CNO Financial Group, Inc.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the CNO Financial Group fourth quarter earnings call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. We will now hand the call over to Adam Alville, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us on C&O Financial Group's fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Today's presentation will include remarks from Gary Bujwani, Chief Executive Officer, and Paul McDonough, Chief Financial Officer. Following the presentation, we will also have other business leaders available for the question and answer period. During this conference call, we will be referring to information contained in yesterday's press release. You can obtain the release by visiting the media section of our website at cnoinc.com. This morning's presentation is also available in the investor section of our website and was filed in a form 8K yesterday. Let me remind you that any forward-looking statements we make today are subject to a number of factors which may cause actual results to be materially different than those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Today's presentation contains a number of non-GAAP measures that should not be considered as substitutes for the most directly comparable GAAP measures. You'll find a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures in the appendix. Throughout the presentation, we'll be making performance comparisons, and unless otherwise specified, any comparisons made will refer to changes between full year 25 and full year 2024. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Gary.

Thanks, Adam. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. CNO once again delivered an excellent quarter and full year results. We are growing and investing in the franchise, growing operating earnings and improving profitability all at the same time. Our performance remains consistent and repeatable, underpinned by strong execution and a focus on the underserved middle income market. We achieved and in most cases exceeded all of our 2025 guidance, including improving our operating return on equity to 11.4% excluding significant items. Building on our sustained momentum, 2025 represented one of our best operating performances to date. We delivered our 14th consecutive quarter of sales growth, our 12th consecutive quarter of growth in producing agent counts, and our most productive year ever for both our bankers life and Optivise captive agencies. For the full year, we delivered record total new annualized premium, up 15 percent we set production records across both divisions and in multiple product lines a clear sign that our model is meeting the broad-based needs of our middle income consumers our exclusive middle market focus and our last mile captive agent distribution model create our durable competitive moat this difficult to replicate model is an is a clear competitive advantage and a catalyst for profitable growth I'll cover these results in more detail in each division's comments. Our consistent sales momentum is driving earnings growth. Operating earnings per diluted share was $4.40, an increase of 11%. Earnings continue to benefit from strong insurance product margin and investment results, reflecting growth in the business and expansion of the portfolio book yield. New money rates have exceeded 6% for 12 consecutive quarters while maintaining portfolio quality. Paul will go into greater detail on our financial performance. We ended the year with a robust total capital position after returning $386 million to shareholders, an 11% increase over 2024. And for the 13th year in a row, we raised our quarterly common stock dividend. Book value per diluted share excluding AOCI was $38.81, representing a 7% compound annual growth rate over the past three years. Additional highlights from 2025 include a secondary insurance transaction with our Bermuda affiliate continued strong capital position and free cash flow generation and an all time high share price. Turning to slide five and our growth scorecard 2025 was a record setting year and nearly all growth scar growth scorecard metrics were up for the quarter and for the full year. As a reminder, our growth scorecard focuses on the three key drivers of our performance, production, distribution, and investments in capital. I'll discuss each division in the next two slides. Paul will cover investments in capital during his remarks. Beginning with the consumer division on slide six, our consumer division delivered an exceptional year capped off by our 13th consecutive quarter of sales growth. 2025 also marked the third consecutive year of record production by the Banker's Life agent force. For the full year, we delivered record total NAP of 15%, double-digit growth in life, supplemental health, and Medicare supplements, and record growth in annuities and client assets in brokerage and advisories. LifeNap was up 10% for the full year, led by record direct-to-consumer live sales, up 20%. Our targeted measured approach to the D2C channel benefited from technology-driven productivity enhancement and diversifying our direct marketing away from television to include more web, digital, and third-party channels. These non-television lead sources generated over 70% of all D2C life sales for the year. Total health NAP was up 22%, which marks 14 consecutive quarters of growth. Supplemental health was up 15% and long-term care was up 4%. Our field force delivered another exceptional performance during the Medicare annual enrollment period. Medicare Supplement NAP was up 49% for the full year and up 92% for the quarter, our best MedSupp quarter in 15 years. Medicare Advantage policies sold, which are not reflected in NAP, were down 3% for the year. Our results reflect a growing shift in consumer preferences from Medicare Advantage to Medicare Supplement, as many of the leading MA carriers pare back plans and benefits, reversing a decade-long trend. Medicare remains a flagship door opening product for us to meet and serve more customers. Total Medicare policies sold were up 5% for the year. With approximately 11,000 Americans turning 65 each day, we expect overall demand for Medicare products to grow and to help us expand the total number of households we serve. Record annuity collected premiums were up 9% for the full year and up 3% for the quarter, our 10th consecutive quarter of growth. Collected premiums in the quarter totaled $508 million, and in-force account values were up 7%, exceeding $13 billion. Our captive distribution and the long-term relationships that our agents establish with their clients add stability to our annuity block. We delivered our 11th consecutive quarter of brokerage and advisory growth. Client assets in the channel were up 24% over the prior year, totaling more than $5 billion. For the full year, total accounts were up 12%. When combined with our annuity account values, our clients now entrust us with more than $18 billion of their assets, up 11% from 2024. Improving agent productivity fueled our sustained sales momentum in 2025. Producing agent count grew for the 12th consecutive quarter and registered agent count was up 8%. The consumer division delivered another outstanding year. We expect that same focus and momentum to carry into 2026. Next, slide seven in our worksite division performance. Worksite insurance sales have never been stronger, with 2025 representing the best production year ever for our worksite business. We finished the year with record full-year insurance sales up 15% and record fourth-quarter insurance sales up 13%. This represents our second consecutive year of record production and 15th consecutive quarter of NAP growth. Full year highlights included record life insurance sales up 36%, hospital indemnity insurance up 41%, and accident insurance up 11%. Strategic growth initiatives contributed significantly to our worksite NAP performance in 2025. Our geographic expansion initiative delivered 11% of the NAP growth for the year and NAP from new group clients was up 23%. Producing agent count was up 7% driven by recruiting up 10%. This marks our 14th consecutive quarter of growth in the agent force. Our previously announced exit of the fee services business within Worksite is progressing on schedule and should be largely complete in the first half of 2026. We are already seeing the benefits of streamlining our focus on core insurance business. As we enter 2026, we remain confident in our ability to execute and continue to grow the business. And with that, I'll turn it over to Paul.