You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: It is possible that actual results may differ materially from the predictions we make today.
Prudential delivered strong financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year, reflecting favorable investment performance and continued high demand for the products we introduced during the pandemic to address our customers' evolving needs.
2021 was also a pivotal year for Prudential and our efforts to become a higher growth, less market-sensitive and more nimble company.
First, we are repositioning our business mix to generate sustainable long-term growth with reduced market sensitivity.
Second, we continue to advance our cost savings program.
And third, we maintained our disciplined and thoughtful approach to deploying capital.
I'll provide an update on each of these areas before turning it over to Rob and Ken.
Moving to Slide 3.
We are making significant progress repositioning our business for sustainable long-term growth with reduced market sensitivity through a mix of divestitures and strategic programmatic acquisitions.
Following the successful completion of the sales of our Korea and Taiwan insurance businesses, which produced $1.8 billion in proceeds, we reached agreements to divest our full-service business and a portion of our traditional variable annuities.
We are on track to close both of these transactions in the first half of 2022 and generate additional proceeds of over $4 billion.
We are redeploying capital in part through highly targeted acquisitions and investments in asset management and emerging markets.
Last year, PGIM acquired Montana Capital Partners, a European-based private equity secondaries asset manager; and Green Harvest, a separately managed account platform that provides customized solutions for high net worth investors.
Meanwhile, on the emerging markets front, we closed on an investment in ICEA LION Holdings, a highly respected financial services market leader in Kenya with operations in Tanzania and Uganda.
Turning to Slide 4.
We continue to advance our cost savings program and are on track to achieve $750 million in savings by the end of 2023.
To date, we have already achieved $635 million in run-rate cost savings, exceeding our $500 million target for 2021.
We have also taken steps to improve experiences around the world for our customers and employees through innovation.
This includes using automation, artificial intelligence, and other technology to expedite underwriting, reduce and simplify processes, provide faster, more convenient service options, and deliver meaningful financial advice in the ways our customers want it.
I'll touch more upon how we're using the technology in a moment.
Turning to Slide 5.
We have maintained a disciplined and balanced approach to deploying capital by enhancing returns to shareholders, reducing financial leverage, and by investing in the growth of our businesses.
We currently plan to return a total of $11 billion of capital to shareholders between 2021 and the end of 2023.
This includes $4.3 billion returned during 2021 through share repurchases and dividends.
As part of this plan, the board has authorized $1.5 billion of share repurchases and a 4% increase in our quarterly dividend beginning in the first quarter.
This represents our 14th consecutive annual dividend increase.
We also reduced debt by $1.3 billion in 2021.
In addition to the acquisitions I previously mentioned, we also made investments in our businesses to drive long-term growth and to meet the evolving needs of our customers.
In PGIM, for example, we have significantly strengthened our suite of environmental, social, and governance bond funds to better serve sustainability-focused investors.
Meanwhile, in our insurance businesses, we market-sensitive and have higher growth potential, such as our FlexGuard and variable life products, with a focus on improved customer experience and driving greater operational efficiency.
One example, as I mentioned earlier, is our use of artificial intelligence.
We use AI to quickly and accurately assess risk in our life insurance businesses and to expedite the application and underwriting process.
The application of innovative technology generated significant efficiencies for our global businesses during 2021, while delivering a dramatically better experience for our customers.
We will continue to expand the use of AI and other emerging technologies across the firm.
Our capital deployment strategy is supported by a rock-solid balance sheet which includes $3.6 billion in highly liquid assets at the end of the fourth quarter and a capital position that continues to support our AA financial strength rating.
Turning to Slide 6.
Our ongoing efforts to transform the company in 2021 go hand-in-hand with Prudential's long-standing commitment to sustainability.
This commitment is reflected in several significant enhancements to our environmental, social, and governance framework last year.
We committed to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 across our primary global home office operations, with an interim goal of becoming carbon-neutral in these facilities by 2040.
We are also reviewing our general account investment holdings and have restricted new direct investments in companies that derive 25% or more of their revenues from thermal coal.
On the social front, the Prudential Foundation surpassed $1 billion in grants to partners primarily focused on eliminating barriers to financial and social mobility around the world.
This achievement follows another milestone that we reached in 2020 when our impact investment portfolio exceeded $1 billion.
We also continue to advance our nine commitments to racial equity through investments in funding for organizations committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and through internal measures, including diversity training and our commitment to equitable compensation for our employees.
Our governance actions reflected a shared commitment to diversity and inclusion, beginning at the top with over 80% of our independent board directors being diverse.
In 2021, we enhanced our diversity disclosures by publishing EEO-1 data and the results of our pay equity analysis for our U.S. employees.
We also expanded our policy of tying compensation plans for senior executives to the achievement of workforce diversity goals.
As I noted earlier, we believe our sustainability commitments and transformation to become a higher growth, less market-sensitive, and more nimble business are closely connected.
Together, they help us fulfill our purpose of making lives better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world by expanding access to investing insurance and retirement security for customers and clients around the globe.
I am proud of the progress we made and the momentum we built in 2021 and look forward to making an even more meaningful difference in the lives of all our stakeholders in 2022 and beyond.
I'll provide an overview of our financial results and business performance for our PGIM, U.S., and international businesses.
I'll begin on Slide 7 with our financial results.
For 2021, pre-tax adjusted operating income was $7.3 billion or $14.58 a share on an after-tax basis.
Results for the year included a benefit from the outperformance of variable investment income that exceeded target returns by about $1.6 billion, reflecting market performance, strategy, and manager selection.
In the fourth quarter, pre-tax adjusted operating income was $1.6 billion or $3.18 a share on an after-tax basis, while GAAP net income was $3.13 per share.
Of note, our GAAP net income includes realized investment gains and favorable market experience updates that were offset by a goodwill impairment that resulted in a charge of $837 million net of tax.
This charge reflects two main drivers of a reduction in the estimated fair value of Assurance.
First, we acquired capabilities to increase access to more customers, and we have experienced good revenue growth.
However, this growth has been slower than expected and we are now assuming it will take longer to monetize into earnings and cash flow.
And second, we have seen a significant decline in publicly traded peer valuations, which is a key input in our assessment of fair value.
Turning to the operating results of our businesses.
PGIM, our global asset manager, had record asset management fees driven by record account values of over $1.5 trillion.
Relative to the year-ago quarter, earnings reflected the elevated level of other related revenues last year as well as higher expenses supporting business growth in the current period.
Results of our U.S. Businesses increased 13% from the year-ago quarter and reflected higher net investment spread, including a greater benefit from variable investment income, higher fee income, primarily driven by equity market appreciation, partially offset by higher expenses driven by a legal reserve and less favorable underwriting experience due to COVID-19-related mortality.
Earnings in our international businesses increased 5%, reflecting continued business growth, lower expenses, and higher net investment spread.
Turning to Slide 8.
PGIM continues to demonstrate the strength of its diversified capabilities in both public and private asset classes across fixed income, alternatives, real estate, and equities as a top 10 global investment manager.
PGIM's investment performance remains attractive with more than 95% of assets under management outperforming their benchmarks over the last three, five- and 10-year periods.
This performance has contributed to third-party net flows of $11 billion for the year, with positive flows across U.S. and non-U.S.-based clients in both public and private strategies.
As the investment engine of Prudential, success, and growth of PGIM and of our U.S. and international insurance businesses are mutually enhancing.
PGIM's asset origination capabilities, investment management expertise, and access to institutional and other sources of private capital provide a competitive advantage by helping our businesses to bring enhanced solutions, innovation, and more value to our customers.
And our businesses, in turn, provide a source of growth for PGIM through affiliated flows and unique access to insurance liabilities that complement its successful third-party track record of growth.
PGIM's sixth consecutive quarter of record asset management fees reflect strong business fundamentals and record assets under management.
We continue to expand our global equity franchise to grow our alternatives and private credit business, which has assets in excess of $240 billion across private credit and real estate equity and debt and benefits from our global scale and market-leading positions.
Notably, PGIM's private businesses deployed nearly $50 billion of gross capital, up 33% from last year.
Now turning to Slide 9.
Our U.S. Businesses produced diversified earnings from fees, net investment spread, and underwriting income and also benefit from our complementary mix of longevity and mortality businesses.
We continue to shift our business mix toward higher growth and less interest rate-sensitive products and businesses to transform our capabilities and cost structure and to expand our addressable markets.
Our product pivots have worked well, demonstrated by continued strong sales of our buffered annuities, which were nearly $6 billion for the year, representing 87% of total individual annuity sales.
These sales reflect customer demand for investment solutions that offer the potential for appreciation from equity markets combined with downside protection.
We have also exercised discipline through frequent pricing actions and our sales benefit from having a strong and trusted brand and a highly effective distribution team.
Our individual life sales also reflect our earlier product pivot strategy with variable products representing 71% of sales for the year.
Our retirement business has market-leading capabilities, which drove robust international reinsurance and funded pension risk transfer sales, including a $5 billion transaction, which was the fourth largest in the history of the market during 2021.
And reflected strong persistency and revenue growth in 2021 across all segments.
With respect to Assurance, our digitally enabled distribution platform, total revenues for the year were up 43% from last year.
Turning to Slide 10.
Our international businesses include our Japanese life insurance companies, where we have a differentiated multichannel distribution model as well as other businesses focused on high-growth emerging markets.
We remain encouraged by the resiliency of our unique distribution capabilities, which have maintained the stability of our sales and our in-force business despite the pandemic.
In Japan, we are focused on providing high-quality service, growing our world-class sales force and expanding our geographic coverage and product offerings.
Our needs-based approach and mortality protection focus continue to provide important value to our customers as we expand our product offerings to meet their evolving needs.
In emerging markets, we are focused on creating a carefully selected portfolio of businesses and regions where customers' needs are growing where there are compelling opportunities to build market-leading businesses and partnerships and where Prudential -- the Prudential enterprise can add value.
As we look ahead, we're well-positioned across our businesses to be a global leader in expanding access to investing, insurance and retirement security.
We plan to continue to invest in growth businesses and markets to deliver industry-leading customer experiences and create the next generation of financial solutions to better serve the diverse needs of a broad range of customers.
And with that, I will now hand it over to Ken.
I'll begin on Slide 11, which provides insight into earnings for the first quarter of 2022 relative to our fourth quarter results.
Pre-tax adjusted operating income in the fourth quarter was $1.6 billion and resulted in earnings per share of $3.18 on an after-tax basis.
To get a sense for all our first quarter results might develop, we suggest adjustments for the following items: first, variable investment income outperformed expectations in the fourth quarter by $440 million.
Next, we adjust underwriting experience by a net $90 million.
This adjustment includes a placeholder for COVID-19's claims experience in the first quarter of $195 million, assuming 75,000 COVID-19-related fatalities in the U.S. While we have provided this placeholder for COVID-related claims experience, the actual impact will depend on a variety of factors such as infection and fatality rates, geographic and demographic mix and the effectiveness of vaccines.
Third, we expect seasonal expenses and other items will be lower in the first quarter by $105 million.
Fourth, we anticipate net investment income will be reduced by about $10 million, reflecting the difference between new money rates and disposition yields of our investment portfolio.
And last, we expect the first quarter effective tax rate to normalize.
These items combined get us to a baseline of $2.73 per share for the first quarter.
I'll note that if you exclude items specific to the first quarter, earnings per share would be $3.17.
The key takeaway is that the underlying earnings power per share continues to improve and has increased 9% over the last year, driven by business growth, the benefits of our cost savings program, capital management and market appreciation.
While we have provided these items to consider, please note there may be other factors that affect earnings per share in the first quarter.
As we look forward, we have also included seasonal and other considerations for 2022 in the appendix.
Turning to Slide 12.
We continue to maintain a robust capital position and adequate sources of funding.
Our capital position continues to support a AA financial strength rating and we have substantial sources of funding.
Our cash and liquid assets were $3.6 billion and within our $3 billion to $5 billion liquidity target range and other sources of funds include free cash flow from our businesses and contingent capital facilities.
Turning to Slide 13 and in summary, we are executing on our plans to reposition our businesses and we are on track to achieve our targeted cost savings.
And with the support of our rock-solid balance sheet, we are thoughtfully deploying capital.

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prudential financial q4 adjusted operating earnings per share $3.18.
q4 adjusted operating earnings per share $3.18.
q4 earnings per share $3.13.

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