Assurant finalizes restructuring plan, sees up to $65M in charges

On December 13 Assurant, finalized its plan to realize greater operational efficiencies by continuing to simplify its business portfolio and leverage its global footprint to reduce costs. This includes realigning its organizational structure and talent to support its business strategy. The Company is also accelerating its ongoing real estate consolidation to support work-from-home arrangements given its increasingly hybrid workforce. The Company expects to complete these actions in 2023.The Company expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of approximately $60M to $65M, with approximately $51M to $56M to be incurred in fourth quarter 2022 and the remainder to be incurred in 2023. The total expected range includes approximately $29M to $34M related to severance and employee benefits, and approximately $31M related to real estate exit costs, consisting of lease impairment and abandonment charges. The Company estimates that substantially all of the charges will be cash. The Company expects approximately $55M in gross annualized run rate savings to be realized from these actions by year-end 2024, with more than half expected to be realized in 2023. These savings will partially mitigate the impact of higher labor costs and headwinds from the macroeconomic environment, as well as fund additional investments, including increasing automation, to continue to drive a more efficient cost structure long term. The Company expects to provide its full year 2023 outlook during its fourth quarter 2022 earnings call in February