2019 Annual Report to Stockholders To Our Stockholders, As we present to you our annual report for 2019, I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well as the COVID-19 pandemic upends our communities and the world. Brighthouse Financial’s top priority at this time remains the well-being and safety of our employees and their families, our partners and our customers. Through the Brighthouse Foundation and Brighthouse Financial corporate contributions, we have also committed $500,000 to local food banks and other organizations in our communities to support those in need throughout this pandemic and beyond. During this challenging time, Brighthouse Financial, like many companies across the globe, asked our employees to quickly transition to a remote-work environment. I am so proud of each and every one of our employees for the dedication and resilience they’ve shown in the face of this unprecedented situation. As a result of the pandemic, many of our employees are juggling working from home with other important and demanding responsibilities, including parenting duties and caring for elderly parents or other family members. Due to their adaptability and commitment, we are able to continue to support our customers and financial professionals, and to deliver value to our stockholders. We have taken a number of steps to support our employees through this time. We continue to pay all of our employees as they work remotely while our offices remain temporarily closed, and we continue our regular dollar-for-dollar match for employee 401(k) contributions. We are also providing all employees with one floating holiday for every two weeks they spend working from home. These floating holidays are designed to be used to spend with family or to take care of personal needs while the work-from- home period remains in effect. In addition, we are allowing flexible work schedules to further help employees manage personal responsibilities while at home. We’ve also increased and enhanced our employee communications to make sure employees feel connected and informed while the pandemic unfolds. These and other steps are part of how Brighthouse Financial is helping our employees have some peace of mind in a stressful period for us all. It is in uncertain times like these when our mission to help people achieve financial security becomes even more important. Please know that despite the challenges created by the pandemic, we remain steadfastly focused on our mission and strategy and on delivering for our partners and customers. While the pandemic continues to impact the global economy — driving equity markets down, increasing volatility and leading to historically low interest rates — we believe we are well-positioned to manage through the current downturn. We remain confident in our strategy and believe our balance sheet is strong, our investment portfolio is well- diversified and we have significant protections in place to mitigate the impacts of a prolonged low interest rate environment. Notably, prior to the recent market declines, we made changes to our variable annuity (“VA”) hedging strategy, which proved both timely and beneficial. I discuss those changes in more detail below. Turning now to our results in 2019, I am proud to report that Brighthouse Financial had a very strong year. In our second full year as an independent, public company, we: Grew annuity sales 23 percent compared with 2018; Generated approximately $1.9 billion in normalized statutory earnings, compared with approximately $320 million in 2018; Ended the year with approximately $9.7 billion of statutory combined total adjusted capital, an increase of $2.3 billion compared with 2018; Achieved 76 percent awareness of our brand with financial professionals as of the end of 2019, a three-fold increase since the first quarter of 2017; and Ended the year with a combined risk-based capital ratio of 552 percent, above our targeted range of 400 percent to 450 percent. I am very pleased with these and our other outstanding 2019 results, which reflect the diligent and prudent execution of our focused strategy. We also achieved several strategic milestones last year: First, we successfully managed through early adoption of VA capital reform. This early adoption contributed to the significant growth of our statutory combined total adjusted capital in 2019. Second, we introduced Brighthouse SmartCare®, our first life insurance product launched as an independent, public company. We’ve made good progress adding major distributors for SmartCare® — with access to a network of more than 56,000 financial professionals — and our goal is to roll out this product to additional distributors over time. Finally, we completed the transition from a single-manager investment platform to our multimanager platform. We expect this migration to produce meaningful cost savings, as well as provide us access to superior investment management capabilities. I am also very pleased with our excellent sales results. Our 2019 full-year annuity sales exceeded $7 billion, significantly surpassing the target we set when we became an independent, public company of annuity sales in excess of $4 billion by 2020. We are focused on expanding sales and making our distribution network as broad as possible, including by entering new distribution channels. In February of this year, we entered the independent marketing organization (IMO) distribution channel with the launch of Brighthouse SecureAdvantageSM 6-Year Fixed Index Annuity. Managing a hedging program that performs effectively in a range of market conditions remains a key element of our strategy. While our VA hedging program has performed well, during the fourth quarter of 2019 we revised our hedging strategy to further reduce risk, preserve projected distributable earnings across a number of different capital market scenarios and protect the capital generated from the equity bull market that lasted until early this year. In addition, we believe we have significant protection in place against low interest rates, having added to that protection in the first part of 2019. These decisions have proven to be timely given the current economic environment. We have also made significant progress toward our goal of being a consistent returner of capital over time. Through our common stock repurchase program, we have reduced the number of our shares outstanding by more than 15 percent since becoming an independent, public company. We have also committed to formally incorporate sustainability into our strategy. While environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) considerations have always been part of our culture and business, we are working to develop a framework within which to speak publicly about our sustainability activities in the years ahead. We recently established an Office of Sustainability to lead Brighthouse’s efforts to formally incorporate ESG considerations into our strategy, which we believe will play an important role in creating long-term value and help us meet our promises to our customers. The Office of Sustainability will build on the proactive efforts of our ESG Council and will leverage the expertise of internal resources to further embed sustainability in the Brighthouse culture and share our activities with our stockholders and the public. Lastly, a word on our culture. At Brighthouse Financial, we know the importance of having a strong culture that aligns with our strategy. Our culture is rooted in three core values ─ we are collaborative, adaptable and passionate. These values guide how we work to fulfill our mission to help people achieve financial security. Key to our culture is our commitment to workplace diversity and fostering an environment of inclusion. We believe that by creating an inclusive workplace, we are better able to attract and retain talent, provide valuable solutions that meet the needs of financial professionals and their clients, and fulfill our mission. Thank you for your continued support of Brighthouse Financial. I am extremely pleased with the progress we have made and remain confident in our strategy, which I continue to believe will generate long-term stockholder value. Sincerely, Eric T. Steigerwalt President and Chief Executive Officer Brighthouse Financial, Inc. [THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 __________________________ FORM 10-K (Mark One) ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 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 001-37905 Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter) Delaware 81-3846992 (State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) 11225 North Community House Road, Charlotte, North Carolina 28277 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code) (980) 365-7100 (Registrant’s telephone number, including area code) Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of each class Trading symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered Common Stock, par value $0.01 per shareBHF The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC Depositary Shares, each representing a 1/1,000th interest in a shareBHFAP The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC of 6.600% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series A 6.250% Junior Subordinated Debentures due 2058 BHFAL The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC 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 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.