Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you, sir. Today's question and answer session will be conducted electronically. (Operator Instructions) And we'll take our first question today from Bijan Moazami of FBR.
Bijan Moazami - FBR
Good morning, everyone, a number of questions, first of all, did the quarter included any of the benefit of the Associated acquisition?
Barry Zyskind
Associated, we closed that transaction on September 7th, and the premium associated with that was $4.3 million for the month.
Bijan Moazami - FBR
How much of additional premium volume per quarter you are expecting from the Associated?
Barry Zyskind
We would expect Associated for the fourth quarter to produce a premium of somewhere between $12 million and $13 million.
Bijan Moazami - FBR
Wonderful. And if you guys close on the Unitrin transaction what would be the expected time of the closing?
Barry Zyskind
If we closed, we probably would sign documents, Bijan, by the end of hopefully this month, and then closing would be some time first quarter or the end of first quarter of '08.
Bijan Moazami - FBR
First quarter of '08. Barry, regarding with what's going on in the capital market and also with the spreads, would you be considering to investing some of the higher yielding securities going forward?
Barry Zyskind
Can you repeat the question again, Bijan?
Bijan Moazami - FBR
I am just wondering if you would take some investment risk and maybe invest in securities that would be yielding higher that what you are earning right now in your investment portfolio?
Barry Zyskind
I think right now, Bijan, our philosophy is during this market environment we want to stay as conservative as possible, and really safety of principle, and as we've been taking opposite approach we've really applied to quality. We’ve been putting more of our assets in higher quality, and right now we really don’t want to increase the risk on our balance sheet until we feel that the environment is a safe environment.
Bijan Moazami - FBR
Thank you.
Operator
And we will take our next question from Adam Klauber of FPK Securities.
Adam Klauber - FPK Securities
Thank you. Could you give us an idea what you think the expense ratio is going to look like going forward, and also an idea with why was the ceding commission higher than usual this time? And mechanically, what's the difference between now and how it's going to unfold in the future?
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