Principal Financial Group Inc

Good morning and welcome to the Principal Financial Group Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. There will be a question and answer period after the speakers have completed their prepared remarks. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 1 on your telephone. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. We would ask that you be respectful of others and limit your questions to one and a follow up so we can get to everyone in the queue. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Humphrey Lee, Vice President of Investor Relations and FP&A.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Principal Financial Group's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. As always, materials related to today's call are available on our website at investors.principal.com. Following a reading of the Safe Harbor provision, CEO Deanna Strable and CFO Joel Pitz will deliver prepared remarks. We will then open the call for questions. Members of senior management are also available for Q&A. Some of the comments made during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. The company does not revise or update them to reflect new information, subsequent events, or changes in strategy. risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied are discussed in the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed by the company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, some of the comments made during this conference call may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures may be found in our earnings release, financial supplement, and slide presentation. Deanna?

Thanks, Humphrey, and good morning to everyone on the call. This morning I'll cover our second quarter performance, the progress we're making against our strategic priorities, and updates on our business portfolio. Joel will then provide additional details on our financial results and capital position. Turning to slide two, we delivered another strong quarter, demonstrating the earnings power of our diversified business model and continued execution across the enterprise. Adjusted non-GAAP earnings per share increased 17% year-over-year and 15% on a year-to-date basis, both above the high end of our target range. This was supported by strong enterprise earnings growth of 13% with 6% net revenue growth and 200 basis points of margin expansion. Earnings growth was primarily driven by favorable underwriting results and improved mortality within our benefits and protection business, strong RIS fundamentals, and positive market conditions for our fee-based businesses. This more than offset the revenue impact from investment management net cash flow. We are delivering on our capital deployment plans, In the second quarter, we returned nearly $430 million of capital to shareholders, including $250 million in share repurchases and nearly $180 million in common stock dividends. This brought our total capital return to shareholders to $800 million through the first half of the year, with $450 million of share repurchases and $350 million of common stock dividends. In addition, we raised our common stock dividend for the 13th consecutive quarter. An 8% increase on both a quarterly and trailing 12-month basis. Moving to slide three, our strategic priorities continue to drive sustained growth across the enterprise. We strengthened our leadership in retirement, advanced our position in the small and mid-sized business segment, and continue to leverage the scale of our global asset management platform to meet evolving client needs. Within the retirement ecosystem, which includes recordkeeping, asset management, income solutions and advice, we're seeing strong momentum across the platform. Transfer deposits increased 30% year-over-year, recurring deposits increased 6%, and participant engagement remains healthy, with growth in both planned participation and average contributions. Our customers continue to consolidate retirement savings onto our platform. resulting in $1.7 billion of roll-ins during the quarter and more than $7 billion over the trailing 12 months, both up nearly 20%. We are further expanding capabilities across the retirement ecosystem. During the quarter, we broadened our retirement income offering through new lifetime income builder CITs, helping participants move seamlessly from saving for retirement to generating dependable income in retirement. This reflects our focus on delivering solutions that support plan participants across the key stages of their financial lives. Our retirement investment expertise continues to gain traction with third-party platforms, reflected in DCIO sales of $2 billion in the quarter and nearly $8 billion over the trailing 12 months. Finally, we had $500 million of PRT sales in the quarter after a slow start to the year for the industry. For the small and mid-sized business segment, our differentiated capabilities and deep expertise continue to drive results across retirement and benefits. In retirement, the SMB market remains a key contributor to growth. Transfer deposits grew 16% over the trailing 12 months, reflecting continued strength in client activity and long-term momentum. Recurring deposits increased 6% on both a year-over-year and trailing 12-month basis. Demonstrating growth and ongoing contributions from both employers and employees. In benefits and protection, our SMB segment continues to deliver growth and deepen customer relationships. Specialty benefit sales increased 11% year-over-year, reflecting continued demand for our solutions and strong new business momentum. We are building on that momentum by deepening relationships with existing clients. with products per customer increasing steadily in the last several years, moving from 2.9 three years ago to nearly 3.2 today. Turning to global asset management, I'd like to briefly address net cash flow before moving to key highlights. We had total company net outflows of approximately $11 billion in the quarter concentrated in a small number of U.S. active equity strategies, which are experiencing acute headwinds in an unusual market environment despite having extraordinary performance for many years. Notwithstanding recent net cash flow, our investment teams have maintained a disciplined approach and have a track record of successfully navigating periods of market dislocation in the past supported by steady leadership and consistent investment processes. I am encouraged by the underlying momentum across the broader asset management platform, particularly in areas designed to support long-term client needs, including private markets, international and institutional solutions. Moving to key highlights, investment management growth sales increased 2% year-over-year and 13% on a trailing 12-month basis, supported by client demand for our investment capabilities and the strength of our distribution relationships. Private markets assets under management increased 10% year over year, while international pension assets under management increased 18%. Our active ETF business continues to see healthy growth, generating $500 million of net inflows in the quarter and $2 billion over the trailing 12 months. During the quarter, we expanded our ETF capabilities with the launch of a new fixed income ETF suite, broadening access to our investment expertise and providing clients with more flexible investment solutions aligned to their evolving portfolio needs. Looking across these three growth drivers, I'm proud of our year-to-date results and our ability to execute. Before I hand it over to Joel, I have a couple of updates related to our business portfolio. Earlier this month, we announced an agreement to acquire Beam Benefits, a digital-first employee benefits company focused on the SMB market. The company has over 25,000 employer customers and generated $175 million of premium in 2025. This acquisition strengthens our position in the SMB segment by expanding our customer reach and adding digital-first distribution capabilities, a powerful complement to our existing benefits platform. Importantly, the transaction remains aligned with our overall capital framework with no change to our 2026 capital deployment plan or EPS Growth Targets. Finally, I am pleased to share that we have completed the transition of our Hong Kong pension business to BCT. This move strengthens our focus as a top provider of retirement investment solutions to the region. In closing, we have momentum across the business, supported by disciplined execution and the dedication of our 19,000 employees around the world. We are in a strong position to continue delivering on our financial targets. Joel?