Great-West Lifeco Inc.

Thank you for standing by. This is the conference operator. Welcome to the Great West LifeCo first quarter 2025 results conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity for analysts to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star, then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Subha Khan, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations at Great West Life Co. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the call to discuss our first quarter financial results. Before we start, Please note that a link to our life webcast and materials for this call have been posted on our website at greatwestlifeco.com under the investor relations tab. Turning to slide two, I'd like to draw your attention to the cautionary language regarding the use of forward-looking statements, which form part of today's remarks. And please refer to the appendix for a note on the use of not IFRS financial measures and important notes on adjustments, terms, and definitions used in this presentation. And turning to slide three, I'd like to introduce today's call participants Joining us on the call today are Paul Mann, our President and CEO, John Nielsen, our Group CFO, David Harney, President and COO, Europe and Capital and Risk Solutions, Fabrice Morin, President and COO, Canada, Ed Murphy, President and CEO, Empower, Linda Kerrigan, Senior Vice President and Appointed Actuary, and Jeff Goulin, Executive Vice President, Reinsurance. We'll begin with prepared remarks followed by Q&A. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Paul.

Thanks, Shubha. Please turn to slide four. Before turning to our results, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge last week's announcement regarding my retirement. This transition comes at a time of strength for both our business and our team. We've sharpened our focus with each of our operating segments, executing clear strategies to drive growth. This has fueled record performance and continues to create lasting value for our shareholders. It also speaks to the strength of our talent and our deliberate succession planning and leadership development. Over time, we've built a deep and capable leadership bench, drawing on talented leaders from across LIFCO and our operating companies who share a deep commitment to our success. I'm very pleased the board has appointed David Harney as our next president and CEO. He is an outstanding leader with more than 35 years of experience across our organizations, beginning at Irish Light. He's held a wide range of roles, most recently as president and chief operating officer for Europe, and for capital and risk solutions. He has also been leading our global investment organization as interim global chief investment officer over the past few months. His business building mindset, strategic vision, and strong track record of execution make him ideally suited to lead LIFEGO going forward. David, congratulations on your appointment, and I look forward to working closely with you to ensure a smooth transition. Please turn to slide five and moving on to our results. Our strategy is playing out as expected and this quarter demonstrates the progress we're making. Apart from the impacts of market volatility and seasonally impacted insurance experience, our businesses delivered strong underlying performance this quarter. Our wealth businesses are driving both strong top line and bottom line growth. Our group retirement and benefits businesses continue to see strong organic growth benefiting from scale and differentiation. and our insurance and risk businesses continue to provide solid diversification and growth opportunities. John will dive deeper into the key drivers behind these results in his section of the presentation. I'm pleased to report that once again we exceeded $1 billion in base earnings this quarter, marking a 5% increase year over year. Base EPS rose 6% to $1.11, and base ROE ROE reached 17.2%, up 20 basis points over the prior year. We continue to earn the trust of millions of customers and advisors. Today, our reach spans more than $3 trillion of total client assets, an increase of 13% over the prior year. Of that, $1 trillion represents assets in advised solutions or under management, further underscoring the strength and scale of our retirement and wealth platforms. Our financial position remains strong, backed by a solid balance sheet, a healthy LICAT ratio, and a comfortable leverage ratio. As we shared at our recent investor day, one of the key strengths of our business is cash and capital generation. Lifesco's cash position has grown to $2.5 billion and is supported by a solid capital base. This gives us the flexibility to deploy capital confidently and in line with our strategic priorities. Please turn to slide six. We've introduced a new way of looking at performance that cuts across our four core businesses, retirement, wealth, group benefits, and insurance and risk solutions. This view brings together results from across geographies, offering a clearer picture of how each of these four businesses contributes to our results. You'll see this reflected on the next two pages, and John will provide additional insights at a country level. Retirement and wealth remain strong growth engines, both delivering double-digit increases in base earnings this quarter. In retirement, our scale and leadership are driving profitable growth, with base earnings up 24% year over year. This is supported by margin expansion, notably at Empower, where operating margins rose nearly 400 basis points to roughly 30%. Nut flows at Empower also improved, indicating continued momentum in this business. Recognizing the connection between health-related benefits and retirement solutions, Empower introduced a new customer-directed healthcare savings offering to help individuals better manage their healthcare finances. This strategic move enhances Empower's value proposition and supports long-term growth by creating financial wellness solutions that meet the evolving needs of their customers. In wealth, we continue to unlock value through strategic extensions and are seeing strong flows across our platforms. In Canada, our independent wealth platform is gaining momentum, marked by a major milestone with the launch of Advice Canada, a leading joint wealth and insurance destination for entrepreneurial advisors. I'm pleased to report our wealth business in Canada delivered an improvement in net inflows of over $300 million year over year. At Empower, we're building on our leadership in retirement as we continue to advance Empower Personal Wealth, with a focus on the underserved mass affluent market segments. This is also driving strong net flows and asset growth. And in Europe, we've remained focused on scaling our Unio wealth business in Ireland to capture organic growth. Strong market conditions contributed to higher fee income and earnings this quarter. Please turn to slide seven. Group benefits and insurance and risk solutions delivered solid performance and continue to be key contributors to LifeGo's growth and diversification. Group benefits-based earnings rose by 4% year over year. In Europe, we saw strong premium growth driven by both in-force business and new sales in Ireland. Canada had strong long-term disability results this quarter and is continuing to improve service for workplace customers. This includes the rollout of the Canada Life Commitment, a service guarantee for group benefits and retirement plan sponsors. Insurance and risk solutions delivered solid results considering the impact of mortality experience. Our disciplined approach to underwriting and pricing continues to support our long-term success in these businesses. In capital and risk solutions, we established a claims provision related to the impacts of the tragic wildfires in California this January. Our thoughts remain with those affected and we're continuing to support impacted clients during this difficult time. Annuity sales moderated this quarter, reflecting the typical seasonality in these businesses. We remain confident in the long-term outlook as demand for secure retirement income solutions continues to grow, particularly in the UK pension risk transfer market, where companies are increasingly looking for ways to manage their pension risk. Please turn to slide eight. Despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, we remain well-positioned for the future, supported by resilient businesses and a strong financial foundation. Our well-diversified portfolio includes businesses operating in mature domestic markets, delivering essential financial services like retirement savings and financial advice. Our retirement and wealth platforms continue to demonstrate both resilience and growth. In the US, for example, a significant portion of Empower's earnings are driven by factors other than equity markets, underscoring the strength and diversification of our business model. Empower continues to expand its offerings and diversify revenue streams by launching new products designed to meet a wider range of customer needs, supporting growth in any market environment. Our strong financial position is the result of years of disciplined risk management and a prudent investment approach. Today, 93% of our non-participating portfolio is in fixed income and 99% is investment grade. This same discipline guides our capital allocation, enabling us to preserve financial flexibility, manage risk, and drive long-term value for our stakeholders and shareholders. Now, before John takes us through the details of the quarter's financial performance, I'd like to invite David Harney to share a few words as he joins us as our new CEO in July.