Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rick Williams.
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to the 2016 annual meeting of stockholders of Primerica. The board has appointed Jim Hagan to act as our inspector of elections. Mr. Hagan, please stand. At this time, I am pleased to introduce our directors. Please stand as I call your name and remain standing until all directors are introduced. John Addison, the chairman of Primerica Distribution. Joel Babbit, co-founder and chief executive officer of Narrative Content Group. George Benson, former president of the College of Charleston and our lead director. Gary Crittenden, a managing partner and the chairman of HGGC. Cynthia Day, the president and CEO of Citizens Bancshares Corporation and Citizens Trust Bank. Bob McCullough, a retired senior partner of Invesco and a former partner of Arthur Andersen. Beatriz Perez, the chief sustainability officer of The Coca-Cola Company. Glenn Williams, the company's chief executive officer.
Barbara Yastine, the co-chief executive officer of Lebenthal Holdings. Mark Mason, the chief financial officer of the Institutional Clients Group of Citigroup, who was unable to be with us today. Please be seated. Seated to my left is Stacey Geer, executive vice president, deputy general counsel, chief governance officer, and corporate secretary of the company, who will act as secretary of this meeting. I would also like to introduce our other senior executives who are with us today. Peter Schneider, our president. Greg Pitts, our executive vice president and chief operating officer. Alison Rand, our executive vice president and chief financial officer. Thank you. At this time, I am also pleased to introduce Rob Evans of our independent registered public accounting firm, KPMG.
The Inspector of Elections has reported that holders of at least 92% of the outstanding shares of common stock as of the record date are present in person or represented by proxy. A quorum is present, and the meeting is duly convened. Each of you were provided with a copy of the agenda and procedures for conducting today's meeting. If you did not receive one, please raise your hand and you will be provided with a copy. According to Ms. Geer, notice of the meeting was distributed on or about April 5th, 2016, to all stockholders of record on March 23rd, 2016. A list of all stockholders of record as of that day is available for inspection by stockholders at any time during the meeting. There are three matters for consideration today. These matters are listed in the notice of annual meeting that is attached to the proxy statement.
Under our bylaws, certain procedures must be followed for director nominations and other business proposals to be brought before the meeting. No nominations or other proposals have been received other than those described in the proxy statement. Therefore, nominations for directors are closed, and no proposal other than those described in the proxy statement may come before the meeting. Only holders of the common stock on March 23rd, 2016, the record date for this meeting, or persons holding a valid proxy for such shares, may address this meeting. If you are a record holder and you have voted by proxy, you do not need to complete a ballot in person at this meeting.
If you wish to revoke a proxy previously submitted and vote in person, or if you have not previously submitted a proxy and wish to vote in person, please raise your hand and a ballot will be brought to you. It is now 10:05 A.M. The polls are now open for anyone who wants to cast a vote or change an earlier vote. The stockholders will consider the proposal in our proxy statement to elect 11 directors to serve until the annual stockholders meeting in 2017. Information about each nominee is contained in the proxy statement, along with the recommendation of the board for the election of our 11 nominees. Is there any discussion on this slate of directors? Please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. I see there are no questions at this time.
The stockholders will consider the proposal in our proxy statement to reapprove the material terms of performance-based compensation under the Amended and Restated Primerica 2010 Omnibus Incentive Plan. Information about this proposal is contained in the proxy statement, along with the recommendations of the board for reapproval. Is there any discussion on this proposal? Please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. I see there are no questions at this time. The final item of business is consideration of a proposal to ratify the appointment by the Audit Committee of KPMG as the company's independent registered public accounting firm to audit the financial statements, books, and records of the company for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2016. Mr. Evans of KPMG is available to answer questions. Is there any discussion on this proposal? Please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you.
I see there are no questions at this time. If you have not yet returned your ballot, please mark your ballot and hold it up so that it may be picked up by one of the attendants. I hereby declare the polls on the matters presented at this meeting are now closed as of 10:08 A.M. today. The proxies will be held in the possession of the Inspector of Elections. The Inspector of Elections will now count the votes. Glenn Williams, our Chief Executive Officer, will now come up and make a few remarks.
Thank you, Rick, good morning, everyone. 2015 was an outstanding year for Primerica, and our momentum has continued into 2016. Our field force and home office teams have combined to successfully grow distribution, which positions us to continue to increase long-term earnings. On the first slide, titled Sales Force Highlights, you get a view of our four-year growth trend of our sales force, and you can see we ended 2015 with a life insurance sales force size of 106,710, up 8% from 2014, and our mutual fund sales force just under 24,000, up 5% from 2014. In the first quarter of 2016, that growth continued as our life license sales force was up 10% versus the end of the first quarter of 2015, and ended the quarter at 108,220. Our mutual fund sales force continued growing as well.
On the next slide, entitled Business Highlights, you can see that in 2015, we continued to grow both our term insurance in force as well as our investment and savings product sales and assets. You can see that in the charts at the top of the page. In addition, we had an 18% increase in term life insurance policies issued in 2015 versus 2014. We also had a 3% increase in our investment and savings product sales in 2015, and it was our largest year of ISP sales in the history of the company. Life policies issued in the first quarter of 2016 were up 19% from the first quarter of 2015, so our momentum continues there as well.
On the next slide, entitled Capital Deployment Highlights, you can see that in addition to sales force growth, and increased production, another strength of Primerica is our ability to generate and deploy capital to drive shareholder value. On the slide, you can see that we increased quarterly stockholder dividends to $0.16 per share in 2015, and we further increased the stockholder dividend in the first quarter of this year to $0.17 per share. We also repurchased $200 million of stock in 2015, and our plan is to deploy capital of approximately $150 million in 2016 in addition to shareholder dividends. We have completed approximately $50 million of stock repurchases in the first quarter of this year. The next slide has some additional financial highlights. You can see on the left side that we've experienced a 16% annualized growth rate in operating EPS over the last five years.
On the chart on the right, you can see that in 2015, net operating income, return on adjusted equity, our ROAE, was at 16.9%, up 160 basis points over 2014. On a recent earnings call, we said we expect ROAE to continue to expand to around 18% for the full year of 2016. On the next slide, entitled Primerica Total Stockholder Return, you can see that we have a 105% five-year total stockholder return ending 12/31/2015, which significantly outpaces the Standard & Poor's 500. While uncertainty surrounding the DOL's fiduciary rule pressured stock in 2015, now that the rule is final, we believe it provides more time and more options, giving us flexibility to adapt to the rule. As of yesterday's close, year to date in 2016, our stock price is up 11% versus the Standard & Poor's 500, which is flat year to date.
As we look forward, we believe our financial strength and our solid business model will continue to deliver strong results to our shareholders. Our dedicated team of field and home office leaders continue to execute against our objectives, our business has never been stronger. With over 108,000 insurance licensed representatives and nearly 24,000 mutual fund licensed reps, we're ideally positioned to meet the financial needs of Main Street North America. We're proud of our accomplishments in 2015 and look forward to additional success in 2016 and beyond. Thank you for your continued confidence in Primerica.
Thank you, Glenn. We will now report on the results of the voting. Ms. Geer, do you have the preliminary report of the inspector?
Yes, I do. The inspector reports that more than 98% of the votes cast at this meeting have been voted for the election of each of the 11 directors recommended and nominated. Approximately 91% of the votes cast at this meeting have been voted for the reapproval of the material terms of performance-based compensation under the Omnibus Incentive Plan. Approximately 99% of the votes cast at this meeting have been voted for the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2016 fiscal year. The inspector will furnish to the secretary a written report of the final vote count with respect to these matters, which shall be included in the minutes of this meeting.
Final results, including the results for each director nominee, will be included in a Form 8-K filed with the SEC within four business days, it will be posted on our investor relations website.
Thank you, Ms. Geer. I declare the report of the inspectors is approved, and that based on the preliminary results, the nominees for directors have been duly elected, material terms of performance-based compensation under the Omnibus Incentive Plan have been reapproved, and the appointment of KPMG has been ratified. Glenn and I will now begin the question and answer period. Glenn, please join me at the podium. If you are a stockholder and wish to ask a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. Please state your name, the number of shares you own, or for which you hold a valid proxy. If you represent an institutional investor, please also state the name of your firm. Please adhere to the two-minute time period and limit of two questions per stockholder, as described in the meeting procedures as a courtesy to all present.
If there are no questions, I would like to again thank you for your support and continued confidence in Primerica. Is there a motion for adjournment? You have heard the motion. A second?
Second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
All opposed say no. The motion is carried. I hereby declare the 2016 annual meeting of stockholders of Primerica adjourned. Thank you.