Jackson Financial Inc.

Financial Inc. 3Q25 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 keypads. I'll now 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 third 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, 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, 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 the Head of Asset Liability Management, Brian Walta. At this time, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Laura Preskorn.

Thank you, Liz. Good morning, and thank you for joining our third quarter 2025 earnings call. I'll begin by reviewing the quarter's positive results, including strong sales growth and diversification, robust capital generation, and consistent capital return to shareholders. Following my remarks, our CFO, Don Cummings, will discuss our financial performance in further detail. Beginning with slide three, Jackson's third quarter performance highlights our strong earnings diversification and healthy book of business. Adjusted operating earnings of $433 million increased over 20% from the year-ago quarter led by our retail annuities business. Retail annuities continue to see significant growth and diversification from investment spread income, as well as solid fee income from nearly $240 billion of separate account value. Retail annuity sales for the quarter reached their highest level since we became an independent company, exceeding $5 billion for the quarter, driven by growth in RILA and traditional variable annuities. Last quarter, we highlighted the launch of Jackson's MarketLink Pro 3 and MarketLink Pro Advisory 3, which we refer to as RILA 3.0. The positive reception to RILA 3.0, combined with a robust RILA market, resulted in record sales of $2 billion in the quarter, accounting for 38% of overall retail annuity sales. We expect RILA to remain a valuable source of growth providing sustainable investment spread income and earnings diversification. Our RILA account balance approached $18 billion, a 21% increase from the second quarter and a 74% increase from the prior year. While the RILA market continues to evolve and grow, we believe our RILA 3.0 product offering provides advisors and their clients with a broad range of index and crediting options and a valuable range of protection levels. Jackson's long-held focus on product innovation and consumer choice has differentiated us and is highly valued by our distribution partners and their clients. Our RILA offerings continue to drive growth in the breadth and depth of our distribution. Since launching RILA 3.0 in May, we've added over 500 new advisors. Our new RILA relationship with JPMorgan Chase is one example of accelerating RILA sales through a valued partnership. Traditional variable annuities remain core to our business and accounted for over one half of our third quarter retail annuity sales. Variable annuity sales increased 13% from the second quarter and 8% from a year ago. The growth of variable annuities sold without a lifetime benefit continued and sales increased 24% for the first nine months of 2025. Year to date, variable annuity sales without a living benefit accounted for 38% of Jackson's total variable annuity sales. Importantly, average variable annuity balances increased by $10 billion from the second quarter, supporting an increase in third quarter fee income of 8% quarter over quarter. variable annuity net outflows improved from a year ago and were consistent with strong equity market performance. For the third quarter, strong investment performance exceeded the impact of net flows by over $7 billion. The diversity of Jackson's variable annuity fund offerings remains a valued feature, and for the first nine months of 2025, separate account performance exceeded 13%. We continue to believe 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. This profitable book of business exhibits Jackson's thoughtful product design and disciplined risk management capabilities. Fixed and fixed index annuity sales reflect our opportunistic approach to pricing and have contributed to our sales diversification. Looking ahead, we expect our recent fixed index annuity launch will contribute to future sales growth. The Jackson Income Assurance Suite has an embedded guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefit designed to meet consumer demand for income and protected growth. Jackson's fixed index products further expand our portfolio of annuity solutions, meeting a wide range of retirement planning goals for advisors and their clients. Complementing the growth of our business is the investment expertise and asset growth of our investment manager, PPM America. Last quarter, we highlighted PPM's additional investment capabilities which support the competitiveness and profitability of our spread-based products in the market. We believe our disciplined approach to the market, combined with incremental yield provided by PPM investment capabilities, position us well for future growth and profitability across spread-based annuity solutions. The profitability of our in-force business and capital generation resulted in continued free cash flow and capital distribution. Through the first three quarters of this year, free capital generation exceeded $1 billion and free cash flow was $719 million. Quarterly distributions to our holding company through the first nine months of this year have totaled $815 million. These strong results lead us to believe we are well positioned to maintain capital flexibility at our holding company and sustain future capital return to our common shareholders. We continue to return capital consistently and for the third quarter return $210 million bringing our year-to-date capital return total to $657 million. Given this pace and our outlook for the fourth quarter, we expect to exceed our 2025 capital return target range of $700 to $800 million. Since becoming an independent company, we have returned nearly $2.5 billion to common shareholders, exceeding our initial market capitalization. We believe that our balanced approach to capital management will continue to support Jackson's financial strength, ongoing investments in long-term growth, and future capital return to shareholders. Turning to slide four, we began the fourth quarter with great momentum and are approaching the end of 2025 in a very strong position with respect to all our financial targets. I've already addressed capital return and would add that in September, our board of directors approved a $1 billion increase to our common share repurchase authorization. Yesterday, we announced our board also approved a fourth quarter cash dividend of 80 cents per common share. We believe shareholder dividends underscore our outlook for long-term profitability and combined with share buyback, highlight our commitment to shareholder returns. Over the course of 2025, Our strong capital generation resulted in a risk-based capital ratio that was consistently well above our targeted minimum level of 425%, and we ended the third quarter at an estimated 579%. In addition, at the end of the quarter, the cash and liquid securities position at our holding company was over $750 million. Our strong capital position combined with holding company liquidity, provides valuable capital flexibility. Jackson's resilient capital, effective hedging strategy, and disciplined risk management have enabled us to navigate through periods of market uncertainty. In today's environment, we believe this experience is essential to maintaining long-term leadership in the annuity market. At this time, I'll turn it over to Don.