Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:BHF) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Eric T. Steigerwalt: Jimmy, maybe I’ll start and then Myles, you’re going to jump in, correct. Look, this market has grown really well. You probably heard Myles — I know you’ve heard Myles say, over the last couple of years, that we welcome the competition because it has grown the market, and this is a good product for consumers and it’s a good product for manufacturers. I think it’s still rational. We don’t see situations where we just can’t understand. And we continue to grow very nicely even as we enter the second quarter here. So we want to keep growing this business here at Brighthouse, certainly. Myles, any additional conversation you want to make?

Myles J. Lambert: I guess what I would say, Eric, I agree, I believe competition has been appropriate. And we think it’s a good thing for advisers and consumers. I think it certainly has had some impact on sales. But overall, I think the category is strong, and it is growing. From our perspective, we remain very pleased with sales. The first quarter is one of our best quarters yet as it relates to overall SHIELD sales. We like the competitiveness of our product, and we continue to round out our offering with things like SHIELD Level Pay Plus and a new crediting strategy that we offered last year, which was separate edge. So we like our competitive positioning and we like where the category is at overall.

Jamminder Bhullar: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back to Dana Amante for closing remarks.

Dana Amante: Thank you, Norma and thank you, everyone for joining the call today. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.