Primerica Q3 2023 Earnings Report $248.19 -14.40 (-5.48%) Closing price 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$248.08 -0.11 (-0.05%) As of 04:20 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Primerica EPS ResultsActual EPS$4.28Consensus EPS $4.03Beat/MissBeat by +$0.25One Year Ago EPS$3.02Primerica Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$710.90 millionExpected Revenue$703.50 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$7.40 millionYoY Revenue Growth+5.60%Primerica Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/7/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateWednesday, November 8, 2023Conference Call Time10:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsPrimerica's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Monday, May 5, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryPRI ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Primerica Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 8, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00And welcome to the Primerica's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you Nicole Russell, Head of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:26Thank you, Nicole. You may begin. Speaker 100:00:29And thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Primerica's 3rd quarter earnings call. A copy of our earnings press release, along with other materials relevant to today's call are posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining our call today are Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Williams our Chief Financial Officer, Alison Rand And our EVP of Finance and future CFO, Tracey Tran. Speaker 100:01:01Our comments this morning may contain forward looking statements in accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. We assume no obligation to update these statements to reflect new information and refer you to our most recent Form 10 ks filings as may be modified by subsequent Form 10 Q for a list of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual which we believe provide additional insight into the company's operations. Reconciliations of non GAAP measures to their respective GAAP Numbers are included at the end of our earnings press release and are available on our Investor Relations website. I would now like to turn the call over to Glenn. Speaker 200:01:56Thank you, Nicole, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Our Q3 results underscore the fundamental strength of our distribution capabilities and the value of our complementary insurance and investment businesses. Term Life pretax income is up 7% year over year, while ISP pretax income grew 9%, representing the segment's 1st year over year increase since the Q1 of 2022. We also continue to drive growth in the size of Sales force with a 4% increase since September 30, 2022. Starting with a quick recap of our financial results, Adjusted operating revenues of $713,000,000 during the quarter rose 5% year over year, while adjusted net operating of $154,000,000 increased 9% and diluted adjusted operating earnings per share of $4.28 increased 14%. Speaker 200:02:51These results reflect the steady contribution from our large in force book of term life insurance, Strong term life sales, growth in client asset values and the benefit of higher interest rates on our investment portfolio. The Senior Health segment recorded a modest loss as we positioned the business for the start of the annual enrollment period. On the capital deployment front, we repurchased $106,000,000 of our common stock during the quarter for a total of $302,000,000 in the 1st 9 months of 20 23. We also paid $23,000,000 in stockholder dividends during the Q3. Given the strength of our capital and liquidity positions, We believe we will meet our targeted repurchases of $375,000,000 for the year. Speaker 200:03:37Turning now to distribution. Both home office and field leadership remain focused on our common goal of growing the sales force. The attractiveness of our entrepreneurial business opportunity continues to fuel recruiting. During the quarter, we welcome more than 92,000 individuals as new recruits to Primerica. We also are also seeing solid progress in licensing With a total of 12,311 individuals obtaining a new life license during the quarter, pushing the size of the life license sales force Turning next to the Term Life business. Speaker 200:04:21We issued approximately 88,500 new Term Life policies during the quarter, Up 9% compared to the adjusted policy count in the prior year. We issued $29,500,000,000 in new term life protection for Our clients, a 13% increase compared to the face amount issued in the prior year period. The productivity of our sales force remains solid at 0.21 policies per life license rep per month compared to 0.20 in the prior year period. Looking ahead, we expect 4th quarter policies issued to grow approximately 6% to 7% year over year or around 6% on a full year basis. Let's look now at our Investment and Savings Products business. Speaker 200:05:06Total sales of $2,200,000,000 during the quarter remain largely unchanged compared to the Q3 of 2022. Sales of annuity products rose 17% compared to the prior year period as annuity providers continue to enhance products, Leading to higher investment investor demand for variable annuities and the guarantee features they offer. During the quarter, we also transitioned our managed accounts business from TD to Pershing as our custodian. This conversion caused a temporary disruption in sales, which is now behind us. Changes of this magnitude generally require a period of adjustment as advisors familiarize Sales with new technology and help their clients log in and navigate the new platform. Speaker 200:05:50With the conversion complete, we were able to 98% of client assets. Advisors are adjusting and sales levels normalized in October. Finally, sales of Canadian segregated funds are down substantially after Canadian insurance regulators followed the lead of securities regulators and banned deferred sales charges on new product sales. We are actively looking at alternative alternate segregated fund solutions for our Clients in Canada. Ending client asset values were $88,400,000,000 on September 30 or 12% above the prior year period and Down approximately 3.5 percent versus June 30, 2023, as market volatility during the quarter pressured equity values. Speaker 200:06:36Net client inflows of $192,000,000 during the quarter reflected approximately $150,000,000 in redemptions from the 2% client assets that did not convert to the new managed account custodial platform. Based on October trends, we expect 4th quarter ISP sales to grow around 5% year over year. We received questions about the DOL's recent fiduciary proposal that came out on October 31. That proposed rule is subject to a comment period and potential In process changes we previously adopted, we believe we will be well positioned to deal with any final DOL rule. Turning next to Senior Health. Speaker 200:07:25During the Q3, which is seasonally the most challenging period of the year, we saw stable LTVs for the 4th consecutive quarter. However, contract acquisition costs per approved policy of $12.63 as well as sales volumes Pressured by a higher mix of newer, less productive agents. While our agent count has grown, we've had higher than expected attrition of experienced agents And new hires were onboarded and trained later in the year than we planned. We also identified an inefficiency in our use of leads, which has now been corrected. As we make course corrections to further improve our agent recruiting and onboarding, we are moderating our expectations for Q4 in AEP and expect approved applications to be down over 10% from last year. Speaker 200:08:13We believe that Primerica representatives will continue to be a valuable source of quality leads for E Telequo and estimate their referral activity will contribute more than 20% of submitted applications during this year's AEP. We remain committed to our Senior Health business and believe there is room for more improvement. Our new leadership team established Since our acquisition is fully in place, creating a strong foundation for the future, we will not need to provide capital to the subsidiary in 2023, and we do not anticipate the need to provide capital in 2024. Before turning to Allison's review of our financial results, I'd like to Comment on our CFO succession process. As you know, Allison has announced her retirement effective April 1, 2024, after nearly 23 years as CFO. Speaker 200:09:02Her leadership has provided tremendous financial discipline and performance, which we'll continue to build upon. Allison's successor, Tracy Tan, has recently joined Primerica. Tracy is an accomplished business leader with 20 years of experience as CFO Across multiple industries, including financial services, the depth and breadth of her experience and business acumen will enable her to guide Primerica to continued growth. Tracy is working closely with Allison on the transition. Tracy, welcome to the Primerica team. Speaker 300:09:34Thank you, Glenn. I appreciate a vote of confidence, and I'm excited to join Primerica. The company's mission to help middle income families is well aligned with My own personal values, it is an honor to succeed Allison, who leaves behind a great legacy. I'm committed to leveraging my experiences to drive Primerica's continued growth and value to our stockholders. Speaker 200:10:03Thank you, Tracy. It's great to have you on board. Allison, I also want to thank you for your extraordinary leadership, tireless dedication and wise counsel Throughout the years, you've been an integral part of Primerica's success and you'll be missed after your retirement next April. Speaker 400:10:17Thank you, Glenn. Thank you, Tracy. So really those really kind words. I do appreciate it, and good morning, everyone. Let me expand on our Q3 financial results by taking a closer look at the financial Starting with Term Life, we continue to benefit from the strong profits generated by this segment. Speaker 400:10:38Pretax Operating income of $141,000,000 increased 7% year over year, driven by 6% growth in adjusted direct premium. Based on current sales and persistency expectations, we expect ADP to continue to grow by approximately 6% year over year in the Q4. We also expect the Term Life segment to continue to be a strong source of free cash flow for the company. The Term Life pre tax operating margin was 23% in the 3rd quarter versus 22.8% in the prior year period. We express our term life margin and financial ratios as a percentage of adjusted direct premiums as we believe this is the best revenue basis to evaluate performance. Speaker 400:11:22In doing so, we view other ceded premiums, which are the amounts paid to our YRT Reinsurers through lock in mortality as a component of our benefit costs rather than a contra revenue as presented on a GAAP basis. Under LVTI, term life margins are expected to be stable and predictable. They are not highly sensitive to changes in persistency and Mortality experience variances are highly mitigated by reinsurance and partially spread to future periods. Benefits and claims, DAC amortization and insurance expense ratios in the Q3 were all consistent with the prior year period at 57.9%, 11.7% and 7.3%, respectively. We We expect margins and financial ratios to remain stable in the Q4. Speaker 400:12:12Turning to persistency, we continue to see elevated most notably on policies sold near the onset of or during the pandemic when various financial aid programs were widely available to middle income marketplace. The combination of ongoing cost of living pressures and the elimination of financial aid programs are likely contributors to the timing of these Persistency for both policies issued over the last year as well as older policies are generally in line with trends underlying our LVTI assumptions. While economic headwinds are likely to continue in the near term, We believe that persistency experience across all durations will revert to historical levels over time. During the Q3, we performed our annual assumption review. We did not identify any trends or experience that we believe require us to change Our long term assumptions for lapses or aggregate benefits, including both mortality and disability rates for our waiver of premium minor. Speaker 400:13:15As noted, We believe the elevated lapses seen in some policy durations will revert to historical levels over time. In regard to mortality, variances are inherently limited by our extensive YRP reinsurance program. Claims have been modestly favorable to assumptions in We've also seen some variability in disability rates underlying our waiver premium benefit, which we will continue to monitor. Turning next to the Investment and Savings Products segment. 3rd quarter operating revenues of $219,000,000 and pretax operating income of $64,000,000 We're both up 9% year over year. Speaker 400:14:06Sales based revenues and commission expense both rose 7%, in line with revenue generating sales. Asset Based revenues increased 11%, consistent with 10% growth in average client asset value. Total expenses on asset based products, including commissioning expenses and for segregated funds, both DAC amortization and insurance commissions, Increased in line with asset based revenues. With regard to debt funds, we have seen a drop off in sales due to new regulations. But given we earn commissions based on client assets, which were only down 3% year over year, The impact to earnings will emerge slowly over time. Speaker 400:14:50In our Senior In your Health segment, we recognized a $7,600,000 loss for the quarter. LTV per approved policy was $9.11 a 5% increase over the prior year period. We recorded a $2,300,000 positive tail adjustment in the quarter to reflect the impact of stabilizing persistency on import policies and annual rate increases. Marketing development revenues $2,000,000 were down slightly year over year. Beginning in the Q4, most marketing development revenues will shift from other net revenues to the commissions and fees revenue line due to a change in our contracts with certain health insurance carriers. Speaker 400:15:34Although generally neutral to total revenues, the change will result in higher LTVs and link most marketing development revenue opportunities directly to approved policies. Cash per approved policy of $12.63 was up significantly year over year based on factors to the segment in 2023, nor do we anticipate a need to do so in 2024. The corporate and other distributed products segment recorded a Pre tax operating income of 3,000,000 during the quarter. A key driver of segment results was adjusted net investment income, We got $35,000,000 for the quarter, was up $11,000,000 year over year. Our average yield on new investment purchases for the quarter was about with an average rating of AA- and an average duration of about 5 years. Speaker 400:16:32By comparison, the Average book yield on maturity for the period was under 4%. We expect to continue benefiting from higher yields and growth in their portfolio in the 4th quarter. Our invested asset portfolio ended the period at an unrealized loss of $343,000,000 which Continued to reflect a steep rise in interest rates since the beginning of last year. We regularly evaluate the portfolio for possible credit impairments and do not believe the large unrealized loss is due to significant credit concerns with our holdings. We continue to have the intent and ability to hold these Investments until maturity. Speaker 400:17:113rd quarter consolidated insurance and other operating expenses were $137,000,000 up $6,000,000 or 4 Compared to the Q3 of 2022. The increase is mainly attributable to higher employee related costs and normal growth in our business. Costs increased less than anticipated in August due to the timing of certain technology projects and pullback in equity markets that led to lower ISP asset based operating expenses than expected. Looking ahead, we expect 4th quarter insurance and other operating expenses to increase around $4,000,000 or 3% year over year, with increases coming mainly from higher employee related costs and continued growth in the business. This would result in full year expense growth about 3% year over year, which is lower than typical due to heightened expense levels in 2022 from holding an additional sales force Operator00:18:40And the first question comes from the line of Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 200:18:46Good morning, Ryan. Speaker 500:18:49Hey, good morning. My first question is just on expenses. So I think, Allison, you talked about 3% growth I think the guidance last quarter was 5% growth. So I guess first one question is just what led to the lower expenses than you were previously Okay, Dean. And then what would you view as a more normal growth rate in expenses over time for the company? Speaker 400:19:13Yes. Great question, Brian. Yes, we did anticipate and I mentioned it in my prepared comments, we had anticipated In the Q3, two things. One is sort of to kick in on certain technology projects that at this point we don't think will happen until more so the beginning of next year. And second of all, we did see pullback in equity markets during the Q3, as Glenn described, And that does correlate with lower operating expenses in that segment as well because quite a bit of our expenses come from fees we pay to providers to do record keeping and the like. Speaker 400:19:49So, and a lot of those are asset based. So, anyway, those are sort of the 2 Big pieces that caused us to have lower expenses than we expected This quarter, and we don't see a lot of that, you know, turning around or timing wise in the Q4. I do I think your point about next year or a normalized I did highlight and I will continue to highlight that the 3% growth we saw this year is atypical. A lot of it really had to do with things that we incurred outside of the normal course in 2022. Big chunk of that came from doing 2 leadership events and a convention all in 1 year, which is very atypical for us, but we got backed up As of COVID, so I do look at the future, and I think I've said this in the past, I think you should look at this business more And let's say the 5% to 7% growth rate in expenses, unless there's something very specific that we have to drive the business or we make some kind of substantial commitment to an endeavor. Speaker 400:21:01The caveat around that is a lot of our expenses are really tied directly to our revenue sources. So to the extent we see any kind of Extreme fluctuation in our revenue sources, say, because of changes in the stock market, that could change that perspective. But in a normal situation, I would expect anywhere from 5% to 7% be the general range. Speaker 500:21:26Great. Thanks. That's really helpful. And then Glenn, I just want to follow-up on the DOL proposal. Maybe one thing I think that might be helpful is could you provide some comments, things that you already changed to prepare for the 2016 rule As we think about the current proposal and then just general thoughts on kind of how this proposal looks to you relative To what had been had occurred last time around. Speaker 200:21:57Right. Well, it is very early, Ryan, as I stated in my prepared comments and lots of time for commentary from the industry and even pushback after the fact. So, it's a little hard to draw an exact beat on. But I do think 2 things going in our favor is that our business is fairly simple compared to Other models, as far as our product set goes, it's a little narrower product set, a little more simpler product set than some that are more sophisticated. And as we went through this process in the last go round, we recognized and are building our business around the fact that we are As fiduciaries and a number of the recommendations we're making, particularly around retirement accounts. Speaker 200:22:41And so we took action at that point That we believe based on what we know today that could change will help us be already in line with some of the proposed changes for the future. Our business model works in our favor to a certain extent in some areas, our product set at least. And then also, we did make changes Last time around our advice around retirement accounts and rollovers, then in anticipation of these types of ongoing changes in the future, We think that positions us for less disruption based on the way that this version of the rule might come out. Speaker 500:23:17Great. Thank you. Speaker 200:23:19Certainly. Operator00:23:22And the next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmitt With William Blair, please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:23:27Hi, good morning. Good morning. The pre tax margin term life Was fairly high at 23% again and seems to be driven by, I guess, insurance expenses are kind of below historical levels. But is there anything else In that and then in how sustainable I guess would you think that is? Speaker 400:23:46Yes. And to your point about Expenses, it's really not that far out of historical levels. It does fluctuate from quarter to quarter. It was a little bit lower this quarter, but not something that It was completely atypical of what you might see in any quarter going forward. When you look at it in terms of as a percentage of adjusted direct premiums, We would LVTI are expected to remain very, very stable. Speaker 400:24:22The only thing that would truly disrupt That would be if we had an assumption change or significant assumption change. And quite frankly, given The nature of our business, the fact that we use so much reinsurance to mitigate exposure on mortality, The fact that we only sell Term Life and we have a very large homogeneous book of business that we know how to predict. And given how DAC works these days with a straight line basis that it's not nearly as volatile based on persistency, You know, we really do expect our margins to stay in this relative range. You might see some creep over time, but it will be Very modest, which I think highlights, as I think I believe Glenn opened in his remarks, the predictability of this particular business. And you combine that with the generous cash flow it creates and it really becomes just a key component Of our business model and our financial business model. Speaker 600:25:27Okay. And then on the Proposed DOL rule, I mean, do you see your main exposure being on fixed index annuities or Will variable annuities be affected too? I mean, obviously, you probably made changes to that in the past with the regulation, with the Reg BI. But I'm just curious, is that exposure really on the fixed index annuities at this stage? And how much of flows today are really from 401 rollovers, I mean, I know you do a fair amount. Speaker 200:26:02Yes, Jeff. The it's a good add on to the question Ryan asked earlier because Our business our fixed indexed and fixed annuity business is very small. It's about 5% of total sales in the quarter And that's on the pretty high end of the range. It fluctuates from between 2% 5% of our total sales, and that's a combination of both fixed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. And the fixed indexed annuities were called out in some of the discussion around the rule. Speaker 200:26:30So I think there's some feeling that they may be, an area of focus in this edition of the rule. So our variable annuity business, which generally runs from about 22% to 26 And in less volatile, more predictable times, it shifts back away from to non guaranteed products like mutual funds, and we've seen that for years. And so that's very common. And it has it's moved in a fairly narrow range. So I think if there is an annuity focus For us, it's a variable annuity focus, which is a lot of the discussion from last time, and I think it's a lot of what we've prepared for in advance around Product mix question. Speaker 200:27:18We do a significant amount of rollover business. We can get you an exact number after the call. But that is an area where we recognized in advising on 401 and other retirement plan rollovers. That was The whole crux of the fiduciary question and that's where we went ahead at the last edition of the rule and made changes to make sure we were in line with fiduciary advice around those rollovers. So that's where we believe we as we understand it today, again, with a lot of room for change, we may be in a good position already On the rollover front. Speaker 600:27:54Okay, great. Thank you. Speaker 200:27:58Certainly. Operator00:28:00And the next question comes from the line of Suneet Kamath with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 700:28:06Good morning, guys. Just wanted to start with the term lapse rate. Allison, I think on the Q2 call, you gave us some good data in terms of what you saw in the Q1, I think 3% to 5% and what you saw in the Q2, I think you said 5% to 7%. If those numbers are right, do you have a Speaker 400:28:29Yes. And it's interesting. One of the reasons I didn't put those exact figures first of all, the numbers have I don't want to say overly improved, but we have seen where the variances are Have shrunk in the number of durations we're seeing it. So earlier in the year, we really were seeing things vary across Board, which really was sort of the economic hit, what was going on in the marketplace. It's interesting as we analyze Now we're seeing it very specifically in a small number of durations. Speaker 400:29:03It's, as I mentioned in my comments, Not seeing it on the new business. The new business is really moving in line with our LDTI assumptions. And then on the Outer years, say, duration 5 and later, it's very much in line with the assumptions. It's really years 2 through 4. When you look at those years, what jumps out at me is what I highlighted in the That these were policies that people bought either right before or during the pandemic. Speaker 400:29:38These were people I think were real we saw after the pandemic, as we expected, a lot of policies fall off the books pretty quickly. A lot of people did knee jerk Purchases during the pandemic and then decided not to keep it post pandemic when they felt We're gone. I believe these are people and this is my belief. I believe these are people that really did want to keep their policies and have held on to those COVID acquired policies for as long as they could. But as you're well aware, all of the stimulus Packages that were out for a long period of time are now gone. Speaker 400:30:15All the aid programs on loan repayments are gone. And just the economy for a lot of people in our market Place has been challenging, cost of living has been challenging. So I see those being the driving factors as to why these particular durations or buckets of policyholders are being atypically impacted. So it's one of the reasons why I didn't go ahead and give something overall. Unlike the earlier periods where it was really pervasive amongst durations, to me this is a very specific thing we're seeing, Which we do expect to run off and again, which is why we did not go ahead and change any long term assumptions under LDTI. Speaker 700:30:54Okay. That makes sense. And then I guess maybe on Senior Health, it sounds like there's some incremental challenges, I think, based on reading Press release, some hiring delays and then I think Glenn you had mentioned some higher attrition. And then lastly, I normally think about this business as being sort of profitable in the Q4, but I think you're guiding to a loss. So maybe just some color around what you're seeing there. Speaker 700:31:19Just Feels like maybe it's not getting kind of back on track like we had kind of hoped it would. Speaker 200:31:26Yes. It's you're right about the normal Cadence of the business, the 4th quarter is normally the during AEP the most significant quarter. And so what we've seen is, it's not in hindsight now that we see it. And of course, it was something we were trying to control as we go, but we weren't able to totally control it Yes. We wanted to grow the size of our sales force by hiring new and also retaining experienced reps. Speaker 200:31:53We've got a we feel like a good pool of Allen out there to hire new, but we didn't retain as many of our experienced salespeople as we wanted to. And so what that's led to is a larger sales But with a newer mix of reps and the reality is the newer mix of reps are not as sufficient. Their number of sales per leads are not And so that leads to the increase in CAC that we saw in the Q3, and we're just anticipating that we'll see some see that again in the Q4 And lead to a loss in the 4th quarter, small loss in the 4th quarter rather than a small gain. So It's a fairly focused issue. We've taken all the actions or begun to take all the actions to deal with that. Speaker 200:32:38As I mentioned in my Prepared remarks, we feel very good about our leadership team that's in place now, having built or rebuilt that Since the acquisition, and so we do have a lot of positives going on. The stability in LTV, we count as an environmental positive that we're gaining from. It looks like the shopping and churn challenge that we had a couple of years ago that the industry had a couple of years ago Has begun to normalize. So that gives us a much better environment to build the business in. It's just going to take some more work and take a little longer than we anticipated. Speaker 700:33:11Got it. Maybe just one quick follow-up. What do you think is driving the attrition of the experienced senior health folks? Speaker 200:33:20I think it's a number of factors. I think that it's general disruption that Alison talked about In the marketplace and in the economy, I think people are struggling financially and therefore more likely to look for alternative employment that might Give them a more upside and a bigger opportunity. And we didn't weren't able to put our finger on any one particular item. Obviously, as we look at all of the retention aspects of our opportunity and compensation and other types of Benefits, we're looking at all of that to make sure that we're competitive. It wasn't any particular one item that we can lay our finger on and have a quick fix. Speaker 200:34:02It's just a disruptive environment that we're operating in. Speaker 700:34:06Got it. Thanks, Glenn. Speaker 200:34:09Certainly, happy to do that. Operator00:34:12And the next question comes from the line of Maxwell Fritchard with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 800:34:18Good morning, Maxwell. Hi, good morning. I'm calling in for Mark Hughes. I just kind of have a broad question about the recruiting environment. It seems as though there's some opportunity for growth considering the payroll numbers from the labor department came in a little cooler than expected. Speaker 800:34:36Seems like it should be maybe a catalyst. Any thoughts there? Speaker 200:34:41Yes. Maxwell, it's interesting. The response I was given to Suneet about senior health was about our Employee sales force at E Telequote, which where there is quite there's quite a lot of competition for employees. Interestingly enough, The economic disruption actually leads toward more people looking for alternatives, the people that maybe are looking for an alternative to their senior health sales position. That's true of people looking for alternatives everywhere, which actually helps drive Primerica's overall independent salesperson recruiting. Speaker 200:35:15So, the dissatisfaction that's a headwind for our ETQ business actually is a tailwind for our recruiting of our overall sales force, which is And so, our recruiting is not directly tied to employment. Remember, people are not Looking for a job when they come to Primerica that has a paycheck next Friday, they're looking for an opportunity that they can build over several years. And so, we don't see direct competition generally based on the tightness of the labor market, particularly when that tightness This is created by jobs maybe that are not high quality jobs that are often lower paying, where people are employed, but they're underemployed. That's the perfect environment for Primerica to recruit to our larger sales force, because those people are frustrated, they're unhappy, and they're looking for an alternative that they control. And that's I mentioned of our entrepreneurial opportunity. Speaker 200:36:10So, we're seeing a very high attractiveness in this environment, even as The employment market tends to tighten in some months and then ease in other months. As long as there are a lot of frustrated employees, That's what we need to be able to recruit large numbers at Primerica, and there's a lot of those out there. So we're not our recruiting of our Primerica sales force It's not subject to the changes in the labor market quite as directly as it might appear. Speaker 800:36:38Yes. That's very helpful. And that's all I have. Thank you. Speaker 200:36:42Good. And if I could circle back around to the questions about rollovers, about a third of our U. S. Mutual fund sales volume comes from 401 rollovers. And I believe Ryan had asked that question. Speaker 200:36:52So Ryan, if that's helpful, I thought I'd give you that stat. About a third of mutual fund volume is 401 rollovers.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallPrimerica Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Primerica Earnings HeadlinesPrimerica Inc (PRI) Reports Rising Financial Concerns Among Middle-Income AmericansApril 10 at 1:17 AM | gurufocus.comPrimerica price target lowered to $315 from $320 at Keefe BruyetteApril 10 at 12:34 AM | markets.businessinsider.comDOGE officially begins retirement transformationElon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE") just announced the first-ever "fully digital retirement" process . This fired the starting gun on the biggest economic transformation in American history.April 10, 2025 | Altimetry (Ad)National Survey: Middle-Income Americans Grapple With Growing Financial Uncertainty; Inflation Once Again Is Top ConcernApril 10 at 12:00 AM | businesswire.comPrimerica, Inc. (NYSE:PRI) Receives $309.86 Consensus Price Target from AnalystsApril 9 at 1:55 AM | americanbankingnews.comPrimerica Enters Oversold TerritoryApril 6, 2025 | nasdaq.comSee More Primerica Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Primerica? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Primerica and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About PrimericaPrimerica (NYSE:PRI), together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The company operates in four segments: Term Life Insurance; Investment and Savings Products; Senior Health; and Corporate and Other Distributed Products. The Term Life Insurance segment underwrites individual term life insurance products. The Investment and Savings Products segment provides mutual funds and various retirement plans, managed investments, variable and fixed annuities, and fixed indexed annuities. The Senior Health segment offers segregated funds; and medicare advantage and supplement plans. The Corporate and Other Distributed Products segment provides mortgage loans; prepaid legal services that assist subscribers with legal matters, such as drafting wills, living wills and powers of attorney, trial defense, and motor vehicle-related matters; ID theft defense services; auto and homeowners' insurance; home automation solutions; and insurance products, including supplemental and accidental death, and disability insurance. It distributes and sells its products through licensed sales representatives. Primerica, Inc. was founded in 1927 and is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.View Primerica ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Why Analysts Boosted United Airlines Stock Ahead of EarningsLamb Weston Stock Rises, Earnings Provide Calm Amidst ChaosIntuitive Machines Gains After Earnings Beat, NASA Missions AheadCintas Delivers Earnings Beat, Signals More Growth AheadNike Stock Dips on Earnings: Analysts Weigh in on What’s NextAfter Massive Post Earnings Fall, Does Hope Remain for MongoDB?Semtech Rallies on Earnings Beat—Is There More Upside? 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00And welcome to the Primerica's Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you Nicole Russell, Head of Investor Relations. Operator00:00:26Thank you, Nicole. You may begin. Speaker 100:00:29And thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Primerica's 3rd quarter earnings call. A copy of our earnings press release, along with other materials relevant to today's call are posted on the Investor Relations section of our website. Joining our call today are Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Williams our Chief Financial Officer, Alison Rand And our EVP of Finance and future CFO, Tracey Tran. Speaker 100:01:01Our comments this morning may contain forward looking statements in accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. We assume no obligation to update these statements to reflect new information and refer you to our most recent Form 10 ks filings as may be modified by subsequent Form 10 Q for a list of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual which we believe provide additional insight into the company's operations. Reconciliations of non GAAP measures to their respective GAAP Numbers are included at the end of our earnings press release and are available on our Investor Relations website. I would now like to turn the call over to Glenn. Speaker 200:01:56Thank you, Nicole, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Our Q3 results underscore the fundamental strength of our distribution capabilities and the value of our complementary insurance and investment businesses. Term Life pretax income is up 7% year over year, while ISP pretax income grew 9%, representing the segment's 1st year over year increase since the Q1 of 2022. We also continue to drive growth in the size of Sales force with a 4% increase since September 30, 2022. Starting with a quick recap of our financial results, Adjusted operating revenues of $713,000,000 during the quarter rose 5% year over year, while adjusted net operating of $154,000,000 increased 9% and diluted adjusted operating earnings per share of $4.28 increased 14%. Speaker 200:02:51These results reflect the steady contribution from our large in force book of term life insurance, Strong term life sales, growth in client asset values and the benefit of higher interest rates on our investment portfolio. The Senior Health segment recorded a modest loss as we positioned the business for the start of the annual enrollment period. On the capital deployment front, we repurchased $106,000,000 of our common stock during the quarter for a total of $302,000,000 in the 1st 9 months of 20 23. We also paid $23,000,000 in stockholder dividends during the Q3. Given the strength of our capital and liquidity positions, We believe we will meet our targeted repurchases of $375,000,000 for the year. Speaker 200:03:37Turning now to distribution. Both home office and field leadership remain focused on our common goal of growing the sales force. The attractiveness of our entrepreneurial business opportunity continues to fuel recruiting. During the quarter, we welcome more than 92,000 individuals as new recruits to Primerica. We also are also seeing solid progress in licensing With a total of 12,311 individuals obtaining a new life license during the quarter, pushing the size of the life license sales force Turning next to the Term Life business. Speaker 200:04:21We issued approximately 88,500 new Term Life policies during the quarter, Up 9% compared to the adjusted policy count in the prior year. We issued $29,500,000,000 in new term life protection for Our clients, a 13% increase compared to the face amount issued in the prior year period. The productivity of our sales force remains solid at 0.21 policies per life license rep per month compared to 0.20 in the prior year period. Looking ahead, we expect 4th quarter policies issued to grow approximately 6% to 7% year over year or around 6% on a full year basis. Let's look now at our Investment and Savings Products business. Speaker 200:05:06Total sales of $2,200,000,000 during the quarter remain largely unchanged compared to the Q3 of 2022. Sales of annuity products rose 17% compared to the prior year period as annuity providers continue to enhance products, Leading to higher investment investor demand for variable annuities and the guarantee features they offer. During the quarter, we also transitioned our managed accounts business from TD to Pershing as our custodian. This conversion caused a temporary disruption in sales, which is now behind us. Changes of this magnitude generally require a period of adjustment as advisors familiarize Sales with new technology and help their clients log in and navigate the new platform. Speaker 200:05:50With the conversion complete, we were able to 98% of client assets. Advisors are adjusting and sales levels normalized in October. Finally, sales of Canadian segregated funds are down substantially after Canadian insurance regulators followed the lead of securities regulators and banned deferred sales charges on new product sales. We are actively looking at alternative alternate segregated fund solutions for our Clients in Canada. Ending client asset values were $88,400,000,000 on September 30 or 12% above the prior year period and Down approximately 3.5 percent versus June 30, 2023, as market volatility during the quarter pressured equity values. Speaker 200:06:36Net client inflows of $192,000,000 during the quarter reflected approximately $150,000,000 in redemptions from the 2% client assets that did not convert to the new managed account custodial platform. Based on October trends, we expect 4th quarter ISP sales to grow around 5% year over year. We received questions about the DOL's recent fiduciary proposal that came out on October 31. That proposed rule is subject to a comment period and potential In process changes we previously adopted, we believe we will be well positioned to deal with any final DOL rule. Turning next to Senior Health. Speaker 200:07:25During the Q3, which is seasonally the most challenging period of the year, we saw stable LTVs for the 4th consecutive quarter. However, contract acquisition costs per approved policy of $12.63 as well as sales volumes Pressured by a higher mix of newer, less productive agents. While our agent count has grown, we've had higher than expected attrition of experienced agents And new hires were onboarded and trained later in the year than we planned. We also identified an inefficiency in our use of leads, which has now been corrected. As we make course corrections to further improve our agent recruiting and onboarding, we are moderating our expectations for Q4 in AEP and expect approved applications to be down over 10% from last year. Speaker 200:08:13We believe that Primerica representatives will continue to be a valuable source of quality leads for E Telequo and estimate their referral activity will contribute more than 20% of submitted applications during this year's AEP. We remain committed to our Senior Health business and believe there is room for more improvement. Our new leadership team established Since our acquisition is fully in place, creating a strong foundation for the future, we will not need to provide capital to the subsidiary in 2023, and we do not anticipate the need to provide capital in 2024. Before turning to Allison's review of our financial results, I'd like to Comment on our CFO succession process. As you know, Allison has announced her retirement effective April 1, 2024, after nearly 23 years as CFO. Speaker 200:09:02Her leadership has provided tremendous financial discipline and performance, which we'll continue to build upon. Allison's successor, Tracy Tan, has recently joined Primerica. Tracy is an accomplished business leader with 20 years of experience as CFO Across multiple industries, including financial services, the depth and breadth of her experience and business acumen will enable her to guide Primerica to continued growth. Tracy is working closely with Allison on the transition. Tracy, welcome to the Primerica team. Speaker 300:09:34Thank you, Glenn. I appreciate a vote of confidence, and I'm excited to join Primerica. The company's mission to help middle income families is well aligned with My own personal values, it is an honor to succeed Allison, who leaves behind a great legacy. I'm committed to leveraging my experiences to drive Primerica's continued growth and value to our stockholders. Speaker 200:10:03Thank you, Tracy. It's great to have you on board. Allison, I also want to thank you for your extraordinary leadership, tireless dedication and wise counsel Throughout the years, you've been an integral part of Primerica's success and you'll be missed after your retirement next April. Speaker 400:10:17Thank you, Glenn. Thank you, Tracy. So really those really kind words. I do appreciate it, and good morning, everyone. Let me expand on our Q3 financial results by taking a closer look at the financial Starting with Term Life, we continue to benefit from the strong profits generated by this segment. Speaker 400:10:38Pretax Operating income of $141,000,000 increased 7% year over year, driven by 6% growth in adjusted direct premium. Based on current sales and persistency expectations, we expect ADP to continue to grow by approximately 6% year over year in the Q4. We also expect the Term Life segment to continue to be a strong source of free cash flow for the company. The Term Life pre tax operating margin was 23% in the 3rd quarter versus 22.8% in the prior year period. We express our term life margin and financial ratios as a percentage of adjusted direct premiums as we believe this is the best revenue basis to evaluate performance. Speaker 400:11:22In doing so, we view other ceded premiums, which are the amounts paid to our YRT Reinsurers through lock in mortality as a component of our benefit costs rather than a contra revenue as presented on a GAAP basis. Under LVTI, term life margins are expected to be stable and predictable. They are not highly sensitive to changes in persistency and Mortality experience variances are highly mitigated by reinsurance and partially spread to future periods. Benefits and claims, DAC amortization and insurance expense ratios in the Q3 were all consistent with the prior year period at 57.9%, 11.7% and 7.3%, respectively. We We expect margins and financial ratios to remain stable in the Q4. Speaker 400:12:12Turning to persistency, we continue to see elevated most notably on policies sold near the onset of or during the pandemic when various financial aid programs were widely available to middle income marketplace. The combination of ongoing cost of living pressures and the elimination of financial aid programs are likely contributors to the timing of these Persistency for both policies issued over the last year as well as older policies are generally in line with trends underlying our LVTI assumptions. While economic headwinds are likely to continue in the near term, We believe that persistency experience across all durations will revert to historical levels over time. During the Q3, we performed our annual assumption review. We did not identify any trends or experience that we believe require us to change Our long term assumptions for lapses or aggregate benefits, including both mortality and disability rates for our waiver of premium minor. Speaker 400:13:15As noted, We believe the elevated lapses seen in some policy durations will revert to historical levels over time. In regard to mortality, variances are inherently limited by our extensive YRP reinsurance program. Claims have been modestly favorable to assumptions in We've also seen some variability in disability rates underlying our waiver premium benefit, which we will continue to monitor. Turning next to the Investment and Savings Products segment. 3rd quarter operating revenues of $219,000,000 and pretax operating income of $64,000,000 We're both up 9% year over year. Speaker 400:14:06Sales based revenues and commission expense both rose 7%, in line with revenue generating sales. Asset Based revenues increased 11%, consistent with 10% growth in average client asset value. Total expenses on asset based products, including commissioning expenses and for segregated funds, both DAC amortization and insurance commissions, Increased in line with asset based revenues. With regard to debt funds, we have seen a drop off in sales due to new regulations. But given we earn commissions based on client assets, which were only down 3% year over year, The impact to earnings will emerge slowly over time. Speaker 400:14:50In our Senior In your Health segment, we recognized a $7,600,000 loss for the quarter. LTV per approved policy was $9.11 a 5% increase over the prior year period. We recorded a $2,300,000 positive tail adjustment in the quarter to reflect the impact of stabilizing persistency on import policies and annual rate increases. Marketing development revenues $2,000,000 were down slightly year over year. Beginning in the Q4, most marketing development revenues will shift from other net revenues to the commissions and fees revenue line due to a change in our contracts with certain health insurance carriers. Speaker 400:15:34Although generally neutral to total revenues, the change will result in higher LTVs and link most marketing development revenue opportunities directly to approved policies. Cash per approved policy of $12.63 was up significantly year over year based on factors to the segment in 2023, nor do we anticipate a need to do so in 2024. The corporate and other distributed products segment recorded a Pre tax operating income of 3,000,000 during the quarter. A key driver of segment results was adjusted net investment income, We got $35,000,000 for the quarter, was up $11,000,000 year over year. Our average yield on new investment purchases for the quarter was about with an average rating of AA- and an average duration of about 5 years. Speaker 400:16:32By comparison, the Average book yield on maturity for the period was under 4%. We expect to continue benefiting from higher yields and growth in their portfolio in the 4th quarter. Our invested asset portfolio ended the period at an unrealized loss of $343,000,000 which Continued to reflect a steep rise in interest rates since the beginning of last year. We regularly evaluate the portfolio for possible credit impairments and do not believe the large unrealized loss is due to significant credit concerns with our holdings. We continue to have the intent and ability to hold these Investments until maturity. Speaker 400:17:113rd quarter consolidated insurance and other operating expenses were $137,000,000 up $6,000,000 or 4 Compared to the Q3 of 2022. The increase is mainly attributable to higher employee related costs and normal growth in our business. Costs increased less than anticipated in August due to the timing of certain technology projects and pullback in equity markets that led to lower ISP asset based operating expenses than expected. Looking ahead, we expect 4th quarter insurance and other operating expenses to increase around $4,000,000 or 3% year over year, with increases coming mainly from higher employee related costs and continued growth in the business. This would result in full year expense growth about 3% year over year, which is lower than typical due to heightened expense levels in 2022 from holding an additional sales force Operator00:18:40And the first question comes from the line of Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 200:18:46Good morning, Ryan. Speaker 500:18:49Hey, good morning. My first question is just on expenses. So I think, Allison, you talked about 3% growth I think the guidance last quarter was 5% growth. So I guess first one question is just what led to the lower expenses than you were previously Okay, Dean. And then what would you view as a more normal growth rate in expenses over time for the company? Speaker 400:19:13Yes. Great question, Brian. Yes, we did anticipate and I mentioned it in my prepared comments, we had anticipated In the Q3, two things. One is sort of to kick in on certain technology projects that at this point we don't think will happen until more so the beginning of next year. And second of all, we did see pullback in equity markets during the Q3, as Glenn described, And that does correlate with lower operating expenses in that segment as well because quite a bit of our expenses come from fees we pay to providers to do record keeping and the like. Speaker 400:19:49So, and a lot of those are asset based. So, anyway, those are sort of the 2 Big pieces that caused us to have lower expenses than we expected This quarter, and we don't see a lot of that, you know, turning around or timing wise in the Q4. I do I think your point about next year or a normalized I did highlight and I will continue to highlight that the 3% growth we saw this year is atypical. A lot of it really had to do with things that we incurred outside of the normal course in 2022. Big chunk of that came from doing 2 leadership events and a convention all in 1 year, which is very atypical for us, but we got backed up As of COVID, so I do look at the future, and I think I've said this in the past, I think you should look at this business more And let's say the 5% to 7% growth rate in expenses, unless there's something very specific that we have to drive the business or we make some kind of substantial commitment to an endeavor. Speaker 400:21:01The caveat around that is a lot of our expenses are really tied directly to our revenue sources. So to the extent we see any kind of Extreme fluctuation in our revenue sources, say, because of changes in the stock market, that could change that perspective. But in a normal situation, I would expect anywhere from 5% to 7% be the general range. Speaker 500:21:26Great. Thanks. That's really helpful. And then Glenn, I just want to follow-up on the DOL proposal. Maybe one thing I think that might be helpful is could you provide some comments, things that you already changed to prepare for the 2016 rule As we think about the current proposal and then just general thoughts on kind of how this proposal looks to you relative To what had been had occurred last time around. Speaker 200:21:57Right. Well, it is very early, Ryan, as I stated in my prepared comments and lots of time for commentary from the industry and even pushback after the fact. So, it's a little hard to draw an exact beat on. But I do think 2 things going in our favor is that our business is fairly simple compared to Other models, as far as our product set goes, it's a little narrower product set, a little more simpler product set than some that are more sophisticated. And as we went through this process in the last go round, we recognized and are building our business around the fact that we are As fiduciaries and a number of the recommendations we're making, particularly around retirement accounts. Speaker 200:22:41And so we took action at that point That we believe based on what we know today that could change will help us be already in line with some of the proposed changes for the future. Our business model works in our favor to a certain extent in some areas, our product set at least. And then also, we did make changes Last time around our advice around retirement accounts and rollovers, then in anticipation of these types of ongoing changes in the future, We think that positions us for less disruption based on the way that this version of the rule might come out. Speaker 500:23:17Great. Thank you. Speaker 200:23:19Certainly. Operator00:23:22And the next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmitt With William Blair, please proceed with your question. Speaker 600:23:27Hi, good morning. Good morning. The pre tax margin term life Was fairly high at 23% again and seems to be driven by, I guess, insurance expenses are kind of below historical levels. But is there anything else In that and then in how sustainable I guess would you think that is? Speaker 400:23:46Yes. And to your point about Expenses, it's really not that far out of historical levels. It does fluctuate from quarter to quarter. It was a little bit lower this quarter, but not something that It was completely atypical of what you might see in any quarter going forward. When you look at it in terms of as a percentage of adjusted direct premiums, We would LVTI are expected to remain very, very stable. Speaker 400:24:22The only thing that would truly disrupt That would be if we had an assumption change or significant assumption change. And quite frankly, given The nature of our business, the fact that we use so much reinsurance to mitigate exposure on mortality, The fact that we only sell Term Life and we have a very large homogeneous book of business that we know how to predict. And given how DAC works these days with a straight line basis that it's not nearly as volatile based on persistency, You know, we really do expect our margins to stay in this relative range. You might see some creep over time, but it will be Very modest, which I think highlights, as I think I believe Glenn opened in his remarks, the predictability of this particular business. And you combine that with the generous cash flow it creates and it really becomes just a key component Of our business model and our financial business model. Speaker 600:25:27Okay. And then on the Proposed DOL rule, I mean, do you see your main exposure being on fixed index annuities or Will variable annuities be affected too? I mean, obviously, you probably made changes to that in the past with the regulation, with the Reg BI. But I'm just curious, is that exposure really on the fixed index annuities at this stage? And how much of flows today are really from 401 rollovers, I mean, I know you do a fair amount. Speaker 200:26:02Yes, Jeff. The it's a good add on to the question Ryan asked earlier because Our business our fixed indexed and fixed annuity business is very small. It's about 5% of total sales in the quarter And that's on the pretty high end of the range. It fluctuates from between 2% 5% of our total sales, and that's a combination of both fixed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. And the fixed indexed annuities were called out in some of the discussion around the rule. Speaker 200:26:30So I think there's some feeling that they may be, an area of focus in this edition of the rule. So our variable annuity business, which generally runs from about 22% to 26 And in less volatile, more predictable times, it shifts back away from to non guaranteed products like mutual funds, and we've seen that for years. And so that's very common. And it has it's moved in a fairly narrow range. So I think if there is an annuity focus For us, it's a variable annuity focus, which is a lot of the discussion from last time, and I think it's a lot of what we've prepared for in advance around Product mix question. Speaker 200:27:18We do a significant amount of rollover business. We can get you an exact number after the call. But that is an area where we recognized in advising on 401 and other retirement plan rollovers. That was The whole crux of the fiduciary question and that's where we went ahead at the last edition of the rule and made changes to make sure we were in line with fiduciary advice around those rollovers. So that's where we believe we as we understand it today, again, with a lot of room for change, we may be in a good position already On the rollover front. Speaker 600:27:54Okay, great. Thank you. Speaker 200:27:58Certainly. Operator00:28:00And the next question comes from the line of Suneet Kamath with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 700:28:06Good morning, guys. Just wanted to start with the term lapse rate. Allison, I think on the Q2 call, you gave us some good data in terms of what you saw in the Q1, I think 3% to 5% and what you saw in the Q2, I think you said 5% to 7%. If those numbers are right, do you have a Speaker 400:28:29Yes. And it's interesting. One of the reasons I didn't put those exact figures first of all, the numbers have I don't want to say overly improved, but we have seen where the variances are Have shrunk in the number of durations we're seeing it. So earlier in the year, we really were seeing things vary across Board, which really was sort of the economic hit, what was going on in the marketplace. It's interesting as we analyze Now we're seeing it very specifically in a small number of durations. Speaker 400:29:03It's, as I mentioned in my comments, Not seeing it on the new business. The new business is really moving in line with our LDTI assumptions. And then on the Outer years, say, duration 5 and later, it's very much in line with the assumptions. It's really years 2 through 4. When you look at those years, what jumps out at me is what I highlighted in the That these were policies that people bought either right before or during the pandemic. Speaker 400:29:38These were people I think were real we saw after the pandemic, as we expected, a lot of policies fall off the books pretty quickly. A lot of people did knee jerk Purchases during the pandemic and then decided not to keep it post pandemic when they felt We're gone. I believe these are people and this is my belief. I believe these are people that really did want to keep their policies and have held on to those COVID acquired policies for as long as they could. But as you're well aware, all of the stimulus Packages that were out for a long period of time are now gone. Speaker 400:30:15All the aid programs on loan repayments are gone. And just the economy for a lot of people in our market Place has been challenging, cost of living has been challenging. So I see those being the driving factors as to why these particular durations or buckets of policyholders are being atypically impacted. So it's one of the reasons why I didn't go ahead and give something overall. Unlike the earlier periods where it was really pervasive amongst durations, to me this is a very specific thing we're seeing, Which we do expect to run off and again, which is why we did not go ahead and change any long term assumptions under LDTI. Speaker 700:30:54Okay. That makes sense. And then I guess maybe on Senior Health, it sounds like there's some incremental challenges, I think, based on reading Press release, some hiring delays and then I think Glenn you had mentioned some higher attrition. And then lastly, I normally think about this business as being sort of profitable in the Q4, but I think you're guiding to a loss. So maybe just some color around what you're seeing there. Speaker 700:31:19Just Feels like maybe it's not getting kind of back on track like we had kind of hoped it would. Speaker 200:31:26Yes. It's you're right about the normal Cadence of the business, the 4th quarter is normally the during AEP the most significant quarter. And so what we've seen is, it's not in hindsight now that we see it. And of course, it was something we were trying to control as we go, but we weren't able to totally control it Yes. We wanted to grow the size of our sales force by hiring new and also retaining experienced reps. Speaker 200:31:53We've got a we feel like a good pool of Allen out there to hire new, but we didn't retain as many of our experienced salespeople as we wanted to. And so what that's led to is a larger sales But with a newer mix of reps and the reality is the newer mix of reps are not as sufficient. Their number of sales per leads are not And so that leads to the increase in CAC that we saw in the Q3, and we're just anticipating that we'll see some see that again in the Q4 And lead to a loss in the 4th quarter, small loss in the 4th quarter rather than a small gain. So It's a fairly focused issue. We've taken all the actions or begun to take all the actions to deal with that. Speaker 200:32:38As I mentioned in my Prepared remarks, we feel very good about our leadership team that's in place now, having built or rebuilt that Since the acquisition, and so we do have a lot of positives going on. The stability in LTV, we count as an environmental positive that we're gaining from. It looks like the shopping and churn challenge that we had a couple of years ago that the industry had a couple of years ago Has begun to normalize. So that gives us a much better environment to build the business in. It's just going to take some more work and take a little longer than we anticipated. Speaker 700:33:11Got it. Maybe just one quick follow-up. What do you think is driving the attrition of the experienced senior health folks? Speaker 200:33:20I think it's a number of factors. I think that it's general disruption that Alison talked about In the marketplace and in the economy, I think people are struggling financially and therefore more likely to look for alternative employment that might Give them a more upside and a bigger opportunity. And we didn't weren't able to put our finger on any one particular item. Obviously, as we look at all of the retention aspects of our opportunity and compensation and other types of Benefits, we're looking at all of that to make sure that we're competitive. It wasn't any particular one item that we can lay our finger on and have a quick fix. Speaker 200:34:02It's just a disruptive environment that we're operating in. Speaker 700:34:06Got it. Thanks, Glenn. Speaker 200:34:09Certainly, happy to do that. Operator00:34:12And the next question comes from the line of Maxwell Fritchard with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 800:34:18Good morning, Maxwell. Hi, good morning. I'm calling in for Mark Hughes. I just kind of have a broad question about the recruiting environment. It seems as though there's some opportunity for growth considering the payroll numbers from the labor department came in a little cooler than expected. Speaker 800:34:36Seems like it should be maybe a catalyst. Any thoughts there? Speaker 200:34:41Yes. Maxwell, it's interesting. The response I was given to Suneet about senior health was about our Employee sales force at E Telequote, which where there is quite there's quite a lot of competition for employees. Interestingly enough, The economic disruption actually leads toward more people looking for alternatives, the people that maybe are looking for an alternative to their senior health sales position. That's true of people looking for alternatives everywhere, which actually helps drive Primerica's overall independent salesperson recruiting. Speaker 200:35:15So, the dissatisfaction that's a headwind for our ETQ business actually is a tailwind for our recruiting of our overall sales force, which is And so, our recruiting is not directly tied to employment. Remember, people are not Looking for a job when they come to Primerica that has a paycheck next Friday, they're looking for an opportunity that they can build over several years. And so, we don't see direct competition generally based on the tightness of the labor market, particularly when that tightness This is created by jobs maybe that are not high quality jobs that are often lower paying, where people are employed, but they're underemployed. That's the perfect environment for Primerica to recruit to our larger sales force, because those people are frustrated, they're unhappy, and they're looking for an alternative that they control. And that's I mentioned of our entrepreneurial opportunity. Speaker 200:36:10So, we're seeing a very high attractiveness in this environment, even as The employment market tends to tighten in some months and then ease in other months. As long as there are a lot of frustrated employees, That's what we need to be able to recruit large numbers at Primerica, and there's a lot of those out there. So we're not our recruiting of our Primerica sales force It's not subject to the changes in the labor market quite as directly as it might appear. Speaker 800:36:38Yes. That's very helpful. And that's all I have. Thank you. Speaker 200:36:42Good. And if I could circle back around to the questions about rollovers, about a third of our U. S. Mutual fund sales volume comes from 401 rollovers. And I believe Ryan had asked that question. Speaker 200:36:52So Ryan, if that's helpful, I thought I'd give you that stat. About a third of mutual fund volume is 401 rollovers.Read moreRemove AdsPowered by