Assurant, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

You may begin. Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone.

We look forward to discussing our second quarter results with you today. Joining me for Assurant's conference call are Keith Demmings, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Keith Meier, our Chief Financial Officer. Yesterday, after the market closed, we issued an earnings release announcing our results for the second quarter 2026. The release and corresponding financial supplement are available on assurant.com. Also on our website is a slide presentation for our webcast participants. Some of the statements made today are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are based upon our historical and current expectations and subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Additional information regarding these factors can be found in the earnings release, presentation, and financial supplement on our website, as well as in our SEC reports.

During today's call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures which we believe are important to analyzing the company's performance. For more details on these measures, the most comparable GAAP measures and a reconciliation of the two, please refer to the earnings release, presentation, and financial supplement on our website. We'll start today's call with remarks before moving into Q&A. I will now turn the call over to Keith Demmings.

Good morning and thank you for joining us. Following a strong start to the year, we delivered our second consecutive quarter of record earnings. This was supported by profitable growth across Assurant, reinforcing the durability of our business model, value of our embedded partnerships, and our disciplined approach to investing for the long term. Our second quarter results extended the momentum that we carried into the year with Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EPS growth rates in the high teens, both excluding reportable catastrophes. Through the first six months of 2026, we generated 12% Adjusted EBITDA growth and 14% Adjusted EPS growth, both excluding reportable cats. What's most important is what these results say about Assurant. In a dynamic operating environment, Assurant continues to deliver as we balance near-term execution with long-term investments, including within data, automation, and AI.

These capabilities are helping us operate with greater speed and precision, improve decision-making, and strengthen the support we deliver for clients and consumers. At the same time, we're maintaining our disciplined approach to capital allocation, returning excess capital to shareholders while preserving flexibility to invest in attractive growth opportunities across the businesses. Most importantly, our performance continues to be powered by our people. Their commitment to execution, innovation, and service is what enables Assurant to consistently deliver. As we look ahead, we're very well-positioned to deliver our tenth consecutive year of profitable growth while continuing to create value for our clients, customers, and shareholders. Our success is rooted in a clear strategy and business model built for durable growth. We're a trusted B2B2C partner to many of the world's leading brands. With long-standing partnerships built by helping our clients solve complex challenges while serving hundreds of millions of consumers.

Our relationships are grounded in transparency and a relentless focus on shared outcomes driven by operational excellence. We're strategic partners helping clients grow while strengthening customer loyalty. Our value extends well beyond protection products across Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. We've built integrated ecosystems of services, technology, data, and operational capabilities supported by AI that create value throughout the client and customer journey. These capabilities are difficult to replicate and increasingly important as our clients seek partners who can solve broad business challenges at scale. In Connected Living, for example, we've evolved from a protection provider to a business partner that enables end-to-end mobile and technology solutions. Through continuous innovation powered by technology and a willingness to disrupt ourselves, we've expanded the value we deliver far beyond the original protection product. We remain laser-focused on markets where we have a clear right to win.

Disciplined execution through global scale and specialized capabilities create meaningful competitive advantages and generate multiple paths for continued growth. The results speak for themselves. In addition to our exceptional year-to-date performance, Assurant has a multi-year track record of proven results. Since 2020, Assurant delivered an 11% compound annual growth rate in Adjusted EBITDA. A 17% CAGR in Adjusted EPS, both excluding catastrophes, while continuing to generate attractive returns for shareholders. Let's move to our segment highlights. Global Lifestyle delivered another outstanding quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 21%, both in the second quarter and year to date, reflecting continued momentum in Connected Living and ongoing earnings expansion in Global Automotive. In Connected Living, earnings increased 24% year to date, benefiting from growth with existing clients and continued optimization of recently added programs.

Targeted investments in technology, capabilities, innovation, and customer experience have supported significant momentum across the business and have created multiple growth vectors to support ongoing earnings growth. Our momentum is undeniable, and we're incredibly proud of how we've strengthened our market position. We've expanded and reinforced our relationship with T-Mobile, migrating U.S. Cellular's large in-force business and launching a new reverse logistics program through a co-located facility. We've made tremendous progress as we continue to expand and deepen partnerships with all other large U.S. mobile carriers and cable operators. We're driving growth through the optimization of programs across mobile, extended service contracts, and financial services, including key wins with Telstra, Best Buy, and Chase Card Services. We're extending our presence into adjacent markets, including home warranty, where our partnership with the largest U.S. brokerage continues to progress.

Internationally, we're expanding capabilities, deepening client relationships, and increasing our presence in key markets around the world, particularly within mobile and extended service contracts. Our competitive position has enabled us to create differentiated value across the Connected Living value chain. Turning to Global Automotive. Earnings increased in the quarter, supported by growth in global partnerships. We also continue to see loss improvement. Year-to-date, Adjusted EBITDA has grown 15%. We remain focused on deepening relationships with existing partners while expanding our global footprint. A key example is the long-term renewal with one of our largest automotive clients, which reflects the strength of our partnership and positions us to create additional value together over time. Internationally, we continue to gain traction with OEMs and vehicle retailers, further expanding our opportunities for auto growth. Moving to Global Housing. Our products continue to play an important role across the U.S. housing ecosystem while delivering strong earnings performance.

Our homeowners products and services support homeowners, mortgage servicers, and lenders by protecting properties and maintaining continuity of coverage, contributing to stability across the housing ecosystem. Beyond protecting properties, our solutions facilitate the repair and recovery process following covered losses, supporting homeowners in helping preserve long-term property values. As we scale the business and continue to invest in AI and other technology, data, and operational capabilities, we're enhancing the customer experience, improving efficiency, and delivering value for clients, homeowners, and policyholders. We're very pleased to announce a new partnership in our lender-placed business. During the second quarter, we began providing lender-placed insurance services to Freedom Mortgage, a top 10 U.S. mortgage servicing partner with approximately 2.6 million loans, further enhancing our market position and validating the competitive strength of our offerings.

This partnership is the result of our operational excellence and commitment to delivering an exceptional customer experience. We continue to see additional opportunities to add new partnerships across the servicing market. Within renters, our Cover360 platform remains a key growth driver. After the second quarter launch of a new partner, we now serve seven of the top 10 property management companies. Through deeper integration with PMC Partners, Cover360 continues to improve penetration rates and coverage. Overall, our success across Global Housing has supported continued earnings expansion with 7% year-to-date Adjusted EBITDA growth, excluding CATs. Excluding prior year reserve development, underlying year-to-date EBITDA growth in housing was double digits. As we position Assurant to deliver our 10th consecutive year of profitable growth, our differentiation is clear. We have market-leading businesses, trusted client partnerships, and a disciplined operating model with multiple avenues for growth.

A growing portion of our earnings comes from embedded services and protection partnerships that generate recurring revenue streams and are less dependent on traditional insurance market cycles. Combining fee-based revenue, specialized protection products, strategic risk management, and disciplined capital allocation creates a more stable and less cyclical earnings profile than many traditional property and casualty insurers. Within our counter-cyclical lender-placed business in housing, our risk profile remains broadly diversified across the United States. While our inflation guard mechanisms and pricing framework help mitigate claims inflation pressures over time. Taken together, these advantages give us confidence in the durability of our results across various market environments over the long term. Now over to Keith Meier.

Thanks, Keith. Good morning, everyone. We're very pleased with the record performance in the quarter, driven by strength of both Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. Second quarter growth was exceptional, with Adjusted EBITDA increasing 18% and Adjusted Earnings Per Share growing 19%, both excluding CATS. We're proud of the underlying strength of Assurant as we continue to drive growth and strong financial performance through our intense focus on innovation and product differentiation. Our outstanding second quarter performance supports another increase to our full year 2026 outlook. Before reviewing our increased outlook, let me start by highlighting our second quarter results, beginning with Global Lifestyle. Second quarter Adjusted EBITDA increased 21%, or $43 million compared to last year. Within Connected Living, Adjusted EBITDA growth was 29%, or $39 million.