Globe Life Inc.

Welcome to the GlobeLife 4th Quarter 2024 Earnings Release Conference Call. My name is Alan and I will 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 star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Stephen Moda, Senior Director of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining the call today are Frank Stavoda 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 They contain forward-looking statements they provided for general guidance purposes only. Accordingly, please refer to our earnings release 2023-10K and the subsequent form 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 fourth quarter, net income was $255 million, or $3.01 per share, compared to $275 million, or $2.88 per share a year ago. Net operating income for the quarter was $266 million, or $3.14 per share, an increase of 12% from a year ago. On a GAAP-reported basis, Return on equity through December 31st is 21.7%, and book value per share is $62.50. Excluding accumulated other comprehensive income, or AOCI, return on equity is 15.1%, and book value per share as of December 31st is $86.40, up 13% from a year ago. In our life insurance operations, Premium revenue for the fourth quarter increased 4% from the year-ago quarter to $823 million. Life underwriting margin was $336 million, up 10% from a year ago, primarily driven by premium growth and lower overall policy obligations. In 2025, we expect life premium revenue to grow at the midpoint of our guidance in the range of 4.5% to 5%. compared to 4% growth for 2024. As a percentage of premium, we anticipate life underwriting margin to be between 40% and 42%. In health insurance, premium revenue grew 7% to $358 million, while health underwriting margin declined 6% to $91 million, due primarily to higher claim costs at United American, resulting from higher utilization. In 2025, we expect health premium revenue to grow in the range of 7.5% to 8.5% compared to 6.5% growth for 2024. We also expect health underwriting margin as a percent of premium to be between 25% and 27%. We are pleased with the overall premium growth we saw in 2024 as the 4.7% growth in total premium income was well above the 3.4% growth rate in 2023. This is especially encouraging as we come out of a high inflationary period that has put a stress on the U.S. consumer, especially those in the demographic we serve, and demonstrates the resiliency of our business. Due to the continued efforts of our sales and conservation teams, we anticipate this growth rate to accelerate and be even higher in 2025. Administrative expenses were $91 million for the quarter. The increase is primarily due to higher information technology costs related to maintaining IT software and services, employee costs, and legal expenses. While our expenses in the fourth quarter were higher than prior quarters, they were largely in line with our expectations. In 2025, we expect administrative expenses to be approximately 7.4% of premium. I will now turn the call over to Matt for his comments on the fourth quarter marketing operations.