Voya Financial, Inc.

Good morning. Welcome to Voya Financial's second quarter 2026 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 your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, press star two. Participants are limited to one question and one follow-up. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to May Nechu, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining our second quarter earnings conference call. We will begin with prepared remarks by Heather Lavallee, our Chief Executive Officer, and Mike Katz, our Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will take your questions. Also joining the call are Jay Kaduson, CEO of Workplace Solutions, and Matt Toms, our CEO of Investment Management. As a reminder, materials for today's call are available on our website at investors.boyer.com. As noted on slide two of our analyst presentation, some of the comments during today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements and refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures within the meaning of federal securities law. Gap reconciliations are available in our press release and financial supplement found in our investor relations website. And now I will turn the call over to Heather. Thank you, Maynee.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Let's turn to slide four. Our businesses performed well in the second quarter. Strong underlying results were affected by lower alternative investment performance and by severance costs we incurred to reduce our expense base. For the quarter, we delivered adjusted operating earnings of $1.51 per share, generated approximately $150 million of excess capital, and returned approximately $200 million to shareholders through repurchases and dividends. As Mike will cover in more detail, fundamental performance trends and the immediate payback from these expense actions gives us a clear line of sight to increase earnings and cash generation in the second half. Our performance this quarter highlighted continued execution of our strategic priorities. We delivered strong commercial results in retirement and investment management. We're stabilizing and growing margins and employee benefits, and we are expanding wealth management capabilities to drive future revenue growth. Turning to our business results, in retirement, we generated over $8 billion of defined contribution net inflows in the quarter, supported by continued high client retention and large plan implementations in government and corporate markets. In government markets, where Voya leads the industry, we've added more than $30 billion in assets and approximately 1 million participants in the past 18 months through organic growth. We're also driving strong full-service growth in key segments with emerging market sales up over 30% year-over-year. We completed the final phase of our One America integration during the quarter, marking the conclusion of a highly successful acquisition and integration effort that has significantly exceeded the financial goals we set. We continue to build momentum in wealth management with year-over-year revenue growth of approximately 12%. Our retirement franchise now exceeds 10 million participant accounts, and wealth management allows us to deepen those participant relationships and serve customers in a more comprehensive way. Our results this quarter demonstrate Voya's leadership position in the retirement market. Our business is delivering consistent flows, high client retention and significant growth in participant accounts. Our presence across markets and expansive distribution footprint provides a durable foundation for sustainable growth.