CNO Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CNO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

We’ve also seen the decline in producing agent count shrink every quarter. So the pace of decline is going down, which is a sign that we are at or near the bottom and we would expect producing agent count to turn up. Now all of that is important and necessary and a good leading indicator. But I would tell you that the most important thing is the productivity of the agents and you’ve seen us demonstrate continued increases in that productivity. While we always need new agents and it’s important that we bring in new agents and we get them producing, the most important thing is the productivity and that’s continued to trend very positively for quite some time. Zach, did that answer your question?

Zach Byer: Yeah. That did. Thank you. I guess my second question is just around expenses. So you took some action in 4Q, but how are you thinking about the level of expenses going forward and should we expect them to decline forward to the statements that you’ve taken just offset pressures from inflation and natural growth in the cost base?

Paul McDonough: Hi Zach, it’s Paul. So again, we’ll provide more perspective and the outlook at Investor Day, but I’d offer a couple of comments. Number one, the expenses in the quarter and the fourth quarter particularly not allocated to products were a bit below our annualized run rate, but I’d say the full year 2022 expenses were in line with our expectations. Going forward as we continue to grow the business, I think you should expect some growth in expenses, but we will continue to try to strike the right balance between being as efficient as we possibly can be, while also investing in growth in the business. I think the action that we took in the fourth quarter is proved to the point that, we try to re-hard to be as efficient as possible.

Operator: Thank you. We have our next question comes from Mark Dwelle from RBC. Mark, your line is now open.

Mark Dwelle: Yeah. Good morning. Just a couple of questions, mainly related to the Health segment. Supplemental sales were pretty strong and the Medicare Supplement sales in particular were pretty strong, but there wasn’t really any notable change in margin in the quarter. So how long is the transmission time between when you get the sales and when that starts to show up in potentially improve margins?

Paul McDonough: Hey, Mark. It’s Paul. So yeah, generally, you’ve got some strain in the first year even on a GAAP basis from new sales. So sales this year tend to contribute to margin in the following year and in subsequent years.

Mark Dwelle: So the lag would be measured in years or in quarters?

Paul McDonough: Well, I suppose on sort of a trailing 12 month basis. In general, over the course of 2022, the sales growth will translate to earnings growth in subsequent years.

Mark Dwelle: Okay. And then with respect to — I know you made some changes to the supplement product. I mean, what’s the feedback been like from agents force as far as the sale ability and acceptance on that from the customer standpoint. I mean, obviously the numbers are pretty good, but are there more tweaks on the way or if you kind of landed on a winter?