Jackson Financial Inc.

Q24 earnings call. My name is Charlie and I'll be coordinating the call today. You will have the opportunity to ask a question at the end of the presentation. If you'd like to register a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypads. I'd now like to hand the call over to our host, Liz Werner, Head of Investor Relations, to begin. Liz, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Jackson's 2024 fourth quarter and full year 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 upon 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, Don Cummings, the President of Jackson National Life Distributors, Scott Romine, and our Chief Actuary, Steve Ben-Yorahs, and the President and Chief Investment Officer of PPM, Craig Smith. At this time, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Laura Preeskorn.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter in full year 2024 earnings call. I'll begin by reviewing our full year results and the success we had in delivering on our 2024 key financial targets. In addition to reviewing our results, I will highlight the great progress we have made since becoming an independent public company. I will also share our outlook for 2025 including new financial targets for the year and then I'll turn it over to our CFO, Don Cummings, to discuss our performance in the fourth quarter and past year in more detail. 2024 was a pivotal year for Jackson. marked by significant operational and financial accomplishments. We completed a full year of operating with a more economic hedging approach, realizing the benefits of greater capital stability. We increased transparency into capital generation at Jackson National Life and now our capital generation is more closely aligned with our adjusted operating earnings. The strong results at Jackson National Life resulted in 2024 distributions to our holding company of $875 million, the highest annual level in the company's history. Moving to our full year results on slide three, net income exceeded $900 million and adjusted operating earnings were $1.4 billion largely due to the significant growth in earnings of our retail annuity segment. Retail annuity sales of $18 billion increased 39% year over year with strong sales across our annuity products. In 2024, we benefited from more diversified product sales and growing distribution. Our profitability and healthy capital position were evident throughout the year and Jackson National Life made periodic distributions to our holding company during 2024. At the same time, our RBC ratio was relatively stable during 2024, and we ended the year at an estimated 572%. This was comfortably above our target, providing us with significant capital to return to shareholders and support new business. The combination of capital distributions to our holding company and level of holding company liquidity provided for free cash flow of $767 million and $631 million of capital return to common shareholders. We are proud of these results and plan to build upon this momentum in the year ahead. As you can see on slide four, we were near the top of our targeted range for capital return to common shareholders while maintaining more than $700 million of highly liquid assets at our holding company. Our capital return increased 36%, excluding the $700 million distribution from Jackson National Life used to establish Brook Re, our Michigan-based captive reinsurer. This marks the fourth consecutive achievement of our annual financial targets since becoming an independent company, and we are eager to continue delivering on our targets going forward. Our strong holding company liquidity, combined with our remaining share repurchase authorization of more than 600 million at year end, positions us well for continued capital flexibility, investment in our business, and return to shareholders. As you can see on slide five, we take a balanced long-term view of capital management and have steadily increased our common dividend and share buyback program. We also announced the board's approval of our fourth dividend increase to 80 cents per common share, a 14% increase over the prior year's quarterly dividend level. Our healthy and profitable book of business has provided a consistent return of capital to common shareholders while continuing to maintain our financial strength. By the end of 2024, our cumulative return to shareholders was more than $1.8 billion. Product innovation, distribution expansion, and industry-leading service continue to be differentiators for us. On slide six, you can see the positive outcome of our focus on sales diversification. Over the last three years, Ryla has grown to contribute more than 30% of our total retail annuity sales. Our success with Ryla, along with recent growth in fixed annuities and institutional sales, has diversified our new business beyond traditional variable annuities with living benefits. Variable annuities remain a valuable product for financial professionals and their clients, and our total traditional variable annuity sales were up 11% in 2024. Our consumer-oriented product offerings and service capabilities led to new and diverse distribution relationships. Growth in distribution created increases in new producers, multi-product producers, and the total number of producers and new sales. Applications for new business have grown and in the fast-growing advisory market, I'm pleased to share in 2024, Jackson reached $1 billion in advisory sales. As more Americans plan for retirement, we see increasing interest in solutions that offer investment protection and guaranteed lifetime income, allowing for greater certainty for the future. Recent LIMRA estimates indicate 2025 industry sales will remain strong, with traditional variable annuity sales holding steady near their recent increased levels, assuming stable markets. LIMRA projects RILA sales to be slightly above 2024 sales and fixed annuities are estimated to decline, assuming a lower interest rate environment. Jackson continues to introduce leading product features to meet the needs of financial professionals and their clients. In the fourth quarter alone, we introduced a Ryla product in New York, partnered with JPMorgan Chase to offer our Ryla product through their network of advisors, and added a guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit to Elite Access, our investment only variable annuity. Our investments in technology and commitment to service excellence position us well in the market and continue to enhance our distribution relationships. Our annuity modeling tools and suitability support kit help financial professionals see the value our products can have in a client's financial plan and understand the expectations of best interest standards for their business and clients. We are proud to be one of the first insurers to implement a paperless annuity replacement in collaboration with the Insured Retirement Institute and the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, further bridging the gap between annuities and other financial instruments. The outcome for Jackson and the industry is greater efficiency and reduced processing time for financial professionals and their clients. These examples Along with our other corporate initiatives are a continuation of our long history of excellence, execution, and operating discipline, and we look forward to building further on this track record. Turning to slide seven, as we look ahead to 2025, we are pleased that our healthy business enables us to provide sustainable capital return to shareholders. For 2025, we have increased our total capital return target to $700 to $800 million. Compared to our 2024 capital return of $631 million, this represents an increase of more than 10% at the low end of the range and more than 25% at the high end of the range. As you can see, our commitment to holding company liquidity and operating company capital has not changed And we expect to hold a buffer of $250 million at the holding company and maintain an RBC ratio above 425%. Our capital management approach will continue balancing investment in our business, maintaining financial strength, and returning capital to shareholders. Now I'll turn the call over to Don to further discuss our financial results.