Prudential Financial, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Prudential's quarterly earnings conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. If you should require any assistance during the call, please press star zero and an operator will assist you offline. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Bob McLaughlin. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining our call. Representing Prudential on today's call are Charlie Lowry, Chairman and CEO, Rob Fausen, Vice Chairman, Andy Sullivan, Head of International Businesses and PGM, our Global Investment Manager, Caroline Feeney, Head of U.S. Businesses, Janella Freas, Chief Financial Officer, and Rob Axel, Controller and Principal Accounting Officer. We will start with prepared comments by Charlie, Rob, and Janella, and then we will take your questions. Today's discussion may include forward-looking statements. It is possible that actual results may differ materially from the predictions we make today. In addition, our presentation includes references to non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of such measures to the comparable GAAP measures and a discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please see the slides titled Forward-Looking Statements and Non-GAAP Measures in the appendix to today's presentation and the quarterly financial supplement both of which can be found on our website at investor.prudential.com. And now I'll turn it over to Charlie.

Thank you, Bob, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Our results for the quarter reflect accelerating momentum across all our businesses, including significant positive net flows in PGM, our global asset manager, and strong sales in our U.S. and international insurance businesses. During the quarter, we made substantial progress in shifting our business mix, and growing our market leading businesses to become a higher growth, more capital efficient, and nimble company. We also maintained our disciplined approach to capital management by making further investments in our businesses and returning additional capital to shareholders. Our rock solid balance sheet, business mix, and distinct strategy position us to deliver long-term growth for our stakeholders. Turning to slide three. I'll now begin this morning with a few recent examples that demonstrate how we are growing our market leading businesses. PGM achieved robust third party and affiliated net flows in the quarter, notably in our fixed income business, underpinned by continued strong investment performance. These flows reinforce the benefits of our large and strategic global client relationships and the power of our mutually reinforcing business system to grow our asset management fees. Our institutional retirement strategies business reported strong sales and record account values, including the benefits of two large pension risk transfer transactions in the quarter. As a result, we delivered a record first quarter of PRT sales. Meanwhile, our individual retirement strategies business recorded its best sales quarter in more than a decade. This reflects the continued diversification and expansion of our product offerings. as well as strong demand in the market. Strong growth in our group insurance affected our product and segment diversification strategy, leading to increased sales across life, disability, and supplemental health. Meanwhile, our individual life insurance business continues to shift towards more capital efficient products and broaden solutions through newer offerings like FlexGuard Life, which had its highest sales quarter since launching in 2022. Internationally, We continue to benefit from our broadening product portfolio in Japan and from our actions to expand our distribution to new customers in emerging markets. Prudential of Brazil saw strong momentum across all distribution channels, most notably in our Life Planner channel, which reported record sales for the quarter. We achieved these milestones while continuing to pivot away from more capital intensive and lower growth businesses. We successfully closed a reinsurance transaction for a portion of our guaranteed universal life block, further advancing our strategy to reduce market sensitivity and increase capital efficiency. We also announced an agreement to sell Prudential of Argentina, a move aligned with our strategy of focusing on fewer high-growth emerging markets where we have an opportunity to achieve scale. And finally, we initiated the process to exit our assurance business, so that we can focus our efforts and resources on core businesses and capabilities. We also continue to strengthen our operating model through technology and strategic partnerships to generate efficiencies that can be reinvested to fuel growth and deliver exceptional sales, service, and claims experiences. This ongoing focus on improving the ways we work and supporting our customers continues to be recognized outside the company. As just one example, Prudential Japan recently ranked number one for life insurance service in a J.D. Power customer satisfaction survey for the ninth year in a row. We are proud to be recognized for the value we provide to our customers. Turning now to slide four. Our disciplined approach to capital deployment enables us to invest in our market-leading businesses to support long-term growth and return capital to shareholders. In the first quarter, we returned over $700 million to shareholders and increased the quarterly dividend by 4%, our 16th consecutive annual dividend increase. We will continue to focus on creating sustainable, profitable growth that will benefit all stakeholders. Moving to slide five. Our growth strategy is supported by Prudential's rock-solid balance sheet and robust risk and capital management framework. Our AA rated financial strength represents a strong capital position, including approximately $48 billion of unrealized insurance margins, over $4 billion in highly liquid assets at the end of the first quarter, a high quality, well diversified investment portfolio, and a disciplined approach to asset liability management. We've entered the second quarter with confidence in our strategy to be a global leader in expanding access to investing, insurance, and retirement security for people around the world. And with that, I'll turn it over to Rob to provide more details on our first quarter business performance.