Unum Group: 10-K Risk Factor Changes

If economic conditions worsen as a result of a pandemic or other public health issue, that may adversely affect the financial condition of current or potential customers, which may result in lower sales or other negative impacts to customer purchasing patterns. If we experience unfavorable developments related to our revenues, benefits, or expenses, we may correspondingly experience adverse impacts to our overall future profitability and growth, which may alter the timing and magnitude of our plans for overall business growth. In addition, these unfavorable developments may result in the impairment or write-off of certain assets such as premiums receivable, goodwill, property and equipment, VOBA, and right-of-use assets, or the establishment of a valuation allowance regarding the realization of our deferred tax assets. If economic conditions worsen as a result of a pandemic or other public health issue, that may also result in the inability for companies to make interest and principal payments on their debt securities or mortgage loans that we hold for investment purposes. Accordingly, although we maintain a disciplined approach regarding our overall investment strategy, we may still incur significant losses that can result in a decline in net investment income and/or material increases in credit losses on our investment portfolio. With respect to commercial real estate, there could be potential impacts to estimates of expected losses resulting from lower underlying values, reflecting current market conditions at that time. Although we have access to significant amounts of liquidity, which include a credit facility and our facility agreement for contingent issuance of senior notes, Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) arrangements, and the ability to liquidate certain investments, it may be insufficient or even inaccessible if we are not in compliance with required covenants under our borrowing arrangements or if the associated lenders are unable to provide funds. In addition, if investment markets become illiquid or severely impaired, we may be unable to liquidate our investments in a timely and advantageous manner. From an operational perspective, our employees, sales associates, brokers, and distribution partners, as well as the workforces of our vendors, service providers, and counterparties, may be adversely affected by a pandemic or other public health issue, 27 27 27 Table of Contents Table of Contents including government-mandated shutdowns, requests or orders for employees to work remotely, and other social distancing measures. These measures could result in an adverse impact on our ability to conduct our business, including our ability to sell our policies and our ability to adjudicate and pay claims in a timely manner. Additionally, our hybrid work environment may expose us to various additional risks such as elevated cybersecurity vulnerability resulting from the wide-scale remote usage of our company networks and related risks to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. There is no guarantee that processes we have developed in order to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic would succeed in allowing us to adapt to any future pandemic or other public health issue, which may have materially different characteristics than the COVID-19 pandemic. To the extent pandemics or other public health issues adversely affect our business, financial position, results of operations, liquidity and capital resources, and overall business operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks disclosed herein in this Item 1A "Risk Factors". See "Executive Summary", "Segment Operating Results", and "Liquidity and Capital Resources" included herein in Part 2, Item 7 under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for additional discussion.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause disruption to the global economy and has resulted in some unfavorable impacts to our company as well as the overall insurance industry. Further events that we are unable to control, such as additional virus mutations, changes in mortality levels, changes in the population impacted by COVID-19, spikes in the number of cases of COVID-19, and the related responses by government authorities and businesses, continue to present risks to our business. An increase in the level of deaths related to COVID-19 could result in higher mortality within our insured population. In addition, we may continue to experience higher claim incidence in our disability products and higher expenses related to our leave management services. If economic conditions worsen as a result of a pandemic or other public health issue, that may adversely affect the financial condition of current or potential customers, which may result in lower sales or other negative impacts to customer purchasing patterns. If we experience unfavorable developments related to our revenues, benefits, or expenses, we may correspondingly experience adverse impacts to our overall future profitability and growth, which may alter the timing and magnitude of our plans for overall business growth. In addition, these unfavorable developments may result in the impairment or write-off of certain assets such as premiums receivable, goodwill, property and equipment, VOBA, and right-of-use assets, or the establishment of a valuation allowance regarding the realization of our deferred tax assets. If economic conditions worsen as a result of a pandemic or other public health issue, that may also result in the inability for companies to make interest and principal payments on their debt securities or mortgage loans that we hold for investment purposes. Accordingly, although we maintain a disciplined approach regarding our overall investment strategy, we may still incur significant losses that can result in a decline in net investment income and/or material increases in credit losses on our investment portfolio. With respect to commercial real estate, there could be potential impacts to estimates of expected losses resulting from lower underlying values, reflecting current market conditions at that time. Although we have access to significant amounts of liquidity, which include a credit facility and our facility agreement for contingent issuance of senior notes, Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) arrangements, and the ability to liquidate certain investments, it may be insufficient or even inaccessible if we are not in compliance with required covenants under our borrowing arrangements or if the associated lenders are unable to provide funds. In addition, if investment markets become illiquid or severely impaired, we may be unable to liquidate our investments in a timely and advantageous manner. From an operational perspective, our employees, sales associates, brokers, and distribution partners, as well as the workforces of our vendors, service providers, and counterparties, may be adversely affected by a pandemic or other public health issue, including government-mandated shutdowns, requests or orders for employees to work remotely, and other social distancing measures. These measures could result in an adverse impact on our ability to conduct our business, including our ability to sell our policies and our ability to adjudicate and pay claims in a timely manner. Additionally, our hybrid work environment may expose us to various additional risks such as elevated cybersecurity vulnerability resulting from the wide-scale remote usage of our company networks and related risks to the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting. There is no guarantee that processes we have developed in order to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic would succeed in allowing us to adapt to any future pandemic or other public health issue, which may have materially different characteristics than the COVID-19 pandemic. To the extent pandemics or other public health issues adversely affect our business, financial position, results of operations, liquidity and capital resources, and overall business operations, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks disclosed herein in this Item 1A "Risk Factors". See "Executive Summary", "Segment Operating Results", and "Liquidity and Capital Resources" included herein in Part 2, Item 7 under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" for additional discussion. 28 28 28

Investors, regulators, current and prospective customers, employees, and other stakeholders may evaluate our business according to certain environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and expectations. To help monitor and meet stakeholder expectations, we developed a corporate sustainability strategic framework. Our framework aims to create long-term value for stakeholders by implementing strategically aligned business practices that incorporate ESG factors, with a focus on accelerating our efforts around responsible investments, inclusive products and services, and reducing environmental impact. We include ESG considerations in fundamental analysis of our investments because we believe these considerations are important for analyzing the long-term risk-reward characteristics of an investment. As our framework matures and we continue to integrate ESG standards in coordination with other business priorities, our ESG-related efforts may not prove completely effective or may not satisfy our key stakeholders. Additionally, national and local governments and regulators have proposed and are likely to continue to propose new ESG-related rules that would apply to our business, including regulations focused on increased disclosures and management of investment portfolios. Such regulations may require the development of new processes and controls that may be complex and result in increases in expenses to ensure compliance, or they may run counter to our corporate sustainability strategic framework, conflict with other regulations that apply to us, or cause us to forgo business opportunities. Stakeholder ESG-related expectations may increase in the short, medium, and long term and may affect our business, and they may also subject us to scrutiny leading to operational, reputational, or legal challenges. See "Liability for Future Policy Benefits", "Competition", "Regulation" and "Ratings" contained herein in Item 1, "Executive Summary" and "Critical Accounting Estimates" included in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" contained herein in Item 7, and Notes 1, 6, 9, and 16 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 8 for further discussion.

Our sustainability strategic framework creates long-term value for stakeholders by implementing business practices that incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, with a focus on accelerating our efforts around responsible investments, inclusive products and services, and reducing environmental impact. We include ESG considerations in our fundamental investment analysis of the companies or projects we invest in to ensure that their values or agendas align with our own and those of our stakeholders. Investors, regulators, current and prospective customers, employees, and other stakeholders may evaluate our business according to certain ESG standards and expectations. As our ESG framework matures and we continue to integrate ESG standards in coordination with other business priorities, our ESG-related efforts may not prove completely effective or may not satisfy our key stakeholders. Additionally, some of our regulators have proposed new rules, which would be subject to differing interpretations and would require the development of new processes and controls that may be complex and result in increases in expenses in order to ensure compliance. See "Reserves for Policy and Contract Benefits", "Competition", "Regulation" and "Ratings" contained herein in Item 1, "Executive Summary" and "Critical Accounting Estimates" included in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" contained herein in Item 7, and Notes 1, 6, 7, and 14 of the "Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements" contained herein in Item 8 for further discussion.

Historical results may not be indicative of future performance due to, among other things, changes in our mix of business, repricing of certain lines of business, or any number of economic cyclical effects on our business. Reserves, whether calculated under GAAP or statutory accounting principles, do not represent an exact calculation of future benefit liabilities but are instead estimates made by us using reserve assumptions that are used in our actuarial and statistical procedures. Certain of these GAAP reserve assumptions are also utilized in determining the amortization pattern for DAC. Actual experience may differ from our assumptions which would affect our earnings in current and future periods as a result of changes in reserves and DAC. There can be no assurance that our reserves will be sufficient to fund our future liabilities in all circumstances. Future loss development may require reserves to be increased, which would adversely affect earnings in current or future periods. Life 23 23 23 Table of Contents Table of Contents expectancies may increase, which could lengthen the time a claimant receives disability or long-term care benefits and could result in a change in mortality assumptions and an increase in reserves for these and other long-tailed products. Adjustments to reserve or DAC amounts may also be required in the event of changes from the assumptions regarding future claim incidence rates, claim resolution rates, policyholder lapses, mortality, premium rate increases, claim costs, policy benefit offsets, including those for social security and other government-based welfare benefits, and interest rates used in calculating the reserve amount, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

Historical results may not be indicative of future performance due to, among other things, changes in our mix of business, repricing of certain lines of business, or any number of economic cyclical effects on our business. Reserves, whether calculated under GAAP or statutory accounting principles, do not represent an exact calculation of future benefit liabilities but are instead estimates made by us using actuarial and statistical procedures. Actual experience may differ from our reserve assumptions. There can be no assurance that our reserves will be sufficient to fund our future liabilities in all circumstances. Future loss development may require reserves to be increased, which would adversely affect earnings in current and future periods. Life expectancies may increase, which could lengthen the time a claimant receives disability or long-term care benefits and could result in a change in mortality assumptions and an increase in reserves for these and other long-tailed products. Adjustments to reserve amounts may also be required in the event of changes from the assumptions regarding future morbidity (which represents the incidence of claims and the rate of recovery, including the effects thereon of inflation and other societal and economic factors); premium rate increases; persistency; policy benefit offsets, including those for social security and other government-based welfare benefits; and interest rates used in calculating the reserve amounts, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.