatched proprietary valuation data, you get results that surprise even us. And those results tell us something important about the health of our market. International demand for the finest cars is strong. Values on great cars continue to appreciate. Buyers from 23 countries do not show up to an auction in Northern Florida unless they trust Hagerty and Broad Arrow. That is all good News for Broad Arrow's transaction revenue. There's also good news for Hagerty Re as insured values rise, so do written premiums. Approximately 20% of our per policy premium growth over the last 15 years has come from our members voluntarily choosing to insure their appreciating vehicles for higher guaranteed values. Our customers want their coverage to grow because their cars are worth more. That alignment between asset appreciation and insurance economics is absent from the standard auto market where vehicles tend to devalue or depreciate. And it is a structural advantage that compounds every year for Hagerty, augmenting our PIP driven written premium gains over the same 15 year period. Since 2010, our regulatory rate increases for Hagerty Ree has averaged only 1 1/2% per year, bolstering our consumer friendly value proposition. We saw robust auction demand continue at the Porsche Air Water Auction in April with sales up 30% year over year and a sell through rate of 85%. And in May Broad Arrow will once again serve as the official auction partner of the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d' Este with the BMW Group on Lake Como, Italy. This will be our second year at Villa d', Este, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious concour events in the world, and we expect to build on last year's inaugural event as Broad Arrow is increasingly recognized as the trusted brand in auctions across major European markets. So in summary, our first quarter results were not only ahead of expectations, but they were far and away the best first quarter we have ever delivered. While it is only May, we are highly encouraged by how we are tracking towards our full year outlook. With that, let me turn it over to Patrick to walk through the financial details.

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Thank you Mikhail and good morning everyone. Before I dig in, let me reiterate the headline. The underlying business is performing very well. Written premiums increased 18% ahead of full year expectations with record new member additions. Adjusted EBITDA jumped 77% to 85 million including a $6 million reserve reduction due to favorable prior year development and Hagerty Re's combined ratio was 87%. This is what a healthy compounding specialty insurer looks like when firing on all cylinders. As Mikhail mentioned, the GAAP presentation this year requires a brief reminder what we shared on our fourth quarter call. Starting January 1st of this year, Hagerty reassumed 100% of the underwriting risk on our US book. A great economic outcome for us given the bump in underwriting profits and investment income under the new structure. The MGA Commission revenue and the associated ceding commission expense that previously appeared gross on our P and L now eliminate against each other in consolidation that is they net to zero. This is why reported revenue declined 5% even though written premiums grew 18%. Additionally, there are $89 million of costs in the first quarter from the amortization of deferred ceiling commissions for pre2026 policies that result in a GAAP net loss of 13 million. This charge burns off entirely by year end. With that, let me walk through the financials shown on slide 6 and 7. Written premium in the first quarter was 289 million up 18% versus the prior year period. This is ahead of our full year guidance guidance of 15 to 16%, an acceleration from last year's 14% growth driven by our omnichannel approach combined with 89% retention. Earned premium jumped 42% to 240 million reflecting the 100% quota share retention in our US Book of Business plus written premium growth. This is the structural improvement in our reinsurance economics that we have been working towards for a decade as we evolve. Our partnership with Markel Commission and fee revenue in the quarter was 16 million. As I noted, this line is no longer longer comparable to prior periods given the elimination of Markel related commissions. As State Farm conversions continue during the next two years, commission revenue inflects upwards and unlike the prior Markel Commission structure, State Farm MGA fees carry no offsetting ceding commission expense falling through more Cleanly. Marketplace revenue was 26 million down 12%. We delivered record auction results at Amelia this year but had lower inventory sales as we compared against last year's one time sale at the Academy of Art University. Amelia cemented our position as a leader in the high end auction market. We're investing significantly to position Hagerty as the undisputed global leader in both live and online sales. Membership and other revenue was 22 million reflecting steady growth in Hagerty Drivers Club paid memberships and ancillary revenue streams. Net investment income came in at 10 million benefiting from our now larger investment portfolio at Hagerty Re that enjoys steady returns with low volatility thanks to our focus on high quality fixed income investments. Moving on to expenses, let's start with losses in 2025 and into 2026. We are seeing declines in frequency and favorable development from prior years that allowed us to reduce reserves by 6 million in the first quarter. Hagerty Re's loss ratio is 38% resulting in a combined ratio of approximately 87%. We deliver high rates of written premium growth with excellent underwriting discipline thanks to more than 40 years of proprietary data on 40,000 distinct makes and models increased efficiency at acquiring and serving members and selecting members who take exceptional care of their toys. With the new Markel fronting arrangement, we also adjusted our presentation of our expenses to allow investors to track and model our core insurance operations the way other insurance companies disclose their results. We will report the balance of the year consistently with our first quarter disclosures. After adjusting for the amortization of the Seating Commission for policies issued in 2025, the underlying business showed significantly improved profitability which can be seen in our adjusted EBITDA of 85 million. We believe that adjusted EBITDA is the best metric to focus on as it reflects the true operating momentum of our differentiated business strategy. We are growing quickly and efficiently converting premium growth into cash flow. I would point out that operating cash flow of $16 million was lower than the prior year's 44 million. With the new Markel fronting arrangement, we are paying claims directly while under the prior structure Markel paid the claims and we reimbursed Markel with a lag. So in Q1 of 2026 we made both the direct payments and the reimbursement for Q4 2025 claims claims of approximately $65 million. This normalizes during the balance of 2026 adjusted for this doubling up of payments, operating cash flow increased roughly in line with adjusted EBITDA growth in the quarter. First quarter loss before taxes was 21 million and includes 89 million of deferred acquisition costs. First quarter net loss was 13 million and net loss attributable to Class A common shareholders was 7 million. GAAP basic and diluted loss per share was $0.06 for the quarter. Based on 101 million weighted average weighted average shares of Class A common stock common stock, outstanding adjusted diluted loss per share, defined as adjusted net loss divided by 361 million fully diluted shares was $0.04 for the quarter. We ended the quarter with 212 million in unrestricted cash, total investments of more than $1.1 billion and total debt of 229 million, which includes 110 million of back leverage for Broad Arrow's portfolio of loans. Given the strength in our first quarter results and momentum as we head into the summer driving season, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 guidance and are trending toward the high end of these ranges. This includes anticipated written premium growth of 15 to 16%, adjusted EBITDA of 236 to $247 million, and a GAAP net loss of 41 to 51 million. As has been our practice in prior years, we will revisit our full year outlook on the second quarter call, but we are increasingly confident in our ability to deliver great 2026 results for shareholders. Looking forward a year 2027 should be a more normalized year for Hagerty's P&L post 2026 complexity where revenue growth more closely tracks written premium growth. We anticipate another year of mid teens growth in written premium while we continue to make multi year investments in member growth and other initiatives. These include increased capabilities around the Markel fronting arrangement, technology investments in our B2B distribution, build out of our product and broad arrow teams enhancements to our digital marketplace, as well as expansion of our special investigation and material damage units. Early indications point to these being high return investments that will fuel member LTV in the years to come. That wraps up our prepared remarks Operator we can open the line for questions.

OPERATOR

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star and one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star and two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while we take the first question from the line of Pablo Singh Song from JP Morgan.

Pablo Singh Song (Equity Analyst at JP Morgan)

Hi. Thank you. Is there any seasonality considered for EBITDA through the balance of the year? It seems to me, or as you had pointed out, Patrick.

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Right. It seems to me that at least through 1Q, you're running above a full year guide and I'd expect revenues to increase through the balance of the year. So I'm just not sure if there's any offsets. Maybe, you know, I don't know if you're considering cats in the third quarter or some pickup in expenses that, you know, might sort of derail the simplific math of just analyzing the one key number. Thanks. Yeah, I think the business is seasonal and so the seasonal pattern does not change. So you should always consider that you're modeling and then we are, we are investing in the business and we've talked about that on the last, last earnings call and some of that ramps up over the course of the year and we have the normal dynamic of you inevitably in the first quarter you don't end up filling all the headcount slots that are open. It just takes a little longer than expected. So we would expect to see some ramp up of expenses embedded in the full year guidance. So I wouldn't just annualize the first quarter. Hopefully that's helpful, that gives you a direction.

Pablo Singh Song (Equity Analyst at JP Morgan)

Yep, thanks for that. And then the second question I had just a broader topic. Right. So competition in personal auto is increasing. I'm wondering how that's affecting dynamics in your core classic car insurance business. And then maybe just to tack on something to that, like how is the current environment affecting your thinking about the rollout of Enthusiast Plus.

Michiel Hagerty

Thanks. Thanks Pablo. It's Michiel. As you may recall, we've discussed this in some of our previous calls that when rates are going up, for example in standard auto, it tends to create shopping behavior that we actually benefit from. As you know, we're in a different kind of cycle now with standard auto where states are. Standard auto carriers are, are holding pretty steady right now, if not down. But you know, we're seeing very strong year over year TIF growth in the core business, not just, you know, because of the additional new partnership, you know, counts that are coming in from State Farm and others. So you know, in this, in this case just, I think the flywheel effect of the business is holding our momentum strongly into this year. And we're not, you know, we're not in any way negatively affected by the fact that the standard auto carriers are, are kind of in a lateral moving year from a rate standpoint.

Pablo Singh Song (Equity Analyst at JP Morgan)

Thank you. You bet. Thank you.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Michael Phillips from Oppenheimer.

Michael Phillips (Equity Analyst at Oppenheimer)

Yeah, thank you. Good morning. You've talked a bit about in recent calls about your European expansion for the auction business. I guess. And given the flywheel that exists in your overall business, can you talk about your remind us of your appetite for expansion internationally for insurance business?

Michiel Hagerty

Yeah, you know, thanks, Michael. It's, you know, it's a topic we've discussed for years. We've had an international business for over 20 years with our. Which are. With our first entry outside of the country was actually in the UK. We still have that business. It's growing, it's doing well. I think this order of things that we've really discovered by unlocking these very successful sales in, in Europe with broad arrow is helping us to understand the market differently than just sort of starting with insurance and then deciding whether membership is added and then thinking about marketplace later is that the order of things for us first is understand the market with these European auctions, getting that kind of sales team in force in place, you know, understanding the event environment and then Deciding whether insurance is something that needs to be added on the back. Something we have discussed in the past is that when we started our UK business back in the day, the UK was sort of a golden place to be able to operate throughout Europe selling insurance. So our Managing General Agent (MGA) structure over there, you know, we were able to consider writing, you know, directly into the European continent without having to create an additional entity. After Brexit that became much more difficult. So you know, right now we are still just operating in the UK. We write a little bit of some, you know, larger collection business in Europe but you know, we're looking at opportunities but right now focusing on just rounding out that, that auction schedule on the continent. Okay. Yeah, thank you Matthew. I guess I was hoping you could expand a bit more on the. You mentioned the strengthening of your in house claims team and kind of what's happening there and why. How much of that's related to the change in the structure that started this quarter. How much that is related to, you know, I know you want to expand more enthusiast market so you kind of a different book of business that that's coming. Just you talked about that in house claims team and you know, what's happening there and why and how it's related to the changes that's happening in your overall business. I'll take the high end of it and if Patrick wants to follow, I'm going to, I'll let him. So yeah, we, you know, we've always done claims in house. It was a real differentiating thing for us even when we were just operating as an Managing General Agent (MGA). Of course now, you know, having a 100% of your risk, you want to be, you know, paying attention every dollar you spend when it comes to claims while maintaining a very high level of Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction and you know, sort of overall claim service rates. But you know, even though this is a low frequency claim business, the bigger you get, we will have more claims. And we decided we really needed to make the investments to upgrade that team. We have some incredible leadership on the claim side who brings sort of the best of, you know, big auto industry claims expertise but that understand the unique nature that repairing the types of vehicles we insure in our core book is very different than repairing a sort of standard auto where you can just bolt on a brand new part. Because in many cases repairing a vintage car, it takes time. You know, you got to find the right kind of shop. You have to sometimes fabricate parts or parts have to be sourced from a variety of different places. So we have teams of people who help find those parts very different than a standard repair shop. So I think what we're doing just sort of structurally is bringing, you know, best practices from standard auto claims and, you know, kind of turnaround times and all the things that you can do to, you know, contain the leakage that can happen around claims practices while maintaining the high quality of work that our customers expect. Because, you know, you want to pay fast, but you don't want to rush so that they, you know, they're concerned about the quality of the repair. So that's the sort of maybe structural piece. And I don't know how much it's, you know, affecting the math specifically, Patrick, or we just, you know.

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah, it's meaningful. The claims organization, they've changed the mix, right? They meaningfully increased the number of claims that are dealt with in house versus using independent adjusters. And every time they've increased that baseline, they've proven that the return on that is pretty compelling. And so we sit down and decide to increase the baseline again. That's what happened over the last couple of years. And that return comes from when you're processing things in house. Velocity increases, the customer service is better, and the ultimate economic outcomes are better as well. And so the overall frequency and severity trends have been for the industry have been positive. We think we've got more tailwinds behind that because of this strategic decision to really invest in that capability. So we view it as a differentiator because these cars are different. They need a different level of expertise, and it's driving real value.

OPERATOR

Great. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. And congrats. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Elise Greenspan from Wells Fargo.

Elise Greenspan (Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Hi. Thanks. My first question is just on PIF. You know, how should we just think about seasonality during the year? And I think in some years, right. Q1 tends to be like the lowest growth quarter of the year. Would you expect to see similar trends this year as we think about PIF growing during the year?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Yeah. So this year, last year, this year, next year, we do have the impact State Farm conversions. And so that's driving a meaningful increase in pif. And that is not seasonal. Right. That's based upon the rollout schedule with our partners at State Farm. And so that's meaningful and attractive. You have to kind of put that aside from a seasonality perspective. And then we're seeing the same trends that we typically would see. The first quarter typically is a lower quarter for us in terms of pip. Growth, we ramp up starting kind of in April and now into May and through the summer months. And you see it ramp down again in the fourth quarter. So we're seeing those same, that same underlying dynamic. But right now we're also seeing a very attractive, healthy growth in that traditional core business.

Elise Greenspan (Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Thanks. And then my second question. You know, you guys, I think have typically. right. Weighted to Q2 to update full year guidance. But you did say, and I think you made some comments that you're trending towards the high end of the ranges. It does seem like based on the Q1. right. That you're trending favorable to most, most items. So anything that we should think about, like reversing? I mean, I guess I'm more interested just in thinking about adjusted EBITDA. right. And written premium growth. But really any, any components of guidance or is it just, you know, being somewhat conservative and just waiting to provide an update with Q2?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

It's just waiting to provide the update. That's our approach on this. We, you know, we've been consistent. We've concluded that not enough chapters of the book have been written at the end of three months. And so our first update after the second quarter.

Elise Greenspan (Equity Analyst at Wells Fargo)

Okay. And then I think you said with State Farm that you would be active, I think in 40 states by the end of the year. And then would, would you expect to add, you know, the additional states, you know, in, in 27 to be, to be at full capacity? Is that, is that how to think about that?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Pretty much. There could be states that, you know, stretch a little bit beyond that just because they're more challenging from a regulatory standpoint. But by the end of 2027, we should be selling in almost all the states and then we'll sell a little bit of a tail in terms of the conversions. Right. There's always that lag where we sell new business. First you make sure that everything is working and then start the conversion process.

OPERATOR

Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Gregory Peters from Raymond James.

Gregory Peters (Equity Analyst at Raymond James)

Well, good morning, everyone. Michiel, in your opening comments, it's quite envious of your description of driving the Corvette into the office this morning. And I guess I'm going to go down a path that's probably unexpected, but you know, I recently leased out a Model Y, the Tesla model. yes. And I know this isn't your classic car addressable market, but I find the experience with it shockingly positive. I'm just curious, because you're a car enthusiast, what you think of these new Electric cars with the self driving feature.

Michiel Hagerty

Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you. It's a super fun drive to drive the Corvette and you know, I'm reminded why they made some significant changes in 1964 after 1963 when you drive it. So it's a fun car but you can't see out of the rearview mirror. I'm a huge fan of electric cars and you know some, some car people who view it as some sort of dogmatic war going on, I don't view it that way. I think we're going to have more and more electric cars. I own an electric car, I have one of the Porsche Taycans and I'm a, I'm a big fan. I drive that year round. The. Like you said, shockingly impressed. They're just great. They're great. They're simple, they're fast, they're quiet, they do a lot of great things and I think you'll see more of them and I think we'll be ensuring more of them in years to come. You know, like, like for us it's, it's. There's always this sifting process, right. Even with like the daily, you know, the cars that we insure today were daily drivers some number of decades ago or some number of years ago and there's a sifting process where people take decide I like this one, I don't like that one. And the ones that survive are the ones that we end up insuring. And so there is no doubt as we do now insuring Tesla roadsters that we will be insuring certain Teslas out there in the future. And but you know, finally just on the self driving thing, I also, I took my first Waymo ride for what it's worth a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was really cool and I played the, my own music in it and all that stuff and I think we're going to more self driving cars as well. But I think there will be a world where there are human driven cars. I think there'll be self driving cars and I think as that technology becomes safer and safer outside of cities right now, I think it's better off in cities personally that it'll be part of our world. So you know, we're going to be the ones out there advocating. We're the company that was built by drivers like me for drivers and we'll be advocating for those people. But we recognize that we will be surrounded by self driving cars.

Gregory Peters (Equity Analyst at Raymond James)

Great. I know it's a little bit off topic but not really. I mean it's not really.

Michiel Hagerty

It's a great product. It's a great product. It's not in your classic car sweet spot yet, but I'm sure it will be at some point. Listen, I know you spent some time in your prepared remarks and maybe in the follow up Q and A talking

Gregory Peters (Equity Analyst at Raymond James)

about the PYD, the prior year development. Can you just revisit that and just walk us through what's the source? Is it lower severity? And maybe, you know, take the result that you reported. Is there anything any read through as we look forward on how the reserves are seizing?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Sure. So the prior year is about $6.5 million reduction that we had in the first quarter and you recall in the fourth quarter we had about a 20 and a half million dollar reduction reserve. So this is a continuation the six and a half million. It was predominantly the 2025 accident year and we're starting to see that development in the fourth quarter and that that influenced what we did in the fourth quarter. But it just matured, continues to mature in a very attractive way for us. And so what we're seeing is a combination of from a severity standpoint, we're in a good spot, continue to be in a good spot. Talked about frequency before, we've talked about what we're doing in terms of claims outcomes. And so it's really just looking at the historical book of losses and as those are maturing and layering into that what we've done to make sure that we're delivering from a claim standpoint, it's all adding up to that. We end up in a, in a better position. That's our market to market as of right now for prior years. You know, we'll see how the balance of this year unfolds. But we think we're in a solid position right now.

OPERATOR

Got it. Thanks for the answers. Thanks Greg. Thanks Greg. Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Mark Hughes from Truist Securities.

Mark Hughes (Equity Analyst at Truist Securities)

Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Good morning. Patrick, you had mentioned that you'd probably see another year of mid teens growth in written premium next year. Any early thoughts on EBITDA growth? When we think about expenses that may be either ramping up or being leveraged, how should we think about EBITDA in 2027?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

No, no, no early thoughts on that. You know we're going to stick to sort of the focus on the prompt here in terms of guidance. You know what, hopefully what came through in those comments. This is a business that continues to grow at that sort of very credible mid teens type rate. So we feel good about that. And it's also business that we have demonstrated that we've been able to expand margins over time. And then it's also business that we're choosing to invest in to make sure that we deliver that growth not just for the next year, the next two years, but for the long haul. And so that's the balance that we're constantly striking.

Mark Hughes (Equity Analyst at Truist Securities)

And then Nikhil, you talked about the higher guaranteed value, that that is a benefit over time. Is there a specific number that you would throw at that is that kind of a low single digit tailwind or how should we think about how much that helps year to year?

Michiel Hagerty

Yeah, well, you know, thank you. What's interesting when we go back, what's interesting to compare it against is that when I think of the few times in my career where the market has taken some sort of dip. So for example, all the way back to believe it or not, the dot com crisis, the great financial crisis we know Covid was, had the exact opposite effect, is that you're always sort of looking at, okay, which, which cars kind of held steady and which cars kind of went up. And you know, we've, we certainly have seen for the last 15 or so years where you know, sports cars, sports racing cars, you know, Ferraris, Porsches, that sort of thing of earlier generations were the ones that showed the greatest amount of increases year over year, while the rest of the book kind of held steady, which is still differentiated from a standard brand new daily driver book of business that would be depreciating over time. But definitely what we're seeing right now is this sort of more modern supercar, hypercar segment that we're seeing in the broad aero business. Those are the cars that are most sought after and they're lifting everything around them. So when we were seeing cars from, you know, so when I think modern supercars, I think cars from the 90s, even the, you know, 2000s, and you know, these are, you know, Ferraris and similar types of cars that were, that are just, they're being, they're being purchased at a higher price point by new entrants into the market, but also by older, well heeled collectors. And so it's that double effect where you get, you know, maybe new money deciding to come in there and pay, you know, 10, 15, 30% more than the car was worth or in a few cases just, you know, multiples of that. But it's also that well heeled collector that, you know, had an earlier generation of cars who they step up and say Well, I don't want to be left without the new hot thing. So I'm actually, you know, willing to lighten up on my other parts of my collection so I can go buy the latest and greatest or they're just continuing to add to their collection. So, you know, in general it's sort of single digit steady growth on those types of cars. But you get these just wild examples of like the 2003 Enzo that we sold for $15 million. I mean that was a 3 to 5 million dollars car a couple of years ago. And it's just astonishing.

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Mark, we've looked at all this data and over the last 15 years, as Mikhail described, on average it ends up being low single digits in those 15 years. There's only two years where it ticked down a little bit. And that can happen. And then some years it's mid single digits or even high single digits, but in the long run it ends up being that low single digit type number.

Mark Hughes (Equity Analyst at Truist Securities)

Very good. Well, I'll tell my own story. I parked in church next to Camaro Z28 and it looked sort of like a beater, but it was still in pretty good shape. And when he pulled out, it had the license plate. Antique auto is intriguing. And also since I had that car when it was new, I, I felt a little antique as he drove away. So anyway, we don't call that a beer.

Michiel Hagerty

We say it has patina. It has patina. Yes. It's. Those are wisdom marks. Yeah. As the, the 63 Corvette was, I must admit, a little slow cranking when I was turning it over. And then I realized like, well, you're a couple years older than I am and I'm feeling a little slow cranking myself. So that's all right.

Mark Hughes (Equity Analyst at Truist Securities)

Fair enough. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks.

OPERATOR

You bet. Thank you. We take the next question from the line of Mike Zemski from BMO Capital Markets.

Mike Zemski (Equity Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Maybe just back to the excellent PIF growth and revenue growth question. It sounds like if you agree that underlying seasonality did, did take place for the kind of the overlay was the state farm conversions. I'm just trying to kind of help dimension the, the impacts state farms having. Is that a fair way to think about it?

Michiel Hagerty

Yep, that's accurate.

Mike Zemski (Equity Analyst at BMO Capital Markets)

And I can see there's a 50 million in proceeds from a loss portfolio

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

transfer in the quarter. Any color on what happened there, any implications for capital return, etc. So that's part of the overall transition evolution of our relationship with Markel. And so for the prior periods we did a loss portfolio transfer. So they transferred to US $50 million. We've assumed all those liabilities. And keep in mind this is the 20% or so because some of the prior years where we were taking a little bit, a little bit less of the risk, but it really just represents that. So it's, it's risk that we already had. We're just topping it up for those prior periods. And so we received that cash, we put the liability on our balance sheet. If you go as you go through the queue, you'll see that, you know, we're assuming that there's a gain associated with that and then that gain amortizes into the income statement over the expected settlement of those claims, which in the aggregate will take, I don't call it four years or so, but it's pretty front end loaded and so that'll flow through. This is not a risk transfer transaction, so it's a financing and so it, it hits down on the other income and expense line item. Okay, great.

Tommy McJoined (Equity Analyst at KBW)

Thank you. We take the last question from the line of Tommy McJoined from KBW. Hey, good morning. When we look at the mid teens premium growth in the guide this year, is it a roughly even split between the core legacy Hagerty business, State Farm and Enthusiast plus or is there, you know, one of those contributing more than the others?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

Yes, we're, we're not going to kind of break it down by the different lines the way you just described. What I will say is this, this year, 2026 and then 2027 are going to be big years for State Farm conversion. You know, I think between new and converted we're already in excess of 100,000 policies. But in total it's you know, 500 plus thousand policies. And so we're kind of in the thick of it right now. So that is a meaningful driver this quarter and will be this year and next year. And then the core business continues to grow at the kind of rates that it has been left handful of years. So very consistent there. And then E plus is still very, very small. So that's not much of a driver

Tommy McJoined (Equity Analyst at KBW)

And then switching gears as we track, the large national carriers start to file for rate decreases in some instances. We understand that probably doesn't impact the core Hagerty business, but does that at all impact your outlook for Enthusiast plus, just where there's a bit more overlap with the daily drivers?

Patrick McClimont (Chief Financial Officer)

You're right. For the core business, you know, when we look at what our rate increases have been over the long haul, it's again low single digits. Right. So we're not. And that's continued over the last couple of years. We've done some things on a liability front and address that, but our rate increases are pretty modest. As we think about the E plus business, it's hard to say because that's the current environment. Right now we're E plus, we're in one state in Colorado, Right. And so we're rolling this out over time and we're learning in Colorado and we'll learn in the other states in terms of what the right approach is on pricing and what that means in terms of the viability of the product and the profitability, I should say so. It's hard to say that the current market is heavily influencing our plans there just because of where we are in the rollout plan.

Tommy McJoined (Equity Analyst at KBW)

Got it. Thanks.

OPERATOR

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. With that, we conclude the question and answer session. I now hand the conference over to Mikhail Hagaty for closing comments.

Michiel Hagerty

Thank you operator and thanks to everyone on the call for your continued support. I want to close today by coming back to where we started this morning. Hagerty has never been better positioned to serve the community of auto enthusiasts who trust us to protect what they love. We have a fast growing recurring revenue model built around specialty insurance that delivers combined ratios of 90% year after year. Our high quality underwriting and rapidly scaling business allows us to price at a meaningful discount to traditional carriers. What we are building at Hagerty is incredibly unique in the insurance world, making us the partner of choice because there is no one else who can do what we do for their customers, helping their retention and protecting their bundle business. We also have a fast growing auction and marketplace business that did not exist four years ago and is setting world records all over the world. And we have a membership community approaching 1 million paid members that love our member centric products and services. Thank you One Team Hagerty. The results we deliver are the product of your passion, excellence and hard work and I cannot wait to see what this amazing team can accomplish over the coming years as we look to double pip count to 3 million by 2030. We look forward to seeing some of you at Villa d' Este in May and we hope many of you will join us at our annual investor event in Greenwich, Connecticut on May 29th where we will share an update on our progress towards delivering compounding profit growth for our shareholders. Invites will follow but please reach out to us for more details or to rsvp. Until then, never stop driving.

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