SelectQuote (SLQT) Risk Analysis

The U.S. healthcare industry is subject to an evolving regulatory regime at both the federal and state levels. In recent years, there have been multiple reform efforts made within the healthcare industry in an effort to curtail healthcare costs. For example, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and related regulatory reforms have materially changed the regulation of health insurance. While it is difficult to determine the impact of potential reforms on our future business, it is possible that such changes in healthcare industry regulation could result in reduced demand for our insurance distribution services. Our insurance carrier partners may react to existing or future reforms, or general regulatory uncertainty, by reducing their reliance on our agents. Developments of this type could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

Our Senior segment is subject to a complex legal and regulatory framework, and the laws and regulations governing the marketing and sale of Medicare plans, particularly with respect to regulations and guidance issued by CMS related to Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plans, change frequently. For example, in April 2023, CMS finalized rules that could increase compliance costs and otherwise impact our business results by, among other things, requiring new disclosures that could make certain forms of marketing less practicable and potentially requiring a 48-hour waiting period between initial contact with a beneficiary and enrolling that beneficiary. In April 2024, CMS adopted final rules placing limitations on the compensation of certain distributors of Medicare products and establishing certain contractual standards for dual eligible special needs plans enrollments,among other things. To the extent they are determined to apply to our operations, these and any other changes to the laws, regulations and guidelines relating to Medicare plans, their interpretation, or the manner in which they are enforced could harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. In addition, changes to laws, regulations, CMS guidance or the enforcement or interpretation of CMS guidance applicable to our Senior segment could cause insurance carriers or state departments of insurance to object to or not to approve aspects of our marketing materials and processes. As a result, those authorities may determine that certain aspects of our Senior segment are not in compliance with the current legal and regulatory framework. Any such determinations could delay or halt the operation of our Senior segment, which would harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects, particularly if such delay or halt occurred during the Medicare annual or open enrollment periods.

The insurance industry in the United States is heavily regulated. The insurance regulatory framework addresses, among other things: granting licenses to companies and agents to transact particular business activities; and regulating trade, marketing, compensation and claims practices. For example, we are required by state regulators to maintain a valid license in each state in which we transact insurance business and comply with business practice requirements that vary from state to state. In addition, our agents who transact insurance business must also maintain valid licenses. Complying with the regulatory framework requires a meaningful dedication of management and financial resources. Due to the complexity, periodic modification and differing interpretations of insurance laws and regulations, we may not have always been, and we may not always be, in full compliance with them. There can be no assurance that we, our employees, consultants, contractors and other agents are in full compliance with current and/or future laws and regulations or interpretations. Any such non-compliance could impose material costs on us, result in limitations on the business we conduct or damage our relationship with regulatory bodies, our insurance carrier partners and consumers, any of which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. Regulatory authorities often have the discretion to grant, renew and revoke the various licenses and approvals we need to conduct our activities. Such authorities may require us to incur substantial costs in order to comply with such laws and regulations. Furthermore, laws and regulations are also subject to interpretation by regulatory authorities, and changes in any such interpretations may adversely impact our business and our ability to carry on our existing activities. Furthermore, the laws and regulations governing the sale of insurance may change in ways that adversely impact our business. These changes could impact the manner in which we are permitted to conduct our business, could force us to reduce the compensation we receive or otherwise adversely impact our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. In addition, we are subject to laws and regulations with respect to matters regarding privacy and cybersecurity. See "-We collect, process, store, share, disclose and use consumer information and other data, and an actual or perceived failure to protect such information and data or respect users' privacy could damage our reputation and brand and harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects" and "-We may not be able to maintain compliance with all current and potentially applicable U.S. federal and state or foreign laws and regulations, and actions by regulatory authorities or changes in legislation and regulation in the jurisdictions in which we operate could have a material adverse effect on our business" in this section.

We make telephone calls and send emails and text messages to potential and existing customers. The United States regulates marketing by telephone and email and the laws and regulations governing the use of emails and telephone calls for marketing purposes continue to evolve, and changes in technology, the marketplace or consumer preferences may lead to the adoption of additional laws or regulations or changes in interpretation of existing laws or regulations. New laws or regulations, or changes to the manner in which existing laws and regulations or interpreted or enforced, may further restrict our ability to contact potential and existing customers by phone and email and could render us unable to communicate with consumers in a cost-effective fashion. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the "TCPA") prohibits companies from making telemarketing calls to numbers listed in the Federal Do-Not-Call Registry and imposes other obligations and limitations on making phone calls and sending text messages to consumers. The CAN-SPAM Act regulates commercial email messages and specifies penalties for the transmission of commercial email messages that do not comply with certain requirements, such as providing an opt-out mechanism for stopping future emails from senders. We may be required to comply with these and similar laws, rules and regulations. Failure to comply with obligations and restrictions related to telephone, text message and email marketing could subject us to lawsuits, fines, statutory damages, consent decrees, injunctions, adverse publicity and other losses that could harm our business. We have policies in place to comply with the TCPA and other telemarketing laws. However, despite our legal compliance, we have in the past and may in the future become subject to claims that we have violated the TCPA.

We are also subject to a variety of laws and regulations that involve matters central to our business, including with respect to user privacy and the collection, processing, storing, sharing, disclosing, using, transfer and protecting of personal information and other data. These laws and regulations constantly evolve and remain subject to significant change. In addition, the application and interpretation of these laws and regulations are often uncertain. Because we store, process and use data, some of which contain personal information, we are subject to complex and evolving federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection and other matters. Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation. New York's cybersecurity regulation for financial services companies, including insurance entities under its jurisdiction, requires entities to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program designed to protect private consumer data. The regulation specifically provides for: (i) controls relating to the governance framework for a cybersecurity program; (ii) risk-based minimum standards for technology systems for data protection; (iii) minimum standards for cyber breach responses, including notice to the New York Department of Financial Services ("NYDFS") of material events; and (iv) identification and documentation of material deficiencies, remediation plans and annual certification of regulatory compliance with the NYDFS. In addition, in October 2017, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") adopted the Insurance Data Security Model Law (the "Cybersecurity Model Law"), which is intended to establish the standards for data security and for the investigation and notification of data breaches applicable to insurance licensees in states adopting such law. The Cybersecurity Model Law continues to be adopted by states since its inception. The law could impose significant new regulatory burdens intended to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems, although the NAIC model law is functionally similar to the NYDFS rule. Compliance with existing and emerging privacy and cybersecurity regulations could result in increased compliance costs and/or lead to changes in business practices and policies, and any failure to protect the confidentiality of client information could adversely affect our reputation, lend to private litigation against us, any of which could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. Further, we incur substantial compliance costs as a result of being a public company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act ("SOX"), the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the listing requirements of the New York Stock Exchange (the "NYSE"), and other applicable securities rules and regulations impose various requirements on public companies that do not apply to private companies. In addition to increasing our legal and financial costs, complying with these requirements causes management and other personnel to divert attention from operational and other business matters to devote substantial time to public company corporate governance and reporting requirements.

Consumers rely upon information we communicate through our agency services regarding the insurance plans we distribute, including information relating to insurance premiums, coverage, benefits, exclusions, limitations, availability, and plan comparisons. If we provide inaccurate information or information that could be construed as misleading, or if we do not properly assist individuals in purchasing insurance, we could be found liable for related damages and our relationships with our insurance carrier partners and our standing with regulators could suffer.

Our pharmacy business is dependent on our customers' use of prescription medications to treat or address symptoms of chronic medical conditions. Our revenues, operating results, and cash flows may be negatively affected if consumers' use of prescription medications is reduced, including due to: - increased safety profiles or regulatory restrictions;- a reduction in prescription medication manufacturers' participation in federal programs;- certain products being withdrawn from the market by their manufacturers or transitioned to over-the-counter products;- future FDA rulings restricting the supply or increasing the cost of products; or - inflation in the price of prescription medications. Our pharmacy business is also subject to risks relating to manufacturing and supply issues. The success of our pharmacy business depends on our ability to reliably source prescription medications in a timely and cost-effective manner. Manufacturing and supply chain disruptions, failure to maintain relationships with existing suppliers, or inability to secure new supplier arrangements on satisfactory terms could undermine customer confidence, erode customer loyalty, and have a significant adverse effect on our operating results.

The success of our pharmacy business is reliant on our ability to grow the number of pharmacy customers we serve. Our pharmacy services are offered only to certain Medicare Advantage patients managing multiple chronic conditions, and our ability to attract new pharmacy customers may be limited by the number of patients who meet these medical and demographic criteria. Further, we have faced and may continue to face certain challenges in completing the onboarding process for some patients, including delays in obtaining patients' prescriptions from their healthcare providers or transferring prescriptions from their previous pharmacies. If we are unable to overcome these hurdles in a cost-effective and timely manner, our ability to increase our number of customers and scale our pharmacy business may be harmed. In addition, our ability to attract and retain pharmacy customers is dependent on several factors, including our brand and reputation, our technology, the products and services offered by our competitors, and our customer experience and satisfaction, which is informed by, among other factors, the reliability of our services, including the accuracy and timely delivery of our prescription boxes; our customer service; and our flexibility in responding to patients' changing needs and preferences. If we fail to maintain and deepen our relationships with existing pharmacy customers, or if we are unable to attract new customers to our pharmacy business, our pharmacy revenues and margins may suffer, and our results of operations, cash flows, and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

Our insurance carrier partners whose Medicare plans we sell approve our website, much of our marketing material and our call scripts for our Senior segment. In the event that CMS or an insurance carrier partner requires changes to, disapproves, or delays approval of these materials, we could lose a significant source of Medicare plan demand and the operations of our Senior segment could be adversely affected. If we are not successful in timely receiving insurance carrier partner or CMS approval of our marketing materials, we could be prevented from implementing our Medicare marketing initiatives, which could harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects, particularly if such delay or non-compliance occurs during AEP or OEP. The CMS rules and regulations also apply to our marketing partners' marketing materials. If our marketing partners' marketing materials do not comply with the CMS marketing guidelines or other Medicare program related laws, rules and regulations, such non-compliance could result in our losing the ability to receive referrals of individuals interested in purchasing Medicare plans from that marketing partner or being delayed in doing so. If our Senior segment substantively changes its marketing materials or call scripts, our insurance carrier partners may be required to re-file those materials with CMS. Due to our inability to make CMS filings ourselves and the need for further CMS review, it is very difficult and time consuming for us to make changes to our marketing materials, and our inability to timely make changes to these materials, whether to comply with new rules and regulations or otherwise, could adversely affect the results of operations for our Senior segment. In addition, we may be prevented from using any marketing material until any changes required by CMS or our insurance carrier partners are made and approved, which would harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects, particularly if such delay occurred during AEP or OEP.

Because we do not have exclusive relationships with our insurance carrier partners, consumers may obtain quotes for, and purchase, the same insurance policies that we distribute directly from the issuers of those policies, or from our competitors. Insurance carriers can attract consumers directly through their own marketing campaigns or other methods of distribution, such as referral arrangements, internet sites, physical storefront operations or broker agreements. Furthermore, our insurance carrier partners could discontinue distributing their products through our agency services, which would reduce the breadth of the products we distribute and could put us at a competitive disadvantage. If consumers seek insurance policies directly from insurance carriers or through our competitors, the number of consumers shopping for insurance through our platform may decline, and our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business model relies on our ability to sell policies on behalf of our insurance carrier partners. We believe our insurance carrier partners view our method of acquiring customers as scalable and efficient and, ultimately, as cost advantageous compared to their own direct distribution or proprietary agent models. However, in the event that our insurance carrier partners choose to make systemic changes in the manner in which their policies are distributed, including by focusing on direct distribution themselves or on distribution channels other than ours, such changes could materially and adversely affect our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

Changes in technology and consumer outreach techniques continue to shape the insurance distribution landscape. In recent years, consumers' behavior patterns, in particular their propensity to use online sources for research, product comparison and guidance, has changed and continues to change. Similarly, available technologies for reaching targeted groups of consumers also continues to evolve. We expect that we will incur costs in the future to adjust our systems to adapt to changing behaviors and technologies. In the future, technological innovations and changes in the way consumers engage with technology may materially and adversely affect our operating results, financial condition and prospects, if our business model and technological infrastructure do not evolve accordingly.

Our ability to service consumers depends on the reliable performance of our technological infrastructure. Interruptions, delays or failures in these systems, whether due to adverse weather conditions, natural disasters, power loss, computer viruses, cybersecurity attacks, physical break-ins, terrorism, errors in our software or otherwise, could be prolonged and could affect the security or availability of our platform, and the ability of our agents to sell policies and our consumer care team to service those policies. The reliability and security of our systems, and those of our insurance carrier partners, is important not only to facilitating our sale of insurance products, but also to maintaining our reputation and ensuring the proper protection of our confidential and proprietary information. If we experience operational failures or prolonged disruptions or delays in the availability of our systems, we could lose current and potential customers, which could harm our operating results, financial condition and prospects.

We derive a significant portion of our website traffic from consumers who search for insurance through internet search engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing. A critical factor in attracting consumers to our website is whether we are prominently displayed in response to certain internet searches. Search engines typically provide two types of search results, algorithmic listings and paid advertisements. We rely on both to attract consumers to our websites. Algorithmic search result listings are determined and displayed in accordance with a set of formulas or algorithms developed by the particular internet search engine. Once a search is initiated by a consumer, the algorithms determine the hierarchy of results. Search engines may revise these algorithms from time to time, which could cause our website to be listed less prominently in algorithmic search results and lead to decreased traffic to our website. We may also be listed less prominently as a result of other factors, such as new websites, changes we make to our website or technical issues with the search engine itself. Government health insurance exchange websites have historically appeared prominently in algorithmic search results. In addition, search engines have deemed the practices of some companies to be inconsistent with search engine guidelines and decided not to list their website in search result listings at all. If we are listed less prominently in, or removed altogether from, search result listings for any reason, the traffic to our websites would decline and we may not be able to replace this traffic. An attempt to replace this traffic may require us to increase our marketing expenditures, which would also increase our cost of customer acquisition and harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects. In addition to relying on algorithmic search results, we also purchase paid advertisements on search engines in order to attract consumers to our website. We typically pay a search engine for prominent placement of our website when particular terms are searched for on the search engine, without regard to the algorithmic search result listings. The prominence of the placement of our advertisement is determined by multiple factors, including the amount paid for the advertisement and the search engine's algorithms that determine the relevance of paid advertisements to a particular search term. If the search engine revises its algorithms relevant to paid advertisements then websites other than our platform may become better suited for the algorithms, which may result in our having to pay increased costs to maintain our paid advertisement placement in response to a particular search term. We could also have to pay increased amounts should major search engines continue to become more concentrated. Additionally, we bid against our competitors, insurance carriers, government health insurance exchanges and others for the display of these paid search engine advertisements, which competition increases substantially during the enrollment periods for Medicare products as it relates to our Senior segment. The competition has increased the cost of paid advertising and has increased our marketing and advertising expenses. If paid search advertising costs increase or become cost prohibitive, whether as a result of competition, algorithm changes or otherwise, our advertising expenses could materially increase or we could reduce or discontinue our paid search advertisements, either of which would harm our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects.

The declaration and amount of any future dividends to holders of our common stock will be at the discretion of our Board of Directors in accordance with applicable law and after taking into account various factors, including our financial condition, operating results, current and anticipated cash needs, cash flows, impact on our effective tax rate, indebtedness, contractual obligations, legal requirements and other factors that our Board of Directors deems relevant. Our Board of Directors intends to retain future earnings to finance the operation and expansion of our business. In addition, our Senior Secured Credit Facility contains restrictions on our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our common stock. Accordingly, we do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be your sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires our management to make significant estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the consolidated financial statements, and the reported amounts of income and expense during the reporting periods. If our underlying estimates and assumptions prove to be incorrect or if events occur that require us to revise our previous estimates or assumptions, our business, operating results, financial condition and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.