CNO Financial Group, Inc.

Previous wording

In this section, we review the consolidated financial condition of CNO as of September 30, 2025, and its consolidated results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 and 2024, and, where appropriate, factors that may affect future financial performance. Please read this discussion in conjunction with the accompanying consolidated financial statements and notes. Results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year.

Current wording

In this section, we review the consolidated financial condition of CNO as of March 31, 2026, and its consolidated results of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025, and, where appropriate, factors that may affect future financial performance. Please read this discussion in conjunction with the accompanying consolidated financial statements and notes. Results for interim periods are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year.

Previous wording

A wide variety of factors continue to impact financial and economic conditions. Consumer and economic uncertainty due to rapid changes in global trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and potential changes to existing tariffs, are also causing market volatility and heightening concerns regarding inflation. Reactions to these factors and fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies may result in reduced economic growth in the United States, the targeted nations and globally, increase inflation, disrupt global supply chains and increase volatility in financial markets, including currency and interest rate markets.

Current wording

A wide variety of factors continue to impact financial and economic conditions. Consumer and economic uncertainty due to rapid changes in global trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs and potential changes to existing tariffs, and geopolitical actions are also causing market volatility and heightening concerns regarding inflation. Reactions to these factors and fluctuations in the value of the U.S. dollar compared to foreign currencies may result in reduced economic growth in the United States, the targeted nations and globally, increase inflation, disrupt global supply chains and increase volatility in financial markets, including currency and interest rate markets.

Previous wording

•general economic, market and political conditions and uncertainties, including the performance and fluctuations of the financial markets (including the impact of inflation, market volatility, the impact of the continued government shutdown, tariffs, changes in tax laws, changes in commodity prices and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates) which may affect the value of our investments as well as our ability to raise capital or refinance existing indebtedness and the cost of doing so;

Current wording

•general economic, market and political conditions and uncertainties, including the performance and fluctuations of the financial markets (including the impact of inflation, market volatility, the impact of a U.S. federal government shutdown, tariffs, changes in tax laws, changes in commodity prices and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates), which may affect the value of our investments as well as our ability to raise capital or refinance existing indebtedness and the cost of doing so;

Previous wording

•our ability to obtain adequate and timely rate increases on our health products, including our long-term care business;

Current wording

•our ability to obtain adequate and timely rate increases on our health products;

Previous wording

•regulatory changes or actions, now or in the future, including: those relating to regulation of the financial affairs of our insurance companies, such as the calculation of risk-based capital and minimum capital requirements, and payment of dividends and surplus debenture interest to us; regulation of the sale, underwriting and pricing of products; health care regulation affecting health insurance products; and privacy laws and regulations;

Current wording

•regulatory changes or actions, now or in the future, including, but not limited to: those relating to regulation of the financial affairs of our insurance companies, such as the calculation of risk-based capital and minimum capital requirements, and payment of dividends and surplus debenture interest to us; regulation of the sale, underwriting and pricing of products; health care regulation affecting health insurance products; and privacy laws and regulations;

Previous wording

•cyber-security attacks, risk of data loss and other security breaches;

Current wording

•cybersecurity attacks, risk of data loss and other security breaches;

Previous wording

We view our operations as three insurance product lines (annuity, health and life) and the investment and fee income segments. Our segments are aligned based on their common characteristics, comparability of profit margins and the way the chief operating decision maker makes operating decisions and assesses the performance of the business.

Current wording

We view our operations as three insurance product lines (annuity, health and life) and the investment and fee income segments. Our segments are aligned based on their common characteristics, comparability of profit margins and the way the chief operating decision maker ("CODM") makes operating decisions and assesses the performance of the business. Our CODM is the Chief Executive Officer.

Previous wording

Our insurance product line segments (annuity, health and life) include marketing, underwriting and administration of the policies our insurance subsidiaries sell. The business written in each of the three product categories through all of our insurance subsidiaries is aggregated allowing management and investors to assess the performance of each product category. When analyzing profitability of these segments, we use insurance product margin as the measure of profitability, which is: (i) insurance policy income; and (ii) net investment income allocated to the insurance product lines; less (i) insurance policy benefits; (ii) interest credited to policyholders; (iii) amortization of deferred acquisition costs and present value of future profits, non-deferred commissions; and (iv) advertising expense. Net investment income is allocated to the product lines using the book yield of investments backing the block of business, which is applied to the average insurance liabilities, net of insurance intangibles, for the block in each period. Net insurance liabilities for the purpose of allocating investment income to product lines are equal to: (i) policyholder account values for interest sensitive products; (ii) total reserves before the fair value adjustments reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), if applicable, for all other products; less (iii) amounts related to reinsured business; (iv) deferred acquisition costs; (v) the present value of future profits; and (vi) the value of unexpired options credited to insurance liabilities.

Current wording

Our insurance product line segments (annuity, health and life) include marketing, underwriting and administration of the policies our insurance subsidiaries sell. The business written in each of the three product categories through all of our insurance subsidiaries is aggregated allowing management and investors to assess the performance of each product category. When analyzing profitability of these segments, we use insurance product margin as the measure of profitability, which is: (i) insurance policy income; and (ii) net investment income allocated to the insurance product lines; less (i) insurance policy benefits; (ii) interest credited to policyholders; (iii) amortization of deferred acquisition costs and present value of future profits; (iv) non-deferred commissions; and (v) advertising expense. Net investment income is allocated to the product lines using the book yield of investments backing the block of business, which is applied to the average net insurance liabilities, net of insurance intangibles, for the block in each period. Net insurance liabilities for the purpose of allocating investment income to product lines are equal to: (i) policyholder account values for interest sensitive products; (ii) total reserves before the fair value adjustments reflected in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), if applicable, for all other products; less (iii) amounts related to reinsured business; (iv) deferred acquisition costs; (v) the present value of future profits; and (vi) the value of unexpired options credited to insurance liabilities.

Previous wording

Income from insurance products is the sum of the insurance product margins of the annuity, health and life product lines, less expenses allocated to the insurance product lines. It excludes the income from our fee income business, investment income not allocated to product lines, net expenses not allocated to product lines (primarily holding company expenses) and income taxes. Management believes insurance product margin and income from insurance products help provide an additional understanding of the business and a more meaningful analysis of the results of our insurance product lines.

Current wording

Income from insurance products is the sum of the insurance product margins of the annuity, health and life product lines, less expenses allocated to the insurance product lines. It excludes the income from our fee income business, investment income not allocated to product lines, net expenses not allocated to product lines (primarily holding company expenses) and income taxes. Management believes insurance product margin and income from insurance products provides an additional understanding of the business and a more meaningful analysis of the results of our insurance product lines.

Previous wording

The Worksite Division focuses on the sale of voluntary benefit life and health insurance products in the workplace for businesses, associations, and other membership groups, interacting with customers at their place of employment and virtually. The Worksite Division also offers employer benefits services that seek to increase benefits engagement and reduce costs for employers and their employees. These services include: benefit administration technology, year-round advocacy, enrollment, benefits compliance and communications services.

Current wording

The Worksite Division focuses on the sale of voluntary insurance benefits, including supplemental health and life insurance products in the workplace for businesses, associations, and other membership groups, interacting with customers at their place of employment and virtually. Through our Optavise brand, we guide employers and their employees through their healthcare choices with a suite of voluntary insurance products as well as fee services, including benefits administration technology, education, and advocacy, and communications services to reduce costs and increase benefits engagement. In November 2025, we announced our intention to exit the fee services business within our Worksite Division to sharpen our focus on the core insurance business. In 2026, we have begun the exit of the fee services business and expect the exit to be substantially completed by June 30, 2026.

Previous wording

Our fee income segment includes the earnings generated from sales of third-party insurance products (primarily Medicare Advantage), services provided by Optavise, LLC ("Optavise") and the operations of our broker-dealer and registered investment advisor. The resulting fee income metric is the fee income segment's measure of profitability.

Current wording

Our fee income segment includes the earnings generated from sales of third-party insurance products (primarily Medicare Advantage), services provided to employers through our Worksite Division and the operations of our broker-dealer and registered investment advisor. As a result of exiting the fee services business within our Worksite Division, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025, the net results of this business are no longer presented within the fee income segment, but are presented within net loss related to divested business within non-operating income.

Previous wording

The following summarizes our earnings for the nine months ended September 30, 2025 and 2024 (dollars in millions, except per share data):

Current wording

The following summarizes our earnings for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025 (dollars in millions, except per share data):

Previous wording

(a)Management believes that an analysis of net income applicable to common stock before: (i) net realized investment gains or losses from disposals, impairments and the change in allowance for credit losses, net of taxes; (ii) net change in market value of investments recognized in earnings, net of taxes; (iii) changes in fair value of embedded derivative liabilities and MRBs related to our fixed indexed annuities, net of taxes; (iv) fair value changes related to the agent deferred compensation plan, net of taxes; (v) gains or losses related to material reinsurance transactions, net of taxes; (vi) loss on extinguishment of debt, net of taxes; (vii) changes in the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets and other tax items; (viii) costs related to our three-year project to modernize certain elements of our technology ("TechMod") that are incremental to normal spend and will not recur following implementation, net of taxes; (ix) goodwill and other asset impairment expenses; and (x) other non-operating items including earnings attributable to variable interest entities, net of taxes ("net operating income," a non-GAAP financial measure) is important to evaluate the financial performance of the company, and is a key measure commonly used in the life insurance industry. The income tax expense or benefit allocated to the items included in net non-operating income (loss) represents the current and deferred income tax expense or benefit allocated to the items included in non-operating earnings. Management believes this information provides a better understanding of the business and a more meaningful analysis of results of our insurance product lines. The table above reconciles the non-GAAP measure to the corresponding GAAP measure.

Current wording

(a)Management believes that an analysis of net income applicable to common stock before: (i) net realized investment gains or losses from disposals, impairments and the change in allowance for credit losses, net of taxes; (ii) net change in market value of investments recognized in earnings, net of taxes; (iii) changes in fair value of embedded derivative liabilities and MRBs related to our fixed indexed annuities, net of taxes; (iv) fair value changes related to the agent deferred compensation plan, net of taxes; (v) gains or losses related to material reinsurance transactions, net of taxes; (vi) loss on extinguishment of debt, net of taxes; (vii) changes in the valuation allowance for deferred tax assets and other tax items; (viii) costs related to our three-year project to modernize certain elements of our technology ("TechMod") that are incremental to normal spend and will not recur following implementation, net of taxes; (ix) goodwill and other asset impairment expenses, net of taxes; (x) gains or losses related to divested business, net of taxes, and (xi) other non-operating items including earnings attributable to variable interest entities, net of taxes ("net operating income," a non-GAAP financial measure) is important to evaluate the financial performance of the company, and is a key measure commonly used in the life insurance industry. The income tax expense or benefit allocated to the items included in net non-operating income (loss) represents the current and deferred income tax expense or benefit allocated to the items included in non-operating earnings. Management believes this information provides a better understanding of the business and a more meaningful analysis of results of our insurance product lines. The table above reconciles the non-GAAP measure to the corresponding GAAP measure.

Previous wording

Refer to "Governmental Regulation" in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 for information on our insurance and other governmental regulatory matters, other than those amended or supplemented here.

Current wording

Refer to "Governmental Regulation" in our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K for information on our insurance and other governmental regulatory matters, other than those amended or supplemented here.

Previous wording

On August 13, 2025, the NAIC adopted an actuarial guideline (AG 55) requiring disclosure related to reserve adequacy for reserves reported as of December 31, 2025 in an insurer’s annual statement. The guideline requires asset adequacy testing for long-duration insurance business that relies heavily on asset returns (i.e., “asset-intensive reinsurance transactions”) within the scope of the guideline that either meet certain size-based thresholds or result in significant reinsurance collectability risk (as determined by the cedent’s appointed actuary). Such asset adequacy testing is to be performed using a cash flow testing methodology. The actuarial guideline requires disclosure by the ceding insurer, meaning that it will not require that additional reserves be posted at the reinsurer level (although the ceding insurer may decide to post reserves). It is important to note that domestic regulators will continue to have the authority to take action on known issues, or issues that may become known as part of such new reporting (including requiring that additional reserves be held). CNO is not yet able to predict the effect, if any, on CNO, if asset adequacy testing were required in connection with reinsurance transactions.

Current wording

Actuarial Guideline for Reinsurance Asset Adequacy Testing. On August 13, 2025, the NAIC adopted an actuarial guideline (AG 55) requiring disclosure related to reserve adequacy for reserves reported as of December 31, 2025 in an insurer’s annual statement. The guideline requires asset adequacy testing for reinsured long-duration insurance business that relies heavily on asset returns (i.e., “asset-intensive reinsurance transactions”) within the scope of the guideline that either meet certain size-based thresholds or result in significant reinsurance collectability risk (as determined by the cedent’s appointed actuary). Such asset adequacy testing is to be performed using a cash flow testing methodology. The actuarial guideline requires disclosure by the ceding insurer, meaning that it will not require that additional reserves be posted at the reinsurer level (although the ceding insurer may decide to post reserves). It is important to note that domestic regulators will continue to have the authority to take action on known issues, or issues that may become known as part of such new reporting (including requiring that additional reserves be held).