Assurant Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Assurant EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $3.39
• Consensus EPS: $2.78
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.61
• One Year Ago EPS: $4.78

Assurant Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $3.07 billion
• Expected Revenue: $3.06 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$9.01 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +6.70%

Assurant Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 5/6/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ), together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services. The Global Housing segment provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing, and flood insurance; renters insurance and related products; and voluntary manufactured housing, and condominium and homeowners insurance products. The company was formerly known as Fortis, Inc. and changed its name to Assurant, Inc. in February 2004. Assurant, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Assurant Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Assurant delivered a strong first quarter with 14% growth in adjusted EBITDA and 16% growth in adjusted EPS (both excluding catastrophes), and the company remains on track for its ninth consecutive year of earnings growth.
• In Global Lifestyle, Assurant deepened partnerships with every major US mobile operator—most recently launching Total Wireless Protect with Verizon—while investing in automation, robotics and AI at its device care centers and improving loss experience in its Global Automotive segment with new products like Vehicle Care Technology Plus.
• In Global Housing, first-quarter homeowners revenues grew 17% driven by 70,000 new lender-placed policies, and Assurant achieved a 90% combined ratio despite elevated catastrophe losses, while renters premium grew double digits through its Cover360 platform and a 250,000-policy book acquisition.
• Assurant’s 2025 catastrophe reinsurance program features a $160 million retention and nearly $1.8 billion in excess coverage, resulting in an expected $300 million full-year catastrophe load, and the company maintains among the lowest loss volatility and a ten-year average combined ratio of 89% versus 95% for the broader market.
• The company ended the quarter with over $500 million of holding-company liquidity, returned more than $100 million to shareholders via dividends and buybacks, and reaffirmed its 2025 outlook for modest growth in adjusted EBITDA and EPS (excluding catastrophes) while factoring in the impacts of tariffs and continued capital discipline.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to Assurant's first quarter twenty twenty five conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following management's prepared remarks. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press 9 to raise your hand and star six to unmute. We ask that you please pick up your handset to allow optimal sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Sean Moggier, Vice President of Investor Relations.

[Operator]

You may begin. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone. We look forward to discussing our first quarter results with you today. Joining me for Assurant's conference call are Keith Demings, our President and Chief Executive Officer and Keith Meyer, our Chief Financial Officer.

[Sean Moshier, Vice President, Investor Relations at Assurant]

Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued an earnings release announcing our results for the first quarter twenty twenty five. The release and corresponding financial supplement are available on assurant.com. Also on our website is a slide presentation for our webcast participants. Some of the statements made today are forward looking. Forward looking statements are based upon our historical performance and current expectations and subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.

[Sean Moshier, Vice President, Investor Relations at Assurant]

Additional information regarding these factors can be found in the earnings release, presentation and financial supplement on our website as well as in our SEC reports. During today's call, we will refer to non GAAP financial measures, which we believe are important in analyzing the company's performance. For more details on these measures, the most comparable GAAP measures and a reconciliation of the two, please refer to the earnings release, presentation and financial supplement on our website. We'll start today's call with remarks before moving into Q and A. I will now turn the call over to Keith Demings.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Thanks, Sean, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to share that 2025 is off to a strong start. For the first quarter, we continue to demonstrate momentum, delivering 14% growth in adjusted EBITDA and 16% growth in adjusted earnings per share, both excluding reportable catastrophes. This quarter's performance highlights the position of strength from which we continue to operate and is supported by our diversified global operating model where we have market leading businesses across global housing and global lifestyle that are underpinned by our robust capital position. We have a proven track record of delivering through various economic cycles over the long term, and we remain well positioned to achieve our ninth consecutive year of earnings growth.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Our differentiated business to business to consumer distribution strategy attractive markets is reinforced by our world class workforce that enables us to win, build, and scale transparent partnerships with many of the world's leading brands. And our ability to deliver exceptional customer experiences through customized data driven solutions and comprehensive wraparound services reinforces the strength of Assurant's long term fundamentals. Last quarter, we outlined our 2025 priorities, and I'm incredibly proud of our team's progress to date. We're executing, optimizing, and scaling significant partnerships across lifestyle and housing through the foundational investments we made in new programs and clients in 2024. We've continued to make high value incremental investments to support new program launches in our pipeline and accelerate emerging growth opportunities.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

And we remain focused on achieving our 2025 outlook by driving operational excellence and financial performance. Next, I wanna share a few segment highlights that support our attractive position. Starting with global lifestyle, we're laser focused on achieving our growth objectives across Connected Living and Global Automotive. In Connected Living, we continuously enhance the customer and client experience by investing in innovative products and services while providing differentiated value to our clients with integrity and transparency. This has allowed us to build relationships with every major US mobile operator along with many global leaders in the telecom industry.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

As mobile and cable operators continue to innovate and compete in the wireless space, Assurance strengthened partnerships, enhance our market position and support long term growth. Our approach continues to generate momentum and through key investments in leading edge technology, including automation, robotics and AI at our device care centers, we anticipate meaningful opportunities to offer additional value added services to our key mobile clients in the near future. During the first quarter, we continue to build on our track record of deepening relationships with key clients, reinforcing our position as a preferred partner. Recently, we partnered with Verizon to launch a new mobile device protection plan from Total Wireless, Verizon's fast growing no contract wireless provider. The program, Total Wireless Protect, will allow new and existing customers affordable replacement and repair against accidents and mechanical breakdowns, supported by our more than 900 Assurant authorized repair centers nationwide.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

This provides an opportunity to continue building deeper relationships with another US mobile carrier. In global automotive, earnings remain stable, supported by a year over year improvement in loss experience. Our leadership team is quickly making progress to enable further success, including a unified, consistent branding approach in our go to market strategy, allowing us to better leverage our scale as a market leader. This has contributed to new wins within our US and international distribution channels with runway to gain additional share with large national dealers. And we're launching several new products within Global Auto this year.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We recently launched Assurant Vehicle Care Technology Plus, which provides coverage for high-tech vehicle components, wear and tear items, and smartphone repairs. Moving to housing. Shifts in the voluntary insurance market throughout The US have increased demand for lender placed insurance products within homeowners. Our product helps lenders, investors, and homeowners remove the risk of uninsured loss. Through the exceptional efforts of our claims team, we remain committed to supporting our policyholders when they need us most.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We're proud to be honored by the American Red Cross as a 2025 disaster relief hero, recognizing our support for those impacted by 2024 storms, including Hurricanes Helene and Milton and the wildfires in California. As we look at results, our strong performance continued in the first quarter, driven by 17% top line growth within homeowners, primarily due to the addition of 70,000 lender placed policies. We've achieved significant expense leverage, resulting in a compelling combined ratio. Even with elevated cats in the first quarter, we delivered a combined ratio of 90%. For 2025, we're on track to deliver a combined ratio around the mid eighties, including our full year cat assumption of $300,000,000 We continue to extend the tenure of our client base, renewing two lender placed clients in the first quarter, and we see meaningful opportunity to expand with new clients by leveraging our existing infrastructure.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

In renters, we're executing our strategy to scale our technology enabled services and recently added a new renter's book with over 250,000 policies. Our Cover three sixty platform continues to support double digit written premium growth in our property management company or PMC channel, demonstrating our competitive edge in a distribution channel with further growth potential. The strength of our combined lifestyle and housing businesses has enabled us to grow significantly. Over the last five years, we've delivered a compound annual adjusted EPS growth rate of 18% and a 12% adjusted EBITDA growth rate, both excluding cats. Since we successfully placed our twenty twenty five cat reinsurance program in April, which Keith Meyer will cover, I wanna take a moment to highlight how Assurant compares to certain large cat exposed P and C peers.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

When we look over the past six years, Assurant ranks among the lowest in terms of cat exposure as a percentage of net earned premiums and as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Since 2019, we had the lowest average cat losses as a percentage of net earned premiums as well as the third lowest as a percentage of shareholders' equity. Equally compelling, our volatility across both metrics is among the lowest in the group. Over the last ten years, our increased scale and efficiency within housing has driven a ten year average combined ratio of 89% compared to the broader P and C market of 95%. This data illustrates the power of Assurant's unique and advantaged business portfolio as global lifestyle and global housing have delivered strong growth and returns with lower volatility.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Given our demonstrated resilience over time through various economic environments, balanced risk management, and compelling growth path ahead, it's our belief that we should be valued at a premium to the S and P composite 1,500 P and C index median. Our strategy is centered around our powerful b to b to c distribution model across lifestyle and housing, which bolsters our competitive advantage and financial performance. In the attractive markets where we operate, we see expanding opportunities to continue profitable growth through the scale and efficiency of our service delivery networks. We expect to continue extending our track record of winning new clients and solidifying relationships across the enterprise. Our business model has created diversified sources of earnings and capital while generating strong returns, cash flow, and growth.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Looking toward the future, we believe there are expanding growth opportunities, including increasing investments in our core markets, continue to expand offerings with existing clients and winning new global partnerships, and entering attractive adjacent sectors through new product launches. Before handing it over to Keith, I wanna spend a moment on the evolving economic landscape and Assurant's position. 2024 marked an exceptional year of outperformance, representing our eighth consecutive year of earnings growth. Given the strong start to the year and the strength of our businesses, we remain on track to deliver our ninth consecutive year of profitable growth in 2025, reaffirming our enterprise outlook. We are closely monitoring the impact of macroeconomic conditions and tariff policies on our claims cost and consumer demand.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We are also taking action to remain well positioned and stay ahead of future developments. While there remains significant uncertainty, our outlook considers the impact of tariffs. The differentiated features of our business model positions us to navigate the dynamic macroeconomic environment. In lifestyle, our alignment of financial interests with our partners enables us to work side by side to help mitigate risk. This includes client risk sharing contracts that allow us to manage financial exposure through Connected Living and Global Auto.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Our partnerships with leading brands provides us access to diverse supply chains across the world as our clients partner with us to optimize claims costs. Within housing, our inflation guard product feature includes quarterly state by state rate adjustments and will allow us to react quickly to higher materials cost in our lender placed business. In addition, lender placed may also serve as a countercyclical hedge in the event of a broader market downturn, differentiating us from other P and C companies. Overall, the attributes that unify our lifestyle and housing segments also position Assurant to deliver shareholder value over time through growth and disciplined capital management. I'll now turn it over to Keith Meyer.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Thanks, Keith, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin by sharing some key highlights we saw in the first quarter. '20 '20 '5 is off to a strong start with double digit growth across our primary performance metrics. Achieving mid teens growth for adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share, both excluding catastrophes. Our first quarter performance was driven by double digit earnings growth in Global Housing, led by our lender placed business.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Within Global Lifestyle, we were pleased to see improved loss experience within Global Automotive as well as solid contributions from our card benefits business in Connected Living. Looking at capital, our holding company liquidity position remained solid at over $500,000,000 at quarter end. Our cash generation allowed us to return over $100,000,000 of cash to our shareholders, including $62,000,000 of share repurchases. Through May 2, we've repurchased an additional $25,000,000 of shares. As we look ahead to the remainder of 2025, we continue to expect our buybacks will remain more balanced throughout the year due to the ability of our businesses to generate significant cash flow.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Our ultimate level of repurchases will depend on M and A opportunities and other market conditions. Turning to our segment results, Let's begin with Global Lifestyle. First quarter adjusted EBITDA was down 5% compared to last year and included a $6,000,000 impact from unfavorable foreign exchange. As a reminder, first quarter of twenty twenty four included a $7,000,000 onetime client contract benefit that was previously disclosed. Excluding this benefit, Global Lifestyle's underlying adjusted EBITDA was up modestly on a constant currency basis.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

In Connected Living, earnings declined 6%. Excluding the one time benefit from the prior year, Connected Living EBITDA also increased modestly on a constant currency basis. Results benefited from a newly launched card benefits program within the financial services business, where we continue to be encouraged by the growth of a new client. The increase was partially offset by lower results in domestic mobile from device protection and trade in programs. First quarter results also included approximately $3,000,000 of incremental investments related to new capabilities and client partnerships, including Verizon's total wireless prepaid protection program.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Turning to Global Auto. Adjusted EBITDA was stable as lower investment income, mainly from lower real estate joint venture income and unfavorable foreign exchange, was offset by improved loss experience. We were pleased to see improved loss experience both year over year and sequentially as program changes and rate increases continue to earn through our book. In terms of revenue, our net earned premiums, fees, and other income for Global Lifestyle grew 5% or 7% on a constant currency basis, led by Connected Living. Moving to Global Housing.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

First quarter adjusted EBITDA was $112,000,000 which included $157,000,000 of cat losses. Impacts from the California wildfires were $125,000,000 which includes estimated recoveries from subrogation. We saw another quarter of strong double digit growth as adjusted EBITDA increased 31% to $269,000,000 excluding CATs. Our homeowners business continued to benefit from significant policy growth from higher placement rates, including impacts from voluntary insurance market pressure. Non catastrophe loss experience was also favorable year over year due to lower claims frequency.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Looking at housing reserves. In the first quarter, favorable prior year reserve development was $26,000,000 which is modestly higher than the $22,000,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty four. Within our renters business, we continue to benefit from results in our PMC channel, which achieved its eleventh consecutive quarter of double digit written premium growth. Moving to catastrophe reinsurance. We are very pleased with the outcome of our 2025 program placement, which was finalized on April 1.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

We increased coverage at more attractive terms while maintaining a one in five year probable maximum loss or PML for our per event retention level, which is now $160,000,000 This is slightly above the $150,000,000 program retention in 2024 due to growth in the business but maintains the same PML. Our main US program provides nearly $1,800,000,000 in loss coverage in excess of our retention, protecting Assurant and its policyholders against severe events or up to a one in two sixty five year PML. We continue to partner with a diversified group of over 40 highly rated reinsurers. In terms of cost, our 2025 catastrophe reinsurance premiums are estimated to be approximately $225,000,000 compared to a normalized view of $2.00 $3,000,000 in 2024, which adjusts for the timing impact of our program placement change in the first quarter of last year. The increase in costs reflects the growth of the business, partially offset by lower rates, where we believe we priced on the lower end compared to the broader market.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

With the placement of our 2025 program, our expected annual catastrophe load is now $175,000,000 excluding the California wildfires. Including the wildfire impacts in the first quarter, our expected full year 2025 catastrophe load is $300,000,000 Moving to our outlook for 2025. I want to reinforce that we continue to operate from a position of strength across the company. As we've demonstrated in previous macro cycles, strong cash flow is one of the hallmarks of our company. The ongoing cash generation from our businesses is supported by our large base of customers across our diverse lifestyle and housing segments.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Our balance sheet is in a strong position. Our over $10,000,000,000 investment portfolio is well diversified across industries, and 93% of our fixed income assets are investment grade. And from a growth perspective, despite macro uncertainty, we continue to prioritize targeted investing across our businesses as we look to scale and win across the globe. Turning to our enterprise outlook, we remain on track to deliver on the objectives we outlined at the start of the year, to grow adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS modestly in 2025, both excluding CATS. Keep in mind that the outlook includes growing off of a very strong 2024, including favorable prior year reserve development of $107,000,000 last year.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Given our first quarter results and the resiliency of our business model over the long term, we are well positioned to navigate the dynamic environment. We have considered the impacts of tariffs within our outlook and continue to monitor macroeconomic conditions, including inflation, foreign exchange, and interest rate levels, which may impact the pace and timing of growth. In lifestyle, growth in connected living and global automotive is expected to be partially offset by unfavorable foreign exchange as well as investments in new partnerships and programs in 2025. Combined, we continue to expect foreign exchange and incremental investments to mute lifestyle growth by a few percentage points. Turning to housing.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

We are increasing our outlook and now expect growth, reflecting our first quarter results as well as the expected continuation of lender placed policy growth in our homeowners business. Our capital objectives for 2025 remain consistent as we focus on maintaining balance and flexibility to support new business growth while returning excess capital to shareholders. From a share repurchase perspective, our expected range for 2025 continues to be between $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 subject to M and A as well as market and other conditions. Overall, we are off to a great start in 2025 as we continue to drive long term shareholder value. And with that, operator, please open the call for questions.

[Operator]

Is now open for questions. At this time, if you have a question or comment, please press 9 to raise your hand and 6 to unmute. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Jeff Schmidt with William Blair.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Morning, Jeff.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Hi, Jeff. Hey, Jeff. Are you there?

[Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C]

Hi. Sorry about that. Can you hear me?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. Yeah. We got you, Jeff. Good morning.

[Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C]

Alright. Good. So in Global Lifestyle, the loss ratio is still kind of relatively high versus historical levels. You know, I know you've taken a lot of actions there, in Global Auto just in terms of rate increases, process changes, things like that. But could you maybe give us an update on when you expect to see improvement there?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. And are you speaking specifically to auto, or are you talking more broadly to lifestyle overall?

[Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C]

Well,

[Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C]

yeah, I guess lifestyle overall, but I guess global auto may may drive that down.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. Maybe let me let me provide a few thoughts overall, and then and then Keith can talk a little bit about the progress in auto. We're obviously pleased with with how that business continues to perform. But, you know, when I look at lifestyle in the quarter, you know, came in very much in line with our expectations overall. If you look at Connected Living, you know, there's a couple of adjustments that I would suggest you make relative to the results.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We had, actually grown on a, constant currency sort of normalized basis in the quarter. We had a 7,000,000 onetime client adjustment last year in the first quarter, and then we had about 4,000,000 of foreign exchange. So if I look at connected living, normalized, we're up about $3,000,000 in the quarter. We actually had some benefit, and this will be a question we'll get today at some point. We had about $5,000,000 of EBITDA benefit in the quarter relative to the new programs that we talked about launching last year.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

So I'd say we're on track with our one year payback timeline that we expected. A little bit softer results around trading in the quarter, but nothing unexpected. So we're generally pleased with the long term opportunity around connected living, and certainly, we've got a lot of client momentum, which we'll talk about. And then auto, we've certainly seen continued stability in the performance, and maybe Keith can provide a couple highlights just on loss performance and development relative to those rate increases.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. So, Jeff, in terms of auto, you know, I think we've continued to see the results stabilizing. You know, this is two quarters in a row of increased EBITDA for for that business. We've seen our loss experience in the VSC side of the business improving quarter over quarter, and we've also seen our gap experience level off now as well. So I think, overall, you know, that provides some encouraging trends in terms of how we see the year playing out.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

And then I think that also is what enables us to reinforce our outlook for growth for our auto business as we think about the full year ahead. So overall, pleased with the progress that's taking place so far.

[Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C]

Okay. Great. And then in Connected Living, could you give us an update on the size and cadence of higher investments for, I guess, new partnerships, program launches, things like that? And when do you expect that to kind of roll off this year?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. So, you know, we talked about the the 25,000,000 that we invested in 2024. And if you'll remember, we said about 15,000,000 was relative to new client launches, and then 10,000,000 was related to investments in our device care centers. And that would yield a a full one year payback this year embedded in our results and our outlook. As I think about the '25 investments, we had about $3,000,000 of incremental invest in the first quarter.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

And I would say we're still in that, you know, zone of a similar amount relative to the client launches. So last year was 15. It's probably in that order of magnitude for the full year. We'll see how things progress. And, again, very excited about being able to announce what that all relates to as we get further through the year.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

You saw, you know, in our prepared remarks, launching a relationship with, with Total Wireless by Verizon. We're obviously incredibly proud and excited about the opportunity, to become a device protection partner with such an important client. And there'll be more things we'll talk about as the year goes on, and I think we're still on track for that type of investment level this year.

[Operator]

Our

[Operator]

next question is coming from John Barnidge with Piper Sandler.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Hey, John. Good morning.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Good morning, John.

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

Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. Hope you're both well. My first question is about tariffs. I believe 25 guidance now assumes impact from tariffs.

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

What range of impacts are you assuming? And how do you view the new versus used car dynamic playing out within that?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yes. So maybe I'll provide a few high level thoughts around context. Keith can talk about, you know, where we see we we mentioned we'll see some impact certainly in auto and housing around parts and material. He can walk through our thoughts on, you know, how to think about the impact. We're not gonna size a specific dollar amount, but we will give you a sense of how we think about it.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

The first thing I would just say is, obviously, there's still a lot of uncertainty when it comes to the scope and the timing of tariffs, and it will no doubt evolve and change over time throughout the year. We tried to take a really pragmatic approach and worked with really the most current information we had available. We went ahead and assumed tariffs would remain in place throughout the entirety of 2025. And at the end of the day, when we looked at the underlying performance in the business, a really, really strong first quarter, we believe tariffs will be manageable this year and we'll deliver the original guidance that we had laid out. But maybe Keith, just a little bit of color.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We talked about auto and housing having greater impact. How do we think about that flowing through the claims cost?

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. And I think as we think about any potential impact, I think it probably is more in line with higher claims cost potentially in our auto and in our housing business. And and the way we have approached that is, you know, in our housing business we've have a history of navigating potential inflationary aspects, and I think one of the key drivers of our the rigor that we've developed through that process is having our ability to utilize our our inflation guard features. And so I I think us being able to now adjust our rates based on inflation every quarter and by state, whereas a couple years ago it used to be, you know, once a year across the across the board. So overall, I think we're in a good position to navigate those types of impacts in housing.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

And then when it comes to auto, you know, think you have to kind of frame it up in terms of the actual impact to our claims. So, you know, probably about two thirds of our business is more risk shared with with our clients and reinsurance arrangements and so forth. So you're already at a third of our business at that point. And then of that third, you know, basically you could think about claims as being half parts and half labor. So now you're down into the, you know, mid to high teens percentage of our business that could be affected.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

And then even of those parts, you know, probably half or so is imported. And so now you're talking, you know, single digit kind of impacts on our claims. And so with all the work we're doing with our clients on an ongoing basis just because of the inflationary aspects of the business from the last few years with and we've been putting in 18 rate increases and also working on program designs, I think we're in a good position to navigate impacts in auto as well. So overall, I think we're in a good position to manage through that, and I think that's what also gave us confidence to reinforce our guidance for growth across all of our businesses.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. And maybe just to pick up the question on new and used, I think, you know, as we've talked about before, we're pretty well positioned across our auto business. We've got very much balanced between new and used. It's in the range of fifty fifty. So should we see, you know, dynamic shift there where there maybe there's more used sales, less new sales?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

I think we're well positioned overall from that perspective. You know, we'll obviously monitor that closely. We're working with our partners, but we do feel like we've got muscles built the last couple of years with clients, to make the right adjustments, whether it's rate, product design, claims management. That will continue as we go forward, and we're gonna continue to focus on growth and executing and delivering financial results.

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

Thank you for that. My follow-up question is on Global Housing. It's about the expense ratio in the quarter. Are you able to identify by how much that expense ratio was impacted by dealing with the catastrophe loss events that occurred in the quarter related to the wildfires that brought it to 39.1% versus 37.9% a year ago? Yes.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

It's a great question. I would say that if we sort of made adjustments to normalize, we'd be relatively flat year over year. If you look at the first quarter twenty five, we had reinsurance costs up 11,000,000 over last year. That's a 10 basis points. The balance of the difference is related to the higher, expenses related to managing through the claim, the claims cost from the cat.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

So broadly speaking, I would say underlying expenses, as a ratio flat year over year.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

And I think you can, you know, think through think about our expense ratio as being that high thirties kind of percentage. And so I think in general, we're we're on track with that. And and like he said, I think you should expect it to be a similar kind of normalized rate year over year.

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

Thanks for the answers.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

You got it.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Have a good day. Our

[Operator]

next question is coming from Mark Hughes with Truist.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Morning, Mark.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Hi, Mark.

[Operator]

Press 6 to

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

I should be here now. Yeah. Good morning.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Hey. Good morning.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Good morning.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Yeah. The the total the total wireless by Verizon seems pretty interesting. How many subscribers under that program? I think it the fact that you're extending your relationship or deepening your relationship with Verizon is great.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

You know, how much financial impact from that program would you anticipate?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. I think first thing I would say is it's starting, it's not an existing base of business that's porting across to us. So this is a brand new launch. So we're starting from customer one as we build that book. So it will naturally ramp, you know, probably three or four years to get to its full run rate potential depending on, you know, consumer behavior, etcetera.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

So I think that's the first thing to recognize. The the second thing, yeah, we're really excited. I mean, we're deepening relationships with clients. We've done an amazing job in the mobile business, and I think we continue to demonstrate that we can add value to to major partners. And this is just another example of that.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

And, obviously, they're they're a massive potential client for other things, and we'll look to continue to execute and deliver and prove our value to them so we earn the right to do more over time. So, but it's a big opportunity for us, and we're very, very happy with it.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Yeah. You had mentioned on the homeowners that the shifts in voluntary were increasing demand. How is that trending now? Is there still as much pressure on homeowners that that's benefiting you, or is that starting to taper a little bit?

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. I think we're still seeing and expecting growth in our policies for our lender placed business. You know, I think in in California, we're still seeing a little bit of growth. And also in in the Midwest and in some of the Inland Northeast as well. So, overall, I think the the business is continuing to see that type of progress and and progressive growth.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

So I I think our product is only becoming more and more valuable over time.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. And I think I think to your point, the the year over year placement rate improved pretty significantly. You know, it's definitely slowed down as we look at the sequential view. But to Keith's point, you know, we expect to see, you know, kind of modest growth over the balance of year, and and I think we're really well positioned with how that business is performing and how it's performed through various cycles as well.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

And then on the, trade in, anything structural around trade ins, people keeping their phones longer, anything like that, or was it just timing of customer promotional activity that impacted the quarter?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. I think it's both. Definitely, customers are keeping devices longer, but I think the what stimulates a lot of that demand is the promotional activity, the competitive intensity. I saw a little bit more muted in the first quarter. I don't think it was different than we expected it to be.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

We'll see how that plays out. It's a pretty competitive environment today. I think our clients are gonna be looking to drive growth, and and that could ultimately stimulate more competition. I think yet to be seen as we look at q two and the rest of the year, but nothing that is unusual in terms of those dynamics.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

And if I could squeeze in one more on the renter's book, you talked about picking up 250,000 policies. Could you talk about that and then maybe the underlying growth in in renters aside from that that new customer pickup?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Sure. I'll I'll talk about the book, and then Keith can cover sort of the growth and how we think about it across the areas within renters. So, again, we we worked with, an insurer who was looking to exit the renters business, really more of a book role. We talk about 250,000 policies, about 50,000,000 of gross written premium annually. This insurance company served a a wide range of Affinity clients, so it fits in incredibly well with with our Affinity business.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

It was acquired through reinsurance. We'll convert it to our paper over time. And I would say, as we think about the contribution, you know, I don't expect a massive step change in overall financial performance, but it is a very strategic opportunity. It generates a lot of scale, and it continues to reinforce our market leadership position. And I think we feel good about how we've structured and derisk the, the deal overall.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

But, Keith, how would you reflect on the growth for the quarter?

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. And I I would just say on the, on that on that book roll that we had, I think that really just speaks to our executing on our strategy to really scale our technology enabled services that we've been developing over time. And, you know, we've talked about our Cover three sixty product where we track renters policies for the landlords. And so I think those are the types of things where we're able to invest in this business, and I think that's enabling us to, you know, to be able to leverage those capabilities to drive scale where others may not may not see the the benefit of investing the way that we have. So these are these are great opportunities for us to grow.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

I think you'll see contributions from from the acquisition as well as through our property management channel, which, again, has has grown for the eleventh consecutive quarter at double digit. So we'll see contribution there. And, you know, we'll we also see, as Keith said, this helps our our affinity business as well. So overall, I think we've got some nice balanced growth as we look ahead for renters.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

Thank you very much.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our

[Operator]

next question is coming from Tommy McJoint with KBW.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Good morning, Tommy.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Hi, Tommy.

[Tommy McJoynt-Griffith, Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

Hey, good morning. A question about the mobile side and the potential impact of tariffs. It doesn't sound like you guys are expecting a significant impact there. Can you talk about why maybe the potential importing of of parts or and and cell phones, you know, might not be impacted? And I think a lot of it has to do with your your role as more of a program administrator than than being on risk.

[Tommy McJoynt-Griffith, Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

Perhaps you can lay out the details on that.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. I think you actually hit on it, Tommy. I think it's the way that we work with our clients, and, you know, these are large players with highly developed supply chains, and and we complement their supply chains as well. So we work very closely with them. Obviously, a lot of the programs are reinsured or or risk shared like like you just spoke about.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

So I think that's what mitigates a lot of that impact. And then, obviously, we work very closely with them to optimize the programs for the consumer as well as for our clients. So, overall, I think those are the things that, you know, that do put us in a good position overall for the on on the mobile side.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. And I think the other thing I would add, Tommy, is think about the mobile business, particularly around device protection. We've got, you know, 64,000,000 or so monthly subscribers, but it's monthly pay, monthly earn. So the profile of that business is different than, you know, selling a single premium contract that earns out over time. So that also helps us be a little bit more nimble with the changes we can make, whether it's product or pricing.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

It can have an impact more quickly than than in other lines of business.

[Tommy McJoynt-Griffith, Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

Okay. Got it. And then looking at the the full year guidance, you know, when I unpack the the various subcomponents there, so it doesn't sound like the enterprise wide guidance has changed, but housing segment got a little bit better. Does that imply that that that on the margin, the the lifestyle time lifestyle segment came in a little bit worse than we were expecting a few months ago. And just wanna make sure if that's the case, what is the the driver of that.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. I'd I'd say I think that's a fair way to interpret it. Overall, feel really good about the full year guide. We obviously increased housing from a modest decline to generating growth. So we feel really good about, that adjustment.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

And then to your point, lifestyle, I would say we're, you know, we're certainly factoring in the impact of of the macro environment and tariffs as we think about the year. That wouldn't have been true in the same way, you know, a few months ago. So I'd say that's a that's the only difference. But if I think about the underlying financial performance of the lifestyle business, we feel really good where we came out in q one. Setting aside the dynamic world we're living in, we feel really good about the year in front of us.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

And and even considering those factors, we're still planning to grow connected living. We're planning to grow auto, and we're gonna grow housing.

[Tommy McJoynt-Griffith, Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)]

Great. Thanks, Keith.

[Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities]

You bet.

[Operator]

Our next question is coming from Bob Huang with Morgan Stanley.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Morning, Bob.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Hi, Bob.

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Hi. Can you guys hear me now?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. We can.

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

We got you. Hello? Okay. Perfect. Yeah.

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

So maybe another follow-up on on tariffs. I know we talked about this quite a bit. Just can you maybe help us think about if if there are any particular components within the tariff that is more sensitive? For example, are there like, within housing, is it more aluminum, steel, lumber, or within the auto? Like, is that particular part?

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Just trying to see if there's anything that we should monitor from, like, a commodity's future perspective.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. So, Bob, I think when we do our scenario planning, we take into account, you know, the various tariffs that have been talked about in the marketplace, and so then we apply them, you know, into scenarios for each of those businesses. So I kind of went through that earlier in terms of the way we think about housing. It'll it could it could impact a little bit in some building costs, but we think we're well positioned to navigate, you know, potential inflationary aspects from whether it's, you know, lumber, steel, those types of things. And then on auto, you know, we all we're consistently monitoring parts and auto related tariff discussions.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

And so I think also there, by working with our clients and the way our business is structured, you know, we feel very good about being able to manage through the different scenarios that are being discussed today.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Did we lose Bob?

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Maybe. Sorry. Can you hear me now?

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Can

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Can you hear me? Perfect. Yeah. So my my second question is regarding used car versus new car sales. Right?

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Like, if you think about just the recent auto sales and things of that nature, obviously, something that we've been talking you you guys have mentioned. Is there a way to think about whether or not, like, there was a new car sales pull forward due to tariffs? Would that have any significant impact on how we should think about the business going forward?

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

Yeah. I think you know, I I don't think it it has a significant impact on how we think about business going forward. I definitely think there was a a pull forward, both for new and for used. If I even look at the car sales in the month of March, they were higher than sort of the average for the quarter. So that suggests that, you know, there is a pull forward.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

I would expect that to probably be true in April as well. You know, I I don't think it has a significant effect on how we think about the business or the year. I suspect it's just a timing point where there'll be a little bit of additional sales front loaded and then maybe a little bit of softer sales following. We'll sort of see how the environment evolves. But, you know, obviously, it's always good to get a little more business in the door earlier in the year.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

But because of the nature of this business, we're earning off of a $11,000,000,000 UPR that's in force. It doesn't have a huge effect on how we think about the short term picture for auto.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

Yeah. I would

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

just add there, Bob, that we look at the the macroeconomic environment in terms of there could be inflation aspects and consumer impact. And so on the consumer impact, we don't see that as really affecting Assurant as much in 2025 for the you know, because of the existing business and it takes time to earn through and and so forth. So I think that part doesn't have as much. And then we talked a lot about the flip side, which is the inflationary aspects, which can, you know, happen earlier, and that's the part that we talked a lot about, and we feel, you know, well positioned on that on that side of it.

[Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay. Thank thank you. I really appreciate it.

[Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO at Assurant]

You. You got it.

[Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Assurant]

I think that was the last question. So I will go ahead and say thanks everybody for joining us today, and we'll look forward to, to the next update, in August. Appreciate the time. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.

Participants

Executives

• Sean Moshier, Vice President, Investor Relations
• Keith Demmings, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Keith Meier, Executive VP & CFO

Analysts

• Jeff Schmitt, Research Analyst - Financial Services and Technology at William Blair & Company, L.L.C
• John Barnidge, Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst at Piper Sandler Companies
• Mark Hughes, Analyst at Truist Securities
• Tommy McJoynt-Griffith, Director at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW)
• Bob Huang, Analyst at Morgan Stanley