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 PGEM, our Global Investment Manager, Caroline Feeney, Head of US Businesses, Janella Freyas, 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 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 all of you for joining us today. First, I'd like to comment on the leadership changes we announced in the fourth quarter. The board appointed Andy Sullivan as Prudential's next CEO, effective March 31st. He is an exceptional leader, and the board and I have every confidence he is the right person to take Prudential into the future. Also at the end of March, Caroline Feeney will take on an expanded role overseeing our global retirement and insurance businesses. Both Andy and Caroline have been highly engaged in setting and executing our strategy, so we expect a smooth transition. And Jacques Chapuis will be joining as CEO of PGM, our global asset management business. Both Caroline and Jacque will report directly to Andy. This is an exciting and significant time for Prudential and the right time to elevate the next generation of leadership as we mark our 150th anniversary. Finally, I'd also note that just last week, we were recognized as the number one company among our life and health insurance peers for 2024 on Fortune's list of the world's most admired companies. Now let's turn to our results. In 2024, we made significant progress on our path to becoming a higher growth, more capital efficient company. We maintained our disciplined approach to capital deployment while also continuing to invest in our businesses and returned excess capital to shareholders. Our strategic progress and performance are backed by our financial strength. Turning to slide three. Our results for the full year reflect continued momentum as we further diversified our product suite. and expanded our distribution capabilities to address the investment, insurance, and retirement needs of our customers and clients around the world. Earnings for the fourth quarter were lower than we anticipated, but do not reflect the earnings power of our businesses. This was largely due to adverse underwriting experience, primarily driven by an elevated level of large individual life claims. Large claim activity will vary on a quarterly basis, but our fundamentals remain strong. and the actions we are taking across our businesses create a solid foundation for future growth. We reported strong full-year sales across our retirement and insurance businesses, as well as strong investment performance and significant positive net flows in PGM. PGM reported robust affiliated and third-party flows for the full year 2024, benefiting from our broad capabilities across fixed income, equities, and our diversified private alternatives platform and fueled by the growing global retirement opportunity and the growth of our retirement and insurance businesses. Our retirement strategies business continues to address the growing needs of the market as a leader in pension risk transfer and individual annuities. On the institutional side, our pension risk transfer business had the highest annual level of sales for any single carrier since 2012. On the individual side, we had our ninth consecutive quarter of sales growth. We also continued to diversify our products and expand our distribution networks in group insurance and individual life, which resulted in continued sales momentum. And in our international businesses, we continued to diversify our product portfolio in Japan, including retirement solutions, and we expanded our distribution channels in Brazil. In addition to the momentum we are seeing across our businesses, during 2024 we successfully executed on a number of transactions that enhanced our capital flexibility, improved the quality of our earnings, and shifted our business mix. We completed two guaranteed universal life reinsurance transactions, which reduce our cumulative exposure to this product by 60%. And just last month, we announced our second PRISMIC transaction to reinsure a $7 billion block of Japanese whole life policies, adding further scale to the PRISMIC platform. Turning to slide four, our continued investments in our businesses are supported by our disciplined approach to capital deployment, which included returning nearly $3 billion to shareholders in 2024. In addition, the board has authorized share repurchases of up to a billion dollars in 2025 and increased the common stock dividend for the 17th consecutive year. Turning to slide five. Our strategic progress is supported by our robust risk and capital framework. We maintained a AA rating, which reflects a healthy capital position, including holding more than $4 billion in highly liquid assets. We also maintained a well-diversified, high-quality investment portfolio and a disciplined approach to asset liability management. We're operating from a position of strength and have entered 2025 with continued confidence in our strategy, our capabilities, and our path to deliver long-term, sustainable value for all our stakeholders. Before I turn the call over to Rob, I want to acknowledge the extraordinary partnership we have shared over these past six years. Rob is retiring from Prudential in July, culminating a remarkable 42-year career with the firm in which he has made innumerable and material contributions to our continued success and future growth. And with that, I'll turn it over to Rob.