Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MetLife first quarter 2018 earnings release conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we get started, I would like to read the following statement on behalf of MetLife. Except with respect to historical information, statements made in this conference call constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements relating to the trends in the company's operations and financial results and the business and the products of the company and its subsidiaries. MetLife's actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, including those described from time to time in MetLife's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the risk factor section of those filings. MetLife specifically disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. With that, I would like to turn the call over to John Hall, head of Investor Relations. [05LC2Y-E John Hall] Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MetLife's first quarter 2018 earnings call. On this call we will be discussing certain financial measures not based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, so-called non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures and related definitions to the most directly comparable GAAP measures may be found on the Investor Relations portion of metlife.com, in our earnings release and on our quarterly financial supplement. A reconciliation of forward-looking financial information to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is not accessible because MetLife believes it's not possible to provide a reliable forecast of net investment and net derivative gains and losses which can fluctuate from period to period and may have a significant impact on GAAP net income. Now joining me this morning on the call are Steve Kandarian, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and John McCallion, Chief Financial Officer. Also here with us today to participate in the discussions are other members of senior management. Last night we released an expanded set of supplemental slides. They are available on our website. John McCallion will speak to those supplemental slides in his prepared remarks if you wish to follow along. After prepared remarks, we will have a q-and-a session that, given the busy earnings call schedule this morning, will extend no longer than the top of the hour. So in fairness to all participants, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. With that I will turn the call over to Steve.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. As you know, we announced on Tuesday that John Hele is retiring from MetLife and has been succeeded as CFO by John McCallion. I want to thank John Hele for his service and for being a strategic partner on MetLife's refreshed enterprise strategy which has made us a simpler company and strengthened our free cash flow generation. I also want to welcome John McCallion to the CFO role. I have worked closely with John for over 10 years and I have every confidence that he will bring the skill, energy, and leadership needed to help MetLife create significant value for our shareholders. Moving to financial results, last night we reported first quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.36, up from $1.20 per share a year ago. Tax reform added roughly $0.10 per share to adjusted earnings year-over-year. Overall, it was a very strong quarter with particularly good underwriting. Variable investment income came in above expectations and foreign currency also provided some lift. Despite rising in the quarter, current interest rate levels continued to pressure recurring investment yields. Equity markets had limited impact on consolidated adjusted results. Adjusted return on equity in the quarter was 12.8%, the highest adjusted ROE for MetLife since the third quarter of 2014. After notable items, adjusted earnings were $1.34 per share, the net difference of $0.02 per share included a positive $0.06 per share from the final portion of a Japanese variable annuity reserve release that we elected to recognize in the first quarter. This was partially offset by costs to achieve our target of $800 million in pre-tax annual run-rate savings by 2020. Net income for the quarter was $1.2 billion compared to $867 million a year ago. We've been working to reduce the sensitivity of net…

Thank you, Steve, and good morning. Let me start by acknowledging what a great honor it is to be named MetLife's Chief Financial Officer. I look forward to working with all of you in the future. Now let's get to the highlights in the quarter. I will begin by discussing the 1Q18 Supplemental Slides that we released last evening, along with our earnings release and quarterly financial supplement. These slides address several key areas of focus for investors: first quarter 2018 financial results and business highlights; the impact from U.S. tax reform; our unit cost initiative or UCI; and an update on our remediation plans. Starting on page 4, this schedule provides a reconciliation of net income and adjusted earnings in the first quarter. Net income was $1.2 billion and roughly $200 million lower than adjusted earnings of $1.4 billion due to the results in our investment portfolio and hedging program. Net investment losses were $263 million, which included a loss of $168 million related to mark-to-market impact on our holdings in Brighthouse Financial. Net derivative gains were $276 million after tax, primarily driven by changes in foreign currencies. Overall, the relatively modest net income volatility in the quarter reflects MetLife's post-separation product mix and refined hedging program. Book value per share excluding AOCI other than FCTA was $43.36 as of March 31, up 1% versus the sequential quarter and up 3% after adjusting for the adoption of certain new accounting rules in the quarter related to tax reform. Year-over-year book value per share is down 15% but up 8% after adjusting for the spinoff of Brighthouse Financial and related financial impacts. This growth was driven by strong earnings over the prior four quarters. Our two notable items on the quarter are shown on page 5 and highlighted in our…

Thank you. Your first question comes from the line of Jimmy Bhullar from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, I had a couple of questions. First on the Brighthouse disposition, obviously you're exploring an exchange offer. Initially you mentioned a couple other options. Where are you in the process of evaluating those? And based on where you stand, is it possible that you could do something in the first half or is it more likely going to be the second half of the year?

Hi, Jimmy, it's Steve. We're looking at different options. As we said in the prepared remarks, we're just trying to find the best transaction form to derive the greatest benefit for the company overall. Increased volatility in the marketplace impacts, in an exchange offer, equity for equity, the discount you have to give to get enough people to come forward to transact with you to make it a successful exchange offer. So, that's a factor now because the change in volatility from the time we first thought about the form of transaction. But nothing has changed regarding our intent, which is to transact this year. And I think we said before kind of the May-June timeframe is as early as we can start, because of filing requirements that have to come into place, driven out of Brighthouse. So the timeframe hasn't changed and the intent in terms of retiring MetLife shares and disposing of Brighthouse shares has not changed.

And then, any color on your long-term care block? Just if you could frame the size, annual premiums, your GAAP and stat reserves, and specifically, on your assumptions, what are your interest rate assumptions over the next few years relative to where rates are right now?

Yeah, hey, Jimmy, it's John. Yeah, I would just refer you back. I think the statistics we gave back in the fourth quarter hold today. We have roughly $2.5 billion more stat reserves than we do GAAP. So, it's $14.3 billion in stat and $11.7 billion in GAAP. I think we've talked about the rate actions that we've taken. I'd just reference back to the rate actions. We've been fairly successful getting approval over the course of the years. We referenced 7% over the $750 million of premium we get annually. So, all those things were a factor into the good results. I don't know if, Marty, you want to add any color.

I guess I would just add that from both the underwriting results as well as expense control that we're seeing there, as well as the rate actions, all of those are moving in a very positive direction. As John mentioned in his opening comments, that's resulting in us feeling much more comfortable about 2018. And relative to the guidance that we gave at the outlook call last year is what's contributed to us moving that guidance up. So all in all, I think, across MetLife Holdings and specifically with respect to long-term care, we're seeing very positive results.

Just following up, do you have an assumption of a steep increase in rates over the next several years in your reserving?

Yeah, for stat, we only include what's been approved.

No, no, I meant interest rates.

So, yeah, we assume a forward rate increase in ultimately getting to our long-term rate of 4.5% – in testing. In the reserves, there's no increase. So, for loss recognition testing, cash flow testing, we would assume that, but for reserving, there's no increase.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Krueger from KBW. Please go ahead. Ryan Krueger - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.: Hi, thanks, good morning. First question on share repurchase, you're clearly on a pace to finish the $2 billion pretty quickly this year. Is that more of a timing issue or should we consider a potential increase to your share repurchase plans relative to the initial guidance?

Yeah, it's John, Ryan. I think that's more timing. There's no change to our capital management plans for 2018. Ryan Krueger - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.: Got it. And then I just wanted to clarify one thing on the unit cost initiative plan. The $800 million net cost save guidance, just to be sure, that is already net of all the TSA payments from Brighthouse that would be running off, that's netted out of that number already?

Yeah, that's all-in, right? We said it's a $1.050 billion on a gross basis and then net of strand gets us down to the $800 million. Ryan Krueger - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.: Got it, okay, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Sean Dargan from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Thanks. If I could just go back to Steve's comments about the alternatives to the exchange offer. I think he mentioned a debt exchange. So would that be going to MET bondholders and offering to give them Brighthouse common stock in exchange for their debt holdings?

Yeah, hey, Sean, it's John. Look, I think what Steve talked about is there are alternatives, right? And a debt for equity would be one. I think right now we wouldn't want to get into too much details. We want to maintain flexibility here. And there's a number of other reasons why we can't get into how we might do it. But as Steve said, there's a few options for us to pursue and we'll pursue the most economically beneficial one of those.

Okay, thanks. And then I guess, John, a question for you, I don't want to beat a dead horse, but you're new in the role and I think investors were concerned that maybe MET would be backing off the net $800 million expense save target from UCI. So just to be clear, that policy is still in place and that's still the goal and you still think that's attainable.

I would reiterate what Steve said. We are fully committed to our commitment.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Tom Gallagher from Evercore. Please go ahead.

Good morning. John, just can you make a few comments about the remediation in the accounting controls issue? I heard your prepared remarks, but just like, I guess cutting to the chase, can you provide a little more clarity around when, timing and process that's left here and when you believe you'll be at the end of this.

Yeah, hey, Tom, it's John. Look, I think we are, as we've said before, there's a lot of work to do. First thing is to identify the root cause. Then we need to implement the full set of procedures. We've done some things, as I articulated in my prepared remarks. But we need to implement the full set of controls and then we need to observe those for a sufficient period of time and usually that's at least two quarters. So but our target for clearing the material weaknesses is still 2018.

Got you. And then just back on long-term care. So you have a lot of margin between GAAP and stat. You had favorable results this year. I think from looking at the long-term care exhibits that came out for 2017 your results seem to be fairly well behaved certainly on a relative basis. Taking all that together, should we feel pretty confident heading into balance sheet review season that long-term care from your starting point now looks like it's fine? Or any color you can give there as we think about balance sheet review season and if that's an area to watch?

Yeah, so it's Marty Lippert. We still are very comfortable with our reserve adequacy and our experience continues to emerge consistent with our reserving assumptions. We test our GAAP and stat reserves annually and are comfortable with the reserve margins that are indicated in those tests. So, yeah, we continue to feel good about it.

Okay, thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Kligerman from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Andrew Kligerman - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: Hey, good morning. First question, could you give a little more color about the kind of sudden departure of John Hele and what the thinking was behind it because it just seemed very sudden.

Andrew, it's Steve. Look, we're – any company decides, at MetLife there's always some change in management from time to time. One of the questions that came up to us after this announcement was why the timing and so on and so forth, but once a decision on John Hele's retirement was made, we decided it was important for the incoming CFO, John McCallion, to oversee the filing of our financial statements for this quarter, and to present on this earnings call to all of you. So you may or may not know but under SEC rules, once a decision is made at this level of an executive, you have to file with the SEC a disclosure within four days. So it's not like there's a great deal of flexibility about timing of announcements. So that's drives a lot of it. Andrew Kligerman - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: So in the quarter, like, there were a lot of positive strides. I shouldn't be concerned then because of this event something might be an issue with the financials?

No. So there were two separate tracks, think of it that way. One was John's retirement and the other was we had a quarter coming up to announce. And look, in any big company, there's never a great or perfect time for an announcement of a major change at senior executive levels. I can say a whole bunch of other things besides just the quarter that come up over the course of the year in terms of important points in time in terms of when a Chief Financial Officer would be presenting. So there's never a perfect time. And these two separate tracks were going on. And once the retirement decision was made, then we have to announce. Andrew Kligerman - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC: And then just a detail question on the Group Benefits business. The underwriting ratios were quite strong, right in line with your guidance, but you had an other expense line. I think John talked about spending on technology and so forth. The other expense line was up, I think, north of 10% in the quarter. Could you give a sense of whether that line item is sort of a run rate from the first quarter or maybe that comes down a bit?

Yeah, hi, Andrew, this is Michel. So three factors influencing the increase in the expense item. One is the reinstatement of the health insurance tax. So that drives the expense ratio up, it benefits our loss ratio in non-medical health. And the other two factors were – one was the timing of some technology investments that we're making. We had announced in the second half of last year a major initiative in partnership with IBM, additional platform that would help drive our growth in the small market segment, which we feel is an attractive segment for us. So we're seeing some of that investment flow through. And then, as we continue to emphasize voluntary business and we continue to grow that component in terms of our overall sales, that's also having an impact on our acquisition cost. But, as a reminder, again, voluntary is a very attractive segment and it's very consistent with our strategy to grow in that area.

Your next question comes from the line of Erik Bass from Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you. Was hoping you could provide some more color on the underwriting results in RIS in MetLife Holdings this quarter and how they would compare to your normal expectations?

Let me start with RIS, Erik. So, we had favorable underwriting in particular in our U.S. pensions business. I would also point out that in the first quarter of 2017, we had also some reserve adjustments which impacted our underwriting in that quarter so that's what you're seeing here. Obviously underwriting can vary quarter to quarter.

It's Marty Lippert. In MetLife Holdings business we actually had a very good quarter with respect to underwriting across the board. We would expect that to move back into our normal range that we've communicated to you in the past of between 50% and 55% for the quarter that was in the 47.5% range.

Thank you. And then on the pension risk transfer outlook, you commented that the pipeline for the business is looking good given move in rates and I guess other favorable macro dynamics. Just wondering if you're seeing any implications on your competitive position in that market as a result of the recent issues?

No, just to re-emphasize what John mentioned, we think the opportunity in the market will be attractive in terms of flows this year. We've had constructive engagements with the key intermediaries and brokers for this business and we have no indication that our competitive position would be negatively impacted by the RIS issue.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of John Nadel from UBS. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. So just a question on cost initiative. The $800 million of expenses through 2020, do we know yet, have you told us whether all of that would be expected to drop to the bottom line or would some of that be expected to be reinvested into the business? And how much of that $800 million is in the numbers today?

Hey, John, it's John.

Hey, John.

How you doing? I would go back to that slide that we put in the supplemental deck, right, where we showed the ratios, and let's start there. So, remember, we think, as I emphasized, we think the annual expense ratio is the best metric. If you look over 2015 to 2017, we're down about 100 basis points and you think that we have roughly $45 billion in revenue, we have about $400 million of savings. And that effectively goes to the bottom line. That's pre-tax, but that's the improvement in our profit margin, as I said. So, yeah, the short answer to your question on the $800 million is, yes, we'd expect that to be an improvement in profit margin post all the actions being taken 2020 on.

Got it, thank you. And then I have a question on allocated equity for two of the segments. For Holdings, allocated equity is down pretty significantly in the first quarter versus the level you guys were allocating last year. And I think that makes some sense, right? That should track reasonably similar, I assume, to revenues declining. You can affirm that or not. But then what was surprising to me was Asia, where allocated equity was up pretty significantly and it doesn't – and I think you've got two things going on in Asia: One, you've been moving more toward fee-based businesses, I believe, and, two, the risk-oriented business there, the higher capital required business there I thought was shrinking.

John, I'm going to take my 48-hour pass go card on this one, if that's all right. But, yeah, we'll get back to you on that in more detail.

Appreciate it. I'll look forward to talking to you offline.

All right, thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Suneet Kamath from Citi. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Just a question on the TSA fees and thanks for breaking that out. That $79 million that you booked this quarter, I was just curious why we didn't see any of that in the fourth quarter and then how would you expect that $79 million to kind of trend over the next year or so?

Sorry, Suneet, can you say that one more time.

Yes, $79 million of TSA fees in your supplement, right? And so I assume that's related to the Brighthouse TSA arrangement that you have. Since the thing was spun out in August, I would have expected some in the fourth quarter, but there weren't any. So curious about that, but then also how do you expect those TSA fees to kind of trend over the course of 2018? I know Brighthouse has talked about really trying to clamp down on those as quickly as possible.

Yeah, I'd say a year from now, there's probably a decline in $30 million to $40 million of TSA fees is expected. But I think it depends on how fast the exits occur and that's not a real precise number, but give or take.

And is that what's captured in that original Investor Day slide when you show the cost savings and you went from, like, 2018 to 2019 and there was actually a $100 million pickup in stranded overhead; is that essentially capturing the loss of these TSA fees?

Yeah, there was a separate line on strand and you saw that uptick and that is effectively the roll-off of the TSA fees.

Got it. And then the last one is just on the expense initiative costs. I thought that maybe last quarter you'd told us $275 million would be expected to hit the operating results in 2018. Seems like first quarter, you're running a little bit less than that, the annualized rate. Should we expect that $275 million is still kind of a good number for 2018 and so we'll see a pickup in that over the subsequent quarters?

Yeah, so we're still aligned to what we provided at Investor Day in 2016. So like you said, we said we'd get gross saves of $400 million in 2017. I think you can see the math is there. And then, we're expecting to get another $300 million -$275 million or whatever, roughly, during the course of 2018. And then, I'd just say on the quarter, as I said in my prepared remarks, we think it's very important to focus on the annual expense ratio. Now, we gave you Q1 2018 as a reference, but even 2017 you saw varying quarter-to-quarter expense ratios, so we really think looking at the trend of the annual rate is probably the best way to think about it.

Okay, thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Josh Shanker from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Thank you. All my questions have been answered.

Next we'll go to the line of Alex Scott from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Alex Scott - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thanks. Good morning. First question I had was just on RIS. Could you discuss the headwind you'd expect from three-month LIBOR increasing? Like would the costs of crediting be expected to go up? And it looked like the NII yield there was a bit higher this quarter. Is there any floating rate I should be thinking about or should that continue to trend down as it has the last few quarters?

Yeah, hey, Alex, it's John. I think the simple answer at this time is probably just to put you back to the outlook call. We gave you those sensitivities. We think they're holding well, and if you were to use those relative to what happened in the quarter, I think you'll see that they still hold so.

And that brings us to the top of the hour. We're going to have to shut the call down to let everybody move on to the next one. Thanks, everybody, for your participation and we'll talk to you throughout the quarter.

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T executive teleconference. You may now disconnect.