Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MetLife Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Earnings and Outlook conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a Q&A session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we get started, I refer you to the cautionary note about forward-looking statements in yesterday's earnings release and to risk factors discussed in MetLife, Inc. SEC filings. With that, I will turn the call over to John Hall, Global Head of Investor Relations.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for MetLife's fourth quarter 2024 earnings and near-term outlook call. Before we begin, I point you to the information on non-GAAP measures on the investor relations portion of metlife.com in our earnings release and in our quarterly financial supplements, you should review. On the call this morning are Michel Khalaf, President and Chief Executive Officer, and John McCallion, Chief Financial Officer and Head of MetLife Investment Management. Also participating in the discussion are other members of senior management. Last night, we released a set of supplemental slides which address the quarter as well as our near-term outlook. They are available on our website. John McCallion will speak to those supplemental slides in his prepared remarks. An appendix to the slides features outlook sensitivities, disclosures, GAAP reconciliations, and other information which you should also review. After prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session, which will end promptly at the top of the hour. As a reminder, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. With that, over to Michel.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Last night, MetLife, Inc. reported fourth quarter and full year results that underscore the strength and resilience of our market-leading portfolio of businesses in the face of constant change. While unemployment in the US has stayed at low levels and economic growth appears healthy, the pace of anticipated interest rate cuts remains in question due to concerns about persistent inflation. MetLife, Inc.'s capacity to execute across changing environments has been a hallmark of our success. This past year, 2024, brought to a close the five-year period associated with our Next Horizon strategy. Despite the global pandemic, a short-lived banking crisis, and volatile interest rates, we delivered on all our Next Horizon financial commitments: return on equity, free cash flow, and operating leverage. The market has recognized our strong fundamental performance as MetLife, Inc.'s stock outperformed the Standard and Poor's 500 index in 2024. MetLife, Inc. did not go quietly until the end of the year, and we do not rest on our laurels. In December, we hosted a well-received investor day to roll out our New Frontier strategy, along with a refreshed set of financial commitments. While the basic tenets of Next Horizon—focus, simplify, and differentiate—aren't going anywhere, MetLife, Inc. is at a different place than it was five years ago. We are more front-footed and more able to play offense. Our New Frontier strategy is more oriented towards growth, and by that, I mean responsible growth. To build on this, we have identified four strategic priorities as part of New Frontier. Together, they drive nearly 80% of adjusted earnings today and will fuel strong growth through the five-year New Frontier strategy. The first is further extending our leadership in group benefits. The second is capitalizing on our unique retirement platform. The third…

Thank you, Michel, and good morning, everyone. I will start with the 4Q 2024 supplemental slides, which cover highlights of our financial performance, including an update on our liquidity and capital position. In addition, I will discuss our near-term outlook. Starting on page three, we provide a comparison of net income and adjusted earnings in the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Net income was $1.2 billion and $4.2 billion for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024, respectively. The difference between net income and adjusted earnings is attributable to net derivative losses, primarily due to the rise in long-term interest rates and the strengthening of the US dollar. That said, derivative losses were partially offset by market risk benefit or MRB remeasurement gains due to higher interest rates. In addition, net investment losses were largely the result of normal trading activity on the portfolio in a rising interest rate environment, and credit remains stable. As highlighted on the bottom of the page, we had two notable items in the current quarter, netting to a positive impact to adjusted earnings of $10 million. This was primarily due to interest associated with a tax refund partially offset by higher asbestos litigation reserves in the quarter. On page four, we provide a year-over-year comparison of fourth quarter adjusted earnings by segment. Excluding total notable items in both periods, adjusted earnings excluding total notable items were $1.4 billion, up 1% and 3% on a constant currency basis. The increase was primarily driven by higher variable investment income and solid volume growth, which were partially offset by less favorable recurring interest and expense margins compared to the previous year. Adjusted earnings per share excluding total notable items were $2.08, up 8% and 10% on a constant currency basis. Moving to the businesses,…

If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, if you have been called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Again, press star one to join the queue. Your first question comes from the line of Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please go ahead.

Hey. Thanks. Good morning. My first question was for Ramy Tadros on group. Can you give some additional details and color on one-one renewals, what you saw in terms of competition pricing, and any other factors you'd highlight?

Sure, Ryan. Good morning. So I would say we're off to a really good start in one-one. We've had renewals and persistency within our expectations. We're particularly pleased with the renewal action on the dental business, which we've talked about before in terms of getting our targeted rate actions as well as maintaining very strong persistency. So off to a really strong start in one-one, and that's part of the reason why we really also feel good about taking our PFO guidance range from four to seven, which is a one-point increase from where we were last year.

Thanks. And then my question on the, I guess, somewhat broader question on the PRT market. There were a number of lawsuits targeted against one specific provider and plan sponsors that chose them. It's gotten expanded to a couple more. MetLife, Inc. has not been involved with this at this point. But I guess just curious, you know, are you starting to see any level of lean in that market as plan sponsors might be more concerned about this lawsuit activity, or is it not really having much of an impact for you guys at this point?

Hey, Ryan. It's Ramy here again. Look, it's very hard to forecast what and if any impact this is going to have on the market. What may be helpful is just to share with you what we're seeing as of now. So one, this is a very well-established market. It does operate within the rules and regulations, which govern plan sponsors' responsibilities and a very robust solvency regulation, which govern insurance companies. And within that context, the PRT products offer a really valuable solution for plan sponsors and retirees. So in the here and now, we finished last year with $6.4 billion of inflows for PRTs and healthy ROEs. And we're off to a really good start in 2025. We had a $640 million plan that we wrote in the first part of 2025. And the factors that we talked about that will continue to drive this market in terms of the funded status, the financial and the industrial logic, will persist. And is also reflective of the pipeline. So we still see a pipeline. We still see interest here. And we haven't really seen any material impact on the market. And just to step back outside of PRT and think about our RIS liability origination in general, inclusive of all the pieces we talked about on our investor day, as well as the adjacencies that we talked about. We still here feel really good that we will deliver the 3% to 5% balance growth over the near term, which is also a point up from where we were last year. So in aggregate, we still feel really good about that range. Sitting here today.

Great. Thank you.

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

Good morning. First question for Ramy Tadros as well. Some peers have called out elevated voluntary benefit loss ratios this quarter. Did you also see that? And when I consider that impact, plus the benefits you expect to get from dental repricing, would you say nonmedical health loss ratio is going to be better or worse in 2025 versus 2024?

Hey. Good morning, Tom. I would say for accident health, we aren't seeing any material deviations outside of what you would call the normal range of expectations, and we look at this on a product-by-product basis. Remember, it's not one single product. So I wouldn't say we've seen any material deviations here, and we continue to see robust growth here with really solid margins. If you think about next year versus this year, we did finish 2024 about less than a point above the midpoint of our range. We haven't changed the range for next year, so a good starting point for 2025 is to go back at the midpoint of that range on the nonmedical health ratio, which does factor in some of the improvements around dental that you mentioned as well.

Gotcha. So, like, a point better is a reasonable base case?

Midpoint of the range is where we point to. So I think that's where I would start. Yep.

Good. And just for a follow-up, John McCallion, just on raising alternative return assumptions for 2025, what's the thought process there? Is it, you know, just general market performance, do you have some line of visibility into Q1? Because, obviously, you haven't met any of the lower quarterly expectations for 2024. So curious why raise it now?

Yeah. Good morning, Tom. Yeah. So there's two components there in VII. We have our private equity, LP investments, and then we have some real estate and other funds. I think on the private equity, obviously, is a much bigger proportion as you saw on the slide in terms of average assets. So we have a few things going on. Obviously, there's been a tailwind with public equity markets. That has been the case. It hasn't really shown itself in the private market yet, but we think that is still, you know, beneficial. You know, our sense is that the underlying operating companies are benefiting from that. You're starting to sense an increase in exit activity beginning. So, like, the backlog is starting to remove or get better. I think there's probably a more accommodating regulatory and business-friendly environment ahead of us. So I think there's a number of positive backdrops that lead you to, you know, kind of our view for private equity. You know, the private equity returns for the year, they actually weren't far off. If not, they might have been actually on target relative to the guidance we gave last year. So we're really just kind of moving it up a point. So that takes the big, I'll say, the majority of the VII balance. Then you're left with real estate and other, and that asset class probably underperformed our expectation last year. But, you know, we're starting to see and you're hearing there's some, you know, bit of optimism beginning in the real estate market. It's showing signs of stabilizing. And so our view is that we're going to start to see recovery in values in 2025. So those combined factors there give us a view that next year will be better than this year. We still think that there'll be a gradual improvement throughout the year, so we don't think you get in the first quarter to call it the run rate or divide $1.7 billion by four. We think it's still lower, but we think we're above where we were here in the fourth quarter. So hopefully, that gives you a sense of our thinking.

That does. Thank you.

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

Great. Thanks. I wanted to go to the RIS spread guidance. If I look at the 110 to 135, it looks like, excuse me, that might be five basis points below what you originally guided to for 2024. But you've taken your VII up, and I thought you said core spreads were supposed to be stable. So I'm just trying to understand what would explain that delta if I'm remembering correctly.

Hey. Good morning, Suneet. It's John. So let me try to let me give you my maybe way of thinking about it, and I'll come back to your specific question of the relative to the last year's guidance. So we ended this fourth quarter at 112, which was up six basis points sequentially. We're flat on the core spread at 108. And then as we look ahead, you know, our view is that we expect 2025 total spread to be, like, as we said, 110 to 135. If you take the midpoint of that, it's actually above the 2024 actual spread that we ended with. Right? So what's doing that? So you see a bit of recovery in VII being forecasted, coupled with stabilizing core spreads in, you know, in 2025. So, you know, all of the interest rate caps have rolled off. Is one of the things that, you know, started to depress core spreads during the course of 2024. Those hedges, you know, performed as intended, which was to protect us from a sharp rise of interest rates in an inverted curve. And so now we think of core spreads stabilizing into 2025. And quite honestly, for the near term. And we typically are pretty hesitant about talking about more than one year. But I think we're starting to see, you know, I think, you know, in a steepening the curve will be positive eventually. It could have a little pressure on us in the near term as we, you know, reposition some of the portfolio. It also gives us the ability to implement other tools that we have. So, you know, maybe there's a few points of, you know, one or two-point pressure in 2025 relative to the 108. But we think quickly, you know, kind of reverts back to that. So, you know, you think of, like, the 106 to 108 over the near term is a pretty good sense of what our core spread we're you're going to see a lot more stability in the spread as we go forward. And especially as we put on new business, you know, they tend to be accretive now to spread as well. So, again, it's I think it's a very positive backdrop, but that maybe helps try to reconcile. I think relative to last year, I think the biggest probably delta is just the roll-off of the interest rate caps relative to this year.

Okay. That makes sense. Excuse me. And then on Cherry Tree, can you just talk about what sort of block of business you'd be interested in using that vehicle for? Is it PRT? Is it sort of retail annuities? Can you use it domestically and internationally? Just some color about the scope of what you're thinking there would be helpful. Thanks.

Sure. Good morning, Suneet. It's Michel. So just taking a step back, let me just say we're very pleased with the progress we're making here and really excited about the growth opportunities that Cherry Tree will allow us to capture. And, you know, keep in mind, we've been at work on this with our partner, General Atlantic, for less than a year. So we're continuing to move at pace to fully capitalize on operationalize the company. And, again, the intention here is to create a long-term strategic partnership with Cherry Tree. You know, as we mentioned at Investor Day, you know, really, this is intended to enhance our capital flexibility and to allow us to generate additional liability growth beyond our balance sheet capacity if need be. You know? And the other aspect to this is that it will allow us to convert this additional growth into high-value earnings for MIM as well. You know, I think we said also that, you know, the intention here is that for the first few years, the liabilities will be sourced through MetLife, Inc. But, you know, the possibility does exist that down the road, Cherry Tree may reinsure liabilities from third parties as well. And, you know, the liabilities sourced through MetLife, Inc., you know, includes sort of, you know, PRT and other liabilities sourced by RIS as well as potentially Japan liabilities. So, hopefully, this gives you a bit of color.

Okay. Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Scott with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning. First one I had is actually on MetLife Investment Management. You know, I'm sure you saw there were news articles suggesting that maybe Brighthouse Financial would, you know, potentially look to sell itself. And I'm not asking you to opine on that, but what I'm more interested in is if you could, you know, frame for us, you know, what kind of impact you could potentially have in MetLife Investment Management if, you know, an asset manager, you know, one of these private equity-backed companies engaged there, and were, you know, interested in managing general account. You know, how would that affect, you know, potentially your positioning? Like, how much money do you make up their general account management, etcetera?

Hey, Alex. Good morning. It's John. I think the first thing is we don't comment on specific client P&Ls. So won't get that out of me today, but look, they're an excellent customer and client of ours. We take pride in the fact that we have them as a customer and particularly given our historical relationship and the historical and personal relationships we all have. I think it's a, you know, it's a prized client for us and, you know, we really value it. We've read the papers as well and heard that as well. And so look, we've had other situations over time occur. We think we'd offer a unique value proposition and provide some, you know, unique capabilities that's what we've been building here in MetLife Investment Management. We continue to do that. We're looking to grow our capabilities, and you saw that most recently in some of the announcements that we made. So we think we have a unique offering. Having said that, we recognize that, you know, things can change over time and, you know, we think we're well-diversified, you know, client base. And, you know, we'll have to manage things as they come, but we are pretty excited about, you know, the things that we have to offer.

Got it. I totally understand. Second one, maybe on capital deployment. You know, holdco cash in a really strong spot. Be interested too, though, if you could comment at all about how much capital is behind, you know, statutory capital is behind the holdings business at this point. And how to think about, you know, if you did find opportunities there, how that could add to the capital flexibility you have. And then, you know, ultimately, you know, are there areas that you look to add to in terms of inorganic activity?

Yeah. Hey, Alex. It's John. It's probably a little bit of a too broad of a question for us to answer. I think as we've talked about, we are very effective at managing MetLife Holdings. At the same time, we take a very, you know, we have a third-party view and talk to third parties to see if there's an opportunity for, you know, kind of something that makes sense that's accretive to our firm from a risk-adjusted basis. There's a lot of different variables and factors that go into the outcomes or the items that drive value creation. So probably a little hard to kind of give that broad answer. Also, you have to consider the diversification benefits we have to consider as well and things like that. So at the end of the day, it's been performing very well for us. When we think there's an opportunity, you've seen us take action. If not, there's no burning platform for us, and we're happy to manage this, you know, effectively ourselves. We think we have the unique capabilities to do that.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Wes Carmichael with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thank you. And maybe just following up on the last question and maybe a little bit less broad, but particularly on long-term care and haven't gotten a lot of attention lately. But I think last quarter, you made some comments on the risk transfer market that seemed somewhat constructive. And I'm just curious if there's any further developments there in terms of pricing or bid-ask. And just maybe if I think about that block in particular, how does long-term care kind of flow into the free cash flow conversion ratio for the company? Because I know a lot of the off and holding has a pretty high cash flow profile.

Hey. Good morning. It's Ramy here. Look. Like we talked about last quarter, we are seeing more activity in that risk transfer market, and when deals get announced, it means you're getting more convergence between cedents and reinsurers, and that's encouraging. Having said that, you know, these are always complex transactions to execute. They take time. Our objectives for any risk transfer deal are always the same. We want to maximize shareholder value and continue to serve our customers, and from the former, price matters for these deals, and so does structure. But in the interim, specific to our book, I would say it's well-capitalized, well-reserved. Recall, we are under the New York DFS reserving standards. We're held to a higher bar here. The book is well-managed. It's performing in line with our expectations. And we continue to have a really successful rate action program that's allowing us to kind of obtain the necessary premium increases and continue to provide coverage. So that's kind of a bit of an update in terms of where we stand, and I'll let John talk about the free cash flow piece of it.

Yeah. Sure. You know, it is a block of business that is growing its liabilities over time still, so it has not reached peak. So at the end of the day, it's actually not providing much in the way of cash flow these days, if any. It continues to strain, just given you have to grow, you're continuing to grow liabilities to the peak. So, hopefully, that helps.

No. It does. Thank you. Thank you very much. And my second question was just on the positive trends in group life that you mentioned. That may persist through 2025. Can you provide a little bit more color on what you're seeing recently? And could this be something that persists a little bit longer term?

Hey. Good morning. It's Ramy here. If you look at the public data and the recent trends in the CDC population data, in particular, for the working-age population, you see favorability in that data year-over-year. And given our size and diversification, that favorability in the population data is working its way into our ratios here. And that's probably the major driver as to why we came below the lower end of our range for 2024. We're still watching it. I think I would say if the positive trends that we have seen in terms of population mortality continue, and continue into, say, the first half of 2025, we would expect that for the full year, we would be in the bottom half of our guidance range on the mortality ratio as John alluded to. So very much population data-driven and without capability working into our numbers.

Thank you.

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

Hey. Good morning. I just had a couple of questions. The first one is on commercial real estate. And if we look at your portfolio, your metrics are fairly stable, although they've been getting slightly worse over the last few quarters both on the coverage ratio and on loan to value, but not materially. So how should we think about losses coming in from that over the course of the year, and has the market stabilized, or do you think there's more pain to go through as you go through this year? And then secondly, on pension reform in Latin America, there's been a lot of concern about the Chilean market, and it comes and goes. But I think recently, there have been even some reports about potential nationalization of some of the ESP businesses, just wondering if you have any insights on what is going on there.

Yeah. Thanks, Jimmy. It's John. Good morning. On the commercial mortgage front in the market, as you know, we all know, there's been some recent pressure over the last few years, but I think the backdrop is starting to build some, you know, kind of optimism for going forward. Obviously, there's been strong economic growth that continues to remain healthy. And, you know, you start to see some even some real estate fundamentals beginning even in office. It's showing signs of bottoming. It's still probably not quite there yet, but it's showing signs. Office vacancies likely peaked most in 2024. You see the remote work starting to reverse. You see lease signings have been increasing, and so, you know, all in all, and then you couple that with, like, a low construction pipeline. All of that starts to, you know, give itself the ability to start to make a shift in terms of, you know, where things are. I think even vacancy rates across other properties are at historical averages, if not below. And then last thing I'd highlight is you're beginning to see signs of transaction volumes pick up. Even, you know, us, I think we had an $80 million level of or $90 million of gains this quarter on sales. So you're starting to see transactions. So, look, you know, as we look forward, we think we've, you know, we're approaching the peak of the cycle. Or trough, whichever way you want to put it. And so we think from an LTV perspective, we probably have hit our point. Maybe, you know, maybe there's a little more change, but I think we've kind of hit it in terms of LTVs. And, you know, looking forward, you know, in terms of losses, we've pretty, I would say we've effectively reserved for the most part, if not all, for losses. So right now, it's just kind of getting to the kind of the end of letting the dust settle. Probably the best way to think about what's left is we probably, you know, we might have a point or two of RBC. That's maybe a better way to kind of size what this means as opposed to maybe charge-offs or losses because we probably have been fully reserved now. And all else equal, obviously. And so once all the dust settles, maybe there's another point or two on average in terms of, you know, the impact of the cycle. That's how I put it.

Hi, Jimmy. Regarding the Chile pension reform. So, yeah, you're right. After, you know, almost a decade of debate, a pension reform was approved last week by the Chilean congress. So now with this recent development, basically, we have more clarity on what's next. And, you know, in a nutshell, the key takeaways from this reform are threefold. One, the private pension system continues in its current structure with a few adjustments. The second is that employer contributions will be gradually increased over time. And the third is in terms of implementation, the reform will be gradual and take several years. So some elements of the law will require us to adapt our operations over time. And, you know, we don't foresee any material impact to our business that we wouldn't be able to mitigate. And we continue to remain very much committed to providing high-quality pension management services to our customers as we navigate these changes over time.

Thank you.

Due to time constraints, our last question comes from the line of Elyse Greenspan with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks. Good morning. My first question is on MIM. I know that's included within corporate, and John, I know in December, you told us you guys would start breaking it out right this year. Could you give us a sense of how much earnings MIM contributed in 2024? And the growth that you're expecting in MIM in 2025 within your guide?

Good morning, Elyse. Look. We'll do all that when we start to break out the segment. The way I would and the reason why I hesitate to start doing that now is, you know, what we try to do today was provide you the outlook based on our current state. And as you just said, MIM is incorporated in that. So it's spread out. So I'm reluctant to kind of throw out a number that then creates other confusion. So I think for modeling purposes, I would stick to kind of the segmentation that we have today. As we said at investor day, we expect to report MIM as a segment in 2025. But in light of the recent announcement with PineBridge, we are now aiming to do that to coincide with the closing of the transaction. And, you know, thank John Hall. He said that you worked very hard, all of you, and that we wanted to make it easier for you to do all your model changes. So that was a can thank him in due time. So expect the timing of the close to be in the second half of 2025. We have a number of regulatory approvals that we have to get done, but the team is working intensely to get those completed. So that would be our, you know, timing of when we give more info on that.

And then one last quick one. It sounds like you guys are using the forward curve, right, for some of the currency assumptions within the guide. I'm just trying to get a sense, like, if there is upside or, you know, even downside risk to some of the international earnings, you know, currency moves during 2025.

Yeah. That's correct, Elyse. We tend to just lock in on the 12/31 forward curves. And, you know, I think the places where we're seeing the most change over the last three months is primarily Latin America. You saw that mostly throughout the fourth quarter happen. So the average for the year is really kind of pressured there. I think from here, we see maybe a little more weakening from the spot rate. So I think at the end of 2025, it's somewhere a little above 21, where we're maybe hovering in the twenties today. And then also Asia, as well. So we use a forward curve. I think we're in the, you know, like, the yen today is in the 154 range or so, something like that, and we think the forward curve says the spot rate will be in the low fifties, somewhere around there. So there's a, I think on average, there's a little pressure if you take the average for the year, so it's a little bit of a headwind. As well as some of the other Asian currencies. So, hopefully, that helps.

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to John Hall for closing remarks.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us. Have a great day.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect.