Unum Group

Hello and welcome to the Unum Group 4Q 2025 results and 2026 Outlook. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. And please limit to one question and one follow-up. I will now turn the call over to Matt Royal. Investor Relations, you may begin.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Unum Group's fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. Today we'll be discussing full year 2025 results along with highlights from the fourth quarter. We'll also use the time to discuss our outlook for 2026. As such, we've extended our time today to allow for the additional presentation and discussion. Please note today's call may include forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially, and we are not obligated to update any of these statements. Please refer to our earnings release and our periodic filings with the SEC for a description of factors that could cause actual results to differ from expected results. Yesterday afternoon, Unum released our earnings press release financial supplement and webcast presentation for today's call. All of those materials may also be found on the investor section of our website. Also, please note references made today to core operations sales and premium, including Unum International, are presented on a constant currency basis for comparability period to period. Participating in this morning's conference call are Unum's President and CEO, Rick McKinney, and Chief Financial Officer, Steve Zabel. Following the remarks from Rick and Steve, additional members of management will participate in Q&A, including Mark Hill, who heads our Unum International business, Tim Arnold, who heads our Colonial Life and Voluntary Benefits lines, and Chris Pine for Group Benefits. Now I'll turn the call over to Rick.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2025 was a year of disciplined operational performance across our core businesses, sustained investment and digital capabilities that create differentiation per unum, and decisive progress in the closed block, materially improving its risk profile. We delivered for customers, advanced our strategy, and closed the year with strong capital and liquidity. On the earnings front, for full year 2025, adjusted EPS was $8.13. This was down year over year and below our expectations going into the year. The primary driver of the softer outcome for both the quarter and the year was higher than expected benefits experience. That experience varied in total and by line throughout the year. We'll dig into our benefits experience more, but throughout the call today, you'll hear more about our leading franchise and group benefits that has grown notably over time. as we serve employers and their employees. As we have grown, we have done so profitably, as our core operations delivered approximately 20% return on equity. This reflects durable earnings power supported by disciplined underwriting, solid persistency, a focused product mix, and a sales force that appreciates building relationships with clients. Those fundamentals have been true for many years, and combined with strong risk management and capital management, we remain excited about the opportunity moving into 2026. As we look at the top line, this opportunity is demonstrated by a growing premium base and customer relationships. Core operations premium grew within our expected range at nearly 4.5%, excluding transaction impacts, and included 3.1% premium growth at Colonial Life and 10% in International. Given our healthy persistency and the ongoing demand from employers who value integrated benefits, we are well positioned to deliver premium growth within our long-term target range of 4% to 7% in 2026. A key enabler of that performance is the progress we're making in digital. Today, over one-third of our core premium base is associated with customers experiencing one of our leading digital capabilities. The idea is simple. Connect our benefits to the HR platforms employers already use and wrap those connections with an experience of service, expertise, and empathy. The execution, particularly when building at scale, is complex, but our teams are up to the challenge. HR Connect, Broker Connect, and TotalEase strengthen the employer link. MyUnum, Gather, and the UK's Help at Hand make enrollment and administration easier while adding value-added services. And AI-enabled tools help our teams respond faster and with higher quality. Where these capabilities are adopted, we see stronger engagement and persistency, and we pair that digital momentum with paying attention to the fundamentals across the enterprise. In group disability and group life in the U.S., we maintain strong pricing discipline and risk selection, and returns remain attractive and industry-leading. In colonial life, we continue to strengthen our independent distribution model, improving agent productivity through better digital tools and workflow. This supported steady premium growth, strong returns, and sales that finished the year at a multi-year high, which included double-digit growth in the fourth quarter. In international, we also delivered double-digit premium growth, reflecting a sharper broker experience in the UK and continued progress in Poland. So while 2025 had some variability in reported benefits experience, the underlying earnings power remains resilient, and our strategy continues to translate into durable growth and meaningful long-term value creation. This growth also flows through to our capital generation, conversion to free cash flow, and deployment. Consistent with our deployment philosophy, 2025 was a year in which we grew the company organically and made two small acquisitions. At the same time, with our continued strong statutory earnings, we were able to increase our dividend 10% and buy back $1 billion of our shares. That combination effectively returns to shareholders what we generated in the year. We ended the year with robust capital levels of 440% risk-based capital and $2.3 billion of cash at the holding company. 2025 will also be remembered as a year where we reached some pivotal moments in addressing the closed block. It dates back many years, but in 2023, we provided additional funding to our Fairwind entity, and stated at that time that no further contributions would be necessary. Three years later, our position remains unchanged. Today, we have $2.2 billion of protection between reserves and capital to guard against any future adverse development. As you've heard before, a consistent part of our block management has been to seek price increases over time where appropriate. With our steady and mature approach, we have crossed the $5 billion mark in cumulative premium rate increases since initiating our program. Finally, in 2025, we completed an external reinsurance transaction that seeded roughly 20% of long-term care reserves coupled with an internal reinsurance action that reduced potential capital volatility. Combined, we reduced LTC reserves by more than $4 billion in total through these transactions. Our progress in 2025 has meaningfully strengthened our risk profile while maintaining strong capital protections, and we remain focused on further reducing legacy exposures to drive the focus to our leading employee benefits franchise. We're excited about how we're positioned entering 2026. We are starting the year in a real position of strength. That is true in our market position and reputation, the depth and expertise of our team, and of course, the financial flexibility to capitalize on opportunities when they present themselves. Our performance is grounded in purpose, helping the working world thrive throughout life's moments, delivered through the right balance of digital connection and human empathy. With our continued investment in technology, we expect a good year of growth in 2026. Across the company, we see top-line growth in the range of 4% to 7% with meaningful contributions from each part of the enterprise. This stems from both new sales and persistency. driven by the connections we have developed over the years. With discipline focused on our margins, our EPS will return to growth of 8% to 12% driven by our high ROE businesses. And finally, we will continue to return value to our shareholders in a consistent manner, as we have done over the last several years with an increasing dividend and share repurchases of approximately $1 billion. Steve will now take you through the quarter details, and then we'll cover our 2026 outlook.