Globe Life Inc.

Welcome to the Globe Live 3rd Quarter 2024 Earnings Release Conference Call. My name is Alan and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded and for the duration your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any time, please press a star 0 and you'll be connected to an operator. I'll now hand you over to your host, Stephen Mota, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining the call today are Frank Savoda 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 that are provided for general guidance purposes only. Accordingly, Please refer to our earnings release 2023 10K and any subsequent forms 10Q 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, Steven, and good morning, everyone. In the third quarter, net income was $303 million, or $3.44 per share. compared to $257 million or $2.68 per share a year ago. Net operating income for the quarter was $308 million or $3.49 per share, an increase of 29% from a year ago. On a GAAP-reported basis, return on equity through September 30th is 22.4%, and book value per share is $54.65, Excluding Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, or AOCI, return on equity is 15.3%, and book value per share as of September 30th is $83.92, up 13% from a year ago. In our life insurance operations, premium revenue for the third quarter increased 4% from the year-ago quarter to $819 million. Life underwriting margin was $387 million, up 29% from a year ago, with the increase in life underwriting margin due primarily to a remeasurement gain unlocking of assumptions. Tom will have more in his comments on this remeasurement gain. For the year, driven by strong premium growth in both our American Income and Liberty National Divisions, we expect life premium revenue to grow between 4.0 and 4.5% at the midpoint of our guidance and life underwriting margin to grow between 12 and 12.5%. As a percent of premium, we anticipate life underwriting margin to be around 41%. In health insurance, premium revenue grew 7% to $354 million and health underwriting margin was down 10% to $87 million due primarily to a remeasurement loss related to an unlocking of assumptions. For the year, we expect health premium revenue to grow approximately 6.5 to 7%. At the midpoint of our guidance for the full year, we expect health underwriting margin to be flat, and as a percent of premium, to be around 27%. Administrative expenses were $88 million for the quarter. The increase is primarily due to higher information technology costs relating to maintaining IT software and services, employee-related costs, and legal expenses. For the full year, we expect administrative expenses to be approximately 7.3% of premium. I will now turn the call over to Matt for his comments on the third quarter marketing operations.