Basis of Presentation and Accounting Policies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Basis of Presentation and Accounting Policies

BASIS OF PRESENTATION AND ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of Presentation

The interim consolidated financial statements include the accounts of The Travelers Companies, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the Company). These financial statements are prepared in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and are unaudited.  In the opinion of the Company’s management, all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation have been reflected.  Certain financial information that is normally included in annual financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP, but that is not required for interim reporting purposes, has been omitted.  All material intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated.  The accompanying interim consolidated financial statements and related notes should be read in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements and related notes included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (the Company’s 2023 Annual Report).

The preparation of the interim consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the interim consolidated financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and claims and expenses during the reporting period.  Actual results could differ from those estimates. To the extent that the Company changes its accounting for, or presentation of, items in the financial statements, the presentation of such amounts in prior periods is changed to conform to the current period presentation, if appropriate, and disclosed, if material.

On January 2, 2024, the Company completed its previously announced acquisition of all issued and outstanding shares of Corvus Insurance Holdings, Inc. (Corvus), a cyber insurance managing general underwriter, for consideration transferred of approximately $427 million. The acquisition provides the Company the opportunity to renew Corvus’s book of business and to leverage Corvus’s capabilities to enhance the return profile of Travelers’ existing cyber portfolio. At the acquisition date, the Company recorded at fair value $478 million of assets acquired and $51 million of liabilities assumed as part of purchase accounting, including $390 million of identifiable intangible assets and goodwill. The assets acquired from Corvus were included in the Company’s Bond & Specialty Insurance segment, effective at the acquisition date. The Company funded this transaction from internal resources. A provisional amount of $19 million has been recorded as a deferred tax asset and included on the consolidated balance sheet. As the tax return for Corvus for the 2023 fiscal year will not be finalized until the third quarter of 2024, a measurement period adjustment is expected to be recorded in the third quarter of 2024.

Income Taxes

The Company recognized a one-time tax benefit of $211 million in the first quarter of 2023 due to the expiration of the statute of limitations with respect to a tax item impacted by the repeal of Internal Revenue Code Section 847, which related to the discounting of property-casualty loss reserves.