“We probably think Q2 has some kind of similarity to Q1 at this point for ex-VII spreads. And then we'll need to see how the forward curve and how rates progress through the rest of the year.”

In context

“see migration as a result of that. Ryan Krueger: Okay. Got it. And then just one on retirement spreads that came in quite high on a base level excluding VII. Is that a level that you think in the current rate environment can be maintained near term? John McCallion: Good morning, Ryan. It's John. So like you said RIS spreads, I think overall 117, but ex-VII, were very strong in the first quarter at 137. And just recall, our overall all-in range was 135 to 160. So again, if you kind of add back a normal contribution to VII that would have been certainly high end of the range. And look, I think we highlighted this on the outlook call. We did think that the first half of '23, certainly based on the forward curve would have, I'll say, the higher end of spreads just given our in the money caps. We probably think Q2 has some kind of similarity to Q1 at this point for ex-VII spreads. And then we'll need to see how the forward curve and how rates progress through the rest of the year. Ryan Krueger: Great. Thank you. Operator: And next, we move to a question from John Barnidge with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. John Barnidge: Good morning. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Can you maybe talk about persistency of renewals in the group business? We've heard other participants talk about letting business walk that didn't match pricing objectives with this renewal season after a couple years of elevated experience, so curious your thoughts there. Thank you. Ramy Tadros: Thank you, John. It's Ramy here. Maybe let me just give you the punchline in terms of the results we're seeing. Our persistency in terms of the Q1 renewals was extremely strong and it was higher than prior year across all of our major markets. So we're seeing very strong persistency alongside renewa”