Aflac Incorporated (AFL) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

All right. Thank you, everyone, for joining us this morning. So -- very pleased to have Aflac with us. So my name is Michael Ward. I'm the North American life insurance analyst at UBS. So to my left, I have Dave -- Virgil Miller, President of Aflac Inc; and David Young, SVP of Capital Markets. I figured we could maybe start with any quick remarks that you guys have write off of 4Q earnings and into 2026.

Yes. Good morning, everyone. I'm Virgil Miller, and first, let me just say that coming off the year, I'm very pleased with 2025 we had. When you think about Aflac, we're really operating in two of the largest insurance markets in the world. Starting with what we do over in Japan, we had a real focus on getting our sales growth back in line. You know that you got to be very creative in that market, especially with the aging population, and we've been able to do that with the introduction of our Tsumitasu product year before, and then this year, a focus on our cancer insurance, Miraito, we saw solid growth in that product line and then by the introduction of our new medical product toward the end of the year. So continue to reinvent ourselves in that market. In the U.S. market, I'm very pleased to say that we're seeing tremendous growth in our group side outpacing the market, our group products? Although we had an overall 3% increase, our traditional business, we've got -- we put much more focus on that going this year, but we're seeing growth with all of our investments on the properties that we bought with our life absence of disability. So growth is a focus for us at Aflac. We continue, though, to maintain strong discipline for all of the rest of our metrics when it comes to management expenses and delivering shareholder value backed by way of profit and making sure that we run a sound overall business model that people can trust and our consistency to deliver each and every year. David?

Yes, thank you, and thank you for having us, Mike. It's been a strong year, I think, to add to what Virgil said. We continue to consistently deliver in terms of the cash flows that we deploy back to our shareholders as well as into the growth of the company. We had a record year in terms of what we did, in terms of the repurchase $3.5 billion that we deployed back to share repurchase our shareholders and then also continued our record 43 consecutive years of dividend increases. And that led to about $4.8 billion, nearly $4.8 billion that we deployed to our shareholders. So we're excited about that and excited for 2026.

Great. Thank you guys. So I thought we could maybe start with Japan. And I guess at a high level, I'm curious how do you guys think about business growth given the shrinking and aging population there?

Thank you, Michael. I -- as part of my opening, I mentioned that when you think about the aging population, this is not new. We've been talking about this for years now. What we've had to do, though, is be innovative with how we go to market and the products that we're offering. So if you think about Aflac, first of all, we are the pioneers of the third sector market. We still dominate in the cancer insurance part of the market, and we continue to leverage that as an anchor for Aflac. And we added our new product, Miraito, which has really taken off. And now we're focused on our medical insurance. In that medical insurance market, one of the ways you have to be able to do in Japan is, first attract the younger audience. So we've made sure we're going after the younger audience, but also the way we design the product there allows us to be able to sell to existing customers. Whether you have Aflac or not, you're able to compartmentalize or buy benefits that are important of value to the consumer. It was very creative how we did that. And then the last thing I would say, though, is making sure though in that first sector market where the FSA of Japan is encouraging, encouraging all Japanese residents to make sure at a young age, they began to invest and consume products, not necessarily savings or deposit type of products, but products that build value over the years. And that's what we offer with our Tsumitasu product. That Tsumitasu allows you to buy it, buy it with a fixed rate at the time of sale and thus, let it grow with you over the years. And that product also has taken off. So this gives us the ability to go after the younger part of the population, sell to existing customers. And then with the Tsumitasu, we also offer our cancer and medical insurance. So the creativity that we have in the market is what you're seeing now and the ability to give us the sales growth that we've had in 2 consecutive years.

So I guess maybe thinking through that, right, the -- you guys, like you said, we were pioneers in third sector, right? I think the first sector growth has been impressive, too. But thinking about the competitive environment for both and how that has evolved, wondering if you could kind of comment on that, I think. Are you seeing competitors come out with the first sector and then add the medical add-ons, right? Is that happening? Or...

Yes. There is some competition in the first sector market, of course, a lot of life insurers there. But with the Tsumitasu, we think our product is unique. We -- the way we design it gives us flexibility to also be able to adjust rates. As the -- as interest rates change in Japan, we actually did a rate change in September. Also, we believe that's going to have another boost to sales there. We've designed it in that flexible manner. But the competition is there, but you got to remember also is that we're very unique about how we distribute. In Japan, we focus on distributing Tsumitasu with our bank alliances. We have very strong bank alliances there. We've increased the number of banks that also distribute Aflac products. And then by way of our other products, we still believe in our agency force there. Our agency force has been trained on Tsumitasu. But when they offer Tsumitasu, they're also introducing our third sector products. And then finally, I'll say we continue to have our alliances with Japan Post. And so that gives us the ability to not only have creative products, but strong, strong distribution in Japan. Dave, you got anything you want to add to that?

Yes. I would say that it's -- Tsumitasu is a yen product, and we don't do dollar product as some of the wealth management type firms do. So it fills a gap in a country where it's been very cash deposit rich and you have the government encouraging individuals to go out and invest as Virgil stated. But it is a good product for somebody that's maybe not going to make that leap all the way into like an equity-linked product, something of that sort. So good asset formation product that also introduces that concept of I may need a medical policy or a cancer policy. It already comes with nursing benefit options. And you can convert cash surrender value later to additional medical coverage as well. So it gives some optionality there that's a value to the individuals. And I think we've got a good product. We haven't really seen anything in the market, as Virgil said. So given where rates are, too, in Japan on that long end of the curve, a real opportunity, especially through banks. So we look forward to continuing to sell Tsumitasu in 2026.

Yes. No. I mean I actually just remembered this, but last year, I was reading about the sort of state of retirement savings in Japan on Reddit. There was this forum, it was either translated or written in English, but there was like 700 people debating whether or not they should be saving for their own retirement, right, versus relying on the system or is it a waste? And it was just fascinating seeing those people debate that in the different arguments, but I think it makes total sense.

Mike, that's what makes Japan so unique. As I've spent so much time there, of course, I grew up in insurance, have 35 years in the U.S. market. And if you think about it, the Japanese consumer is just much more educated on insurance. All you have to do is look at the penetration rates. The percent of the population that carries insurance, and it gets back to the overall government health care system, people know exactly how much they're going to be out of pocket and be prepared for it. And now they began to push it down at a much younger age to say, get prepared. And it's encouraged by the government. The government is saying, "You need to know what you're going to be out of pocket and you need to start creating savings and value earlier in life." And that really helps the population there.

Yes. So maybe just thinking through, right, something that's been topical lately is the rise in JGB yields, potential rate hikes. And then, of course, yen volatility. You guys seem a little bit more insulated from a business model perspective. I just thought maybe you guys could run through that a little bit.

I'll start, David. And I would say if you think about our products though, our products are not necessarily designed to be interest rate sensitive. Tsumitasu is really the only one. And the key on Tsumitasu again, is that we're locking in a fixed rate at the time of sale. The rest of all products, they don't build cash surrender. They are not really influenced as much by rate change throughout. And with Tsumitasu, as I mentioned before, what we did was design it in a way that we have the ability and have to be able to change our rates. So we feel that we're not really materially impacted by rate change.

Yes. Virgil is absolutely right. In terms of -- we have a real opportunity to, as I mentioned, with what's going on with the JGB yields on the longer end of the curve, they haven't been at that level in quite some time. So an opportunity to sell more Tsumitasu in that way. But I think when you look at the core of the business in terms of interest rates, as Virgil noted, those are fixed benefits. So when you buy a cancer insurance policy or medical policy, the day that you signed that agreement you're locked in at those different fixed benefits. What that means is, down the road, you're exposed to the medical inflation risk, even though you have the government -- the government insurance, you're on the hook for let's say, roughly 30% of the expenses associated with that. So as medical inflation rises and you still have that fixed benefit that's traveling flat, you're going to need to keep up with the trends and that means buying additional coverage or enhancing your coverage. And that's why you see a lot of lapse and reissue when we come out with a new medical product or a new cancer insurance product, those are individuals enhancing the coverage that they have. So we have an opportunity in that way. As I mentioned earlier, too, we don't sell FX product. It's all again based in Japan. So FX doesn't impact us in that way. In terms of where it does impact us, it would be like our ESR, the new economic solvency ratio. And that ratio is impacted by the yen-dollar exchange rate. But we're able to mitigate that risk some, and you saw the slide probably with our earnings release that addressed the different sensitivities of that ratio. And we are able to mitigate that through matching the asset and liability duration there. So the better that is, the less sensitive you'll be. So that's how we are sensitive to the FX. And I think on the rates, the other side of the balance sheet, it presents opportunities for the switch trade that you hear Brad Dyslin, our Chief Investment Officer. He has spoken to that some, where we might switch into higher-yielding JGBs or maybe investment-grade credit, so there are opportunities on the asset side of the balance sheet as well.

Great. Last one, I would say, on Japan, just thinking through the distribution and the evolution of distribution post pandemic specifically, given some of the challenges faced. Just curious how have you been addressing those challenges? And how much has it recovered would you say?

I would say that -- I wouldn't put a percentage on it might, but I feel confident that we are very near recovered. So absolutely, we were impacted in Japan. And as we talk about the U.S. later, certainly impacted in the U.S. But here's why I would caveat what I'm saying is that with the agency model this year, we were able to successfully recruit. I think the number is like 1,300 between agents and agencies to make sure that we're still dedicated to that channel. The point I will make on that is that we did it in two ways. We did it through really assisting from headquarters, meaning Aflac Japan headquarters perspective, enabling a help on recruitment and then having the local agencies go out and recruit on their own. So we are pleased with what we sell by way of that. Secondly, we continue to have our alliance partners there. We're still in good standing with Japan Post. We still work with Dai-ichi Life there. And like I said, we were able to bring on more banks this year in 2025, also partnering and selling in Aflac. Dan Amos went over himself and met with some of the regional banks, and we were successful in getting more of them to offer our products. So distribution is absolutely recovering from the impact it had on the pre-pandemic. And we're excited about the new products that we've introduced. The banks are excited about the Tsumitasu product, the cancer product that we have. The agents have rallied behind that. And now they're excited in the fourth quarter when we launched our new medical product, Anshin Palette. It will be something that is competitive out in the market. Now the medical market is very competitive. If you look at the market share, it's spread throughout. A lot of competition, but the product we introduced though is absolutely competitive. And as I mentioned before, can allow you to sell to existing and a younger population out there for it. So...

So maybe I thought we could sort of take that same question and then pivot over to the U.S. side. And just wondering about the kind of the sales and competitive environment in the U.S.

Yes, very competitive in the U.S. If you look -- I used to follow how many actual companies have filed to sell supplemental and voluntary benefits. The number continues to go up. I would say this, as far as our agency force, we're still committed to it. Now for 2 consecutive years, I've been able to increase the number of new recruits and new agents that we've been able to bring on board, but I'm more really pleased with the conversion rate. A lot of people want to come into this business and sell product but can they actually convert and become true sellers for Aflac, that was up 16%. When we really took a hit coming out of pandemic is our veterans. Many of them retired, many of them retired. And then some of them in full transparency could not adjust to the changes in the market. They were used to selling Aflac traditional product. And now the market is dominated by group product and many, many more brokers selling the group product, but also selling in the small market. The group products used to be mainly in cases over 5,000 employees. Now you'll see group products coming down below 100 employee size, and that really disrupted a part of the agency for us. Having said that though, the ones that have stayed now in the game have reinvented themselves and now are adding more as consultative sellers and have become small brokers themselves and are you leveraging our traditional products, but also can sell group where necessary. And that's what I've seen. So -- what you've seen in the last couple of years, Mike, has been a 16% productivity rate. And that's what I'm really focused on is those that are with us continue to become more and more productive. And then I will say this, knowing that the broker market, though, is now 80% of total sales in this U.S. market, we certainly have forged strong relationship with brokers. Two years in a row now, the brokers selling Aflac have outsold my agency channel. More than 60% of our sales this year came by way of broker relationships. Now a lot of that also has to do with our new product introduction. If you look at the products we bought and introduced a few years ago, our life absence disability, we branded it [ LAD or Platts ]. That part of the business has just had tremendous growth. Another 11% growth last year. We've taken off -- we've been able to beat incumbents that have been in that business 20-plus years, and we have really made a name for ourselves in that space. So that's helping with group sales. Then we'll also recover our dental and vision property. As you know, I was very transparent to say we had some operational challenges over a year ago, that's recovered. And we had a 48.8% increase in sales last year, we're back on track. So that is what you'll see by way of continued growth in the growth market. If you combine our group products together, we grew 14%, that's 3x the actual market last year.

I'm wondering how do you see the product suite, the breadth in the U.S.? Are you happy with it today? Are there certain products you would like to grow more than others or any additional innovations that are coming?

Yes. I would tell you that -- I'll break it down by distribution. So with our agency channel, the anchor product is still our cancer insurance. We're still #1 in cancer. We're still #1 in supplemental health, meaning if you look at our cancer product, our accident product, our hospital indemnity product, our critical illness products, we lead in all those categories. We're making sure that our agents are fully equipped with innovative products that they can go out and compete with. What we've done and what I've invested in last year in 2026, though is streamlining and improving the enrollment process. As you think about it, our agents like to and are more comfortable selling face-to-face, you get a higher penetration rate. However, though, many employers just won't give the time that you need to spend time with their employee base. So we have really made an effort to streamline that process. And this year, I've launched a new application that has been filed, cutting-edge [ bar none ], it doesn't exist in the industry that can actually allow an agent to enroll you in 1 minute. I don't want to get too excited about this. I still have a lot of marketing and sales in me. But you can actually enroll some one in one minute. That is going to be a differentiator in the market, giving them more a chance to compete and speed when they're face-to-face. The other thing I would tell you is that beyond product innovation and then innovation within the enrollment technology piece, we're continuing to make sure, though, that we recruit and we compensate fairly in the market. And where they can, we're introducing them to our broker relationships to be fulfillment and let them be able to enroll for our broker partners. So this gives them a full breadth to be able to earn a good living in this space.

Okay. So I mean it inspires a broader question about technology and AI. So wondering how do you utilize AI, whether it's internally in the organization or in distribution, claim management, curious about that.

Yes. Let me pivot back. One of the beauties that I have in my role in -- with Aflac is I get a chance to see across everything. And I will tell you, for AI, we're a little bit more advanced over in Japan. One of the reasons why is remember, here in the United States, we're dealing with all the state regulators. And so therefore, we're filed separately in every single state. Well, when you're dealing with the single entity of the FSA in Japan, it gives us more flexibility. And you have the FSA encouraging Japanese corporations to use AI, we've been able to make a lot more progress there. We have to spend a lot of time over here, building the foundation and making sure that we file our products differently here in the U.S. So let me start over in Japan, I will say to you that a couple of focus areas that we're doing over there is really within the enrollment process. We are leveraging AI to make the agents more efficient. AI is taking care of a lot of the back office administrative work, and we've also introduced bots and avatars that you can actually complete an AI enrollment through the full process over in Japan. We haven't leveraged that in the U.S. What we've done in the U.S. is try to be more efficient and effective at how we do it using automation, but not replacing the people aspect of it. Now I will tell you this though, in the U.S., when you hear me talk about consumer markets or direct to consumer. About 3, 4 years ago, we worked with the Department of Nebraska to actually file digital products. You can actually buy our products digitally online right now without any agent interaction, it's self-guided. What is your definition of AI? Well, that is digital, and that is using AI techniques behind the scene. Mostly what people are talking about AI now is the introduction of this Avatar, self-guided or chat bots. And that we haven't fully gone to. I am still relying on those agents. And I'm still relying on those brokers because as we always see in the supplemental business, our products are sold, not bought. You need a fully educated consumer to understand what they bought to really understand the value of what they have.

Yes, that's really interesting. I think those bots are sometimes a little bit frustrating to when you're dealing with support and whatnot. All right. So I guess just thinking through some of the dynamics in the U.S., right. We have medical inflation has been a topic. It seems like cancer incidence is picking up at younger ages. At the same time, there's other novel kind of treatments, which is fascinating. Unemployment has been in focus, but not necessarily out of whack, which is good. But these -- I would think these different kind of dynamics impact demand and I guess, expenses for the group business. And just wondering if you could walk us through those impacts at all.

When you think about medical cost rising or medical inflation, you add that with increasing high deductibles on major medical and inflation, it actually plays into our hands about why supplemental insurance is so important. We actually leveraged that as part of the sales process. It makes the value of what we're offering even more important to us. So I can tell you, Mike. I have not seen an impact that has negatively affected us at this point. Now of course, you start going into a recession, people start holding on to the purse strings that's different. But from a standpoint of really realizing the value of what voluntary benefits, supplemental insurance means, this helps really improve our story. And this is why you'll see -- you've seen so many other carriers in our space, including major medical carriers that are really out selling and pushing supplemental products themselves because everyone realizes that you need additional insurance to really cover these things. So this year, as I look back in 2025, with the unemployment, again, we were successful in meeting our recruiting objectives. With using this, we sold $1.6 billion last year, one of the highest sales years on record for Aflac U.S. And so therefore, I really do not see any negative impact. David, I know we monitor a lot of this. You do a lot of monitoring for us. Anything you want to add to that?

No, I think you hit the nail on the head in regard to medical inflation and what that does for us, especially in Japan, that's a big driver usually of sales that encourages individuals to go out and seek that protection that they're going to need. And I would say that we haven't really seen the impact of unemployment. We noted that on our last call. And we noted earlier, too, interest rates really doesn't come into play so much on our products except for maybe on Tsumitasu, which we have the ability to reprice and a very flexible in doing that. We did that in September and would look to do that as necessary to in the future. So we continue to keep our finger on the pulse, but no material impacts that we've seen thus far.

Okay. So maybe if we just touch on capital. You guys have pretty significant excess capital and produce a lot of cash. I was wondering if you could sort of walk us through how you think about deploying that capital through, of course, repurchases, M&A or funding organic growth opportunities?

Yes. First, I know many people in the room, you guys know Max Broden. I have to take a moment and give him just a quick shout out here from the stage. He's done a fantastic job and a great CFO of Aflac. What Max has been able to do to generate excess capital has been brilliant. I mean, starting with just really what we've done in Bermuda. With Aflac Bermuda RE, what Max did was create a strategy that basically says we're going to take the balance sheet of Japan and then move it into Bermuda, which really has freed up additional excess capital for us also. Right now, we're at about 6%, but I expect us to continue to push towards that 10% range, and then we'll take a step back and reevaluate. My point on that, though, is your point, Mike, we do have the capital. We stand ready to be able to deploy. David mentioned earlier, we first look at our shareholders. Our CEO, Dan Amos, is the longest tenure CEO active now. His 36-year tenure CEO, one of his most proud stats is the ability to return an increase in dividends. So when David noted $1.2 billion last year in dividends back to shareholders. That's the first thing we look at. Then we look at our share repurchase, $3.5 billion. And then what I do, Max said this on the call the other day, everything is driven through strategy. What I'm really looking at is, are there any gaps that we need to fill by way of M&A. We don't just do M&A. We did not go out to just build our company inorganically. We are an organic driven organization. However, though, I will tell you that we stand ready and have the capital necessary if there is a gap we need to fill. And under my leadership as President, I've been on record, and I spoke to our board. We just came off our board meetings yesterday. We are always active in the market to be out looking to see is there anything that would fit any needs we may have. So we're not just sitting complacent either. Right now, I can tell you that we're pleased with what we have in our product portfolio. We are pleased with the businesses that we still have. Remember, in the U.S., we're still scaling our dental and vision property. It's not at full scale. There's a tremendous amount of opportunity there. That's what you're going to see us really push this year. I expect a nugget increase in dental and vision sales, the same with our lab business. This is perhaps when the fastest-growing life absence disability business. You go back and trace any other company out there, I don't think anyone can say they've gotten to over $0.5 billion as quick as we did in sales. With the brand we have, we've been able to win administrative relationships with the state of Connecticut for absence and also the state of Maine. No one else, I don't think has ever done that before. So I say that to tell you that there's a tremendous opportunity here before we look outside. I am looking to make sure you see the smile on my face, Mike. I want everybody know we don't just sit idle though. David has been an integral part in us building out a corporate development regime and strength within the organization. We have corporate ventures. So we do meet regularly to see if there's a gap in organization, we stand ready, willing and able to be in the market if necessary.

I love it.

Was that a circle answer, Mike? No.

Yes. No. I mean, did you have -- I was just going to -- I was wondering like how does -- what is the target, what do the opportunities look like? Like have you gone -- if you're willing to share, like have you gone through -- evaluated specific targets and determined maybe they're too small, too large? Do you have -- I wouldn't think that you have a target kind of size maybe valuations are different. But I'm just wondering what those opportunities could look like.

I would say to you this, that what we did before was we felt we had product gaps. And to be competitive in the group space and to be competitive in the larger case market specific to the U.S. here, we needed to expand our product portfolio. So internally, we made a decision that we will go out and acquire that part of the business. That's why we came up. Now when Fred Crawford was here as President. Fred's strategy was by the bill. That was intentional. Let's get something small, let's build it, and that's what you're seeing us do now. I don't see a product gap we have. I'm constantly looking at technology though. What you asked me the question earlier, Mike, by way of AI, and I did finish to say what we do internally. Every single partner that we have though that does leverage AI, we bring it into our shop also. Internally, I have rolled out assist tools for all employees to make them more efficient and better though. So we're leveraging AI to make the employees better and ultimately more efficient to be able to deliver great customer value. Back to the point of your question, though, is I am sitting now saying that if we needed to do something, we'll be looking at a larger scale opportunity, right, to fill any type of gap we have. We just haven't identified a strategic gap that I feel that is of immediate urgent need for us.

Yes. I would just add to that, too. We have tended to succeed based on our focus, too, and we've focused on supplemental health. And we have not really gotten spread out when Dan Amos shortly after becoming CEO. One of his first tasks was shutting down a lot of the international operations. Why? Because we were not very focused. So he's very good at maintaining focus and encouraging the team to be focused. And we're in a -- as Max noted on the call, a bit of a niche business because of that. And anything that we would do would need to make operational and strategic sense, a good fit from that has to meet those standards first and then the financial because we have the financial to make a good acquisition if we needed to. We have plenty of liquidity, et cetera. So I think that's one thing to keep in mind. That's the only thing that I would add.

The only thing I'd say, David, to your point, too, is what we try to do, Michael, is leverage our strengths. So you guys -- you analyze Aflac, what are our strengths? Well, the brand. The brand is the strength of financial stability and our capital, their strengths, right? So when I go back and I mentioned earlier, what we did Aflac Bermuda RE, that was a strength. That's not -- we're not a reinsurer, right? But we were able to branch and leverage current talent that we have in house, the brand and the strength of what we do and our reputation in Japan to be able to go further with that. So it's going to be something that we are able to leverage who we are.

Great. So I did want to just take a minute in the last few minutes here to see if there's any questions in the audience. And just for the operators, my little iPad thing here, I clicked it off by accident. So if you could help me with the pass code over here just to see if there's virtual questions. But any questions in the audience for Aflac?

I know we didn't answer everything, Mike.

Yes. No, a lot is going on. But so I guess while we just checked for the virtual, I'm curious maybe we can kind of top off this conversation Virgil with. It seems like you're pretty passionate about, obviously, the Aflac story, but into '26, it's exciting to see what you guys will do. But just wondering if you have any kind of concluding remarks you'd like to make, I think 4Q was pretty strong, sales focus, margin improvement, right? The U.S. seems like a good opportunity, too. But anything else there?

Yes. Here's why I'm passionate. We have the strongest and most recognized brand in the market in Japan. When I go over to Japan, you should go with me one day. When I go over to Japan and I meet with other corporations, I actually went with the Governor of Georgia back in October. One of my other duties, we bring economic development to the state of Georgia being one of the largest companies there, and I was working with him. We went around seeing some of the businesses in Japan at new business in Georgia, like YKK, Yamaha, corporations like that. And when I walked in, he introduced me as a part of the Georgia allies, and they laughed and they said, no, he's the Aflac guy. The brand is so recognized in Japan and so powerful that we are able to make sure that our products are known throughout every household, the brand matters. But it's more than just a brand it's what we do. What we've been able to do is I'm so proud of what Aflac Japan, they created a strategy called living in your own way, where they are really trying to meet societal needs, starting with someone that's a young adult all the way through introducing products like nursing care. So our Tsumitasu product attacks a younger audience. Our cancer and medical products throughout life and then on nursing care, as you start thinking about as you start aging and getting older, they have developed that and it really reaches the society, and we built the entire ecosystem around that. So when you think about cancer insurance, we're not just selling you insurance that pays this expenses. We're also introducing middle care, consultative services things that help you get to and from the doctor, services that help you get nutrition, get food, everything else. And by the way, we've adopted that in the U.S., a lot of that same ecosystem. So we're not just selling insurance. We're trying to make a difference and trying to help create a healthier Japan and a healthier America. That's why I get passionate and excited about. I believe in what we're doing. Fast forward though, there's an opportunity to continue to grow with the innovation we've done in Japan, but there's a tremendous underpenetrated opportunity here in the U.S. And I believe we have the right product set. You will see us put a strong focus on dental and vision products this year. You're going to see us continue to push hard in the larger case space without life absence and disability. And one of the things you're going some do, I know you guys see a lot of Aflac commercials, it's intentional. In an industry where insurance in many cases, is not trusted, people still do not trust insurance. We've created a brand that is light hearted where people can trust us. You got to see me push harder and store to Aflac's product this year, talking more about what the products mean to individuals. there's a tremendous -- we have the strongest reputation in the industry bar none in the U.S., and you're going to see me continue to capitalize and drive that. So I believe the growth opportunity that is right here. I'm expecting solid growth this year in the U.S. The capital management I mentioned that is done by our financial team, led by Max Broden, you're going to see us continue to return shareholder value with a solid performance. One of the reasons that Dan, when we talk about M&A, we're very careful about it. You know what? Why do you believe in Aflac because we're consistent and we deliver we do whatever we're going to do. I want to make sure that consistency continues throughout. The last thing I'll close with though is when I mentioned the two largest segments, Japan and the U.S. But let's not forget about how we also bring in ad revenue. Brad Dyslin has done a great job driving net investment income. I'm very proud of what he's doing and leading our GI fastened up in New York City. And then also, again, keep an eye on Bermuda and what we're doing there, we will continue to take more of the Japan balance sheet. I expect us to continue to move toward that 10% mark, and that will continue to put more capital in our hands to be able to make wise decisions with. That was a long closing. I'm just excited, though, I want you to feel it.

I definitely do.

Yes.

Thank you guys so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, everyone.