Horace Mann Educators Corporation (HMN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the Horace Mann Investor Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Heather Wietzel, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Horace Mann's discussion of our planned acquisition of Madison National Life Insurance Company. Copies of our news release and accompanying investor presentation are available on our website. Our speakers today are Marita Zuraitis, Horace Mann's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Bret Conklin, Horace Mann's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. They are joined by Matt Sharpe, Horace Mann's Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development; and Bob Stubbe, a Senior Executive of Madison National. Before I turn it over to Marita, I want to note that our presentation today includes forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations, and we assume no obligation to update them. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, which are described in our news release and SEC filings. In our prepared remarks, we use some non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our news release. I'll now turn the call over to Marita.

Thank you, Heather, and welcome, everyone, to our call. Earlier this morning, we announced that Horace Mann has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Madison National Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Independence Holding Company and a leading writer of employer-paid and sponsored benefits provided to educators by K-12 school districts. To the members of Madison National's team on the line, I want to let you know how excited we are about our companies joining forces, and we're looking forward to working together to serve our nation's educators. On to the transaction. Adding Madison National will be immediately accretive to Horace Mann's EPS and ROE. At the same time, the transaction accelerates our progress on all fronts of our multiyear strategic plan to strengthen our product offerings, enhance our distribution and add capabilities to our infrastructure to better serve the education market. Like Horace Mann, Madison National is an educator-centric company with more than 60 years of experience. Madison National serves approximately 340,000 educator households in about 1,250 districts. Together, we can more quickly and efficiently achieve Horace Mann's long-term objective of a sustainable double-digit ROE and significant growth in the education market. We are especially excited to be adding a new distribution channel that enables us to serve every employee in a district with employer-sponsored solutions. This comes at a time when districts are increasingly looking to provide more comprehensive benefits to help attract and retain educators. Our company will be uniquely equipped to support districts in their efforts to offer differentiated benefits for employees. I'll turn to the strategic benefits in a moment. But first, I want to highlight some key points about Madison National, and explain why our companies are a natural fit. Founded in 1961 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, Madison National offers short- and long-term group disability, group life and other products. In 2020, Madison National's net premiums were approximately $108 million and statutory earnings were approximately $14 million. K-12 school districts represented about 80% of 2020 premiums. Madison National's scalable group operations are focused on a high quality customer experience, and the company maintains a financial strength rating of A- excellent by AM Best. About 60% of Madison National's premiums are from the Midwest so there's a substantial opportunity for geographic expansion, leveraging Horace Mann's strong national footprint. Districts generally work with independent benefit brokers to purchase Madison National's group products. We have already signed a long-term distribution agreement with National Insurance Services, which has been a key distribution partner for Madison National for about 40 years. NIS is an employee benefit brokerage subsidiary of AssuredPartners, one of the largest insurance brokers in the United States. NIS provides employee benefit solutions for K-12 schools and other public sector employees. Our agreement with NIS takes effect concurrent with the closing of the Madison National transaction. It covers short- and long-term group disability, group life and group supplemental products. In short, our 2 companies are aligned in our offerings and our strategic vision: to provide the highest quality solutions to the educators who serve our communities, and we both bring dedication, experience and dependability to this significant task. Moving to the benefits of the transaction. As we outlined on our first quarter earnings call, our top priority for excess capital is to grow our businesses at returns that meet or exceed our ROE targets. We have 2 important criteria when we're evaluating capital deployment to support growth: first, it has to make financial sense; and second, it has to advance our strategy. Similar to the acquisition of NTA in 2019, this transaction clearly meets both criteria. From a financial standpoint, Madison National will be immediately accretive to EPS, adding $0.15 to $0.20 in the first 12 months. We expect ROE accretion of 50 basis points in 2022, with further ROE benefit in 2023 and beyond. Our strong organic capital generation allows us to finance this transaction, primarily with excess capital and a modest amount of debt, staying in line with our debt-to-capital ratio target. In addition, the transaction brings an earnings diversification benefit to Horace Mann as well as risk mitigation as Madison National's product set is not exposed to weather risk. That's the financial side. Strategically, this transaction enables us to advance our multiyear strategic plan on all fronts. Strengthening our product offerings, enhancing our distribution and adding capabilities to our infrastructure to better serve the education market. Our business model evolves in tandem with the changing educational environment and this transaction takes our evolution to a new level. So let's look at the business opportunity and how Madison National offers products, distribution and infrastructure that positions Horace Mann to help more educators achieve lifelong financial success. The school district employee benefit space is growing quickly. In the past 10 years, group sales nationwide have doubled. This is particularly relevant for the significant portion of school districts that are struggling to fill open teaching positions. While the need for K-12 teachers steadily increases each year, the number of people pursuing an education degree is decreasing. On top of this, districts are competing against private sector jobs with higher salaries and better benefits for candidates with the same qualifications. From a product perspective, Madison National brings a portfolio of group products with years of experience in their design and underwriting. These products can offer educators peace of mind that their families will be able to respond to unexpected events without depleting their savings. Madison National offers a variety of employer-paid products, and as well as a new suite of employee voluntary products, including dental and vision. Turning to distribution. Because of the nature of the public sector benefit space and the way it has evolved, the marketplace is complex. Many districts, particularly large ones, are now turning to benefits brokers and consultants to assist in the design of employee benefits plans and offerings. This process is completely complementary to our existing individual product set and our established distribution through local trusted advisers. We will continue to leverage Madison National's long-standing relationship with NIS, which gives us immediate access to this portion of the market. In addition, we intend to introduce Horace Mann's group supplemental offering. In smaller school districts, more business officials utilize voluntary worksite plans in which districts choose benefit options that employees can purchase through payroll deduction, pretax when appropriate. We continue to strengthen this district solution with our Section 125 administration service which allows us to provide voluntary supplemental benefits to more educators. Districts can use either platform or both, and we now have the capability to meet employer-sponsored needs across the board. In terms of infrastructure, Madison National brings an experienced team focused on delivering great educator customer experiences, supported by modern and scalable infrastructure. They're ready to add scale, and we're the right partner to help them do so. The acquisition of Madison National will enable us to leverage our leadership position in the education market in 2022. We entered the 2021-2022 school year expecting an overwhelming emphasis on in-person learning, in line with the CDC's most recent guidance and an educator consensus that remote learning doesn't serve students well. We are ramping up our traditional back-to-school sales process across our distribution footprint in tandem with the successful virtual strategies we put in place over the past 18 months. In summary, adding a suite of competitive employer-sponsored benefits distributed through the employee benefit model ensures that no matter how educators receive the coverage to protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow, Horace Mann can provide it. Together, Horace Mann and Madison National will be better positioned to maximize the value of solutions for all educators. Thank you. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bret to discuss the transaction details.

Thanks, Marita, and welcome, everyone. Let me begin by saying this is another meaningful transaction for Horace Mann and an excellent use of capital to create long-term value for our shareholders. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Horace Mann will acquire 100% of Madison National for $172.5 million. We expect to close in early 2022, pending regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. Independence Holding Company will have a potential earnout of up to $12.5 million payable in cash if Madison National achieves specified financial targets by the end of 2023. The transaction includes all in-force policies and premiums for short- and long-term group disability, group term life and a variety of smaller group products, including vision and dental, that expand our ability to meet district needs. In addition to the strong strategic fit of Madison National, this is another business with predictable and stable underwriting profitability as well as strong capital generation. In 2020, Madison National had net premiums of approximately $108 million and statutory income of approximately $14 million. Madison National's premiums have grown in the mid-single digits over the past 5 years with the trailing 5-year loss ratio below 50%. They are also rated A- excellent by AM Best Company. The transaction is expected to be accretive by mid-single digits to Horace Mann's earnings from the level we would anticipate for 2022, including a normal catastrophe load and improve ROE by about 50 basis points in the first 12 months. We'll see that benefit despite amortization of intangibles related to purchase accounting that means GAAP earnings will be somewhat lower than statutory income. We expect the contribution to grow over time with business growth through this new distribution channel as well as reduced amortization expense. As Marita noted, Madison National will support Horace Mann's achievement of a sustainable double-digit ROE even as the unusual favorable pandemic-related impacts in the auto and supplemental businesses recede. After close, Madison National will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of our parent company, Horace Mann Educators Corporation. As they are already part of a publicly traded company, IHC, we don't expect significant cost synergies. However, by leveraging our experience, managing a larger, more sophisticated portfolio that invests in a broader of asset classes, we should be able to elevate their net investment income. We will finance the acquisition and transaction expenses with about $115 million from cash on hand plus about $65 million in additional borrowings on our revolving credit facility. In conjunction with this transaction, we have expanded the revolver from $225 million to $325 million to provide ample liquidity and extended the maturity date to 2026. You may recall that our senior debt comes due in 2025. Other terms of the revolving credit facility were largely unchanged, and we continue to have a very attractive borrowing rate. When we close the Madison National transaction, our debt-to-total capitalization will be below 25%, supporting our current credit ratings. On a combined basis, we expect to maintain an RBC ratio for life and retirement businesses at 425% with property and casualty businesses at 400%. After the transaction, Horace Mann should generate more than $50 million in excess capital annually, assuming normalized property and casualty results. As we said on our first quarter call, we continue to focus on the most accretive uses of the capital, and we will continue to do so after this transaction closes. We believe the opportunity to acquire Madison National is another strategic and financial win and that it will accelerate shareholder value creation. We will continue to selectively consider transaction opportunities to ensure we are deploying excess capital in the most productive ways to drive business growth and build shareholder value. Before I turn the call back to Marita, let me touch briefly on the updated guidance we announced on July 1. We now expect full year 2021 core EPS in the range of $3.50 to $3.70; core ROE adjusted for AOCI is expected to be above 10%. As we had noted, with solid results across our business segments, we raised our guidance on the basis of lower-than-expected catastrophe losses and outsized alternative returns in the second quarter. We will be announcing the quarter's results in a few weeks, and we'll go deeper into segment performance on that call. In summary, the Madison National acquisition will advance progress toward our long-term strategic objectives. It will contribute to a sustainable double-digit ROE and will provide immediate market expansion. This prudent use of capital will increase the size of our educator customer base while providing new opportunities for further market expansion. We have the ability to address employee benefit needs in substantially more districts across the country and provide the solutions to help even more districts protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. Thanks. And now I'll turn it back over to Marita.

Thanks, Bret. Before we move to the Q&A, I want to take a moment to welcome Madison National and its employees to the Horace Mann team, including senior executive, Bob Stubbe, who's on the line with us today. Bob, I'd like to give you the opportunity to say a few words.

Thanks, Marita. On behalf of Madison National, we are excited to join forces with another organization that is similarly dedicated to serving the schools that power our communities. By bringing together our strengths in the individual and group spaces, I believe we can better serve more educators, school districts and others who serve our communities across the country.

Thank you, Bob. We're very excited to bring these 2 organizations together to better serve our customers, our employees, agents and shareholders. I look forward to our team's accomplishing great things together. Thank you. And now I'll turn the call over to Heather to start the Q&A.

Thank you. And let's start the Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] And today's first question comes from Meyer Shields with KBW.

So it sounds like a -- I'm sorry, it sounds like a fantastic acquisition on its own. But I was hoping I can get a little more detail on, I guess, thinking of it as cross-sell opportunities. I'm specifically focused on the fact that this is bringing an independent agency distribution network to Horace Mann. And I'm wondering what we should think about the possibility of putting P&C and retirement products through that channel as well?

You know, Meyer, I think it is a great question, and I agree with your commentary that this is fantastic on its own. I always go back to our PDI strategy, which probably doesn't surprise you. When I think about the products that Madison National provides completely complementary to what we do, not a significant amount of overlap. So these pieces fit together quite nicely. From a distribution perspective, as you mentioned, completely complementary. It adds a whole another dimension to our already strong exclusive agency plan. And from an infrastructure standpoint, a proven platform and model that works in that space. So when we step back, we sell individual products to educators through our exclusive agents. They sell products to educators that educators get from their districts, whether they're employer paid or sponsored. So now whether an educator buys coverage themselves or they get it at work, we've got them covered. So for us, this is a nice complementary puzzle that fits together perfectly. And it allows us to really expand our strength in the space. So when I think about cross-sell, I think about stronger relationships that can be levered, especially at the district level. I think about reputation. I think about scale and strength being extended in the space that we know so well. Madison National has been around for 60 years. They've been in the educator space for 40 years. They know their game and play it well. And we've been around for over 75 years, know our game and play it well. Now you have 2 strong educator companies that are over 80% educator clients, customers coming together from a strength and a reputation standpoint, that's pretty powerful. When I think about your cross-sell question, I think it really is about, first, from a supplemental perspective, our group supplemental products. It's a really good way where we can immediately get some benefit in that product line. And I think about it more from 2 complementary distribution systems that exist, quite frankly, today in the school districts. Now we own both sides of the equation.

Okay. Is there any reason that, assuming the deal closes on schedule early in 2022, would NIS be able to -- would they be capable of selling supplemental stuff right away? Or does the training take longer than that?

We -- as we have mentioned on prior calls, we have begun to build and file our group supplemental products on our own. And we don't, currently, this is brand new, we've got a lot of work to do between now and the end of the year, we do not currently have plans to do anything any sooner than that 1/1 or close to 1/1 time frame, but there's nothing that would preclude us from working together in that regard. As we mentioned in our scripts, we have had long-standing conversations with NIS, the arm of AssuredPartners that has been doing this with Madison National for a very long period of time. So we have had conversations with NIS and are engaging with them. So as we get through those conversations and build that relationship, we'll do what makes sense when it makes sense.

Okay. Great. And then one quick question for Bret, if I can. You talked about enhancing the returns on Madison National's investment portfolio. Is that the same strategy that you've been using on Legacy Horace Mann in terms of boosting the allocation to alternatives? Or is there another element of higher expected returns on a more diverse portfolio?

Actually, Meyer, I think it's probably a little bit of all of above what you just mentioned. I would probably draw the analogy with -- when we took over NTA, acquired them, obviously, Ryan and team remixed that portfolio, if you will. I believe Madison National right now is in the low to mid-2s, so we definitely anticipate higher yields, which could include an allocation to alternatives, just like we do in all of our portfolios.

And our next question today comes from Matt Carletti with JMP.

Just wanted to -- two questions, one, just drilling in a little more on Meyer's question. Can you help us or help me better understand just the kind of the mechanics or kind of how it works in real life when if Madison is in a school district from kind of their distribution angle and Horace Mann isn't? Or Horace Mann is in the school district on your side and Madison National isn't? How much easier does that make kind of connecting the dots on the other side? Because I know a lot of what you guys have worked at is working to get your foot in the door at new school districts. Did that help that process? Or are they separated in some way and one doesn't necessarily help the other?

Yes. It is a really good question, and I understand the drill down, and a lot of this will be built and will unfold over time. But I can give you some of our thoughts on it. The beauty of this is Madison National exists, and others like them, quite frankly, Madison National exists today in the school, serving the school districts for the products that the school districts provide to their educators. And a company like Horace Mann, #1 in the market that serves the educators, exists serving the individual educators, bringing solution and providing products that the educators buy. This fits so nicely together in that, today, we coexist very well in the schools, and they do what they do well, and we do what we do well, and we serve educators whether they get the benefit from their district or they supplement those benefits themselves and buy them individually or auto or home or life and annuity and everything comes with it. So now we have the complete complement, the strength, the reputation, the ability for our company to serve more and solve more problems expands when it's all under 1 umbrella. But to make the leap to auto or make the leap farther than that, I think the way you have to think about it is our exclusive agents at the point of sale, working directly with the individual educator, understanding their issues, understanding their schedules, bringing donors choose grants to the school, providing student loan solutions, really being in the space and approaching these customers vary differently than any other way they can get their auto or their home or their annuity or their life insurance. It's quite unique. And that's how we can be more impactful than them going online and getting their own coverage, whether it's the direct channel or another channel where they could self-serve. And we believe by bringing this all together in a cohesive way, there is a way to strengthen that bond and build that reputation even stronger. And then when you go beyond that and you think about Madison National's strength in the Midwest, there's an awful lot of geography where we have superintendent relationships and we have strength beyond their current footprint where I think those relationships and those introductions can be helpful and vice versa. There are other benefits brokers out there, and we can be helpful to NIS with those relationships and quite frankly, the other way around. So we're very excited. We've had very good conversations with NIS and their parent. We've had very good conversations looking at our footprint and their footprint. And 2 really strong companies in the exact same homogeneous customer space coming together, I don't know how that doesn't provide cross-sell capabilities and strength down the road.

Great. And then kind of a separate question. You briefly commented on geography, just kind of saying they're very Midwest focused. Can you just help us get a better feel of -- are there any metrics you can put around that as a feel of kind of whatever you view as their kind of target market footprint, kind of how much of that they're in today versus down the road where you'd hope to be?

Yes. I can, in a minute, turn it over to Matt if he has anything he wants to add because he's obviously been much closer to the details during this pretty extensive due diligence and quite frankly, courtship we've been doing for a long period of time. But what I would say as we look at overlap, as we look at geography, as we try to crunch through the numbers because of the fact that we do different things in the same space, we're less concerned with the overlap. But as it relates to our ability to bring relationships to them and their ability to bring relationships to us, I think it's a pretty meaningful question. I don't know if you have anything other than the Midwest concentration to add to that, Matt?

Yes. The relationship that NIS has with Madison National is extensive and deep. The way that they interact with the school district is unique because of that long-standing relationship, and that gives them a significant competitive advantage as it relates to how they design the product and administer the product locally within the school district. So that's one of the most attractive components of it. So with their concentration in the Midwest and our ability to reach beyond the Midwest, our hope is that there would be synergy between the 2 companies and we'd be able to help grow each other's businesses. And in addition to that, NIS also has a financial arrangement where they share in the profits of that business, so it's a really nice relationship.

Right. Congrats on a nice acquisition. It seems another very nice piece of the Horace Mann puzzle.

And our next question today comes from John Barnidge with Piper Sandler.

Congrats on the transaction. Clearly, you do have supplemental benefit through NTA. And I know you've talked -- you don't have dental and vision, but there may be some level of product overlap. And can you talk about where there would be some product overlap with where your existing portfolio is?

Yes. I mean it's a great question, and Matt can opine if I don't get this completely perfect, but there really isn't a lot of overlap. At the end of the day, when we think about what NTA brought to the table is NTA brought individual supplemental products to the table. What Madison National brings are a set of employee sponsored or employee benefits that were paid by the employer or sponsored by the employer. So these fit really nice together. And quite frankly, it allows us together now that we will be one, it won't be NTA or Madison National, it will be our benefit/worksite division of Horace Mann, and we will be able to have a full complement of products that are either provided by the district or sponsored by the district, as well as individual supplemental products that our individual agents can sell that go beyond the products that are provided by the employer. And that's how we think about it. So we don't see -- we certainly see great synergies as we come together to build a better mousetrap together, but we don't see any conflict as far as product set. Matt, I don't know if you want to add anything to that?

No, Marita, I think you hit all the points. It's a -- there's almost no overlap between the product offerings between Madison National and Horace Mann. The approach to the market is very different, and that's what makes the complementary addition of Madison National so exciting for us.

As well as new products with vision and dental, which are very small. And we had -- and when we thought about our product game board and we stepped back 7, 8 years ago, and we said what products are relevant to the educator marketplace, and what products would educators expect a company like Horace Mann to bring to the table to complete that value proposition that we have to help them protect what they have today and secure their long-term financial strength. When we looked at that product game board, these types of products were on that game board, and whether the purchase of NTA that brought Supplemental that was on the game board. When we step back now, with Madison National, we've got a complete product game board. And vision and dental, were always on that list as a potential down the road, and we'll have to figure out what that opportunity is. Is it us? Does it fit? How far can we take it? Does it make sense? And I think now, we believe that other than medical insurance, which we agree we don't need to do, it's purchased separately, it's a whole different market. There's strength in that space. They don't need us there. It's pretty locked what they do and how they do it. So when we think about x medical benefits at a school basis and an educator basis, we have all the capabilities we need from a product standpoint to be the USAA of the educator space.

Looks like our next question today comes from Gary Ransom at Dowling & Partners.

I had a bigger picture question that now you've added employer-paid products. So if you let me use the phrase TAM, totally addressable market, you've actually enlarged your market considerably, and that's even leaving out health insurance. How -- has that caused any change in your thinking about what the ultimate mix of business might look like at Horace Mann? And I guess I'm thinking a little bit of property casualty versus life and retirement. But even within life and retirement products, how that mix might change over time?

Yes. Another good question. And what's interesting is if we go back prior to the pandemic, and we think about the momentum that we had in Horace Mann's traditional business. And quite frankly, the momentum NTA had in supplemental. The pandemic, obviously, when you think about individual products in the work site, there's stress in the system when that occurs from a top line new business perspective. Our persistency and retention held, they were good. That speaks to our reputation in the space. But new business is harder. We completely get it. We worked hard. We built virtual capabilities. We got very creative as to how our agents could engage in a work site that was closed. And we feel really good about the fact that we held our own, we had record earnings, we did quite well during the pandemic and we concentrated on those things we could do to push our value proposition forward, including the work with Madison National and the integration of the NTA agents. And by really putting our heads down and controlling the things we could control, we believe we've set the company up quite well. We're really excited about back-to-school. We already feel momentum in the system with our traditional products. And we just built a stronger Horace Mann. We liked the energy we had in P&C and life and retirement. We like the margins and the ROE that these products have with our restoration works to get where we wanted to be. And I feel good about the excitement and momentum we have in our back-to-school efforts when we can now reengage in a way that we've engaged with schools for decades. The CDC's decision and push for in-person learning, as we said in our script, is right and our educators know that kids get a better education when they're in the classroom and they can engage in a way and with us that they have been engaging in the past. So we look at this as, as the way you said, we just built -- we just increased our total addressable market, we increased the strength, the reputation of the company, and now we have the ability to engage with school districts and superintendents and business officials even stronger on solutions for them to help attract and retain their educators in an increasingly difficult market to do it. I mean let's face it, private employers are providing benefits and flexibility and thinking about the world as everyone tries to retain and hire good talent, and school districts are no different. And we have been partnering with them. We have been bringing solutions to the school districts. And now we can bring product that helps answer those questions and solve some of the issues that they're facing. So we're excited about the opportunity and the possibilities going forward.

When I look and think about all the things you're offering at this point, and I know you mentioned a small amount of vision and dental, that makes me think about health benefits too. Is that something you would consider offering if you found the right vehicle or avenue to do that?

Yes. Good question. We've always asked ourselves that question. We have the typical red, yellow and green nomenclature on our product game boards and health was always red. I don't see us being a manufacturer of health products. But when you think about could you partner with a Mercer, the blues, I mean, is there a way that you could be a connector for that? Maybe, but it's really not our focus. We're not asked for it a lot. It is not a current issue that districts are asking us to solve. So for us, we would rather, with our solution orientation, understand the issues that are facing both our districts and our clients and bring solutions, including product when that's appropriate, bring solutions to solve those issues. And that's what we're good at. So that's probably what we should stick to. If there was disintermediation or a problem down the road where we could be beneficial in that solution, maybe. But for me, I don't see us as a manufacturer of health benefits. Dental and vision is a little bit different. Many of us, as we think about optionality in some of the benefits we choose as employees, you often see that as an option. You can consider it a little more supplemental than actual health insurance. So it's in the lane, and it's something that districts can often look to say, "Hey, with a little bit more of this here, I can provide a more comprehensive or competitive benefits package to compete for employees." So it's interesting to us. We like the margins. You can get your head around it and understand it from an actuarial perspective. It tends to be more of an expense type product and pretty understandable and a little bit more rational to price. So we are intrigued about learning more about that and glad that Madison National comes with a little book that we can learn and see where that goes in the future. Yes, it was always there on our game boards as a possibility, but not health.

Yes. And one small question to finish off. Did I hear you say you were going to report this as a separate segment when this -- after this closes?

Yes. What we said is we -- go ahead, Bret.

No, I'm good. I apologize. I think, Gary, like a lot of things Marita has mentioned, we're in the midst of figuring a lot of things out, and we have between now and the beginning of 2022 before we'll come out with including them in our consolidated results, but definitely something we are looking hard at and more to come of that in the future.

Thanks, Bret. The one thing I would add to that is when you think about integration, integration risk, integration expense, another thing that's exciting about this is because Madison National now is a subsidiary of IHC, which is a public company. IHC provides a lot of that public company oversight, if you will. So when you think about IT, when you think about finance, when you think about HR, when you think about there won't be a lot of home office integration at that point, we will provide that public company support for Madison National. And as it relates to the business, there isn't a lot of integration to be done because it's complementary. So as we go through how Bob will lead the Madison National product set for us and sit side by side with our 3 other product leaders, 3 other business segment leaders. So we're also excited about being able to get to business and get to work, and not be hung up in "deep integration" for a long period of time. It really fits quite well together.

Congratulations.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question today comes from Alex Bolton at Raymond James.

Calling on behalf of Greg Peters. Maybe just circle back to overlap. Maybe just talk about overlap between school districts and less so on the product side, just what is the geographical overlap?

Yes. And again, I would say -- I don't want to say it doesn't matter. Obviously, it matters because 1 plus 1 can equal 3. But because Madison National's portfolio is more concentrated in the Midwest, we know that we have strength outside of the Midwest where we can bring relationships to bear. But again, because these are completely complementary, we're not as concerned about the overlap, and this is something district by district we will have to get through over time and understand and really discover where that strength is as we build that time line out. But I don't have all the specific detail of the exact overlap at this time. Because if you think about it, if they're in 1,250 school districts, we're in significantly more than that. We are not providing employee-paid sponsored products to those school districts today. So where there is overlap, the overlap exists where we have exclusive agents selling individual products to school districts where they happen to also be the employer-paid product provider, if you get what I'm saying. So I don't want to say the overlap is currently coincidental, but the overlap is currently coincidental. So what will happen is, as we move forward, learning and building those charts and knowing where we can bring relationships to bear is going to be the natural beauty that occurs as we move forward. But right now, it's relatively coincidental, I guess, is a good word.

Okay. Fair enough. And then thankfully, the pandemic's moving it looks like in the right direction, but maybe you can talk about NIS's ability to get in front of key decision makers over the past year, considering what we all went through.

Yes. I mean I am not detailed in the approach that NIS took in a virtual world. But what's interesting about the fact that the school districts has a benefits plan and they can't stop doing benefits just because of a pandemic. People got paid, benefit plans had to exist, enrollment had to occur. So I would suspect that they invoked virtual ways to do that, just like others did in the environment. So again, what's really interesting about the -- how solid it is, these are benefits plans that employers provide to their school districts. So that has to continue. You can't just stop paying and stop providing benefits. I don't know if you, Matt or Bob, want to add anything to that?

Yes. I would be glad to. NIS did, through the pandemic, operate virtually with their customers. And as you can imagine, anything in the pipeline was able to be developed. But feeding that pipeline going forward was a struggle. Schools trying to get there, focusing on things other than benefits in that time period. But they're back to normal. They're meeting with their customers directly these days.

Yes. Very well said, probably very similar to what we would see as well, retention's decent relationship's strong, new business, a little harder, which is why we're really excited about the momentum that we see and feel going into the new school year. A really good time for us to come together and solve.

Okay, appreciate that. Okay. And then lastly, can you touch on the 20% of premiums outside the school districts?

Yes. It's really interesting. It's -- I think it is truly amazing when we think about this 80-20 question. So Horace Mann traditionally has done, for a very long period of time, right around 80% of our business is educators. The other 20% tends to be prior educators, retired educators, influencers, school Board officials, but people around the rim of the education segment. NTA also about 80% educators. What was interesting about NTA is their other 20% was predominantly firefighters and an association with the American Firefighters Association. And others who were in the public domain. When we look at Madison National, 80% of their customers are educators, and their other 20% are other public officials, other municipal employees. So when we think about educators and others who serve the community, it's a really interesting phenomenon that were all about the same percentage. And when we think about how we leverage our value proposition for those concentric circles beyond educators, there's some opportunity out there as well.

And our next question comes from John Barnidge of Piper Sandler.

Just a follow-up question, I apologize if I missed it. Can you talk about how long this distribution agreement is for with National Insurance Services, please?

Yes. I don't know if we said the exact amount of years, but a very long-standing relationship. Matt, Bob, I don't know if you have the exact number, but a long time.

Yes. 39 years with NIS.

No. What I mean is how long is it in effect going forward for?

Yes. We extended the agreement for a minimum of 5 years.

Okay.

Yes. The other thing I'd point out, John, is there's a profit-sharing arrangement, the risk-sharing arrangement that sits between the 2 enterprises. So there's a natural long-term relationship there because they're -- they participate in the product line itself, which puts us both on the same side of the table. A key point to be conscious of.

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Heather Wietzel for closing remarks.

Thank you very much, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on such short notice today. I am available today if there are follow-up questions, feel free to reach out, e-mail or phone. And I will let everyone know that we will be alerting to the date and time of our second quarter call sometime next week. And finally, we will be looking for opportunities to talk to investors over August and September, noting in particular that we will be attending virtually the KBW Conference on September 9 and 10. So hope to hear from people and have a great earnings season. Thank you.

And thank you, ma'am. This concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.