Question-and-Answer Session
[Operator Instructions]. Your first question comes from the line of Michael Phillips from Stifel Nicolaus. Please proceed.
Michael Phillips - Stifel Nicolaus
Thanks and good morning everybody.
Frederick H. Eppinger - President and Chief Executive Officer
Good morning, Michael.
Michael Phillips - Stifel Nicolaus
Couple of questions. First, I guess high level on Personal Lines, with the new leadership at the top there, I guess for about two months. What have you heard from Gary, in terms of what he sees is his top priorities going forward in Personal Lines? I'll start off with that.
Frederick H. Eppinger - President and Chief Executive Officer
The key in Personal Lines for us as you know from the beginning is where Personal Lines is small commercial is what we call balance for our overall strategy with partner agents. We're a little bit different than most, we don't try to attack at one risk at a time. What we're trying to do as they consolidate their shelf space with fewer players, is to have more of our partner agents give us a significant share of their Personal Lines but really that's dormant, what I mean by that is account based business that they had for quite a while. We clearly have and that's really been the focus of our strategy and so much for our investment portfolio and so before Marita talks about the specifics, I just want to talk a little bit about why we went out and got Gary.
My view is that the opportunity in Personal Lines is greater than we anticipated, probably 5 years ago. Given what I'm seeing is that portion of an agent business is becoming more important part of their profit pool. It is more stable, it is more consistent, and as they go through the pressures of the economic downturn and churns in the economy maybe even consolidation of the number of customers they have, that is becoming more important even to the wining on more significant agents in the country, and when Gary became, it was clear to me that there was some turmoil at his prior place. It was important for us to get somebody that had been a CEO for quite a while in that business and could handle a significant business, so we're thrilled to have him on board. So with that Marita, if there are any specifics you want to share with him about strategy.
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