美國信安金融集團 (PFG) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, and welcome to the Principal Financial Group second-quarter 2024 financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions)

早安，歡迎參加信安金融集團 2024 年第二季財務績效電話會議。（操作員說明）

I would now like to turn the conference call over to Humphrey Lee, Vice President of Investor Relations.

我現在想將電話會議轉交給投資者關係副總裁漢弗萊李 (Humphrey Lee)。

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Principal Financial Group's second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As always, materials related to today's call are available on our website at investors.principal.com.

謝謝你，早安。歡迎參加信安金融集團 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。與往常一樣，與今天電話會議相關的資料可在我們的網站 Investors.principal.com 上取得。

Following a reading of the Safe Harbor provision, CEO Dan Houston and CFO Deanna Strable will deliver some prepared remarks. We will then open up the call for questions. Other members of senior management will also be available for Q&A.

在宣讀安全港條款後，執行長 Dan Houston 和財務長 Deanna Strable 將發表一些準備好的演講。然後我們將開放提問。其他高階管理層成員也將出席問答環節。

Some of the comments made during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. The company does not revise or update them to reflect new information, subsequent events, or changes in strategy. Risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied are discussed in the company's most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed by the company with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

本次電話會議期間發表的一些評論可能包含《私人證券訴訟改革法》含義內的前瞻性陳述。公司不會修改或更新它們以反映新資訊、後續事件或策略變化。該公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的最新 10-K 表格年度報告中討論了可能導致實際結果與明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異的風險和不確定性。

Additionally, some of the comments made during this conference call may refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable US GAAP financial measures may be found in our earnings release, financial supplement, and slide presentation.

此外，本次電話會議期間發表的一些評論可能涉及非公認會計準則財務指標。非公認會計原則財務指標與最直接可比較的美國公認會計原則財務指標的調節可以在我們的收益發布、財務補充和幻燈片演示中找到。

As a reminder, we are hosting our 2024 Investor Day on Monday, November 18, in New York. We look forward to seeing many of you at this event. Dan?

謹此提醒，我們將於 11 月 18 日星期一在紐約舉辦 2024 年投資者日活動。我們期待在這次活動中見到你們中的許多人。擔？

Thanks, Humphrey, and welcome to everyone on the call. This morning, I will discuss key milestones and highlights from the second quarter as we continue executing our strategy with discipline and focus to deliver strong results for our customers and shareholders. Deanna will follow with additional details on our results and our capital position.

謝謝漢弗萊，歡迎大家參加電話會議。今天早上，我將討論第二季的關鍵里程碑和亮點，因為我們將繼續嚴格執行我們的策略，專注於為我們的客戶和股東帶來強勁的業績。迪安娜將隨後提供有關我們的業績和資本狀況的更多詳細資訊。

Starting with the results for the second quarter, we reported $386 million of non-GAAP operating earnings or $1.63 per diluted share, a 7% increase in EPS over the second quarter of 2023. The year-over-year growth in earnings was driven by a 6% increase in net revenue due to business growth and favorable markets compared to a year ago.

從第二季的業績開始，我們報告了 3.86 億美元的非 GAAP 營業利潤，即稀釋後每股收益 1.63 美元，每股收益比 2023 年第二季度增長了 7%。與去年同期相比，由於業務成長和有利的市場，淨收入增長了 6%，推動了盈利的同比增長。

Having said this, we are in a very bifurcated market environment. While performance at the S&P 500 has been very strong this year, performance has been heavily concentrated in a handful of large technology stocks. Meanwhile, mid-cap, small cap, and international equities have lagged the market-weighted S&P 500 throughout the first half of 2024 and were mostly negative in the second quarter.

話雖如此，我們正處於一個非常分化的市場環境。儘管標普 500 指數今年的表現非常強勁，但表現主要集中在少數大型科技股。同時，中型股、小型股和國際股票在 2024 年上半年一直落後於市場加權的標準普爾 500 指數，並且在第二季度大多為負值。

This has impacted diversified active asset managers like Principal. Market performance for our total managed AUM was 0.4% in the second quarter and 8% on a trailing 12-month basis. Despite this mixed market performance, we have confidence in the second half of the year, and we expect our full-year results to be aligned with our 2024 outlook.

這對像信安這樣的多元化主動資產管理公司產生了影響。第二季我們管理的資產管理規模總額的市場表現為 0.4%，過去 12 個月為 8%。儘管市場表現參差不齊，但我們對下半年充滿信心，我們預計全年業績將與 2024 年的前景保持一致。

We returned $415 million of capital to shareholders in the second quarter, including $250 million of share repurchases. We also raised our common stock dividend for the fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with our targeted 40% dividend payout ratio. We ended the quarter with total company-managed AUM of $699 billion, foreign currency translation headwinds of $9 billion in the quarter, and $20 billion over the last 12-months impacted AUM.

第二季度，我們向股東返還了 4.15 億美元的資本，其中包括 2.5 億美元的股票回購。我們也連續第五個季度提高了普通股股息，與我們 40% 的股息支付率目標保持一致。截至本季末，公司管理的資產管理規模總額為 6,990 億美元，本季的外幣換算阻力為 90 億美元，過去 12 個月影響的資產管理規模為 200 億美元。

Now turning to the businesses, in retirement, we continue to experience positive fundamentals. Reoccurring deposits increased by more than 7% compared to our year-ago quarter. This was driven by 10% growth in reoccurring deposits for small and mid-sized businesses as well as strong growth in average participant deferrals and employer matches across the entire block.

現在轉向企業，在退休後，我們繼續經歷正面的基本面。與去年同期相比，經常性存款增加了 7% 以上。這是由於中小型企業的經常性存款增加了 10%，以及整個區塊的平均參與者延期和雇主匹配的強勁增長。

While year-over-year plan sales have been impacted by fewer large plans in motion, we continue to generate strong growth in transfer deposits, which were up 13% in the quarter. This was again driven by the growth in the SMB market. Contract retention has improved significantly and is helping to offset elevated participant withdrawals in the second quarter.

雖然同比計劃銷售受到正在實施的大型計劃減少的影響，但我們的轉移存款繼續強勁增長，本季度增長了 13%。這再次受到中小企業市場成長的推動。合約保留率顯著提高，有助於抵消第二季度參與者退出的增加。

Withdrawals were higher in the quarter primarily due to impact of favorable markets on account values along with a slight increase in withdrawal rates. We generated another strong quarter of pension risk transfer sales. With nearly $1 billion in the second quarter, year-to-date sales have surpassed $1.7 billion at attractive returns.

本季提款額較高，主要是由於有利的市場對帳戶價值的影響以及提款率的小幅上升。我們的退休金風險轉移銷售又一個強勁的季度。第二季銷售額接近 10 億美元，年初至今銷售額已超過 17 億美元，回報頗具吸引力。

Importantly, our defined benefits business continues to be a valuable source of PRT new business, with nearly 25% of our year-to-date contracts coming from existing defined benefit customer relationships. We remain an industry leader in PRT, ranking third in both premium and contracts according to LIMRA's first-quarter report.

重要的是，我們的固定福利業務仍然是 PRT 新業務的寶貴來源，今年迄今為止，近 25% 的合約來自現有的固定福利客戶關係。根據 LIMRA 第一季報告，我們仍然是 PRT 行業的領先者，在保費和合約方面均排名第三。

We also strengthened our leadership position in ESOP in the second quarter, announcing the acquisition of Ascensus' employee stock ownership plan business. This acquisition closed on July 1, solidifying our position as the number-one ESOP provider in the US with a 30% market share. We added 800 more employer customers and over 165,000 new ESOP participants.

第二季我們也加強了員工持股計畫的領導地位，宣布收購騰騰員工持股計畫業務。此次收購於 7 月 1 日完成，鞏固了我們作為美國第一大 ESOP 提供商的地位，佔據了 30% 的市場份額。我們新增了 800 名雇主客戶和超過 165,000 名新的 ESOP 參與者。

This acquisition is aligned with our focus on small- to medium-sized businesses and expands our current ESOP offering, a critical piece of our full suite of workplace retirement offerings. It also adds talent to our workforce and provides greater value and enhanced products and services for our customers.

此次收購符合我們對中小型企業的關注，並擴展了我們目前的員工持股計畫（ESOP）產品，這是我們全套工作場所退休產品的重要組成部分。它還為我們的員工隊伍增添了人才，並為我們的客戶提供了更大的價值和增強的產品和服務。

Turning to Principal Asset Management. PGI continues to build on the sales momentum from the first quarter. We are seeing continued strong retail demand for our suite of mutual funds and ETF offerings. On the institutional side, private real estate and specialty fixed income capabilities remain in demand.

轉向信安資產管理。PGI 繼續延續第一季的銷售動能。我們看到零售市場對我們的共同基金和 ETF 產品套件的需求持續強勁。在機構方面，私人房地產和專業固定收益能力仍有需求。

We had approximately $500 million of net cash flow into private real estate. This level of net cash flow is consistent with the average over the past six quarters. Despite the second-quarter momentum, we reported negative net cash flow of just over $2 billion. The net outflow was driven by a large lower-fee fixed-income redemption from a corporate client as well as stable value products outflows.

我們有大約 5 億美元的淨現金流流入私人房地產。這一淨現金流量水準與過去六個季度的平均水準一致。儘管第二季勢頭強勁，但我們報告的負淨現金流略高於 20 億美元。淨流出是由企業客戶大量較低費用的固定收益贖回以及穩定價值產品流出所推動的。

We expect the second half of the year to improve as investors are increasingly looking to move money out of cash and into risk-based assets across both public and private markets. We continue to look for opportunities to invest for our clients and remain optimistic about this growing momentum.

我們預計今年下半年情況會有所改善，因為投資者越來越多地尋求將資金從現金轉移到公共和私人市場的風險資產。我們繼續為客戶尋找投資機會，並對這種成長動能保持樂觀。

During the quarter, we launched the Principal Private Credit Fund, offering exposure to middle-market loans with enhanced yield and return to retail investors. We are also seeing increased institutional interest in the team, resulting in $150 million of sales in the quarter. We also announced the launch of our new private infrastructure debt capability and the hiring of an industry veteran to lead this venture.

本季度，我們推出了信安私人信貸基金，為散戶投資者提供提高收益率和回報的中間市場貸款。我們也看到機構對該團隊的興趣不斷增加，本季銷售額達到 1.5 億美元。我們也宣布啟動新的私人基礎設施債務能力，並聘請一位業界資深人士來領導這項合資企業。

These actions add to our expertise in public-listed infrastructure, real estate debt, and alternative credit. Finally, we have enhanced our investment performance disclosure to include both equal-weighted and asset-weighted performance against the Morningstar peer group and composite benchmarks. We continue to be focused on providing strong long-term performance across our investment lineup.

這些行動增強了我們在公開上市基礎設施、房地產債務和替代信貸方面的專業知識。最後，我們增強了投資績效揭露，包括相對於晨星同業集團和綜合基準的等權重和資產加權績效。我們繼續專注於在我們的投資組合中提供強勁的長期業績。

Principal International ended the quarter with $171 billion of total reported AUM. Favorable market performance was more than offset by foreign currency headwinds, primarily in Brazil. Net cash flow was slightly positive in the second quarter with contributions from Southeast Asia and Hong Kong offsetting small outflows in Latin America.

本季末信安國際報告的資產管理規模總額為 1,710 億美元。有利的市場表現被外匯不利因素（主要是巴西）所抵銷。第二季淨現金流略有正值，東南亞和香港的貢獻抵銷了拉丁美洲的小額流出。

As a reminder, flows are strongest in the first quarter and third quarter for Principal International, primarily due to the seasonality of sales in Brazil. We expect to have a strong net cash flow in the second half of the year. In benefits and protection, we generated above-market premium and fee growth in Specialty Benefits. This growth is being driven by record year-to-date sales and strong retention along with employment and wage growth.

需要提醒的是，信安國際第一季和第三季的流量最為強勁，主要是由於巴西銷售的季節性。我們預計下半年將有強勁的淨現金流。在福利和保障方面，我們在特殊福利方面實現了高於市場水平的保費和費用增長。這一成長是由年初至今創紀錄的銷售額、強勁的留存率以及就​​業和薪資成長所推動的。

Once again, more than half of our growth came from our net new business, demonstrating our competitive advantage and leadership position in the underserved small- to mid-sized market. We continue to grow faster than the industry by deepening relationships with key distribution partners and with our customers.

我們的成長再次超過一半來自我們的淨新業務，這證明了我們在服務不足的中小型市場中的競爭優勢和領導地位。透過深化與主要分銷合作夥伴和客戶的關係，我們繼續以比行業更快的速度成長。

To highlight this, the average number of coverages per in-force customer continues to increase and now exceeds three coverage per group benefits customer for the first time. I'm excited about the opportunities across Principal and remain confident. Our focus on higher growth markets, combined with our integrated product portfolio and important distribution partnerships, will continue to create value and drive growth.

為了強調這一點，每個有效客戶的平均承保數量持續增加，現在首次超過每個團體福利客戶的三個承保範圍。我對信安的機會感到興奮並保持信心。我們對高成長市場的關注，結合我們的綜合產品組合和重要的分銷合作夥伴關係，將繼續創造價值並推動成長。

Before turning it over to Deanna, I'd like to highlight that Principal celebrated its 145th anniversary earlier this month. I'm incredibly proud of the way our company and our 20,000 employees continue to meet the changing needs of approximately 64 million customers. We remain focused on providing access to financial security for more people, businesses, and communities around the globe. Deanna?

在將其交給 Deanna 之前，我想強調一下，本月早些時候，Principal 慶祝了其成立 145 週年。我對我們公司和 20,000 名員工不斷滿足約 6,400 萬客戶不斷變化的需求的方式感到無比自豪。我們仍然致力於為全球更多的人、企業和社區提供財務安全。迪安娜？

Thanks, Dan. Good morning to everyone on the call. This morning, I'll share the key contributors to our financial performance for the quarter as well as details of our capital position. The second quarter reported net income was $353 million. Excluding exited business, net income was $356 million with minimal credit losses of $25 million. Non-GAAP operating ROE of 13.1% improved by 80 basis points compared to the year-ago period. We continue to trend toward our 14% to 16% target.

謝謝，丹。各位來電的人早安。今天早上，我將分享本季財務表現的主要貢獻者以及我們資本狀況的詳細資訊。第二季淨利為 3.53 億美元。不包括已退出的業務，淨利潤為 3.56 億美元，信貸損失最低為 2,500 萬美元。非 GAAP 營運 ROE 為 13.1%，較去年同期提高 80 個基點。我們繼續朝著 14% 至 16% 的目標邁進。

Excluding significant variances, second-quarter non-GAAP operating earnings were $415 million or $1.76 per diluted share. EPS increased 4% compared to the second quarter of 2023. This was driven by top-line growth and improved markets, partially offset by foreign currency translation impacts and a higher effective tax rate.

排除重大差異，第二季非 GAAP 營業利潤為 4.15 億美元，即稀釋後每股收益 1.76 美元。每股盈餘較 2023 年第二季成長 4%。這是由收入成長和市場改善所推動的，但部分被外匯折算影響和更高的有效稅率所抵消。

During the quarter, we had one-time expenses, including state tax items and severance costs, impacting our results by approximately $0.09 per share. The one-time expenses impacted both PGI and the corporate segment. While we are not considering these as significant variances, our second-quarter earnings per share growth would have been over 9% compared to the second quarter of 2023, adjusting for these expenses.

本季度，我們產生了一次性費用，包括州稅項目和遣散費，對我們的業績產生了每股約 0.09 美元的影響。一次性費用影響了 PGI 和企業部門。雖然我們不認為這些是重大差異，但調整這些費用後，我們第二季的每股盈餘成長將比 2023 年第二季超過 9%。

Foreign exchange rates continue to be a headwind to earnings compared to both the sequential and year-ago quarter as the US dollar strengthened against Latin American currencies. Based on our earnings for the first half of 2024 and our forecast for the remainder of the year, we remain on track to deliver full-year EPS growth on both a reported and adjusted basis aligned with our 2024 guidance of 9% to 12%. This implies strong growth across our businesses in the second half of the year.

由於美元兌拉丁美洲貨幣走強，與上一季和去年同期相比，外匯匯率持續成為獲利的阻力。根據我們 2024 年上半年的盈利以及今年剩餘時間的預測，我們仍有望在報告和調整後的基礎上實現全年每股收益增長，與 2024 年 9% 至 12% 的指導一致。這意味著下半年我們的業務將強勁成長。

Turning to the significant variances for the quarter as detailed on slide 12, these impacted non-GAAP operating earnings by a net negative $38 million pretax, $29 million after tax, and approximately $0.13 per diluted share. Significant variances in the quarter include lower variable investment income in RIS and benefits and protection, unfavorable encaje performance in Principal International, and a small GAAP-only regulatory closed-block dividend adjustment in life insurance.

至於幻燈片 12 中詳述的本季度的重大差異，這些差異對非 GAAP 營業利潤產生了稅前淨負 3800 萬美元、稅後淨負 2900 萬美元以及稀釋後每股約 0.13 美元的影響。本季度的重大差異包括 RIS 以及福利和保護的可變投資收入較低、信安國際 (Principal International) 的不利 encaje 業績以及人壽保險中僅按照 GAAP 監管進行的小幅封閉式股息調整。

Variable investment income improved sequentially on stronger alternative returns. Real estate transactions were muted, and we had no pre-payment fees in the quarter. The second quarter non-GAAP operating earnings effective tax rate was higher than our guided range.

可變投資收益隨著另類報酬的增強而連續改善。房地產交易清淡，本季我們沒有預付款。第二季非公認會計準則營業利潤的有效稅率高於我們的指引範圍。

This was primarily due to a decrease in the Iowa corporate tax rate, resulting in a non-cash remeasurement of our deferred tax assets. While this impacted our tax rate in the current quarter, it is a net long-term benefit. For the full year, we still expect to be within the 17% to 20% guided range.

這主要是由於愛荷華州公司稅率下降，導致我們的遞延稅資產進行非現金重新計量。雖然這影響了我們本季的稅率，但這是一個淨長期效益。就全年而言，我們仍預計將在 17% 至 20% 的指導範圍內。

Turning to the business units, the following comments exclude significant variances. RIS pretax operating earnings increased 10% over the second quarter of 2023, driven by growth in the business, higher net investment income, and favorable market performance. Net revenue grew by nearly 8%, and margins remained strong and at the high end of our guided range, while we continue to invest in the business to drive future growth.

談到業務部門，以下評論排除了重大差異。受業務成長、淨投資收入增加和良好的市場表現的推動，RIS 稅前營業利潤較 2023 年第二季度增長 10%。淨收入成長了近 8%，利潤率仍然強勁，處於我們指導範圍的高端，同時我們繼續投資該業務以推動未來成長。

PGI's pretax operating earnings increased 2% over the second quarter of 2023. Higher management fees from increasing AUM were partially offset by the impact of recent redemptions as well as immaterial performance fees. Adjusted margin of approximately 35% is flat relative to the year-ago quarter, an increase from a seasonal low in the first quarter.

PGI 的稅前營業利潤較 2023 年第二季成長 2%。資產管理規模增加所帶來的管理費上漲部分被近期贖回以及無​​關緊要的績效費用的影響所抵銷。調整後利潤率約為 35%，與去年同期持平，較第一季的季節性低點有所上升。

In the quarter, earnings and margins were impacted by approximately $6 million of severance and other one-time expenses. In Principal International, pretax operating earnings decreased by 7% compared to the second quarter of 2023. On a constant currency basis, operating earnings were flat. Strong growth in Latin America was offset by lower earnings from Asia. We are starting to see improvements in the macro climate in Asia. Combined with the continued strong performance in Latin America, we feel very good about a strong second half of the year.

本季度，收益和利潤受到約 600 萬美元的遣散費和其他一次性費用的影響。信安國際的稅前營業利潤較 2023 年第二季下降 7%。以固定匯率計算，營業利潤持平。拉丁美洲的強勁成長被亞洲收入的下降所抵消。我們開始看到亞洲宏觀氣候有所改善。結合拉丁美洲持續強勁的表現，我們對今年下半年的強勁表現感到非常滿意。

Specialty benefits pretax operating earnings increased 11% from the second quarter of 2023. This was driven by continued growth in the business and more favorable underwriting experience. Underwriting results improved by 50 basis points compared to a year ago and highlights the diversification across product lines. Improved results in group life and group disability more than offset the higher dental seasonality. We expect the seasonality to moderate in the second half of the year.

特殊福利稅前營業利潤較 2023 年第二季成長 11%。這是由於業務的持續成長和更有利的承保經驗所推動的。核保績效較一年前提高了 50 個基點，凸顯了跨產品線的多元化。群體生活和群體殘疾的改善結果足以抵消較高的牙科季節性。我們預計下半年季節性因素將有所緩解。

In life insurance, we negotiated two risk-reducing YRT reinsurance contracts in the quarter for our existing business as well as our transacted [ULSG] block. These actions locked in guaranteed rates and reduced our overall YRT risk, resulting in an immaterial impact on earnings. Excluding the impact of these YRT-related activities, premium fees grew 4% compared to the year-ago quarter at the top of our guidance range.

在人壽保險方面，我們在本季為現有業務以及已交易的 [ULSG] 區塊談判了兩份降低風險的 YRT 再保險合約。這些行動鎖定了保證利率並降低了我們的整體 YRT 風險，從而對收益產生了無關緊要的影響。排除這些與 YRT 相關活動的影響，保費與去年同期相比增長了 4%，處於我們指導範圍的頂部。

This was driven by continued business market strength, where premium fees grew 15% in the quarter. Across the businesses, we remain confident in delivering on our revenue growth and margin guidance for the full year, anchored to our long-term financial targets.

這是由業務市場持續強勁推動的，本季保費成長了 15%。在所有業務中，我們仍然有信心實現全年的收入成長和利潤指導，以我們的長期財務目標為基礎。

Turning to capital and liquidity, after thoughtful evaluation of our capital levels based on our business mix and capital at-risk profile, we have revised our RBC target to a range of 375% to 400%. We believe this new target is more suitable for our liability profile and gives us additional flexibility to manage our capital based on external conditions and new business opportunities. We have no immediate plan to lower our RBC level and will operate prudently within this range.

談到資本和流動性，根據我們的業務組合和風險資本狀況對我們的資本水準進行深思熟慮後，我們將 RBC 目標修訂為 375% 至 400%。我們相信這個新目標更適合我們的負債狀況，並為我們提供了額外的靈活性，可以根據外部條件和新的商機來管理我們的資本。我們沒有立即降低紅血球水平的計劃，並將在此範圍內審慎運作。

Our estimate of second-quarter RBC ratio was 405%. Based on this new target, we have approximately $1.6 billion of excess and available capital, including approximately $800 million at the holding company, $450 million excess above 375% RBC, and $300 million in our subsidiaries.

我們對第二季 RBC 比率的估計為 405%。根據這一新目標，我們擁有約 16 億美元的剩餘資本和可用資本，其中包括控股公司的約 8 億美元、超過 375% RBC 的 4.5 億美元的剩餘資本以及我們子公司的 3 億美元。

As shown on slide 3, we returned $415 million to shareholders in the second quarter, including $250 million of share repurchases and $165 million of common stock dividends. This brings our year-to-date capital return to nearly $800 million. We expect to deliver on our targeted 75% to 85% free capital flow for the full year. As discussed on previous calls, due to timing of capital generation, free capital flow tends to increase throughout the year.

如投影片 3 所示，我們在第二季向股東返還了 4.15 億美元，其中包括 2.5 億美元的股票回購和 1.65 億美元的普通股股息。這使得我們今年迄今的資本回報達到近 8 億美元。我們預計全年實現 75% 至 85% 自由資本流動的目標。如同先前電話會議所討論的，由於資本產生的時間安排，自由資本流動往往會全年增加。

We are committed to returning excess capital to shareholders and continue to expect $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion of capital deployments for the full year, including $800 million to $1.1 billion of share repurchases. The previously mentioned ESOP acquisition had an immaterial impact to our capital deployment plans.

我們致力於將多餘資本返還給股東，並繼續預計全年資本部署為 15 億至 18 億美元，其中包括 8 億至 11 億美元的股票回購。前面提到的 ESOP 收購對我們的資本部署計畫影響不大。

Last night, we announced a $0.72 common stock dividend payable in the second quarter, a $0.01 increase from the dividend paid in the second quarter and an 11% increase over the third-quarter 2023 dividend. This continues to align with our targeted 40% dividend payout ratio and demonstrates our confidence in continued growth and overall performance.

昨晚，我們宣布第二季應付普通股股利為 0.72 美元，比第二季支付的股利增加 0.01 美元，比 2023 年第三季股利增加 11%。這繼續符合我們 40% 的股息支付率目標，並表明我們對持續成長和整體績效的信心。

We remain focused on maintaining our capital and liquidity targets at both the life company and the holding company and will continue a balanced and disciplined approach to capital deployment. Our investment portfolio remains high quality aligned with our liability profile and well positioned for a variety of economic conditions. The commercial mortgage loan portfolio remains healthy.

我們仍然專注於維持人壽公司和控股公司的資本和流動性目標，並將繼續採取平衡和嚴格的資本部署方法。我們的投資組合保持高品質，與我們的負債狀況保持一致，並針對各種經濟條件做好了準備。商業抵押貸款組合保持健康。

Coming into the year, we had $510 million of office loan maturities in 2024. All maturities to date have been paid off or resolved, and we have $290 million remaining. The underlying metrics on these loans remain strong, and we continue to work with our borrowers to pay off or refinance the remaining maturities.

進入今年，我們有 5.1 億美元的辦公貸款將於 2024 年到期。迄今為止，所有到期債務都已還清或解決，我們還剩下 2.9 億美元。這些貸款的基本指標仍然強勁，我們將繼續與借款人合作，償還剩餘期限或為剩餘期限提供再融資。

In closing, we are confident of our ability to deliver on our enterprise 2024 targets. These include a 9% to 12% growth in earnings per share, increasing return on equity, and 75% to 85% free capital flow conversion. We are encouraged by the underlying fundamentals of our businesses and expect growth to accelerate in the second half of the year.

最後，我們對實現 2024 年企業目標的能力充滿信心。其中包括每股收益成長 9% 至 12%、股本回報率增加以及 75% 至 85% 的自由資本流動轉換。我們對業務的基本面感到鼓舞，並預計下半年成長將加速。

We are grounded in our growth drivers of retirement, asset management, and benefits and protection and executing on a strategy focused on continuing to drive long-term shareholder value.

我們立足於退休、資產管理、福利和保護等成長動力，並執行專注於繼續推動長期股東價值的策略。

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call for questions.

我們準備好的演講到此結束。接線員，請打開電話提問。

(Operator Instructions) Joel Hurwitz, Dowling & Partners.

（操作員說明）Joel Hurwitz，Dowling & Partners。

Hey, good morning. In retirement, fee revenue looked a little light of what I was expecting, and it looks to be on some further fee rate compression. I know, last quarter, we discussed the impact of some of the business having non-asset-based fees. But even factoring that in, it looks like there was a bit of an acceleration of the fee rate decline. Anything unusual in the quarter? Any other dynamics that I should be thinking about with retirement fee levels?

嘿，早安。退休後，費用收入看起來有點低於我的預期，而且似乎會進一步壓縮費率。我知道，上個季度，我們討論了一些非資產費用業務的影響。但即使考慮到這一點，費率下降的速度似乎也有所加快。本季有什麼異常狀況嗎？我還應該考慮退休金水準的其他動態嗎？

Yes. Good morning, Joel. Appreciate the question. I'll just have Chris go into that for you. Chris?

是的。早安，喬爾。感謝這個問題。我會讓克里斯為你解釋一下。克里斯？

Thanks for the question, Joel. I mean, I think, again, I'd start with -- when we look at our net revenue growth of 8%, we feel really good about where net revenue is coming in for the year. But when we look at fee rate, we were down less than 1 bp sequentially and down about 2 bps on a trailing 12-month basis during a period of significant market outperformance.

謝謝你的提問，喬爾。我的意思是，我想，我會首先——當我們看到 8% 的淨收入成長時，我們對今年的淨收入情況感到非常滿意。但當我們觀察費率時，我們環比下降了不到 1 個基點，在市場表現顯著優於市場的時期，在過去 12 個月的基礎上下降了約 2 個基點。

And we think the trailing 12-month view is the best way to view fee revenue rate given the fluctuations that occur in between the quarters, whether that's market performance or timing of consulting and other billable services. But if I were to highlight four things, I'd highlight four things with respect to the fee revenue rate.

我們認為，考慮到季度之間發生的波動，無論是市場表現還是諮詢和其他計費服務的時間安排，過去 12 個月的視圖是查看費用收入率的最佳方式。但如果我要強調四件事，我會強調關於費用收入率的四件事。

First, as you noted, that fee-based revenue is not all -- it's not all tied to assets. So that average AV, which is the denominator, increases faster than the numerator, particularly when you have significant market outperformance like we've seen over the last couple of quarters.

首先，正如您所指出的，基於費用的收入並不是全部——它並不全部與資產掛鉤。因此，平均 AV（分母）的成長速度快於分子，特別是當您的市場表現顯著優於我們在過去幾季看到的情況時。

Second, the pattern of market performance matters, and that market decline in April resulted in a notable difference in monthly average AV. So that's another factor I'd highlight. Third, while point to point look at the S&P 500, it's a conventional gauge for looking at market performance. As we pointed out in our investor slides, our equity exposure is more diversified, and we saw less correlation to S&P 500.

其次，市場表現格局很重要，4月市場下滑導致月平均AV出現顯著差異。這是我要強調的另一個因素。第三，雖然點對點地考察標準普爾 500 指數，但它是衡量市場表現的傳統指標。正如我們在投資者幻燈片中指出的那樣，我們的股票部位更加多元化，並且與標準普爾 500 指數的相關性較小。

And so we outlined those specific exposures in fee-based [stake] in the investor presentations. And while large cap performed well during the second quarter, small cap, mid-cap, international fixed income, and real estate were all flat to negative.

因此，我們在投資者介紹中概述了收費[股權]中的這些具體風險敞口。雖然大盤股在第二季表現良好，但小型股、中盤股、國際固定收益和房地產均持平至負值。

So we didn't see anything notable. We continue to sort of be confident in our guidance at 2 bps to 3 bps over a full year in normal markets, and outperformance in the markets can fluctuate that a bit. And I'd reiterate again, with respect to our guidance, we believe that we're going to be at or above our net revenue guidance for the full year and at the top of our margin guidance. So we feel really good about our performance. Does that help, Joel?

所以我們沒有看到任何值得注意的東西。我們仍然對正常市場全年 2 至 3 個基點的指導充滿信心，而市場的優異表現可能會略有波動。我想再次重申，關於我們的指導，我們相信我們的全年淨收入指導將達到或高於我們的利潤率指導的最高水平。所以我們對自己的表現感覺非常好。這有幫助嗎，喬爾？

Yes, that was helpful. Thank you. I guess just -- Chris, I'll stick with you in retirement. How much of your defined contribution business is now in guaranteed or spread-based products? And I guess, how has that grown in recent years?

是的，這很有幫助。謝謝。我想——克里斯，退休後我會和你在一起。您的固定繳款業務目前有多少是基於保證或利差的產品？我想，近年來這種成長情況如何？

Yes, I think you can -- that's actually another factor I actually should point about with respect to the fee revenue rate, Joel, so thank you for the prompt there. We definitely are seeing an increase in the use of guaranteed account product in WSRS. And that's been something that we've been really focused on trying to get a better penetration of.

是的，我認為你可以——這實際上是我應該指出的關於費用收入率的另一個因素，喬爾，所以謝謝你的提示。我們確實看到 WSRS 中擔保帳戶產品的使用有所增加。這是我們一直致力於更好滲透的事情。

So what you're seeing is some of that is coming -- the economics are coming out of fee, and they're showing up in spread. So it is growing. We're definitely seeing an increase in our ability to earn placements of our guaranteed products in WSRS and seeing good success there.

所以你看到的是其中一些即將到來——經濟正在從費用中顯現出來，它們以價差的形式出現。所以它正在增長。我們確實看到我們在 WSRS 中獲得保證的產品的能力有所增強，並且在那裡取得了良好的成功。

Okay. Thank you.

好的。謝謝。

Thanks, Joel.

謝謝，喬爾。

Ryan Krueger, KBW.

瑞安·克魯格，KBW。

Hey. Good morning. Your full-year guidance and -- in the EPS for the first half of the year seems to imply a pretty good step up in EPS in the second half of the year. I was hoping you could touch on some of the key factors that's driving that. I know there's [dental] seasonality, but what other factors are causing you to take that step up?

嘿。早安.你們的全年指引和上半年每股盈餘似乎意味著下半年每股盈餘將有相當大的提升。我希望您能談談推動這一趨勢的一些關鍵因素。我知道[牙科]存在季節性，但是還有哪些因素促使您採取這項措施？

Yes. Before I have Deanna answer that question, Ryan, just know that we spent a lot of time looking at the underlying businesses themselves to understand what the growth is. And we've got a lot of historical precedents relative to the -- how these tend to mature and to get to where we're at today. And we feel, as I said in my earlier comments, quite confident on our ability to hit that. With that, I'll let Deanna answer that specifically.

是的。在我讓迪安娜回答這個問題之前，瑞安，我們花了很多時間研究基礎業務本身，以了解成長情況。我們有很多歷史先例，這些先例是如何趨於成熟並達到我們今天的水平的。正如我在先前的評論中所說，我們對我們實現這一目標的能力充滿信心。下面就讓迪安娜來具體回答一下吧。

Yes. Thanks, Ryan, for the question. Let me spend a little bit of time sizing that step up that you referred to and then talk about the drivers that make us still confident in our full-year performance.

是的。謝謝瑞安提出的問題。讓我花一點時間來評估您提到的這一步驟，然後談談使我們對全年業績仍然充滿信心的驅動因素。

First, I do acknowledge that there, like you mentioned, appears to be the need for a meaningful increase in our second-half results for us to meet guidance. But I also want you to understand that we would not be reconfirming our outlook if we didn't have the business and financial fundamentals to support it.

首先，我確實承認，就像您提到的那樣，我們下半年的業績似乎需要大幅成長，才能滿足指導要求。但我也希望您明白，如果我們沒有商業和財務基本面的支持，我們就不會重新確認我們的前景。

Second, I want to just make sure we're all thinking of the numbers in the right way. So our 9% to 12% EPS growth refers to our adjusted EPS growth off of the adjusted $692 million in 2023. And so if you do the math on that, that would imply an average of slightly over $2 per quarter in the next two quarters to get us within that range compared to the actual average, $1.76 per quarter in the first half of the year or $1.80 if you factor out the one-time expenses and taxes in the second quarter that we don't expect to recur.

其次，我想確保我們都以正確的方式思考這些數字。因此，我們 9% 至 12% 的每股盈餘成長是指我們在 2023 年調整後的 6.92 億美元的基礎上調整後的每股盈餘成長。因此，如果你對此進行數學計算，這意味著接下來的兩個季度平均每季略高於2 美元，以使我們處於該範圍內，而實際平均水平是今年上半年每季1.76 美元或1.80美元如果您將第二季的一次性費用和稅收考慮在內，我們預計不會再次發生。

There are a number of factors that naturally cause our EPS to be higher in the second half. The most meaningful of these is one of those that you did just mention. It's the seasonality, but not just in SBD but also in PGI that impacts their -- those two segments' performance in the first half of any year.

有很多因素自然導致我們下半年的每股盈餘更高。其中最有意義的是您剛才提到的其中之一。季節性因素不僅影響 SBD，而且影響 PGI，這兩個細分市場在任何一年的上半年都表現出色。

In addition, the natural growth of all of our businesses as well as the reduced share count will also contribute to a second -- a higher EPS as the year progresses. And then I think my last point, which could be helpful and add further support to this, as I point you back to the pattern of our EPS in 2023, in that year, we averaged $1.65 in the first half and $1.82 in the second half. So that's a delta of $0.17.

此外，我們所有業務的自然成長以及股份數量的減少也將有助於實現第二個目標——隨著時間的推移，每股收益更高。然後我認為我的最後一點可能會有所幫助，並為此提供進一步的支持，因為我向您指出2023 年每股收益的模式，在那一年，我們上半年的平均每股收益為1.65 美元，下半年的平均每股盈餘為1.82 美元。因此，增量為 0.17 美元。

And if you adjust that for our share buyback activity, that would add an additional $0.05 to that amount, making a $0.20 increase this year, a continuation of a pattern we've experienced as recently as last year. So hopeful that that additional detail provides further support to our confidence. And bottom line, as long as macro continues to cooperate, I see a clear path to our full-year guidance of 9% to 12%.

如果您針對我們的股票回購活動進行調整，則該金額將額外增加 0.05 美元，從而使今年增加 0.20 美元，這是我們去年經歷過的模式的延續。我們非常希望這些額外的細節能進一步支持我們的信心。最重要的是，只要宏觀經濟繼續合作，我就看到了實現 9% 至 12% 的全年指導的清晰路徑。

Thanks, Deanna.

謝謝，迪安娜。

Thanks, Ryan.

謝謝，瑞安。

Wesley Carmichael, Autonomous Research.

韋斯利·卡邁克爾，自主研究。

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. On PGI and expenses, I know you mentioned there were some severance costs, but it seems like expenses didn't come down quite as much as you were expecting last quarter. So just wondering if you have any color on what drove expenses higher this quarter and how we should think about that for the rest of the year.

嘿，早安。感謝您提出我的問題。關於 PGI 和費用，我知道您提到有一些遣散費，但上季度費用似乎沒有像您預期的那樣下降。因此，我想知道您是否對本季費用上漲的原因有任何了解，以及我們應該如何考慮今年剩餘時間的情況。

Wes, good morning. Appreciate the question. And as you might expect, we also have investments in the business that we have to continue to make as we think about how we pivot in part from the public to the private. So with that, I'll have Kamal add some additional color.

韋斯，早安。感謝這個問題。正如您所期望的那樣，當我們考慮如何將部分業務從公共轉向私營部門時，我們也必須繼續對業務進行投資。因此，我會讓卡邁勒添加一些額外的顏色。

Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Wes. So I think, as you mentioned, this quarter, we did have, as we mentioned in the notes to you that we did have some severance costs of roughly $6 million that was staff related. But before I go there, I think it's worth reminding that the asset management business is a highly competitive business, and we are constantly adapting our investment model.

謝謝你，丹。謝謝你，韋斯。所以我認為，正如您所提到的，本季度我們確實有，正如我們在給您的說明中提到的，我們確實有一些與員工相關的遣散費，約為 600 萬美元。但在我去那裡之前，我認為值得提醒的是，資產管理業務是一個競爭激烈的業務，我們正在不斷調整我們的投資模式。

So one of the things we'll continue to do is look at our capabilities, and talent will appropriate and adjust it. So to your question, the expenses were elevated also with respect to the reinvestments we are making back in the business.

因此，我們將繼續做的一件事就是審視我們的能力，人才會適當地調整它。因此，對於你的問題，我們對業務進行再投資的費用也有所增加。

In particular, I'll point you to Dan's comments around infrastructure debt. We are particularly focused on making sure we have the capabilities for the future as we adjust our business mix. In addition to that, I think from an OE perspective, you will see there were some market adjustments due to the nature of our AUM. But we remain confident in our expense management capability, and we also remain confident in the outlook guidance we gave you on margin.

我特別要向您指出丹關於基礎設施債務的評論。在調整業務組合時，我們特別注重確保我們擁有面向未來的能力。除此之外，我認為從營運商的角度來看，由於我們資產管理規模的性質，您會看到一些市場調整。但我們對我們的費用管理能力仍然充滿信心，我們也對我們為您提供的保證金前景指引充滿信心。

Do you have a follow up, Wes?

韋斯，你有後續行動嗎？

Yes. Thank you. In pension risk transfer, I guess, you guys had $1 billion in sales in the quarter. Last quarter, some competitors were making some comments, and mostly related to, I think, private-equity-related companies but around lawsuits against plan sponsors kind of chilling volumes in that market. So just wondering what you're seeing in the pipeline if that still looks pretty robust.

是的。謝謝。我猜想，在退休金風險轉移方面，你們本季的銷售額為 10 億美元。上個季度，一些競爭對手發表了一些評論，我認為主要與私募股權相關公司有關，但圍繞著針對計劃發起人的訴訟，該市場的數量令人不寒而慄。所以只是想知道你在管道中看到了什麼，是否看起來仍然相當強大。

Chris, do you want to provide some color on that?

克里斯，你想對此提供一些說明嗎？

Yes. Thanks, Wes. We still see the market as pretty robust. I think the market overall is -- industry expectations are $30 billion to $40 billion in PRT for the year, and we don't see that really slowing down. And certainly, we took an opportunity to, in the second quarter, to put on some additional nice PRT business. We're exceeding our targeted returns and getting nice opportunities on PRT. And so not seeing anything from a macro basis that would suggest that the PRT market is slowing down.

是的。謝謝，韋斯。我們仍然認為市場相當強勁。我認為整個市場——行業預期今年的 PRT 為 300 億至 400 億美元，我們認為這一趨勢並沒有真正放緩。當然，我們在第二季度抓住了機會，並開展了一些額外的不錯的 PRT 業務。我們超出了目標回報並在 PRT 上獲得了很好的機會。因此，從宏觀角度來看，沒有任何跡象表明 PRT 市場正在放緩。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Wes.

謝謝，韋斯。

Jimmy Bhullar, JPMorgan.

吉米·布拉爾，摩根大通。

Hey, good morning. First, just a question on PGI net flows. I think each of the past few quarters, you've outlined low fee mandates pressuring your flows. I'm just wondering if the business that you've lost, did that become low fee mandate over time or was it such when it came on? And how is your approach to such blocks of business different than when you might have put this business on?

嘿，早安。首先，我想問一個關於 PGI 淨流量的問題。我認為在過去的幾個季度中，您都概述了低費用要求，從而給您的流量帶來壓力。我只是想知道您失去的業務是否會隨著時間的推移而變成低費用強制要求，還是在它出現時就是如此？您對這些業務塊的處理方式與您原本開展此業務時有何不同？

Yes. That's a great question, Jimmy. You certainly have different generations of these investments, and they all have a little bit of a unique story. But I'll have Kamal to provide some additional detail on the most recent quarter.

是的。這是一個很好的問題，吉米。當然，這些投資有不同的世代，而且它們都有一些獨特的故事。但我會讓卡邁勒提供有關最近一個季度的一些額外細節。

Absolutely. Jimmy, that's a great question. So let me just start with this quarter, and I think your question was both on what the net cash flows look like but the low-fee nature of these net cash flows. So as we highlighted, we had almost a $900 million outflow in a single mandate, a long-duration fixed-income mandate. To your question, these were always low fee. They did not become low fee over a period of time, and they were with us for a while.

絕對地。吉米，這是一個很好的問題。因此，讓我從本季開始，我認為您的問題既在於淨現金流量的情況，又在於這些淨現金流量的低費用性質。因此，正如我們所強調的，我們在一項長期固定收益委託中流出了近 9 億美元。對於你的問題，這些費用一直很低。他們並沒有在一段時間內變得低收費，而且他們和我們在一起有一段時間了。

In addition, I think it is worth highlighting that if you look at our net cash flow, and Dan mentioned this, I think our durable sources of net cash flow remained quite strong, in particular, almost $500 million of real estate flows, which are very high revenue and high margin for us.

此外，我認為值得強調的是，如果你看看我們的淨現金流，丹提到了這一點，我認為我們的淨現金流的持久來源仍然相當強勁，特別是近5 億美元的房地產流動，這是我們的收入和利潤率非常高。

And we also highlighted that as we continue to expand our business mix, $150 million of flows in private credit, which are obviously both high revenue and high margin as well. So we do feel good about the mix of our business. With respect to the assets we are bringing in are in asset classes that have a durable trend and have high revenue. And unfortunately, the mandates we did lose were in lower-revenue mandates. Hopefully, that answers the question.

我們也強調，隨著我們繼續擴大業務組合，私人信貸將有 1.5 億美元的流量，這顯然是高收入和高利潤率。因此，我們確實對我們的業務組合感到滿意。我們引入的資產屬於具有持久趨勢和高收入的資產類別。不幸的是，我們失去的任務都是收入較低的任務。希望這能回答問題。

Sure. And just relatedly, if I look at your performance, it's still good but not as great as it had been. The five-year, 10-year track records look better than the most recent years. Is that having any impact on your ability to retain or generate new inflows?

當然。與此相關的是，如果我看看你的表現，它仍然不錯，但不如以前那麼好。五年、十年的業績記錄看起來比最近幾年好。這對您保留或產生新資金流入的能力有影響嗎？

Yes. That's a great question. And obviously, that gets a lot of attention. As a matter of fact, Deanna and I and Kamal and his leaders get together frequently to interrogate the sources of underperformance where they are and had a very robust conversation in the last couple of weeks. It's why we've enhanced the slide deck to provide you with a different perspective on asset-weighted and equal weighted perspective.

是的。這是一個很好的問題。顯然，這引起了很多關注。事實上，迪安娜和我以及卡邁勒和他的領導者經常聚在一起詢問他們表現不佳的根源，並在過去幾週進行了非常熱烈的對話。這就是為什麼我們增強了幻燈片，為您提供有關資產加權和等權重觀點的不同觀點。

But again, I think Kamal and his team have done a really good job of truly understanding where these sources of underperformance are, and frankly, how good performance is in many of our strategies. Kamal, do you want to provide some additional insights?

但我再次認為卡邁勒和他的團隊在真正理解這些績效不佳的根源所在方面做得非常好，坦白說，我們的許多策略的績效有多好。Kamal，您想提供一些額外的見解嗎？

Absolutely. So Jimmy, first, let me acknowledge. Investment performance is very important to us, I think, as top-tier investment managers. So I do acknowledge your comments. But I will go further, I think, to your question. We haven't really seen a direct correlation to short-term performance on flows, particularly across our business mix. I'll point you to two data points we provided you this quarter.

絕對地。吉米，首先讓我承認。我認為，身為頂級投資經理，投資績效對我們來說非常重要。所以我確實承認你的評論。但我想我會進一步回答你的問題。我們還沒有真正看到流量與短期表現的直接相關性，特別是在我們的業務組合中。我將向您指出我們本季向您提供的兩個數據點。

One, we have added to our updates to you asset-weighted values for this quarter because they better reflect where our clients are invested to provide you a complete picture of our business. And if you look at that data, which we are providing to you both on peer relative basis and alpha basis, the numbers are quite strong.

第一，我們在本季的資產加權值更新中加入了這些數值，因為它們更能反映了我們客戶的投資方向，以便讓您全面了解我們的業務。如果您查看我們在同行相對基礎和阿爾法基礎上向您提供的數據，您會發現這些數字非常強勁。

You could see, in particular, two strategies I would highlight for you. Mid-cap strategy, which is a large strategy for us, has top-quartile short- and long-term performance. In addition, hybrid target dates, which is an area of strength for us, has very strong long-term performance.

您可以特別看到我為您強調的兩個策略。中型股策略對我們來說是一項大型策略，具有前四分之一的短期和長期表現。此外，混合目標日期是我們的優勢領域，具有非常強勁的長期表現。

The other thing I would point to you, and you'll see this in your charts, is almost 80% of our strategies are beating their benchmark, almost 150 basis points of alpha through the most recent period, which is the key decision for our institutional clients. So that gives me comfort that we are producing the investment results that we would keep there.

我要向你指出的另一件事，你會在你的圖表中看到這一點，我們幾乎80% 的策略都超過了他們的基準，最近一段時間的阿爾法幾乎有150 個基點，這是我們的關鍵決策機構客戶。因此，這讓我感到安慰，因為我們正在產生我們將保留在那裡的投資成果。

And then lastly, as you know, we continue to be focused on our market position in real estate. And our marquee real estate private equity strategy that has beaten their peer-based benchmark had its first absolute positive net return since 3Q '22. So I do feel that we are focused on performance, but the data doesn't give me concern at this stage.

最後，如您所知，我們將繼續關注我們在房地產領域的市場地位。我們的大型房地產私募股權策略超越了同業基準，自 22 年第三季以來首次實現絕對正淨回報。所以我確實覺得我們關注的是效能，但現階段的數據並沒有讓我擔心。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, Jimmy.

謝謝，吉米。

John Barnidge, Piper Sandler.

約翰·巴尼奇，派珀·桑德勒。

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. Given you're exceeding targeted returns on the RIS PRT volume and maybe some headwinds to the fee business flows, is this going to be a bigger focus for flows and business growth as you look in the remainder of the year? Thank you.

早安.謝謝你給我這個機會。鑑於 RIS PRT 交易量超出了目標回報，而且收費業務流量可能會遇到一些阻力，那麼在今年剩餘時間裡，這是否會成為流量和業務成長的更大焦點？謝謝。

Yes. And good morning, John. The first thing I would say is we take a very disciplined approach as we think about the overall portfolio of our business between fees, spread, and risk. And we do that very intentionally for enterprise risk management.

是的。早安，約翰。我要說的第一件事是，當我們考慮費用、利差和風險之間的整體業務組合時，我們採取非常嚴格的方法。我們這樣做是為了企業風險管理。

Having said that, in the area of PRT, the opportunity set right now, it's very attractive. And the return profiles we really like, and we like the liability that we're seeing. But with that, I'll have Chris add some additional perspective on his outlook for the second half of the year on PRT.

話雖如此，在PRT領域，現在的機會非常有吸引力。我們真的很喜歡回報概況，也喜歡我們所看到的責任。但接下來，我會讓 Chris 對 PRT 下半年的前景添加一些額外的看法。

Yes. Thanks, Dan. And thank you, John, for the question. Yes. I mean, again, we're seeing nice momentum in our PRT business through '23 and the first half of '24 at $1.7 billion of PRT sales through the first half. We previously guided that we would sort of be in that range of $2.5 billion to $3 billion for the full year. We now believe that we'll pretty much be close to that $3 billion than the midpoint. We'll be at the upper end of the range as long as we can continue to achieve our targeted returns.

是的。謝謝，丹。謝謝約翰提出的問題。是的。我的意思是，我們再次看到我們的 PRT 業務在 23 年和 24 年上半年呈現良好勢頭，上半年 PRT 銷售額達到 17 億美元。我們先前預計全年的營收將在 25 億至 30 億美元之間。我們現在相信，我們將比中點接近 30 億美元。只要我們能夠繼續實現目標回報，我們就會處於該範圍的上限。

And so we do see some opportunities in the second half for us. But as we always do with this business, we really do balance growth with return and focus on the capital that we're investing to make sure we get an appropriate return on that investment.

所以我們確實在下半年看到了一些機會。但正如我們在這項業務上一貫所做的那樣，我們確實平衡了成長與回報，並專注於我們投資的資本，以確保我們獲得適當的投資回報。

I think as Dan pointed out as well, we're the number-three provider in PRT in the industry. So we see a lot of opportunities coming our way. And our existing defined benefit capabilities and our complete pension solutions are really a differentiator for us because we are able to provide a full set of solutions for our customers that have defined benefit plans, whether it's record keeping, actuarial consulting, custody, OCI, and asset management.

我認為正如 Dan 所指出的那樣，我們是業內排名第三的 PRT 提供者。所以我們看到很多機會正向我們襲來。我們現有的設定受益能力和完整的退休金解決方案對我們來說確實是一個差異化因素，因為我們能夠為擁有設定受益計劃的客戶提供全套解決方案，無論是記錄保存、精算諮詢、託管、OCI 和資產管理。

And all of that allows us to really bring those capabilities to bear. And when they want to derisk their plans, we're able to take advantage of that and capture that in PRT. So we feel really good about PRT and again expect to be closer to the $3 billion for the full year.

所有這些使我們能夠真正發揮這些能力。當他們想要消除計劃的風險時，我們可以利用這一點並在 PRT 中捕捉這一點。因此，我們對 PRT 感覺非常好，並再次預計全年收入將接近 30 億美元。

Thank you for those comments. My follow-up question, given that opportunity with the full suite of products to provide those solutions, are you -- as you look at your pipeline, is average transaction size getting larger? Thank you.

感謝您的評論。我的後續問題是，鑑於有機會提供全套產品來提供這些解決方案，當您查看管道時，平均交易規模是否會變大？謝謝。

On the PRT side specifically?

具體是在 PRT 方面嗎？

Yes.

是的。

No. Honestly, again, if you -- John, when you look at our -- one of the things that differentiates us is we do -- we lead in both the number of PRT contracts entered into as well as the amount of premium. And so as Dan pointed out, the existing defined benefit and complete pension solutions is a nice source of opportunities for us. We got about 25% of opportunities from existing defined benefit customers.

不。老實說，如果你——約翰，當你看看我們的——我們與眾不同的事情之一就是我們所做的——我們在簽訂的 PRT 合約數量以及保費金額方面都處於領先地位。正如丹所指出的那樣，現有的固定福利和完整的退休金解決方案對我們來說是一個很好的機會來源。我們從現有的固定福利客戶那裡獲得了約 25% 的機會。

And so we really look at still in that small to mid-size of the market. We will go up if the returns are there, but we actually find more opportunities, better close rates, better returns in the areas where we focus.

因此，我們真正關注的是中小型市場。如果有回報，我們就會上漲，但實際上我們在我們關注的領域找到了更多的機會、更好的成交率和更好的回報。

And the other point of differentiation for us is we have better and more robust onboarding capabilities than many of our competitors. Where many of our competitors focused on retiring only really large, really highly competitive bid plans that don't require a lot of onboarding, we focus in a different area of the market that allows us to get attractive economics.

我們的另一個差異化點是，我們比許多競爭對手擁有更好、更強大的入職能力。我們的許多競爭對手只專注於淘汰真正規模大、競爭力強、不需要大量入職的投標計劃，而我們則專注於市場的另一個領域，這使我們能夠獲得有吸引力的經濟效益。

And John, just to pile on that. Also remember that this is just part of our TRS suite. So a lot of those defined benefit clients, they know us from being a 401(k) client. They know us from being a deferred income, a non-qualified deferred compensation client for even ESOP. So there really is a symbiotic relationship across this platform, and we're an obvious provider of the PRT on these defined-benefit existing customers.

約翰，只是補充一下。另請記住，這只是我們 TRS 套件的一部分。因此，許多固定福利客戶都是透過 401(k) 客戶認識我們的。他們知道我們是遞延收入客戶，甚至是員工持股計畫（ESOP）不合格的遞延薪酬客戶。因此，整個平台確實存在共生關係，而且我們顯然是這些固定利益現有客戶的 PRT 提供者。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Thanks, John.

謝謝，約翰。

Elyse Greenspan, Wells Fargo.

伊麗絲‧格林斯潘，富國銀行。

Hi, thanks. Good morning. My first question is just on your use of Bermuda, if you can just provide an update there and just expectations going forward. And any capital relief -- incremental capital relief we should be thinking about. And have you guys used that entity for any pension risk transfer deals yet?

你好，謝謝。早安.我的第一個問題是關於您對百慕達的使用，您是否可以提供最新情況以及未來的期望。我們應該考慮任何資本減免—增量資本減免。你們是否已經使用該實體進行任何退休金風險轉移交易？

Yes, I think Deanna is in a good position to respond to this. And remember, we've got some term life and some ERT business that was there -- some annuity business as a result of our transactions. And she can give us an update on how we'll use it in the future.

是的，我認為迪安娜有能力對此做出回應。請記住，我們有一些定期壽險和一些 ERT 業務——一些年金業務是我們交易的結果。她可以向我們提供有關未來如何使用它的最新資訊。

Yes. Thanks, Elyse, for that question. As we've discussed previously that our Bermuda entity was created for new business, both term and PRT -- but to seed the entity, we seeded it with some in-force business of both of those product lines as well. Our term life new business all year has continued to be reinsured to Bermuda. That just kind of happens naturally.

是的。謝謝愛麗絲提出這個問題。正如我們之前所討論的，我們的百慕達實體是為了新業務（包括定期業務和 PRT）而創建的，但為了培育該實體，我們也為它注入了這兩條產品線的一些有效業務。我們全年的定期壽險新業務繼續向百慕達進行再保險。這就是自然發生的事情。

For PRT, that new business is evaluated on a case-by-case basis as case specifics really matter to determine if Bermuda is optimal from a capital efficiency and operational perspective. None of our first-half PRT sales have utilized Bermuda, but we expect to be in a position to leverage Bermuda for some of our sales in the second half of the year.

對於 PRT 來說，新業務是根據具體情況進行評估的，因為具體情況對於確定百慕達從資本效率和營運角度來看是否最佳至關重要。我們上半年的 PRT 銷售均未利用百慕達，但我們預計下半年的部分銷售將利用百慕達。

Thanks. And then maybe just on [VII], do you guys have expectations for the back half of the year?

謝謝。然後也許就在[VII]，你們對下半年有什麼期待嗎？

Deanna?

迪安娜？

Yes, just a couple of comments on that. I do think, if you look at what we have identified as pressured VII relative to prior quarters or even on a TTM basis, we are seeing some improvement in that metric. But we are still seeing pressure in an overall volume of variable investment income.

是的，對此僅發表幾點評論。我確實認為，如果你看看我們所確定的相對於前幾季甚至是 TTM 基礎上的壓力 VII，我們就會看到該指標有所改善。但我們仍然看到可變投資收益總量的壓力。

If we look at the improvement and the drivers in the current quarter, the improvement was really driven by the actual return of our alts portfolio that performed as expected in the quarter; whereas in previous quarters, it has actually returned at a level lower than what we would have expected.

如果我們看看本季的改善和驅動因素，就會發現這種改善實際上是由我們的替代投資組合的實際回報推動的，該投資組合在本季度的表現符合預期；而在前幾個季度，它的回報率實際上低於我們的預期。

But we're continuing to see pressure in, really, two areas. One is pre-pays. Obviously, given the current interest rate environment as well as uncertainty on when interest rates are going to start to increase, we virtually had no pre-pays yet this year. Or we've actually had pre-pays but not fees from pre-pays relative to that.

但實際上，我們仍然在兩個領域看到壓力。一是預付費。顯然，考慮到當前的利率環境以及利率何時開始上漲的不確定性，我們今年實際上還沒有預付款。或者我們實際上有預付款，但沒有與此相關的預付款費用。

And then the other place, and it is a place where we're a little bit different than our peers, is that a more sizable impact of VII is actually real estate, and in particular, real estate transactions. And that component has been minimal as we look at where we were at the first two quarters of the year.

然後另一個地方，我們與同行有點不同的地方是，VII 的更大影響實際上是房地產，特別是房地產交易。當我們看看今年前兩個季度的情況時，這個組成部分已經很小了。

Obviously, alt performance can be pretty volatile. I do think we see a constructive potential increase in the real estate transactions as we look into the second half of the year. But I think real step change improvement in variable investment income levels will likely necessitate a beginning of the decrease in the interest rate environment. And probably more substantial improvement will occur in 2025.

顯然，另類表現可能相當不穩定。我確實認為，展望今年下半年，我們將看到房地產交易出現建設性的潛在成長。但我認為，可變投資收益水準的真正逐步改善可能需要開始降低利率環境。2025 年可能會出現更實質的改善。

Thanks for the questions, Elyse.

謝謝你的提問，愛麗絲。

Suneet Kamath, Jefferies.

蘇尼特·卡馬斯，杰弗里斯。

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Dan, I wanted to talk about participant withdrawals in 401(k). You mentioned that in your prepared remarks being at an elevated level. One of your peers recently alluded to the impact advisers are having on rollover. So can you just maybe unpack what you're seeing in terms of participant withdrawals?

謝謝。大家早安。Dan，我想談談 401(k) 中的參與者退出問題。您在準備好的發言中提到這一點處於較高的水平。您的一位同行最近提到了顧問對展期的影響。那麼您能否從參與者退出方面分析一下您所看到的情況？

Yes, I'll take that part of that and then throw it over to Chris. But the way I would look at it is, number one, you've got these elevated withdrawals in large part because the market performance has been so good over the last several years.

是的，我會把這部分交給克里斯。但我的看法是，第一，提款額增加很大程度是因為過去幾年市場表現非常好。

Secondly, as you point out, advisers are very much being opportunistic as it relates to retirees, so it benefited the job changers and retirees. Those with really large average account balances will generally seek outside professional advice for their insights. Oftentimes, it's an existing relationship that they have outside the qualified retirement plan. So I don't think any of us are surprised at that.

其次，正如您所指出的，顧問對於退休人員來說非常機會主義，因此這對換工作的人和退休人員有利。那些平均帳戶餘額非常大的人通常會尋求外部專業建議來獲取他們的見解。通常，這是他們在合格退休計劃之外的現有關係。所以我認為我們中沒有人對此感到驚訝。

For a lot of the individuals with lower average account balances, our capabilities within Principal Connection have served to be a really good way for us to provide guidance and advice and our ability to retain many of those dollars. But it's skewed towards the higher average account balances, which is only natural. And I'll see if I didn't take too much of the frosting off that cupcake, Chris, before I pass it to you.

對於許多平均帳戶餘額較低的個人來說，我們在Principal Connection 中的能力確實是我們提供指導和建議以及保留其中許多美元的能力的好方法。但它偏向於較高的平均帳戶餘額，這是很自然的。克里斯，在把紙杯蛋糕遞給你之前，我會看看我是否沒有把紙杯蛋糕上的糖霜去掉太多。

No, I think that's pretty much it. No, it's perfect. Yes, thanks, Suneet. The thing I'd add is that's an area where we continue to invest and continue to get better in terms of driving improvements in our IRA. We're earning more IRA rollovers and keeping those assets either in plan or in an IRA with Principal, and we've seen success on that over the last couple of quarters.

不，我想差不多就是這樣了。不，它很完美。是的，謝謝，蘇妮特。我要補充的是，我們在這個領域繼續投資，並在推動 IRA 改進方面繼續取得更好的進展。我們賺取了更多的 IRA 展期，並將這些資產保留在計劃中或與校長的 IRA 中，並且我們在過去幾個季度中看到了這方面的成功。

Specifically, with withdraws, though, I just want to make sure I'm clear, though. We're only seeing a very slight uptick in rate. So it's much more about market impact on what we're seeing in withdrawals than it is on rate of participant withdrawals. And so that market-inflating account values, and when withdrawals are taken, it's just larger amounts being taken.

具體來說，對於提款，我只是想確保我清楚。我們只看到利率略有上升。因此，更多的是市場對我們所看到的退出的影響，而不是參與者退出率的影響。因此，市場的帳戶價值會膨脹，當提取資金時，提取的金額就會更大。

And it's also -- while it is anecdotal, people tend to retire in up markets. And so you would expect to sort of see people maybe taking advantage of high account values at that point in time and taking opportunity. But again, this is much more, I'd call it, more than 75% of the attribution is to market and then a little bit more on the slight increase in rates.

而且，雖然這是傳聞，但人們往往在高端市場退休。因此，您可能會期望看到人們可能會利用當時的高帳戶價值並抓住機會。但同樣，我稱之為，這要多得多，超過 75% 的歸因是市場，然後還有一點是由於費率的小幅增長。

Suneet, just really two quick other additional comments. Remember, with Principal Financial Network, our PFN advisers, we benefit directly from their ability to gather these sorts of assets. And then within PGI, I know that we have a lot of these investment products sitting on our distribution partners' platforms that are gathering rollover IRAs equally. So Principal is participating on a variety of different levels. Our comments coming out of the gate, we're primarily focused to our record-keeping platform. Hopefully, that helps.

Suneet，只是兩個簡短的附加評論。請記住，透過我們的 PFN 顧問信安金融網絡 (Principal Financial Network)，我們可以直接受益於他們收集此類資產的能力。然後，在 PGI 內部，我知道我們的分銷合作夥伴的平台上有很多此類投資產品，這些產品均等地收集滾動 IRA。因此，Principal 參與了各種不同層面的活動。我們的評論來自大門，我們主要關注我們的記錄保存平台。希望這會有所幫助。

It does, and I think there are some things that you guys have that maybe others don't. So that's helpful. My follow up, and it's related, is if we think about RIS, you give us the net revenue growth target. But obviously, that combines to John Barnidge's question, PRT as well as the fee business. So if we were to just look at the defined contribution business at Principal, can you give us a sense of what revenue growth looks like there and maybe how it compares to the industry?

確實如此，而且我認為有些東西你們擁有，而其他人可能沒有。所以這很有幫助。我的後續行動是，如果我們考慮 RIS，你就給我們淨收入成長目標。但顯然，這與 John Barnidge 的問題、PRT 以及收費業務結合在一起。因此，如果我們只看一下信安的固定繳款業務，您能否讓我們了解一下那裡的收入增長情況以及與行業相比如何？

That may be a follow up, unless you've got that handy, Chris.

這可能是後續行動，除非你手邊有這個，克里斯。

Well, I think what we've done as we've gone to the segment reporting is we don't break down specifically the fee and the spread revenue components. What I would say is we feel good about where we're at. We believe that we're growing at or above the industry average in terms of revenue rate. But yes, we're sort of looking at all of our retirement business together because that's how we operate and manage and lead that business.

嗯，我認為我們在進行分部報告時所做的是，我們沒有具體細分費用和利差收入組成部分。我想說的是，我們對自己所處的位置感覺良好。我們相信，就收入率而言，我們的成長速度達到或高於行業平均。但是，是的，我們將所有退休業務放在一起考慮，因為這就是我們經營、管理和領導該業務的方式。

So again, if I were to think about sort of dynamics, we've sort of pointed out, the core strength of Principal in that small to mid-market continues. We're ahead of plan with respect to sales and revenue rates on our small to mid business. Large tends to be a little bit more open arch, and so the revenue profile is a little bit different.

因此，如果我要考慮某種動態，我們已經指出，信安在中小型市場的核心優勢仍在繼續。我們的中小型企業的銷售和收入率超出了計劃。大型往往是更開放的拱門，因此收入狀況略有不同。

But in our core markets, if we think about recurring deposits on small to mid, up 10% in small to mid versus overall at 7%, we think about new business net revenue is up. Our pipeline is up. So we actually feel really good about the overall performance of our fee business.

但在我們的核心市場，如果我們考慮中小型企業的經常性存款，中小型企業的經常性存款成長了 10%，而整體成長率為 7%，我們認為新業務的淨收入有所上升。我們的管道已啟動。因此，我們實際上對我們的收費業務的整體表現感到非常滿意。

Suneet, you've heard this as we've been out talking to investors. Principal really has, within the last 18 months, adopted an enterprise strategy. In doing that, we think about retirement across the entire organization. We also think about SMB across the organization. So again, we want to make sure we capture those profits in revenues for the enterprise where we actually capture them in which bucket is less important. So hopefully, that helps.

Suneet，當我們出去與投資者交談時，您已經聽到了這一點。在過去 18 個月內，Principal 確實採取了企業策略。在這個過程中，我們會考慮整個組織的退休問題。我們也考慮整個組織的中小型企業。因此，我們希望確保我們能夠在企業的收入中獲得這些利潤，而我們實際上是在不太重要的桶中獲得這些利潤。希望這會有所幫助。

It does. Thanks.

確實如此。謝謝。

Thanks.

謝謝。

Tom Gallagher, Evercore ISI.

湯姆·加拉格爾，Evercore ISI。

Good morning. I had a few questions related to Suneet's line of questioning. Can you talk a bit about plan-level retention this quarter? I know in some prior quarters where RIS fee flows were weaker, you had talked about losing some large cases. So can you talk about just overall level of planned retention this quarter and whether you had any of those large case losses?

早安.我有幾個與 Suneet 的提問相關的問題。您能談談本季計畫層級的保留情況嗎？我知道在 RIS 費用流量較弱的前幾個季度，您曾談到輸掉一些大型案件。那麼您能否談談本季度計劃保留的總體水平以及您是否有任何大額損失？

Yes. Let's drag on Chris and his team because they've had significant improvement with the full integration of the acquisition and the most recent acquisition on the ESOP side. And we're very excited about our retention in both small, medium, and large. Chris?

是的。讓我們拖累克里斯和他的團隊，因為他們透過收購的全面整合和員工持股計畫的最新收購取得了顯著的進步。我們對小型、中型和大型的保留感到非常興奮。克里斯？

Yes. Thanks for the question, Tom. Again, we've seen very favorable contract retention at probably all-time positive levels for Principal. So no significant large losses and very strong contract retention across all segments this year. So really good. In addition, customer satisfaction, adviser NPS scores are all trending positive in a good direction. So I feel really good about where we sit from a contract retention perspective.

是的。謝謝你的提問，湯姆。我們再次看到信安的合約保留率非常有利，可能處於歷史最高水準。因此，今年所有部門都沒有出現重大損失，且合約保留率非常高。真的很好。此外，客戶滿意度、顧問 NPS 分數都朝著良好的方向發展。因此，從保留合約的角度來看，我對我們的處境感到非常滿意。

So you feel like you've gotten through the whole pig-through-the-python from the Wells transaction. You don't see a lot of risk to those going forward. Is that fair?

所以你會覺得你已經經歷了威爾斯交易的整個過程。您認為未來的風險不會太大。這樣公平嗎？

I think that's fair. I mean, you always are going to have a couple that you're working on. But in terms of overall broad-based comment, I feel really good about retention. So I do think we're through a lot of that volatility from that integration, Tom.

我認為這是公平的。我的意思是，你總是會有一些你正在努力的事情。但就總體廣泛的評論而言，我對保留率感覺非常好。所以我確實認為我們已經經歷了整合帶來的許多波動，湯姆。

Great, and then just my follow-up is -- so considering that and just listening to your comments about participant-level retention and outflows, would you say the -- and granted, I think your comments are totally fair. It's part of this just based on asset levels. When the market goes up a lot, your -- the same level of participant account value results in a larger redemption. So I totally get that.

太好了，然後我的後續行動是 - 因此考慮到這一點並聽取您關於參與者級別保留和流出的評論，您會說 - 當然，我認為您的評論是完全公平的。這只是基於資產水準的一部分。當市場大幅上漲時，相同水準的參與者帳戶價值會導致更大的贖回。所以我完全明白。

But having said that, when I look at the $3.5 billion of quarterly outflows this quarter, considering there's very good plan-level retention, is that a reasonable glide path to think about going forward here for a while? So obviously, aside from the seasonally stronger Q1, is that a decent run rate that we should be thinking about, just given all those dynamics?

但話雖如此，當我看到本季 35 億美元的季度流出時，考慮到計劃層面的保留非常好，這是考慮暫時繼續前進的合理下滑路徑嗎？顯然，除了第一季季節性強勁之外，考慮到所有這些動態，我們是否應該考慮一個不錯的運行率？

Yes. I think that's a fair question. If we kind of look at the trends that impacted second quarter, whether it's the strong equity market, the volatility of large plan sales, as well as slightly elevated participant withdrawals offset by -- again, I want to point out, strong deposits, both recurring and transfer, as well as strong contract retention, we think those trends will continue. And that run rate, we expect to see some pressure in net cash flow through the balance of the year.

是的。我認為這是一個公平的問題。如果我們看看影響第二季度的趨勢，無論是強勁的股市、大型計劃銷售的波動，還是參與者提款的略微增加，都被強勁的存款所抵消。 ，我們認為這些趨勢將持續下去。就運行率而言，我們預計今年餘下的淨現金流量將面臨一些壓力。

Okay, thanks.

好的，謝謝。

Thanks, Tom.

謝謝，湯姆。

Wilma Burdis, Raymond James.

威爾瑪·布爾迪斯，雷蒙德·詹姆斯。

Hey, good morning. Could you all talk a little bit about why you felt comfortable lowering the RBC target at this time? Was the full $500 million of excess capital subs freed up by the change? And do you think that -- I know these are a lot of questions all in one, but do you think at some point, you could start to feel comfortable operating at a lower RBC in the near term? And how long would it take to evaluate that? Thanks.

嘿，早安。你們能否談談為什麼您在此時願意降低 RBC 目標？這次變更是否釋放了全部 5 億美元的超額資本替代品？你是否認為——我知道這些都是很多問題，但你是否認為在某個時候，你可以開始在短期內以較低的 RBC 進行操作？評估需要多長時間？謝謝。

Yes, Wilma. I really appreciate the question. I'll have Deanna respond.

是的，威瑪。我真的很感激這個問題。我會讓迪安娜回覆。

Yes. Thanks, Wilma. There's quite a few different components of that, so I'll try to touch on all of it. So if you just go back to our prepared remarks, I think we talked about the reason for the change. Obviously, a few years ago, we made the strategic decision to exit and reinsure retail fixed annuities in ULSG that changed our liability profile. It changed our risk profile.

是的。謝謝，威爾瑪。其中有很多不同的組成部分，所以我將嘗試討論所有這些內容。因此，如果您回到我們準備好的演講中，我認為我們討論了更改的原因。顯然，幾年前，我們做出了退出 ULSG 零售固定年金並進行再保險的策略決策，這改變了我們的負債狀況。它改變了我們的風險狀況。

And so as a follow up to that, we have been evaluating what our target RBC level should be. We considered business mix, we considered risk profile, we considered our extensive capital-at-risk analysis. We also looked at what our competitors target and also had a lot of conversations with our rating agencies and regulators as well.

因此，作為後續行動，我們一直在評估我們的目標紅血球水平應該是多少。我們考慮了業務組合，我們考慮了風險狀況，我們考慮了廣泛的風險資本分析。我們也研究了競爭對手的目標，並與我們的評級機構和監管機構進行了大量對話。

And so the outcome is what you saw is that we lowered our target RBC level from the previous 400% to a range of 375% to 400%. You mentioned the quantification of that difference. You were a little high. It was really about $360 million. It's the difference between that 375% and the 400%.

因此，結果就是您所看到的，我們將 RBC 目標水準從先前的 400% 降低到 375% 到 400% 的範圍。您提到了這種差異的量化。你有點高了。實際上大約是 3.6 億美元。這就是 375% 和 400% 之間的差異。

We have no plans to immediately lower RBC to that level, and we're going to remain prudent in the current environment, which we expect is going to continue to be volatile and uncertain. So you'll likely see us operate in the upper portion of that targeted range for the foreseeable future.

我們沒有計劃立即將加拿大皇家銀行降至這一水平，並且在當前環境下我們將保持謹慎，我們預計當前環境將繼續波動和不確定。因此，在可預見的未來，您可能會看到我們在目標範圍的上部運作。

But you will see some volatility quarter to quarter, primarily driven by just that volume of attractive organic growth opportunities. But again, feel very good overall with our capital levels and also feel really good about being able to continue to return a significant amount of capital back to our shareholders.

但你會看到每個季度都會出現一些波動，這主要是由大量有吸引力的有機成長機會所推動的。但同樣，我們對我們的資本水準整體感覺非常好，並且對能夠繼續向股東返還大量資本感到非常滿意。

Thank you. And could you help us size or quantify the potential capital benefit from using the Bermuda entity for PRT? I know you mentioned a little bit earlier how you're thinking about using that, but maybe help us think about how you would think about it over the next 18 months or two years or so. Thanks.

謝謝。您能否協助我們衡量或量化使用百慕達實體進行 PRT 的潛在資本利得？我知道您之前提到過您正在考慮如何使用它，但也許可以幫助我們考慮您在未來 18 個月或兩年左右的時間裡會如何考慮它。謝謝。

Yes. Wilma, I probably wouldn't think about it as freeing up a lot of capital. I would think about it more as giving us the ability to go after a slightly higher volume of PRT cases for similar amounts of capital. And so that's how I would term it up and kind of size it, the elevated -- to give you a little bit of color, the outsized PRT volume in the current quarter maybe had $50 million to $70 million of capital usage. And maybe that gives you a little bit of an idea relative to that.

是的。Wilma，我可能不會認為這會釋放大量資金。我更認為它讓我們有能力以相似的資本追求略高數量的 PRT 案件。這就是我對它的術語和規模，提升——為了給你一點色彩，本季巨大的 PRT 交易量可能有 5000 萬到 7000 萬美元的資本使用。也許這會給你一些與此相關的想法。

But I wouldn't expect it to be massive amounts of free-up. But again, the ability to allow us to grow the company, grow our business, take advantage of attractive return opportunities, that align with our target markets of retiring SMB.

但我不認為會有大量的釋放。但同樣，我們有能力發展公司、發展業務、利用有吸引力的回報機會，這與我們退休中小型企業的目標市場一致。

Thank you, Wilma.

謝謝你，威爾瑪。

Josh Shanker, Bank of America.

喬許‧尚克，美國銀行。

Thank you. I think you answered mostly sufficiently -- I want to go back to Ryan's question about the EPS trend. I have no doubt in your confidence that you're on track for the 9% to 12% growth. But when I look out to 2025, how much of the seasonality factor that you're experiencing in '24 is going to repeat? And how much did the seasonality surprise you in '24 that you would not expect to recur in '25?

謝謝。我認為你的回答已經足夠了——我想回到瑞安關於每股收益趨勢的問題。我毫不懷疑你們對實現 9% 到 12% 的成長充滿信心。但當我展望 2025 年時，24 年經歷的季節性因素有多少會重複？24 年的季節性讓您感到多麼驚訝，而您預計 25 年不會再次出現？

Deanna?

迪安娜？

Yes, Josh. That will be something that we've spent a little bit more time thinking about prior to outlook. But one fact that I would say is if you look at our performance for the first half of the year, we're operating pretty much exactly on top of what we would have expected. And so from that perspective, I don't see anything that would change that pattern of earnings.

是的，喬許。在展望之前，我們會花更多時間考慮這一點。但我要說的一個事實是，如果你看看我們今年上半年的表現，我們的營運幾乎完全符合我們的預期。因此，從這個角度來看，我認為沒有任何事情會改變這種收入模式。

But one of the commitments we have is as we go into outlook in early '25, we want to make sure we are more transparent on that level of seasonality that we expect in total but also for a few of the key businesses like PGI and SBD.

但我們的承諾之一是，當我們進入 25 年初的展望時，我們希望確保我們在整體預期的季節性水平上更加透明，而且對於 PGI 和 SBD 等一些關鍵業務也是如此。

Obviously, a one wild card to that that I know we continue to talk about is the dental pattern of seasonality is continuing to be different than what we experienced pre-COVID. I think we thought it would -- might materialize a little bit different. We were fortunate in the current quarter that any of that elevated seasonality was offset by positive underwriting trends in both life and disability. I'd say that's probably the one wild card relative to that, but our commitment to you is to be a little more transparent as we come into the year of 2025.

顯然，我知道我們繼續討論的一個不確定因素是，季節性的牙齒模式仍然與我們在新冠疫情之前所經歷的有所不同。我認為我們認為它的實現可能會有所不同。我們很幸運，在本季度，任何季節性的上升都被人壽和殘疾方面的積極承保趨勢所抵消。我想說，這可能是與此相關的唯一一個不確定因素，但我們對您的承諾是，在進入 2025 年時，我們變得更加透明。

I think when we get to our November 18 Investor Day, we'll also be able to provide additional thoughts and perspective on those business trends into 2025.

我認為，當我們迎來 11 月 18 日的投資者日時，我們也能夠就 2025 年的業務趨勢提供更多想法和觀點。

So just to be clear, the seasonality wasn't well enough vocalized during the outlook, but things are actually in line with how you would expect the patterning of earnings with the exclusion of that dental item?

因此，需要澄清的是，在展望期間，季節性因素並沒有充分體現，但情況實際上與您對排除牙科項目後的收入模式的預期一致？

Yes, so what I would say, in total, it was not unexpected. I think we were pretty clear about PGI, seasonality and SBD seasonality. But we didn't bubble it up to talk about how that impacted overall EPS from a quantification. And again, that's what we'll look to refine as we move into 2025 outlook.

是的，所以我要說的，總的來說，這並不令人意外。我認為我們對 PGI、季節性和 ​​SBD 季節性非常清楚。但我們並沒有從量化角度討論這對整體每股盈餘的影響。同樣，這也是我們在展望 2025 年時將尋求改進的內容。

Okay. Thank you very much.

好的。非常感謝。

Thanks, Josh.

謝謝，喬許。

Mike Ward, Citi.

麥克沃德，花旗銀行。

Yes, thank you. I was wondering if you could discuss some of -- any detail around the resolutions in office maturities so far?

是的，謝謝。我想知道您是否可以討論一些有關迄今為止辦公室到期決議的細節？

Yes, we can actually do that. Deanna, do you want to take it?

是的，我們確實可以做到。黛安娜，你想接受嗎？

Yes. We did some color on the prepared remarks. We came into the year with about $510 million of maturities. We paid off or resolved everything that had come to bear thus far this year. We have about $290 million remaining. Underlying metrics of those remain strong, and we continue to work to bring those to a positive outcome.

是的。我們對準備好的評論做了一些修改。今年我們的到期金額約為 5.1 億美元。我們還清或解決了今年迄今為止發生的所有事情。我們還剩下大約 2.9 億美元。這些基礎指標仍然強勁，我們將繼續努力使這些指標取得正面成果。

You may have noticed that our CML losses in the second quarter did have about $23 million of impact. I do want to point out that that was almost entirely due to reserves increasing with about a $15 million increase in our loan-specific reserve, which is across four properties and about a $10 million increase in our general reserve.

您可能已經注意到，我們第二季的 CML 損失確實產生了約 2,300 萬美元的影響。我確實想指出，這幾乎完全是由於準備金增加所致，我們的貸款專用準備金增加了約 1500 萬美元，涵蓋四處房產，我們的一般準備金增加了約 1000 萬美元。

So again, on a GAAP basis, we have about $170 million of reserves relative to our CML portfolio and still feel really good about the high quality of our overall commercial mortgage loan portfolio and the office portfolio in particular.

因此，按照 GAAP 計算，我們的 CML 投資組合擁有約 1.7 億美元的準備金，並且仍然對我們整體商業抵押貸款投資組合（尤其是辦公大樓投資組合）的高品質感到非常滿意。

Hopefully, that helps, Mike?

希望這有幫助，麥克？

Yes. It does. Okay. And then maybe for Kamal, just on PGI flows, I know you've gotten a couple of questions on this. But just curious what you're seeing more recently. It seems like there's a Fed cut more likely at least on the horizon. Wondering if that is driving an uptick in clients wanting to put money to work today.

是的。確實如此。好的。然後，也許對於 Kamal，就 PGI 流程而言，我知道您對此有幾個問題。但只是好奇你最近看到了什麼。看來聯準會至少在近期降息的可能性更大。想知道這是否會導致今天想要投入資金的客戶數量增加。

Yes, Mike, that's a great question. So I think, like many other economists, our own view is we are going to see a rate-cutting cycle start here. But maybe to your question, I'll answer it from two perspectives, how it impacts our current book of business but also how we see that helping or what we are hearing from clients in terms of engagement.

是的，麥克，這是一個很好的問題。因此，我認為，像許多其他經濟學家一樣，我們自己的觀點是，我們將看到降息週期從這裡開始。但也許對於你的問題，我會從兩個角度回答它，它如何影響我們當前的業務，以及我們如何看待這種幫助或我們從客戶那裡聽到的參與度方面的信息。

What I would point out to you is I do think there is increasing conversation now we are having with clients in anticipation on that on the fixed-income side. There is a view that we are fairly sanguine in terms of the economic outlook. And as rate cut cycles begin, historically, clients look to longer-duration strategy. And one of the areas we see a lot of interest is in our high-quality high-yield franchise, which obviously has excellent performance. But that's an area we continue to see more interest.

我想向您指出的是，我確實認為現在我們與客戶就固定收益方面的預期進行的對話越來越多。有觀點認為，我們對經濟前景相當樂觀。從歷史上看，隨著降息週期的開始，客戶會尋求長期策略。我們看到許多人感興趣的領域之一是我們的高品質高收益特許經營權，它顯然具有出色的表現。但這是我們繼續看到更多興趣的領域。

With respect to the equity side, clearly, our REIT franchise, which is a big portion of our business, would benefit from that cycle starting. And traditionally, equities move faster in anticipation of rate cuts than private equity real estate. So I wouldn't expect it to be any different this time.

就股權方面而言，顯然，我們的房地產投資信託基金特許經營權（這是我們業務的很大一部分）將從該週期的開始中受益。傳統上，在降息預期下，股票的走勢比私募股權房地產更快。所以我不希望這次會有什麼不同。

When you look at the macro trends in real estate, there's new sources of refinance capital emerging when you look at the marketplace. You do see increase in CMBS new issuance. Both SASB and conduit deals are improving. And you do see new entrants coming in to do refinancing. So I generally do think the anticipation of the rate cuts is creating more volume in the marketplace but also more engagement. Hopefully, that helped you, Mike.

當你觀察房地產的宏觀趨勢時，當你觀察市場時，你會發現新的再融資資本來源正在出現。您確實看到 CMBS 新發行量有所增加。SASB 和管道交易都在改善。你確實看到新進業者進來進行再融資。因此，我總體上確實認為降息的預期會創造更多的市場交易量，同時也增加更多的參與度。希望這對你有幫助，麥克。

It does. Thank you, guys.

確實如此。謝謝你們，夥計們。

Thank you. We have reached the end of our Q&A, Mr. Houston, your closing comments, please.

謝謝。我們的問答已經結束，休斯頓先生，請您發表結束語。

Thanks, Lana. We'll continue to leverage our integrated product portfolio with our distribution partners around the globe. Additionally, we'll focus on our high-growth market and deploy our capital very judiciously as we've discussed today.

謝謝，拉娜。我們將繼續與全球分銷合作夥伴一起利用我們的整合產品組合。此外，我們將專注於我們的高成長市場，並像我們今天討論的那樣非常明智地部署我們的資本。

Lastly, we know the importance of aligning our expenses with our revenues and investing for the future. That is top of mind for us as you would expect. Thanks for your time today. I hope to see you on the road in the next few months and certainly at Investor Day on November 18. Thank you.

最後，我們知道使支出與收入保持一致並為未來投資的重要性。正如您所期望的那樣，這是我們的首要任務。感謝您今天抽出時間。我希望在接下來的幾個月裡，尤其是在 11 月 18 日的投資者日見到您。謝謝。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路，我們感謝您的參與。