Globe Life Inc. (NYSE:GL) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Frank Svoboda: And did take a look at that. And actually, for that amortization to turn around, it takes — it’s 20, 30 years out there in the future before we end up actually where it’s the amortization under the LDTI ends up being greater than what we would have anticipated under historical GAAP. So, it’s actually a long ways out there.

Jimmy Bhullar: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you very much, sir. We’ll now move to Erik Bass calling from Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

Erik Bass: Hi, thank you. So, it looks like recruitings turned nicely at Liberty and Family Heritage, and you’re starting to see the growth in the agent count there, but it hasn’t come through American Income yet. And I realize the fourth quarter can have some noise with the holidays. I was hoping you just talk more about the trends you’re seeing in both recruiting and retention and what steps you’re taking to improve those at American Income in 2023.

Matt Darden: Yes. As we had mentioned in the past, there’s been some adjustments to the incentive side of the compensation at American Income. Those went in very late in the year and then obviously, is going to continue through 2023. We are seeing — it’s in the early stages, but we are seeing some positive development there. We had, as a reminder, a significant increase in our agent count during the pandemic, went from approximately 7,500 agents to over 10,000. And so, our attrition has been a little bit higher here in the recent quarters than what we would like. And these programs that we’ve put in place seem to be working. We’ve got some — while it’s still early, early indications that there’s been a turnaround in our retention as well as recruiting efforts at American Income.

So, we’re positive where that’s headed from a 2023 perspective. And as was noted, really feel like that is in our control, because we do have strong agent growth at our two other agencies. And so not really impacted by environmental factors, but really believe this is in our control to maintain.

Erik Bass: Thank you. And then, I appreciate all of the color you gave on the LDTI impacts. Just a quick question. When do you expect to release an updated financial supplement with recast financials?

Tom Kalmbach: Yes. We would do that along with our first quarter results as our intended plan at this point.

Erik Bass: Got it. So, I guess we shouldn’t expect that in advance, so we should kind of model based off of the numbers you walked through on the call?

Tom Kalmbach: Exactly. Yes. When we — talk again after first quarter, we’ll have quite a bit of detail around the impact on the various distribution channels and lines of business. So, that will be the time to talk more about those details.

Frank Svoboda: One of the things, Erik, we have to be a little bit careful about is we can’t be releasing some of the numbers on the restated ’21 and ’22 until it’s actually get audited. So, we get into a little bit of a timing, especially around the first quarter. So, as Tom said, that — we really tend to be able to provide more of the detail on that, as we said later on.

Erik Bass: Got it.

Operator: Thank you very much, sir. We’ll now move to Mr. Ryan Krueger calling from KBW. Please go ahead, sir.

Ryan Krueger: Hi, thanks. Good morning. I guess, I appreciate all the LDTI guidance. My first question is actually ex LDTI. I think last quarter’s guidance, which was ex LDTI, had a $9.35 midpoint. If we back out the LDTI impact this quarter, it looks like it’s — the midpoint is more like $9.20. So, just curious if you can give us any perspective on kind of why that ex LDTI guidance seemed to come down a little bit?