Reinsurance Group of America Q4 2024 Earnings Report

Reinsurance Group of America EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.99
• Consensus EPS: $5.22
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.23
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Reinsurance Group of America Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: $5.55 billion
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Reinsurance Group of America Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2024
• Date: 2/6/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Friday, February 7, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Reinsurance Group of America (NYSE:RGA) engages in reinsurance business. The company offers individual and group life and health insurance products, such as term life, credit life, universal life, whole life, group life and health, joint and last survivor insurance, critical illness, disability, and longevity products; asset-intensive and financial reinsurance products; and other capital motivated solutions. It also provides reinsurance for mortality, morbidity, lapse, and investment-related risk associated with products; and reinsurance for investment-related risks. In addition, the company develops and markets technology solutions; and provides consulting and outsourcing solutions for the insurance and reinsurance industries. It operates in the United States, Latin America, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri.

Reinsurance Group of America Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello, and welcome to the Reinsurance Group of America's Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call to Jeff Hopson, Head of Investor Relations.

[Operator]

Please go ahead.

[Jeffrey Hopson, SVP - Investor Relations at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thank you. Welcome to RGA's fourth quarter twenty twenty four conference call. I'm joined on the call this morning with Tony Chang, RGA's President and CEO Ekso Andree, 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 to your questions may contain forward looking statements.

[Jeffrey Hopson, SVP - Investor Relations at Reinsurance Group of America]

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 discussion of these terms and reconciliations to GAAP measures. Throughout the call, we will be referencing slides from the earnings presentation, which again is posted on our website.

[Jeffrey Hopson, SVP - Investor Relations at Reinsurance Group of America]

And now I'll turn the call over to Tony for his comments.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Last night, we reported adjusted operating earnings of 4.99 per share. Our adjusted operating return on equity excluding notable items for the past year was 15.4%. The fourth quarter capped off a great year for RGA as we delivered record operating earnings and many other achievements across our organization. In the quarter, our in force transactions were solid at $250,000,000 of capital deployed and this was accompanied by continued strong momentum in organic business activity in all our key markets around the world.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

We once again successfully executed our balance sheet optimization strategy with various in force actions. These actions resulted in not only favorable near term results, continued long term financial benefits, but also simultaneously reduced risk for RGA. Such actions are very much part of our business strategy, although lumpy in their nature. For the full year, we deployed just shy of $1,700,000,000 into transactions, which far exceeded any other year in RJ's history. Moreover, we enter 2025 with a robust pipeline and are excited about our business prospects across the globe.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

This strong and sustainable business momentum is a result of the RJ strategic platform and demonstrated discipline that we exhibit in both risk management and capital deployment. Based upon the strong quarterly and annual results and our confidence in the strong fundamentals of our business, we have increased our intermediate term operating ROE target to 13% to 15%, up from the previous 12% to 14%. In addition, we have raised our targets for earnings run rate and reaffirm our 8% to 10% intermediate term growth target on this higher run rate. Let me now provide further details of some of our new business activities in the quarter focused on our four areas of notable growth. Commencing with our Asia Traditional business, we have previously shared a number of important transactions where we play to our strengths and our ability to reinsure both the asset and biometric sides of the balance sheet.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

This has been predominantly in Hong Kong, which is where we first established our strong product development capabilities. In Q4 twenty twenty four, we extended this strategy with four important transactions in Mainland China that generated a meaningful value uplift. These transactions not only help our clients improve their asset liability management profiles, but also optimize our own ALM profile, providing further diversification for RGA. This is a great example of how our teams are finding creative ways to produce new opportunities to help our clients generate additional value for RGA whilst reducing our risk profile at the same time. In our second area of notable growth, U.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

S. Traditional, the fourth quarter was another good quarter for new business after a very strong Q3 as The U. S. Market is presenting increasingly attractive opportunities that align with RJ's underwriting strength complemented by the increasing use of technology and data. In addition, as previously reported, we closed the transaction with a key global client that included LTC and a block of structured settlements at an attractive risk return trade off.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

The block of LTC represented less than 2% of RJ's total liabilities with a consistent risk profile to our existing LTC in force block that has performed strongly for many years. Our third area of notable growth is the PRT and the longevity market. In The U. S. PRT market, we completed a small transaction this quarter.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

The pipeline remains strong and we are optimistic about our prospects going forward. In The UK, we had a very active quarter to close out a record year as we completed a number of strategic transactions leveraging the strength of our client relationships. This included another large UK Director plan longevity swap where the client valued RGA's execution certainty. With this strong quarter, we surpassed twenty twenty three's new business performance, which was a record year for RGA. Finally, in Canada, we closed our first funded reinsurance PRT transaction, which was done with a strategic partner.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

We have done a few longevity swap reinsurance deals over the years, but this was the first deal where we reinsured risk from both sides of the balance sheet to bring new solutions to the market. Every dollar of longevity risk has the potential to diversify the overall risk of RJ given our substantial mortality business. Just like the earlier examples from China, we can generate profitable business and diversify our risk at the same time. Our final area of notable growth is in our Asia asset intensive business, where we completed a modest number of transactions to cap off a great year. In Japan, we finalized the landmark transaction with one of our key global clients.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

This is a material biometric asset intensive opportunity with an initial reserve of about US200 million dollars This once again demonstrates our ability to reinsure both sides of the balance sheet. As you can see in each example in all four areas of notable growth, we have been successful in winning exclusive transactions in our sweet spot. That is, we are able to combine our strong local market presence, biometric capabilities, asset management platform and ability to reinsure both sides of the balance sheet for key clients around the globe. These are very much examples of what we call creation redeal. These transactions create greater value for RGA and its clients and lead to a virtuous cycle of repeat deals within the same market or in other markets around the vast RGA network.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

This strategy is now fully being executed. This quarter and for the past two years, we are proud to say that the majority of the new business embedded value comes from creation rebuilds. As previously mentioned, in addition to new business, we are able to enhance ROE and earnings through our balance sheet optimization strategy. This quarter, we completed another in force management action, which resulted in a client recapturing several blocks from the nineteen ninety nine-four era, reducing our exposure to this underperforming period. Just like the Chinese new business and the longevity transactions, this is yet another example of where we can create financial value and simultaneously diversify our enterprise risk.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

As I step back and review the full year's results, it was a tremendous year from both a financial and strategic perspective. Record operating EPS of $22.57 per share, up 14% from a strong 2023 record capital deployment into transactions of $1,700,000,000 up 80% from 2023 record balance sheet optimization delivering $2,100,000,000 of long term value. Record new business value up 70% from 2023 driven by Creation REIT deals. To put a finer point on how historic 2024 was in terms of business activity, we completed the first, third and fourth largest transactions in our history. Finally, we were able to deliver this success and business performance at an ROE for 2025 of 15.4%, which is above our intermediate target range.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

I am most proud of many things at RGA, but I'm most proud of the fact that everything we do at RGA is with a disciplined and balanced approach. We are not only about growth and winning new business, but just as much about being disciplined and patient for the right risk return trade off. We are not only focused on The U. S, but also just as focused on Asia and EMEA, which represents over 50% of our earnings. We are not only about biometric risk, but as adept in reinsuring the asset side of the balance sheet.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

We achieve this balance by having an environment for an entrepreneurial spirit to flourish, but also instilling in each of our associates the vital importance of discipline and strong technical expertise. The true heart of the organization is that we are a group of risk managers focused on only one thing, which is life and health risk. By continuing to execute this proven formula for over fifty years, we have substantially grown our book value per share and have been able to raise ROE and earnings targets in each of the past two years. Therefore, no matter how proud I am of what we achieved in 2024, I am fully confident that the best is yet to come. I will now turn it over to our CFO, Andre Axel Andre to discuss the financial results in more detail.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thank you, Tony.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

RGA reported pretax adjusted operating income of $431,000,000 for the quarter or $4.99 per share after tax. For the trailing twelve months, adjusted operating return on equity, excluding notable items, was 15.4%. We delivered solid overall results for the quarter and excellent results for the year. During 2024, we added significantly to the long term value of our business, which adds recurring earnings and we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives. We deployed $250,000,000 into in force transactions in the quarter and nearly $1,700,000,000 for the full year.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Also, our internal measure of new business value added was very strong for the quarter and all time high for the year. Reported premiums were up 1.2% for the quarter relative to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three. However, adjusting for U. S. PRT transactions, which can cause premiums to fluctuate, total premiums were up 11%.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Our traditional business premium growth was 9.5% for the quarter and 8.3% year to date on a constant currency basis. Premiums are a good indicator of the ongoing strength of our traditional business and we continue to have good momentum across our regions. The effective tax rate for the quarter was 22.5% on pretax adjusted operating income, below the expected range, primarily related to the release of valuation allowances in non U. S. Jurisdictions.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Our enforcement actions in The U. S. This quarter again had a favorable impact on results and a positive impact on the future in terms of risk reduction and volatility in earnings. The positive impact in the quarter was approximately $84,000,000 In the quarter, we trued up accruals for incentive compensation to reflect the strong full year financial performance and the very strong new business value for the year. The total true up in the quarter was $42,000,000 across the organization, impacting the business segments, corporate and investment expenses.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Variable investment income was positive, but moderately below our plan. Overall, when adjusting for the non recurring items I just mentioned and the financial impact of the biometric claims experience, which was unfavorable $58,000,000 from an accounting perspective, the quarterly results were in line with our expectations. Moving on to our updated financial targets. As detailed on Slide 20 of our earnings presentation, we have updated our financial targets, which include higher current run rates and increased intermediate term adjusted operating ROE target. There are several favorable dynamics driving the increase since our last update a year ago.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

We have added significant new business at attractive returns, which is expected to materially contribute to future earnings. Additionally, we are seeing the incremental benefits from higher interest rates on new investments and from our continued portfolio repositioning efforts. Lastly, the cumulative impacts of our ongoing balance sheet optimization and other management actions are having a positive impact to run rate earnings. I'll highlight a few segments to provide additional perspective. First, our Asia Traditional and Financial Solutions businesses continue to achieve significant growth at attractive margins.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

We expect the recent success to materially contribute to earnings going forward and believe the recent momentum will continue. Next, the updated U. S. Traditional run rates reflect the positive deal activity, impact from management actions and runoff of lower margin businesses. While it's difficult to predict the timing and size of in force management actions, we expect them to remain a core part of our strategy and contribute favorably to earnings.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Moving to U. S. Financial Solutions, where we have reset our expectations and adjusted the run rate to capture the current interest rate environment. The primary driver of the decline is the runoff in our existing annuity business. While we continue to win our share of new business, particularly in The U.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

S. PRT market, the earnings emergence is a bit slower compared to the runoff. However, we expect contributions from new business to increase as portfolios are repositioned and returns from alternative investments emerge. For EMEA, we expect our traditional segments to benefit from our strategic shift from lower margin short term business to longer term higher margin business. The increase in EMEA Financial Solutions run rates reflects our continued growth and success in the region's longevity market.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Moving on to value of in force. The value of in force the value of our in force business margins as highlighted on Slide 19, the balance increased by $4,600,000,000 or around 14% for the year, driven primarily by new business contributions of $4,800,000,000 with strong contributions from both our traditional and financial solutions businesses. Also, the assumption changes related to the retro recapture contributed $1,500,000,000 and other management actions contributed $600,000,000 These were partially offset by $1,100,000,000 in unfavorable currency impacts towards the end of the year and $1,000,000,000 in expected margin runoff. Excluding the impact of FX, the value increased 17% for the year. Quarter quarter, the value remained relatively flat as new business contributions of $1,000,000,000 and management actions of $100,000,000 were offset by the unfavorable FX impacts I just mentioned.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Deployable capital. As discussed last quarter, we have reevaluated how we view available capital to better account for the multiple frameworks we manage, including regulatory and rating agency requirements. Going forward, we will no longer provide a point in time view of excess capital. Instead, we will disclose our preferred metric of deployable capital, which stands at $1,700,000,000 at the end of the year. This metric represents management's estimate of capital above our targeted level of excess capital available for deployment into transactions or available to return to shareholders over the next twelve months.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

This improved view considers our point in time existing capital position relative to the capital frameworks as a starting point as well as management's estimate of capital generation and consumption over a rolling twelve month period. Examples of capital sources include retained earnings, credit for the value of our in force business and other alternative sources of capital such as Ruby Re and strategic retrocessions. Capital uses include committed capital on flow reinsurance transactions, transactions we have signed but not yet closed, shareholder dividends and other holding company capital uses. We believe the transition from a point in time view to a forward looking approach provides a better view of our capacity to maintain our current levels of capital deployment and ability to fund future business growth. Finally, before turning to the quarterly segment results, I would like to speak to Slide nine.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

This displays the total company claims experience and the related financial statement impact. Biometric experience, which includes mortality, mobility and longevity, was unfavorable by $52,000,000 on an underlying claims experience basis. The corresponding financial impact was $58,000,000 unfavorable. We believe these results are primarily the product of normal volatility and do not indicate any material trends. While claims experience can be volatile, I want to point you towards the year to date figure that shows significant favorable underlying claims experience driven by experience in U.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

S, EMEA and APAC and modestly negative in Canada. The comparable financial impact for the year was a slight negative as favorable performance in uncapped cohorts will get smoothed into the future, while the unfavorable performance in capped and floored cohorts was recognized immediately. These results are consistent with twenty twenty three claims experience where underlying claims experience was favorable, but the financial impact was relatively small. Turning to the quarterly segments results starting on Slide seven. The U.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

S. And Latin America traditional results reflected a favorable in force management action, partially offset by unfavorable group medical claims. For the full year, Individual Life mortality experience was positive on both an economic and financial statement basis. The U. S.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Financial Solutions results were below expectations due to the combined runoff of existing annuity business and the earnings emergence from new transactions. Canada traditional results reflected modestly unfavorable experience due to adverse large claims experience, mostly offset by favorable experience in group business. For the year, underwriting experience was modestly unfavorable on both an economic and financial statement impact. The Financial Solutions results in Canada were in line with expectations. Moving on to EMEA.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

In EMEA, the traditional results reflected modestly unfavorable claims experience, partially offset by higher fee income from a treaty recapture. The underwriting results on an economic basis were close to breakeven, while the financial statement impact reflected negative experience in flawed cohorts. For the full year, the economic underwriting experience was favorable, but the financial impact was negative, again based on LDTI cohorting. EMEA's Financial Solutions results were above expectations, reflecting strong new business, favorable longevity experience and higher investment margins. Turning to our Asia Pacific region.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

The traditional results were below expectations, primarily reflecting adverse high net worth claims on flawed contracts. Overall, underwriting experience was favorable on an economic basis, but the bottom line impact reflected those large claims in flawed cohorts. For the full year, underwriting results on an economic basis was highly favorable. However, only a minimal positive current year impact due to LDTI cohorting. Financial Solutions results were solid in APAC, reflecting favorable overall experience, partially offset by lower variable investment income.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Finally, the Corporate and Other segments reported an adjusted operating loss before tax of $71,000,000 unfavorable compared to the expected quarterly average run rate, primarily due to higher general expenses, including the incentive compensation accruals that I mentioned earlier. Moving to investments on Slides 11 through 14. The non spread portfolio yield for the quarter was 4.83%, down slightly from the last quarter, primarily reflecting higher incentive compensation accrual true ups as well as lower variable investment income, partially offset by the contribution from new money yields exceeding the portfolio yield. If not for the compensation accrual adjustments in the quarter, the earned rate excluding the II would have increased versus the third quarter. For non spread business, our new money rate was 6.04%, which was up from the third quarter and well above the current portfolio yield.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Credit impairments were minimal and we believe the portfolio remains well positioned. Related to capital management, as shown on Slides 15 through 17, our capital and liquidity positions remain strong. And as mentioned earlier, we ended the quarter with deployable capital of approximately $1,700,000,000 We had another good quarter of capital deployed into in force transactions across multiple geographies. Additionally, there was more good news related to Rubire. Following the successful closing of the final capital raise, we completed an additional retrocession of U.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

S. Asset intensive liabilities to Rubiry in the fourth quarter. During the quarter, we continued our long track record of increasing book value per share. As shown on Slide 18, our book value per share excluding AOCI and impacts from B36 embedded derivatives increased to $151.97 which represents a compounded annual growth rate of 9.9% since the beginning of 2021. To summarize, 2024 was a great year for RGA.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

We continue to see very good opportunities across our geographies and business lines and we are well positioned to execute on our strategic plan. With that, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for your continued interest in RGA. This concludes our prepared remarks and we would like to now open the call for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Today's first question comes from Wilma Burtis with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

Hi, good morning.

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

Could you talk

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

about the difference between the economic and financial impacts of the biometric experience? And over what timeframe do you think the $167,000,000 of favorable biometric

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

spend experience from $24,000,000 to close your earnings? Thanks.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Sure. I can get started. And if Jonathan, you have anything to add, please go ahead. Thank you, Wilma, for the question. Yet typically the way we think about it, the economic impact gets amortized ultimately through the accounting results essentially over the life of the business.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

So if you think probably around a fifteen years plus period would be the period of time over which you would amortize that economic claims experience that hasn't yet flown through the accounting results.

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

Okay. And then could you just talk

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

a little bit about some potential run rate improvements as you guys reposition a lot of the assets that you recently acquired in the Financial Solutions business? Thanks. Just on a

[Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial]

quarter to quarter basis would be very helpful. Thanks.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Sure. So for the U. S. Financial Solutions business, as I mentioned, we've got kind of the old annuity business that is running off and then what we're adding in terms of new business, a number of different asset intensive and U. S.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

PRT business. As we take on those transactions, typically, we take on a large portfolio and then we reposition this portfolio over a period of time towards the strategic asset allocation that makes sense for that business. And that can take some time for that to happen, for those assets to be originated and for the full run rate of investment income essentially to be delivered. I think we have messaged in the past that up to twelve to eighteen months is the period of time that it may take to get to that full run rate.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please go ahead.

[Ryan Krueger, Managing Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

Hey, thanks. Good morning. Question on the deployable capital definition. I guess maybe just just as a starting point, I just wanted to confirm that the rating agencies have all signed off on this approach given it's maybe slightly different than what we're used to in that you truly believe that you could deploy all of that $1,700,000,000 and the rating agencies would view that as acceptable for your rating?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Thanks, Ryan, for the question. Yes, so this deployable capital metric does incorporate both the regulatory read the three frameworks, the regulatory capital, rating agency and our internal economic capital framework. From the rating agency component of that, as mentioned in some of the capital sources that we have planned for over the next twelve months are the recognition of the value of in force of our business. We do that based on track record of gaining that recognition from rating agencies, and we only put an amount in there that corresponds to what

[Ryan Krueger, Managing Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

year. I guess you've had very, very significant capital deployed in 2024 into in force deals. I guess just any sense of kind of something a sense of how much you assumed would happen in those run rates? Or I'm just trying to understand kind of if you've already projected a pretty healthy amount of deal activity or if the outlook in the pipeline might suggest upside if those come to fruition?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Sure. So the run rates two things, right? So the run rates reflect number one, the significant new business momentum and in force management actions that we mentioned. So during the course of really last half of 2023 and 2024. So all of those new deals, of course, add to the run rate of earnings.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

In addition to that, the some of the enforced actions that we talked about. So we talked about the virus recapture of treaties, which at time can result in an improvement to the run rate of earnings. We talked about the retro session, the retro recapture, which leads to a significant improvement in the run rate of earnings over a long period of time. So all of those things factor in, that's one. Second, from that point, from that 20 from those run rates, which represents really the 2025 run rate, we have growth of 8% to 10% on top of that.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

That growth comes from assumptions about the volume of new business that we will acquire and essentially we're assuming volumes of new business that are consistent with our recent business momentum.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from John Barnidge with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

[John Barnidge, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. I'd like to spend some time kind of being educated on the value of N Force. Can you talk a bit about how we should think that rolling through to durable earnings power? It's not yet well understood by the market, so love to hear more about that.

[John Barnidge, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Thank you.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Sure. The value of in force fundamentally represents the present value of underwriting margins and investment margins over the life of the business. So it's essentially the present value of those profits. As we mentioned, an example of how so there can be quite a big difference between that present value metric and the actual run rate of earnings. If you recall last quarter when we talked about the retro recapture, we mentioned that, that would increase the value metric by 1,500,000,000 While from a run rate earnings perspective, it would impact 2025 by $20,000,000 ramping up to $40,000,000 by 02/1930 and then ramping up further to $60,000,000 by 02/1940.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

So we see very long duration of earnings, but that business is very long term. So when present valued, it does create a large value. So the I think there's a relatively level of consistency between the amount of capital that we deploy, the amount of value of in force that, that generates, that new business adds on to the balance sheet and then ultimately the earnings that it produces over a long period of time.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Yes, John, just to let me add. I mean, as the question and the answer, obviously, it is a communication of future profit. It's also obviously, future profit is a form of capital. And as Axel mentioned, when we do sort of this, value of in force calculations, our rating agencies do sort of accept and appreciate that to some proportion.

[John Barnidge, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies]

Thank you. And my follow-up question on Pact Capital, you talked about twelve to eighteen months as a period of time, I think to reach full run rate earnings. What's the capacity there? And does that increase your confidence and ability to reposition transactions at that expected pace? Thank you.

[Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thanks. It's Leslie. I don't think we made any comment about PACT of twelve to eighteen months, but more generally, so we have a very broad asset completion platform. It's really a strong variety of both public and private asset types, private asset types we've been building out over twenty years. What we want for RGA is to make sure we have the very best and widest opportunity set.

[Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

So we have always used outside partners as part of that sourcing. One of those that could just be your traditional kind of external manager relationship, but another sleeve of that broad platform is the strategic partnerships. So Pact is one of those and certainly that is a newer company, but with a very well known player in this GP stakes area. So it's another asset type for us. I think it will broaden our network.

[Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

So we're very pleased about that and is one of many things that are helping us continue to scale our asset platform. So we have a very broad variety of private asset typing. And

[Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

there's

[Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

a balance when we say some transactions can take up to eighteen months and that doesn't mean there's tons of things left to reposition at eighteen months. But I think we like to quote the broader range. But certainly we are focused on making sure we can be as timely as possible in getting transactions to their full earnings. So that's something we'll be focused on. Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question is from Wes Carmichael with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

[Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research]

Hey, thanks. Good morning. I just wanted to ask a broader one on capital deployment. And looking forward, I guess. So you obviously did the LTC and structured settlement deal continue to deploy capital at a pretty rapid pace.

[Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research]

But as you look forward, Tony, where do you see maybe the best deployment opportunities for 2025?

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Yes. Thanks, Wes. So the question, look, it really is across the three regions. So Asia, EMEA and The U. S, all three are thriving for different reasons.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

You'll see in The U. S, the activity is very strong. We're probably seeing obviously block transactions that have been increasing over the last five years. We're probably seeing a shift more towards our sweet spot of asset deals with biometric type risks. So that's incredibly positive in terms of an environment.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Asia, both our traditional and financial solutions type businesses are fully thriving. Testimony to our brand there for many, many years over two or three decades now as well as our worldwide capabilities in doing this type of business. And once again, our sweet spot and where we focus in Asia is very much the asset deals that have the biometric. There are a fair amount of asset deals that really don't have much biometric risk. I can't say we're particularly active in that space given the potentially thin margins there.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

And finally, in Europe, it is around obviously the longevity business that's predominantly in The U. K. We have a very strong market share there and it's built based on a phenomenally strong team, the strong relationships and once again the execution certainty. So that's predominantly in The U. K.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

We're starting to see that broaden. Netherlands is somewhere we've done transactions in the past. There's a lot of regulatory change that could be stimulating further opportunities. We're also seeing some what we call Solvency II type solutions around the continent that are quite attractive. So I wish I could pinpoint one region, but it really is across the board that we're seeing a lot of energy and excitement fueling the pipeline.

[Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research]

That's helpful. Thank you. And my follow-up, I guess, was on pension risk transfer. And I think you mentioned this in your prepared remarks as a good growth opportunity. But I wanted to touch on there's been recent lawsuits against plan sponsors that transacted in the market and more recently against one that transacted with you and Prudential.

[Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research]

So can you talk about the potential impacts of litigation on the market maybe longer term and how you're seeing that in the pipeline? Because I guess I imagine at the very least planned sponsors have to think about factoring in potential litigation into pricing, but curious if you have a different

[Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research]

view there.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Sure. Thank you for the question. I appreciate it. Look, even though we weren't named obviously in the lawsuits, we do believe the claims are baseless.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

And just speaking about ourselves, we're obviously incredibly strong home for this type of risk. We're regulated obviously in The U. S. We've got a U. S.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Vehicle, AA- rating, life and health focus and so on and so forth. So to answer your question, we're really not seeing any current evidence of impact on pipeline. It's such a strong compelling case as to why pension funds would derisk in this manner. And to be honest, we won a transaction just a couple of days ago. So it is showing that at least obviously with this news out, it hasn't impacted at least the evidence of that transaction, hasn't impacted our ability to be viewed as a very strong counterparty.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Elyse Greenspan with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

[Elyse Greenspan, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

Hi, thanks. My first question on the 2025, like the earnings guide that you guys provided, what are you assuming for FX? And also, are you assuming any additional in force actions in the guide?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Thank you for the question. So for FX actually, we've assumed basically year end exchange rates. Interestingly, there was a large movement in large strengthening of the dollar essentially in the fourth quarter. So if we were to use beginning of the year, beginning of twenty twenty four FX rates or even beginning of the quarter, the earnings run rate would probably have been higher by about $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 So it does have an impact. And then second, in terms of in force actions, the current run rates incorporate really a very modest level of in force actions, I would say no more than $50,000,000 or so, which means that there's the potential to have more than that.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

But as we've mentioned before, it is in force actions are difficult to predict. They can be lumpy. They can be, again, difficult to predict. If we go back and look at 2023, we had about $75,000,000 in total of in force action 2024, about $250,000,000 But in 2023, most of that action happened in the first quarter and then we had four consecutive quarters with almost $0 impact from in force action. So it kind of gives you a flavor of how predictable and again, lumpy those can be.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Yes. And Alex, maybe if you don't mind, I'd just share a broader strategic view of all of that. I mean, as Axel said, characterize it as lumpy, but it is very much part of our strategy because the users or the real strength of RJ, our technical ability, our partnership mentality, our holistic view, our global platform, all of these have aided historically enough really finding creative solutions for these situations that, and we're pretty patient with it. But ultimately, a lot of times we go through these conversations with our clients and we end up with even further new business, which is sort of a reflection of how they felt we've dealt with the situation.

[Elyse Greenspan, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

Thanks. And then my second question is on deployable capital, I guess a follow-up there, right? You guys have been pretty active over the past year, right? So using capital for transactions, right, and not buying back stock. As you launch this new definition, do you think the deal flow is enough to utilize the deployable capital?

[Elyse Greenspan, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities]

Or would you expect as you think out, it's a twelve month figure that there'll be some level of buyback in 2025?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Yes. The pipeline continues to be very robust, very pleased with that. And so assuming that continues to be the case, we will have used to for all of that deployable capital and therefore would expect to be minimal in terms of amount of share buyback for the foreseeable future.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Jimmy Bhullar with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Jimmy Bhullar, Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

First, just a question for Tony. If we look at your biometric experience, it's been generally favorable fairly consistently over the past several quarters. Do you think that's just normal sort of aberration and volatility and mortality, morbidity that's going in the right direction? Or are there any sort of underlying dynamics that might be driving the consistently favorable experience?

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Yes. Thanks, Jimmy, for that question. And Jonathan, please add on top afterwards. But look, my view as you rightly pointed out, over one, two year period, you get a better look at experience versus a quarter to quarter, which we all know will fluctuate. Even one to two years is still a relatively short period of time to look at experience.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Is there any fundamental changes underlying? And look, we've always viewed mortality and biometric risk is a very long term proposition. In the last two years, could it be some pull forward from COVID? We don't it can't be the other direction. It's hard to put a number on that, but it definitely it would be a favorable impact, one would think.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

But Jonathan, please share further views and maybe some of the long term drivers that we're more focused on.

[Jonathan Porter, EVP & Global Chief Risk Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

Yes, sure, Tony. Happy to. I would point to, I guess, population experience and what we're seeing. So kind of post COVID results, we are continuing to see declines in the trends of the excess mortality in the general population. So for example, in The U.

[Jonathan Porter, EVP & Global Chief Risk Officer at Reinsurance Group of America]

S, in 2024, we're estimating excess mortality relative to pre pandemic was just over one percent and that was down from about three point five percent in 2023. So I'd say those trends are generally favorable. They vary a bit from country to country, but that gives you a sense of some of the tailwinds we're seeing from a mortality perspective. And then as Tony mentioned, we are looking at continuing technological and medical improvements. I mean, the one we've talked about at Investor Day and on prior calls relates to anti obesity medication, still examining clinical data and output and looking at those results, but we generally remain optimistic that that will be a tailwind for us over the longer term horizon as well.

[Jimmy Bhullar, Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Okay. And then just on growth potential, there's a lot of sort of debate over the deal pipeline and supply demand and competition. But just wondering if you could talk about your appetite for long term care. You did do one deal and that's one of the markets where there's arguably a lot more supply of potential business than there's been demand in the past. But what's your interest in LTC either as a stand alone risk or packaged with other types of business?

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thank you for the question, Jimmy. Look, firstly, I don't want to put strict criteria, but historically what we've done and you can see in the transaction we just completed, look, we're very focused on it being in line with our current in force blocker business, which has performed historically very well, I think now for over a decade. It's business that we were very patient. In the long term care market historically, we did not enter until the characteristics of those newer vintages arose and we thought, okay, this is something we feel comfortable pricing and managing that risk. So first and foremost, look, we're looking at is it in line with what we've done, we've got the experience, doesn't mean we wouldn't consider other things, but that is obviously something that we're comfortable with.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Secondly, it has to be a strategic transaction, right? And as you've seen in most of the transactions, if not all have been in conjunction with other blocks of business, Obviously, in this case, it was also with a structured settlement block, but with a very important strategic client. So we obviously contemplate risk return trade off of a transaction, but also the strategic impact. Thirdly, I would say we would be looking no bigger than modest sized blocks of business. We've got, as you can see, plenty of opportunities around the world.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

This is a risk that does to some extent diversify our balance sheet even though it is a small risk that we have relatively speaking. But we wouldn't we would at this point be looking only at modest sized blocks of business as we have done historically.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Gallagher with Evercore. Please go ahead.

[Thomas Gallagher, Analyst at Evercore]

Good morning. Wanted to come back to a question Ryan asked just on the $1,070,000,000 of capital deployed in 2024. Do the updated run rate ranges in your guide assume that you deploy $1,700,000,000 again in 2025? Or if not, what is that number? Because that I think that's a huge swing factor in terms of what are you trying to convey in these run rates?

[Thomas Gallagher, Analyst at Evercore]

Thanks.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Sure. Thanks for the question. Yes, I think in order to get to those growth rates, so from 2025 onwards, a level of capital deployment of call it about $1,500,000,000 maybe up to $2,000,000,000 would be the amount that delivers those growth rates. So given the pipeline, given our track record of 2024 and the ability to accelerate relative to 2023, we feel pretty good about those odds.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

And Tom, maybe if I could add. Obviously, the volume of capital is an important determinant. The reason we spend so much time sharing about the strategic platform, the position we feel the strong position we feel we're in is obviously the return on the capital we deploy in these transactions. And we're so focused on creating win wins with our client because then obviously creates greater value for the two parties to share. So that's the drive towards the creation retype business.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

As I mentioned in my comments, that has for the last two years now exceeded over the majority. So over 50% of our total value creation is coming from this line of business. It's very much the culture we're driving and we're very pleased with the success of executing that strategy.

[Thomas Gallagher, Analyst at Evercore]

Got you. That's helpful color. And then my follow-up is just the big reduction in U. S. Financial Solutions.

[Thomas Gallagher, Analyst at Evercore]

I heard the commentary there about the runoff of some, I guess, profitable annuity business. And then it sounds like there's a bit of a timing disconnect here where you had old profitable business that ran off, you put a lot of PRT in other business that has not yet fully earned in. And so if that's the right way to think about this, are you still only going to grow that segment 4% to 7%? Or will we have a bigger ramp up than that four percent to 7% implies?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Yes. So thanks for the question. Yes. So that's right. So the if you think of the makeup of that block of that segment, U.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

S. Financial Solutions in the past, old annuity blocks, this kind of how we've built that partly how we've built that asset intensive business over the years and it's kind of switched as we entered The U. S. PRT market into more of a PRT focus. Those pure annuity deals are obviously heavily competed and they don't include a lot of biometric risk, so they're not necessarily such a great strategic fit going forward in terms of replacing that business that's running off.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

So that's one dynamic. And then the other dynamic, which you pointed out is that with the PRT blocks, we are taking in a portfolio of assets as well and we are repositioning that. It takes a bit of time to get that repositioning done and flowing. And so that's also the reason why we took that run rate down. From this point onwards, we feel very confident about the ability to hit those run rates and those growth rates given our pipeline and given the types of business that we're adding in.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Alex Scott with Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Alex Scott, Insurance Research Analyst at Barclays]

Hey, good morning. I had a follow-up to Tom's follow-up on Ryan's question. So when you talk about your run rate is assumed deployment of call it between 1,500,000,000 and $2,000,000,000 does that assume drawing down some of that $1,700,000,000 of deployable capital? And the reason I ask, I think you guys have earned call it plus or minus $1,500,000,000 So if it's in excess of that what you're assuming then it assumes some drawdown to that. And I just as we analyze that deployable capital and think about accretion associated with this deployment, I just want to make sure I'm not sort of giving double credit or something.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Yes, sure. Yes, thank you for the question. So yes, so how do we fund that pipeline? So yes, so starting from deployable capital, so excess capital and the expectation over the next twelve months of the net of the capital generation versus the capital consumption. That's the first place we go to as we evaluate given our pipeline, how we're going to fund those deals.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

We also I want to remind that as part of that deployable capital metric, we are taking into account third party capital that we have access to, so such as the amount of capital that's left to be deployed from Rubi Re. I think I mentioned from the rating agency capital component of that framework, the embedded value securitization that we can put into that source of available capital. And then lastly, as part of the other tools in the toolkit, of course, we have traditional debt public market debt, senior hybrids as well, of course, as public equity. We consider all of those tools as part of our toolkits and make decisions based on their relative pros and cons and facts and circumstances.

[Alex Scott, Insurance Research Analyst at Barclays]

Got it. That's really helpful. Second question I have for you is on just this 1,700,000,000 and as you think about deploying it and you look at these deals, I mean, it seems like your capital model gives more credit for diversification now. So to the extent you're looking at longevity based deals, would that sort of significantly change at all the amount of required capital that goes into those deals? I mean, we sort of have our rules of thumb that we think of like 5%, six %, seven % of liabilities and assets in terms of like the capital that's got to go behind these deals.

[Alex Scott, Insurance Research Analyst at Barclays]

But could that amount actually be lower just based on this model, maybe diversification benefit and being overweight mortality risk?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Yes. Thanks for the question. So we still obviously very much more long mortality than we are longevity. So there's plenty of runway to go in terms of benefiting from that diversification benefit. The diversification is really best recognized through our internal economic capital framework.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

Rating agency models or regulatory models will have typically different views, sometimes no recognition of diversification. But our approach to that is consistent. It's been consistent for a while. And so I would not it's not a change of approach. This is the continuation of what we've done.

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

It's just a refinement of the metric, the deployable metric, as I mentioned, to really reflect not only where are we today point in time, but given the what we can see, what we can forecast over the next twelve months, how much capacity do we have to sustain that business momentum.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Suneet Kamath with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Suneet Kamath, Senior Research Analyst at Jefferies & Company Inc]

Hey, thanks. Good morning. I wanted to come back to the deployable capital just so I can understand this a little bit better. So I was hoping to try to bridge to the $700,000,000 of excess capital that you gave us last quarter. And so is the right way to think about it, you had the $700,000,000 you deployed $250,000,000 I guess in this quarter, so that would get you down to $450,000,000 and then the difference between the $450,000,000 and the $1,700,000 is sort of the capital that you expect you'll generate plus the flexibility in these securitizations and Ruby Re and all the rest of that stuff.

[Suneet Kamath, Senior Research Analyst at Jefferies & Company Inc]

Is that the right way to think about it?

[Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company]

At a high level, yes. That's a decent way of thinking about it. The starting excess capital metric, though, as I mentioned last quarter, reflected a was relatively conservative in that it didn't necessarily reflect the value of the in force that we already get recognition from the rating agencies on. But yes, conceptually, you're correct. That's how we think about it.

[Suneet Kamath, Senior Research Analyst at Jefferies & Company Inc]

Okay. And then as we just think about the deployment opportunities, I mean, one of them that a lot of folks have talked about is the ESR change in Japan and just how that's going to create this sort of windfall of deals. Just curious, like where are we in that opportunity? Is it happening now or is it over the next year or so? Are we thinking about maybe even longer than that?

[Suneet Kamath, Senior Research Analyst at Jefferies & Company Inc]

Just want to get a sense of how big a deployment opportunity that is for you? Thanks.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thanks, Suneet. Look, I think we're still in the early innings for a couple of reasons. And look, is it happening now? Well, definitely for us it's happening and it's been a very thriving area of business for us, particularly the area of where mortality sorry, where biometric risk overlaps with asset risk, our sweet spot. But for a couple of reasons, it is still relatively early because obviously as one as increasingly a player does these types of transactions than others follow.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

So we're that's been happening probably for the last five years, but people continue to follow. And secondly, when someone starts doing this, they don't do it all in one go. They do it in tranches over, gosh, it could be ten, fifteen years. They just do it's a bit like dollar cost averaging. They just do tranche by tranche by tranche.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

So I think we did our first tranche of a client, I think, probably now about eight years ago and they continue to launch tranches every year. So given those factors, I'd still say it's relatively early in the situation.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Tony Cheng for closing remarks.

[Tony Cheng, President & CEO at Reinsurance Group of America]

Thank you all for your questions and your continued strong interest in RGA. This was a good quarter and a phenomenally great year, further demonstrating our continued momentum and substantial earnings power. Thank you very much. This concludes our fourth quarter call.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Executives

• Jeffrey Hopson, SVP - Investor Relations
• Tony Cheng, President & CEO
• Leslie Barbi, Executive VP & Chief Investment Officer
• Jonathan Porter, EVP & Global Chief Risk Officer

Analysts

• Axel Andre, Executive VP & CFO at American Equity Investment Life Company
• Wilma Burdis, Director at Raymond James Financial
• Ryan Krueger, Managing Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)
• John Barnidge, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies
• Wes Carmichael, Senior Analyst at Autonomous Research
• Elyse Greenspan, Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities
• Jimmy Bhullar, Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan
• Thomas Gallagher, Analyst at Evercore
• Alex Scott, Insurance Research Analyst at Barclays
• Suneet Kamath, Senior Research Analyst at Jefferies & Company Inc