Jackson Financial Inc.

Good morning. Thank you for attending the Jackson Financial Inc. First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. My name is Cameron, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. And I would now like to pass the conference over to your host, Liz Werner, Head of Investor Relations. You may proceed.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Jackson's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. Today's remarks may contain forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are based on management's current expectations. Jackson's filings with the SEC provide details on important factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially. Except as required by law, Jackson is under no obligation to update any forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change. Today's remarks also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. The reconciliation of those measures to the most comparable U.S. GAAP figures is included in our earnings release, financial supplement, and earnings presentation, all of which are available on the investor relations page of our website at investors.jackson.com. Joining us today are our CEO, Laura Prescorn, our CFO, Marsha Wadson, the President of Jackson National Life Distributors, Scott Romine, our Head of Asset Liability Management and Chief Actuary, Steve Ben-Yorez, the President and Chief Investment Officer of PPM, Craig Smith, and Chief Accounting Officer and Controller, Dawn Cummings. At this time, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Laura Preeskorn.

Good morning, everyone. This marks the first quarter to include the positive impact of Brook Re, our captive reinsurance solution. The hard work and execution that led to the formation of Brook Re positions Jackson for long-term capital strength and a continued focus on delivering on our commitments to all stakeholders. Beginning on slide three, we are off to a strong start in 2024, and our first quarter results reflect the expected outcomes of Brookry. In our 2023 full-year results, we shared the structure of Brookry and anticipated impacts on Jackson National Life. This quarter, Jackson National's statutory capital generation and risk-based capital, or RBC ratio, increased consistent with our expectations. As anticipated, we also saw greater alignment between our economic hedging approach and U.S. GAAP reserving, which led to reduced volatility in net hedging results and, by extension, GAAP net income. Importantly, Our statutory capital generation is better aligned with our non-GAAP measure of adjusted operating earnings, as both are primarily driven by the substantial assets under management, or AUM supporting our variable annuity-based contract. As a result, Jackson now has more intuitive, predictable, and stable financial results that better capture the healthy economics and earnings power of our large and profitable book of business. Turning to slide four, you will see the benefits of our economic hedging were evident in both U.S. GAAP and statutory results. In a quarter with significant moves in both equity markets and interest rates, we reported a smaller net hedging result compared to prior quarters, which we'll cover in more detail. We also reported nearly $800 million of GAAP net income at Jackson Financial. Our adjusted operating earnings of $334 million grew 23% from the first quarter of 2023, benefiting from higher equity markets and a favorable environment for spread income. At Jackson National, statutory capital increased by nearly $400 million, broadly consistent with the level of adjusted operating earnings. This pace of capital generation is well aligned with our financial targets, and an expectation for $1 billion or more in annual capital generation under normal market conditions. This capital generation drove Jackson National's first quarter estimated RBC to 555 to 575 percent, up from 543 percent at the beginning of the year after giving effect to the funding of Brook Re. We continue to make progress on diversifying our sales mix with another record quarter of RILA production, driving an overall increase in retail annuity sales of nearly 20% over the prior year's first quarter. Our product innovation continues with the recent launch of Plus Income, a guaranteed lifetime income option now available in our Jackson MarketLink Pro product suite. This option enables policyholders to create an immediate income stream or defer withdrawals, providing the opportunity to grow income over time. Along with our variable annuity living benefit options, the addition of plus income to our RILAS suite underscores our philosophy of providing product offerings focused on choice, flexibility, and strong consumer value. We believe our sustained history of product innovation, strong distribution partnerships, an industry-leading service positioned Jackson for continued sales momentum into the future. Overall, these results helped fuel a very positive start to the year in returning capital to common shareholders, delivering $172 million through dividends and share buybacks in the first quarter of 2024. Slide 5 highlights our consistent track record of returning capital through different market environments and conditions. Jackson's capital return to common shareholders has exceeded $1.4 billion in share repurchases and dividends since becoming a standalone public company in September of 2021. As of the end of the first quarter of 2024, cumulative common shares repurchased represented more than 23% of shares outstanding at separation. This aligns with our balanced approach to capital return, which we believe will continue to serve us well. We continue to view a cash dividend as a valuable stream of sustainable capital return and have cumulatively paid more than $500 million to common shareholders in less than three years. Yesterday, we announced our board's approval of a second quarter shareholder dividend of 70 cents per common share. This reflects our continued confidence and our ability to generate capital in our focus on long-term profitability and in our commitment to increasing shareholder value. Moving to slide six, maintaining a strong capital position at our operating companies and parent company, Jackson Financial, remains a priority as evidenced again this quarter. Our first quarter capital return to common shareholders compares favorably with our annual target of $550 to $650 million, and our holding company liquidity as of the end of the first quarter continues to be above our targeted minimum level at nearly $500 million. We ended the first quarter significantly above our RBC minimum of 425%. Our estimated RBC ratio is between 555 to 575%, and our statutory total adjusted capital, or TAC, is approximately $4.7 billion. The greater stability and predictability of these metrics following the implementation of our BRIC retransaction, along with our expectations for smaller periodic distributions from Jackson National, simplifies expectations for our operating company capital position going forward. I'll now turn it over to Marcia to review details of our first quarter financials. Thank you, Laura.