HMN US Equity☆

hmn-20231231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from ______ to ______

Commission file number 1-10890

HORACE MANN EDUCATORS CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

1 Horace Mann Plaza, Springfield, Illinois62715-0001

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant's Telephone Number, Including Area Code: 217-789-2500

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Name of each exchange on

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) which registered

Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share HMN New York Stock Exchange

Securities Registered Pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐No☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☑ Accelerated filer ☐

Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filling reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant's executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☑

The aggregate market value of the registrant's Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant based on the closing price of the registrant's Common Stock on the New York Stock Exchange and the shares outstanding on June 30, 2023, was $1,167.8 million.

As of February 16, 2024, the registrant had 40,878,764 shares of Common Stock, par value $0.001 per share, outstanding.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Certain portions of the registrant's Proxy Statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference into Part III Items 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of this Form 10-K as specified in those Items and will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after December 31, 2023.

HORACE MANN EDUCATORS CORPORATION

FORM 10-K

YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2023

INDEX

Part Item Page

I 1. Business 1

Introduction 1

Forward-looking Information 1

Overview, History and Available Information 1

Corporate Strategy 2

Human Capital Resources 4

Reporting Segments 6

Investments 17

Cash Flow 19

Regulation 20

Changing Climate Conditions 21

Enterprise Risk Management 22

1A. Risk Factors 23

1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 35

1C. Cybersecurity 36

2. Properties 36

3. Legal Proceedings 37

4. Mine Safety Disclosures 37

6. [Reserved] 39

Introduction 40

Consolidated Financial Highlights 41

Consolidated Results of Operations 42

Application of Critical Accounting Estimates 45

Results of Operations by Segment 50

Investment Results 57

Liquidity and Capital Resources 60

Future Adoption of New Accounting Standards 66

Effects of Inflation and Changes in Interest Rates 66

7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 66

8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 68

9A. Controls and Procedures 153

9B. Other Information 156

9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 156

III 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 156

11. Executive Compensation 156

13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions and Director Independence 157

14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 157

IV 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 157

PART I

ITEM 1.IBusiness

Introduction

Measures within this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are not based on accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (non-GAAP) are marked with an asterisk (*) the first time they are presented within Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. An explanation of these measures is contained in the Glossary of Selected Terms included as Exhibit 99.1 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K and are reconciled to the most directly comparable measures prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (GAAP) in the Appendix to the Company's Fourth Quarter 2023 Investor Supplement.

Forward-looking Information

Statements made in this Annual Report on Form 10-K that are not historical in nature are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Horace Mann Educators Corporation (referred to in this Annual Report on Form 10-K as "we", "our", "us", the "Company", "Horace Mann" or "HMEC") is an insurance holding company. We are not under any obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. It is important to note that our actual results could differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties inherent in our business. See Part I - Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding risks and uncertainties.

Overview, History and Available Information

We are an insurance holding company incorporated in Delaware. Our headquarters is located in Springfield, Ill. We also operate corporate offices in Dallas, Tx., Madison, Wisc., and Cherry Hill, N.J.

Founded by Educators for Educators®, our business began in Springfield in 1945 when two school teachers saw a need to provide automobile insurance to their association members. Horace Mann Educators Corporation (HMEC) was originally named Illinois Education Association (IEA). The Company expanded its business to other states and broadened its product line to include group and individual life insurance in 1949, 403(b) taxqualified retirement annuities in 1961 and homeowners insurance in 1965. Over those first 30 years, the Company also pursued business activities outside the scope of today’s focus on educators and others who serve their communities.

HMEC was formed as an insurance holding company, and products and services were offered through its subsidiaries, which included: Horace Mann Insurance Company (HMIC), Teachers Insurance Company (TIC), Horace Mann Property & Casualty Insurance Company (HMP) and Horace Mann Life Insurance Company (HML). HMIC, the initial property and casualty insurer, was originally incorporated as the Swiss National Insurance Company, U.S.A. and commenced business on December 23, 1963. The present name, Horace Mann Insurance Company, was adopted on November 2, 1967.

In 1968, INA Corporation (INA), a Philadelphia-based insurance and financial services corporation, acquired a 25% interest in Horace Mann. In 1974, INA began increasing its holdings of Horace Mann and by January 1975 had acquired the entire company. In 1982, INA Corporation merged with Connecticut General Corporation, forming a new holding company known as CIGNA Corporation (CIGNA). In August 1989, an investor group directed by Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen, L.P. ( subsequently Gibbons, Goodwin, van Amerongen) (GGvA) and certain members of the Company's senior management acquired what is now known as HMEC from CIGNA.

That newly independent company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol HMN following an initial public offering in November 1991. Over the next 30 years, the Company continued to expand its reach into the education market, providing personal line insurance and financial services products. By the mid-2010s, the Company served educators in 47 states.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 1

In 2019, the Company increased its market share when it acquired all of the equity interests in NTA Life Enterprises, LLC (NTA). NTA provides products and services through its insurance subsidiaries, National Teachers Associates Life Insurance Company (NTALIC) and NTA Life Insurance Company of New York (NTALIC NY). In 2022, we enhanced our value proposition for school districts by acquiring Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. (Madison National) from its former parent, Independence Holding Company (IHC).

Today, we reach educators and others who serve their communities through two divisions: Retail and Worksite. The Retail Division focuses on providing individual insurance and financial products directly to educators and others who serve the community. It includes both the Property & Casualty and Life & Retirement reporting segments. The Worksite Division provides benefits to educators and others who serve the community through their employers as well as supplemental products distributed through the worksite channel. This division represents the Supplemental & Group Benefits reporting segment, which includes the results of NTA and Madison National.

We do not allocate the impact of corporate-level transactions to the three reporting segments, consistent with the basis for management's evaluation of the results of those segments, but classify those items in a separate reporting segment, Corporate & Other.

Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements, and all amendments to those reports, are available free of charge through the Investors section of our website, investors.horacemann.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after such reports are filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The EDGAR filings of such reports are also available at the SEC's website, www.sec.gov.

Also available in the Investors section of our website are our Corporate Governance Principles, Code of Conduct, Vendor Code of Conduct and other corporate ESG commitments as well as the charters of the HMEC Board of Directors (Board), Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Executive Committee, Investment and Finance Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee. Copies also may be obtained by writing to Investor Relations, Horace Mann Educators Corporation, 1 Horace Mann Plaza, Springfield, Illinois 62715-0001. Our environmental, social and governance reporting is available through the corporate social responsibility section of our website, csr.horacemann.com.

On June 15, 2023, our Chief Executive Officer (CEO) submitted the Annual Section 12(a) CEO Certification to the NYSE without any qualifications. We filed with the SEC, as exhibits to the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, the CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) certifications required under Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Corporate Strategy

Our vision is to be the company of choice to provide insurance and financial solutions for all educators and others who serve their communities, whether they engage with Horace Mann directly or through their district/employer. We believe the unique value of Horace Mann is providing solutions tailored for educators at each stage of their lives, empowering them to achieve lifelong financial success. Our motivation stems from our gratitude for educators: They are looking after our children's futures, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. Our commitment to having a positive impact on our customers' lives extends to all our corporate stakeholders, including employees, agents, investors and the communities where we live and work.

Education market focus

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that there are approximately 7.5 million K-12 school teachers, administrators and support staff nationwide. Horace Mann serves approximately 1 million of these households. Our customer base is about 80% educators. (The remaining 20% are generally in other public sector occupations such as firefighters.) The niche educator market has similar characteristics and preferred risk profiles, which allows for more precise underwriting processes and more targeted marketing operations.

A major motivator for people choosing careers in education is its intangible rewards: The ability to make a difference in students’ lives and contribute to the greater good and as the U.S. population increases, the need for educator positions grows proportionally. However, 86% of U.S. K-12 public schools reported challenges hiring teachers for the 2023-24 school year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical center of the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

2 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

The NCES reported that the biggest barriers to hiring teachers were too few candidates applying for open positions (cited by 70 percent of public schools) and a lack of qualified applicants applying for open positions (cited by 66 percent). Horace Mann research also indicates challenges to hiring and retention that include the burden of financial stress, heavier workloads due to the current U.S. educator shortage, and conflicting expectations of parents, administrators and lawmakers are driving more professionals out of the job they love.

Horace Mann's research indicated that more than a quarter of educators would be more likely to stay in their job if they felt more financially secure. Horace Mann's Worksite Division provides solutions that help administrators attract and retain employees by adding or improving benefit packages. Our Retail Division is focused on providing products and services that educators generally purchase directly, designed to protect what they have today or prepare for a successful future.

Our partnerships with a diverse group of national, state and local education associations also supports recruiting and retention. Working closely with the educational community helps us to identify emerging educator financial wellness issues and build solutions to address them.

We believe our niche market strategy, combined with our Company's more than 75-year history serving the education market, helps us succeed in a highly competitive environment. The insurance industry consists of a large number of companies, some of which have substantially greater financial resources, widespread advertising campaigns, more diversified product lines, greater economies of scale and/or lower-cost marketing approaches compared to us.

Our solutions orientation for both educator and school district customers focuses on products, distribution and infrastructure (PDI):

•Protection and savings products, as well as financial wellness resources and programs, designed to meet K-12 educators’ unique needs.

•Knowledgeable, trusted distribution tailored to educator preferences. In our Retail Division, the solutions are delivered directly to educators. In our Worksite Division, our solutions are often delivered as employee benefits or as part of an annual enrollment process.

•Modern, scalable infrastructure that is easy to do business with.

Retail Division strategy

We provide protection and savings products directly to educators through local, trusted agents or by centralized phone and online options. These products include auto insurance, property insurance, liability insurance, 403(b) retirement plans, mutual funds and individual life insurance tailored to meet the needs of educators.

Horace Mann is focused on meeting educators where they want to engage with us while leveraging the value of our exclusive agency force to address educator needs. Our agents partner with their local educational community as a trusted advisor in financial wellness. Educators have specific financial challenges, such as navigating individual state teacher retirement systems, student loan debt, and personal spend on classroom supplies. Horace Mann shares financial education resources and specific programs to help educators address these challenges. This trusted adviser model builds particularly strong brand loyalty and affinity.

One example is Horace Mann's Student Loan Solutions program. For many educators — particularly those new to the profession — student loan debt is often substantial. Among other challenges, that debt may preclude early in career saving for retirement at the point when those savings would have the most time to grow and make a significant impact at retirement age. We offer complimentary online student loan management accounts for all educators nationwide, which includes guidance on how to successfully qualify for federal student loan forgiveness available to public sector employees.

Industry studies indicate that consumers gather information and shop for insurance using multiple sales outlets. In fact, only 20% shop solely through an agent; however, 60% of sales end with agent involvement. Our strengthened direct capabilities, available by phone or online, allow us to respond to questions or bind coverage when customers prefer that interaction. Customers can also secure auto, property and life quotes and coverage comparisons online.

We continuously improve the infrastructure that supports our Retail Division. In particular, we are enhancing our digital capabilities to ensure our operation runs efficiently and educators can connect with us in the manner they

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 3

prefer. Key projects include the Guidewire property and casualty platform, which increases customer convenience through improved digital capabilities, e-signatures, real-time policy issuance and changes, coverage comparison features and consolidated billing; and the LifePro administration system for our life, retirement, annuity and supplemental products, which offers substantial benefits in terms of customer experience and operating efficiencies.

Worksite Division strategy

We provide protection products through the workplace as employee benefits or directly. The product set includes life insurance, group long- and short-term disability, supplemental cancer, supplemental heart, supplemental disability, supplemental accident and supplemental hospital indemnity. Group products may be paid for by the employer, or provided as optional benefits for employee purchase. Individual products provide the opportunity for a school, district or association to make valuable financial protection benefits directly available to employees. The Division also reaches adjacent public sector markets, including firefighters and municipal employers that had been served for decades by NTA and Madison National.

Our core worksite distribution strategy is to market through the benefit brokers and others that bring employer-sponsored solutions for educators and others who serve their communities directly to employer-decision makers as part of the benefit design process. Our benefit enrollment teams can support the roll out of group solutions or manage the enrollment process for individual products.

Our understanding of the educational market and specialized solutions package allows us to help these brokers design custom solutions that support recruitment and retention. For example, we can package our student loan solutions offering with other worksite benefits.

Following the integration of NTA and Madison National, we are focused on ensuring the infrastructure for our Worksite Division is responsive to the needs of our distribution partners, employers, educators and others who serve their communities. In 2023, one area of focus was enhancing the platforms used by marketing partners.

Human Capital Resources

Horace Mann has approximately 1,700 employees that work in four offices across the United States, including Springfield, Ill., Dallas, Tx., Madison, Wisc., and Cherry Hill, N.J., and throughout the country as part of our remote workforce.

Human Capital Oversight

We maintain policies and practices to attract top talent, maintain high levels of employee engagement, and increase retention. A few of our key organizational policies include our Code of Conduct, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy Statement, and Human Rights Statement.

The Board of Directors' Compensation Committee oversees human capital management and DEI strategies. Our Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is the Executive Officer directly responsible for Human Capital Management. The CHRO regularly engages with senior management and the Board of Directors to discuss topics involving talent acquisition, employee retention, employee engagement, total rewards, and development.

Our Culture

Horace Mann fosters an inclusive organizational culture for all our employees by focusing on talent attraction and retention, employee engagement, DEI education and cultural competence, community connections, and workforce development.

Talent Attraction and Retention

Our talent sourcing strategies, community partnerships, and campus outreach are strategically designed to build diverse pipelines of qualified candidate pools to meet our current and future workforce needs. We take a proactive approach to identifying, assessing, and engaging with candidates that have the potential to fill current and future roles within our organization.

4 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Employee Engagement

We complete full, biennial employee engagement surveys as well as pulse surveys during the year to gauge employee feedback on our Total Rewards package, company culture, DEI, and organizational goals. We take appropriate actions to respond to the feedback collected. In 2022, 74% of employees participated in our employee engagement survey. Employees identified manager support and effectiveness, department collaboration, work flexibility, and inclusion as strengths. Areas where employees encouraged additional focus were total rewards enhancements, ensuring understanding and connection to our vision and strategy, and systems and change management processes. Our team designed action plans for each of these areas and activities continue toward improvement.

DEI Education

Our cross-functional DEI Council has two executive sponsors: our CHRO, and our Executive Vice President and General Counsel. The DEI Council efforts are led by our Vice President of Talent and Culture, who is guided by our DEI Strategy Statement and supported by our Code of Conduct, and Human Rights Statement.

Horace Mann maintains three employee resources groups, including Women’s Professional Network, Men’s Professional Network, and Allyship, our LGBTQA+ community and their allies. These groups focus on mentorship, inclusion, community support, and awareness.

For the past four years, Horace Mann was named to the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, which recognizes corporate commitment to transparency in gender reporting and advancing women’s equality. Employee demographic information is available in the Corporate Social Responsibility section of the Horace Mann website.

Community Connections

Many of our employees are active in their communities and are committed to charitable causes. To support employees and the causes important to them, the Horace Mann Educators Foundation matches employee donations up to $1,000 to qualified nonprofits annually.

Workforce Development

Employee training and development programs consist of instructor-led classes, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and support for self-directed learning. We offer an intensive Emerging Leaders program to identify and develop future leaders. We also have a self-directed learning library of over 100 courses that employees can access to build their skills in customer service, performance improvement, leadership, and awareness of unconscious bias.

Employees and leaders follow a standard performance calendar that calls for quarterly discussions to benchmark progress and identify developmental opportunities and potential career paths.

Total Rewards Strategy

Our Total Rewards strategy is based on providing competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, work/life flexibility, and robust employee training and development opportunities. All full- and part-time employees and employee agents who work a minimum of 20 hours per week are eligible for benefits, with no waiting period to access benefits. We continually evaluate our offerings against industry benchmarks and best practices to ensure our Total Rewards package helps to drive employee attraction and retention. We have no collective bargaining agreements with any employees.

Competitive Compensation

Horace Mann offers competitive salary and compensation packages. Every Horace Mann employee in good standing is eligible for an annual, company performance-based bonus and annual individual performance merit increases. We contribute three percent of every employee’s eligible earnings to their 401(k), regardless of their contribution status. We then match up to an additional five percent of each employee’s eligible earnings annually.

Comprehensive Benefits

We offer major medical coverage, group life and disability insurance, dental and vision insurance, and contribute up to $1,000 to employee health savings accounts annually.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 5

Horace Mann provides mental and physical health resources and incentives to help support employee wellness, including wellness reimbursement. Employees can also reference additional free resources to support mental and physical well-being in the Wellness HUB on the Wellness page of our intranet.

Work/Life Flexibility

Under our hybrid workforce model, more than 70% of our employees have the opportunity to work remotely for all or a portion of their work week. This provides employees with increased flexibility to balance their personal and professional lives without sacrificing their productivity at work.

Reporting Segments

In 2023, we conducted our business in two divisions. The Retail Division is made up of the Property & Casualty and Life & Retirement reporting segments, while the Worksite Division consists entirely of the Supplemental & Group Benefits reporting segment. The Corporate & Other reporting segment includes capital-raising activities and corporate-level transactions.

These segments are defined based on the way management organizes the business for making operating decisions and assessing performance. Management maintains discrete financial information for these segments to evaluate performance and allocate resources.

The calculations of segment data are described in more detail in Part II - Item 8, Note 17 of the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Additionally, the business operations of each segment are explained in this section. The financial performance of each segment is discussed in Part II - Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

6 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Property & Casualty segment

Within the Retail Division, the Property & Casualty segment's primary insurance products include private passenger auto insurance, residential home insurance, and personal umbrella insurance.

We offer standard auto coverages, including liability, collision and comprehensive. Property coverage includes both homeowners and renters policies. For both auto and property coverage, we offer educators a discounted rate and the Educator Advantage® package of features. This includes value-added benefits specifically for educators, such as liability coverage for transporting students in an insured vehicle and reimbursement for stolen school fundraising items.

We have third-party programs in a majority of states to provide higher-risk auto and property coverages. We also have a number of other insurance coverages with third-party vendors that underwrite and bear the risk of such insurance. We receive commissions on these risks.

Similarly, we have increased our offering of third-party vendor products in many areas to meet additional educator needs such as coverage for small business owners or classic/collector autos.

358,215 auto risks in force and

168,219property risks in force at December 31, 2023.

Geographic distribution

Our Property & Casualty business is geographically diversified. For the year ended December 31, 2023, based on direct premiums for all product lines, the top five states and their portion of total direct insurance premiums were California, 12.2%; Texas, 8.9%; North Carolina, 7.9%; Minnesota, 6.1%; and Georgia, 4.8%.

Competition

Competition in this market for personal protection products is from a number of national providers of personal lines insurance, including Allstate, Farmers, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide and State Farm, as well as a number of regional companies. We also compete for auto business with other companies such as GEICO, Progressive and USAA, many of which feature direct marketing distribution. A number of technology start-ups have also entered the market.

In our target market, we believe that our principal competitive advantages in the sale of property and casualty products are overall service, school partnerships, price, and name recognition.

$650.4 million in direct premiums, defined as premiums earned before reinsurance as determined under statutory accounting principles. Our Property & Casualty subsidiaries are licensed to write business in 48 states and the District of Columbia.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 7

Catastrophe Losses (Pretax)(1)

The number of catastrophe events and the level of catastrophe losses can fluctuate significantly from year to year. Our catastrophe losses for the last five years are shown in the following table ($ in millions).

Year Month Event Description States/Region Total

March Wind and Thunderstorm AL, GA, IN, KY, MS, NC, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, VA 5.8

May Wind and Thunderstorm CO, FL, GA, KS, MO, NC, ND, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA 5.2

June Wind and Thunderstorm AL, AR, CO, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, OK, SC, TN, TX 5.1

Other single events less than $5.0 million 73.9

May Wind and Thunderstorm MN, WI 5.5

May Wind and Thunderstorm MN, NE, SD, WI 7.0

May Wind and Thunderstorm MI, MN, NJ, OH, PA, TX, WI 7.4

December Winter Storm Elliott Northern Plains, Midwest and North East 8.1

Other single events less than $5.0 million 52.0

February Winter Storm Viola AR, IL, LA, MO, OK, TN. TX 5.1

December Wildfire Marshall CO 5.3

Other single events less than $5.0 million 43.8

August Derecho IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, OH, SD, WI 6.5

August Hurricane Laura AR, LA, MS, TN, TX 9.5

October Hurricane Delta AL, AR, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC, TX 3.3

October Hurricane Zeta AL, GA, LA, MS, NC, SC 2.7

Other single events less than $5.0 million 62.4

May Wind and Hail CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, MO, NE, OH, OK, PA, WY 5.5

Other single events less than $5.0 million 46.5

(1) Net of reinsurance and before income tax benefits. Includes allocated loss adjustment expenses.

Fluctuations in catastrophe losses impact a property and casualty insurance company's claims and claim adjustment expenses incurred.

8 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Claims and Claim Expenses Incurred(1), 2021 - 2023 ($ in millions)

(1) Claims and claim expenses incurred include the impact of prior years' reserve development as quantified in Property & Casualty reserves. Catastrophe totals are net of reinsurance and before income tax benefits.

Property & Casualty Reserves

Property & Casualty unpaid claims and claim expense reserves (reserves) represent management's best estimate of ultimate unpaid costs of losses and settlement expenses for reported claims and claims that have been incurred but not yet reported (IBNR). We calculate and record a single best estimate of the reserve as of each reporting date in conformity with actuarial standards of practice. We engage an independent property and casualty actuarial consulting firm to prepare an independent study of our Property & Casualty reserves as of December 31 of each year. For additional information regarding the process used to estimate Property & Casualty reserves and the risk factors involved, as well as a summary reconciliation of the beginning and ending Property & Casualty insurance claims and claim expense reserves and prior years' reserve development recorded in each of the three years ended December 31, 2023, see Part I - Item 1A - Risk Factors - "Our property and casualty loss reserves may not be adequate", Part II - Item 7, Application of Critical Accounting Estimates and Results of Operations for the Property & Casualty Segment, and Part II - Item 8, Note 5 in the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

All of our reserves for Property & Casualty unpaid claims and claim expenses are carried at the full value of estimated liabilities and are not discounted for interest expected to be earned on the reserves.

Property & Casualty Reinsurance

All reinsurance is obtained through contracts which generally are entered into for each calendar year. Although reinsurance does not legally discharge us from primary liability for the full amount of our risks, it does allow for recovery from assuming reinsurers to the extent of the reinsurance ceded. Past due reinsurance recoverables as of December 31, 2023 were not material.

We maintain catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance coverage. For 2023, our catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance coverage consisted of one contract in addition to a minimal amount of coverage by the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. For 2023, the catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance contract consisted of three layers, each of which provided for one mandatory reinstatement. The coverage provided was 57% for the layer of $20.0 million excess of $30.0 million, 92% coverage for the layer of $40.0 million excess of $50.0 million and 95% coverage for the layer of $85.0 million excess of $90.0 million. For 2024, our retention will increase to $35.0 million and the catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance coverage will provide 89% coverage for the layer of $25.0 million excess of $35.0 million, 90% coverage for the layer of $35.0 million excess of $60.0 million, and 92% coverage for the layer of $90.0 million excess of $95.0 million.

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The following table identifies our most significant reinsurers under the catastrophe first event excess of loss reinsurance program, their percentage participation in this program and their ratings by A.M. Best Company (A.M. Best) and Standard & Poor's Global Inc. (S&P) as of January 1, 2024. No other single reinsurer's percentage participation in 2024 or 2023 exceeds 5%. We monitor reinsurers' financial strength by reviewing A.M. Best and S&P ratings.

A.M. Best Rating S&P Rating Reinsurer Parent 2024 2023

A A+ Lloyd's of London Syndicates 16.8 % 15.5 %

NR A+ R+V Versicherung AG DZ BANK AG 9.0 % 9.0 %

A+ A+ Everest Reinsurance Company Everest Re Group, Ltd. 7.5 % 10.0 %

A AA+ SCOR Global P&C SE SCOR SE 6.5 % 6.5 %

NR - Not rated.

We have not joined the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). Our exposure to losses from earthquakes is managed through our underwriting standards, our earthquake policy coverage limits and deductible levels, and the geographic distribution of our business, as well as our reinsurance program. After reviewing the exposure to earthquake losses from our own risks and from what it would be with participation in the CEA, including estimated start-up and ongoing costs related to CEA participation, we believe it is in our best economic interest to offer earthquake coverage directly to our property policyholders.

For liability coverages in 2023, we reinsured each loss above a retention of $5.0 million per occurrence up to $20.0 million in a clash event. A clash cover is a reinsurance casualty excess contract requiring two or more casualty coverages or risks issued by us to be involved in the same loss occurrence for coverage to apply. The clash event coverage is unchanged for 2024.

We market personal lines excess liability risks. The limits of these risks are $1.0 million to $5.0 million in excess of $0.5 million of underlying auto and homeowners liability coverage. In 2023, we reinsured these risks on a quota share basis with General Reinsurance Corporation who assumes 95% of losses, including allocated loss adjustment expenses and premiums for all states except Massachusetts and Rhode Island. For business written in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the quota share portion is 75%. For 2024, the 95% quota share with General Reinsurance Corporation will be in run-off. Policies written in 2024 will be subject to a 25% quota share with Renaissance Reinsurance.

For auto insurance sold in Michigan, Personal Injury Protection (PIP) unlimited coverage is offered in compliance with Michigan state law. For these risks with unlimited coverage, we participate in the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA). For risks issued in 2023, MCCA reimbursed PIP losses including allocated loss adjustment expenses in excess of $0.6 million.

Our property and casualty insurance subsidiaries are members of an intercompany pooling arrangement. Pooling arrangements permit the participating companies to rely on the capacity of the entire pool's statutory capital and surplus rather than just on its own statutory capital and surplus. Under such arrangements, the members share substantially all insurance business that is written and allocate the combined premiums, losses, and expenses.

10 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Life & Retirement segment

Within the Retail Division, our Life & Retirement segment markets 403(b) tax-qualified fixed, fixed indexed and variable annuities; the Horace Mann Retirement Advantage® open architecture platform for 403(b)(7) and other defined contribution plans; traditional term and whole life insurance products and indexed universal life (IUL) products. We offer educator rates for our life insurance customers.

Educators in our target market continue to benefit from the provisions of Section 403(b) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) which allows public school employees and employees of other tax-exempt organizations, such as not-for-profit private schools, to utilize pretax income to make periodic contributions to a qualified retirement plan (also see Regulation - Regulation at Federal Level).

We are one of the largest participants in the K-12 educator portion of the 403(b) tax-qualified annuity market, measured by 403(b) net written premium on a statutory accounting basis. Our 403(b) tax-qualified annuities are voluntarily purchased by individuals employed by public school systems or other tax-exempt organizations through employee benefit plans of those entities.

In 2023, 45.2% of net annuity contract deposits* were for 403(b) tax-qualified annuities. At year-end 2023, 56.1% of accumulated annuity value on deposit was 403(b) tax-qualified. To further assist registered representatives in delivering our value proposition, we have entered into third-party vendor agreements to market 529 college savings programs and provide brokerage clearing arrangements.

We offer a lineup of several life product portfolios. Life by Design® is a portfolio of our manufactured and branded life insurance products that specifically address the financial planning needs of educators. The Life by Design® portfolio features individual whole life and individual term products, including 10, 15, 20 and 30-year level term policies. The Life by Design® policies have premiums that are guaranteed for the duration of the contract.

We offer a combination product called Life Select® that mixes a base of either traditional whole life, 20-pay life or life paid-up at age 65 with a variety of term riders to allow for more flexibility in tailoring the coverage to customers' varying life insurance needs. Additional products include single premium whole life products and Cash Value Term — a term policy that builds cash value while providing the income protection of traditional level term life insurance.

We offer an IUL product with interest crediting strategies linked to the S&P 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), offering a contingent return based on equity market performance. Along with expanded product offerings, new marketing support tools continue to be introduced to aid the agency force.

We also maintain a closed block of Experience Life® policies. This product, discontinued in 2006, represents a flexible premium life insurance contract consisting mainly of whole life and term elements, along with an interest bearing policy account.

During 2023, the average face amount of individual life insurance policies issued by us was approximately $209,000 and the average face amount of individual life insurance policies in force at December 31, 2023 was approximately $127,000. Life insurance in force rose to $20.5 billion at year-end.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 11

Retirement assets under management

We market both fixed and variable annuity contracts, primarily on a tax-qualified basis. Total accumulated fixed and variable annuity cash value on deposit at December 31, 2023 was $5.2 billion, net of reinsurance.

Fixed-only annuities provide a guarantee of principal and a guaranteed minimum rate of return. These contracts are backed by our general account investments. We bear the investment risk associated with the investments and may change the declared interest rate on these contracts subject to contract guarantees.

We also offer fixed indexed annuity (FIA) products with interest crediting strategies linked to the S&P 500 Index and the DJIA.

223,118 annuity contracts in force at December 31, 2023.

Variable annuities combine a fixed account option with equity-linked and bond-linked sub-account options. By utilizing tools that provide assistance in determining needs and making asset allocation decisions, contractholders are able to choose the investment mix that matches their personal risk tolerance and retirement goals. As of December 31, 2023, we had 118 variable sub-account options including funds managed by some of the larger participants in the mutual fund industry.

Annuities are marketed under the Personal Retirement Planner annuity series, which includes a flexible premium deferred variable annuity, a flexible premium deferred fixed indexed annuity, a single premium deferred fixed annuity and a single premium immediate annuity. Consistent across all of these products is the elimination of any surrender charges for early withdrawal.

We also have funding agreements as part of our participation in the FHLB program that provide an additional source of spread-based income.

Retirement assets under administration

In addition to annuities, we market the Horace Mann Retirement Advantage® open architecture platform for 403(b)(7) and other defined contribution plans. This platform combines a wide array of mutual funds integrated with a group unallocated fixed annuity stable value fund. This platform provides us with greater flexibility to offer customized 403(b)(7) and other qualified plan solutions to better meet the needs of school districts and other non-for-profit plan sponsors. In 2019, we acquired a recordkeeping administrator, Benefit Consultants Group, Inc. (BCG) and we migrated the administration of our Horace Mann Retirement Advantage® platform from a third-party vendor to the BCG platform. We offer our group unallocated fixed annuity and Horace Mann Stable Value Solution, as an option within a number of the 401(k) plans administered by BCG. BCG had $1.1 billion of recordkeeping assets under administration as of December 31, 2023.

12 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Retirement Assets Under Administration, 2021 - 2023 ($ in billions)

Geographic distribution

Our Life & Retirement business is geographically diversified. For the year ended December 31, 2023, based on direct premiums and contract deposits for all product lines, the top five states and their portion of total direct premiums and contract deposits were Pennsylvania 10.3%; Minnesota, 6.3%; North Carolina 5.8%; Virginia, 5.4%; and Indiana, 5.3%.

Competition

National providers of annuities and other financial service platforms that serve the retirement needs of educators and others that serve the community, include AXA; Life Insurance Company of the Southwest, a subsidiary of National Life Insurance Company; Security Benefit; Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund; The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Corebridge Financial.; and Voya Financial, Inc. Select mutual fund families and financial planners also compete in this marketplace.

We believe that our principal competitive advantages in the sale of retirement products and life insurance are school-based sales and service, product features, perceived stability of the insurer, price, overall service and name recognition.

$610.7 million in direct premiums and contract deposits, defined as premiums collected before reinsurance as determined under statutory accounting principles. Our principal life subsidiary is licensed to write business in 49 states and the District of Columbia.

The market for tax-deferred retirement products in our target market has been impacted by the revised Code Section 403(b) regulations, which made the 403(b) market more comparable to the 401(k) market than it was in the past. This change has made the 403(b) market more attractive to some of the larger companies experienced in 401(k) plans, including both insurance and mutual fund companies, that had not previously been active competitors in this business.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 13

Annuity Reinsurance

We reinsure a $3.1 billion block of in force fixed and variable annuity business with a minimum crediting rate of 4.5%. The reinsured fixed business represents approximately 50% of our in force fixed annuity account balances. The arrangement contains investment guidelines and a trust to help meet our risk management objectives. Under the annuity reinsurance agreement, approximately $2.4 billion of fixed annuity reserves are reinsured on a coinsurance basis. The separate account assets and liabilities of approximately $0.7 billion are reinsured on a modified coinsurance basis and thus, remain on our consolidated financial statements, but the related results of operations are fully reinsured. The annuity reinsurance agreement does not expose the reinsurer (RGA Reinsurance Company, a subsidiary of Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated) to a reasonable possibility of a significant loss from insurance risk. Therefore, we recognize the annuity reinsurance agreement using the deposit method of accounting.

Life Reinsurance

The maximum individual life insurance risk retained by our Life segment is $500,000 on any individual life. The excess of the amounts retained are reinsured with life reinsurers that are rated A (Excellent) or above by A.M. Best. We also maintain a life catastrophe reinsurance program. In 2023, we reinsured 100% of the catastrophe risk in excess of $1.0 million up to $35.0 million per occurrence, with one reinstatement. For 2024, our catastrophe risk coverage is unchanged. Our life catastrophe risk reinsurance program covers acts of terrorism and includes nuclear, biological and chemical explosions but excludes other acts of war.

Supplemental & Group Benefits segment

Within the Worksite Division, the Supplemental & Group Benefits segment offers employer-sponsored products including accident, critical illness, limited-benefit fixed indemnity insurance, term life, short-term disability and long-term disability, as well as worksite direct products including supplemental heart, supplemental cancer, supplemental disability and supplemental accident coverages. We also have funding agreements as part of our participation in the FHLB program that provide an additional source of spread-based income.

Our product line is designed to help districts and other employers improve recruitment and retention. As the competition for top talent intensifies, public sector employers are increasingly looking to offer benefits that are competitive with those of the private sector. The products we provide are part of a typical "total rewards" compensation package, including some products paid by the employer and provided to groups of employees, as well as products that employees can select as part of their benefit enrollment process.

269,337 total worksite direct policies in force and 826,447 total employer-sponsored covered lives at December 31, 2023

Group products may be purchased by employers to include in benefit packages for all employees or offered as a voluntary option for employees to purchase. Our typical group products are guaranteed issue - meaning no individual underwriting is required; in some instances an employee can expand the coverage with simplified underwriting at an additional expense. Group products can be customized to complement each employer's benefit package features. These group products typically have minimum participation rates and are underwritten at the group level to account for population size, industry, gender and age distribution, and other applicable risk factors.

14 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Our typical worksite direct supplemental policies provide "HIPAA Excepted" benefits with simplified underwriting. They are most often purchased after face-to-face consultation and discussion in the workplace, often during a benefit enrollment process. Payment for worksite direct supplemental products can be made directly to Horace Mann via recurring bank draft or credit card payments or through payroll deduction. These products offer defined benefit amounts that are paid directly to the insured, and are payable in addition to any other insurance coverages. An insured can use the supplemental payments to cover medical or non-medical costs.

Supplemental products remain an important tool in the changing healthcare landscape, particularly with the prevalence of high deductible health care plans and an increasing focus on employee health and wellness. Our supplemental products offer indemnity benefits rather than the reimbursement of actual costs. Benefit risks are well controlled with specified limitations regarding preexisting conditions, the frequency of occurrences, maximum benefits per occurrence, and maximum occurrences. Diagnosis or treatment is a required element when establishing proof of loss necessary for benefit payments. Our supplemental disability products have various elimination periods and only provide short-term benefit periods. Sound underwriting strategies and disciplined underwriting methods help ensure loss experience is commensurate with pricing expectations.

$153.9 million in direct premiums, defined as premiums earned before reinsurance as determined under statutory accounting principles. Our principal employer-sponsored insurance subsidiary is licensed to write business in 49 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.

$120.1 million in direct premiums, defined as premiums earned before reinsurance as determined under statutory accounting principles. Our principal worksite direct insurance subsidiary is licensed to write business in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.

Geographic distribution of business

Our employer-sponsored line of business is concentrated in the Upper Midwest, while our worksite direct business is concentrated in the Southern states including California. This provides opportunities for growth for both lines of business. For the year ended December 31, 2023, based on direct premiums and contract deposits for all product lines, the top five states and their portion of total direct insurance premiums and contract deposits for the worksite direct business were California, 28.7%; Texas, 13.1%; Florida, 6.7%; North Carolina, 5.7%; and Louisiana, 5.5%. The top five states for the employer-sponsored business were Minnesota, 16.0%; Wisconsin, 13.1%; Indiana, 9.0%; Pennsylvania, 8.8%; and Michigan, 8.1%.

Competition

Competition in this market for employee benefit products is from a number of national and regional providers of disability, accident, and health insurance, including Aflac, American Fidelity, Colonial (a subsidiary of Unum),

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 15

Reliance Standard, The Standard, Trustmark, and Washington National (a subsidiary of CNO). Other carriers, such as Guardian, MetLife, Securian, and Voya, offer similar group products although, typically, focused on large cases in the private sector. A number of additional carriers have also entered parts of this market.

In our target market, we believe that our principal competitive advantages in the sale of supplemental and employer-sponsored products are overall service, product features, school and union partnerships, price, and name recognition.

Employer-Sponsored Reserves

Employer-sponsored unpaid claims and claim expense reserves (reserves) represent management's best estimate of ultimate unpaid costs of losses and settlement expenses for reported claims and claims IBNR. We calculate and record a single best estimate of the reserve as of each reporting date in conformity with actuarial standards of practice. For additional information regarding the process used to estimate employer-sponsored reserves and the risk factors involved, as well as a summary reconciliation of the beginning and ending employer-sponsored insurance claims and claim expense reserves and prior years' reserve development recorded for the year ended December 31, 2023, see Part I - Item 1A - Risk Factors - "Actual experience may differ from actuarial assumptions, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition", Part II - Item 7, Results of Operations for the Supplemental & Group Benefits Segment, and Part II - Item 8, Note 5 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Employer-Sponsored Reinsurance

We retained approximately 73.5% of gross and assumed group disability and specialty health benefits in 2023. We have legacy blocks of individual life, annuity and long term care benefits that are effectively 100% ceded and are in run off. We purchase quota share reinsurance and excess reinsurance in amounts deemed appropriate by our risk committee. We monitor our retention amounts by product line and have the ability to adjust our retention as appropriate.

Reinsurance is used to reduce the potentially adverse financial impact of large individual or group risks, and to reduce the strain on statutory income and surplus related to new business. By using reinsurance, we are able to write policies in amounts larger than we could otherwise accept. The amount reinsured is the portion of each policy in excess of the retention limit on a particular policy.

The following reinsurers represent approximately 98.0% of total ceded premium for the year ended December 31, 2023:

A.M. Best Rating % of

Reinsurer Ceded Premiums

A National Guardian Life Insurance Company 59.0 %

A- Clear Spring Life and Annuity Company 26.0 %

A+ RGA Reinsurance Company 13.0 %

We remain liable with respect to the insurance in force, which has been reinsured in the unlikely event that the assuming reinsurers are unable to satisfy their obligations. The ceding of reinsurance does not discharge us from the primary liability of the insured.

Worksite Direct Reserves

Worksite direct policy reserves represent our best estimate of the present value of future ultimate benefits, net of future premiums, to be provided for cancer, heart, hospital, supplemental disability and accident claims. The reserves are a single best estimate calculated in accordance with actuarial standards of practice. Unpaid claims and claim expenses provide provisions for claims reported to us plus an estimated accrual for claims IBNR. For additional information regarding the process used to estimate worksite direct reserves and the risk factors involved, see Part I - Item 1A - Risk Factors - "Actual experience may differ from actuarial assumptions, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition”, Part II - Item 7, Results of Operations for the Supplemental & Group Benefits Segment, and Part II - Item 8, Note 6 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

16 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Worksite Direct Reinsurance

We retain all of the risk on our supplemental health product lines, including accidental death risk embedded within certain products. However, our other accidental death and dismemberment risks issued through all other policies and riders are ceded 100%. The maximum life insurance risk retained on any individual life is $100,000. The excess risk on the life insurance products is ceded to and reinsured by a third party that is rated A (Excellent) by A.M. Best.

Corporate & Other

Corporate & Other includes capital raising activities (including debt financing and related interest expense), net investment gains (losses), certain public company expenses and other corporate-level transactions including expenses related to business acquisition activity. We do not allocate the impact of corporate-level transactions to the other reporting segments, consistent with the basis for management's evaluation of the results of those segments.

Investments

Our investments support our policy liabilities by serving as a resource for payment of benefits, losses, and expenses and as incremental source of income to support operations. Our strategy is primarily focused on generating income while balancing principal protection and investment risk. Our investment objectives are implemented through portfolios managed by external investment managers with internal management oversight that primarily emphasize investment grade fixed maturity securities that consider the anticipated duration of our liabilities. In addition to these securities, we also invest in limited partnership interests that are managed internally (which include commercial mortgage loan funds) and equity securities that are managed by external investment managers with internal management oversight to help improve returns. Our short-term investments include money market funds, commercial paper, U.S Treasury bills and other short-term investments that support our management of liquidity and investment strategies. Our other investments include Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLB) common stock, mortgage loans, and derivatives that support our other business operations and are not speculative investments.

We have separate investment strategies and guidelines for our Property & Casualty, Life & Retirement and Supplemental & Group Benefits portfolios, which recognize different characteristics of the associated insurance liabilities, as well as different tax and regulatory environments. We manage interest rate exposure for our portfolios through asset/liability management techniques that consider the duration of the assets compared to the duration of the insurance policy liabilities. Duration of assets and liabilities will generally differ only because of opportunities to increase yields or because policy values are not interest rate sensitive, as is the case in Property & Casualty and Supplemental & Group Benefits.

The investments of each insurance subsidiary must comply with the insurance laws of such insurance subsidiary's domiciliary state. These laws prescribe the type and amount of investments that may be purchased and held by insurance companies. In general, these laws permit investments, within specified limits and subject to certain qualifications, in federal, state and municipal obligations, corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, other asset-backed securities, preferred stocks, common stocks, real estate mortgages, real estate and alternative investments.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 17

Investment Portfolio as of December 31, 2023

($ in millions) % of TotalFair Value Fair Value

U.S. Government and agency obligations:(1)

Equity securities:

Non-redeemable preferred stocks, investment grade 0.8 54.5 49.4 5.1 — 54.5

Non-redeemable preferred stocks, non-investment grade 0.2 13.9 12.1 0.8 1.0 13.9

Common stocks — 1.1 1.1 — — 1.1

Other Invested Assets:

(1)All investment grade that includes $341.3 million fair value of investments guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government and $700.7 million fair value of federally sponsored agency securities which are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government.

(2)A non-investment grade rating is assigned to a security when it is acquired or when it is downgraded from investment grade, primarily on the basis of the S&P rating for such security, or if there is no S&P rating, the Moody's Investors Service, Inc. (Moody's) or Fitch Ratings, Inc. (Fitch) rating for such security, or if there is no S&P, Moody's or Fitch rating, the NAIC rating for such security. The rating agencies monitor securities and their issuers regularly, and make changes to the ratings as necessary. We incorporate rating changes on a monthly basis.

(3)Includes commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, other mortgage-backed securities and collateralized loan obligations.

(4)Short-term investments mature within one year of being acquired and are carried at cost, which approximates fair value. Short-term investments of $132.9 million are all money market funds and are not rated.

(5)Mortgage loans are carried at amortized cost, net and policy loans are carried at unpaid principal balances.

(6)Approximately 7.3% of our investment portfolio, having a carrying amount of $479.4 million as of December 31, 2023, consisted of securities with some form of credit support, such as insurance. Of the securities with credit support. municipal bonds represented $339.5 million of the carrying amount.

(7)Includes $0.2 million of fixed maturity securities, $1.0 million of equity securities and $2.1 million of short-term investments held in Corporate & Other.

(8)Limited partnership interests are accounted for using the equity method of accounting.

18 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

Fixed Maturity Securities

For reporting purposes, we have classified the entire portfolio of fixed maturity securities as available for sale and the portfolio is carried at fair value. An adjustment for net unrealized investment gains (losses) on fixed maturity securities available for sale is recognized as a separate component of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) (AOCI) within shareholders' equity, net of applicable deferred taxes. Fixed maturity securities held for indefinite periods of time include securities that we intend to use as part of our asset/liability management strategy and that may be sold in response to changes in interest rates, resultant prepayment risk and other related factors, other than securities that are in an unrealized loss position for which we have the stated intent to hold until recovery.

Fixed Maturity Securities Portfolio as of December 31, 2023

% of Fixed MaturitySecurities Portfolio % of TotalInvestment Portfolio

Non-investment grade 7.4 % 6.0 %

Average credit quality A+ A+

Average option-adjusted duration (years) 6.0 6.4

Percent maturing in next 5 years 33.0 % 25.3 %

Cash Flow

Information regarding our sources and uses of cash, including payment of principal and interest with respect to our indebtedness, and payment of dividends to our shareholders, is contained in Part II - Item 8, Note 13 of the Consolidated Financial Statements and in Part II - Item 7, Liquidity and Capital Resources of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The ability of our insurance subsidiaries to pay cash dividends to us is subject to state insurance department regulations which generally permit dividends to be paid for any 12 month period in amounts equal to the greater of (i) net income for the preceding calendar year or (ii) 10% of surplus, determined in conformity with statutory accounting principles, as of the preceding December 31. Any dividend in excess of these levels requires the prior approval of the Director or Commissioner of the state insurance department of the state in which the dividend paying insurance subsidiary is domiciled. The aggregate amount of dividends that may be paid in 2024 from all of our insurance subsidiaries without prior regulatory approval is approximately $112.3 million, excluding the impact and timing of prior year dividends, of which $127.5 million was paid during the year ended December 31, 2023.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, if insurance regulators otherwise determine that payment of a dividend or any other payment to an affiliate would be detrimental to an insurance subsidiary's policyholders or creditors, because of the financial condition of the insurance subsidiary or otherwise, the regulators may block dividends or other payments to affiliates that would otherwise be permitted without prior approval.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 19

Regulation

General Regulation at State Level

As an insurance holding company, we are subject to extensive regulation by the states in which our insurance subsidiaries are domiciled or transact business. Our principal insurance subsidiaries are domiciled in Illinois, New York, Wisconsin and Texas and are overseen by the Illinois Department of Insurance, the New York Department of Financial Services, the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and the Texas Department of Insurance. Some regulations, such as those addressing unclaimed property, generally apply to all corporations. In addition, the laws of the various states establish regulatory agencies with broad administrative powers, which relate to a wide variety of matters, including granting and revoking licenses to transact business, regulating trade practices and rate setting, licensing agents, requiring statutory financial statements, monitoring insurer solvency and reserve adequacy, and prescribing the type and amount of investments permitted and the manner in which they may be sold. On an ongoing basis, various state legislators and insurance regulators examine the nature and scope of state insurance regulation.

In addition to individual state monitoring and regulation, state regulators develop coordinated regulatory policies through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). States have adopted NAIC risk-based capital guidelines to evaluate the adequacy of statutory capital and surplus in relation to an insurance company's risks. Based on current guidelines, the risk-based capital statutory requirements are not expected to have a negative regulatory impact on our insurance subsidiaries. As of December 31, 2023 and 2022, statutory capital and surplus of each of our insurance subsidiaries were above required levels. States have also adopted the NAIC's U.S. Own Risk and Solvency Assessment which requires insurance companies to submit their own assessment of their current and future risks and provide a consolidated group-level perspective on risk and capital formulated through an internal risk self-assessment process.

Regulation of insurance continues to evolve. Some changes arise as a result of economic developments, such as changes in investment laws made to recognize new investment products or to respond to perceived investment risks, while others reflect concerns about insurance availability, prices, enterprise risk management guidelines, allegations of unfair-discriminatory pricing, underwriting practices, or solvency concerns. For example, many states impose restrictions on the ability of an insurer to withdraw from certain lines of business. Over the past several years, legislation, regulatory measures, and voter initiatives have been introduced, and in some cases adopted, which deal with use of non-public consumer information, use of credit information in underwriting and rating, insurance rate development, rate of return limitations, and the ability of insurers to cancel or non-renew insurance policies.

Regulation at Federal Level

Although the federal government generally does not directly regulate the insurance industry, federal initiatives often impact the insurance business. Current and proposed federal measures which may significantly affect insurance and retirement business include employee benefits regulation, standards applied to employer sponsored retirement plans, standards applied to broker-dealers and investment advisers, controls on the costs of medical care, medical entitlement programs such as Medicare, structure of retirement plans and accounts, changes to the insurance industry antitrust exemption, and minimum solvency requirements. Also, see Part I - Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. In 2022, the SEC proposed a new disclosure rule that would require public companies to disclose on several climate-related factors, including climate-related risk management and greenhouse gas emissions, among others. This rule is expected to be finalized in 2024. Other federal regulations such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and USA PATRIOT Act, including its anti-money laundering regulations, also impact our business.

The variable annuities underwritten by Horace Mann Life Insurance Company (HMLIC) are regulated by the SEC. Horace Mann Investors, Inc., and BCG Securities, Inc. (BCGS), our broker-dealer and Registered Investment Adviser subsidiaries, are also regulated by the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA), the Municipal Securities Rule-making Board and various state securities regulators.

Changes in federal income taxation of the build-up of cash value within a life insurance policy or an annuity contract could have a materially adverse impact on our ability to market and sell such products. Various legislation to this effect has been proposed in the past, but has not been enacted. Although no such legislative proposals are known to exist at this time, such proposals may be made again in the future. Changes in other

20 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

federal and state laws and regulations could also affect the relative tax and other advantages of our annuity and life products.

Financial Regulation Legislation

In addition, from time to time, the United States Congress and certain federal agencies investigate the current condition of the insurance industry to determine whether federal regulation is necessary. For example, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) created the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. FIO studies the current insurance regulatory system and is charged with monitoring and providing specific reports on various aspects of the insurance industry, including the collection of information about the insurance industry and monitoring the industry for systemic risk. However, FIO does not have general supervisory or regulatory authority over the insurance business.

Privacy and Cybersecurity

We are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations with respect to privacy, data protection and cybersecurity. Some states have adopted NAIC’s Insurance Data Security Model Law, which establishes standards for data security and the investigation and notification of cybersecurity events. In 2023, the SEC adopted a new cybersecurity disclosure rule for public companies. This rule requires that public companies report material cybersecurity incidents on a Form 8-K within four business days of the materiality determination. In addition, state privacy laws continue to evolve. The California Consumer Privacy Act went into effect in January 2020, and provides additional privacy rights for California residents by enacting the California Privacy Rights Act, which became effective January 1, 2023. Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia have enacted similar privacy laws, all of which became effective in 2023. Federal and state regulators are expected to continue to enact legislation related to privacy and cybersecurity, which may require additional compliance efforts and changes to policies, procedures and operations.

Changing Climate Conditions

Horace Mann continually works to better understand and manage climate risks that directly affect our stakeholders. This is an important issue for the insurance industry. We recognize climate change is a growing concern, and continually work to better understand and manage climate risks that directly affect our customers, insurance products and investment portfolio. Our Board formally recognizes the importance of carbon neutrality.

Our Board oversees our Enterprise Risk Management Committee’s risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies, including recommended actions to address climate change risks. These actions include managing climate risks through our ongoing risk assessments to help us improve the accuracy of our climate-related risk models, refine how we price and underwrite policies, and avoid an over concentration of insurance coverages and investments in geographies likely to be affected by climate risk. We also have in place a conservative reinsurance program as an additional layer of protection against large property and casualty catastrophe losses. Our 2024 coverage for $30 million to $175 million of losses shares the risk with other insurance companies.

We also are working to mitigate the impact of climate risks on our results. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns in recent years are widely associated with more frequent and severe weather events and natural catastrophes, leading to higher insurance claims and costs and creating additional uncertainty as to future trends and exposures. We want to be there for our customers in the event of a loss of our customers' property and help them recover from hurricanes, windstorms, hail, severe winter weather, wildfires and earthquakes. We are actively monitoring trends in the frequency and severity of events and ongoing academic research on potential future impacts of climate change on weather volatility and will consider options to adjust our views on risk as new information becomes available. Members of the ERM Committee are responsible for updates to the Board and various Board committees on key risks and emerging risk topics.

As we look ahead, we believe climate change risks should be understood, modeled and priced into our insurance products and services. There are also public policy implications, such as discouraging overbuilding in high-risk areas through flood insurance requirements and state regulatory approaches to insurance premium approvals; and modifying and enforcing building codes to better protect at-risk communities against the effects of natural catastrophes.

Similar to other insurers, we may be subject to increased losses from catastrophes and other weather-related events that are exacerbated by weather/climate variability.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 21

As we discuss in Part I - Item 1A—Risk Factors—“Climate change may adversely affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows" of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, several factors make increased losses more likely:

•More people living in high-risk areas combined with population growth in areas with weaker enforcement of building codes, urban expansion and an increase in the average size of a house. For example, hurricane activity has impacted areas further inland than previously experienced, and demographic changes have resulted in larger populations located in coastal areas that historically have been subject to severe storms and related storm surge, expanding the potential for losses from hurricanes.

•Elevated frequency and severity of wildfire losses due, in part, to record droughts in western states that some climate studies suggest are likely to increase over time, as well as demographic changes in areas prone to wildfires.

•Less reliable catastrophe models due to the increased unpredictability in frequency and severity of severe weather events, emerging trends in climate conditions, inadequate reflection of regulatory changes and the other factors mentioned above.

In addition, changing climate conditions may present other issues for our business as discussed in Part I - Item 1A - Risk Factors of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. For example, among other things:

•Changing climate conditions could also impact the creditworthiness of issuers of securities in which we invest. For example, water supply adequacy could impact the creditworthiness of bond issuers with significant assets or business activities in the Southwestern United States, and more frequent and/or severe hurricanes could impact the creditworthiness of issuers with significant assets or business activities in the Southeastern United States, among other areas.

•Increased regulation adopted in response to potential changes in climate conditions may impact us and our customers, including state insurance regulations that could impact our ability to manage property exposures in areas vulnerable to significant climate driven losses. For example, one state passed legislation that restricted a carrier's ability to cancel or non-renew certain policies within or adjacent to declared state of emergency zip codes. If we are unable to implement risk-based pricing, modify policy terms or reduce exposures to the extent necessary to address rising losses related to catastrophes and smaller scale weather events (should those increased losses occur), our business may be adversely affected.

Enterprise Risk Management

As a multi-line insurance company, we are exposed to many risks which are a function of the products we underwrite and the environments within which we operate. Since certain risks can be correlated, an event or a series of events can impact multiple areas of our business simultaneously and have a material effect on our results of operations, financial position and liquidity. These exposures require an entity-wide view of risk and an understanding of the potential impact on all aspects of our operations. It also requires us to manage our risk-taking to be within our appetite in a prudent and balanced effort to create and preserve value for all our stakeholders. Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) activities involve both the identification and assessment of a broad range of risks and the execution of coordinated strategies to effectively manage them. ERM also includes an evaluation of our risk capital needs, which takes into account regulatory requirements and credit rating considerations, in addition to economic and other factors. ERM is an integral part of our business operations. All risk owners across all functions, all corporate leaders and the Board are engaged in ERM. ERM involves risk-based analytics, as well as reporting and feedback throughout the enterprise in support of our long-term financial strategies and objectives.

To aid our risk analysis, we use property and casualty catastrophe models that are run by our reinsurance intermediary. Life & Retirement asset cash flows are projected using third-party software for certain security types. We also utilize proprietary third-party computer modeling processes to evaluate capital adequacy. These analytical techniques are an integral component of our ERM process and further support our long-term financial strategies and objectives.

Within Horace Mann, ERM is an ongoing assessment process used to identify and manage or mitigate risk, which will continue to influence our strategy and direction. The ERM Committee objectives include the following:

22 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

•Apply appropriate consideration to risk in strategic and operational decision-making

•Define and communicate risk appetite and risk management policies

•Approve and oversee processes aimed at identifying, evaluating, and managing risk

•Monitor and discuss emerging risks and risk management capabilities

The ERM Committee is composed of senior executives from across Horace Mann and has ultimate oversight over the risk management process, with each leader having ownership and accountability over certain identified key risks. Our Chief Risk Officer (CRO), in conjunction with the ERM Committee, is responsible for working with the business leaders to ensure that they are actively monitoring and managing their key risks. The CRO is also responsible for identifying and monitoring key corporate level risks that encompass more than one business/division. There is ongoing and regular communication within the ERM Committee.

Members of the ERM Committee are responsible for updates to the Board and various Board committees on key risks and emerging risk topics. The interaction of all the various individuals, committees, reports, and processes results in an on-going process, which we believe puts us in the best position to effectively and efficiently manage risk.

Our ERM efforts build upon the foundation of an effective internal control environment. However, we can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that these objectives will be met. Further, the design of any risk management or control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. As a result, the possibility of material financial loss remains despite our significant and comprehensive ERM efforts. An investor should carefully consider the risks and all other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including disclosures in Part I - Item 1A—Risk Factors, Part II - Item 7A—Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk, and Part II - Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

ITEM 1A. I Risk Factors

Index to Risk Factors

Page

Introduction 23

Risks Related to Economic Conditions, Market Conditions and Investments 24

Strategic Risks 25

Operational Risks 27

Financial Strength, Credit and Counterparty Risks 32

Regulatory and Legal Risks 33

Introduction

We have identified what we believe reflect key significant risks to the organization, and in turn to our shareholders, which are outlined below. Any of the risks described below could result in a significant or material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition. In addition to these enumerated risks, we face numerous other strategic, operational and emerging risks that could in the aggregate lead to shortfalls to our long-term goals or add to short-term volatility in our earnings. Additionally, many risk factors are correlated, which could exacerbate the financial impact. The following review of important risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the Forward-looking Information section located in Part I - Item 1 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K as well as Part II - Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports and materials we submit to the SEC. The words or phrases believe, anticipate, estimate, project, plan, expect, intend, hope, forecast, evaluate, will likely result or will continue or words or phrases of similar import generally involve forward-looking statements. All of the risks that may affect our financial or operating performance may not be material at this time but may become material in the future.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 23

Risks Related to Economic Conditions, Market Conditions and Investments

Volatile financial markets and adverse economic environments can affect financial market risk as well as our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business and results of operations are materially affected by conditions in the capital markets and the U.S. economy, as well as by the global economy to the extent it affects the U.S. economy. Actual or perceived stressed conditions, volatility and disruptions in financial asset classes or various capital markets can have an adverse effect on us, both because we have a large investment portfolio and our benefit and claim liabilities are sensitive to changing market factors, including interest rates, credit spreads, derivative prices and availability, and volatility of capital markets. In an economic downturn characterized by higher unemployment and lower family income, the demand for our products could be adversely affected as customers are unwilling or unable to purchase them. In addition, we may experience an elevated incidence of claims, adverse utilization of benefits relative to our best estimate assumptions, and increased lapses or surrenders of policies. Such adverse changes in the economy could negatively affect our earnings and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and our ability to receive dividends from our insurance subsidiaries.

Significant market volatility in reaction to geopolitical risks, changing monetary policy, and uncertain fiscal policy may exacerbate some of the risks we face. Equity and credit market volatility may reduce net investment income from limited partnership interests accounted for using the equity method of accounting, negatively impacting the results of operations. Declining equity markets may also decrease separate account values as well as fixed account values of our retirement products, reducing certain fees generated by these products.

Recent increases in interest rates have increased our cost of borrowing and volatility in U.S. financial markets could impact our access to, or further increase the cost of, financing. Past disruptions in the U.S. credit and equity markets made it more difficult for many businesses to obtain financing on acceptable terms. These conditions tended to increase the cost of borrowing and if they recur, our cost of borrowing could increase and it may be more difficult to obtain financing for our operations.

Changes in interest rates could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Some of our products and investments expose us to interest rate risks which may reduce our investment spread and net income or increase our capital requirements.

Low interest rates may reduce income from our investment portfolio and increase our future policy benefit reserves. In addition, during periods of sustained lower interest rates, we may need to reinvest proceeds from certain investments at a lower yield, reducing our investment income. Moreover, borrowers may prepay or redeem the fixed income securities and loans in our investment portfolio with greater frequency. Although we may be able to lower interest crediting rates to help offset decreases in spread on Retirement products, our ability to lower these rates is limited to our products that have adjustable interest crediting rates, which could be limited by competition or contractually guaranteed minimum rates and may not match the timing or magnitude of changes in asset yields. As a result, our investment spread on Retirement products may decrease or become negative.

During periods of declining interest rates, life insurance and annuity products may be more attractive investments to consumers, resulting in increased premium payments on certain products, repayment of policy loans and increased persistency, while our new investments carry lower returns. During periods of declining interest rates, our future policy benefit reserves would increase due to the impact on discount rates.

Interest rate increases may also harm our profitability. During periods of rapidly increasing interest rates, we may not be able to replace the investments in our general account with higher yielding investments needed to fund the higher crediting rates required to stay competitive. This could result in a lower spread, lower profitability, and decreased sales. In addition, policy loans, surrenders and withdrawals may increase as policyholders seek investments with higher perceived returns. This may result in cash outflows requiring the sale of investments on less favorable terms, resulting in investment losses. Interest rate increases may harm the value of our investment portfolio, for example by decreasing the estimated fair values of fixed income securities. Furthermore, if interest rates rise, our unrealized gains on fixed income securities will decrease and our unrealized losses may increase. In addition, our investment borrowings from the Federal Home Loan Bank are secured by collateral, the fair value of which can be significantly impacted by general market conditions. If the fair value of pledged collateral falls

24 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

below specific levels, we would be required to pledge additional eligible collateral or repay all or a portion of the investment borrowings, resulting in reduced investment income. Finally, an increase in interest rates may decrease fee income associated with the decline in the value of variable annuity account balances invested in fixed income funds.

Our investment portfolios are subject to the risk of loss.

The success of our investment strategy is crucial to the success of our business. We are exposed to investment risk through our investments, which primarily consist of public and private fixed maturity securities, equity securities and alternative assets including private equity, commercial mortgage loan and real estate funds.

Investment risk may result from (1) economic conditions, (2) adverse capital market conditions, including disruptions in individual market sectors or a lack of buyers in the marketplace, (3) volatility, (4) credit spread changes, (5) benchmark interest rate changes, and (6) declines in the value of underlying collateral. These factors may impact the credit quality, liquidity, and value of our investments, potentially resulting in higher capital charges and unrealized or realized losses. Also, certain investments we hold, regardless of market conditions, are relatively illiquid and our ability to promptly sell these assets for their full value may be limited.

We report our fixed maturity securities and other financial instruments at fair value. Valuations may include inputs and assumptions that are less observable or require greater estimation, particularly during periods of market disruption, resulting in values which may be higher or lower than the value at which the investments may ultimately be sold. Further, rapidly changing, and unprecedented credit and equity market conditions could materially impact the valuation of securities as reported in our financial statements, and the period-to-period changes in value could vary significantly. Decreases in value may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.

We evaluate our investment portfolio for credit losses. There can be no assurance that we have accurately assessed the level of credit losses taken. Additional credit losses may need to be taken in the future, and historical trends may not be indicative of future credit losses. Any event reducing the value of our securities may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Strategic Risks

The personal lines insurance, retirement and supplemental group benefit markets are highly competitive and our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by competitive forces.

We operate in a highly competitive environment and compete with numerous insurance companies, as well as mutual fund families, independent agent companies and financial planners. In some instances and geographic locations, competitors have specifically targeted the educator marketplace with specialized products and programs. We compete in our target market with a number of national providers of personal auto and property insurance, life insurance, retirement products and supplemental group benefits.

The insurance industry consists of a large number of insurance companies, some of which have substantially greater financial resources, more diversified product lines, more sophisticated product pricing, greater economies of scale and/or lower-cost marketing approaches compared to us. In our target market, we believe that the principal competitive factors in the sale of property and casualty insurance products and supplemental insurance products are overall service, worksite sales and service, price, and name recognition. We believe that for our market, the principal competitive factors in the sale of retirement products, life insurance products and supplemental group benefits are worksite sales and service, product features, perceived stability of the insurer, price, overall service and name recognition.

Particularly in the Property & Casualty business, our insurance subsidiaries have experienced pricing and profitability cycles. During these periods of intense competition, they may be unable to add policyholders and increase revenues without adversely impacting profit margins. With respect to these cycles, the factors having the greatest impact include significant and/or rapid changes in loss costs, including changes in loss frequency and/or severity, prior approval and restrictions in certain states for price increases, intense price competition, less restrictive underwriting standards, aggressive marketing, and increased advertising, which have resulted in higher industry-wide combined loss and expense ratios. Competition from direct writers and large, mass market carriers has been particularly aggressive, evidenced in part by their significant national advertising expenditures.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 25

In addition, advancements in vehicle technology and safety features, such as accident prevention technologies or the development of autonomous or partially autonomous vehicles — once widely available and utilized, as well as expanded availability of usage-based insurance, could materially alter the way that auto insurance is marketed, priced and underwritten. The inability of our insurance subsidiaries to effectively anticipate the impact of these issues on our business and compete successfully in the property and casualty business could adversely affect their financial condition and results of operations and the resulting ability to distribute cash to us.

In the Retirement business, there are several factors driving increased competition. First, the current IRS Section 403(b) regulations have made the 403(b) market similar to the 401(k) market. These changes have increased and could continue to increase the number of competitors in the 403(b) market, as it has become more attractive to some of the larger companies experienced in 401(k) plans, including both insurance and mutual fund companies, which had not previously been active competitors in this business. Further, while not yet widespread, there has been continued pressure in some states to adopt state-sponsored or mandated 403(b) plans with single-provider or limited-provider options; this pressure has come from competitor lobbying efforts and state legislature pension reform initiatives. The inability of our insurance subsidiaries to compete successfully in these circumstances could adversely affect their financial condition and results of operations and the resulting ability to distribute cash to us.

The development and maintenance of our various distribution channels are critical to growth in product sales and profits.

Our success in marketing and selling our products is largely dependent upon the efforts of our independent exclusive agent sales force and the success of their agency operations. If we are unable to recruit additional agents, fail to develop and retain high-producing agents, are unable to maintain the productivity of those agency operations, or are unable to maintain market penetration in existing territories, sales of our products could likely decline and our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We also distribute group benefits under agreements with third-party distribution partners with distribution highly concentrated in one partner. If we are unable to retain our critical distribution partner or are unable expand to additional distribution partners, our sales could be adversely impacted.

In addition, a failure to effectively develop new methods of reaching consumers or realize cost efficiencies could impact our ability to grow our business and generate revenues as new sales could suffer.

If we are not able to maintain secure access to educators, our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our ability to successfully increase new business in the educator market is largely dependent on our ability to effectively access educators either in their school buildings or through other approaches. While this is especially true for the sale of 403(b) tax-qualified retirement products via payroll deduction and worksite direct sales, any significant decrease in access, either through fewer payroll slots, increased security measures, impacts of state or federal level pension reform initiatives, or for other reasons, could adversely affect the sale of all lines of business and require us to change our traditional approach to worksite marketing and promotion, as well as contact with potential customers. With the current IRS regulations regarding Section 403(b) arrangements, including retirement products, our ability to maintain and increase our share of the 403(b) market, and the access it gives for other product lines, will depend on our ability to successfully compete in this market. Some school districts and benefit consultants have placed emphasis on the relative financial strength ratings of competing companies, as well as low-cost product and distribution approaches, which may put us at a competitive disadvantage relative to other more highly rated insurance companies.

Our ability to maintain and obtain product and corporate endorsements from, and/or marketing agreements with, local, state and national education-related associations is important to our marketing strategy. In addition to teacher organizations, we have established relationships with various other educator, principal, school administrator and school business official groups. These contacts and endorsements help to establish our brand name and presence in the educational community and to enhance access to educators.

Lack of successful execution on acquisition integration strategies could result in impairment of goodwill and intangible assets that could adversely affect our results of operations.

26 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

We accounted for the NTA and Madison National acquisitions using the acquisition method of accounting, which requires that the assets acquired and liabilities assumed be recognized on our consolidated balance sheet at their respective fair values as of the acquisition date, including recognition of intangible assets. Any excess of the purchase consideration over the fair value of the acquired net tangible and intangible assets is recognized as goodwill.

As of December 31, 2023, the Company's Consolidated Balance Sheet reflected goodwill of $34.9 million and intangible assets of $156.9 million recognized in connection with the recent acquisitions (see Part II - Item 8, Note 9 of the Consolidated Financial Statements for more information). To the extent the acquisitions do not provide the modeled returns, the value of goodwill or intangible assets could become impaired and thus, we may be required to recognize material non-cash charges relating to such impairment, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Operational Risks

A catastrophe event, a series of multiple catastrophe events or a series of non-catastrophe severe weather events could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Underwriting results of property and casualty insurers are subject to weather and other conditions prevailing in an accident year. While one year may be relatively free of major weather or other disasters, not all of which are designated by the insurance industry as a catastrophe, another year may have numerous such events causing results for such a year to be materially worse than for previous years.

Our Property & Casualty insurance subsidiaries have experienced, and we anticipate that in the future they will continue to experience, catastrophe losses. A catastrophe event, a series of multiple catastrophe events or a series of non-catastrophe severe weather events could have a material adverse effect on the financial condition and results of operations of our insurance subsidiaries.

Various events can cause catastrophes, including hurricanes, windstorms, hail, severe winter weather, wildfires, earthquakes, explosions and terrorism. The frequency and severity of these catastrophes are inherently unpredictable. The extent of losses from a catastrophe is a function of both the total amount of insured exposures in the area affected by the event and the severity of the event. Although catastrophes can cause losses in a variety of property and casualty lines, most of the catastrophe-related claims of our insurance subsidiaries are related to property coverages. Our ability to provide accurate estimates of ultimate catastrophe losses is based on several factors, including:

•the proximity of the catastrophe occurrence date to the date of our estimate;

•potential inflation of property and auto repair costs in the affected area;

•supply chain interruptions resulting in cost increases, including availability of services and materials;

•the occurrence of multiple catastrophes in a geographic area over a relatively short period of time; and

•the outcome of litigation which may be filed against us by policyholders, state attorneys general and other parties relative to loss coverage disputes and loss settlement payments.

Based on 2023 direct premiums earned, 58.9% of the total annual premiums for our Property & Casualty business were for policies issued in the ten largest states in which the insurance subsidiaries write property and casualty coverage. Included in this top ten group are certain states which are considered to be more prone to catastrophe occurrences: California, Texas, North Carolina, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

Our property and casualty loss reserves may not be adequate.

Our Property & Casualty insurance subsidiaries maintain loss reserves to provide for their estimated ultimate liability for losses and loss adjustment expenses with respect to reported and unreported claims incurred as of the end of each reporting date. If these loss reserves prove inadequate, a loss is recognized and measured by the amount of the shortfall and, as a result, the financial condition and results of operations of the insurance subsidiaries may be adversely affected, potentially affecting their ability to distribute cash to us.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 27

Reserves do not represent an exact calculation of liability. Reserves represent estimates, generally involving actuarial projections at a given time, of what the insurance subsidiaries expect the ultimate settlement and adjustment of claims will cost, net of salvage and subrogation. Estimates are based on assessments of known facts and circumstances, assumptions related to the ultimate cost to settle such claims, estimates of future trends in claims severity and frequency, changing judicial theories of liability and other factors. These variables are affected by both internal and external events, including changes in claims handling procedures, economic inflation, unpredictability of court decisions, plaintiffs' expanded theories of liability, risks inherent in major litigation and legislative changes. Many of these items are not directly quantifiable, particularly on a prospective basis. Significant reporting lags may exist between the occurrence of an insured event and the time it is reported. Our insurance subsidiaries adjust their reserve estimates regularly as experience develops and further claims are reported and settled.

The rise in inflation in recent periods has significantly increased our loss costs in our auto and property businesses. It is possible that inflation could remain at elevated levels for a prolonged period, or increase from these high levels, which could in turn lead to further increases in our loss costs. The impact of inflation on loss costs could be more pronounced for those lines of business that are considered “longer tail,” such as auto liability, as they require a relatively long period of time to finalize and settle claims for a given accident year. Recent changes in the macroeconomic environment have impacted medical labor and materials costs, the potential persistency of which could result in future loss costs which are higher than our current expectations. The estimation of loss reserves may also be more difficult during extreme events, such as a pandemic, or during volatile or uncertain economic conditions, due to unexpected changes in behavior of claimants and policyholders, including an increase in fraudulent reporting of exposures and/or losses, reduced maintenance of insured properties, increased frequency of small claims or delays in the reporting or adjudication of claims, and supply chain constraints.

Due to the inherent uncertainty in estimating reserves for losses and loss adjustment expenses, we cannot be certain that the ultimate liability will not exceed amounts reserved, with a resulting adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Actual experience differing significantly from our life pricing and reserving assumptions could negatively affect our results of operations and financial condition.

The profitability of our supplemental insurance, life insurance, and annuity products depends significantly upon the extent to which our actual experience is consistent with the assumptions used in setting prices for our products and establishing liabilities for our future policy benefits and claims. The premiums we charge and the liabilities we hold for future policy benefits are based on assumptions reflecting several factors, including the amount of premiums we will receive in the future, rate of return on assets we purchase, expected claims, mortality, morbidity, lapse rates and expenses. In addition, for our supplemental products, historical results may not be indicative of future performance due to, among other things, changes in our mix of business, regulatory actions or changes in legal doctrine impacting our products or lines of business, or any number of economic cyclical effects including inflation.

Due to the nature of the underlying risks and the degree of uncertainty associated with the determination of the liabilities for unpaid policy benefits and claims, we cannot precisely determine the amounts we will ultimately pay to settle these liabilities, the timing of such payments, or whether the assets supporting the liabilities, together with future premium, will be sufficient to satisfy the liabilities. As a result, we may experience volatility in the level of our profitability and our reserves from period to period. To the extent that actual experience is less favorable than our underlying assumptions, we could be required to increase our liabilities, which my harm our financial strength and reduce our profitability.

A large-scale pandemic, the occurrence of terrorism or military actions may have an adverse effect on our business.

A large-scale pandemic, the occurrence of terrorism or military and other actions may result in loss of life, property damage, and disruptions to commerce and reduced economic activity. Some of the assets in our investment portfolio may be adversely affected by declines in the equity markets, changes in interest rates, reduced liquidity and economic activity caused by a large-scale pandemic. Additionally, a large-scale pandemic or terrorist act could have a material effect on sales, liquidity and operating results.

28 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

The effects of a global pandemic on the U.S. economy, our customers, our agents, our employees, our investments and our communities, as well as any preventative or protective actions that we, our employees and agency force, our third-party service providers and suppliers, or governments may take to mitigate the impact of a global pandemic could have an adverse effect on our ability to conduct business and on our financial condition and results of operations. Impacts to our business have been and could continue to be widespread and may result in the following:

•employees contracting effects from a global pandemic;

•increased competition in hiring and retaining employees and agents;

•sustained lack of access to schools and educators that could materially impact our sales and premium volumes;

•public school systems facing budget constraints due to the economic impacts of the pandemic that could result in educator layoffs;

•unprecedented volatility in financial markets that could materially affect our investment portfolio valuations and returns as well as our ability to generate targeted spreads on indexed products;

•regulatory mandates and/or legislative changes, including premium grace periods and premium credits;

•changes in frequency and/or severity of claims;

•supply chain interruptions resulting in cost increases, including availability of services and materials;

•increased credit risk;

•business disruption for insurance agents who market and sell our insurance products; and,

•business disruptions to third parties at which we outsource certain business functions to or on which we rely for technology.

The full extent to which pandemics or terrorist acts could affect the global economy, the financial markets and our business, our financial condition and our results of operations will depend on future developments and factors that cannot be predicted.

Climate change may adversely affect our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Climate change presents risk to us and there are concerns that the increased frequency, severity and geographic spread of weather-related catastrophes and other losses, as well as time of year of occurrence are indicative of changing weather patterns, whether as a result of climate-warming trends (global climate change) caused by human activities or otherwise, which could cause such events to persist. Increased weather-related catastrophes could lead to higher overall losses, which we may not be able to recoup, particularly in a highly regulated and competitive environment, and higher reinsurance costs. Certain catastrophe models assume an increase in frequency and severity of certain weather or other events, which could result in a disproportionate impact on insurers with certain geographic concentrations of risk. This could also likely increase the risks of writing property insurance in coastal areas or areas susceptible to wildfires or hail and wind activity, particularly in jurisdictions that restrict pricing and underwriting flexibility. The threat of rising sea levels or other catastrophe losses as a result of global climate change may also cause property values in coastal or such other communities to decrease, reducing the total amount of insurance coverage that is required.

In the short term, extreme weather conditions cause financial impacts and disruptions in our daily Property & Casualty operations. We have experienced millions of dollars in losses from catastrophes such as hurricanes, wildfires, wind, and thunderstorms. Catastrophes can also impact a property and casualty insurance company's claims and claim adjustment expenses incurred.

In addition, global climate change could have an impact on our fixed maturity securities and limited partnership portfolios, resulting in realized and unrealized losses in future periods that could have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows. It is not possible to foresee which, if any, assets,

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 29

industries or markets may be materially and adversely affected, nor is it possible to foresee the magnitude of such effect.

Further, it is also possible that the legal, regulatory and social responses to climate change could have an adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. In 2022, the SEC proposed a new disclosure rule that would require public companies to disclose on several climate-related factors, including climate-related risk management and greenhouse gas emissions, among others. This rule is expected to be finalized in 2024. We expect that changes in these laws, regulations and proposals could negatively impact our business, including by increasing our legal, compliance and information technology costs. For additional impacts from the regulatory environment, see Part I - Item 1A - Risk Factors - 'Legal, statutory and regulatory developments could adversely impact our business by increasing costs or making our business less profitable."

Cybersecurity breaches could have an adverse effect on our business and reputation.

Cybersecurity threats and incidents have increased in recent years in frequency, levels of persistence, sophistication and intensity, and we may be subject to heightened cyber-related risks. Our business depends on the proper functioning and availability of our information technology platform, including communications and data processing systems, our proprietary systems, and systems of our third-party service providers. We have implemented and maintain what we believe to be reasonable security measures, but we cannot guarantee that the controls and procedures we have in place to protect or recover our respective systems and the information stored on such systems will be effective, successful or sufficiently rapid to avoid harm to our business. Moreover, while we generally perform cybersecurity due diligence on our key service providers, we cannot ensure the cybersecurity measures they take will be sufficient to protect any information we share with them. Due to applicable laws, regulations, rules, standards and contractual obligations, we may be held responsible for cyber-attacks, security breaches or other similar incidents attributed to our service providers as they relate to the information we share with them.

Cybersecurity threats are evolving in nature and becoming increasingly difficult to detect, and may come from a variety of sources, including organized criminal groups, “hacktivists,” terrorists, and nation state-supported actors. These threats include, among other things, computer viruses, worms, malware, ransomware, denial of service attacks, defective software, credential stuffing, social engineering, phishing attacks, human error, fraud, theft, or improper access by employees or service providers, and other similar threats. Any cybersecurity incident, including system failure, cyber-attacks, security breaches, disruption by malware or other damage, with respect to our or our service providers’ information technology systems, could interrupt or delay our operations, result in a violation of applicable cybersecurity, privacy, data protection or other laws, regulations, rules, standards or contractual obligations, damage our reputation, cause a loss of customers or expose sensitive customer data, give rise to civil litigation, injunctions, damages, monetary fines or other penalties, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny or notification obligations, and/or increase our compliance costs, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations.

We may not be able to anticipate all cyber-attacks, security breaches or other similar incidents, detect or react to such incidents in a timely manner, or adequately remediate any such incident. In addition, recent disclosure requirements add additional risk that bad actors might use the information with malicious intent, exacerbating the impacts of a breach. While management is not aware of any cyber-attack, security breach or other similar incident that has had a material effect on our operations, there can be no assurances that such an incident that could have a material impact on us will not occur in the future.

Further, the cybersecurity, privacy and data protection regulatory environment is evolving, and it is likely that the costs of complying with new or developing regulatory requirements will increase. For example, we operate in a number of jurisdictions with strict cybersecurity, privacy, data protection and other related laws, regulations, rules and standards, which could be violated in the event of a significant cyber-attack, security breach or other similar incident affecting personal, proprietary or confidential information or in the event of noncompliance by our personnel with such obligations.

We cannot ensure that any limitations of liability provisions in our agreements with clients, service providers and other third parties with which we do business would be enforceable or adequate or otherwise protect us from any liabilities or damages with respect to any claim in connection with a cyber-attack, security breach or other similar incident. In addition, while we maintain insurance that would mitigate the financial loss under such scenarios, providing what we believe to be appropriate policy limits, terms and conditions, we cannot guarantee that our insurance coverage will be adequate for all financial and non-financial consequences from a

30 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

cybersecurity event, that insurance will continue to be available to us on economically reasonable terms, or at all, or that our insurer will not deny coverage as to any future claim.

Successful execution of our business growth strategy is dependent on effective implementation of new or enhanced technology systems and applications.

Our ability to effectively execute our business growth strategy and leverage potential economies of scale is dependent on our ability to provide the requisite technology components for that strategy. Our ability to replace or supplement dated, legacy business systems — such as our Life & Retirement and Property & Casualty policy administrative systems, as well as our financial system — with more flexible, maintainable, and customer accessible solutions will be necessary to achieve our plans. The inherent difficulty in replacing and/or modernizing these older technologies, coupled with our limited experience in these endeavors, presents an increased risk of failing to deliver these technology solutions in a cost effective and timely manner. Our scale will require us to develop innovative solutions to address these challenges, including consideration of "software as a service" arrangements and other third-party based information technology capabilities. More modern approaches to software development and utilization of third-party vendors can augment our internal capacity for these implementations but may not adequately reduce the operational risks of timely and cost-effective delivery.

Loss of key vendor relationships could affect our operations.

We increasingly rely on services and products provided by a number of vendors in the U.S. and abroad. These include, for example, vendors of computer hardware and software, including on-demand software, and vendors of services such as investment management advisement, third-party administrators of our supplemental group benefit products, information technology services — such as those associated with policy administrative systems — and delivery services for customer policy-level communications. In the event that one or more of our vendors suffers a bankruptcy or otherwise becomes unable to continue to provide products or services, we may suffer operational difficulties and financial losses.

Our ability to attract, develop, engage, and retain top talent, maintain optimal staffing levels, and foster/sustain a highly inclusive and engaging culture is critical to our success.

Competition from within the insurance industry and from other industries, including the technology sector, for qualified employees with highly specialized knowledge in areas such as underwriting, data and analytics, technology and e-commerce, has often been intense and we have experienced increased competition in hiring and retaining employees.

Factors that affect our ability to attract and retain such employees include:

•competitive total rewards; including compensation and benefits;

•robust training and development programs;

•reputation as a successful business with a culture of fair hiring, and of training and promoting qualified employees; and,

•recognition and responsiveness to changing trends (i.e., remote/hybrid work arrangements) and other circumstances that affect employees.

The unexpected loss of key personnel could have a material adverse impact on our business because of the loss of their skills, knowledge of our products and offerings and years of industry experience and, in some cases, the difficulty of promptly finding qualified replacement personnel. The risks to attracting and retaining the necessary talent may be exacerbated by recent labor constraints and inflationary pressures on employee wages and benefits.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 31

Financial Strength, Credit and Counterparty Risks

Losses due to defaults by others could reduce our profitability or negatively affect the value of our investments.

Third-party debtors may not pay or perform their obligations. These parties may include the issuers whose securities we hold, customers, reinsurers, borrowers under mortgage loans, trading counterparties, derivative counterparties, clearing agents, exchanges, clearing houses and other financial intermediaries. These parties may default on their obligations to us due to bankruptcy, lack of liquidity, downturns in the economy or real estate values, operational failure or other reasons.

During or following an economic downturn, our municipal bond portfolio could be subject to a higher risk of default or impairment due to declining municipal tax bases and revenue. States are currently barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. However, federal legislation could possibly be enacted to allow states to declare bankruptcy in connection with deficit reductions or mounting unfunded pension liabilities, which could adversely impact the value of our municipal bond portfolio.

The default of a major market participant could disrupt the securities markets or clearance and settlement systems in the U.S. or abroad. A failure of a major market participant could cause some clearance and settlement systems to assess members of that system, including our broker-dealer and Registered Investment Adviser regulatory entities, or could lead to a chain of defaults that could adversely affect us. A default of a major market participant could disrupt various markets, which could in turn cause market declines or volatility and negatively impact our financial condition and results of operations.

Uncollectible reinsurance, as well as reinsurance availability and pricing, can have a material adverse effect on our business volume and profitability.

Reinsurance is a contract by which one insurer, called a reinsurer, agrees to cover a portion of the losses incurred by a second insurer in the event a claim is made under a policy issued by the second insurer. Although a reinsurer is liable to our insurance subsidiaries according to the terms of the reinsurance policy, the insurance subsidiaries remain primarily liable as the direct insurers on all risks reinsured. As a result, reinsurance does not eliminate the obligation of our insurance subsidiaries to pay all claims, and each insurance subsidiary is subject to the risk that one or more of its reinsurers will be unable or unwilling to honor its obligations.

Although we limit participation in our reinsurance programs to reinsurers with high financial strength ratings and also limit the amount of coverage from each reinsurer, our insurance subsidiaries cannot guarantee that their reinsurers will pay in a timely fashion, if at all. Reinsurers may become financially unsound by the time that they are called upon to pay amounts due, which may not occur for many years.

Additionally, the availability and cost of reinsurance are subject to prevailing market conditions beyond our control. For example, significant losses from hurricanes or terrorist attacks, an increase in capital requirements, or a future lapse of the provisions of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act could have a significant adverse effect on the reinsurance market.

If one of our insurance subsidiaries is unable to obtain adequate reinsurance at reasonable rates, that insurance subsidiary would have to increase its risk exposure and/or reduce the level of its underwriting commitments, which could have a material adverse effect upon the business volume and profitability of the subsidiary. Alternatively, the insurance subsidiary could elect to pay the higher than reasonable rates for reinsurance coverage, which could have a material adverse effect upon its profitability until policy premium rates could be raised, in some cases subject to approval by state regulators, to incorporate this additional cost.

We are subject to the credit risk of our counterparties, including reinsurers who reinsure business from our insurance companies.

Our insurance subsidiaries may cede certain risks to third-party insurance companies through reinsurance. In the event of insolvency of a reinsurer, our financial condition and results of operation could be negatively impacted.

HMLIC entered into a reinsurance agreement with RGA to effectuate the reinsurance of a block of in force fixed and variable annuities on a coinsurance and modified coinsurance basis. The variable portion of the reinsured annuities is reinsured on a modified coinsurance basis and assets supporting the variable account liabilities are still held in separate accounts. Because the reinsurance agreement covers a large volume of our in-force annuity

32 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

business, the transaction exposes us to a concentration of credit risk with respect to this counterparty. RGA's financial obligations for the general account liabilities of the reinsured annuity contracts are secured by its assets placed in a comfort trust for our sole use and benefit. Upon RGA's material breach of the reinsurance agreement, deterioration of its risk-based capital ratio to a certain level, or certain other events, we may recapture the reinsured business. However, in the event of RGA's insolvency, our right to use the assets in the trust account may be delayed. Also, if at the time of its insolvency the comfort trust account is not funded at a level to fully discharge all its obligations, our claims to the extent not covered by the assets in the comfort trust would be those of a general creditor.

Any downgrade in or adverse change in outlook for our claims-paying ratings, financial strength ratings or credit ratings could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Claims-paying ratings and financial strength ratings have become an increasingly important factor in establishing the competitive position of insurance companies. In the evolving 403(b) retirement market, school districts and benefit consultants have placed an emphasis on the relative financial strength ratings of competing companies. Each rating agency reviews its ratings periodically and from time to time may modify its rating criteria including, among other factors, its expectations regarding capital adequacy, profitability and revenue growth. A downgrade in the ratings or adverse change in the ratings outlook of any of our insurance subsidiaries by a major rating agency could result in substantial loss of business for that subsidiary if school districts, policyholders, distribution partners or independent agents move their business to other companies having higher claims-paying ratings and financial strength ratings than we have. This loss of business could have a material adverse effect on the results of operations and financial condition of that subsidiary.

A downgrade of our debt rating also could adversely affect our cost and flexibility of borrowing, which could have an adverse effect on our liquidity, financial condition and results of operations.

Regulatory and Legal Risks

Changes in tax rates, laws or regulations could adversely impact our financial results.

A significant part of our retirement business involves fixed and variable 403(b) tax-qualified products, which are purchased voluntarily by individuals employed by public school systems or other tax-exempt organizations. Our financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected by changes in federal and state laws and regulations that affect the relative tax and other advantages of our retirement products to clients or the tax benefits of programs utilized by our customers. As a result of persisting economic conditions, revenue challenges exist at federal, state, and local government levels. These challenges could increase the risk of future adverse impacts on current tax-advantaged products or result in notable reforms to educator pension programs.

Current federal income tax laws generally permit the tax-deferred accumulation of earnings on the premiums paid by holders of retirement and life insurance products. Taxes, if any, are generally payable on income attributable to a distribution under the contract for the year in which the distribution is made. From time to time, Congress has considered legislation that would reduce or eliminate the benefit of such deferral of taxation on the accretion of value within life insurance and non-qualified annuity contracts. Enactment of this legislation, or other tax reform efforts could result in fewer sales of life insurance and retirement products.

Changes in administration could result in initiatives at the federal level increasing the federal corporate income tax from the current rate of 21%. Any future legislative action could increase our costs, the impact of which could be significant. We are unable to predict the outcome or effects of any of these potential actions or any other legislative or regulatory proposals as they relate to our businesses.

Our business is subject to extensive regulation, which limits our operating flexibility and could negatively impact our financial results.

We are subject to extensive regulation and supervision in the jurisdictions in which we do business. Each jurisdiction has a unique and complex set of laws and regulations. Furthermore, certain federal laws impose additional requirements on businesses, including insurers. Regulation generally is designed to protect the interests of policyholders, as opposed to stockholders and non-policyholder creditors. Such regulations, among other things, impose restrictions on the amount and type of investments our insurance subsidiaries may hold.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 33

Dodd-Frank created the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. FIO studies the current insurance regulatory system and is charged with monitoring and providing specific reports on various aspects of the insurance industry. However, FIO does not have general supervisory or regulatory authority over the business of insurance. FIO has suggested an expanded federal role in some circumstances. Additional federal regulations could adversely affect the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes, financial condition and results of operations of us, insurers of similar size and/or the insurance industry as a whole.

Our insurance subsidiaries are regulated by a department of insurance in each state and territory in which we do business. Certain states have established minimum capital requirements for insurance companies licensed to do business in their state. These regulators have the discretionary authority through licensing to limit or prohibit writing new business within the jurisdiction when, in the state’s judgment, the insurance subsidiary is not maintaining adequate statutory surplus or capital. States also regulate the rates insurers may charge for certain property and casualty products. Legislation and voter initiatives have expanded, in some instances, the states' regulation of rates and have increased data reporting requirements. Consumer-related pressures to roll back rates, even if not enacted by legislation or upheld upon judicial appeal, may affect our ability to obtain timely rate increases or operate at desired levels of profitability. Changes in insurance regulations, including those affecting the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to distribute cash to us and those affecting the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to write profitable property and casualty insurance policies in one or more states, may adversely affect the financial condition and results of operations of the insurance subsidiaries.

Our insurance subsidiaries are subject to a system of assessing minimum capital adequacy, known as risk-based capital (RBC). RBC is used to identify companies that may merit further regulatory action by analyzing the adequacy of the insurer's surplus in relation to statutory requirements. Our insurance subsidiaries could be adversely affected by regulations that change statutory surplus and RBC requirements. If an insurer’s ratio falls below specified levels, the insurer is subject to different degrees of regulatory action depending on the magnitude of the deficiency. This could have a material adverse effect upon the business volume and profitability of the insurance subsidiaries as well as result in increased regulatory scrutiny or action by state regulatory authorities.

Our broker-dealer and investment advisor subsidiaries are subject to regulation and supervision by the SEC, FINRA and certain state regulatory bodies. The SEC, FINRA and other governmental agencies, as well as state securities commissions, may examine or investigate the activities of broker-dealers and investment advisors. It is possible that any examination or investigation could lead to enforcement action by the regulator and/or may result in payment of fines and penalties, payments to customer or both, which could have an adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

In the event of insolvency, liquidation or other reorganization of any of our insurance subsidiaries, our creditors and stockholders would have no right to proceed against any such insurance subsidiary or cause the liquidation or bankruptcy of any such insurance subsidiary under federal or state bankruptcy laws. The insurance laws of the domiciliary state would govern such proceedings and the relevant insurance commissioner would act as liquidator or rehabilitator for the insurance subsidiary. Creditors and policyholders of any such insurance subsidiary would be entitled to full payment from the assets of the insurance subsidiary before we, as a stockholder, would be entitled to receive any distribution.

Legal, statutory and regulatory developments could adversely impact our business by increasing costs or making our business less profitable.

Because state legislatures remain concerned about the availability and affordability of property and casualty insurance and the protection of policyholders, our insurance subsidiaries expect that they will continue to face expanded regulations to address these concerns. In addition, legislative and regulatory restrictions are constantly evolving and are subject to then-current political pressures. For example, following major events, states have considered, and in some cases have adopted, proposals such as homeowner's 'Bill of Rights" restrictions on storm deductibles, additional mandatory claim handling guidelines, and mandatory coverages. Environmental, Social, and Governance standards (ESG) and sustainability have become major topics encompassing a wide range of issues, including climate change, which are subject to public policy debates and could lead to regulations that increase our cost of doing business. In addition to increased costs, the regulatory environment may not allow us to fully incorporate potential future climate change into our pricing actions.

Further, the Dodd-Frank Act enacted wide-ranging changes in the supervision and regulation of the financial industry providing greater oversight of financial industry participants, enhanced public company corporate

34 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

governance practices and executive compensation disclosures, and greater protections to individual consumers and investors. Certain elements of the Dodd-Frank Act remain subject to implementing regulations that are yet to be adopted by the applicable regulatory agencies. Compliance with adopted regulations could affect the products and services we choose to offer and would likely result in increased compliance costs.

The financial position of our insurance subsidiaries also may be affected by court decisions that expand insurance coverage beyond the intention of the insurer at the time it originally issued an insurance policy.

We expect that changes in these laws, regulations and proposals could negatively impact our business, including by increasing our legal, compliance and information technology costs, and potentially other costs, including greater risks of client lawsuits and enforcement activity by regulators. These changes may also affect the products and services we choose to offer to clients, as well as the compensation that we and our financial professionals receive in connection with such products and services, which could adversely impact our profitability or ability to recruit and retain agents or distribution partners.

Litigation may harm our financial strength or reduce our profitability.

Companies in the insurance industry have been subject to substantial litigation resulting from claims, disputes and other matters. Most recently, they have faced expensive claims, including class action lawsuits, alleging, among other things, improper sales practices and improper claims settlement procedures. Negotiated settlements of certain such actions have had a material adverse effect on many insurance companies. The resolution of similar future claims against any of our insurance subsidiaries, including the potential adverse effect on our reputation and charges against the earnings of our insurance subsidiaries as a result of legal defense costs, a settlement agreement or an adverse finding or findings against our insurance subsidiaries in such a claim, could have a material adverse effect on the financial condition and results of operations of our insurance subsidiaries. See also Part II - Item 8, Note 14 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Events, including those external to our operations, could damage our reputation.

There are many events which may harm our reputation, including, but not limited to, those discussed in this Item 1A regarding regulatory investigations, legal proceedings, and cyber or other information security incidents. Any negative public perception, founded or otherwise, can be widely and rapidly shared over social media or other means, and could cause damage to our reputation. Damage to our reputation could reduce demand for our insurance products, reduce our ability to recruit and retain employees, or lead to greater regulatory scrutiny of our operations.

As an insurance company, we are paid to accept certain risks. Those who conduct our business, including executive officers and members of management, employees and independent agents, do so in part by making decisions that involve exposing us to risk. These include decisions such as maintaining effective underwriting and pricing discipline, maintaining effective claims management and customer service performance, managing our investment portfolio, delivering effective technology solutions, complying with established sales practices, executing our capital management strategy, exiting a line of business and/or pursuing strategic growth initiatives, and other decisions. Although we employ controls and procedures designed to monitor business decisions and prevent us from taking excessive risks or unintentionally failing to comply with internal policies and practices, there can be no assurance that these controls and procedures will be effective. If our employees and independent agents take excessive risks and/or fail to comply with internal policies and practices, the impact of those events may damage our market position and reputation.

ITEM 1B. I Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 35

ITEM 1C. I Cybersecurity

As a multi-line insurance company, our business operations rely upon secure information technology systems for data processing, storage, and reporting. Despite security and controls design, such information technology systems could become subject to cyberattacks. Network, system, application, and data breaches could result in operational disruptions or information misappropriation, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Unauthorized access to or unintentional dissemination of confidential, highly-sensitive customer, employee, or company data through breach in our facilities, networks, or databases, or those of our agents or third-party information technology and software vendors, could result in loss or theft of assets or operational disruption.

To address cybersecurity risk, we maintain a cybersecurity risk management program that is overseen by the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). The CISO is responsible for developing, maintaining, and enforcing cybersecurity and cyber risk-related policies; ensuring the Company and its subsidiaries satisfy requirements of relevant regulations and third-party risk assessments; identifying and keeping abreast of developing security threats; as well as overseeing and implementing regular security awareness training of all employees on cybersecurity. In leading the cybersecurity risk management program, the CISO regularly works with other divisions of the company, including legal, compliance, IT, audit, and others to address potential risk from external threats, internal actions, and relationships with third-party service providers.

Horace Mann’s CISO has more than two decades of experience in IT, including network, infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Before coming to Horace Mann, he led perimeter security at a publicly traded company, and the cybersecurity team of more than 150 members at another publicly traded company. In addition to the CISO, our internal cybersecurity team also works with third-party cybersecurity vendors to both mature the cybersecurity program and assess, monitor, and respond to cybersecurity threats.

The Board of Directors exercises risk management oversight, including cybersecurity risk, through the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee receives regular reports on our risk management program. These include regular reports from the CISO on the state of our cybersecurity risk management program and updates on cybersecurity matters.

The CISO is responsible for identifying and reporting any cybersecurity incidents to the Disclosure Committee. The Disclosure Committee is composed of senior executives from across Horace Mann and has oversight over SEC disclosure controls. After notification, the Disclosure Committee or designated subgroup would review known information and develop an action plan, which would include Board outreach, expert retention, insurance notification, communication plans, and a materiality assessment.

Although we believe we and our IT providers employ appropriate security technologies (including data encryption processes, intrusion detection systems), and conduct comprehensive risk assessments and other internal control procedures to assure the security of our and our customers' data, we can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that these objectives will be met. Further, the design of any cybersecurity risk management program or control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits must be considered relative to their costs. As a result, the possibility of material financial loss remains despite our significant and comprehensive cybersecurity efforts. An investor should carefully consider the risks and all other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including disclosures in Part I - Item 1A—Risk Factors.

ITEM 2. I Properties

As of December 31, 2023, we owned three buildings located in Springfield, Ill. comprised of our headquarters of approximately 225,000 square feet, a warehouse of approximately 11,000 square feet and one other building of approximately 12,000 square feet. In addition, we lease office space in suburban Dallas, Tx., Cherry Hill, N.J, and Madison, Wisc. which are utilized by one or more of all four reporting segments, depending on the location. For more information regarding our reporting segments, see Part I - Item 1, Reporting Segments of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We believe our properties and facilities are suitable and adequate for current operations.

36 Annual Report on Form 10-K Horace Mann Educators Corporation

ITEM 3. I Legal Proceedings

For a description of noteworthy litigation, see Part II - Item 8, Note 14 of the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 4. I Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable.

PART II

ITEM 5. I Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Market Information and Dividends

Our common stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol HMN. The following table provides the high and low bid information of our common stock on the NYSE Composite Tape and the cash dividends paid per share of common stock during the periods indicated.

Market Price Dividends

Fiscal Period High Low Paid

The payment of dividends in the future is subject to the discretion of the Board and will depend upon general business conditions, legal restrictions and other factors the Board may deem to be relevant. Additional information is contained in Part I - Item 1, Cash Flow and in Part II - Item 8, Note 13 of the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation Annual Report on Form 10-K 37

Shareholder Return Performance Graph

The graph below sets forth the total five-year shareholder return on our common stock. The graph assumes a $100 investment as of December 31, 2018. The S&P 500 Index and the S&P 500 Insurance Index assume an annual reinvestment of dividends in calculating total return. We assume reinvestment of quarterly dividends when paid.

Comparison of Cumulative Five-Year Total Return to Shareholders

Holders and Shares Issued