Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated

Good day and welcome to the Reinsurance Group of America third 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 the star key followed by 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 third 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. 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 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. Thank you for joining our call today. Last night, we reported third quarter adjusted operating earnings of $5.57 per share and a trailing 12-month adjusted operating ROE of 14.7%, or 14%, excluding notable items. This quarter's results included very good performance in many of our regions and business lines, continuing to show the strength of the large 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 touch on a few of the many highlights in the quarter, which include a continuation of new business momentum in our organic flow business with a measurable pickup in Asia, underwriting results were favorable overall, And in particular, we saw very favorable mortality experience in our U.S. individual business, as well as favorable experience in our U.S. group and individual health businesses. In Asia, the traditional business also delivered favorable underwriting results. Our global financial solutions business had another strong quarter, with contributions from both investment spreads and favorable longevity experiences. This story is a familiar one as the GFS business has consistently produced excellent results over a number of quarters and years. Investment performance in the quarter was good as new money rates continued to rise and are at levels well above our portfolio yield. Variable investment income was in line with our expectations while impairments were low. We believe our investment portfolio is well positioned to withstand ongoing economic uncertainties. We deployed $203 million of capital into imports and other transactions in the quarter, bringing the year-to-date total to $587 million. This means that in just the first three quarters, we have already exceeded the total amount of capital deployed in each of the last two years, which were of themselves at impressive levels. On the capital management side, we repurchased $50 million of shares, bringing the year-to-date total to $150 million in share repurchases. And our new business pipelines are very healthy, and we are expecting a strong finish to the year. Putting it all together, business momentum is strong for both our organic flow and enforced block businesses. Higher interest rates are very good tailwinds for our business, and they are also a contributing driver of new in-force opportunities. Our earnings power and capital levels position us extremely well, allowing us to pursue attractive growth opportunities with balancing returning excess capital to shareholders over time. Industry dynamics are favorable. We are well-positioned. with the capabilities and proven track record to continue to benefit from all those dynamics. We believe many, many things are coming together for us and we are optimistic about our future and our ability to continue to deliver attractive returns for our shareholders. As you know, this is my last quarterly earnings call and I have just a few comments to end my prepared remarks. It has been a privilege and an honor to lead RGA for the past seven years. RGA is a great company. We are a global leader with a proven, resilient, and highly valuable franchise. The depth of talent here is second to none. I leave knowing that RGA will be in excellent hands with Tony and the leadership team and with a future that is very bright for RGA. And I will close my remarks by thanking our investors for their trust and support over the years. Thank you. With that, I will hand it over to Tony.