Assurant Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript PARTICIPANTS Corporate Participants Keith Demmings - President & Chief Executive Officer, Assurant, Inc. Keith Meier - Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Assurant, Inc. Sean Moshier - Vice President, Investor Relations, Assurant, Inc. Other Participants Mark Hughes - Analyst, Truist Tommy McJoynt - Analyst, KBW Jeff Schmitt - Analyst, William Blair Charlie Lederer - Analyst, BMO Brian Meredith - Analyst, UBS Management Discussion Session Operator: Welcome to Assurant's First Quarter 2026 Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants have been placed in listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions following management's prepared remarks. We ask that you please hold all questions until the completion of the formal remarks, at which time you'll be given instructions for a question-and-answer session. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Sean Moshier, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin. Sean Moshier, Vice President, Investor Relations, Assurant, Inc.
Thank you, operator, and good morning, everyone.
We look forward to discussing our first 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 first 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 in 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.
Keith Demmings, President & Chief Executive Officer, Assurant, Inc.Good morning and thank you for joining us.
Following a remarkable 2025, where we delivered our third consecutive year of double-digit earnings and EPS growth, we're pleased to share that 2026 is off to a strong start.
The first quarter represents the strongest performance in Assurant's history, driven by record earnings in Global Lifestyle. We delivered 6% growth in adjusted EBITDA and 9% growth in adjusted EPS, both excluding reportable catastrophes. When excluding impacts from Global Housing's prior-year reserve development, these metrics grew 8% and 12%, respectively.
Once again, our diversified portfolio and disciplined execution supported strong performance in a dynamic operating environment. Our results this quarter reflect the momentum we've built across the enterprise, supported by the durability of our earnings. We leverage the strength and flexibility of our capital position to accelerate share repurchases during the quarter, given our compelling valuation.
At the center of our performance is our talented workforce, leading with insight, challenging convention, and delivering with discipline. Their commitment continues to help us and our clients win together, as we redefine protection and related services and create value across the markets we serve.
The first quarter represents an exceptional start to the year, reinforcing our path to achieving our 10th consecutive year of profitable growth.
Turning to Global Lifestyle, we delivered an exceptional first quarter, with double-digit earnings growth in both Connected Living and Global Automotive.
In Connected Living, earnings increased 18%, driven by expansion with existing clients and continued optimization of recently added programs. As our earnings benefit from the momentum we've built, we continue to execute on our compelling pipeline of new opportunities, with four new mobile announcements this quarter.
First, our long-term agreement with T-Mobile supports our leadership and innovation in this space. Following the success of our reverse logistics partnership, we deepened our relationship following T-Mobile's acquisition of US Cellular, successfully migrating another large in-force mobile subscriber base and contributing to an increase in our total devices protected that now stands at nearly 69 million devices globally.
Like our prior device protection migration with Sprint, this reflects our proven ability to quickly transition large, complex device protection portfolios with minimal disruption and low subscriber churn, a critical proof point for potential new clients. Taken together, these milestones reinforce the strength of our relationship with a leading US carrier and highlight the strategic value of our integrated mobile protection, repair, and logistics platform.
Second, we're extending our leadership in reverse logistics through a new opportunity with another large US carrier. This engagement expands our existing services to support all device return and disposition channels. Return devices will be repaired for circular usage, creating incremental value across their network.
Devices will be processed through our highly automated Nashville Device Care Center, demonstrating how our investments in scaled infrastructure and operational excellence are enabling us to deepen relationships with key mobile partners and unlock new growth opportunities.
Third, we recently expanded our partnership with Xfinity Mobile through a new rate plan that includes lifetime device protection for phones, tablets and watches, and includes a benefit that allows customers to receive a phone upgrade anytime.
These benefits are embedded in Xfinity's Mobile Plus plan at a single bundled cost to customers. This milestone builds on our 10-year partnership with Xfinity and underscores our shared focus on long-term customer value.
And finally, following last year's introduction of Verizon's Total Wireless Protect, we expanded the offering to now include a more comprehensive loss and theft product. In addition, we recently launched Straight Talk Protect. This collaboration represents our third prepaid brand with Verizon and further strengthens our footprint with this major carrier.
Our success over the last two years in mobile has built extraordinary momentum. Our embedded, scalable model demonstrates mobile's multiple growth paths, deep client entanglement, and our innovation-led operating model.
Turning to Global Automotive. Following an inflection year in 2025, earnings increased 23% in the quarter, benefiting from higher investment income and continued loss improvement.
Our performance this quarter positions the business for continued growth in 2026, as we remain focused on solidifying and expanding existing partnerships and winning new business across the globe. To support future growth, we're advancing capabilities utilizing AI across the business.
Throughout 2026, we'll be introducing new products and capabilities fueled by AI, focused on enhancing dealership training, streamlining claims processing, and improving customer experience, while leveraging our scale to drive share gains with existing partners and win in the marketplace.
Turning to Global Housing. Following 2025's performance, where we surpassed $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA excluding cats, our first quarter results position us for solid underlying earnings growth in 2026, excluding prior year development. Underlying performance in the quarter was driven by double-digit top line growth in homeowners. For the year, we continue to expect a combined ratio in the low to mid-80s. This excludes prior-year development and reflects our full year cat assumption of $185 million.
We differentiate Housing's performance through strong returns, client retention, and renewal execution. During the first quarter, we completed two long-term renewals with large lender-placed partners representing over 5 million loans.
As we look at the remainder of 2026, we see clear opportunities to further build upon our market-leading position as we execute on our robust new business pipeline.
In renters, we continue to see strength in our property management company channel, supporting ongoing growth in policies and reinforcing the effectiveness of our strategy. This channel continues to grow premiums double digits, as today we serve six of the top 10 PMCs.
Our partners are realizing significant benefits from our platform. Throughout 2026, we remain focused on scaling our latest version of Cover360, which is driving double-digit penetration and premium lift across our PMC client base.
Assurant continues to differentiate our performance, while reinforcing our attractive valuation and compelling investment profile. Our differentiated portfolio of lifestyle and housing businesses continues to deliver diversified earnings and cash flow, supporting strong returns, robust cash flow, and attractive growth with lower volatility.
Since 2020, we've grown adjusted EBITDA at an 11% compounded annual growth rate, while growing adjusted EPS at a 17% CAGR, both excluding catastrophes. This was supported by strong returns, generating an average ROE of approximately 14% and a return on tangible equity over 30%.
Our outperformance against the broader S&P 1500 P&C Group demonstrates our multiyear track record of differentiated results. Over the last five years, we've outperformed the group median for adjusted EBITDA and EPS, including cats, and in-line or better when excluding cats.
Finally, I'll provide an update on Assurant Home Warranty. While we're still very early, the launch of our new long-term relationship with Compass International Holdings, spanning six US real estate brands, continues to progress well.
As we ramp, we're working closely with Compass to drive agent education, marketing, product penetration, and a positive customer experience. We believe our Home Warranty solutions are resonating in the market, reinforcing our confidence in both our strategy and our ability to scale over time.
For Assurant overall, first quarter was a strong start to the year, supported by the durability of our earnings model, the strength of our partnerships, and our disciplined execution across the enterprise. We are proud of the longterm performance we've continued to drive, delivering consistently, investing for growth, and creating value for shareholders.
I'll now turn the call over to Keith Meier to speak to the underlying growth levers of our business, including our updated 2026 outlook. With that, Keith, over to you.
Keith Meier, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Assurant, Inc.Thanks, Keith, and good morning, everyone. 2026 is off to an excellent start. We're excited about our performance and our increased outlook for the full year.