Jackson Financial Inc.

My name is Matt, and I'll be the moderator for today's call. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call for an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. I'll now have to pass the conference over to our host, Liz Werner, Head of Investor Relations. Liz, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Jackson's first quarter 2025 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, our financial supplement, and earnings presentation, all of which are available on the investor relations page of our website at investors.jackson.com. Presenting on today's call are our CEO, Laura Preeskorn, our CFO, Don Cummings, and joining us in the room are our President of Jackson National Life Distributors, Scott Romine, our President and Chief Investment Officer of PPM, Craig Smith, and Head of Asset Liability Management, Brian Walta. At this time, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Laura Priesthorn.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings call. I'll begin by reviewing the quarter's results, including our progress toward achieving our 2025 financial targets, our strong capital position, and our ability to manage risk and navigate through periods of market uncertainty. Following my remarks, I'll then turn it over to our CFO, Don Cummings, to discuss our financial performance in further detail. Beginning with slide three, Jackson's strong performance during the first quarter reinforces the resilience of our business and value of Jackson's products. We delivered solid results across our business with adjusted operating earnings of 376 million, a growth of 13% over the previous year. Given our consistent approach to share repurchase and overall return to shareholders, our adjusted operating earnings on a per share basis increased over 20% from a year ago. Since becoming an independent public company, Jackson has returned over $2 billion in capital to shareholders while expanding our business and maintaining our financial strength. Our net loss this quarter reflects the impact of third-party reinsurance and our modest net hedging results, which Don will discuss shortly. As a reminder, the results of reinsured business do not impact our statutory capital or free cash flow and have a minimal net impact on shareholders' equity. Our leading retail annuities business benefited from strong spread income and sales growth across all products compared to the first quarter of 2024. First quarter retail annuity sales were over $4 billion, up more than 9% from a year ago. Jackson's multi-product portfolio positions us well to serve a range of market environments and client needs, which was evident again this quarter. Sales of our variable annuities increased 9% from a year ago to $2.7 billion. Notably, we saw increasing demand for Elite Access, our investment-only variable annuity. Elite Access growth benefited from the success of our recently introduced Principal Guard feature, a guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit. Sales of variable annuities without living benefits were up 40% from the prior year and accounted for nearly 40% of total variable annuity sales. We continue to believe there is a long-term demand for variable annuity products from the millions of Americans who retire each year seeking both asset growth and guaranteed income. Jackson's successful diversification of its retail annuity sales combined with opportunistic institutional sales resulted in 30% of total first quarter sales coming from traditional variable annuities with lifetime benefits compared to 64% at separation. Jackson's RILA product suite is a consistent source of new sales at $1.2 billion for the quarter, up 3% from a year ago. We expect future growth in our Ryla business to be supported by the 2024 launch of our Plus Income Optional Benefit, the availability of a Jackson Ryla product in New York, and our expanded distribution opportunities through financial professionals at JPMorgan Wealth Management. Ryla has also led to new and re-engaged producer relationships as the product provides advisors and their clients with upside growth potential and downside protection. LIMRA estimates industry RILA sales to be $65 billion this year, and as a top five provider, Jackson is well-positioned to meet market demand through our product innovation, strong distribution, and industry-leading service. Turning to fixed and fixed-indexed annuity sales, We saw meaningful growth compared to a year ago, though at a more moderated level than in the second half of last year. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach to this market and closely monitor market conditions for profitable growth opportunities, providing even greater diversification to our retail annuity sales mix. Jackson's innovative approach to product, our industry-leading service, and prudent risk management allow us to provide a broad range of annuity solutions to our distribution partners. Focusing on emerging distribution channels, we believe fee-based advisory business is expanding the overall market for annuity products. We continue to see sales momentum within this channel, driven by our strong value proposition and beneficial digital experience which help advisors to include annuities in their clients' comprehensive financial plans. In the first quarter, Jackson's advisory sales increased 28% over the first quarter of 2024. Over the 12 months ending in March 2025, advisory sales are at an annual run rate of more than $1 billion. During the first quarter of 2025, Our healthy and profitable book of business generated excess capital and resulted in an estimated 585% RBC. Distributions from our operating company, Jackson National Life, provided $240 million in cash to the holding company. Our steady approach to periodic distributions combined with excess holding company liquidity highlights our capital strengths and reinforces our confidence in achieving our 2025 financial targets. Turning to slide four, you can see we are off to a strong start having returned over $230 million to common shareholders while maintaining more than $600 million in holding company liquid assets. We look forward to completing our fifth consecutive year of delivering on our financial targets while positioning the company for long-term profitability. Additionally, we continue to view a cash dividend as a valuable stream of sustainable capital return and yesterday announced our board's approval of a second quarter cash dividend of 80 cents per common share. Importantly, Jackson's resilient capital hedging strategy, and risk management discipline have allowed us to manage through the recent period of market volatility with confidence. We also believe that the current environment reinforces the importance of providing security to Americans planning for their retirement. Advisors are increasingly seeing annuities as a valuable tool in delivering this security for their clients, a powerful illustration of this dynamic. Jackson's focus on the annuity industry and delivering flexible protection and income-oriented solutions is highly valued during times of market uncertainty, and we remain committed to serving our distribution partners and their clients. With that, I'll turn the call over to Don.