The Ledger ResearchPrivate

The Front Office

Scouting report · ACGL

François Morin

  • Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, ACGL since 2018-05src

Actuary; Arch CFO & Treasurer since May 2018, joined as Chief Actuary in 2011

A−81 / 100

Ranked #12 of 23

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance732 beat · 3 met · 0 missed · 1 withdrawn
Answers the question813 dodges in 27 answers on 2 calls
Capital allocation100company five-year record: compounds
Pay design8072% performance-conditioned · roe, strategic, book value, relative tsr, time only · 94.1% for · 0.14% of net income
Skin in the game77stake worth $70.1m, 12× last year's pay
Age
58src
In the role
8 yr
Promises scored
6
Hit rate
83%
Dodges / 100 answers
11.1
Airtime on calls
33%
Every promise, oldest firstMMBMBW

What to weigh

Watch 4

  • Answered, without a figure, questions on the size of the Iran/Middle East war loss on two consecutive calls (Q1 and Q2 2026), including a follow-up in the same Q2 call; the dossier promotes it to a findingsrc
  • Guided a 7-8% cat load for 2026 in February; in July described a 6-8% range as 'not changed' (S8 row 7, scored withdrawn)src
  • Refuses buyback targets as policy, yet Q2 2026 buybacks were $1.2bn (12.4m shares), about 94% of H1 net income went into buybacks, and $2bn of senior notes were raised in May; the stated guardrail is the price-to-book multiplesrc
  • Sold 19,010 shares (about $1.85m) in the last twelve months in two open-market sales; neither Form 4 ticks the 10b5-1 boxsrc

In their favour 2

  • Guides only planning lines (cat load, amortisation, tax rate, expenses) but lands them: six of seven scored rows at or better than guidesrc
  • 2025 bonus paid at the 200% maximum; for 2026 salary rose to $850k and bonus/LTI targets to 175%/315% of salary. Hedging prohibited, 4x-salary ownership guideline metsrc

Career

  1. 2018-05 – now
    Arch Capital Groupsrc
    Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
  2. 2015-05 – 2018-05
    Arch Capital Groupsrc
    Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Actuary
  3. 2011-10 – 2015-05
    Arch Capital Groupsrc
    Chief Actuary and Deputy Chief Risk Officer
  4. 1990-01 – 2011-09
    Towers Watson & Co. and predecessor Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby (incl. actuarial division Tillinghast)src
    Various roles
    A search summary says he led the firm's engagement with Arch there (WS-morin); not confirmed in a filing

Achievements

  • CFO and Treasurer since May 2018 after seven years as Arch's Chief Actuary and then Chief Risk Officer; 21 years at Towers Perrin/Towers Watson before thatsrc
  • Made or co-made every one of the seven say-vs-do rows in the S8 table: four met, two beat, one withdrawnsrc
  • Volunteered on the February 2026 call that the 2025 effective tax rate (14.9%) had come in below the 16-18% range he guidedsrc
  • States a book-multiple rule for capital return: a special dividend at about 2x book in 2024, buybacks at about 1.5x book in 2026src
  • Chose to take 20% of his 2023 and 2024 cash bonus as stock options (Bermuda-employee election)src

Education

  • Université Laval (Canada), BSc Actuarial Sciencesrc

Background

  • Family The 8-K announcing his CFO appointment states there are no reportable family relationships or related person transactions involving himsrc
  • Other Signs Arch's current reports (8-Ks) as EVP, CFO and Treasurer and is its principal financial and accounting officersrc
  • Other Bermuda-based: All Other Compensation includes a Bermuda housing allowance and an expatriate allowancesrc

The promise ledger

6 scored · 0 open
ResultWhat was promisedWhere it is scoredHow
M MetQ4 2024 · group amortisation of intangibles ≈ $100mACGL row 1said it
M MetFY2025 · group amortisation of intangibles ≈ $195mACGL row 2said it
B BeatFY2025 · group catastrophe load ≈ 7–8% of full-year group-wide net earned premiumACGL row 4said it
M MetMCE (MidCorp & Entertainment) · > $1.5bn of annualised premium in the first year of ownershipACGL row 5said it
B BeatFY2025 · effective tax rate on pre-tax operating income 16–18%ACGL row 6said it
W WithdrawnFY2026 · group catastrophe load 7–8%ACGL row 7said it

Questions dodged

11.1 per 100 answers

  1. Quantifying the Iran / Middle East losses — dodged in two consecutive quarters, and twice inside the second call. Q1 2026 (2026-04-29): Michael Zaremski asked "Maybe you can kind of just elaborate on the Iran conflict, how you guys are thinking about that? Is it all IBNR, are there real losses or..." [21]; Morin answered "there's nothing paid, but it's certainly -- there are some real losses, specialty book ou…

    from ACGL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  2. Quantifying the Iran / Middle East losses — dodged in two consecutive quarters, and twice inside the second call. Q1 2026 (2026-04-29): Michael Zaremski asked "Maybe you can kind of just elaborate on the Iran conflict, how you guys are thinking about that? Is it all IBNR, are there real losses or..." [21]; Morin answered "there's nothing paid, but it's certainly -- there are some real losses, specialty book ou…

    from ACGL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

  3. Quantifying the Iran / Middle East losses — dodged in two consecutive quarters, and twice inside the second call. Q1 2026 (2026-04-29): Michael Zaremski asked "Maybe you can kind of just elaborate on the Iran conflict, how you guys are thinking about that? Is it all IBNR, are there real losses or..." [21]; Morin answered "there's nothing paid, but it's certainly -- there are some real losses, specialty book ou…

    from ACGL · dossier-2026-09-24.md

Calls reviewed

  • FY2026-Q1.roic.json — 16 answers, 35% of the words
  • FY2026-Q2.roic.json — 11 answers, 31% of the words

Sources

12
  1. Filing Arch Capital Group DEF 14A (accession 0000947484-26-000038) · 2026-03-24
  2. Filing Arch Capital Group DEF 14A (accession 0000947484-25-000031) · 2025-03-25
  3. Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Items 5.02/5.07, Lyons resignation and Morin appointment as CFO (0000947484-18-000045) · 2018-05-15
  4. Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Item 5.02 (0000947484-26-000094), signed by Morin as EVP, CFO and Treasurer · 2026-06-03
  5. Filing Arch Capital Group 8-K Item 5.07, 2026 annual meeting results (0000947484-26-000063) · 2026-05-07
  6. Filing SEC XBRL companyconcept us-gaap/NetIncomeLoss, CIK 947484 (FY2025 10-K, 0000947484-26-000017) · 2026-02-26
  7. Filing Form 4, Francois Morin (reporting CIK 1741826), sale of 2025-11-28 (0001741826-25-000005) · 2025-12-02
  8. Filing Form 4, Francois Morin, option exercise and sale of 2026-08-18 (0001741826-26-000007) · 2026-08-20
  9. Call transcript ACGL Q4 2025 earnings call (2026-02-10), ROIC.ai
  10. Call transcript ACGL Q1 2026 earnings call (2026-04-29), ROIC.ai
  11. Call transcript ACGL Q2 2026 earnings call (2026-07-29), ROIC.ai
  12. Web search result WebSearch: François Morin, Arch CFO; search summary says he led Tillinghast's engagement with ACGL (the page carrying that line was not opened) · 2026-09-24