Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE:RGA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Dan Bergman: I think in the past, you’ve talked about a $60 million to $65 million or so expected quarterly earnings range for the U.S. asset-intensive business. Just given the block has outperformed this range for a number of quarters in a row now. I just wanted to see if you could give any more color on the drivers of the recent strong performance, how much is from onetime items versus maybe more sustainable tailwinds like the benefit from higher interest rates. But just trying to get a sense of 60% to 65% is still the right range we should be thinking about? Or has that run rate moved higher?

Todd Larson: It’s, a lot of the variance in the quarter was due to some higher investment spread and the impact of some of the higher income on the floating rate assets allocated to that portfolio. I will remind you that the asset-intensive business is of a little bit of a shorter duration. So there is some amortization off each year as well that we need to replace with new business. I think the range of $60 million to $65 million on a quarterly rate, I think is €“ I would stick with that for now. But certainly, I will update that as appropriate as we go forward.

Dan Bergman: Got it. Thanks. And then maybe just shifting gears to Australia. I just wonder if you could give any update or more color on what you’re seeing there. It looks like Australia has been profitable. I think it was four of the last five quarters by my count. So €“ are you at the point now where you’d expect consistent profitability in Australia? And is there a path for that business maybe to become a more meaningful earnings generator over time? Any color you can give there would be great.

Todd Larson: Yes. Hi, it’s Todd. No, it’s very good to see Australia producing consistent profitability. We’ve got a very strong team there, very well positioned in the market in Australia. We’re seeing positive signs in the industry, as well as far as making it a more sustainable insurance environment. So that’s good, as well. So we’re optimistic, positive going forward that we can continue to improve the profitability in Australia.

Anna Manning: Yes. And I would add on your question about meaningful €“ making it meaningful €“ meaningfully higher. In the past, we have not, from a competitive position, been successful on the new business side in Australia. We were just €“ our view of the risk return was just quite a bit different than the clearing prices in the market. We are starting to see that come back to us. So we haven’t changed our views on risk returns. We haven’t changed our targets, but we are seeing a pull towards us from the competition and expect that gradually and prudently and with discipline, we will reengage and start to grow that business.

Operator: The next question comes from Erik Bass with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

Erik Bass: Hi, thank you. I was hoping you could talk a bit more about the higher non-COVID mortality in the U.S. this quarter. Are you able to link the elevated claims frequency to the flu that you talked about? And I think you mentioned the CDC data indicating an earlier than normal flu season this year. So do you view some of this as a pull forward of claims that you would typically expect to see in the first quarter?