Corebridge Financial, Inc. (NYSE:CRBG) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 4

Kevin Hogan: With respect to the Life Insurance business, we have changed our business mix in the last couple of years. We’ve been kind of open talking about that and moving away from more interest-sensitive products into our very successful term suite as well as simplified products for the middle market and our indexed universal life product range. And those are the segments that we continue to focus on and anticipate serve.

Elias Habayeb: Yes. Suneet, the other thing I had, given our broad suite of products, we’re constantly optimizing given where we see demand for product as well as where we think we can get the best risk-adjusted returns on the capital we deploy. So that’s a regular activity.

Suneet Kamath: Okay. Got it. And then I guess just going back to the annuity sales, obviously, very strong here in the quarter. Can you just provide some color on maybe where those sales are coming from, if it’s a particular channel? And maybe how much of that is coming from rollovers of 401(k) plans or assets?

Kevin Hogan: So the channels that are the most robust for us right now with respect to fixed and fixed-index annuities are the bank and the broker-dealer channels with a lesser participation in the IMO channel. And in terms of the sources of the assets, we don’t report on what the various sources of the asset is. What I’ll say is that as we’ve experienced and as we would expect, customers coming out of existing annuities products certainly have the opportunity to reinvest. And as people move from accumulation to decumulation, fixed income is an important part of the strategy of many of the advisers that they are working with. And so I think what we’re seeing is a combination of new investments in fixed income because the value proposition for fixed income investments is much stronger now than just a couple of years ago as well as some regular activity of people reinvesting in their existing annuity products.

Suneet Kamath: Okay. Thanks.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mike Ward at Citi. Please go ahead.

Michael Ward: Thanks, guys. Good morning. Maybe on the Bermuda entity real quick. I was just wondering if you could maybe help us think about any potential impact on free cash flow conversion from higher utilization of that over time?

Elias Habayeb: Hi, Mike, it’s Elias. So here’s what I’d say about the Bermuda entity at this point. We believe it will increase our financial flexibility that either gives us flexibility for more growth or to do other things with it. We’re still through the regulatory process. So we’re not going to quantify anything at this point. So we’re done through that process at this stage.

Michael Ward: Okay. And then maybe on CRE, just kind of curious, the maturities that you’ve had so far or the ones that are in the sort of the immediate future, just kind of wondering how the resolutions have progressed. Are you taking equity? Are you making equity investments at all? Or how have they gone so far?

Elias Habayeb: So on — if I look at the 2023 maturities, it’s been a combination where we got paid off or we’ve agreed to an extension. And generally, whenever we’ve agreed an extension, we either got a partial pay down or we had the equity put in more — the equity investor put in more equity in the property and draft cash, which ended up improving our credit position in there. We have not taken so far any equity in any of these properties.

Michael Ward: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: We have no further questions on the call at this time. So I will hand the call back to Kevin Hogan.

Kevin Hogan: Okay. Thank you. Before we end today’s call, I want to make one more point to our listeners and remind everyone of the enterprise we’re building here. At Corebridge, we operate with what is a unique collection of four businesses that together enables our company to perform across different macroeconomic environments. We’re flexible and nimble and can tailor our strategy to match changes in demand as well as our evolving view of profitability and risk. With this diversified and dynamic business model, supported by our strong balance sheet, our solid capital and liquidity positions and our history of disciplined execution, Corebridge remains focused on delivering attractive results and creating long-term value. Thank you for joining us this morning, and have a good day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all very much for joining. You may now disconnect.

Follow Corebridge Financial Inc.

Page 4 of 4