Good day, welcome to the 2019 RLI Corporation Annual Shareholders Meeting. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to RLI Chairman and CEO, Jonathan Michael. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Welcome, everyone. I guess all we would need is bad weather and a bump in the stock price to get a standing room only crowd here. I'm Jon Michael, Chairman of RLI. It's my pleasure to welcome all of you to the RLI Corp. Annual Meeting and Proceedings. Thank you for your interest and attendance. Before we start, let me first discuss our company disclaimer. During this annual shareholders meeting, we may make comments that reflect our intentions, beliefs, and expectations for the future of RLI. As with any forward-looking statements, these comments are subject to certain risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially. For a more comprehensive list of these factors and the text of our forward-looking statement disclaimer, I refer you to our various SEC filings, including our 2018 Form 10-K and Annual Report.
First off, I'd like to welcome all the RLI employees throughout the country listening to the broadcast. Thanks for your efforts. Thanks to your efforts, we were able to deliver outstanding results once again in 2018. I'm eternally grateful for your commitment to RLI. I'm happy that you've joined today. At this time, I will call the meeting to order. I'd like to introduce the RLI directors. If you could just stand as I mention your names. Kaj Ahlmann, Michael Angelina, John Baily, Calvin Butler, David Duclos. A first-time elected director, Susan Fleming, Jordan Graham, Robert Restrepo, another first-time elected director, Debbie Roberts, James Scanlan, Michael Stone. Thank you. These directors work very hard on your behalf, attend a lot of meetings in person and a lot of telephonic meetings.
We have a monthly call, in addition to a lot of other quarterly calls. They're very heavily involved in your interest with the company. Also in attendance are the company's home office, executive team, and various company product group and claim vice presidents. They're all kind of lined up across the back there, they're interspersed all through here, they'll be glad to answer any of your questions. Other special guests include Lindsay Hammerer and Rich Kasper, representing KPMG, our external independent auditors, Will Williams and other representatives of David Vaughan Investments. We welcome back Helen Stephens for our meeting and her daughter, Angie, and Angie's son, Ryan Larson. Jerry and Helen's daughter and grandson. As you know, we are deeply saddened by the loss of Helen's husband and our company founder, Gerald D. Stephens, last August 20th, 2018.
Jerry founded RLI in 1961, was President of the company for 39 years, and served as Chairman for an additional 11 years before retiring in 2011. During his 50-year career at RLI, he guided the company through significant growth and change. It was his visionary leadership that RLI evolved from a contact lens insurer and expanded into niche property, casualty, and surety markets. It was also Jerry who led RLI to become a publicly traded company, Peoria's first employee-owned company, and a minority owner of Maui Jim Sunglasses, a partnership that was instrumental in bringing Maui Jim's headquarters to Peoria. It was a great privilege to work with Jerry. He was much more than just our company founder. He was a visionary, entrepreneur, innovator, philanthropist, mentor, and indeed, a friend. He led with commitment, integrity, and compassion, all values that remain core to our culture and company today.
We will honor Jerry's legacy by remaining faithful to his uncompromising vision to serve our customers well, deliver value to shareholders, and further solidify our position as the recognized performance leader of the insurance industry. A complimentary copy of Jerry's "Messages of the Week" book, which is comprised of weekly essays that he shared with employees, is available to all shareholders in attendance today. Now for the business part of the meeting. The business agenda for the meeting is described in the notice and proxy statement related to the meeting, copies of which were distributed to all shareholders in advance of the meeting. The formal meeting will be conducted first, after which our President and Chief Operating Officer, Craig Kliethermes, will make a few remarks about RLI's operation. After Craig's presentation, we will all be available to answer your questions.
Jeanne Stephenson, our Corporate Secretary, has reported to me that the required notice of the meeting was mailed on time, and a certified list of shareholders available for inspection should any meeting attendees want to review it. As noted in the proxy statement previously provided all shareholders a record, the record date for voting at this meeting was March 4, 2019. Tom Brown, our CFO, will serve as Inspector of the election, and his report, along with the proxies, will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. Jordan Graham and Michael Angelina were designated by the board to act as proxies for today's meeting, and Mr. Graham will report the voting results. I can report we have 95% of the outstanding shares represented here today in person or by proxy, and therefore, a quorum is present, and we may conduct the meeting.
As indicated in the proxy, there are three proposals to be acted upon today. Proposal one is election of the 12 directors of the company. As I mentioned, our newest directors are Susan Fleming and Debbie Roberts, both of whom were appointed in August of 2018. Welcome to them. These directors bring a wealth of executive experience, industry knowledge, and expertise to the board of directors, all of our directors. Proposal two is a non-binding advisory vote regarding approving the executive compensation of the named executive officers in the company's proxy statement. Proposal three, of course, is the ratification of the selection of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. Each of these proposals is more fully described in the proxy statement, and each is recommended by the board. Will Mr. Graham please present the results of the voting?
Mr. Chairman, the voting results are as follows. With respect to proposal number one, the election of directors, a majority of the votes cast have been voted for the election of each of the 12 nominees. With respect to proposal two, the non-binding advisory vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers, also known as say on pay, as described in the 2019 proxy statement, the proposal received approval of a majority of the votes cast. With respect to proposal number three, the approval of the ratification of KPMG LLP as independent registered public accounting firm of the company for fiscal 2019, the proposal received, excuse me. The proposal received approval of a majority of the votes cast.
Thank you, Mr. Graham. Report of the Inspector of the election. Each person nominated for election as a director has been elected to serve as a director until the 2020 annual meeting. Non-binding advisory vote on compensation of the company's named executive officers as described in the 2019 proxy statement. The proposal received approval by the majority of the votes cast. Proposal three, the audit committee selection of KPMG LLP as independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2019 has been ratified. These actions will be recorded as stated in the minutes of this meeting. This concludes the formal shareholders' meeting. I declare the meeting adjourned. Now I'd like to turn it over to our President and Chief Operating Officer, Craig Kliethermes, who will bring you up to date on the company's progress. Craig?
Jon. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of all the employee owners at RLI, thank you for joining us today. Our talented team has worked hard over the past year to create value for our customers and our shareholders, deliver strong results, and prove once again Different Works. Pleased to share that 2018 was another positive chapter in the history of our company. RLI performed well during a challenging year for the insurance industry, marked by highly competitive market conditions and another active year of catastrophes in the United. Most notably, the Kilauea volcano eruptions in Hawaii and hurricanes along the East Coast and Florida impacted many RLI customers. Hurricane Michael, which was particularly destructive, resulted in the largest hurricane loss in RLI's history and the largest single event loss our company has experienced since the Northridge earthquake shook Southern California in 1994.
These events, though devastating to all who were impacted, reinforced our purpose and brought out the best in our employees. This is where we shine. Through our deep underwriting and claim expertise and exceptional service, we demonstrated our unique value by helping countless customers recover from these. Our diversified product portfolio, hallmark underwriting discipline, and strong fiscal risk management enabled us to deliver on the promises we've made to policyholders while maintaining profitability and delivering value to you, our shareholders. Specific highlights of our accomplishments during the year. Operating earnings for the year were $92 million, or $2.05 per share. We achieved our 23rd consecutive year of underwriting profit, posting a 94.7 combined ratio while sustaining our largest aggregate catastrophe loss in over two decades. We delivered broad-based growth across most of our product portfolio and ended the year with the highest gross and net premiums.
Most of this growth was achieved by mining opportunities within our existing casualty, property, and surety products to grow what we know while continually searching for opportunities to expand into new niches. We maintained a strong balance sheet while returning capital to our shareholders through our regular quarterly dividends and a $1 special dividend. We advanced our strategic priorities during the year and made progress evolving our product, distribution, technology, and service capabilities. We believe focused investments in these areas are critical for remaining competitive and differentiated in a digital age. Most importantly, we continue to invest in the development of our employees and facilitate their ownership in the company through our employee stock ownership plan. We believe our culture of shared rewards helps align employees' interests and our shareholders and motivates them to contribute their best to our success.
I want to thank all the RLI associate owners for our performance in 2018 and congratulate them on their achievements. Turning to the first quarter of 2019, we're off to a strong start. Operating earnings for the quarter were $31.8 million, or $0.71 per share, up from $0.60 per share a year ago. We achieved underwriting income of $22.4 million, resulting in an 89 combined ratio. All three of our product segments achieved underwriting profitability, led by our surety segment, which posted an outstanding 70 combined ratio. Gross written premiums were up 6% in the quarter, driven largely by our casualty and property segments, which were up 8% and 7%, respectively. In addition, we benefited from the investment markets rebounding and investment income for the quarter increased 16% compared to the same period in 2018. We will work to continue this positive momentum experienced in the first quarter.
Our exceptional underwriting discipline will once again be a vital strength, contributing to our ongoing resilience in a highly competitive marketplace. RLI's operational and financial strategies are designed to create consistent long-term value for you, our shareholders. A review of our track record validates the success of our unique business model and the value of investing in RLI. We've delivered profitable underwriting results for 23 consecutive years and beaten the industry average combined ratio by 15 points over the last decade. We've paid and consistently increased regular dividends in each of the last 43 years. Over the past 10 years, we've delivered a 10-year annualized total return of 16% to shareholders, a return that has outpaced that of the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Property & Casualty Insurance Index.
In the year ahead, we will remain focused on solidifying our position as a recognized performance leader of the U.S. specialty insurance industry. We will continue executing our plan to grow, improve productivity, provide great customer experiences, and empower our organization to deliver outstanding results. Thank you for your confidence and continued investment in RLI. Now I'll turn it back to John for some closing remarks.
Right. Craig just mentioned shareholder returns. I'd like to announce that earlier today, your board approved a second quarter cash dividend of $0.23 a share, a $0.01 increase over the previous quarter. With that dividend payment, RLI will have raised and paid dividends for 44 consecutive years. I think that's a record that very few companies can match. Thank you everyone here in the room, on the phone, and online for joining us today. Now, we'll end the broadcast before moving to the Q&A, and we'd be glad to take your questions.