So again, we like our VA business, it’s a key part of our retirement franchise. It’s performed well given how we’ve managed that in a very disciplined approach. And ultimately we continue to think that’ll be a part of a contributor to our retirement franchise going forward. You didn’t ask it, but I did want to just mention the other impacts of LDTI. Even though the $60 million is what we think is the enterprise impact, we actually do see some other impacts to operating earnings with items such DAC. The reason that we didn’t include those is they virtually offset at a enterprise level €“ very immaterial at an enterprise level. We do expect to see some positive impacts in RIS offset by some negative impacts in individual life. But we plan to give you much more clarity on that when we recast our fourth quarter supplement the night before our Outlook Call in early March.
Dan Houston: Thanks for the questions, Suneet.
Suneet Kamath: Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from Tracy Benguigui with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
Tracy Benguigui: Thank you. I also have some capital questions. So 4Q buybacks, it came in lower than what you shared with us in the third quarter of that $450 million range. I mean, you did say the level of buybacks would depend on market conditions and market recovery came in later in the quarter. So my question is, should we expect to catch up in 2023 for coming in below your annual plan of $2.5 billion to $3 billion for the year to shareholder?
Dan Houston: Yes. Tracy, it’s a good question. Hopefully you can appreciate given this volatile economic environment that we’re in. This isn’t a matter of conservatism, it’s a matter of just being incredibly prudent and understanding how these businesses are going to perform. But with that, I’ll ask Deanna provide you with additional clarity.
Deanna Strable: Yes, I think it’s important to go back and think about the underlying market conditions that underpinned our $2.5 billion to $3 billion at Outlook. And as we went throughout the year, obviously we saw equity market daily averages be 17% lower than what would’ve been included in that outlook and as impactful fixed income values were 18% lower. And obviously that range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion didn’t contemplate that level of macro pressures as we went through the year. I actually think if you fast forward and look at our full year results, $2.3 billion to €“ relative to that $2.5 billion to $3 billion range, and the fact that even if you just look at the excess capital in our holdco and our lifeco, which was virtually $300 million at the end of the year.
If you would’ve deployed that and again, going back to Dan’s comment, given the volatility and the uncertainty on 2023 we made the decision to be prudent, we would’ve been at $2.6 billion. So while within that range, despite the macro pressure that we saw through the year and that macro pressure is on those fee businesses that have a higher level of free capital flow. So as we go into 2023 we’re going to continue to be prudent. Obviously as we thought about fourth quarter, I’d say our excess capital ended the year slightly higher than what we thought. But there’s always timing between when you put your share buyback plans in place and when you see some of that free capital flow actually materialized during the quarter. And as you mentioned, markets were actually throughout the quarter got more positive toward the end.
So as we move into 2023 and we’ll talk about it more on Outlook Call, we’ll continue that. If things go well, there is a path to bringing down that level of excess capital. But our approach to capital deployment and capital management will be consistent with what you’ve seen throughout 2022.
