Kenneth W. Stecher, president and chief executive officer, commented, “The final quarter of 2009 marked Cincinnati Financial’s third consecutive quarter of increasing financial strength, with growth of total assets, invested assets and book value, as well as statutory surplus for both our property casualty insurance group and for our life insurance company. At year-end 2009, all of these measures reached substantially higher levels than those reported at year-end 2008, reflecting the success of our strategy to manage capital effectively and of our initiative to diversify our investment portfolio and rebalance it on an ongoing basis.

“We also are on track to resume favorable investment income comparisons, which were affected by shifts in asset allocations as we restructured the portfolio in 2008 and early 2009. Fourth-quarter pre-tax investment income grew 4.7 percent, a pace that tops any quarter since the fourth quarter of 2007. On the after-tax basis that we believe is appropriate for measuring investment income from the restructured portfolio, our fourth-quarter result was our best this year. We continue to refine our bond portfolio’s laddered maturities and continue to invest in equities, helping shield the portfolio from inflationary pressures.

“Sales of securities in the investment portfolio also provided the bulk of the net realized gains that added to fourth-quarter net income, taking full-year net income just above last year’s result. We harvested gains of $162 million as a result of the Wyeth/Pfizer merger and $26 million as a result of the Verisk initial public offering of stock, leaving a healthy $1.026 billion of unrealized gains in the portfolio at December 31.

“Property casualty insurance underwriting generated $10 million of pretax profits for the fourth quarter. Milder weather and improved personal lines pricing benefitted results, contributing to a $16 million fourth-quarter personal lines underwriting profit that was partially offset by $4 million of commercial lines underwriting loss. The property casualty combined ratio was 96.8 percent in the second half of 2009, improving the full-year ratio to 104.5 percent.

“Our commercial lines operation, which generate approximately 72 percent of our premium revenues, have been affected by lower insured exposures and soft pricing. The average change in renewal pricing for the fourth quarter narrowed to a very low single digit decline. We chose to compete for fewer new large commercial accounts due to stronger price competition that we believe leaves insufficient margin for underwriting profit. Our agents continue to help us evaluate the quality of each account, and we continue to increase our use of predictive analytics as a tool to assure adequate pricing.

“Close attention to underwriting and price adequacy, in addition to the weak economy, led to a 5.1 percent decline in net property casualty written premiums for the quarter and 3.3 percent for the year. New business rose 9.9 percent to $405 million, driven by growth from personal lines and excess and surplus lines. Our agents and staff have the discipline and skill to identify quality accounts, controlling near-term growth with the expectation that commercial pricing may not improve this year – but we aren’t standing still. We continue in 2010 to focus sharply on initiatives that position us for the future as marketplace conditions improve.

“Because our relationships with local insurance agencies are our primary strategic advantage, we’re committed to increasing the efficiency and success of those independent businesses. This week, we delivered the next version of our personal lines policy administration system with easy navigation and convenient features. In 2010, we plan to deliver our new system for commercial package and auto policies to 19 more states. Agents in the 11 states that received this system in the fourth quarter of 2009 give it good reviews, appreciating its expanded billing and policy delivery options and real-time capabilities. These systems make it easier for agents to quote, issue and deliver Cincinnati policies. We’ll also continue work in 2010 on tools that make it easy for agents to compare our personal lines rates, and we’ll add to our current online policyholder services for their personal lines clients, providing the ability to view policies and print ID cards as well as pay company-billed premiums.

“Superior claims service is the Cincinnati advantage that our agents value most, and we worked in 2009 to strengthen that advantage. We added more workers’ compensation claims specialists in the field, and, effective January 2010, our headquarters staff began operating a workers’ compensation claim reporting center, designed to improve our response time and help policyholders act quickly to limit losses. In 2010, we also will add more loss control specialists to help manage risks that can lead to workers’ compensation and other types of losses.

“Other 2010 initiatives will expand operations into new territories and agencies, setting the stage for future premium growth while diversifying geographically to help manage catastrophe risk. Having entered Colorado and Wyoming in 2009 and Texas late in 2008, we’ll continue to develop our agency relationships in those states and research regulatory and competitive conditions in other states to evaluate our opportunities. We generally open a state for commercial lines first, starting a personal lines relationship as we gain more experience in the state. In New York, where our agents have marketed our commercial products since 1998, we are working to add personal lines product offerings in 2010, with timing being largely dependent on regulatory approval. Over all states of operation, we’re targeting 65 new agency appointments in 2010, the same goal exceeded in 2009 with 87 appointments. We continue to select only agencies that are professionally managed, financially sound community leaders and to consider the marketing reach of each agency, an approach that in many areas allows for exclusivity in our agency representation.

“Finally, in 2010 we’ll continue our initiative to expand our excess and surplus lines business launched at the beginning of 2008. In its second full year of operation, Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters wrote $40 million of business and gave us new opportunities to write the standard market coverages for the same accounts. To meet agent needs, we expanded the lines of business in 2009 to include professional errors and omissions and excess liability. We plan in 2010 to make more excess and surplus products available and to increase our support for targeted standard market products, making them more attractive and easier for our agents to sell.

“Our long-term initiatives already are helping us manage risk and increase stability. We were able to negotiate a stronger 2010 reinsurance program at the same pricing as last year’s program as a result of our efforts in 2009 to diversify geographically, to manage catastrophe risk and to assure superior catastrophe claims handling by our own trained claims representatives. Our strong reinsurance program, strong reserves and prudent investment portfolio structure have historically protected our cash flow, allowing us to pay claims without ever having to sell an investment before we’re ready to do so. This approach continues to create shareholder value, as indicated in 2009, our 49^th consecutive year of cash dividend increase.”

Additional information is available on our Web site, www.cinfin.com/investors, including an audio replay of the February 4^th conference call webcast.