Jackson Financial Inc.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Jackson Financial Inc. 2Q 2025 earnings call. My name is Charlie and I'll be coordinating the call today. You'll 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 keypad. I now hand the call over to our host, Liz Werner, Head of Invest Relations at Jackson Financial to begin. Liz, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Jackson's second 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 and 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, its 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 meet 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 .jackson.com. Presenting on today's call are our CEO, Laura Prescorn, and our CFO, Don Cummings. Joining us in the room are our president of Jackson National Life Insurance Company, Chris Robb, our president 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 Prescorn.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning and welcome to our second quarter 2025 earnings call. I'll begin by reviewing the quarter's performance, including our solid operating and sales results, continued capital generation and return to shareholders, and our significant progress toward achieving our 2025 financial targets. Following my remarks, our CFO, Don Cummings, will discuss our financial performance in further detail. Beginning with slide three, Jackson's second quarter performance highlights the health of our business and strong capital position. Our retail annuities business benefited from our growing RYLA product suite, resulting in greater investment spread income and valuable earnings diversification for the quarter. RYLA account balances have increased by nearly 80% from the second quarter last year and 26% since year end 2024, supporting sustainable investment spread income. The relative stability of spread income enhances Jackson's earnings overall and provides diversification that is especially valuable during periods of market volatility. Traditional variable annuities remain a core product offering, accounting for over half of our retail annuity sales, and our enforced books generates more than $1 billion in quarterly fee income. The impact of lower average variable annuity assets in the second quarter was in part offset by investment spread income growth. Variable annuity account balances increased during the quarter, with account values reaching $239 billion at the end of the second quarter, up from 2024 year end. Total retail annuity sales reached $4.4 billion in the second quarter, representing a 9% increase over the first quarter and a 4% increase year over year. This growth was driven by sequential gains in both RYLA and fixed annuity sales. RYLA sales approached $1.4 billion, up 16% from the previous quarter and roughly flat compared to the prior year levels. Notably, RYLA sales momentum has continued and is supported by the launch of Jackson's MarketLink Pro 3 and MarketLink Pro Advisory 3, which offers a NASDAQ 100 index option and full principal protection option. RYLA now accounts for nearly one third of total retail annuity sales, underscoring Jackson's leadership in meeting the growing demand for solutions that offer participation in equity market growth with downside protection. Jackson's fixed annuity sales are consistent with our focus on offering a competitive product suite while adhering to our pricing discipline. In the second quarter, the attractiveness of our spread products benefited from our recent allocation of resources to certain higher yielding asset classes, including emerging markets, residential home mortgages, and structured securities of investment grade assets. We will maintain a disciplined approach to this market and see future growth potential as we broaden our fixed index annuity product offering and further expand our market reach. Variable annuity sales in total continue to be strong and were relatively flat for the first half of 2025. However, we have seen a 16% increase in sales of variable annuities without a lifetime benefit in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year. These products provide access to attractive investment options as well as valuable tax and estate planning benefits. Additionally, we continue to believe that the asset growth potential, investment flexibility, and guaranteed income provided by Jackson's traditional variable annuities meet a long-term need for millions of Americans retiring each year. Jackson's traditional variable annuity book delivers strong profitability underpinned by prudent product design, conservative assumptions, and disciplined risk management. Areas that Dom will discuss in greater detail. Importantly, we saw variable annuity net outflows improve for the second consecutive quarter and return to 2023 levels. As a result, total retail annuity net outflows were $2.2 billion in the second quarter, down 27% from a year ago, and down 39% from the first quarter. This emerging trend, combined with the second quarter's positive separate account performance and increasing sales diversification, positions us well for favorable retail annuity account value comparisons. In addition to our innovative approach to product design, we remain focused on delivering industry-leading service and bringing enhanced tools to the market. Our recent launch of a new digital experience for financial professionals is the latest example of our ongoing investments in service and technology. Considering input from financial advisors, we created a digital tool to align clients' needs with the benefits and features of multiple products. The site also includes a wholesaler contact resource to facilitate new advisor relationships and is designed to deliver tailored support. These initiatives and our commitment to delivering exceptional service highlight our long-term dedication to our business, distribution partners, and clients. In July of this year, Jackson was once again recognized in Barron's annual 100 Best Annuities Guide. Jackson had three products featured across five categories this year, including our LEED Access Advisory 2 Variable Annuity and our Jackson MarketLink Pro Riless LEED, which was highlighted seven times as a leading product providing valuable market protections for policyholders. Our long-standing commitment to product innovation has resulted in differentiated annuity solutions that are highly valued by our distribution partners and their clients. We ended the second quarter in a strong capital position with even greater financial flexibility. Total adjusted capital exceeded $5.3 billion up from the first quarter of this year in a 5% increase since year-end 2024. Risk-based capital remains comfortably above our 425% target minimum and is estimated at 566% as of the end of the second quarter after investing in our business and distributing $325 million to our holding company. Excess capital generation and free cash flow during the first half of this year have both exceeded a $1 billion annualized run rate. Our second quarter capital return of $216 million extends our track record to 15 quarters of continuous return to shareholders. We remain confident that our strong and sustainable capital generation will continue to support both future growth initiatives and ongoing capital return to shareholders. Turning to slide 4, we've made significant progress towards achieving our capital return target with $447 million in share repurchases and common shareholder dividends through the first six months. This is a 41% increase from last year and shows that we're on track to meet or exceed our targeted range of $700-800 million. Our holding company liquidity of over $700 million provides additional financial flexibility and should position Jackson for continued capital return beyond 2025. In addition, we continue to view a cash dividend as a reliable and sustainable means of returning capital to shareholders. Consistent with this long-term focus, our board recently approved a third quarter cash dividend of $0.80 per common share. Jackson remains committed to a balanced capital management strategy that prioritizes disciplined investments in our business, the maintenance of a strong balance sheet, and consistent capital return to shareholders, all with the objective of creating long-term value for our stakeholders. Our resilient capital, disciplined risk management, and effective hedging strategy have enabled us to manage market volatility with confidence. In today's environment, the need for financial security in retirement has never been more apparent. Financial advisors are increasingly recognizing the value of annuities as essential tools for delivering the security to their clients. Jackson's commitment to the annuity market, providing flexible protection and income-oriented solutions, continues to be highly valued. We remain dedicated to supporting our distribution partners in helping their clients achieve greater financial confidence in retirement. With that, I'll turn the call over to Don.