Well, good morning, everyone. Everybody's having such a good time. I almost hate to shut the conversation down. Everybody's having a great time. It is really good to see everyone. I'm Steve Johnston. I'm the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer here at Cincinnati Financial. It's an honor to be with you here at the annual meeting of shareholders.
I'd like to formally call the meeting to order. Before we start the official business of the meeting, I'd like to pause and recognize a member and remember a longtime director and friend of Cincinnati Financial who we lost in September. William F. Bahl was the corporation's Lead Independent Director, serving as the Chair of the Nominating Committee and as a member of the Audit, Executive and Investment Committees. He also served as a director of the company's U.S. insurance subsidiaries.
Throughout his tenure, Bill developed a deep understanding of what makes our company unique, including our independent agency focus and our equity investing and dividend paying strategies. He personified our corporate culture of living by the Golden Rule, treating others as he would wish to be treated, and always placing the company's interests above his own. His wisdom, guidance, and friendship will be missed by all.
Turning to the business of the meeting, if any shareholders wish to turn in your proxies, please raise your hand, and one of the inspectors of election will collect it. Any registered shareholder wishing to vote in person may come forward to see the inspectors of election here to my left, who will facilitate voting in person. Thank you. I will now ask Lisa Love, Chief Legal Officer, Executive Vice President, and Corporate Secretary, to read the notice of the meeting.
Thank you. I certify that on March 22, 2023, notice of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders was mailed to those persons who were shareholders of record of the company on March 8, 2023.
That notice provided that the annual meeting be held at 9:30 A.M. on Saturday, May sixth, 2023, at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and that the items of business to be considered at the meeting would be electing 12 directors for one-year terms, approving the amended and restated Code of Regulations, voting on a non-binding proposal to approve compensation for the company's named executive officers, voting on a non-binding proposal to establish the frequency of future non-binding votes on executive compensation, ratifying the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023, and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting. I will include a copy of the notice along with the minutes of the meeting in the company's records.
Thank you, Lisa. Let me now introduce our appointed inspectors of election. Brandon McIntosh, seated over here to my left, Cincinnati Insurance Assistant Vice President and Manager of Shareholder Services. Give them a wave, Brandon. There we go. Allison Osaneko from Alliance Advisors. Alliance supports the company with proxy solicitation and vote tabulation services.
Give them a wave, Allison. All right. They do a great job. Inspectors, please tabulate the shares represented in person or by proxy at the meeting. While the inspectors tabulate the shares, let me make some introductions. First, I'd like to start with our new Lead Independent Director, Dirk Debbink. Dirk is Chair of MSI General Corporation, a privately owned design-build construction firm in Wisconsin. He joined MSI General in 1983, holding various positions of increasing responsibility and serving as the company's President from 1991 to 2007.
Dirk also had an active military career. His military record includes Reserve Deputy Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet. I'm sorry, there's a little more there. Commander, Navy Reserve Force. While on active duty with the U.S. Navy, he served as a senior member of the staff of the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon.
He has extensive experience in strategic planning, sales, marketing, information technology for a worldwide dispersed workforce, human resources, including pension and profit-sharing plans, and government relationships at the federal level. Dirk, please stand and be welcomed. Remain standing, please. Let's continue with the introductions of the rest of our director nominees. Please hold your applause until we recognize all of our directors. Directors, please stand as your name is called and remain standing. Tom Aron. Nancy Benacci.
Linda Clement Holmes. Joe Meyer. David Osborn. Gretchen Schar. Charlie Schiff. Doug Skidmore. John Steele. Larry Webb. Let's give them all a nice hand. I'm also standing for reelection at today's meeting. Thanks to everyone here for your efforts. Next, let me introduce the corporate officers with me and Lisa on stage. Steve Spray, President.
Mike Sewell, Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, Executive Vice President, and Treasurer. Steve Soloria, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President of The Cincinnati Insurance Companies. Roger Brown. Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company. Let's give them a hand as well. We also have many other officers and associates in attendance today. Would you all please stand? All right. Thank you all for your interest in the meeting and your contributions to our company.
Your attention to our core strategic initiatives has set our company on the right path to continue our mutual long-term success. I'd like to take a minute now and welcome some other special guests to the meeting today.
From Cincinnati Global Underwriting, we have Derek Eales. Derek? Derek's in the back. He's a humble guy. Derek with Cincinnati Global is the company we acquired in 2019. It's based in London, England. CGU underwrites for Lloyd's of London Syndicate 318. Derek, thank you for coming all the way from London and being with us today. We would also like to welcome from Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm, David Freytas and Matt Breckman. Guys, yeah. All right. All right. Now we have some retired directors and officers.
Let's see who we have here. Tony Woods. Tony, hey. Also Jack Schiff Sr. Jack? Tom Schiff. All right. We also have Mark Kohler and Gary Klein. Guys, why don't you stand, too? Great to see all you retirees just get younger as looking as time goes on. Did I miss anybody in terms of.
Alan Wile.
Alan. Okay, great to see Alan and Bobby. Always is a great supporter, Alan. Thanks. I didn't see you here earlier. In terms of first-time attendees, we have Aidan Chappell. There's Aiden. I have quite a long list here. From here on out, why don't we'll wait and recognize all at the end.
You actually, you don't even have to stand up if you don't want to. Josh and Susan Brady, Polly and Tim Groh, Cami Reisert, Jeff Kirk. Cami's 14, by the way. That's really good to have you here. Elizabeth Stephens, Megan Brown. I've seen Megan before. Good to have you here. Joe Chu, Rebecca Taube, Mark Grill, Lindsay Hall, Kelly Robeck, Dale Sturdy. Dale's the youngest. We might have Dale stand up. Caitlin Hill and Ben Soloria.
Let's give them all a big hand. I apologize if I missed anybody, but something tells me you won't mind me making you stand up, so. This is the 38th year we've held our shareholder meeting here at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and we thank Cameron Kitchin, the museum director, and his staff for making this beautiful facility available. At this time, the inspectors may be ready with proxies. Mr. McIntosh, how many shares are represented at today's meeting?
Mr. Chairman, we, the undersigned inspectors of election, duly appointed to act at the annual meeting of shareholders of Cincinnati Financial Corporation, held on the 6th day of May, 2023, respectfully report as follows: number of shares represented in person, zero. Number of shares represented by proxy, 139,581,986. Total number of shares represented, 139,581,986. That is 88.8% of the shares outstanding. Respectfully submitted, Brandon McIntosh and Allison Osaneko.
Thank you, Brandon. We have a quorum present, and the meeting may proceed. Is there a motion to waive the reading of the minutes from the last shareholder meeting of May the seventh, 2022?
Mr. Chairman, I move to waive the reading of the minutes of the last annual meeting of shareholders and to approve the minutes as written.
Thank you. Do we have a second? Thank you, Mr. Spray. Is there any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. We have five items of business to present this year before our inspectors tally the votes. I'd like to also note that the polls remain open for each matter to be voted on at this meeting. The 1st is the election of directors. To nominate the slate of directors listed in the proxy statement, I call on Dennis McDaniel, Cincinnati Insurance Vice President and Investor Relations Officer.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I hereby nominate Thomas J. Aaron, Nancy C. Benacci, Linda W. Clement-Holmes, Dirk J. Debbink, Steven J. Johnston, Jill P. Meyer, David P. Osborn, Gretchen W. Schar, Charles O. Schiff, Douglas S. Skidmore, John F. Steele Jr., and Larry R. Webb for election as directors of the company to hold office until the date of the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in 2024 and until their successors are elected and seated.
Thank you, Dennis. Are there other nominations? Seeing none, I declare the nominations closed. The second order of business is approving the amended and restated Code of Regulations. To present this proposal, I call on Tom Hogan, Cincinnati Insurance Senior Vice President and Associate General Counsel.
Mr. Chairman, I propose shareholders approve the company's amended and restated Code of Regulations, which was updated following the adoption by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Rule 14a-19 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, widely known as the Universal Proxy Rules.
Thank you, Tom. Is there any discussion at this time? The third order of business is voting on a non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers. To present this proposal, I call on Betsy Ertel, Cincinnati Insurance Vice President, Corporate Communications.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders approve the following resolution. Resolved, that the company's shareholders approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the company's proxy statement for the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2023 Annual Shareholder Meeting pursuant to the compensation disclosure rules of the SEC, including the Compensation Discussion and Analysis of the 2022 Summary Compensation Table and other related tables and narrative disclosure.
Thank you, Betsy. Is there any discussion at this time? The fourth order of business is to vote on the frequency of future advisory votes on compensation of named executive officers. To present the proposal, I call on Kelly Robeck, Cincinnati Insurance Financial Planning and Analysis, Senior Financial Manager.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders approve on an advisory basis one-year frequency for future advisory votes on executive compensation.
Thank you, Kelly. Is there any discussion on this at this time? The final order of business is to ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023. To present the proposal, I call on James Sims, Cincinnati Insurance Vice President, Corporate Finance.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023.
Thank you, James. Is there any discussion? I would invite any shareholder who wants to vote in person to come down and see the inspectors of election or raise your hand, and we'll come to you to receive your vote. Seeing and hearing none, the polls are now closed for each matter voted on at this meeting.
While the inspectors of election are tallying the votes, I will talk about the company's 2022 performance and trends that may affect 2023 and beyond. You'll have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the meeting, please let me know if you want to hear more about any subject at that time. As we begin, let me remind you that some of the matters we will discuss are forward-looking and may involve certain risks and uncertainties.
You may refer to the various filings with the SEC for factors that could cause results to differ materially from those discussed. You can find reconciliations for non-GAAP measures in our most recent quarterly earnings news release, which is available at cinfin.com/investors.
I start nearly every meeting that I have with this visual. I'm sure you've all seen it before. It's so important that we cover it regularly because it not only defines who we are, but it also defines who we are not. We have our vision to be the best company serving independent agents. Not just the best insurance company, the best company serving independent agents.
I think this pyramid is a perfect visual of our strategy with the agent at the top, supported by everyone out in the field, including overwhelming service from claims and all of our field representatives from every one of our operating areas. They work and live in the communities with the agents, where they are in a position to develop strong relationships.
Insurance is a people business, a relationships business. It always has been, it always will be. Very importantly, they are empowered to make decisions in the field. Those of us at headquarters, we're there to support the field and the agencies. Next comes financial strength. We're A+ rated by AM Best. We have over $10 billion in GAAP equity, supporting around $7.6 billion in written premium volume. Very financially strong and there in a position to deliver on the promise.
Then the foundation of our strategy is to be ethical in behavior. We execute on the golden rule. We try to treat people the way that we would wanna be treated. That's our vision. That's our strategy. We have a variety of metrics that we look at to see how we're executing on the vision and strategy. This chart depicts our value creation ratio.
Our value creation ratio is our growth in book value per share, plus our dividend contribution. It takes in the work of everyone involved at our company. Our long-term goal is for that to be between 10% and 13%. The blue bars that you see are the annual VCR numbers, and the green would be the rolling five-year average at each one of those years.
It's nice to see that each of those five-year rolling averages are in that 10%-13% target range. For the first quarter of 2023, at 3.1%, we are on pace to hit double digits by end of the year. Lot to go with the rest of the year, but through the first quarter, on pace. A large contributing factor to the VCR is our combined ratio.
This chart shows our combined ratio. Cincinnati's combined ratio is designated by the blue bars. A very tough peer group, the green bars. In the industry, the gray bars. You can see consistently that the blue bars outperform the combined ratio for both the industry and the peer group. For the first quarter, we're there as well. The 100.7 is not what we wanna see, being over 100.
Neither was the 98.1%. You can see for the industry and the peer group, as we came out of the pandemic, with inflation, elevated catastrophe losses, all are trending up, but Cincinnati is still beating the peer group and the industry.
In fact, if you would go back 11 years, 11 full years, we've outperformed that 100% goal. We had underwriting profit 11 years in a row. The next chart shows the growth in our premium volume. Same color schematic, same result. Consistently outperforming both the peer group and the industry. The 12.8% that you see for 2022 is actually the highest growth percentage that we've had since the year 2001.
The number for the first quarter at 6.3% is a little bit less, but I think it's due to prudent underwriting discipline as we work to move the combined ratio back down into a more favorable position. This shows how we've been growing in a diversified fashion. I think it's a great chart.
It'll take me a little bit of time to go through it. In total, as I mentioned, over $7.6 billion in premium and steady growth throughout, and it's come through diversified growth, both geographically and by products that we offer. The blue bars at the bottom represent Commercial Lines division. It's at $4.1 billion through 2022, growing steadily. In fact, in 2014, our whole company wasn't at $4.1 billion.
Strong growth from the Commercial Lines department. It's driven by our field reps in the field. We have our customer care, target markets, key accounts, and a robust small business division that are contributing to the profitable growth. With the orange bars come Personal Lines, back in 2014, they were only about $1 billion. They're nearly double at $1.8 billion.
That's been fueled by our successful move into high net worth and what we now call private client, as well as things like our new writing company and personal auto, commercial casualty that has appealed to the growth from the middle market segment.
Next, when we go to the green bars, that's Cincinnati Life, growing in a very manner that is coordinated with our P&C, with products like Worksite, and growing profitably, in fact, contributed $19 million in net income in the first quarter. Moving up to the yellow, we have CSU.
CSU just started in 2008 and just celebrated going over $500 million in premium, and it's been double-digit growth from the beginning and also very profitable with combined ratios, either below 90 or just a tick above 90 for 11 years in a row. Next, we move on to Cincinnati Re. Cincinnati Re, we started in 2015. It's grown now to $580 million in premium, and through the end of the first quarter, on an inception-to-date basis, profitably and adding diversification.
With Derek being here, Cincinnati Global over in London, we acquired in 2019. Everything's been going great. $230 million in written premium. For at least the second year in a row, a top quartile performer, over in terms of the number of syndicates in Lloyd's, just doing a great job of growing. The diversification was never more present than here in the first quarter.
Usually driving our net income and our operating income would be Commercial Lines and Personal Lines. This year, as you know, there was a whole lot of catastrophe losses through the Midwest that caused them to be with combined ratios over 100.
The other segments that we discussed beyond Commercial Lines and Personal Lines, though, were all profitable, and when we include the investment segment, puts us in a position to still have $225 million of net income and $141 million of non-GAAP operating income. Good, diversified growth by both geography and business. When you put it all together, it drives a strong balance sheet, the underwriting, the investing. This shows the yellow bars being the shareholders' equity for Cincinnati Financial, the blue being the statutory surplus of the insurance companies.
You can see good, steady growth throughout. The statutory surplus is up by about $1.5 billion over that period of time, the GAAP equity about $3 billion, and it's keeping pace with our growth, such that we have plenty of capital to deliver on our promise and continue to fuel growth into the future. Our dividend that we pay to shareholders is a major part of our company, and we have increased that dividend for 62 years in a row.
The board authorized another increase here in early 2023 that sets the stage for the 63rd year of increasing the dividend. Not just paying a dividend, but increasing that dividend every year for 63 years. It's something that we've only been able to find about seven other publicly traded entities that can match that record.
In these volatile times, it really means that much more. If you look at just the last five years, you can see that we have paid $1.9 billion in dividends to our shareholders. Over that five years, our compound average growth rate of the stock has been 9.2%, with the dividend contributing 30% of that return. Very important and something that we see as very important on a go-forward basis to continue to increase our dividend. This chart may look familiar.
I show this most every year because I think it shows how the market recognizes our vision, our strategy, our relationships, and focus on independent agents. Basically, I take a dollar invested at the end of 1987 and grow it three different ways, up through the end of April.
The green line at the bottom is the S&P 500. That $1 invested in the S&P 500 compound or total shareholder return. Over that period of time, the dollar would grow to $36.14. Our value creation ratio, our primary financial metric, has grown even more at $267.58, which is nearly twice the S&P 500. The top line would be the growth in Cincinnati Financial stock. It's grown from that dollar up to $86.70. Getting close to 3x the S&P 500. I pointed out because I think that it shows the value of the way we go about doing business with focus on independent agents and executing on our vision and our strategy.
I want to talk to you all about just how noble our business is. I think it's important to always talk about that we are in a noble business contributing to the communities that we're in. If you look at it at the macro sense, the insurance industry over the years has saved countless lives. We've advocated for safer roads, safer cars, tougher drunk driving laws. Now we're working on distracted driving, and the list goes on and on. Beyond the financials, I'm talking about saving lives. Our business is a noble one that actually has saved countless lives over the generations.
If we look at it on a more micro level, as we go about our business every day, what we do is get to know the clients, know our agents, and if we can eliminate a loss, that's the first thing we try to do with loss control and all the things that we bring to the table. The best loss is the one that never happened, right? So we're able to, again, make people safer by doing that.
We tailor policies to protect people, to help them manage their risk. We collect a fair premium. We invest it in the interim, do an overwhelming job on claims. That really helps our clients to not only sleep at night, but puts them in a position to take on opportunity because they know we have their back.
That makes me feel that the insurance industry is really the foundation, the backbone of our free enterprise and capitalist system. I think all of you, as you contribute to the success of the company, you feel good every day when you wake up because of the value that you are providing to your community.
My first thought was this city will never be the same. I can confirm that this is the most deadly storm. My next thought was we're gonna help it get back. It's terrible to realize your office is gone. Our first priority was being out there with our community. Assuring our clients Cincinnati Insurance is gonna be there. They were there for us. It's why we chose them and recommend them to our clients.
That shows the value. Something that wasn't in there, the Riley brothers, in addition to everything you saw in the video, they had proper backups in place. Some of their competitors, other agents in the areas didn't. They actually helped their competitors to file claims to the companies that their competitors represented. It just shows you, again, the value of the Cincinnati way.
You know, I think that if we continue to just focus on this, focus on continuing to add value, the numbers will all take care of themselves. This slide shows that, you know, how much we are appreciated by agents. If you look at our shareholder letter, there are additional stories of why many of our agents who don't just recommend Cincinnati Insurance, but also place their own insurance with us.
They are there in the shareholder letter. Before we hear from the Inspectors of Elections, I'd like to remind shareholders of the service we can provide to you. Shareholders of record can choose to hold shares and book entry instead of keeping track of paper certificates.
We want to make it easy to own CFC shares and to reinvest dividends, compounding your returns over time. If you'd like to have more information, please visit the website of our stock register, transfer agent, and dividend disbursing agency, Equiniti Trust Company at www.shareowneronline.com. Inspectors, do you have the preliminary voting results?
Mr. Chairman, we, the undersigned Inspectors of Elections, duly appointed to act at the annual meeting of shareholders of Cincinnati Financial Corporation, held on the 6th day of May, 2023, hereby submit a preliminary report on results of the voting. For the first proposal, the election of directors. Each of this year's nominees received votes for their election of a majority of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting.
For the second proposal, approximately 79.6% of shares outstanding were voted in favor of the amended and restated Code of Regulations. For the non-binding advisory Say-on-Pay vote, approximately 95.5% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the non-binding resolution to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
For the non-binding advisory Say-When-on-Pay vote, approximately 98% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of continuing with annual non-binding resolutions to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers.
For the final proposal, approximately 97% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of ratifying the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2023. Respectfully submitted, Brandon McIntosh and Allison Osaneko.
Thank you, Brandon. It appears all directors have been elected, all proposals have passed, and the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent registered public accounting firm has been ratified. The Inspectors of Election will furnish the corporate secretary with a written report of the final vote count with respect to the matters voted on today to be included in the minutes of the meeting. We'll announce final results once they have been c
ertified early next week. At this point, we would welcome your questions. We want to learn more about your interest in our business. Please come down to one of the two microphones we've set up to share your comment or to ask a question. That we can keep the meeting on schedule and allow everyone to speak who wishes to, please keep your comments or questions to two minutes or less. Okay, seeing as there are no questions, unless there is other business for today's meeting, I request a motion to adjourn.
Is there a second? Before we stand adjourned, I'd like to mention that we are welcome to tour the entire art museum, including the special exhibit of photography by Georgia O'Keeffe. Refreshments are still available as well. We stand adjourned. Thank you very much for your presence today, and we look forward to seeing you again next year.