Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated

Welcome to the Reinsurance Group of America fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. 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 Jeff Hobson, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to RGA's fourth quarter 2025 conference call. I'm joined on the call this morning by Tony Chang, RGA's President and CEO, Axel Andre, Chief Financial Officer, 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 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 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 a discussion of these terms and reconciliations to gap measures. Throughout the call, we will be referencing slides from the earnings presentation, which, again, is posted on our website. And now I'll turn the call over to Tony for his comments.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Last night, we reported Q4 operating EPS of $7.75 per share, which is our second consecutive record quarter in terms of earnings. Our adjusted operating return on equity for the trailing 12 months, excluding notable items, was 15.7%, which exceeded our intermediate term target range of 13% to 15%. The quarter capped off another year of excellent financial results with strength across our businesses and geographies. These results underscore the value and diversity of our global platform and the exceptional work of our local teams. Looking back at the full year 2025 results, we delivered record operating EPS, generated a 15.7% ROE, and increased the value of in-force business margins by 18%. From a capital perspective, we deployed $2.5 billion of capital into in-force transactions at attractive risk-adjusted returns, reinstated share buybacks, and maintained a strong balance sheet with $2.7 billion of excess capital. These are clear indicators that we are successfully delivering on our strategy. and are on track to continue meeting or exceeding our intermediate-term financial targets. Now let me highlight a few specifics from the fourth quarter. Beginning by region, the U.S. was particularly favorable, driven by management actions and variable investment income, with individual life mortality in line with expectations. EMEA results reflect a strong volume growth and favorable experience. And APAC continues to see growth momentum along with in-force actions. In the quarter, we benefited from the continued contributions of our balance sheet optimization strategy. We saw the positive effects of various management actions in terms of current earnings and ROE, an increase in future value, and an improvement in our liability risk profile. These actions are a regular part of our daily operations, though the timing and size can be difficult to predict. Additionally, we continue to see contributions from new business that we have added over recent years, including the equitable block. We are confident that our most recent vintages of new business will generate risk-adjusted returns that meet or exceed our targets. Moving to investments, our team and platform delivered strong results, boosted by favorable variable investment income coming from our alternative investment portfolio. Our team continued their efforts to reposition certain acquired portfolios, and we are on track to see these benefits in the periods ahead. To be clear, our portfolio repositioning leverages our expertise on both sides of the balance sheet, with strong asset liability management to incrementally enhance our risk-adjusted returns. Additionally, we continue to expand our capabilities, including external partnerships, to enable us to offer superior client solutions. On the capital front, we again repurchase shares, allocating $50 million this quarter at attractive prices. A balanced use of excess capital is an important part of our plan to generate long-term shareholder value. Shifting to full-year 2025 performance, our diversified global platform continues to deliver strong long-term results. Our operations in North America, Asia, and EMEA have all been successful in executing on our strategy and delivering attractive financial results. Our APAC region produced excellent bottom line results for the year. Pre-tax operating income, excluding notable items, was up 18%, reflecting strong underlying growth and favorable underwriting experience. This business continues to grow at a nice rate, given our success in delivering product development across the region, as well as some of the favorable market and regulatory dynamics in places like Japan and Korea that lead to a high level of opportunities to solve client issues through in-force transactions. In EMEA, our full-year pre-tax earnings, excluding notable items, were up 35%, reflecting continued strong new business growth along with favorable experience. North America. North American results reflected the contribution from the equitable block, which continues to perform in line with expectations and strong contributions from enforced management actions. These positives helped overcome the challenging results from U.S. Group, specifically the excess medical business. We fully repriced this business for 2026 and expect a significant improvement in results over the next year. Looking beyond the recent renewal cycle, we completed a broader strategic review and have decided to exit the group healthcare lines of business. For the year, both organic flow and in-force transactions were very strong, with in-force transactions particularly robust from the equitable deal and a wide range of other opportunities that we executed on. Focusing on organic new business, we continue to have very good success and momentum built on our long-established biometric expertise and innovative mindset. We continue to see ongoing strength in Asia driven by our product development and range of innovative solutions. Similarly, in the U.S., our value-added underwriting solutions and underwriting outsourcing efforts have given us strong momentum in a market that is generally considered mature. The 2025 successes I've highlighted are visible in the increased value of enforced business margins. We introduced this concept in 2024 to convey the underlying value and future earnings power of our enforced businesses. It is a measure of how much value is being created by a range of means, most importantly, new business, but also management actions and experience. In 2025, the value increased by $6.6 billion, or 18%, with meaningful contributions from both new business and management actions. Over the past two years, the future expected value has increased by over $11 billion, or or approximately 16% per annum. Stepping back, let me provide some perspective on how we are positioned today and for the future, and why we expect to deliver on our strategic and financial objectives. RGA has several unique strengths, including strong biometric expertise, asset management capabilities, a global platform, market-leading brand, and flexibility to partner across the industry. We leverage these strengths as we execute across four key areas of focus. First, we use a proactive business approach to create win-win transactions, generating higher returns for RJA and greater value for our clients. Second, we optimize our balance sheet, including enforced liability management, improved risk-adjusted investment returns, and leveraging third party and internal sources of capital. Third, we operationally scale the platform and ensure that our portfolio of businesses aligns with the opportunities in the market. And lastly, we maintain a sharp focus on capital stewardship, ensuring we achieve the right balance between allocating capital to attractive business opportunities and returning capital to shareholders, which is critical to us. Whether it is the record 2025 results or the past three years where we have met or exceeded our ROE and EPS targets, RJ is delivering successfully on our strategy. We have strong momentum, a clear focus, and the right strategy, and we remain confident in our ability to generate attractive shareholder value going forward. With that, I'll turn the call over to Axel.