Aflac returned $4.7 billion to shareholders in FY2025 — 185% of its operating cash flow. For a 43-year Dividend Aristocrat trading at 14.7x adjusted earnings, this looks like disciplined capital allocation at a bargain. But the 10-K reveals the cash engine funding this generosity is shrinking: Japan profit remittances fell 6.1%, reported margins depend on $529 million in actuarial gains, and a $553 million annual gap between subsidiary cash generation and parent-level distributions is widening each year.
AIG returned $6.8 billion to shareholders in 2025 — a 14.1% yield — while posting its first $2.3 billion underwriting profit since 2008 and earning a triple credit upgrade to AA-/A1. But the 10-K reveals that the accident year combined ratio is flat at 88.3-88.9, meaning all headline improvement comes from non-recurring reserve releases and catastrophe luck. Meanwhile, the Corebridge monetization funding those record buybacks has depleted from $3.8 billion to roughly $2.1 billion, giving the current pace 12-18 months of runway. Both pillars converge in mid-to-late 2026.
Chubb Limited reported a record 81.2% combined ratio in FY 2025 — the best in its history. But inside the 10-K, North America Commercial now earns more from investing premiums ($3,840M in NII) than from underwriting them ($3,783M). At 12x trailing P/E with 24.2% ROTCE, the dual-engine compounder looks mispriced — until you aggregate $2.5 billion in reserve sensitivity buried across three actuarial disclosures. The world's largest P&C insurer has quietly become an investment company, and the market is still pricing it as a cyclical underwriter.
Goldman Sachs reported record FY2025 earnings of $51.32 per share — up 26.6% — on what Wall Street calls an M&A super-cycle. But the 10-K filing reveals that 73% of the flagship Global Banking & Markets segment's $6.4 billion revenue increase came from net interest income surging 182%, not deal-making fees. Core franchise fee revenue grew just 5.7%. At $879 and 2.21x tangible book, the market prices a deal-making franchise — the filing describes a rate-sensitive balance sheet with a wealth management cost problem.
Charles Schwab delivered its most profitable year ever in FY2025 — $8.4 billion in net income, with 87 cents of every incremental revenue dollar flowing to profit. But the 10-K reveals a paradox: management returned $12.2 billion to shareholders while the held-to-maturity portfolio carried $7.9 billion in unrealized losses. Our analysis decomposes the one-time double tailwind behind record margins, quantifies a 2-3 quarter exhaustion horizon for the counter-cyclical NII advantage, and maps the dual-path regulatory scenario that determines whether the capital return was brilliant or reckless.
Bank of New York Mellon reported record revenue of $20.1 billion and 28.4% ROTCE in FY 2025 — numbers that suggest an efficiently run financial institution earning outsized returns. But the 10-K reveals a paradox: one segment generates 49% operating margins on infrastructure that moves $614 billion in securities, while another runs at 17% margins with declining revenue and $16.8 billion in goodwill from an 18-year-old acquisition. At 15.5x earnings, the market prices one company. The filing shows it's two.
Morgan Stanley posted record FY 2025 results: $70.6B revenue, $10.21 EPS, and 21.6% ROTCE — the highest return among large bank peers. But the 10-K reveals a paradox at the core of those results. The $139 billion sweep deposit base driving record net interest income growth is the same asset class-action plaintiffs allege was unfairly compensated. Meanwhile, the 300bp efficiency improvement blends a durable WM non-comp leverage engine with a cyclical IS comp ratio tailwind. At 17.4x earnings — the richest multiple in the large bank peer group — investors are paying for a stability narrative that the filing's own numbers complicate.
Truist Financial returned 104% of its FY2025 net income to shareholders — $5.2 billion through dividends and buybacks — while CET1 capital declined 70 basis points. But the 10-K reveals a bank running at two speeds: Wholesale Banking already operates at 49% efficiency while Consumer Banking's earnings collapsed 17.8%. With 30-89 day delinquencies surging 22.3% and the filing's own stress test showing a $2.4 billion reserve hit would halve EPS, the $10 billion buyback authorization is a bet on a consumer franchise that's weakening faster than buybacks can compensate.
Citigroup delivered the highest total shareholder yield (8.7%) among US megabanks in FY 2025, returning $18.6 billion through buybacks and dividends. The stock re-rated 63% from its 8-quarter P/B median. But the 10-K reveals 42% of buybacks were funded by depleting the CET1 buffer to just 90 basis points above regulatory minimums — a one-time capital maneuver, not sustainable earnings power. This analysis decomposes what's organic, what's borrowed, and what has to go right in 2026.