Wes Carmichael

it sounds like there was a bit of a return of aggregate treaties with midyears. So I was just curious how you think about your exposure to aggregates and if your appetite at all has changed to writ...

I think you mentioned a couple of times of primary companies retaining more risk. Just hoping you could provide a little more color on what you're seeing

are you seeing any potential leading indicators of recessionary activity at this point?

you mentioned some competitive pressure where that's eroded margins in certain lines of business. Can you just talk a little bit about where that might be more pronounced

question on favorable development quarter, particularly in reinsurance. Can you just give us a little bit of color on what drove most of that release

just on on MI and the delinquency pickup, I I think you mentioned that can be impacted by cat exposed areas

do you expect sales to sequentially improve in the next quarter relative to the first quarter? I know it's competing a bit now with the new medical product

is there any help you can give us with an expected run rate of earnings power there? And I realize there's a few moving pieces

we've seen super long yields in Japan rise pretty considerably. And I think more broadly, there's some concern that we could see additional, I guess, surrenders with interest-sensitive products

once ESR is printed in 2026, is there any change to the thinking around M&A or capital deployment, just given the capital flexibility you have?

is the macro changing there either at the margin or materially your appetite to sell additional products outside of third sector?

can I just get maybe a little bit of color on what that USP adjustment is and your view of the likelihood and timing of that?

Can you just talk about the recruiting environment in the US? Are you seeing progress there, or is that kind of slowed?

the gains benefit has been flowing, which is, you know, perhaps not surprisingly given a pretty sizable unlocking in the third quarter. But when you look at trends going forward

is there any framing you can do on how you're thinking about top line going forward

how maintaining its -- maintaining ratings right now is to Everest strategically?

Are you thinking that sales growth might be a little bit negative over strong growth last year? How are you thinking about the remaining quarters of 2026?

have there been any other developments around that initiative since the last earnings call

Wondering if you could provide a little more detail on that transaction just in terms of size and scope.

is it still possible to get early approval for reciprocal jurisdiction?

has there been any progress with the BMA or other regulators? And should we expect any change to your expectations on uplift to free cash flow or the timing there?

how should we think about sensitivity of your NII, if we get additional Fed cuts from here?

I just wanted to get a little more color on what was the technology that you guys put into place. I think if I think back, it was a lot of mailings and now it seems like that's changed.

do you expect some elevated as policyholders receive those rate increases?

are those pretty much baked in your view? Or could there be some deviation?

Just wondering if there's any updates on your thoughts on tariffs and I guess, relatedly, if the AARP relationship

I'm just wondering if you're happy to sacrifice a bit of margin in order to get some growth in EB, and if you think that should come back to your 6% to 7% target range

any help on how you're thinking about core yield or spread? And how that should trend

there's a lot of white space. You know, there's no Texas, no Florida. A lot of Central US states don't have the programs yet

I believe MIM manages a portion of assets for Brighthouse. But I just wanted to see if there's any other potential impacts to MetLife

how are you thinking about the base spread?

I think you're the largest player in the market in terms of at least outstanding programs. But maybe you could touch on the outlook for that business

can you unpack the surrender activity? How pronounced is that as we've seen a bit yen strengthening?

given the market volatility in April and some shelved IPOs in the wake of tariff announcements, are you expecting you can still come in at a more normal level for the year?

as we're nearing implementation of the ESR in Japan, I think there are a couple of conversations with the industry and the regulator on some treatment of long duration and FX-denominated products

can you provide a little bit more color on what you're seeing recently? And could this be something that persists a little bit longer term?

how does long-term care kind of flow into the free cash flow conversion ratio for the company?

I think it's the best quarter that segment is produced in a long time, and I typically think about the first quarter as being seasonally weak from a mortality perspective

pretty strong transfer deposits. Just curious if you could maybe just touch on the flow outlook for that segment for the rest of the year

one of your peers this quarter mentioned that they were redefining operating earnings related to real estate

how you're thinking about the outlook for performance fees in 2026? I know they were a bit more muted in 2025, but curious if the outlook has changed at all

Just curious if there's any color on the drivers of experience-related assumptions that's lapse or mortality

any insight into how VII variable investment income is shaping up for the fourth quarter?

I think last year, you'd launched a target date fund with an in-plan guarantee, but there was some plan around a product number two point o that was kinda in the works

I think performance fees are around $9 million or so there. A bit higher than I was expecting. So just curious if there was more transactional activity in the quarter

on variable investment income, it was a little bit of a headwind this quarter

I was hoping you could talk a little bit about your approach to new business in the quarter. I think you mentioned dental pricing in there

I am trying to get an idea for run rate. I think, Yanela, you mentioned $25 million of prepay income

just wondering if you could touch on what -- how that moved in the quarter, higher yen rates

I just wanted to ask on loan rates being much higher, are you seeing an impact to surrenders there? And then just maybe on POJ with any kind of fallout from this conduct

could you provide any color on the PGIM flow pipeline in the second half of the year, particularly on third party

I just wanted to maybe get a little bit more color about what you're thinking

Just hoping you could unpack what the driver of the assumption review in that segment was and why there was an ongoing impact

I realize there's some seasonality and you guys have done a couple transactions, but can you give us any help on, you know, how you're expecting to kind of get that back to headline profitability

could you give us any insight on your view of current capital in Japan if you had to implement ESR today

how are you thinking about your direction as a leader of the business

Pretty strong premium growth there at 10% in the quarter. Seems like rate change is pretty stable.

with the $74 million of favorable development. You called out workers' comp as the primary driver

curious how management's thinking about buybacks from here and perhaps some heightened macro uncertainty

Are you able to size the gross amount of favorable development for us in the fourth quarter?

your full year assumption at 6.9 points, I think that's a little bit maybe below the last couple of years

do you think we're really there where things could start to turn at 1/1? Or is that going to take more time?

I heard you had extended duration a little bit, but is there anything else that you might be thinking about

just wanted to come back quickly to the increase in the underlying loss ratio that was driven by mix