Alan Colberg
Analyst · Sterne Agee. Your line is open
Thanks, Francesca, and good morning, everyone. In 2014 we made progress as we adapted to the changing marketplace and built additional capabilities to drive profitable long-term growth. While we are disappointed by weaker-than-expected earnings in the fourth quarter, we're taking decisive actions to improve profitability. We see great opportunities ahead as we pursue our aspiration of sustained out-performance for our customers, employees and shareholders. In 2014 we generated strong free cash flow. In support of our strategy to grow and produce attractive shareholder returns, we invested $162 million to complete four acquisitions. We returned $296 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, and we ended the year with $560 million of holding company capital. For the year, we delivered 9.7% operating ROE excluding AOCI, below our target due largely to an operating loss at health. Book value, excluding AOCI, grew by 9% compared to year-end 2013. We are pleased with our top line results. Revenues increased 16% to $9.7 billion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. The key drivers of this performance were our targeted growth offerings, which now account for a quarter of total revenue. More importantly, earnings from these product lines tripled year over year. We will continue to shift resources toward these targeted areas, as we believe they will drive growth in earnings and cash flow longer term. Our recent divestiture of American Reliable Insurance Company is another example of our actions to realign capital to support our long-term profitability objectives. I want to thank the American Reliable employees for their service and the seamless transition to Global Indemnity. During 2014 we also broadened our specialty insurance products with additional adjacent fee-based services related to a variety of risk events. Across Assurant we generated more than $1 billion of fee income for new and existing offerings, an increase of 76% from 2013. These results demonstrate our progress in building a stronger Assurant for the future. As we adapt to market changes, we must accelerate our efforts in 2015 to achieve profitable long-term growth. As an enterprise, we will focus on three strategic priorities. First, we will innovate faster around the end consumer to generate organic growth. Second, we will continue to drive operational excellence to become more efficient while delivering outstanding customer experiences. And third, we will maintain our commitment to disciplined capital management. We view our stock as attractively priced and will balance investing in our business with returning capital to shareholders. We are working hard to achieve these strategic priorities. Let me now share updates on each segment. Assurant Solutions delivered exceptional results in 2014 by offering innovative programs across the mobile value chain in the US and a number of international markets. As we look ahead, mobile remains the largest growth opportunity for Solutions. Our acquisitions of Lifestyle Services Group in 2013 and CWI Group last October enabled us to expand our global footprint in distribution. We will continue to consider select investments to enhance our competitive position. As smart phones, appliances and other consumer electronics intersect, Solutions is focused on providing comprehensive protection through our connected living platform. Our expertise in the warranty and mobile business, coupled with our broad distribution, uniquely positioned us to deliver integrated solutions to our clients. For example, we recently partnered with Claro Brazil, one of the largest mobile operators in Latin America, to introduce a smart phone upgrade plan that includes device protection. This program enables consumers who otherwise could not have purchased those devices to join the connected world. As competition intensifies across the industry, there will be additional opportunities to expand our market share, but occasionally we will lose business. Recently a client notified us of its decision to transfer their tablet protection program to an affiliated company starting in the second quarter of this year. While we are disappointed to lose this business, we believe our tailored solutions in the mobile value chain and superior customer service will continue to be key differentiators in the industry. Pre-need is another important business for Solutions and remains a solid performer. While widespread flu this season could increase mortality, we expect pre-need to grow as we benefit from SCI's expanding share of the US funeral market. These opportunities at Solutions, along with our disciplined investments, will help us build on last year's success. Let's now look at Assurant Specialty Property. This segment benefited from another year without significant hurricane activity. Property took many steps last year to drive operational excellence while moving resources toward our targeted growth areas. Our alignment with leading mortgage servicers remains a key differentiator and competitive strength for Property. As expected, the normalization of Lender-Placed insurance will pressure results near term. In 2014 we started to invest in initiatives to standardize our Lender-Placed platform to increase efficiency. We expect these investments and ongoing actions to generate net savings later this year, and beyond, to help maintain specialty returns. Our strong capital position allows us to invest in targeted areas to drive profitable growth and diversify our business model. We are pleased with our progress thus far. Our acquisitions of Field Asset Services, StreetLinks and eMortgage Logic, which now comprise our mortgage solutions business are performing ahead of our revenue expectations. We're capturing market share and now expect to generate $300 million of fee income from these acquired businesses in 2015. At Assurant Health 2014 marked a year of substantial change with the introduction of guaranteed issue and the public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. For the first time during an open enrollment period, we participated on exchanges in 16 states. Individual major medical plans sold off on and off the exchanges, drove significant sales increases in the fourth quarter. While we are encouraged to see our products resonate with consumers, our focus must remain on driving profitability and achieving specialty returns. The loss for the year was disappointing and reflected persistently high ACA claims experience. As we have noted, mandated coverage extensions introduced after the industry had set 2014 pricing, drove higher overall market morbidity and significantly affected results. In response, we've taken action, effective January 1 we implemented plan design changes and increased premium rate substantially for all 2015 ACA policies. We also lowered commission levels in certain distribution channels across several states to further manage risk. We believe the actions we are taking, along with ongoing expense discipline should improve results in 2015. Assurant Employee Benefits results were driven by overall favorable experience and growth in Voluntary Products. Revenue from this targeted area increased by 12%, well in excess of the market. We believe Voluntary will remain the growth engine of benefits as employers shift more of the selection process and benefits cost to their employees. As the market continues to evolve, Employee Benefits will partner even more closely with Health in a number of areas. For example, the segments are looking at opportunities to leverage their broad distribution networks and sales programs. They are also evaluating operating efficiencies to prove the customer experience and strengthen returns. As I moved into the role of CEO, I'm energized by our employees as we strive to make Assurant stronger for the future. Across the organization we are accelerating our actions on multiple fronts to enhance efficiency, to invest for long-term profitable growth and to prudently manage capital for the benefit of shareholders. Now Chris will review results for the quarter and our outlook for 2015 in more detail. Chris?