You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: Both of the documents are available at Old Republic's website, which is www.
Risks associated with these statements can be found in the company's latest SEC filings.
I have to say that in the interest of full disclosure, I need to note that this will be the last call that I'll be on as a part of Old Republic's management team.
As we announced in the spring of last year, I've turned over the baton to Craig Smiddy, as will become CEO of our venerable Old Republic Company and that took place effective October 1, 2019.
And at that time we split therefore, the Chairmanship and the CEO positions.
And as a result, we got -- we've established a good transition period during which the CEO's position as our Chief Enterprise Risk Manager that transition can take place in a flawless and manner.
So the manner in which I will participate, I have decided after these few words is to turn our discussion over to our three -- three of our most senior executives at the head of our organization.
And of course that's Karl Mueller, our CFO; Craig Smiddy, our CEO; and Rande Yeager who was the Executive Chairman of our Title Insurance Group.
Having said this, I'll now turn as you Karl to address some financial matters and then call will be followed by Craig Smiddy, will speak to the overall consolidated results.
In addition to whatever Karl will be covering and our General Insurance group of which Craig is also CEO.
And then Craig will be followed by Rande Yeager, whom as I've said is the Executive Chairman of our Title business, who will over happenings in that business.
And when they are finished, I'll have a few closing remarks and as has already been said, we'll turn the meeting to any questions that any connected participant may have.
So here's the mic Karl?
As usual, I will comment on a few key elements of our financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year.
For the full year 2019 net income, again excluding investment gains and losses, was $1.84 per share, or $554.2 million, which is essentially flat with 2018.
These earnings produced a 10.8% return on beginning equity for 2019 and you compare that to an 11.8% return for 2018.
From a growth perspective, net premiums and fees earned, grew by 11.4% in the fourth quarter to $1.6 billion.
This was largely driven by our Titles group for the year.
Premiums and fees grew 5.1%, this was attributable to both our General Insurance as well as our Title operations, which more than offset the expected decline in mortgage guaranty run-off business.
Net investment income grew by 2.3% and 4.4% for the fourth quarter and for the full year respectively, as a larger invested asset base and greater dividend income that was attributable to higher yielding equity portfolio, offset a slightly lower yields on our bond portfolio.
From an underwriting perspective, this year's fourth quarter and full year consolidated composite ratio of 95.1% was substantially unchanged from 2018.
On a year-over-year basis, the claim and expense ratios also remained relatively consistent.
Fourth quarter claims ratio however trended lower and the expense ratio ticked upward and that's primarily due to a mix of business shift toward the Title operation, which as you can see operates with a lower loss and higher expense ratio.
Turning now to the balance sheet.
Total cash and invested assets increased by 10.2% to $14.5 billion at the end of 2019.
The change was driven by a combination of strong operating cash flow, which totaled $936 million for 2019, as well as substantial unrealized market appreciation for both the fixed income and equity portfolios.
Composition of the portfolio remains relatively consistent compared to year-end 2018, whereby 72% is allocated to cash and bonds and the remaining 28% to equities.
And that portfolio continues to focus on high quality long-term dividend paying companies.
On a consolidated basis, claim reserves developed without significant favorable or unfavorable development for the 2019 period, and that's compared to favorable development for 2018's fourth quarter and full year of 2.4 percentage point and 1.4 percentage point respectively.
Old Republic book value per share increased to $19.98, up 16% for the year.
Inclusive of our regular quarterly dividends and the $1 per share special dividend that was paid in the third quarter of last year.
The total return on beginning book value amounted to just a little bit above 26%.
That special dividend was evaluated in light of capital adequacy and liquidity needs, along with the anticipation of withdrawing capital from our run-off mortgage guaranty operations.
I will say with regulatory approval, we currently expect to receive a return of capital totaling $150 million from this run off business during the course of 2020.
Looking ahead, with respect to our MI operations, we continue to proceed along the lines that we've previously disclosed.
We said that the options available to us include a continued profitable run-off of the business over the next several years or alternatively a reactivation of the business under new ownership or finally a reinsurance of the remaining book of enforced policies.
We continue to assess all of our options in the interest of producing the most beneficial long-term outcome for all stakeholders.
So overall Old Republic's balance sheet remains in very strong condition, is well capitalized, and is well positioned for future growth.
So with that I'm going to turn things over to Craig for some additional commentary.
So as the results Karl covered demonstrate our strategic diversification between our Title insurance business and our general insurance business works very well for us.
The uncorrelated nature of these two businesses help produce steadier earnings for ORI overall which is underscored by some of the figures Karl referenced.
I'll reiterate a few of those.
95.1 composite ratio, the 10.8% return on equity, the 16% increase in book value per share and including dividends a total return on book value of 26%, all for the 2019 year.
So specific to the General Insurance group, as the release indicates and as we show in the financial supplement, the Group's mid-single-digit growth quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year in both net premiums earned and in total operating revenues.
Quarter-over-quarter operating income was relatively flat while year-over-year operating income was up 1.7%.
Net premiums earned in commercial auto rose by 6% year-over-year and this mostly reflects the positive effect of the rate increases that we've been achieving in this line that currently stand in the high teens for the 2019 year.
However premiums have been somewhat offset by a decline in the exposure base due to lower US freight shipments in 2019 compared to 2018.
As can be seen in the financial supplement, workers' compensation experienced a 1.9% drop in net premiums earned year-over-year.
And this is mostly resulting from rate decreases.
And for 2019, those are in the low single-digit and those rate decreases correspond with lower claim frequency trends that we've seen in the past several years.
Quarter-over-quarter the Group's overall composite ratio rose slightly to 98.8 from 98.5, while year-over-year it stands at 97.5 for 2019 compared to 97.2 for 2018.
The Group's fourth quarter expense ratio came in at 25.8%, while the full year 2019 expense ratio came in at 25.7% up from 25% in 2018.
This higher expense ratio in 2019 is largely due to differences in the mix of business.
For example, workers compensation, ratings as we just spoke about are less than they were and that typically comes with a lower commission rate.
So that's what we mean by differences due to mix of business.
Turning to claim ratios, our fourth quarter commercial auto claim ratio came in at an elevated 91.3%, with the year-over-year ratio coming in at 84%.
The systemic increases in claims severity trend in the US commercial auto line continue.
These are from the same underlying causes that we've spoken about now for several quarters.
And we will continue to respond through rate increases, risk selection accompanied with better levels of technology to help us in that risk selection and we'll continue to perfect this until such time, we see this claim ratio come back in the line with our target, which remains in the low 70s.
Turning to workers compensation, the fourth quarter claim ratio declined to 57.4% from 67.5% quarter-over-quarter.
And year-over-year this claim ratio declined from 70.7% in 2018 to 63.2% in 2019.
And obviously, we remain very pleased with this is improving result in workers compensation.
General liability experienced an elevated claim ratio quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, but as is the case we have said in the past we write less premium in this line of coverage.
So results tend to be more lumpy, more volatile quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year.
For commercial auto workers' comp and GL combined, given that we typically provide these coverages together to an account, the quarter-over-quarter claim ratio increased by 2.2 percentage points, while year-over-year this claim ratio held relatively steady.
Still looking at the financial supplement, we note that financial indemnity claim ratio quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year dropped significantly, coming back in the line with our targets.
And we think this improvement reflects actions that we've taken to address the higher incident of guaranteed asset protection, GAP claims as well as the higher incidence of D&O claims that we experienced over the last few years.
And as we spoke about in prior quarters, we were taking some fairly aggressive action in those regards.
All of the claim ratios we report of course, we are inclusive of favorable and unfavorable development, and in the latest quarter we saw unfavorable development of 2.9 percentage points mostly resulting from commercial auto.
While year-to-date, the development was unfavorable by 0.4 percentage points.
So again speaking for the General Insurance group, we continually seek to selectively grow our business, make investments to sustain long-term growth and profitability while proactively responding to loss trends that we're seeing.
Underwriting profitability remains paramount and there is a keen focus on improving our claim ratios, particularly our commercial auto claim ratio.
So on this note, I'll turn the discussion over to you, Rande for comments on ORI Title Insurance Group.
In the fourth quarter, we set an all-time record for underwriting revenues $717 million.
For the 5th consecutive year and six of the last seven, we surpassed the $2 billion mark for total revenues.
Last year's 2019's $2.53 billion number is an all-time high of favorable prior year claim development continued during the year, albeit at a slower pace than we've seen in the past few years.
But backing out these adjustments, records were set for both quarterly and annual pre-tax profitability.
We surpassed $200 million in pre-tax operating profitability for the fourth consecutive year.
Looking at the market when the dust settles, residential mortgage originations are expected to be up about 23% in '19 over '18, exceeding $2 trillion for the year.
Refinances accounted for almost 40% of that total or about 70% higher than in 2018.
The latest Mortgage Bankers Association estimates call for similar origination markets in 2020 with refinances down moderately and purchases up slightly.
On the commercial side of the business, the MBA predicts that a new record of 628 billion will have been established in 2019 and their optimism actually rises in 2020 as our projections increase about 9% into a new high of $683 billion.
Certainly all of this is good news, and would provide for a healthy marketplace in 2020.
Our market share indication, last was 15.1% and when the final numbers are tallied, I think that number will hold for the year.
For 2019 our agency premiums were up about 5%, direct operating premiums and fees were up about 12%.
Our commercial title operations continue to perform at a high level with title premiums from the source commercial accounting for almost 20% of our total premiums.
We believe that our offerings of commercial and residential services are of course in the [Indecipherable] in terms of underwriting expertise and customer support.
Over the years we've enjoyed a great deal of success in the Title group.
And like all the other ORI business units, we emphasize integrity, expertise, and culture.
We like to say that we're steady as it goes and we stick to the basics.
We're not chasing market share and don't try to buy our way to the top.
Our acquisitions, when we make them have strategic value in terms of where they are, the geography, and our people's intellectual capital.
And our reputation is for professional services.
Our success, when you look back, put it all together is a byproduct of a job well done, in all of these regards.
So that's my report on the Title business.
As my three colleagues have just reported, our business continues to perform very well.
Last year, by the way, we posted the highest pre-tax earnings in the entire history of our company.
And as always, we are managing our way, as you know way out of a few parts of the General Insurance business in particular, which are and have been experiencing some temporary cases of hiccups, if you will, but we see this as part and parcel of what we do and what we do in terms of the underwriting risk management process that our people from top to bottom are well equipped to deal with throughout the cycles of our business.
As Karl said, at both the ORI Holding Company and that the most critical insurance operating levels, we are very well capitalized to at once support the obligations on the right side of our balance sheet; two, protect the capital account on behalf of all of our stakeholders; three, maintaining sufficient dry powder always to contain the possibility of negative eventualities and as well provide for the strategic growth of our company, both organically and through well thought out external additions.
I believe that we have put together over the years and have now a fortress balance sheet and that we are in tip-top shape to do all of this, always with -- with the style that Old Republic has been known for in all the years ahead.
So on that note, I think this is a good time to conclude and to open up our visit to any questions that participants may have.
So there you go.

user
old republic international corp qtrly revenue of $1,929.3 million versus $1,280.9 million.

assistant