Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the Reinsurance Group of America Incorporated second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star, then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note, This event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Todd Larson, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to RGA's second quarter 2023 conference call. I'm joined on the call this morning with Anna Manning, RGA's Chief Executive Officer, Tony Chang, President, Leslie Barbee, Chief Investment Officer, and Jonathan Porter, Chief Risk Officer. As a quick reminder before we get started regarding forward-looking information and non-GAAP financial measures, some of our comments or answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from expected results. Please refer to the earnings release we issued yesterday for a list of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Additionally, during the course of this call, the information we provide may include non-GAAP financial measures. Please see our earnings release, earnings presentation, and quarterly financial supplement, all of which are posted on our website for further discussion of these terms and reconciliations to GAAP measures. And now I'll turn the call over to Anna for her comments.

Thank you, Todd. Good morning and thank you for joining our call today. Last night we reported second quarter adjusted operating earnings of $4.40 per share. This was a strong quarter with many regions and business lines performing very well. It was also another quarter demonstrating the power of the underlying earnings engine in our business. as well as the ongoing success of our growth strategy that is adding meaningful long-term value to that engine. Let me turn to a few of the highlights in the quarter which include favorable mortality experience in our U.S. individual business, as well as favorable performance in our U.S. group and individual health businesses. Our Asia traditional business also benefited from favorable claims experience, as well as higher yields. Our global financial solutions business had another strong quarter with contributions from both spreads and favorable longevity experience, continuing the trend of excellent performance over a number of years. Investment performance in the quarter was good as new money rates remained attractive and impairments were minimal. We believe our investment portfolio is well positioned to withstand any ongoing economic uncertainties. And strong new business momentum in our organic business continued through the quarter and notably picked up in Asia. In a few minutes, Tony will expand on the quarter's activities and on our future growth opportunities. We had another very successful quarter on the capital management front, deploying $190 million into Inforce and other transactions, bringing the year-to-date total to $384 million of capital put to work. I am pleased with the start of the year and with the state of our transactions pipelines, which are at very healthy levels with opportunities across many geographies and risks. In the quarter, we also repurchased $50 million of shares, bringing the year-to-date total to $100 million in share repurchases. And we increased our quarterly dividend to 85 cents per share, representing a 6.3% increase to our shareholder dividends. This has been a very busy six months of active capital management. At our recent Investor Day, we highlighted the earnings power in our business and the reasons for the excitement we have about our growth opportunities. We talked about favorable industry dynamics driving stronger demand for what we do so well. whether that is to help clients find new ways or better ways to reach consumers or to underwrite products in a more efficient and effective manner. We also see strong demand for new products to better meet the changing needs of consumers and increasing demand to help our clients better manage their risk and capital needs. We are very well positioned to benefit from all of those opportunities. We have the breadth and depth of capabilities technical expertise, and crucially, the risk discipline necessary to thrive in this highly complex industry. We have a collaborative culture, strong client partnerships, global scale, and a proven and successful strategy that is delivering substantial long-term value to our clients and for our shareholders. which gives me a great deal of confidence in RGA's future and in our ability to continue to deliver growth and attractive returns to our shareholders over many years to come. Thank you for your continued support and interest in RGA. I will now hand it over to Tony to provide additional thoughts on our business momentum.