Brighthouse Financial, Inc.

Derivative Risks

We are exposed to various risks relating to our ongoing business operations, including interest rate, foreign currency exchange rate, credit and equity market risks. We use a variety of strategies to manage these risks, including the use of derivatives. We have historically managed the risks related to our variable annuity and first generation Shield Annuity contracts on a combined basis. In the third quarter of 2025, we completed an initiative that established a standalone hedging program for each product allowing us to separately manage the risks related to these two products.

See Note 9 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for:

•a comprehensive description of the nature of our derivatives, including the strategies for which derivatives are used in managing various risks;

•information about the gross notional amount, estimated fair value and primary underlying risk exposure of our derivatives by type of hedge designation, excluding embedded derivatives held at December 31, 2025 and 2024; and

•the effects of derivatives in cash flow, fair value or non-qualifying hedge relationships on the statements of operations for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023.

See “— Risk Management Strategies” for more information about our hedging strategies. In addition, see “— Results of Operations — Annual Actuarial Review” and “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Investment Portfolio — Our investment portfolio is subject to significant financial risks both in the U.S. and global financial markets, including credit risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, market valuation risk, liquidity risk, real estate risk, derivatives risk, and other factors outside our control, the occurrence of any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.”

Fair Value Hierarchy

See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for derivatives measured at estimated fair value on a recurring basis and their corresponding fair value hierarchy, as well as a rollforward of the fair value measurements for derivatives measured at estimated fair value on a recurring basis using significant unobservable (Level 3) inputs as discussed below.

The valuation of Level 3 derivatives involves the use of significant unobservable inputs and generally requires a higher degree of management judgment or estimation than the valuations of Level 1 and Level 2 derivatives. Although Level 3 inputs are unobservable, management believes they are consistent with what other market participants would use when pricing such instruments and are considered appropriate given the circumstances. The use of different inputs or methodologies could have a material effect on the estimated fair value of Level 3 derivatives and could materially affect net income.

Derivatives categorized as Level 3 at December 31, 2025 include: credit default swaps priced using unobservable credit spreads, or that are priced through independent broker quotations; and foreign currency swaps with certain unobservable inputs.

Credit Risk

See Note 9 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for information about how we manage credit risk related to derivatives and for the estimated fair value of our net derivative assets and net derivative liabilities after the application of master netting agreements and collateral. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Investment Portfolio — Our investment portfolio is subject to significant financial risks both in the U.S. and global financial markets, including credit risk, interest rate risk, inflation risk, market valuation risk, liquidity risk, real estate risk, derivatives risk, and other factors outside our control, the occurrence of any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.”

Our policy is not to offset the fair value amounts recognized for derivatives executed with the same counterparty under the same master netting agreement. This policy applies to the recognition of derivatives on the balance sheet and does not affect our legal right of offset.

The gross notional amount and estimated fair value of credit default swaps were as follows at:

The maximum amount at risk related to our written credit default swaps is equal to the corresponding gross notional amount. In a replication transaction, we pair an asset on our balance sheet with a written credit default swap to synthetically replicate a corporate bond, a core asset holding of life insurance companies. Replications are entered into in accordance with the guidelines approved by state insurance regulators and the NAIC and are an important tool in managing the overall corporate credit risk within the Company. In order to match our long-dated insurance liabilities, we seek to buy long-dated corporate bonds. In some instances, these may not be readily available in the market, or they may be issued by corporations to which we already have significant corporate credit exposure. For example, by purchasing Treasury bonds (or other high-quality assets) and associating them with written credit default swaps on the desired corporate credit name, we can replicate the desired bond exposures and meet our ALM needs. This can expose the Company to changes in credit spreads as the written credit default swap tenor is shorter than the maturity of Treasury bonds.

See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for (i) information about embedded derivatives measured at estimated fair value on a recurring basis and their corresponding fair value hierarchy and (ii) a rollforward of the fair value measurements for net embedded derivatives measured at estimated fair value on a recurring basis using significant unobservable (Level 3) inputs.

See “— Summary of Critical Accounting Estimates — Derivatives” for additional information on the estimates and assumptions that affect embedded derivatives.