Good morning. My name is Kevin Kabat. I'm chairman of the Board of Directors of Unum Group. On behalf of the entire board, I'd like to welcome you all to our 2019 annual meeting of shareholders. We're pleased to see all of you here in Portland, Maine, and also welcome those joining us on the webcast. Our agenda for today includes the business portion of the meeting and management presentation by our CEO, Rick McKenney, as well as dedicated Q&A session. Please hold your questions until that time. By most measures, 2018 was a solid year for Unum. We delivered strong operational and financial results and steady growth across our core businesses. We achieved these results by remaining focused on what we do best, providing benefits that protect the livelihoods of workers and their families throughout the U.S. and the U.K.
In short, we've built a business model that allows us to thrive despite an ever-changing external environment. We're an integral part of the safety net of more than 36 million people. Our disciplined approach to running our business is why people have counted on us for over 170 years. Clearly, none of this would be possible without the dedication and commitment of Unum's outstanding employees, as well as the leadership of both the senior management team and the Board of Directors, both past and present. On that note, I would like to introduce our board. Before going through the current nominees, I'd like to take a moment to recognize a few guests here with us today. Looking for them now. With us today is a person who retired from our board in 2014. He was a significant contributor. Mike Passarella is with us.
Michael, we're thrilled that you're here. Stand up. Be acknowledged. Additionally, we have Malcolm McCaig and Clifton Melvin, who are members of our Unum UK subsidiary Board of Directors. Malcolm and Clifton, please stand up and be acknowledged. Thank you for making the trip over. It's just a short hop from here, right? For our current director nominees. In addition to myself, the director nominees are as follows. I'll ask that they please stand and remain standing as I read their names. Theo Bunting, former Group President of Utility Operations of Entergy Corporation. Susan Cross, former Executive Vice President and Global Chief Actuary at XL Group. Susan is our newest director. This is actually her first annual meeting with Unum, so welcome. Susan D. DeVore, President and CEO of Premier, Inc. Joe Echevarria, former CEO of Deloitte LLP. Cynthia Egan, former President of T.
Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services. Timothy F. Keaney, former Vice Chairman of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Gloria C. Larson, President in Residence at Harvard Graduate School of Education and former President of Bentley University. Richard P. McKenney, President and CEO of Unum Group. Ronald P. O'Hanley, President and CEO of State Street Corporation. Fran Shammo, former CFO of Verizon Communications. Thank you. You may sit down. I would also like to recognize one other director. He noticed that I skipped him in introducing you all. E. Michael Caulfield. Please, Michael, stand up. Mike will be retiring from our board today. Mr. Caulfield has served the company and its shareholders for the last 12 years, including serving as the chair of the Audit Committee for several of those. His insight and experience have always been appreciated. We're thankful for his valuable contributions and dedication.
Michael has been a tremendous contributor to this organization's success. I would like him to please be recognized for his long service to the company. I'd like to call the meeting to order now. Polls are open for voting on the items of business. I've asked Lisa G. Iglesias, our General Counsel, to assist with conducting this meeting and to serve as parliamentarian. Lisa?
Thank you, Kevin. I'd like to remind everyone that the annual meeting rules are printed on the back of the agenda for this meeting, which was made available to you at the registration desk when you entered. Later, I'll highlight some of those rules before we take questions from shareholders at the end of today's presentation. A representative of our transfer agent, Computershare Trust Company, N.A., is present and serving as the Inspector of Election. Any shareholder who has not already voted in person or by proxy is invited to do so now. If you need a ballot, please raise your hand and we will give one to you. Ballot request there. If you're voting in person, please deliver your completed ballot to the Inspector of Election at our desk prior to the conclusion of this meeting.
If you hold your shares in street name and wish to vote, you must submit the legal proxy provided to you by your broker with the ballot. At this time, I'd like to present an affidavit establishing that notice of this meeting was duly given and a proxy statement or notice of internet availability of proxy materials was furnished on or about April 11th, 2019, to each of our shareholders of record as of the record date of March 25th, 2019. I also report that the Inspector of Election has filed with me an oath of office and certificate stating that a majority of outstanding shares of common stock of the company are represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. Therefore, a quorum is present. Now on to the voting items. We have three voting items to cover today.
We have the preliminary results from the Inspector of Election, which I will also provide today. Voting item one is the election of 11 director nominees listed in our proxy statement. I can confirm that there were no other nominations made in accordance with our bylaws. The Inspector of Election reports that each of the 11 director nominees has been elected by more than a majority of the total number of votes cast. Item two is the advisory vote on executive compensation, commonly known as say on pay. The Inspector of Election reports that the say on pay resolution was approved by more than a majority of the shares represented and entitled to vote at this meeting. Our final voting item is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditor for 2019.
The Inspector of Election reports that the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent auditor was ratified by more than a majority of the shares represented and entitled to vote at this meeting. I'd ask that the representatives of Ernst & Young LLP who are here with us today, Mark Thomas, Phil Moore, and Sean Devine, to please stand. Thank you. They are prepared to answer any relevant questions you may have during the question and answer period. We will publish the final vote results on Form 8-K within four business days after the Inspector of Election certifies the final vote results. The final results will include any shares properly voted in person at this meeting. If you're voting in person today and have not already submitted your completed ballot to the Inspector of Election, please raise your hand and we will collect it.
Kevin, that completes my report.
Thank you, Lisa. The polls are now closed. This now concludes the business portion of today's meeting, and the annual meeting of shareholders of Unum Group is now adjourned. For the next agenda item, our management report, I'll turn things over to our President Chief Executive Officer, Rick McKenney. Rick?
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning to everybody here in Portland. It's good to be here in Portland, a nice sunny day. Also, to the people on our webcast, we have a great story to tell for the company overall. We are now halfway through 2019. Much of this discussion does relate back to 2018, but wanted to let everyone know that we continue to do the things that we've been doing so well for so many years, and I want to take you through some of that today, both on how the company's running, but how we're behaving and what the culture of the company continues to deliver. Let me start, just talk a little bit about 2018 in review. 2018 was an eventful year for the company.
If you look at the results that we have, growing 20% earnings per share, watching our revenues continue to grow around 5%, book value per share growing to $44 in a year where we actually increased the reserves on our LTC business are tremendous results. I'd also take you to the right-hand side of the page. We're a company generating returns on equity in our core operations of almost 18% and overall for the company, just over 13%. When you look at those results, you think about a company that's performing, running on all cylinders, doing a great job serving our customers, doing a great job serving our shareholders as well. In 2018, that was the case. Our financial results were tremendous. Strong operating results, strong financial results, returning money to our shareholders, both in the form of share repurchase and dividends, almost $560 million last year.
The reality is 2018 was overshadowed by some changes that happened in the marketplace, both from a perception perspective around our long-term care business, true of the industry, not just of us, as well as the market volatility that we saw in the second half of the year related to the life sector. We did not see our shares perform in the way that we would've expected, given those tremendous results that I talked to you about on the first page. Our goal in 2019 is to continue to maintain focus on driving good results, growing our invest base of customers, as well as continuing to grow the company and generating those same returns. We are focused on the same mission, serving the same customers with the same purpose that we have had for many years.
This morning, we also announced that we're increasing our dividend 9.6%, almost 10%. That is on a series of years with double-digit increases we have seen in our dividends, returning that money to shareholders over time. Share repurchases have been very consistent over the last several years. We repurchased another $100 million in the first quarter, so we have the balance of serving our customers, high returns, as well as returning that money to shareholders over time. As a result, 2019 has seen better market performance. This is a long-term game that we're playing in, and we want to make sure that we're continuing to drive that long-term investor shareholder performance, and we'll continue to run the company in the same way. Why do I feel so optimistic about our ability to deliver on that front is our strategic positioning.
When you think of the company today, where we stand from a brand perspective, and when I say brand here, it's about the people and the decision-makers that know our company, the human resource departments, the leaders of companies making the decision on how to protect their people. We have a tremendous brand, and part of that's because of the leading offerings we have, leading ways that we protect their employees. It's all we do day in and day out, and we as a company are very proud to do so. It is because we are focused on distribution at the workplace. When I say distribution, this is about protecting people at their place of work. In the U.S., that is a very common practice. In the U.K. it is as well, and now we're excited to bring that to a new market in Poland as well.
It's the workplace where people can actually protect themselves and their family, get the right education around what they need to know about it, and actually do so at a very reasonable cost to make sure they take care of themselves. That's expanding into new areas of protection, things like leave management, things that are so important to the folks in our company as well as in the country, we'll continue to do that. Those positions and our financial strength really capitalize our ability to grow the company to protect more people over time, something we've been doing for several years. We'll continue to do so as we look to the future. Those leading market positions come with the focus and the history we've had in the company of only serving customers at the workplace and doing so in an excellent way.
We'll talk a little bit more about that. When you think about the place where we operate, the need for what we do continues to grow. The gaps continue to expand. The needs of individuals in the middle class in our country happen at the workplace as well. You see unemployment rates out there, which are lower and lower today, but we have gaps that form of people in the workforce. When you're at the workplace today, you still have gaps forming in the reality in the marketplace. If you think about the working force, people are living paycheck to paycheck. They're trying to make do. In the event that something happens to them, negative in their life, some difficulty they run into, they can't make those ends meet. That's where we come in, making sure that we're there.
You combine that with the fact that one in four people will become disabled in their working lifetime, a fact that most people underestimate in themselves. We as a company know that's the reality, making sure that we're there for people to bridge to that next paycheck, to bridge to the course of the year, and make sure they can focus on their own well-being is what we do best. A new world that's emerging is also in leave management. One in 10 people will be out on leave through FMLA. We think it's good for employers to be good at serving their people on that front.
It makes for a more productive workforce, it makes people more engaged with their employer, ultimately makes for more people that are able to take care of their families and deal with situations in life that they don't have to bring those into work with them. They can do it. It's something we're really excited about. We've got a strong history here, we see the leave management business really growing. When you put that into context of what we do today and who we protect, we're very proud to take care of 38 million workers and their families. Something that we've done every year. Last year, with the growth that we see, we bring in roughly 1 million new customers every year. We want to continue to do that to protect more people. 318,000 people we helped get back to work.
These are people that are going through a difficult time in their lives. Yes, they will get medical care from their doctors, but we're about making sure that they return to the life that they knew and appreciated and getting them back to work. In doing so, we have 200,000 companies here across the U.S. and the U.K. that we're helping to make that connection between employers and employees and making sure that bond is strong, and we want to be part of that glue. Then ultimately, financially, we put out over $7 billion to individuals in that time of need. These are small paychecks. These are paychecks that help people to bridge to the next payroll, to pay the food bills, to do the things that we think about every day. We want to be that person that's helping do that.
You get a little bit lost in the numbers. What I wanted to do today is take it to the human element of what individuals are going through. It's not just about the paycheck. In fact, that's the smallest piece of it. It's how do you take them on that emotional journey that they're going through at time of need, and we here at Unum and at Colonial Life do an exceptional job at that. Across these three attributes, which the company here is focused on, expertise, empathy, and simplicity. First, it's better to put quotes up there. I could talk about it, but let's hear from our customers and what they're doing and what we do. Expertise, known in the business. We give tips, we give materials, we take people through that journey, as you can see in the first quote.
Our representatives are outstanding in answering questions. We take the time to make sure we're educating and not just actually facilitating, and our teams do a good job. Then lastly, we expect the expertise. The people on our job, they know what they're doing, they love what they do, and they help take care of people. That expertise is something we here at Unum have that no other company has out there and something that we take great pride in. Second, empathy. In an increasingly impersonal world, the empathy that we bring to our customers is probably the most important. When you're on the other end of that phone, you need to put yourself in that other person's shoes, because nobody else is really doing that in people's lives today, particularly when they're going through time of need.
We make sure that we are empathy on the other side of the phone or connection that we may have with an individual out there and making sure that someone is out there caring for these individuals at time of need. If you ever have the opportunity to hear some of these calls that our teams go through in the contact centers, the people that are going through that claims management, this is a need that we fill that others don't fill. We think that creates the glue to that individual and ultimately to their employer and makes us continue to be able to serve more and more people. We're very excited about that, and I think the last quote is one that we're very proud of. We make people feel like they belong to the human race.
In an impersonal world, you can't underestimate how empathy combined with delivery makes all the difference. We also have to make sure that we're simple. Empathy and simplicity go hand in hand. As people want to be interactive with today, it needs to be done in a seamless way, working with an employer, working with our distribution partner, working with the customer, so that day in and day out, that actually happens in a very seamless way. You can see the excitement that our customers have today. This world for us is changing. We are getting much better at simplicity and working through the process we have today. Where that comes from is being able to expand our reach into different areas. First I'll start with geography. I'm very excited.
Our acquisition we had in Poland, very happy to have I'm going to go for it, Aneta. Aneta Podsiadly-Michalek has joined us today here in Portland. I would tell you that my Polish is 100% better than it was. Then thinking about our Colonial Life business and territory expansion we have today. Expanding our reach. This is about getting to more people. This is different ways to protect people. The things that we love as a company to do, finding, getting to more people, and protecting them at time of need. If you look at protection side, it's also filling out the portfolio. Our dental business, we started from zero a couple of years ago. We're starting to approach top 10 provider status in the industry today. We're very excited about where that business can go, about those overall protections.
We've always been very good at some of the more difficult things, but we want to make sure we're taking care of people at every step so that employers don't have to worry about that. Unum has got them covered. The last piece I'd mention on the services side, LeaveLogic. I mentioned the leave business. HR Connect, these are about connection points with our customers that are changing, that are becoming digital, that are very exciting about what we have out there today to reach more people in a seamless way, provide them more advice, and do so on a very rapid basis. I'm very excited about the new things that we're doing. There'll be more to this list. We aren't stopping here. There are new, exciting things that we've got in the pipeline. We look forward to bringing them out to our customers.
In an increasingly digital world, we have to go through that same digital transformation. It's something I talked about, the simplicity, the expertise, the empathy. We've got all those. People want to be reached differently today. When you think about our digital transformation we're going through, we're on a very rapid pace to deal across these four dimensions. It's not just about one or the other. It's not either digital or empathy, it's a combination of the two, and making sure we can reach people the way they want to be reached, when they want to be reached, and how they want to be reached, and that's an important attribute for the company.
Of course, this digital transformation we go through should make us much more efficient, eliminating the paper, eliminating the internal processes that keep us disconnected from our customer. How do you bring that together in a seamless digital way? The ecosystem expansion, HR Connect, which I mentioned on the previous page. Very exciting how we connect direct through to customers, through how they're being accessed at work, and we think there's great opportunity there. The last thing when we embark on what is the growth platform? How can we reach more people in a way that they want to be reached, more direct to them as they interact with us today, getting more information, taking care of their protections.
Digital transformation is something that we've been on this pace here for several years, and we're very excited that these things are starting to pay off, starting to change how we interface with other customers, and we're very excited about the digital transformation we're going through. You take it back to who we are and what we do. Sitting here in Portland today, if you think about the engagement that we have in our communities here in Portland, in Chattanooga, Columbia, South Carolina, Worcester, Mass., we are above and beyond engaged in our communities, and we want to make sure that we're continuing to do that. That goes inside these walls and outside these walls, and making sure that we're doing the right thing internally and connecting with our communities in the right way.
That all helps us to make sure that we have a better place to work so that we can serve more people. It's ultimately about the end consumer and making sure that corporate responsibility creates a beacon for all of us here to make sure we're serving people well. The last thing I'd mention is we're elevating our transparency and our discussion around ESG. We do a very good job of it today, but we are fairly humble in terms of how we deal with that. We want to make sure people understand where we stand socially, understand what our governance looks like, which is best in class, understand where we do on the environment. We're going to elevate our game here in the next couple of years to really just talk about what we've always been doing for many years.
I'm excited to be able to bring that out to our investors over the next several years. It does come back to our communities, and I just wanted to highlight some of these numbers. People here in the room, listening on the phone in our communities, we make a difference in our communities, and we take great pride in what we do, both from a treasure perspective, $13 million that we've given to our communities today, and the volunteer hours. When you take those two together, not one in isolation, it is a powerful one-two punch. We have impact in our communities that we're very proud of, and I want to thank all of our employees who spend that time, the extra time, outside of work, make Unum a better place, and make our communities a better place.
Some of the things that we're going through as well is not just about the external world and our customers, it's about our employees as well. We are a people business. Whereas we're serving our employees, we need to make sure that our employees are engaged, that everybody is taken care of, and that they can be taken care of here so they can take care of the customer on the other end of the phone. We're going through some very exciting change around some of our own benefits that we offer to our employees. Last year we actually entered into paid family leave. It's something we did starting in the fall. Very excited that we are now offering 6 weeks of paternity and maternity benefits in the birth of a child or adoption or foster care.
So far to date, we've had 140 people take us up on that offer, and 70 dads have now gone on and taken their 6 weeks of paternity leave. It's a new thing. I can't tell you how great it's been to drive the engagement of our company for both moms and dads as they've gone through that process, and that's just the start. We're very excited about all of our health and wellbeing programs. If you're here in Portland or in other campuses, we've also transformed our workplace. I say that in a physical way, those of you that are on the webcast.
Changing how we operate, making it much more collaborative in what we do, much more modern, and making sure our employees come to work every day proud of the space that they're in, proud of their ability to collaborate with other individuals and take advantage of that. A very exciting, dynamic workforce that goes hand in hand with taking good care of our customers, hand in hand as well as making sure that we are transforming the company in a digital way. Lastly, I want to talk about inclusion and diversity, which is critical to our company. It's not just because it's the right thing to do, because it absolutely is. It makes us a better company in how we serve our customers.
Our customers, the 38 million of them, come from all different places across this country and all different companies and all different types of places. We need to make sure that we're serving them in the best way we know how. That's why we have to make sure that our inclusivity, we're taking those best ideas from everywhere we get in the company to generate those and deliver them to our customers. It is a customer imperative that it brings to it. I would also tell you it's important to all of our employees that they feel that they are engaged and brought together and brought those best ideas. It's very exciting about what we've done, what we've changed.
We've always been a good company with a big heart, but now we're going to be very vocal about it and change our processes and how we operate through inclusion and diversity. Critical to our future as a company and where we are today. We actually added Wade Hinton as a vice president of diversity and inclusion, or inclusion and diversity. We keep changing it around because inclusivity is so critical to what we're doing today. I would also thank the over, I think it's up to over 1,000 people now that are in our ERGs, that is grassroots effort saying, "I want to help change this." It's not a top-down thing, it's a bottoms-up employee change, and it's so exciting, the engagement we have across the company.
You have those commitments at all levels, from senior management down to everybody in the organization that can affect the change we're going through. It's a very exciting time across inclusion and diversity. Not that we do it for the external recognition, but we get external recognition. I want our teams to be proud of that the hard work that they do not only makes for a better workplace here, makes it better for our customers, but is also being recognized by the external world that we are leading on this front, and we will continue to lead from an inclusivity and diversity. Let me just wrap up and talk about the pillars that I talked about. We're a company that's in a great spot. The positions that we have today, we will continue to lead in serving our customers across the globe.
Our relationships with our broker partners, our brand, with our distribution partners everywhere, incredibly strong. The foundation we have, our financial results, allow us to do what we need to do to continue to grow the company. The reality is we are a people business. We are one to one, and I think it's so critical that we take good care of our employees as well because they will serve our customers even better. I wanted to end on one note to talk about some senior changes that we announced last night in the organization. We've gone through a process, as we do at all levels of our company, of good succession planning. How do we develop the next generation of leaders that we go through?
Last night, we were very excited to announce that Jack. We weren't excited that Jack's retiring, but we're excited that we have a great transition process. As Jack has chosen to retire, that we have Steve Zabel here nobly take on his CFO ranks. The two of them are here today. I'd like them both to please stand and be recognized for the great work they've done, a great succession process. We'll spend more time with Jack to celebrate his many accomplishments. Greater than 30 years he's been in the company. He has touched and had a hand in every part of this company. I will miss Jack greatly. I will miss him in the C-suite. His good humor and everything else that goes along with Jack McGarry will be missed.
We'll keep moving on, and I think that that's a tribute to Jack as well, that he has actually developed a top-notch finance team, a top-notch leadership team in all the places he's touched in this company, and that's what it's about, is how we actually take that on and have a multigenerational learn. Jack, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done for the company.
Thank you.
Before I go to questions, I'd like to thank the rest of our employee base as well, across the many locations that are listening in. It all happens because of you, very excited to continue to lead this company through different challenges, different opportunities, I'm very excited what we have in 2019 and beyond. Thank you very much. I'd now like to open up the floor to any questions and answers we have. We have people in the room with microphones. They could ask any questions.
Sure. First, Rick, I'll walk through the process with everyone.
Sure.
If you wish to ask a question, please raise your hand and a microphone will be brought to you. Please speak directly into the microphone so that everyone can hear you on the webcast. We ask that you begin by stating your name and confirming that you're a shareholder. Shareholders' comments must be limited to proper matters, and they may not exceed three minutes in length. Inappropriate matters include, but are not limited to, matters that are in litigation, personal grievances, and individual claim matters. Thank you for your cooperation. If there are any questions from the floor, we will take them. We've also had one question that was submitted from a shareholder in the room in advance, I'll read that for you, Rick.
Sure.
The question is: Unum seems to have high salaries. Why are the stock dividends so low then? Could salaries be cut a little bit to pass some of that money on to stockholders?
Okay. Let me take that into two parts. One is on the salary front. In terms of that, I mentioned in my opening, in my comments, that salaries and people are our business. It's going to be very important that we have good competitive wages, a good opportunity. We won't sacrifice on that front, so I'd like to bifurcate those two discussions because we want to make sure we are a best-in-class employer. Salary is part of that. Many other things that we bring as well to part of the employee engagement and employee opportunity. Salaries, we won't sacrifice on that front. Second piece is the dividends, I think that that's an appropriate question given we actually raised our dividend this morning by just under 10%. If you think about our dividend rate, it's actually doubled over the last probably seven to eight years.
We've doubled the level of dividends. We think it's important to return money to shareholders, and we'll continue to do so, but we do that in concert. I would take those two apart. I'd put them back together and say people are our business. We believe very much that returning our excess capital to shareholders is part of what we do, I think those two can work very well in concert.
Yeah.
Morning.
Good morning.
I would direct this question to Cynthia Egan and the Compensation Committee. My name is Denny Gallaudet. I live in Carmel in Maine. I own 6,400 shares, and I'm a new shareholder, having purchased my shares last fall at what I considered was a good entry price. As a long-term investor, I reviewed the five-year history of the CEO's compensation and came away with the following observations and then questions. The CEO's total compensation increased from $3.7 million in 2014 to $9.9 million last year, or 268%. The stock award portion increased almost four times. Yet as shown on page 49 of the proxy, the total return for Unum shareholders over the last five years was negative 7%. Also, the five-year total return for shareholders of an S&P 500 index fund was 50%.
On page 49, the proxy described Unum's executive compensation philosophy as, quote, "Aligning the long-term interests of management and shareholders by offering performance-based equity compensation opportunities." Clearly, for the past five years, your philosophy has failed objectively. Unum shareholders lost money, the broad market gained 50%, and the CEO stock award gained almost 400%. This gain has pushed the CEO's compensation to 158 times, that's 158 times, that of the median compensated employees at Unum, as shown on page 90. Before posing my question, I would further observe that the design of the compensation plan appears to depend heavily on the median compensation of the peer group of insurance companies, as opposed to broad market indices, such as the S&P 500. Chasing a group median is unlikely to provide much in the way of out-of-the-box thinking in regards to compensation plan design.
To my question, how can the Compensation Committee be satisfied with the plan producing results so at variance with its own philosophy?
Let me take that question. Cynthia is here, and we can respond to later, but I would like to take it. I'm certainly very much involved in that and part of that discussion. When you think about the many points that you raise, I'd go back to something I did to answer the last questions about being competitive out there, the compensation we look at today. You talked about the changes, you referenced compensation numbers for somebody that was not the CEO, but somebody it's not somebody, it's me. Became the CEO over that period of time. If you look at those metrics, they are competitive. I would take you into the total shareholder returns, which we were very disappointed, as I mentioned in my comments of last year.
We have a business that we closed over a decade ago that received undue scrutiny in the markets over the last year, which caused a severe impact in our stock price. We are focused very much on running the company. We will deal with those types of things as we can. When we think about total shareholder return, our management team and myself are very much engaged in that process. We own stock. We own a lot of it. We feel the same things that our shareholders do in that process, and we are driving very hard to increase that shareholder return. You mentioned many things in there. If I were to speak on behalf of the Human Capital Committee, Cynthia is here as well, it's about fairness, it is about competitiveness, and it is about driving the long-term value of this company.
That's what that committee focuses on day in and day out. The benchmarks they use, although always imperfect, are the best ones they have access to. They derive inputs from individuals outside, consultants that will come in and help with that, and it's a very thorough process that the team goes through. That's the best I can answer your question. We want to drive the shareholder price as well. We want to make sure that we're competitive, and all of our employees want to make sure that we are competitive from a pay perspective throughout the ranks of the company. You can. Let me get you a microphone.
I'd just like to add to that.
Let me get you a microphone.
I would just like to add to that in addition to working with an outside consultant advisor, having a very formulaic process that we go through, we go through a very rigorous evaluation process that every member of the Board and every member of the Committee does a very rigorous evaluation that we take into account. I would say that the Committee and the Board felt very comfortable with the compensation recommendations that we made this year and in prior years.
Questions? Go ahead.
Hi. This is actually more a thanks than a question. I hope that's okay. My name is Mary.
Very much appreciate it, actually.
My name is Mary Shindle, I'm an employee and a small shareholder. I'm retiring in a few weeks, so this is my last opportunity to say thank you to leadership and the board for something that's been very important to me as part of the Unum family, that is the very generous charitable matching gift program that Unum continues to support. It has meant a lot to my community. It has been something that I'm very proud of as part of the Unum family. When I make a gift and it doubles, it's great. I just wanted to reach out to all of you and thank you for that. That's really all I have to say.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mary. Thank you for those comments, and best of luck to you in your retirement. I think you represent the Unum culture, so I appreciate you speaking out because you represent the 10,000 people, that's what we do, that's what you talk about as a small amount of what we're so proud of here. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Good. With that, I'd like to call the meeting to a close. Thank you for attending today. Thank you for your continued shareholding in Unum, we'll look to 2019 and beyond that to do great things for our customers and our shareholders as well. Thank you very much.