Good afternoon. I'm glad you're all here. I'd now like to call the meeting to order. I'm Liam McGee, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of The Hartford. Don Hunt, the company's corporate secretary, will act as secretary of the meeting, and I will preside. Mr. Greg Denman, a representative of Broadridge, will act as Inspector of Elections. Welcome, Mr. Denman. He's already taken his inspector's oath and reported that we do have a quorum. The annual meeting of the shareholders of The Hartford is now convened. This afternoon, you will consider and vote on the 3 proposals listed in the proxy statement. After which, I'll provide you with a brief update on The Hartford, and then we'll open the floor to your questions. Each shareholder should have received a program that includes an agenda and rules of procedure for this meeting.
We'll conduct the meeting according to the agenda and those rules. Before we begin, I'd like to introduce the members of the company's board of directors, each of whom is standing for election at this annual meeting. I'd certainly invite our nominees to please stand when I call their names. Robert B. Allardice III, Trevor Fetter, Paul G. Kirk Jr., Kathryn A. Mikells, Michael G. Morris, Thomas A. Renyi, Charles B. Strauss, H. Patrick Swygert, and myself, Liam E. McGee. Thank you to our directors, and please feel free to take your seats. On a personal note, The Hartford team and I thank you for your invaluable wisdom and guidance during a journey of strategic transformation and execution. I'd also like to acknowledge the members of The Hartford executive leadership team, as well as representatives of Deloitte & Touche, the company's independent auditor.
Now we'll move to the formal part of the meeting and consider and vote on the proposals included in the proxy statement. After I read each proposal, shareholders or shareholder representatives who wish to address the item presented should raise their hands, and microphones will be brought to you. Before speaking, please identify yourself as a shareholder or a shareholder representative, and please state your name. Before I read the first proposal, I want to note that the list of shareholders entitled to vote at this meeting is available for examination. As set forth in the proxy statement, there are 3 items to be acted upon at this meeting. We have not received advance notice of any other matters or nominations to be considered, and that is as required under the company's bylaws. No other items will be taken up.
The first matter to be acted upon is to vote on each of the 9 director candidates introduced earlier, all of whom were identified in the proxy statement. Are there any questions regarding the nominees for election as directors? The second matter to be considered is the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2013. Are there any shareholder comments or questions regarding this matter? The third matter to be considered is a board proposal to approve on a non-binding advisory basis the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement. Are there any shareholder comments or questions regarding this matter? I now declare the polls open for voting.
Any shareholder who has already voted need not vote again unless you want to change the vote represented on your proxy. If any shareholder wants to vote by ballot and has not already received a ballot, please raise your hand and one will be brought to you. As all shareholders have had an opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls closed and ask the Inspector of Elections to provide the results of the shareholder voting.
The Inspector of Elections has tabulated the votes cast, and based on that report, I declare as follows. First, the number of shares voted for each of the nine persons nominated for election as a director exceeds the number of shares voted against, and therefore, all those nominated have been elected directors of the company. Second, the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2013, received a majority of the votes cast and is therefore ratified. Third, the board's proposal to approve on a non-binding advisory basis the compensation of the named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement has been approved by a majority of the votes cast. Accordingly, this proposal has been approved.
Thank you, Mr. Hunt. This concludes the business portion of the meeting. I'll spend the next few minutes talking about The Hartford, which in important ways is a new company, sharply focused and positioned for profitable growth with a significantly reduced risk profile. Since I'll be making some statements that should be considered forward-looking and discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures, please do note the information on this slide. The Hartford entered 2013 as a leading property and casualty company with a major group benefits business, top performing mutual funds, and an annuity runoff operation, which we refer to as Talcott Resolution, that is now capital self-sufficient. The Hartford has made significant progress executing the strategy we announced in March of 2013.
The essence of that strategy is to build greater financial strength and flexibility, focus and profitably grow our business portfolio, reduce the size and risk of The Hartford's annuity exposure, and transform into a more effective, customer-focused, and efficient company, all with the goal of delivering superior financial returns to our shareholders. Here's a very quick look at how we're executing the strategy. First, The Hartford's property and casualty group benefits and mutual funds businesses all have distinct and competitive market positions in which we're investing to drive profitable growth. These businesses also have strong capital generating ability and lower aggregate sensitivity to market fluctuations. As we reported in The Hartford's first quarter results, our go-forward businesses delivered year-over-year core earnings growth of 19%, underscoring how well their management teams have been executing plans to improve profitability.
Second, along with our sharper business focus, we've been working successfully to reduce the size and risk of the company's legacy annuity portfolio while maximizing shareholder value. Last month, we announced that The Hartford has significantly improved the risk profile of this business by taking advantage of favorable market conditions with an expanded hedging program. Importantly, as a result, Talcott Resolution operations are now capital self-sufficient and will not require additional capital support from other parts of the company, even in stress scenarios. This enables us to use excess capital generated by the businesses for potential capital management actions and investment in our business portfolio. The third part of our strategy is to transform The Hartford, which means driving profitable growth and making the company work better.
To drive profitable growth, the company is investing $1.4 billion over four years to build new capabilities, such as a broader product suite and a more agile and scalable IT infrastructure. We've also advanced our transformation by completing and closing the sale of the three life businesses in January of this year. These transactions, as you know, generated a material statutory capital benefit. In the first quarter, we announced a $1.5 billion capital management plan that will be accretive to shareholders and includes reducing outstanding debt by about $1 billion by the end of 2014, as well as a $500 million share repurchase program, under which we expect to buy back about $100 million of shares per quarter. Given the company's strong capital margins, increased capital generation, and improved financial flexibility, we are now developing the next phase of The Hartford's 2013 and 2014 capital management plans.
As part of building The Hartford, we're also enhancing our performance culture and have defined and communicated a long-term vision for the company, which is The Hartford will be an exceptional company, celebrated for financial performance, character, and customer value. I'm pleased that investors have acknowledged The Hartford's continuing progress. In 2013, The Hartford delivered a total shareholder return of 41%. Through yesterday's market close, we've achieved a total shareholder return of 37% so far this year. I am grateful to be working with such a talented team of executive leaders that I introduced earlier. They're my partners in driving the company toward profitable growth and creating shareholder value. I know they join me in especially wanting to thank The Hartford's nearly 20,000 teammates for working so hard and with such passion to successfully execute the company strategy.
I continue to be touched by their affection, and quite frankly, their love for this company and their dedication to customers, partners, communities, and one another. We're proud of how much The Hartford has accomplished while realistic about the work still ahead. We are striving to improve every part of the enterprise and complete our strategic transformation. I am optimistic about the future and confident that we have the talent, resources, as well as the commitment to move us forward as a high-performing company that can generate superior financial returns for our shareholders. Thank you very much for your attention, and I'll now open the floor for general questions. As a reminder, if you have a question, please raise your hand and we'll bring a microphone to you. Also, please state your name and identify yourself as a shareholder or shareholder representative.
It's now my pleasure to take your questions. Okay, not seeing any questions. I thank all of you for attending. I thank you very much for your interest and support of The Hartford, and have a good day.