Unum Group

Overview

Our liquidity requirements are met primarily by cash flows provided from operations, principally in our insurance subsidiaries. Premium and investment income, as well as maturities and sales of invested assets, provide the primary sources of cash. Debt and/or securities offerings provide additional sources of liquidity. Cash is applied to the payment of policy benefits, costs of acquiring new business (principally commissions), operating expenses, and taxes, as well as purchases of new investments.

We have established an investment strategy that we believe will provide for adequate cash flows from operations. We attempt to match our asset cash flows and durations with expected liability cash flows and durations to meet the funding requirements of our business. However, deterioration in the credit market may delay our ability to sell our positions in certain of our fixed maturity securities in a timely manner and adversely impact the price we receive for such securities, which may negatively impact our cash flows. Furthermore, if we experience defaults on securities held in the investment portfolios of our insurance subsidiaries, this will negatively impact statutory capital, which could reduce our insurance subsidiaries' capacity to pay dividends to our holding companies. A reduction in dividends to our holding companies could force us to seek external financing to avoid impairing our ability to pay dividends to our stockholders or meet our debt and other payment obligations.

Our policy benefits are primarily in the form of claim payments, and we have minimal exposure to the policy withdrawal risk associated with deposit products such as individual life policies or annuities. A decrease in demand for our insurance products or an increase in the incidence of new claims or the duration of existing claims could negatively impact our cash flows from operations. However, our historical pattern of benefits paid to revenues is generally consistent, even during cycles of economic downturns, which serves to minimize liquidity risk.

The liquidity requirements of the holding company Unum Group include common stock dividends, interest and debt service, and ongoing investments in our businesses. Unum Group's liquidity requirements are met by assets held by Unum Group and our intermediate holding companies, dividends from primarily our insurance subsidiaries, and issuance of common stock, debt, or other capital securities and borrowings from our existing credit facility, as needed. As of March 31, 2024, Unum Group and our intermediate holding companies had available holding company liquidity of $1,406 million that was held primarily in bank deposits, commercial paper, money market funds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, and asset-backed securities. No significant restrictions exist on our ability to use or access funds in any of our U.S. or foreign intermediate holding companies. Dividends repatriated from our foreign subsidiaries are eligible for 100 percent exemption from U.S. income tax but may be subject to withholding tax and/or tax on foreign currency gain or loss.

As part of our capital deployment strategy, we may repurchase shares of Unum Group's common stock, as authorized by our board of directors. The timing and amount of repurchase activity is based on market conditions and other considerations, including the level of available cash, alternative uses for cash, and our stock price. During the first three months of 2024, we repurchased 2.5 million shares at a cost of $121.9 million excluding commissions and excise tax.

Our board of directors has authorized the following repurchase programs:

See Note 12 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 1.

Cash Available from Subsidiaries

Unum Group and certain of its intermediate holding company subsidiaries depend on payments from subsidiaries to pay dividends to stockholders, to pay debt obligations, and/or to pay expenses. These payments by our insurance and non-insurance subsidiaries may take the form of dividends, operating and investment management fees, and/or interest payments on loans from the parent to a subsidiary.

Restrictions under applicable state insurance laws limit the amount of dividends that can be paid to a parent company from its insurance subsidiaries in any 12-month period without prior approval by regulatory authorities. For life insurance companies domiciled in the U.S., that limitation generally equals, depending on the state of domicile, either ten percent of an insurer's statutory surplus with respect to policyholders as of the preceding year end or the statutory net gain from operations, excluding realized capital gains and losses, of the preceding year. The payment of dividends to a parent company from a life insurance subsidiary is generally further limited to the amount of unassigned funds.

In connection with a financial examination of Unum America, which closed at the end of the second quarter of 2020, the Maine Bureau of Insurance (MBOI) concluded that Unum America’s long-term care statutory reserves were deficient by $2,100 million as of December 31, 2018, the financial statement date of the examination period. The amount reserves are deficient may increase or decrease over time based on changes in assumed reinvestment rates, policyholder inventories, premium rate increase activity, and the underlying growth in the locked in statutory reserve basis as well as updates to other long term actuarial assumptions. The MBOI granted permission to Unum America on May 1, 2020, to phase in the additional statutory reserves over seven years beginning with year-end 2020 and ending with year-end 2026. The calculation of the premium deficiency reserve (PDR) reflects specific assumptions set by MBOI and results in significant margin above Unum America’s best estimate assumptions. As of December 31, 2023, the PDR calculated under the basis resulting from the MBOI examination was $1,604 million, which has been fully recognized. Our long-term care reserves and financial results reported under generally accepted accounting principles were not affected by the MBOI’s examination conclusion.

Unum America cedes blocks of long-term care business to Fairwind Insurance Company (Fairwind), which is an affiliated captive reinsurance subsidiary domiciled in the United States. The ability of Fairwind to pay dividends to Unum Group will depend on its satisfaction of applicable regulatory requirements and on the performance of the business reinsured by Fairwind. Fairwind did not pay dividends in 2023 nor do we anticipate that Fairwind will pay dividends in 2024. Unum Group did not make any capital contributions to Fairwind during the first quarter of 2024, nor do we expect to make capital contributions for the remainder of the year.

The ability of Unum Group and certain of its intermediate holding company subsidiaries to continue to receive dividends from their insurance subsidiaries also depends on additional factors such as RBC ratios and capital adequacy and/or solvency requirements, funding growth objectives at an affiliate level, and maintaining appropriate capital adequacy ratios to support desired ratings. The RBC ratios for our U.S. insurance subsidiaries at March 31, 2024 are in line with our expectations and are significantly above the level that would require state regulatory action.

Unum Group and/or certain of its intermediate holding company subsidiaries may also receive dividends from our U.K. subsidiaries, the payment of which may be subject to applicable insurance company regulations and capital guidance in the U.K. Unum Limited is subject to the requirements of Solvency II, a European Union (EU) directive that is part of retained UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which prescribes capital requirements and risk management standards for the European insurance industry. Our U.K. holding company is also subject to the Solvency II requirements relevant to insurance holding companies while, together with certain of its subsidiaries including Unum Limited, the group (the Unum UK Solvency II Group) is subject to group supervision under Solvency II. The Unum UK Solvency II Group received approval from the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to use its own internal model for calculating regulatory capital and also received approval for certain associated regulatory permissions including transitional relief as the Solvency II capital regime continues to be implemented. In connection with the U.K.’s exit from the EU, the U.K. government is reviewing the regulatory framework of financial services companies and the PRA is consulting with industry on proposed changes. Certain changes have already been finalized, which have improved the solvency position of our U.K. business at March 31, 2024. Additionally, the remaining pending proposals may lead to future changes in the solvency position of our U.K. business.

The payment of dividends to the parent company from our subsidiaries also requires the approval of the individual subsidiary's board of directors.

During 2024, we intend to maintain a level of capital in our insurance subsidiaries above the applicable capital adequacy requirements and minimum solvency margins.

Insurance regulatory restrictions do not limit the amount of dividends available for distribution from non-insurance subsidiaries except where the non-insurance subsidiaries are held directly or indirectly by an insurance subsidiary and only indirectly by Unum Group, which does not apply to our current entity structure.

Funding for Employee Benefit Plans

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, we made contributions of $23.0 million and £1.2 million to our U.S. and U.K. defined contribution plans, respectively, and expect to make additional contributions of approximately $55 million and £4 million during the remainder of 2024. We had no regulatory contribution requirements for our U.S. and U.K. qualified defined benefit pension plans and made no voluntary contributions during the three months ended March 31, 2024. We do not expect to have regulatory contribution requirements for our U.S. and U.K. qualified defined benefit pension plans during the remainder of 2024, but we reserve the right to make voluntary contributions during the remainder of 2024. We have met all minimum pension funding requirements set forth by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. We have estimated our future funding requirements under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and under applicable U.K. law and do not believe that any future funding requirements will cause a material adverse effect on our liquidity. See Note 11 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 for further discussion.

Debt, Term Loan Facility, Credit Facilities, and Other Sources of Liquidity

There are no significant financial covenants associated with any of our debt obligations other than those described below. We continually monitor our debt covenants to ensure we remain in compliance. We have not observed any current trends that would cause a breach of any debt covenants.

Our long-term debt balance at March 31, 2024 was $3,431.0 million, net of deferred debt issuance costs of $30.0 million, and is comprised of our unsecured senior notes, unsecured medium-term notes, unsecured term loan facility, and junior subordinated debt securities.

We have a 20-year facility agreement that is set to expire in August 2041 with a Delaware trust (the P-Caps Trust) that gives us the right to issue and to sell to the trust, on one or more occasions, up to $400.0 million of 4.046% senior notes in exchange for U.S. Treasury securities held by the P-Caps Trust. These senior notes will not be issued unless and until the issuance right is exercised. As the amount we receive upon exercise of the issuance right is contingent upon the value of the U.S. Treasury securities, a decline in the value of the U.S. Treasury securities reduces the amount we would receive upon exercise of the issuance right. The exercise of the issuance right triggers recognition of the senior notes on our consolidated balance sheets. We pay a semi-annual facility fee to the trust at a rate of 2.225% per year on the unexercised portion of the maximum amount of senior notes that we could issue and sell to the trust and we reimburse the trust for its expenses.

The issuance right will be exercised automatically in full upon our failure to make certain payments to the trust, such as paying the facility fee or reimbursing the trust for its expenses, if the failure to pay is not cured within 30 days, or upon certain bankruptcy events involving the company. We are also required to exercise the issuance right in full if our consolidated stockholders’ equity, excluding accumulated other comprehensive income, falls below $2.0 billion, subject to adjustment from time to time in certain cases, and upon certain other events described in the facility agreement.

We have a five-year $500 million senior unsecured revolving credit facility with a syndicate of lenders which is currently scheduled to expire in April 2027. We may request that the lenders’ aggregate commitments of $500.0 million under the facility be increased by up to an additional $200.0 million. Certain of our traditional U.S. life insurance subsidiaries may also borrow under the credit facility, subject to an unconditional guarantee by Unum Group. At March 31, 2024, there were no borrowed amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility and letters of credit totaling $0.4 million had been issued.

We have a five-year £75 million senior unsecured standby letter of credit facility with a different syndicate of lenders, pursuant to which a syndicated letter of credit was issued in favor of Unum Limited (as beneficiary), our U.K. insurance subsidiary, and is available for drawings up to £75 million until its scheduled expiration in July 2026. We have an additional five-year, £75 million senior standby letter of credit facility pursuant to which a standby letter of credit was issued in favor of Unum Limited (as beneficiary), our U.K. insurance subsidiary, and is available for drawings up to £75.0 million until its scheduled expiration in December 2028. In connection with and as security for the senior standby letter of credit facility, we granted to the issuer of the standby letter of credit the right to exercise, if an event of default has occurred and is continuing, the issuance right in our 20-year facility agreement with the P-Caps Trust, up to a maximum of $200.0 million. At March 31, 2024, no amounts have been borrowed under the standby credit facilities or letters of credit.

Borrowings under the term loan facility and the credit facilities are subject to financial covenants, negative covenants, and events of default that are customary. The term loan facility and each credit facility include financial covenants based on our leverage ratio and consolidated net worth as well as covenants that limit subsidiary indebtedness.

See "Debt, Term Loan Facility, Credit Facilities and Other Sources of Liquidity" and Note 10 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained in Part II, Items 7 and 8, respectively, of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 for further discussion.

Shelf Registration

We maintain a shelf registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue various types of securities, including common stock, preferred stock, debt securities, depository shares, stock purchase contracts, units and warrants. The shelf registration enables us to raise funds from the offering of any securities covered by the shelf registration as well as any combination thereof, subject to market conditions and our capital needs.

Commitments

As of March 31, 2024, we had commitments of $74.5 million to fund certain investments in private placement fixed maturity securities and $779.3 million to fund certain private equity partnerships. In addition, we had$1.8 millionof commercial mortgage loan commitments.

With respect to our commitments and off-balance sheet arrangements, see the discussion under "Cash Requirements" in Part II, Item 7 of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. During the first three months of 2024, there were no substantive changes in our commitments, contractual obligations, or other off-balance sheet arrangements other than the changes noted herein.

Transfers of Financial Assets

Our investment policy permits us to lend fixed maturity securities to unaffiliated financial institutions in short-term securities lending agreements, which increases our investment income with minimal risk. We account for all of our securities lending agreements and repurchase agreements as secured borrowings. As of March 31, 2024, we held $46.9 million of cash collateral from securities lending agreements. The average cash collateral balance during the first three months of 2024 was $84.5 million, and the maximum amount outstanding at any month end was $133.0 million. As of March 31, 2024, we held $16.1 million of off-balance sheet securities lending agreements which were collateralized by securities that we were neither permitted to sell nor control. The average balance of these off-balance sheet transactions during the first three months of 2024 was $15.8 million, and the maximum amount outstanding at any month end was $16.1 million.

To manage our cash position more efficiently, we may enter into securities repurchase agreements with unaffiliated financial institutions. We generally use securities repurchase agreements as a means to finance the purchase of invested assets or for short-term general business purposes until projected cash flows become available from our operations or existing investments. We had no securities repurchase agreements outstanding at March 31, 2024, nor didwe utilize any securities repurchase agreements duringthe first three months of 2024. Our use of securities repurchase agreements and securities lending agreements can fluctuate during any given period and will depend on our liquidity position, the availability of long-term investments that meet our purchasing criteria, and our general business needs.

Certain of our U.S. insurance subsidiaries are members of regional FHLBs. As of March 31, 2024, we owned $17.6 million of FHLB common stock and had outstanding advances of $108.2 million from the regional FHLBs which were used for the purpose of investing in fixed maturity securities. As of March 31, 2024, we have additional borrowing capacity of approximately $875.0 million from the FHLBs.

See Note 4 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 1 for further information.

Consolidated Cash Flows

Operating Cash Flows

Operating cash flows are primarily attributable to the receipt of premium and investment income, offset by payments of claims, commissions, expenses, and income taxes. Premium income growth is dependent not only on new sales, but on policy renewals and growth of existing business, renewal price increases, and persistency. Investment income growth is dependent on the growth in the underlying assets supporting our insurance liabilities and capital and on the earned yield. The level of commissions and operating expenses is attributable to the level of sales and the first year acquisition expenses associated with new business as well as the maintenance of existing business. The level of paid claims is affected partially by the growth and aging of the block of business and also by the general economy, as previously discussed in the operating results by segment.

Investing Cash Flows

Investing cash inflows consist primarily of the proceeds from the sales and maturities of investments. Investing cash outflows consist primarily of payments for purchases of investments. Our investment strategy is to match the cash flows and durations of our assets with the cash flows and durations of our liabilities to meet the funding requirements of our business. When market opportunities arise, we may sell selected securities and reinvest the proceeds to improve the yield and credit quality of our portfolio. We may at times also sell selected securities and reinvest the proceeds to improve the duration matching of our assets and liabilities and/or re-balance our portfolio. As a result, sales before maturity may vary from period to period. The sale and purchase of short-term investments is influenced by proceeds received from FHLB funding advances, issuance of debt, our securities lending program, and by the amount of cash which is at times held in short-term investments to facilitate the availability of cash to fund the purchase of appropriate long-term investments, repay maturing debt, and/or to fund our capital deployment program.

See Note 4 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 1 for further information.

Financing Cash Flows

Financing cash flows consist primarily of borrowings and repayments of debt, dividends paid to stockholders, repurchases of common stock, and policyholders' account deposits and withdrawals.

Cash used to repurchase shares of Unum Group's common stock during the first three months of 2024 and 2023 was $121.9 million and $51.2 million, respectively. In connection with the repurchases made during the first three months of 2024 and 2023, we recognized $1.1 million and $0.1 million, respectively, of excise tax which has not been settled as of March 31, 2024. During the first three months of 2024 and 2023, we paid dividends of $72.5 million and $69.2 million, respectively, to holders of Unum Group's common stock.

Ratings

AM Best, Fitch Ratings (Fitch), Moody's Investors Service (Moody's), and Standard & Poor's Rating Services (S&P) are among the third parties that assign issuer credit ratings to Unum Group and financial strength ratings to our insurance subsidiaries. Issuer credit ratings reflect an agency's opinion of the overall financial capacity of a company to meet its senior debt obligations. Financial strength ratings are specific to each individual insurance subsidiary and reflect each rating agency's view of the overall financial strength (capital levels, earnings, growth, investments, business mix, operating performance, and market position) of the insuring entity and its ability to meet its obligations to policyholders. Both the issuer credit ratings and financial strength ratings incorporate quantitative and qualitative analyses by rating agencies and are routinely reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis.

We compete based in part on the financial strength ratings provided by rating agencies. A downgrade of our financial strength ratings can be expected to adversely affect us and could potentially, among other things, adversely affect our relationships with distributors of our products and services and retention of our sales force, negatively impact persistency and new sales, particularly large case group sales and individual sales, and generally adversely affect our ability to compete. A downgrade in the issuer credit rating assigned to Unum Group can be expected to adversely affect our cost of capital or our ability to raise additional capital.

The table below reflects the outlook as well as the senior unsecured debt ratings for Unum Group and the financial strength ratings for each of our traditional insurance subsidiaries as of the date of this filing.

NR = not rated

We maintain an ongoing dialogue with the four rating agencies that evaluate us in order to inform them of progress we are making regarding our strategic objectives and financial plans as well as other pertinent issues. A significant component of our communications involves our annual review meeting with each of the four agencies. We hold other meetings throughout the year regarding our business, including, but not limited to, quarterly updates.

There have been no changes in the rating agencies' outlooks or ratings during 2024 prior to the date of this filing.

Agency ratings are not directed toward the holders of our securities and are not recommendations to buy, sell, or hold our securities. Each rating is subject to revision or withdrawal at any time by the assigning rating organization, and each rating should be regarded as an independent assessment, not conditional on any other rating. Given the dynamic nature of the ratings process, changes by these or other rating agencies may or may not occur in the near-term. We have ongoing dialogue with the rating agencies concerning our insurance risk profile, our financial flexibility, our operating performance, and the quality of our investment portfolios. The rating agencies provide specific criteria and, depending on our performance relative to the criteria, will determine future negative or positive rating agency actions.

See our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 for further information regarding our debt, issuer credit ratings and financial strength ratings and the risks associated with rating changes.