this resulted in an unacceptable increase in the syndicate expense ratio . given the uneconomic loss and expense costs associated with operating in lloyd 's , in 2015 we began evaluating an exit from the lloyd 's market and the repatriation of our u.s. business . the exit timeframes were extended due to capital constraints in our u.s. underwriting entity and protracted exit negotiations . in 2017 , we entered into a two-phase sale transaction , which closed in october 2017 and march 2018. accordingly , the financial results of the u.k. produced business are presented as discontinued operations in our consolidated financial statements . the financial results within the following discussion and analysis are attributable to our continuing operations . 55 initial public offering on july 29 , 2019 , the company completed its initial public offering ( “ ipo ” ) with the sale of 7,857,145 shares of the company 's common stock , including the issuance and sale by the company of 4,285,715 shares of the company 's common stock and the sale by prosight parallel investment llc and prosight investment llc ( “ pi ” ) ( collectively , the “ gs investors ” ) and prosight tpg , l.p. , tpg ps 1 , l.p. , tpg ps 2 , l.p. , tpg ps 3 , l.p. and tpg ps 4 , l.p. ( collectively the “ tpg investors ” and together with the gs investors , the “ principal stockholders ” ) of 3,571,430 shares of the company 's common stock . shares of the company 's common stock were initially offered to the public by the underwriters in the ipo at a per-share price of $ 14.00. the company did not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of the company 's common stock sold by the principal stockholders in the ipo . following the ipo , the gs investors held approximately 40.9 % of the company 's outstanding common stock and the tpg investors held approximately 39.4 % of the company 's outstanding common stock . on august 15 , 2019 the principal stockholders completed the sale of 1,178,570 shares of the company 's common stock at a price of $ 14.00 per share less the underwriting discount pursuant to the underwriters ' exercise of their over-allotment option granted in connection with the ipo . the company did not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock of the company sold by the principal stockholders in this offering . following this offering , the gs investors held approximately 39.5 % of the company 's outstanding common stock and the tpg investors held approximately 38.0 % of the company 's outstanding common stock . the offer and sale of all shares sold in the ipo , including those sold in connection with the underwriters ' exercise of their over-allotment option , were registered pursuant to a registration statement filed on form s-1 , which the securities and exchange commission ( “ sec ” ) declared effective on july 24 , 2019. after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses ( including expenses related to the offering pursuant to the underwriters ' exercise of their overallotment option ) , the net proceeds to the company from the ipo were approximately $ 50.8 million . our business we currently write insurance coverage in eight customer segments across a broad range of specialty lines of business . our customer segments currently include : media and entertainment , real estate , professional services , transportation , construction , consumer services , marine and energy and sports . within each customer segment , we have multiple niches which represent similar groups of customers . for a description of niches served in each of these customer segments , see “ business — our customer segments and niches . ” we believe having deep expertise in these niches across our organization is critical and therefore , we have aligned various functional areas at the niche level , including underwriting , operations and claims . we focus on small- and medium-sized customers , a market segment which we believe has been , and will continue to be , less affected by intense competitive dynamics of the broader property and casualty insurance industry . over time , the composition of business within our customer segments evolves as we identify certain niches that present opportunities to develop distinct customer solutions with attractive profit potential and others that were at one time attractive but may become less so . the tables below set forth the gross written premiums ( “ gwp ” ) , gross written commission ratios , and gross loss and allocated loss adjustment expense ( “ alae ” ) ratios by customer segment for the years ended december 31 , 2019 , 2018 , and 2017. we have one reportable segment , specialty insurance . “ other ” includes gwp from ( i ) primary and excess workers ' compensation coverage for exited self-insured groups , ( ii ) niches exited prior to 2018 , many with a concentration in commercial auto , ( iii ) certain fronting arrangements in which all premium written is ceded to a third party ( iv ) participation in industry pools , and ( v ) emerging new business . 56 gwp replace_table_token_8_th gross written commission ratio replace_table_token_9_th gross loss and alae ratio , excluding unallocated loss adjustment expense ( “ ulae ” ) ratio replace_table_token_10_th 57 components of our results of operations gross written and earned premiums gwp are the amounts received or to be received for insurance policies written by us during a specific period of time without reduction for policy acquisition costs , reinsurance costs or other deductions . story_separator_special_tag the following tables summarize the effect of the factors indicated above on the loss and lae ratios and adjusted loss and lae ratios for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_14_th replace_table_token_15_th 64 the following table presents the loss and lae ratio before and after the effects of reinsurance , for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_16_th expense ratio our expense ratio was 36.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 37.2 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. this reduction is primarily due to the increase in net earned premiums exceeding the increase in underwriting and insurance expenses combined with a slight reduction in the net policy acquisition expense ratio . the following table summarizes the components of the expense ratio for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_17_th ( 1 ) underwriting , acquisition and insurance expenses is calculated based on the net earned premiums excluding the effects of the waqs for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018. underwriting income underwriting income was $ 16.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 24.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018 , a decrease of $ 8.0 million , or 32.9 % . excluding the waqs , underwriting income was $ 16.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , compared to $ 25.5 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. the change in underwriting income for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 2018 was due to an increase in the loss and lae ratio , partially offset by a decrease in the expense ratio . combined ratio our combined ratio was 98.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 96.7 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. our adjusted combined ratio was 98.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 96.6 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018 . 65 investing results our net investment income increased by 23.1 % to $ 68.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 from $ 56.0 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. our average invested assets increased 15.3 % from $ 1.7 billion for the year ended december 31 , 2018 , to $ 2.0 billion for the year ended december 31 , 2019. net investment yield increased by 0.2 percentage points , to 3.4 % as of december 31 , 2019 compared to 3.2 % as of december 31 , 2018. gross investment income increased by $ 13.1 million to $ 71.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 58.1 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. realized investment gains ( losses ) , net increased by $ 2.3 million due to non-recurring realized gains on the sale of certain securities as part of the repositioning of the investment portfolio , calls , and corporate actions during a favorable price environment for the year ended december 31 , 2019. the following table summarizes the components of net investment income and realized investment gains ( losses ) , net for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_18_th the weighted average duration of our fixed income portfolio , including cash equivalents , was 3.4 years at december 31 , 2019 and 2.9 years at december 31 , 2018. interest and other expenses , net our interest and other expenses , net increased by $ 16.7 million to $ 28.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 11.7 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. included in interest and other expenses in 2019 is $ 12.1 million of interest expenses primarily related to senior debt obligations , $ 8.0 million of expenses related to the transition of our former ceo and $ 7.1 million of expenses related to the vesting of restricted stock units granted during the ipo . income tax expense our effective tax rate for the year ended december 31 , 2019 was 21.1 % compared to 20.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. on december 22 , 2017 , the tcja was signed into law , which reduced the company 's statutory corporate tax rate from 35 % to 21 % beginning with the 2018 tax year . our income tax expense was $ 12.1 million and $ 13.4 million for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018. adjusted operating income adjusted operating income was $ 57.6 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , an increase of $ 2.4 million , or 4.3 % from the adjusted operating income of $ 55.3 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018 . 66 adjusted operating return on equity our adjusted operating return on equity was 12.4 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , a decrease of 2.0 % percentage points from 14.4 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. year ended december 31 , 2018 compared to year ended december 31 , 2017 the following table summarizes the results of continuing operations for the years ended december 31 , 2018 and 2017 : replace_table_token_19_th ( 1 ) underwriting income , adjusted operating income and adjusted operating return on equity are non-gaap financial measures . see “ — reconciliation of non-gaap financial measures ” for reconciliations of net income in accordance with gaap to underwriting income and adjusted operating income . ( 2 ) adjusted loss and lae ratio , adjusted expense ratio and adjusted combined ratio are non-gaap financial measures . we define adjusted loss and lae ratio , adjusted expense ratio and adjusted combined ratio as the corresponding ratio excluding the effects of the waqs . for additional detail on the impact of the waqs

cash flows our most significant source of cash is from premiums received from our insureds , which , for most policies , we receive at the beginning of the coverage period and net of the related commission amount for the policies . our most significant cash outflow is for claims that arise when a policyholder incurs an insured loss . because the payment of claims occurs after the receipt of the premium , often years later , we invest the cash in various investment securities that generally earn interest and dividends . we also use cash to pay for operating expenses such as salaries , rent and taxes and capital expenditures such as technology systems . as described under “ — reinsurance ” below , we use reinsurance to 72 manage the risk that we take on our policies . we cede , or pay out , part of the premiums we receive to our reinsurers and collect cash back when losses subject to our reinsurance coverage are paid . our total assets and liabilities increased in the years ended december 31 , 2019 , 2018 and 2017 , reflecting the underlying increase in premiums and related loss reserves and unearned premiums . the casualty-focused nature of our products , and limited property exposures , enabled significant operating cash flow generation . the timing of our cash flows from operating activities can vary among periods due to the timing by which payments are made or received . some of our payments and receipts , including loss settlements and subsequent reinsurance receipts , can be significant , and as a result their timing can influence cash flows from operating activities in any given period . management believes that cash receipts from premiums , proceeds from investment sales and investment income are sufficient to cover cash outflows in the foreseeable future .


 Write a concise suspicious activity report of the following text delimited by triple backquotes. Return your response as a formal report which covers the key points highlighting the location,dates,entity names and account holder information in chronological order of the text.
     ```cash flows our most significant source of cash is from premiums received from our insureds , which , for most policies , we receive at the beginning of the coverage period and net of the related commission amount for the policies . our most significant cash outflow is for claims that arise when a policyholder incurs an insured loss . because the payment of claims occurs after the receipt of the premium , often years later , we invest the cash in various investment securities that generally earn interest and dividends . we also use cash to pay for operating expenses such as salaries , rent and taxes and capital expenditures such as technology systems . as described under “ — reinsurance ” below , we use reinsurance to 72 manage the risk that we take on our policies . we cede , or pay out , part of the premiums we receive to our reinsurers and collect cash back when losses subject to our reinsurance coverage are paid . our total assets and liabilities increased in the years ended december 31 , 2019 , 2018 and 2017 , reflecting the underlying increase in premiums and related loss reserves and unearned premiums . the casualty-focused nature of our products , and limited property exposures , enabled significant operating cash flow generation . the timing of our cash flows from operating activities can vary among periods due to the timing by which payments are made or received . some of our payments and receipts , including loss settlements and subsequent reinsurance receipts , can be significant , and as a result their timing can influence cash flows from operating activities in any given period . management believes that cash receipts from premiums , proceeds from investment sales and investment income are sufficient to cover cash outflows in the foreseeable future .
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 Suspicious Activity Report : this resulted in an unacceptable increase in the syndicate expense ratio . given the uneconomic loss and expense costs associated with operating in lloyd 's , in 2015 we began evaluating an exit from the lloyd 's market and the repatriation of our u.s. business . the exit timeframes were extended due to capital constraints in our u.s. underwriting entity and protracted exit negotiations . in 2017 , we entered into a two-phase sale transaction , which closed in october 2017 and march 2018. accordingly , the financial results of the u.k. produced business are presented as discontinued operations in our consolidated financial statements . the financial results within the following discussion and analysis are attributable to our continuing operations . 55 initial public offering on july 29 , 2019 , the company completed its initial public offering ( “ ipo ” ) with the sale of 7,857,145 shares of the company 's common stock , including the issuance and sale by the company of 4,285,715 shares of the company 's common stock and the sale by prosight parallel investment llc and prosight investment llc ( “ pi ” ) ( collectively , the “ gs investors ” ) and prosight tpg , l.p. , tpg ps 1 , l.p. , tpg ps 2 , l.p. , tpg ps 3 , l.p. and tpg ps 4 , l.p. ( collectively the “ tpg investors ” and together with the gs investors , the “ principal stockholders ” ) of 3,571,430 shares of the company 's common stock . shares of the company 's common stock were initially offered to the public by the underwriters in the ipo at a per-share price of $ 14.00. the company did not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of the company 's common stock sold by the principal stockholders in the ipo . following the ipo , the gs investors held approximately 40.9 % of the company 's outstanding common stock and the tpg investors held approximately 39.4 % of the company 's outstanding common stock . on august 15 , 2019 the principal stockholders completed the sale of 1,178,570 shares of the company 's common stock at a price of $ 14.00 per share less the underwriting discount pursuant to the underwriters ' exercise of their over-allotment option granted in connection with the ipo . the company did not receive any of the proceeds from the sale of the shares of common stock of the company sold by the principal stockholders in this offering . following this offering , the gs investors held approximately 39.5 % of the company 's outstanding common stock and the tpg investors held approximately 38.0 % of the company 's outstanding common stock . the offer and sale of all shares sold in the ipo , including those sold in connection with the underwriters ' exercise of their over-allotment option , were registered pursuant to a registration statement filed on form s-1 , which the securities and exchange commission ( “ sec ” ) declared effective on july 24 , 2019. after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses ( including expenses related to the offering pursuant to the underwriters ' exercise of their overallotment option ) , the net proceeds to the company from the ipo were approximately $ 50.8 million . our business we currently write insurance coverage in eight customer segments across a broad range of specialty lines of business . our customer segments currently include : media and entertainment , real estate , professional services , transportation , construction , consumer services , marine and energy and sports . within each customer segment , we have multiple niches which represent similar groups of customers . for a description of niches served in each of these customer segments , see “ business — our customer segments and niches . ” we believe having deep expertise in these niches across our organization is critical and therefore , we have aligned various functional areas at the niche level , including underwriting , operations and claims . we focus on small- and medium-sized customers , a market segment which we believe has been , and will continue to be , less affected by intense competitive dynamics of the broader property and casualty insurance industry . over time , the composition of business within our customer segments evolves as we identify certain niches that present opportunities to develop distinct customer solutions with attractive profit potential and others that were at one time attractive but may become less so . the tables below set forth the gross written premiums ( “ gwp ” ) , gross written commission ratios , and gross loss and allocated loss adjustment expense ( “ alae ” ) ratios by customer segment for the years ended december 31 , 2019 , 2018 , and 2017. we have one reportable segment , specialty insurance . “ other ” includes gwp from ( i ) primary and excess workers ' compensation coverage for exited self-insured groups , ( ii ) niches exited prior to 2018 , many with a concentration in commercial auto , ( iii ) certain fronting arrangements in which all premium written is ceded to a third party ( iv ) participation in industry pools , and ( v ) emerging new business . 56 gwp replace_table_token_8_th gross written commission ratio replace_table_token_9_th gross loss and alae ratio , excluding unallocated loss adjustment expense ( “ ulae ” ) ratio replace_table_token_10_th 57 components of our results of operations gross written and earned premiums gwp are the amounts received or to be received for insurance policies written by us during a specific period of time without reduction for policy acquisition costs , reinsurance costs or other deductions . story_separator_special_tag the following tables summarize the effect of the factors indicated above on the loss and lae ratios and adjusted loss and lae ratios for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_14_th replace_table_token_15_th 64 the following table presents the loss and lae ratio before and after the effects of reinsurance , for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_16_th expense ratio our expense ratio was 36.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 37.2 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. this reduction is primarily due to the increase in net earned premiums exceeding the increase in underwriting and insurance expenses combined with a slight reduction in the net policy acquisition expense ratio . the following table summarizes the components of the expense ratio for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_17_th ( 1 ) underwriting , acquisition and insurance expenses is calculated based on the net earned premiums excluding the effects of the waqs for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018. underwriting income underwriting income was $ 16.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 24.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018 , a decrease of $ 8.0 million , or 32.9 % . excluding the waqs , underwriting income was $ 16.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , compared to $ 25.5 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. the change in underwriting income for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 2018 was due to an increase in the loss and lae ratio , partially offset by a decrease in the expense ratio . combined ratio our combined ratio was 98.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 96.7 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. our adjusted combined ratio was 98.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to 96.6 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018 . 65 investing results our net investment income increased by 23.1 % to $ 68.9 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 from $ 56.0 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. our average invested assets increased 15.3 % from $ 1.7 billion for the year ended december 31 , 2018 , to $ 2.0 billion for the year ended december 31 , 2019. net investment yield increased by 0.2 percentage points , to 3.4 % as of december 31 , 2019 compared to 3.2 % as of december 31 , 2018. gross investment income increased by $ 13.1 million to $ 71.2 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 58.1 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. realized investment gains ( losses ) , net increased by $ 2.3 million due to non-recurring realized gains on the sale of certain securities as part of the repositioning of the investment portfolio , calls , and corporate actions during a favorable price environment for the year ended december 31 , 2019. the following table summarizes the components of net investment income and realized investment gains ( losses ) , net for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018 : replace_table_token_18_th the weighted average duration of our fixed income portfolio , including cash equivalents , was 3.4 years at december 31 , 2019 and 2.9 years at december 31 , 2018. interest and other expenses , net our interest and other expenses , net increased by $ 16.7 million to $ 28.4 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 compared to $ 11.7 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018. included in interest and other expenses in 2019 is $ 12.1 million of interest expenses primarily related to senior debt obligations , $ 8.0 million of expenses related to the transition of our former ceo and $ 7.1 million of expenses related to the vesting of restricted stock units granted during the ipo . income tax expense our effective tax rate for the year ended december 31 , 2019 was 21.1 % compared to 20.0 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. on december 22 , 2017 , the tcja was signed into law , which reduced the company 's statutory corporate tax rate from 35 % to 21 % beginning with the 2018 tax year . our income tax expense was $ 12.1 million and $ 13.4 million for the years ended december 31 , 2019 and 2018. adjusted operating income adjusted operating income was $ 57.6 million for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , an increase of $ 2.4 million , or 4.3 % from the adjusted operating income of $ 55.3 million for the year ended december 31 , 2018 . 66 adjusted operating return on equity our adjusted operating return on equity was 12.4 % for the year ended december 31 , 2019 , a decrease of 2.0 % percentage points from 14.4 % for the year ended december 31 , 2018. year ended december 31 , 2018 compared to year ended december 31 , 2017 the following table summarizes the results of continuing operations for the years ended december 31 , 2018 and 2017 : replace_table_token_19_th ( 1 ) underwriting income , adjusted operating income and adjusted operating return on equity are non-gaap financial measures . see “ — reconciliation of non-gaap financial measures ” for reconciliations of net income in accordance with gaap to underwriting income and adjusted operating income . ( 2 ) adjusted loss and lae ratio , adjusted expense ratio and adjusted combined ratio are non-gaap financial measures . we define adjusted loss and lae ratio , adjusted expense ratio and adjusted combined ratio as the corresponding ratio excluding the effects of the waqs . for additional detail on the impact of the waqs

