Globe Life Inc.

Hello and welcome to the Globe Life Incorporated third quarter 2023 earnings release conference call. Please note this conference is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star 0 and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Stephen Mota, Senior Director, Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining the call today are Frank Sabota and Matt Darden, our co-chief executive officers, Tom Kambach, our chief financial officer, Mike Majors, our chief strategy officer, and Brian Mitchell, our general counsel. Some of our comments or answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements, They are provided for general guidance purposes only. Accordingly, please refer to our earnings release, 2022 10-K, and any subsequent forms 10-Q on file with the SEC. 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 will now turn the call over to Frank.

Thank you, Stephen, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter, net income was $257 million. or $2.68 per share, compared to $191 million, or $1.94 per share, a year ago. Net operating income for the quarter was $260 million, or $2.71 per share, an increase of 24% from a year ago. The strong growth in net income and net operating income is due in part to the remeasurement loss taken in the year-ago quarter due to the unlocking of assumptions under LDTI. Tom will discuss this further in his comments. On a GAAP reported basis, return on equity through September 30th is 22.6% and book value per share is $48.51. Excluding Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, or AOCI, return on equity is 14.7% and book value per share as of September 30th is $74.31, up 11% from a year ago. In our life insurance operations, premium revenue for the third quarter increased 4% from the year-ago quarter to $788 million. For the year, we expect life premium revenue to grow between 3.5% to 4%. Life underwriting margin was $300 million, up 21% from a year ago. The increase in life underwriting margin was due in part to a remeasurement gain recognized this quarter due to improved claims experience versus a remeasurement loss taken in the year-ago quarter. At the midpoint of our guidance, we expect life underwriting margin for the full year to grow a little over 5% and as a percent of premium to be approximately 38%. In health insurance, premium grew 3% to $331 million and health underwriting margin was down 4% to $97 million. due in part to a remeasurement gain recognized in the third quarter of 2022 that was greater than what was recognized in the current quarter. For the year, we expect health premium revenue to grow around 3%. At the midpoint of our guidance, we expect health underwriting margin to be relatively flat and as a percent of premium to be around 29%. Administrative expenses were $75 million for the quarter, down 1% from a year ago primarily due to a decrease in pension and other employee-related costs. As a percentage of premium, administrative expenses were 6.7% compared to 7% a year ago. For the full year 2023, we expect administrative expenses to be a price of 6.8% of premium, in line with our previous expectations. I will now turn the call over to Matt for his comments on the third quarter marketing operations.