Jackson Financial, Inc. (NYSE:JXN) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call May 11, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Liz Werner - Head, Investor Relations

Laura Prieskorn - CEO, President & Director

Marcia Wadsten - EVP & CFO

Paul Myers - Vice Chairman

Conference Call Participants

Thomas Gallagher - Evercore ISI

Suneet Kamath - Jefferies

Alexander Scott - Goldman Sachs Group

Erik Bass - Autonomous Research

Ryan Krueger - KBW

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for attending today's Jackson Financial First Quarter '22 Earnings Call. My name is Austin, and I'll be your moderator for today. [Operator Instructions].

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Liz Werner, Head of Investor Relations. Liz, you may proceed.

Liz Werner

Good morning, everyone. Before we start, we remind you that today's presentation may include forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance or outcome. A number of important factors, including the risks, uncertainties and assumptions discussed in risk factors, management's discussion and analysis of financial conditions and results of operations and business financial goals in the company's 2021 Form 10-K could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. In this presentation, management will refer to certain non-GAAP measures, which management believes provide useful information in measuring the financial performance of the business. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is contained in the appendix to the presentation. With us today are Jackson's CEO, Laura Prieskorn; our CFO, Marcia Wadsten; and our Vice Chair, Chad Myers.

Laura Prieskorn

Good morning, and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. This morning, we'll review our first quarter performance, reiterate our financial targets and speak to current market trends. This quarter, Jackson once again demonstrated its ability to navigate volatile markets from the business and capital management standpoint. Our solid operating results reflect the underlying profitability of our healthy in-force annuity book and our ability to deliver sales growth in choppy market through product and distribution diversification. Adjusted pretax operating earnings, excluding notable items were $463 million for the first quarter, up from the first quarter of 2021. Overall sales increased over the year ago quarter as lower variable annuity sales were offset by an increase in institutional sales, coupled with growth in 2 of our newer product initiatives, RILA and Defined Contribution. Total Retail Annuity assets of $242 billion were up slightly from the first quarter of 2021, but down 7% since year-end due to poor equity market performance in this year's first quarter.