Globe Life Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Globe Life Incorporated Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mike Majors, Executive Vice President of Administration and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining the call today are Gary Coleman and Larry Hutchison, our Co-Chief Executive Officers, Frank Svoboda, our Chief Financial Officer, and Brian Mitchell, our general counsel. Some of our comments or answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that are provided for general guidance purposes only. Accordingly, please refer to the second quarter earnings release we issued yesterday. Some of our comments may also contain non-GAAP measures. Please see our earnings release and website for discussion of these terms and reconciliations to GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to Gary Coleman.

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to start by saying that we are very pleased with the company's transition to primarily a remote workplace. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges, our agents and employees have adapted very well to the current environment and operations are running smoothly. In the second quarter, net income was $173 million, or $1.62 per share. compared to $187 million or $1.67 per share a year ago. Then operating income for the quarter was $177 million or $1.65 per share, a per share decrease of 1% from a year ago. On a GAAP reported basis, return on equity was 9.4% and book value per share was $73.26. Excluding unrealized gains and losses on ex-maturities, return on equity was 13.6%, and book value per share grew 10% to $51.21. In life insurance operations, premium revenue increased 6% to $671 million, and life underwriting margin was $162 million, down 8% from a year ago. With respect to the premium revenue, we've been very pleased to see the persistency in premium collections improve since the onset of the crisis. However, the decline in margin is due primarily to approximately $22 million of incurred claims related to COVID-19. For the year, we expect live premium revenue to grow approximately 5% and live underwriting margin to decline 1% to 3%. primarily due to the impact of COVID-19. At the midpoint of our guidance, we anticipate approximately $45 million in COVID-19 claims for the full year. Health insurance premium revenue grew 6% to $283 million, and health underwriting margin was up 7% to $64 million. For the year, we expect health premium revenue to grow approximately 6%, and health underwriting margin to grow 8 to 10%. Administrative expenses were $62 million for the quarter, up 4% from a year ago. For the full year, we expect administrative expenses to grow approximately 5%. I will now turn the call over to Larry for his comments on the second quarter marketing operations.