Welcome to Assurant's First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Francesca Luthi, Chief Communication Officer and Marketing Officer. You may begin.

Thank you, Dan, and good morning, everyone. We look forward to discussing our first quarter 2017 results with you today. Joining me for Assurant's conference call are Alan Colberg, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Richard Dziadzio, our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued a news release announcing our first quarter 2017 results. The release and corresponding financial supplement are available at assurant.com. As a reminder, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2016, we revised our reportable segments to align with the company's new global operating model. As a result, our reportable segments now comprise, Global Housing, Global Lifestyle, Global Preneed, and Corporate. Net operating income includes contributions from these four reportable segments, as well as interest expense. Operating results exclude Health runoff operations, the divested Employee Benefits, and amortization of deferred gains from dispositions, and other items that do not represent the ongoing operations of the company. Related prior-period results in the financial supplement and in the news release have been revised to conform to the new presentation. On today's call, we will also refer to other non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are important in evaluating 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 news release and financial supplement available on assurant.com. We'll begin the call this morning with prepared remarks before moving to Q&A. Some of the statements made today may be forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially from those projected in these statements. Additional information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from those projected can be found in yesterday's news release, as well as in our SEC reports, including our Form 10-K. I will now turn the call over to Alan.

Thanks, Francesca. Good morning, everyone. Overall, we delivered solid results in the first quarter of this year. Global Lifestyle reported strong earnings, better than we had expected. While segment results were helped by some one-time items in the quarter, we were pleased with our underlying performance. Overall for Assurant this year, we continue to believe that our total operating earnings, excluding catastrophe losses, will be generally level with 2016, and that operating earnings per share will increase double digits. As we move through 2017, we expect to see continued growth across our targeted areas, as well as in vehicle protection. Our success has been largely driven by our ability to adapt to evolving client and consumer expectations. Extending our competitive advantage, we'll require ongoing investments in our technology infrastructure and other capabilities. Across Assurant, expense management efforts are ongoing, and remain central to our culture of continuous improvement. We've identified savings to fund our technology enhancements and moderate the impact from expected declines in lender-placed and legacy businesses. Overall, though results may vary by quarter, we are confident that growth in our targeted areas, together with expense efficiencies, will enable us to deliver on our commitments for 2017. And importantly, we believe our transformation is solidifying a foundation for profitable growth and ongoing cash flow in 2018 and beyond. Let me now offer a few updates from the first quarter. In Global Housing, we completed the first client beta implementation of our new lender-placed platform. This represents a milestone for the business. Work began several years ago in partnership with our clients, when we saw the opportunity to create greater standardization, while providing an even better customer experience. During the course of this year and next, we will be transferring other clients onto this new platform, enabling us to deliver…

Thank you, Alan, and good morning. Let's start with a look at Global Housing, which produced earnings of $62 million, down $14 million from the same period last year. The change was primarily driven by declines in lender-placed as well as softer results within mortgage solutions. A combined ratio for Global Housing risk-based businesses increased 220 basis points to 82.9%. Lower placement rates in the lender-placed business as well as higher expenses to onboard new client loans drove the increase. The first quarter of 2017 benefited from more favorable loss experience. Reportable catastrophes losses totaled $900,000 pre-tax, net of $5.2 million of favorable reserve development related to Hurricane Matthew. The pre-tax margin for our fee-based capital-light businesses decreased 220 basis points to 8.8%. Weaker performance in mortgage solutions coming from softer market conditions, originations and field services, coupled with lower client volumes, contributed to the decline. As Alan discussed earlier, we are right-sizing expenses in mortgage solutions, while at the same time implementing technology enhancements to drive additional efficiencies long term. Meanwhile, our multi-family housing business continue to grow profitably, largely through expansion within our affinity channels, as well as more favorable loss experience. Turning to revenue. First quarter net earned premiums and fees in Global Housing decreased 8%, primarily due to lower placement and lower premium rates in our lender-placed insurance business. Our placement rate was 1.96% at the end of the first quarter, down from 2% at year-end. This 4 basis point reduction is consistent with trends seen in prior years. Now, let's move to revenue for our fee-based capital-light businesses. Multi-family housing increased 11% during the quarter. This reflects double-digit growth in renters' policies sold to our affinity channels and property management network. In mortgage solutions, fee income was down 20%, primarily related to declining volumes in…

Thank you. Our first question is coming from Seth Weiss with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning, Seth.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking the call. My question is one the mobile business. And if we look at the disclosure around mobile covered devices, it appears flat to year-end. The premium line moves around a little bit because of that program restructure, so I was just curious, if you could guide us about the best way to think about how top line progression in the mobile business, and how we can measure that?

Yeah. Certainly, Seth. I mean, first of all, in mobile, I think we felt good about the first quarter. It was in line with what we had expected. As we look through the second quarter and beyond, really three things are going on that will continue to drive performance in that business. One is, we are expanding with our existing clients. In my prepared remarks, I mentioned the rollout with T-Mobile of AppleCare. We're also in the process of launching premium technical support, which is another fee income service with some of our clients. Also, later in the year, we expect significant increase in trading activity, both with carrier promotions, but importantly, the new products that are expected or is excepted at later of the year. And then, finally, we continue to onboard new clients, some of which will impact 2017, the majority of which are going to impact 2018. We actually have a backlog as we implement. And then, finally, the mix is shifting. If you think back a few years, traditionally, that business was a premium business, handset protection, now it's heavily also a fee income business. That just shows up differently in the geography of the P&L. We feel good about the progress of mobile.

Okay. So, the – we're not going to see a lot of that progression, I guess, within the P&L and the disclosure, if I'm understanding correctly, since only a piece of that comes from on-boarding new clients. Is that the right way to think about it?

What you'll see, we're disclosing a few of the key metrics now between the number of subscribers which is more of the premium-based fees with the business, and then the number of devices that we have processed through our facilities, but the important thing to focus on is profit.

Okay. Great. And then, I'm not sure if you could comment about share buyback, just considering the amount of excess capital that you have in cash on hand. The first quarter, I guess, was just a little bit late from what I expected. I would have expected a little bit more rapid deployment. So if you could just help us think through sort of the pace of bringing that excess capital back.

Sure. And good morning, Seth. It's Richard. Yeah. Just to maybe back up one step, at the beginning of 2016, we committed to return $1.5 billion to shareholders by the end of this year. As we get through at the end of April, we find ourselves at about having returned $1.2 billion both from share buybacks and dividends. So we're, I would say, sort of well ahead of the pace that we've put for ourselves. And really to answer your question more specifically, in terms of the first quarter, typically in a first quarter, we would be a little bit lighter in things as we see the year evolve and understand how we get through the summer and cat experience and all of that. But we are on track for the $1.5 billion and ahead of the pace.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Our next question comes from the line of Jimmy Bhullar from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, Jimmy.

Hi. Good morning.

Good morning.

Hi. So, first question on just the mortgage solutions business. The results this quarter were weak. Do you view that as an anomaly or have your expectations for growth in that business changed at all?

So, let me back up a little context on that business, and how we think about it. So we entered these businesses starting about three to four years ago now, really to leverage our strong client partnerships in the housing space. And our thesis was that we could gain share leveraging our partnerships and that worked very well in 2015 and into 2016. Really a couple of things happened late last year, early into this year, none of which changed our long-term perspective on the business. One is market demand has gotten softer than anybody had forecasted, really driven by the uncertainty in the economy and uncertainty on interest rate direction. And then, as we have been implementing our technology upgrades to really bring these businesses together, we've had some short-term client allocation shifts, but they don't fundamentally change how we think about this. So, weaker in the quarter. We are not happy with that, but we took aggressive action as to the leadership of that business. And we still feel very good about the longer term for mortgage solutions.

Okay. And then on the vehicle service business also, you've seen very strong, generally double-digit growth in that business. This quarter was a little bit of a slowdown. Any color on what happened there?

Yeah, no, I think from quarter-to-quarter, there could be small movements, but we did have some, as you mentioned, some very strong top line growth. We're attracting new clients, and the outlook is still intact for VPS to do well for the full year.

Okay. And just lastly, on the share buybacks, I think you have about $540 million remaining in your authorization as of the end of May. Do you expect to complete that this year, by the end of the year? Because that would put you above your initial targets that you had mentioned for capital deployment?

So, Jimmy, let's make sure everyone is clear on what we committed to in capital deployment, which was to return $1.5 billion through both dividends and buybacks. So we have more than enough authorization in place to deliver on our commitment of $1.5 billion.

No. That's what I meant. I just was trying to get a sense of if you intend to complete the authorization this year.

Not going to comment on that. What we do intend to commit is that we will hit that $1.5 billion that we've committed to return to shareholders. With authorizations, as appropriate, we'll go back to the board for additional authorizations. But bottom line, we feel very good about the capital position. We're going to continue to pursue both growth, funding organic growth and selective M&A, while continuing our long track record of returning capital to shareholders.

Okay. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of John Nadel with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning, John. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Hey. Good morning, Alan. Good morning, Richard. Just following up on mortgage solutions first, the revenues there were down 20% year-over-year, but I think if I recall correctly, you actually had an acquisition that should be contributing to that piece of the business, the American Title deal. So, is my recollection right and did that contribute this quarter? And if it did, what was the contribution and how do we think about the revenues on sort of an organic basis there? Because it looks like it slowed down even worse than the 20.

Yeah. Good morning, John. It's Richard. I'll take that one. Yeah, you're referring to the acquisition of American Title, and you're right. It added about $10 million to the revenue line. So you could back that out. It would bring down the overall revenues by 30%, 33% overall. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. And so, Alan, whether it's 20% or 33%, either one sounds very significant. I get that you're saying that nothing that's happened here has really changed your long-term outlook. I guess, how do you have that confidence?

So, a couple of things. First, we're still bigger than we were when we acquired these companies, even with the disruption that's going on in the market in the short term. And it really was largely driven in originations, which has been affected by the uncertainty in the economy. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay.

I think the originations were down in that 33%, 34% type range sequentially, but this business is still small, not material to our overall results, and bigger and the thesis has worked out until the last couple of quarters, and we don't see anything that would change that. And then, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we are able to quickly adjust the cost structure in this business. So that any problems can be remediated within a quarter or two. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. I mean, that's helpful. So, we should be thinking about originations as really important driver, a data point for this piece of the business. And...

Certainly important, yes. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Yeah. And then, overall, if I think about the longer term target, right, fee-based capital-light within Global Housing, I think you've indicated at your Investor Day a year-and-a-half ago or so that that's expected to be about 35% to 40% of the segment's earnings by 2020. This quarter and I guess recently, it looks like it's sort of a mid-teens contribution. How much in M&A, when you think about the next couple of years and the driver of the growth in the earnings contribution from this piece, how much in M&A is required to get there versus organic growth?

We don't assume any M&A is required. We believe we'll achieve it through organic growth in both the multi-family housing and the mortgage solutions businesses. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. And then, last one also focusing here in Global Housing, if I do some math on the lender-placed business, it appears, and I know this is imperfect, but it appears that the premium rate on the lender-placed is down year-over-year about 5% to 6%. Is that about right based on what you guys are seeing in the business? And also as we think about looking forward, how much more pressure should we expect to see on premium rates, before you expect that to stabilize, when you think about that normalization of the business?

So, a couple of thoughts there, John. I think the primary driver of our results recently has been the placement rate, and that came down 4 basis points, as the housing market continues to recover quarter-on-quarter. What we said on rates I think is still very much true, which is we're now normal course. We settled multi-state, and that's behind us. We have some states that approve increases based on our experiences, some states that have reductions based on experience. But I wouldn't anticipate any extraordinary trend there. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. Is the mid-single digit decline at least on a year-over-year basis, is that about right?

There is a number of things going on in the lender-placed revenues, as Alan said. It's placement rates, which would be the main driver. So it's placement rates, and then obviously, we have some new clients coming in and so forth. So there is offsetting things and there. So I wouldn't put my finger on one number. John M. Nadel - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Okay. I'll follow up offline. Thank you.

And we have no further questions in the queue at this time. I will turn the call back to the presenters.

All right. Thanks, Dan, and thanks, everyone, for participating in today's call. We look forward to updating you on our progress later this year. Please reach out to Francesca Luthi and Sean Moshier with any follow-up questions. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.