Adam Spector: And Jenny, I would add two things in terms of the momentum we’ve had in the wealth channel. One is the success we’ve had to date with things like Lexington, meaning that we’re able to now have more meaningful conversations with our distribution partners about calendar placement many quarters into the future, which really helps us plan our product launches. At the same time, we’re now in a position where our distribution partners want to work with us to co-create products. So we’re working on doing that together so that the products we come to market with in the wealth management channel are meeting their needs. The final item is that a lot of our success to date has been in the US markets in terms of wealth management and we’re now building out our specialist capabilities, our education, our academy, et cetera, in markets outside of the US, where we hope to have a similar level of success in the wealth management channels there.
Craig Siegenthaler: Thank you, guys.
Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Bill Katz from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
William Katz: Okay. Thank you very much for taking the question. So, first question, maybe switch up the conversation a little bit and just talk about capital. You announced a pretty sizable repurchase authorization, have some equity that you have issued in concert with the transaction for Putnam. Looking at your balance, you looks like you’re singing about sort of net cash of zero if you’re sort of just for the debt. How should we be thinking about maybe the tempo or pacing of capital deployment or buyback as we think through the year? Thank you.
Matthew Nicholls: Yeah, thanks, Bill. I’ll take that. And then, Jenny, maybe you like to comment also. So, as usual, Bill, we’re focused on making sure that we maintain our dividend and the same trajectory that’s been on since the 1980s. We are very focused on organic growth investment. There is a ton going on as you all know in the industry, and there’s a lot of call on capital for internal growth and internal projects and investments. So that — they’re our two most important things. Then we’ve got debt service coming up this year of $250 million. Obviously, if the market becomes more reasonably priced in terms of debt, perhaps we access the debt markets at the end of the year or something like that. But we want to position ourselves to be able to pay that debt down with our cash.
We’re absolutely going to hedge our employee grants as we always explain. And then what I’d say is that — and this is sort of the interplay between M&A and share repurchases. We’ve been very active, obviously, as you know, in terms of M&A, to make sure we’ve got the right strategies at both institutional and retail and so on, as we’ve discussed extensively. And when that slows down, which it has done for us, we’ve got one or two more payments in the next one to two years in terms of M&A. But once that’s done, we’ll be in a position where the M&A we look at is either much more strategic involving shares like we’ve done with Putnam, Great-West Lifeco, for example, or it’s involving much smaller M&A transactions to fill in gaps, a few gaps that we’ve got.
And that means we can be more opportunistic with our share repurchases. And as you’ve seen from the last couple of quarters, we certainly picked that up a little bit. But the backdrop is complicated. Market is quite volatile. There’s a lot going on globally that influences the market. So we’re constantly assessing that backdrop. But I would say that we would hope, all else remaining equal, to move into more of a capital return position, as we’ve demonstrated, both with dividend and share repurchase over the last couple of quarters, in the future versus just being very much focused on M&A.
William Katz: Okay. It’s super helpful. And just as a follow-up. Jenny, perhaps for yourself or Matt or Adam. Thanks for taking the questions. Any sense or can you give us an update on how the insurance mandates are? The momentum is building there. I think there was some 20-odd-billion that should flow in, so once the deal has been completed. And then how do you think about the backlog behind that? And maybe the broader question underneath that is, what are the early stage discussions with the enhanced distribution opportunity now that the transaction is complete? Thank you.
Jennifer Johnson: Well, so — I mean, obviously, we have the $25 billion that we’ve talked about with Great-West Life, and that will come in kind of through the year. And it’s a mix of multiple of our SIMs with the bulk of it actually going to Western, but goes — it has alternatives in there and as well as fixed income and equity. And we announced that we’re going to be a sub-advisor for Venerable. And part of that is because we — when we acquired Western, we acquired real expertise in understanding the insurance space, and we’ve been able to leverage that capability more broadly. But, Adam, you want to talk about some additional things that you’re seeing?
