CITIZENS INC

CITIZENS, INC.

Board of Directors and Shareholders

Opinion on the financial statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Citizens, Inc. (a Colorado corporation) and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes and financial statement schedules included under Item 15(a) (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”), and our report dated March 14, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion.

Change in accounting principle

As discussed in Note 1 to the financial statements, the Company has changed its method of accounting for the liability for future policy benefits, deferred policy acquisition costs, and cost of insurance acquired for all periods presented due to the adoption of Accounting Standard Update No. 2018-12, Financial Services – Insurance (Topic 944) Targeted Improvements to the Accounting for Long-Duration Contracts.

Basis for opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical audit matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

December 31, 2023 | 10-K 60

CITIZENS, INC.

Assumptions used in the Estimation of the Liability For Future Policy Benefit Reserves - Life Insurance

As described further in Notes 1 and 5 to the financial statements, the Company estimates a liability for future policy benefits which is calculated as the present value of estimated future policy benefits to be paid to or on behalf of policyholders of life insurance contracts, less the present value of estimated future net premiums to be collected from policyholders on those same life insurance contracts. Management’s estimate of the liability for future policy benefit reserves for life insurance was $1.23 billion as of December 31, 2023. The liability is estimated using actuarial assumptions including mortality and lapse. Changes to the mortality and lapse assumptions impact both the timing and amount of estimated future policy payments to be paid and future net premiums to be received on life insurance contracts. These assumptions, which are updated annually, are based on judgements that consider the Company’s historical experience, industry data and other factors. We identified the updating of the mortality and lapse assumptions used in the estimation of the liability for future policy benefit reserves – life insurance as a critical audit matter.

The principal consideration for our determination that the updating of the mortality and lapse assumptions used in the estimation of the liability for future policy benefit reserves for life insurance contracts is a critical audit matter is that the updating of these assumptions requires management to make significant estimates regarding mortality and lapse based on historical experience, industry data and other factors. As such, auditing the updating of such assumptions involved subjective and complex auditor judgment and the involvement of an actuarial specialist.

Our audit procedures related to the updating of the mortality and lapse assumptions used in the estimation of the liability for future policy benefit reserves - life insurance included the following, among others.

•We tested the design and operating effectiveness of management’s review controls over the mortality and lapse assumption updating and approval processes.

•We utilized an actuarial specialist in evaluating management’s methodologies and reasonableness of the assumptions of mortality and lapse, that were used in management’s calculation of future policy benefit reserves on life insurance contracts.

/s/GRANT THORNTON LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.

Miami, Florida

March 14, 2024

December 31, 2023 | 10-K 61

CITIZENS, INC.

December 31, 2023 | 10-K 62

CITIZENS, INC.

December 31, 2023 | 10-K 63