H&R Block, Inc. (HRB) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Okay. Therefore, based on the preliminary results of the vote, all matters voted are -- were voted in line with the Board's recommendation. Once the inspector of elections has provided his final report, we will report the final results on Form 8-K filed with the SEC and record them in the minutes of this annual meeting. That concludes the official business as stated in the notice of today's annual meeting. The polls are now closed, and the business portion of the meeting is adjourned.

At this time, shareholders may ask questions regarding the company and its business. Please follow the instructions provided on the virtual meeting screen to submit questions. We will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed.

All right. This is Jeff Jones speaking. Good morning, everybody. And we have a few questions that are submitted. I'll summarize those questions and then share some perspective. The first question submitted is regarding the actual percentages of the results for the proposals and the nominees. We're going to be releasing our 8-K on Monday, at which time, all of the details will be provided at the exact percentages. But at this time, what I would tell you is a couple of things. Number one, we're extremely pleased with the shareholder support of our say on pay vote. That is landing at about 93%, which is an improvement over the vote from last year. With respect to the directors, I'm also very pleased to announce that all of the directors have been approved at about 97% or higher. So again, some great support from our shareholders, and all of those details will be available in our 8-K released on Monday. The next question is from a tax professional and shareholder who is entering their 14th season with the company. And the basic question is regarding our COVID response and what are we planning to do next year to make sure we continue to keep our clients and tax professionals safe. So let me start with saying thank you for your service, 14 years to the company, and everything you do to serve our clients, obviously, that is the focus of what we do as a business. We have a number of significant plans that will be in place for next tax season, specifically on safety. But we learned a lot this year in terms of cleaning protocols and social distancing, unique business models such as drop off only, et cetera. And for next tax season, you should expect us to see even more cleaning protocols in place, plexiglass in the office environment and mask required of our tax professionals and clients. And you'll also see an enhanced amount of signage and communication to make sure everyone knows what our expectation is. So stay tuned. And again, thank you for the question. The next question, paraphrasing again, is essentially, what is our plan to build value in the stock. It's been hanging static, too low for too long. As a shareholder, I couldn't agree with you more. Everything we're doing is focused on growing the business. And for us, that means growing the number of clients we serve, growing revenue and growing earnings over time. That's the sole focus of the business. And there are several different dimensions of that strategy. The first is continuing to improve the value proposition in our assisted business, so we serve more clients. We have been on a nice multiyear trajectory of improving our assisted business. COVID was certainly a bit of a derailer this year, but we feel great about our plans. The DIY business continues to grow very nicely and steal share. And as we mentioned on our most recent earnings call, on our December earnings call, we'll be sharing more detail with our investors and analysts about future plans, including our outlook for tax season '21. So stay tuned. But rest assured, our focus is on growth. And then the next question, again paraphrasing, is regarding the company's decision to no longer participate in the Free File program. I would first refer you to our last 2 earnings calls to hear in more detail the questions from our analysts and how we responded to those questions. But in simple terms, what I would tell you is the free market, we remain committed to. We offer a number of ways to serve clients for free with our commercial-free product and programs we do through the Military OneSource and United Way. So our commitment to free has not changed. The free dynamics have changed dramatically since the invention of the Free File program. And we've been in that program for many, many years. And as we look at our priorities as a company and where we want to move forward, we felt it was time to exit the program, do it on favorable terms with the IRS and make sure we gave everybody plenty of advanced notice about that decision. But again, if you want to look back to the last 2 earnings calls, you could hear those questions in some more detail. That looks like that's -- that was the last question sent in, Scott. So back to you.

Okay. Well, as there are no further questions in the queue, I want to thank all shareholders and guests for attending today's meeting and for your continuing support of H&R Block. That concludes today's meeting. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.