Unum Group (UNM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the 2020 Annual Shareholders Meeting for Unum Group. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker, Mr. Kevin Kabat. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. My name is Kevin Kabat. I am the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unum Group. On behalf of the entire Board, I'd like to thank you for joining us today for the Unum Group 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. As you know, we made the decision to conduct this meeting virtually to best protect everyone's health and safety during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. This truly is an unprecedented time, one that reinforces the importance of Unum's corporate purpose, helping the working world thrive throughout life's moments. We hope all of you are doing well and appreciate your flexibility meeting in this virtual format, which is a first for us. It was important to us that this meeting be conducted as inclusively as possible by providing shareholders the same opportunities to participate as during an in-person meeting. Shareholders who have not already voted or wish to change their votes will have the ability to do so during this meeting and may also submit questions online at any time through the Ask a Question window of your virtual meeting screen. We will address as many of these questions as possible during the Q&A session that will follow the business portion of the meeting and a brief management report by CEO, Rick McKenney. Before beginning the business portion of the meeting, I want to first acknowledge some others with me today. I am joined online by my fellow Board members, each of whom has been nominated for reelection at this meeting. You can find additional information about each director nominee in our proxy materials. Also in attendance today is Lisa Iglesias, our General Counsel, who will assist me in conducting the meeting and serve as parliamentarian. In addition, other members of senior management and representatives of Ernst & Young LLP, Unum's independent auditor are also available to address any relevant questions during the meeting. I'd now like to call the meeting to order. The polls for the voting on all matters are open at this time, 10:03 a.m. Eastern Time on May 28, 2020. I will move to the formal business portion of the meeting, and I will turn the call over to Lisa Iglesias.

Thank you, Kevin. I'd like to remind everyone that the rules of conduct for the meeting are available at the bottom of your virtual meeting screen. If you've logged into the meeting with your control number, you may submit a question by typing it into the Ask a Question window on your screen at any time during this meeting. All questions must relate to our business or otherwise be relevant or suitable to the purpose of this meeting. If we receive similar questions, we may group them together so that we address them only once and allow for as many different topics as possible. If we don't get to all relevant questions during the meeting, we'll post answers to them on our Investor Relations website. We ask that shareholders who submit questions include their names and the number of shares they hold with their submission. If there are shareholders who have not voted and want to vote, or who want to change their votes, please do so now using the voting button on the web portal. If you've previously voted by proxy, you do not need to vote today, unless you wish to change your vote. I have received an affidavit of distribution from Broadridge Financial Solutions, establishing that the notice of meeting and the accompanying proxy materials and annual report were mailed or made available on or about April 16, 2020, to shareholders of record on March 30, 2020, the record date for shareholders entitled to notice of this meeting. Our inspector of elections, a representative from Broadridge Financial Solutions, is present by phone at this meeting and has reported that we've received proxies representing a majority of our outstanding shares of common stock, which represents a quorum for this meeting. The matters requiring the vote by the shareholders are described in our proxy statement. We will now consider the 5 proposals before us. The first voting item is the election of 11 directors, whose names and qualifications are listed in our proxy statement. Each of our directors has been nominated to serve as a director for a 1-year term ending at the annual meeting in 2021. The second voting item is the advisory vote on the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the proxy statement. The third voting item is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditor for 2020. The fourth voting item is to approve the Unum Group 2020 employee stock purchase plan, which would continue to provide employees an opportunity to share in the ownership of our company. The fifth voting item is to approve the Unum European Holding Company Limited savings-related share option scheme 2021, which would continue to provide a similar opportunity for our employees in the U.K. The Board of Directors has recommended a vote for each of the director nominees and for each of the other 4 proposals. If you're voting today and have not yet voted, please do so now. In order to vote online, you will need the control number that you received with your proxy materials. I will pause here to allow another moment for shareholders to complete their voting. [Voting]

It is now 10:06 a.m. Eastern Time, and the polls for voting on the matters before this meeting are now closed. Lisa, please provide the preliminary voting results.

Thanks, Kevin. The inspector of election reports that based on votes cast prior to this meeting, the company has received proxies sufficient to elect each of the 11 director nominees, to give advisory approval of the compensation for our named executive officers as described in our proxy statement, to ratify the appointment of the auditors, to approve the Unum Group 2020 employee stock purchase plan and to approve the Unum European Holding Company Limited savings-related share option scheme 2021. The final voting results will be published in a Form 8-K report which we will file with the SEC within 4 business days after the inspector of election certifies the final results. Kevin, that completes my report.

Thank you, Lisa. This concludes the business portion of today's meeting. The Unum Group 2020 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is now adjourned. I'll turn things over to our President and Chief Executive Officer, Rick McKenney, for a brief management report. Rick?

Thank you, Kevin, and good day, everyone. We appreciate you joining us for our first ever webcast-only annual shareholder meeting. As Kevin said, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the economic and social environment over the last 3 months. Our strong performance in 2019 and the continued momentum we experienced in the first 2 months of this year have given way to a time of great uncertainty. We look to our 170-year tradition of consistently helping others as Unum has navigated many economic cycles. We entered this period with a strong financial position, a seasoned Board and management team and a business with a resilience to weather this environment and emerge better on the other side. As we navigate these waters, Unum's corporate purpose of helping the working world thrive throughout life's moments has never been clearer. While we're in the middle of one of life's moments of change right now, I'm very confident the Unum team is fulfilling our purpose ably in these times. We do so with a team of more than 10,000 employees in the U.S., U.K., Ireland and Poland, serving nearly 200,000 businesses and 39 million employees and their families. Our commitment to serving our customers is a powerful differentiator for Unum. Through the broad range of financial protection products we offer, we paid $7.5 billion in benefits last year to our customers. Money that helps provide the financial stability people and their families need so they can focus on recovering and continuing to live their lives to the fullest. While we're still in the early stages of this pandemic and can only scenario plan as to how we'll continue to unfold, I'm proud of the way our company has responded. Our top priority remains the health and well-being of our employees. And as we entered the pandemic, our emergency preparedness plan served us well. Our team successfully made the transition to working remotely for 99% of our people within the first week of instituting a work-from-home policy. This transition was critical to our ability to continue serving the needs of our customers. Thanks to the dedication, resilience and professionalism of our people, we were able to not only maintain consistent levels of service but increased customer satisfaction during this period with our differentiated delivery. It has been great to see our teams rally around this common goal of service excellence as the needs of our customers have clearly increased. An example of this was how we shifted resources to high-volume areas to ensure our customers got what they needed and when they needed it. At the same time, we quickly recognized growing needs in our communities and expanded our outreach efforts by providing nearly $300,000 to COVID-19 relief efforts. We've also led conversations in the local business community to find creative ways to continue meeting these challenges and stay engaged with our community partners throughout this time. Our community outreach is just one part of our overall commitment to responsibility. In countless ways, Unum is working in partnership with all of our stakeholders for positive impact. This includes our customers, the communities where we work and live and our employees. In each of these partnerships, our goal is to create a better place -- better places and opportunities for those we serve and positively impact, and to do so in a transparent way. Our 2019 environmental, social and governance report outlines our commitment to the areas of corporate governance, community involvement, employee engagement, environmental impact and responsible business practices. We have a history of excelling in these areas and made great new progress in 2019, including reducing our carbon equivalent emissions by 5% compared to 2018 and partnering with employees to give $15 million to charitable causes, which includes nearly 123,000 hours volunteered by our people. We know that caring for the world around us takes many forms, and we're excited to continue to harness the passion and commitment of our 10,000 people to make a real and lasting difference. For more information, I encourage you to visit the Responsibility section of our website and read our full ESG report. Another commitment of our team is creating a dynamic and welcoming workplace that embraces diversity, fosters collaboration and encourages employees to bring their best ideas to work every day. At Unum, we have a strong culture where integrity and respect are at the forefront, and our people are actively engaged in sharing their talents and ideas to help our customers. Our corporate culture is rooted in a commitment to inclusion and diversity. As an organization serving many different businesses and individuals, we strongly believe in the importance of creating an environment where all are welcome, differences are embraced and diversity of ideas and experiences spark the creativity and connection our customers expect. While there's still work to do, we're proud to have been recognized externally for our efforts, to create a workplace where you can excel, no matter what your gender, ability, background or lifestyle. And we're also actively engaged in initiatives to address payer parity, leadership diversity and human rights. Before we go to your questions, I want to leave you with these thoughts. Unum is a leader in the employee benefits business and operates from a position of strength. Our strong management team, disciplined underwriting and prudent investment philosophy have given us the vision and financial flexibility to weather economic cycles and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they emerge. Our singular focus on financial protection benefits and services ensures we remain attuned to the needs of our customers and deliver on our promises. We have a high-quality franchise network that people know and trust, and as we prepare to help people return to work in the coming months, the need for what we do has never been clearer. We take our responsibility to be there throughout life's moments seriously. In times like these, the resilience of an organization is critical. Time and again, I've seen firsthand how we've responded to challenges through continuing to practice our company values, both through our business practices and our contributions to the world around us. I've never been more confident in our people, our purpose and our ability to navigate what lies ahead. With that, I'd now like to move to the question-and-answer portion of our meeting. Lisa previously reviewed some of the rules around these submissions. Please keep in mind that questions may be submitted using the Ask a Question window on your virtual meeting screen, if you have your shareholder control number. Lisa, any submissions to address at this time?

We don't appear to have any questions at this time.

Thank you, Lisa. And as we close today, I want to thank you for your continued support of Unum. I know I speak for my fellow board members in saying, we are proud to be associated with this company. The business of this meeting has now concluded. Again, thank you for attending today, and I hope you will join us again next year. Have a good day.

This does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.