MetLife, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MetLife fourth quarter and full year 2021 Earnings and Outlook conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we get started, I refer you to the cautionary note about forward looking statements in yesterday's earnings release and to risk factors discussed in MetLife's SEC filings. With that, I will turn the call over to John Hall, Global Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for MetLife's fourth quarter 2021 earnings and near-term outlook call. Before we begin, I'd point you to the information on non-GAAP measures on the Investor Relations portion of MetLife.com in our earnings release and in our quarterly financial supplements, which you should review. On the call this morning are Michelle Halaf, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John McCallion, Chief Financial Officer. Also participating in the discussion are other members of senior management. Last evening, we released a set of supplemental slides, which address the quarter as well as our near-term outlook. They are available on our website. John McCallion will speak to those supplemental slides in his prepared remarks if you wish to follow along. An appendix to these slides features outlook sensitivities, disclosures, gap reconciliations, and other information which you should also review. After prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session. In light of the busy morning, Q&A will last no later than the top of the hour. In fairness to all, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. With that, over to Michel.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. MetLife's financial performance in the fourth quarter and full year of 2021 was outstanding. Our strategic decisions to diversify MetLife by product and geography, allocate a prudent portion of our assets to private equity, balance growth with cash generation, and return excess capital to shareholders paid off in the form of banner adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share. In the fourth quarter of 2021, MetLife delivered adjusted earnings of $1.8 billion, level with Q4 2020. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.17, up 7% year over year. Excluding the notable tax item in the quarter, adjusted earnings per share were $2.01. Heading into the quarter, One of the biggest questions facing life insurers was whether Q4 COVID-related impacts would be as challenging as they were in Q3. In the U.S. group business, that remained the case as lower severity was offset by higher frequency to keep the group life ratio well above normal. Yet, MetLife's diversity remained evident in the continued outperformance of our investment portfolio. Variable investment income contributed $1.3 billion in the quarter. Our private equity holdings returned 7.9%, with venture capital once again the standout at 13%. As we noted last quarter, PE generates significant cash for MetLife. Over the last six years, cash distributions from the portfolio have totaled $8.6 billion. Looking at 2021 as a whole, it was a year of performance, purpose, and progress. MetLife delivered strong performance across the board. Despite the divestiture of PNC and other businesses, adjusted PFOs, excluding PRTs, were still up 2% to $45.5 billion. Full-year sales were up 40% in U.S. Group, 19% in Latin America, and 11% in Asia. The return on our private equity portfolio was above 40%. our direct expense ratio was down 40 basis points to 11.6%. And we reported adjusted earnings of $8 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $9.15, both the highest amounts ever posted by MetLife. We believe our growing track record of consistent execution, even in the face of adversity, has reinforced the narrative of MetLife as a resilient company. MetLife's purpose is to be there for our customers always helping them build a more confident future. Nowhere is a life insurance company's purpose more evident than in the grips of a pandemic. Over the course of 2021, COVID claims total $2 billion globally and $3 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. We cannot heal the pain of losing a loved one, but we can and do help families recover from the financial damage so that they can move forward. We are honored to be part of an industry that makes such a positive difference in people's lives. Finally, 2021 was a year in which we continued to make progress on the pillars of our Next Horizon strategy. We remained focused on deploying capital to its most productive use. In the absence of attractive M&A opportunities, we returned significant capital to shareholders. We continue to simplify the company through strategic divestitures and further strengthening our operating leverage. Despite higher inflation, we still expect our direct expense ratio to be below 12.3% for the full year 2022. And we further differentiated MetLife with an entry into the financial wellness space called Upwise that allows us to connect directly with consumers and help them build the habits of financial success. MetLife continues to invest billions of dollars every year in organic growth with attractive payback periods and internal rates of return. But as we have said many times, we will not pursue growth for growth's sake. When growth is attractive, whether organic or by acquisition, we will invest. When it is not, we will return capital to shareholders to redeploy elsewhere in the economy. We were pleased in 2021 to return a record of nearly $6 billion of capital to MetLife shareholders. We paid $1.6 billion in common stock dividends and repurchased $4.3 billion worth of common shares. Even after these significant distributions, we ended 2021 with $5.4 billion of cash and liquid assets on our balance sheet, well above the top end of our $3 to $4 billion target buffer. We repurchased $1.2 billion of common shares in the fourth quarter, and we have $1.5 billion left on the repurchase authorization our board of directors approved in August. As a management team, we have no higher obligation to shareholders than to be responsible stewards of the capital they have entrusted us with. As we look ahead, we see a landscape marked with both opportunities and risks, but on balance, we are more optimistic than we were a year ago. John McCallion will provide our detailed outlook expectations shortly. I would like to discuss the road ahead at a more thematic level. While we are always cautious about the external environment, which consists of many factors we cannot control, we do see a unique prevalence of tailwinds that should provide positive momentum to our business. Rising interest rates are an obvious one, provided the yield curve cooperates. and we are pleased that the Federal Reserve has signaled a return to more normal monetary policy. Our U.S. group benefits business should benefit from rising overall employment and compensation levels. The war for talent is as intense as we have ever seen it, and we believe that benefits will remain a powerful tool to help companies compete. As our most recent employee benefit trends study found, this applies across the spectrum. Baby boomers are placing higher value on their physical health. For example, 71% say vision insurance is a must-have, up from 53% the prior year. And Gen Z is showing heightened interest in benefits such as legal services, student debt relief, and life insurance. In Asia and Latin America, consumer demand for insurance products is strong. In Latin America, our sales are back to pre-pandemic levels, and in Asia, especially japan the business is benefiting from new offerings and the positive impact of rising u.s interest rates on foreign currency denominated products none of this is to deny the uncertainty we still face from covid we have seen false dawns before only to be hit with new waves of the virus our view is that the wisest call on the pandemic is not to make a call we are steadfastly making good on our promises while continuing to evaluate and reflect the new reality in our pricing. I'll close this morning by emphasizing what we believe makes MetLife unique. We have significantly reduced the capital intensity and market sensitivity of our business. We have built some of the premier insurance franchises in the world. We remain wedded to the true economics of the life insurance business, which is cash. And finally, we have cultivated a culture of relentless focus on efficiency and execution. We recognize that MetLife's success has set a new, higher baseline against which we will be judged. The next 10 yards will not be as easy to gain as the last 10, but we are up for the challenge. Now I'll turn it over to John to cover our performance and outlook in detail.