Assurant, Inc.

Welcome to Assurance fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following management's prepared remarks. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Sean Mosier, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may now begin.

Thank you, Operator, and good morning, everyone. We look forward to discussing our fourth quarter and full year 2024 results with you today. Joining me for assurance conference call are Keith Demings, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Keith Meyer, our Chief Financial Officer. Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued a news release announcing our results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. The release and corresponding financial supplement are available on Assurance.com. Also on our website is a slide presentation for our webcast participants. Some of the statements made today are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are based upon our historical performance and current expectations and subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these factors can be found in the earnings release, presentation, and financial supplement on our website, as well as in our SEC reports. During today's call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are important in evaluating the company's performance. For more details on these measures, the most comparable GAAP measures, and a reconciliation of the two, please refer to the news release and supporting materials. We'll start today's call with remarks before moving into Q&A. I will now turn the call over to Keith Demings.

Thanks, Sean, and good morning, everyone. 2024 represented another strong year for Assurant. I'm incredibly proud of the performance of our teams across the company, whose commitment to delivering for our clients and customers enabled us to achieve 15% adjusted EBITDA growth and 19% adjusted earnings per share growth. both excluding reportable cats. Strategic investments in our people, client partnerships, technology, and capabilities, and targeted actions to drive improved performance across key areas of the business position us to continue to outperform and deliver exceptional value through our products and services. Our people are at the center of everything we do, and our performance is made possible by our world-class culture. Our culture is how we attract and retain incredible talent to deliver for our customers. We're extremely proud of the recognitions we've received, highlighting our commitment to innovation and sustainability while supporting and empowering our employees. Our competitive advantage comes from the ongoing dedication of our global workforce and leadership team who drive new business through innovative solutions, while elevating the customer experience and deepening existing partnerships. In global lifestyle, we had an unprecedented year of client wins and renewals, particularly within connected living. We continue to invest in new innovative client programs and leading edge technology, including the incorporation of automation, robotics, and AI at our device care center outside of Nashville. We recently partnered to launch T-Mobile's Protection 360 Home Tech product. This new offering provides protection for an unlimited number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices and electronics while providing premium tech support to consumers. This critical new product represents another strategic growth vector and underscores the long-term opportunity presented by the convergence of broadband and mobile in the connected home. By prioritizing investments in programs and capabilities, we generated significant momentum and plan to execute on additional opportunities. In global automotive, we made progress in stabilizing earnings through targeted actions to address elevated claim costs in our vehicle service contract business and our guaranteed asset protection product. We continue to be optimistic about the long-term outlook for this business. Before discussing global housing, I want to first share that our thoughts are with everyone who's impacted by the events of the last few months, including the California wildfires. In these times, we have a critical role to play in our customers' journey. In Southern California, we're focused on making it quick and easy for policyholders to file claims online, on the phone, or in person at mobile claim centers, accelerating customer payments. We remain proud of our role in removing the risk of uninsured loss for lenders, investors, and homeowners through our housing offerings. As we look at housing's results, we delivered sustained outperformance in 2024, benefiting from the strength of our homeowners and renters' businesses, including the rollout of technology innovation to enhance our customer experience. Leveraging the segment's differentiated advantages and efficiency initiatives, We have more than doubled our adjusted EBITDA in the past two years, growing the business from just over $400 million in 2022 to over $900 million in 2024, excluding CATS. Even including CATS, housing has outperformed the PNC industry. Over the past five years, we've achieved an average return on equity of over 22%, and our increased scale and efficiency has driven a 10-year average combined ratio of 89% compared to the broader P&C market of 95%. With clear outperformance and expected growth ahead, the business has the opportunity to be better appreciated from a valuation perspective. 2024 was a remarkable year of commercial success across Assurant, marked by significant client momentum as we enter 2025. strong execution enabled us to capture new opportunities while solidifying and extending key client relationships. Across our global footprint, we had several key wins, including Australia's largest mobile carrier and two major financial institutions in the U.S. We renewed client relationships and reinforced our position as a leader and preferred partner throughout our businesses. In our mobile business within Connected Living, we completed major renewals in 2024 that represent three of the top five largest mobile carriers in the U.S. More recently, we also secured a multi-year renewal with a large mobile carrier in Japan. We've now renewed our four largest mobile clients in the last year who represent over 40 million mobile devices protected, a testament to our ability to execute mobile protection programs across the globe. Within housing, we renewed 10 lender place clients representing over 17 million loans tracked. And in renters, we completed renewals of two top 10 property management companies as we continue the rollout of key technology-enabled services like Cover360 and Assurant TechPro. These help increase policy attachment while enhancing the experience of our partners and renters. Ultimately, The continuing demand for our offerings and solutions, combined with our strong competitive edge, creates commercial momentum that will extend into 2025 and beyond. We believe in the power of our unique business-to-business-to-consumer or B2B2C business model. At our core, we're a premier global protection company that partners with the world's leading brands to safeguard and service connected devices, homes, and automobiles. utilizing data-driven technology solutions to provide exceptional customer experiences. The common thread across our entire enterprise is our powerful where we have strong leadership positions in attractive markets. Through our differentiated distribution, strong public Fortune 500 company financials, and unwavering emphasis on client transparency, We create deep partnerships with leading brands across the world. In addition, our commitment to continuously enhance customer experience through customized solutions that wrap around our protection products is built on decades of investment and ongoing innovation. This allows us to deeply integrate our technology and platforms with clients, supporting long-tenured partnerships and exceptional customer experiences. Since 2019, we've increased adjusted EBITDA by over $630 million, or a 12% compounded annual growth rate, while growing adjusted EPS by over $11 per share, or an 18% compounded annual growth rate, both excluding catastrophes. As we look at our performance versus the broader P&C industry, we've continued to outperform the S&P 1500 P&C index median. both excluding and including CATs when comparing across adjusted earnings and EPS growth. Our track record of outperformance includes eight consecutive years of profitable growth, demonstrating resiliency through various macroeconomic environments. In addition, our portfolio benefits from earnings and capital diversification across geographies and business lines. positioning us to continue to invest in and achieve future growth. We believe we remain an attractive investment with a compelling path ahead, and we believe we should be valued at a premium to the S&P 1500 P&C index median. Before turning it over to Keith Meyer to share additional insights on our results and review business trends, I want to highlight our strong momentum heading into 2025 and how we plan to deliver future growth. First, we'll focus on executing, optimizing, and scaling significant new partnerships and program launches throughout lifestyle and housing where we invested last year. Overall, we believe our 2024 investments should be fully earned back through 2025 with an attractive one-year payback. Next, we'll support incremental investments for new launches in our pipeline and accelerate emerging growth opportunities. In addition to our connected home product launch, We have new opportunities with several clients, particularly in global lifestyle, and we look forward to sharing more details over the coming quarters. And finally, we'll drive financial performance and operational excellence. We believe we're well positioned to meet our 2025 objectives given the commercial momentum we have within connected living, long-term tailwinds in global auto, and sustained outperformance in global housing. Overall, Our ability to deliver for our clients, drive efficiencies across our operations, and focus on data-driven technology solutions should enhance our position as a leader in the businesses that we operate and extend our compelling track record of financial performance. I'll now turn it over to Keith.