Keith Meier
Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Assurant
Thanks, Keith, and good morning, everyone. I'm proud of what we achieved in 2024, including the financial results delivered by our incredibly strong team. For the year, we increased adjusted EBITDA by 15% to over $1.5 billion, while growing adjusted earnings per share to over $20, both excluding cats. We have continued our long-term track-record of growing earnings consistently, demonstrating the power of Assurance. Our performance was highlighted by another exceptional year in Global Housing, where we delivered double-digit earnings growth overall for the second consecutive year.
Within Global Lifestyle, connected Living grew 9%, excluding $25 million of investments and $12 million of unfavorable foreign-exchange. More importantly, we set a solid foundation for growth as we enter 2025. In Global Auto, targeted actions in our vehicle service contract and GAAP products stabilized earnings in the second-half of 2024, and we are excited about the trajectory of the business as we move into 2025. I'll begin by highlighting key trends we saw in the 4th-quarter. From there, I'll walk-through our 2025 outlook as we look to deliver our ninth consecutive year of profitable growth.
Beginning with our 4th-quarter enterprise results, adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share both increased 13%, excluding cats led by Global Housing. Looking at capital, Global Lifestyle and Global Housing continued to generate significant cash-flow as we upstreamed nearly $250 million from our segments in the 4th-quarter and over $800 million for the full-year. We returned $161 million of that cash to our shareholders in the 4th-quarter, which puts our total capital return to shareholders for the year in excess of $450 million, including $300 million of share repurchases.
Our buyback level was at the top-end of our expectations for the year. At the same time, we ended the year in a strong capital position with $673 million of liquidity at the holding company. This past November, we increased our common stock dividend by 11%. The increase represented the 20th consecutive year we have raised our dividend since our IPO. In addition, we were just added to the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrats Index earlier this month. We are incredibly proud of this achievement and expect our strong capital returns to continue as part of our balanced capital deployment framework.
Turning to our segment results, beginning with Global Lifestyle. 4th-quarter adjusted EBITDA was down 6% compared to last year or 5% on a constant-currency basis. In Connected Living, earnings were roughly flat on a constant-currency basis. 4th-quarter results included $4 million of incremental investments related to new capabilities and client partnerships that are expected to drive future growth. Investments in 2024 are already paying-off as earnings from recently launched clients, including card benefits within our financial services business, have begun to contribute to Connected Living's 4th-quarter performance. As Keith mentioned, we are now focused on scaling these partnerships for growth. These contributions were offset by lower US trade-in programs. Year-over-year, trading results were impacted by business mix and lower volumes. However, we did see sequential trading growth as expected.
Turning to Global Auto. In the quarter, results were down 11% compared to last year. The year-over-year decline was largely driven by lower real-estate joint-venture partnership income of $13.8 million. 4th-quarter 2023 included a more significant real-estate joint-venture gain compared to a smaller gain this year. Excluding this, results in Global Auto were largely flat as higher investment income was partially offset by elevated loss experience in both our GAAP product and our vehicle service contract business compared to last year.
Importantly, we continue to see claims experience remain stable from last quarter as previously implemented program changes and rate increases continue to earn through our book, leading to a sequential improvement in earnings. In terms of revenue, our net earned premiums, fees and other income for Global Lifestyle grew 2% or approximately 6% on a constant-currency basis and excluding $85 million of favorable non-run rate premium adjustments in Global Automotive in 4th-quarter 2023.
Moving to Global Housing, 4th-quarter results were strong, building on an exceptional performance for the year. Adjusted EBITDA was $225 million, which included $50 million of cat losses, largely from Hurricane Milton. Excluding cats, adjusted EBITDA increased 32%. In the quarter, we saw a continuation of robust policy growth in homeowners from higher placement rates given voluntary insurance market pressure. As these additional policies are placed, we benefit from the significant expense leverage we have driven in this business from our technology investments.
Earnings growth in the quarter also included impacts from favorable non-catastrophe losses due to lower frequency as well as lower catastrophe reinsurance costs. While we had favorable prior-period reserve development of $38 million in the quarter, it was relatively consistent with 4th-quarter 2023 and did not impact year-over-year growth trends. Within our renters business, we continued to benefit from strong results in our PMC channel, which achieved its 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit gross written premium growth.
Now let's discuss our outlook for 2025. We expect full-year adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share to increase modestly, both excluding cats. Overcoming $107 million of favorable prior year reserve development in Housing's 2024 results. Excluding the significant favorable PYD in 2024, strong underlying growth trends are expected to deliver high single-digit earnings and EPS growth, both excluding CATs. Our outlook includes our forward view of foreign-exchange rates and interest rates, but does not factor-in potential impacts from tariffs, including those related to claims costs or consumer demand.
While tariffs could potentially affect claims costs, we believe we are well-positioned to react quickly to address potential impacts. Over-time, our business model has had a proven ability to deliver in the face of various economic environments and cycles. Looking at our segments for 2025, we expect global lifestyle growth driven by higher contributions from Connected Living and Global Automotive. Growth is expected to be partially offset by an unfavorable impact from foreign-exchange rates as well as investments in new partnerships and programs in 2025. Combined, we expect foreign-exchange and incremental investments to mute growth by a few percentage points.
Turning to Global Housing, we expect EBITDA, excluding cats to decline modestly, given the $107 million of favorable prior year reserve development seen in 2024. Excluding the impact of prior year development in 2024, on an underlying basis, we expect strong global Housing EBITDA growth in 2025. As a reminder, our 2025 outlook does not contemplate additional prior year development. Underlying growth is expected to be driven by our homeowners business, which will continue to benefit from lender-placed policy growth and expense leverage. For the recent wildfires in California, we remain focused on settling claims and helping our policyholders navigate through the event.
Reportable catastrophes from the California wildfires are expected to approach or slightly exceed our per event catastrophe reinsurance program retention of $150 million. We'll provide a further update in May as we learn more and continue to settle claims. In terms of other impacts to 2025, we are working through the placement of our catastrophe reinsurance program, which will be effective on April 1. We expect a similar structure to our 2024 program, maintaining robust coverage at both the top and bottom-end of our program.
As the program terms are finalized, we will also get greater insights into our expected cat load for the year. We will provide an update in May on expectations, which will be inclusive of our California wildfire estimates. Our capital objectives for 2025 are consistent with prior years 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 is between $200 million to $300 million, subject to M&A as well as market and other conditions. This range accounts for our estimated impact from the California wildfires. Of course, we will continue to make sound capital allocation decisions over the course of the year as our track-record has shown.
Through February 7, we've repurchased $24 million of shares. We expect buybacks to be more consistent throughout the year compared to back-end weighted in prior years, driven by our confidence in our strong capital position and cash-flow generation. And finally, speaking of cash-flow generation, we believe Assurance is differentiated compared to the broader P&C industry given our unique lifestyle and housing portfolio, which creates strong capital efficiencies and the ability to reinvest for growth. In 2025, we expect to continue to generate meaningful cash flows aligned with our recent performance. Overall, we are proud of our consistent outperformance and feel well-positioned to continue our growth trajectory in 2025.
With that, operator, please open the call for questions.
