Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the Equitable Holdings, Inc. Q1 2026 Earnings and Conference Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Erik James Bass, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Erik, please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Equitable Holdings’ first quarter 2026 earnings call. Materials for today's call can be found on our website at ir.equitableholdings.com. Before we begin, I would like to note that some of the information we present today is forward-looking and subject to certain SEC rules and regulations regarding disclosure. Our results may differ materially from those expressed in or indicated by such forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Safe Harbor language on Slide 2 of our presentation for additional information. Joining me on today's call are Mark Pearson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Equitable Holdings, Inc.; Robin Matthew Raju, our Chief Financial Officer; Nicholas Burritt Lane, President of Equitable Financial; Onur Erzan, President of AllianceBernstein; and Tom Simioni, Chief Financial Officer of AllianceBernstein. During this call, we will be discussing certain financial measures that are not based on generally accepted accounting principles, also known as non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and related definitions may be found on the Investor Relations portion of our website and in our earnings release, slide presentation, and financial supplement. We will also refer to the pending transaction with CoreBridge. Any statements about the transaction made during this call are not an offer of securities. A registration statement containing a prospectus will be filed with the SEC in connection with the transaction. I will now turn the call over to Mark.

Good morning, and thank you for joining today's call. The first quarter marked an extraordinary moment in Equitable Holdings, Inc.'s 166-year history with the announcement of our planned merger with CoreBridge, which will create a world-class platform to help our customers plan, save for, and achieve secure financial futures. This morning, I will spend some time discussing why we believe that by leveraging the complementary strengths of Equitable Holdings, Inc. and CoreBridge, the combined company will deliver tremendous value for both our customers and shareholders. On Slide 4, I will start by providing a few highlights from our first quarter results. We reported non-GAAP operating earnings of $1.62 per share, or $1.68 per share after adjusting for notable items. This increased 25% versus 2025, driven by healthy organic growth momentum, improved mortality experience, and a lower share count. We continue to expect earnings per share growth to exceed the high end of our 12% to 15% target range in 2026. Assets under management ended the quarter at $1.1 trillion, up 9% year over year. While equity markets declined modestly in the first quarter, they have since recovered, and higher average AUM versus 2025 levels should continue to provide a near-term tailwind for earnings. Our balance sheet remains a core strength with a combined NAIC RBC ratio of approximately 475% and $1.2 billion of holding company liquidity. Our credit portfolio continues to perform well, and as Robin will walk through, we are positioned to handle even a severe stress scenario. We remain committed to being a consistent returner of capital and executing the share buybacks assumed in our 2026 financial plan. Turning to organic growth, we see good momentum in retirement sales and flows even as the level of competition has increased. Total sales increased 10% year over year, driven by strength in RILAs, and we had $1.3 billion of net inflows. Wealth Management delivered another strong growth quarter with $2 billion of advisory net inflows. Over the last 12 months, the business produced a 13% organic growth rate. During the quarter, we also closed on the acquisition of Stifel Independent Advisors, which is a good example of how we can use bolt-on M&A to help scale our wealth management business. Asset Management earnings grew 11% year over year, driven by higher AUM and increased ownership. AB had net outflows of $7.1 billion in the first quarter, driven primarily by active equities and taxable fixed income. Private Wealth and private markets remain bright spots, as both had positive flows in the period. Total private markets AUM increased 13% year over year to $85 billion, and AB remains on track to meet or exceed its target of $90 billion to $100 billion in AUM by 2027. While near-term flows may remain volatile, AB has a record institutional pipeline of nearly $28 billion, which includes several large insurance mandates that will fund over the next few quarters. AB will also be a meaningful beneficiary of the CoreBridge merger as we expect it to receive at least $100 billion of incremental assets over the next few years. As I will walk through over the next few slides, the motivating factor behind the CoreBridge merger is our belief that it will accelerate our growth strategy and position us to be a long-term winner across all the markets we compete in. The companies have complementary strengths with limited overlap across products. We have already begun the integration planning process and have high confidence in achieving at least $500 million of expense synergies. As a result, the merger will be immediately accretive to earnings per share, and we expect to deliver 10% plus accretion on a run-rate basis by 2028 with potential upside from revenue synergies. Moving to Slide 5, before talking about the merger, I want to highlight five attributes we believe are critical for long-term success and which we use when evaluating any strategic option, including this merger. Underlying everything, of course, is providing an exceptional customer experience. Companies that are easy to do business with and offer the products and advice needed to transform complex financial risks into simple, reliable outcomes will attract clients and distributors. Developing deep brand loyalty will help create predictable and growing value for shareholders. Second, in intermediated markets like financial services, having strong distribution is critical as clients want local access to expert, personalized advice. Privileged shelf space, particularly in channels with high barriers to entry, provides a meaningful competitive advantage in acquiring new customers while also managing the cost of funds. Third is the imperative of competitive scale. Size matters. Being able to invest in technology and automation will improve efficiency and result in lower unit costs and a lower expense ratio. This provides capacity to reinvest in growth while simultaneously delivering higher profit margins. Fourth, we know that shareholders value consistent growth in earnings and cash flow across different market cycles, and having diversified sources of earnings and capital enhances the ability to deliver this. Disciplined risk management is also critical to give clients and investors confidence in the resilience of the balance sheet, especially during periods of macro uncertainty and market stress. Finally, we see significant value in owning insurance, asset management, and wealth management businesses to participate in the full value chain and benefit from the significant demographic tailwinds driving growth across each of these markets. It also means that shareholders capture the high multiple fee earnings generated by distributing and managing the assets associated with insurance and retirement solutions that are manufactured. By attracting the very best talent, and aligning to these five convictions, we ensure that when our clients win, our shareholders win. Turning to Slide 6, I will highlight why the merger with CoreBridge aligns to these convictions and will drive growth and shareholder value. The merger brings together three outstanding franchises to create a diversified financial services company with over 12 million customers, $1.5 trillion in AUMA, and leading positions across retirement, life insurance, asset management, and wealth management. Equitable Holdings, Inc. and CoreBridge complement each other well with different strengths and limited overlap. We intend to capitalize on our scale advantages to reduce unit costs and achieve a lower cost of capital. We expect to have a top-quartile expense ratio and will be able to combine our resources when making growth investments. This will make us more profitable, drive more cash generation, and increase our return on capital. We will have formidable distribution capabilities and leading positions across the retail, institutional, and worksite channels. The depth and breadth of our distribution should enable us to expand our offerings while achieving a lower average cost of funds, resulting in more profitable new business. We will also have flexibility to allocate capital where we see the best risk-adjusted returns and customer demand. In addition, our integrated business model allows us to capture the full value chain by acting as a product manufacturer, distributor, and asset manager. This differentiates us from our competitors, most of whom only participate in one or two of these verticals. While the merger will shift our mix more towards retirement, it also helps scale AB and Wealth Management, enhancing the value of these high-multiple businesses. We remain focused on maximizing the flywheel benefits inherent in our model. Finally, the new Equitable Holdings, Inc. will have a robust balance sheet and is expected to generate over $4 billion of cash flow annually. We are aligned in having strong financial principles that govern how we operate, starting with economic management of the balance sheet and a focus on cash generation. Ultimately, we want to produce consistent results and cash flow across market cycles so that we can provide attractive returns to shareholders while also investing for growth. I will conclude on Slide 7 by providing some clear examples of how the merger will help accelerate growth across all our businesses. Starting with Retirement and Institutional, the combined firm will have approximately $540 billion of AUM and unmatched breadth across products and distribution. We knew that Equitable Holdings, Inc. would need to become more diversified over time in order to fully participate in the growing U.S. retirement market, and combining with CoreBridge makes us a top-three provider of fixed and indexed annuities and expands our institutional capabilities, notably in pension risk transfer. It also adds a strong life business that provides earnings and capital diversification and should benefit from selling through Equitable Advisors. In addition, the merger doubles our third-party distribution network to approximately 900 firms, expanding our ability to reach new customers. The combined firm will originate $70 billion to $80 billion of liabilities annually, highlighting the size and scale of our platform. We will have a more balanced business mix that provides liquidity benefits and positions us well to generate consistent growth across market cycles while deploying capital where we can earn the most attractive returns. Moving to Asset Management, AB will also benefit from the merger in multiple ways. We expect AB to add at least $100 billion of CoreBridge general and separate account assets over the next couple of years, resulting in total AUM of nearly $1 trillion. AB will also benefit from the combined firm's increased liability generation, which should drive higher ongoing net inflows. We also see an opportunity to commercialize some of CoreBridge's internal asset origination capabilities, particularly for real estate and commercial mortgage loans, by leveraging AB's global distribution. Over time, we expect to find additional sources of incremental revenues and net flows, including the potential to develop new commercial partnerships. Lastly, the addition of CoreBridge Advisors accelerates the path to scaling our Wealth Management business and adds approximately $20 billion of AUA. The merger will expand our proprietary product offering to include fixed and indexed annuities and indexed universal life, which will be a win for advisors, particularly our emerging sales force. We will have a more attractive platform and more financial resources, which should enhance our ability to recruit and develop new and experienced financial advisors. Overall, the key message I want to leave you with is that having increased scale will provide competitive advantages that translate into stronger and more consistent growth and enhance our profitability. I will now turn the call over to Robin to highlight the financial benefits from the merger and discuss our first quarter results in more detail.

Thanks, Mark. I want to echo my excitement about the merger and the ways in which we will accelerate our growth strategy and deliver attractive financial outcomes for our shareholders. On Slide 8, we highlight some of the key financial benefits. First, the combined company will have a robust balance sheet with significant capital. As of year-end 2025, pro forma GAAP book value exceeded $30 billion, and the companies had over $25 billion of statutory capital. The pro forma leverage ratio is approximately 26%, which provides financial flexibility. Second, we will have a more diversified business mix with equal contribution from fee and spread-based earnings. This should help us generate more consistent earnings in different market environments. Third, we project at least 10% accretion to EPS and cash generation on a run-rate basis by year-end 2028, driven by expense, capital, and tax synergies. We also expect to have a 15% plus return on equity. These projections do not include any benefit from the anticipated revenue synergies. Finally, we forecast over $5 billion of annual earnings power and over $4 billion of cash flows to the holding company, which will make us the most profitable company in the sector based on U.S. earnings. Turning to Slide 9, I will provide some more detail on first quarter results. On a consolidated basis, non-GAAP operating earnings were $472 million, or $1.62 per share, and we reported net income of $621 million, or $2.14 per share. Notable items in the quarter included $32 million of below-plan alternatives and a $13 million benefit from the purchase of tax credits. Adjusting for these items, non-GAAP operating earnings per share was $1.68, up 25% year over year. This is consistent with our earnings per share growth guidance of above 12% to 15% for 2026. The 25% increase in earnings per share was driven by a 9% year-over-year increase in total AUM/AUA, lower mortality claims, the benefit of our increased ownership stake in AllianceBernstein, and a lower share count, which reflects the incremental buyback executed following the RGA transaction. In 2026, our alternatives portfolio, which is 2% of our general account, produced an annualized return of 3.5%, with results pressured by lower CLO equity returns. Given weaker market conditions in the first quarter, we currently project our portfolio to have a return of 2% to 3% in the second quarter. While it is premature to predict what will happen in 2026, based on the lower returns for the first half of the year, we now expect a full-year return to be below our prior 8% to 9% guidance. Adjusted book value per share ex-AOCI with AB at market value was $34.70. We view this as a more meaningful number than reported book value per share, which significantly understates the fair value of our AB stake. On this basis, our adjusted debt-to-capital ratio was 24.5%, down 40 basis points sequentially. On Slide 10, I will provide some more details on segment-level earnings drivers. In Retirement, first quarter earnings, excluding notable items, were $394 million. Net interest margin, or NIM, increased 3% sequentially, as lower alternative investment income was offset by growth in general account assets. Excluding alternatives, our NIM spread improved by 5 basis points sequentially, helped by a 4 basis point benefit from a modest recovery in MVAs. This reverses the downward trend in spreads we experienced over the past year and supports our view that spreads are beginning to stabilize. On a sequential basis, the growth in NIM was partially offset by lower fee-based revenues as market declines pressured average separate account AUM. Turning to Asset Management, AB reported earnings of $140 million, up 11% year over year, as a result of higher base fees and our increased ownership percentage. While base fees benefited from a 7% year-over-year increase in AUM, this was partially offset by a lower fee rate due to a shift in asset mix. As expected, performance fees were relatively modest in this quarter, but we raised our full-year forecast from $95 million to $115 million. Moving to Wealth Management, we experienced strong year-over-year growth in advisory fees and transaction revenues, driving a 22% increase in earnings. As a reminder, fourth quarter 2025 results benefited from favorable one-time items, and this quarter we had seasonally higher expenses and a couple of million of costs related to the Stifel acquisition. We still expect double-digit earnings growth in 2026. Finally, Corporate and Other reported a loss of $98 million in the quarter, after adjusting for notable items, which is consistent with our 2026 guidance. Mortality was slightly favorable in the quarter and improved versus previous periods. On Slide 11, I will highlight Equitable Holdings, Inc.'s strong balance sheet and cash flows, which enable us to be a consistent returner of capital to shareholders. We know there has been a lot of focus on credit risk, so we have updated our investment portfolio stress test to reflect our holdings as of year-end 2025. This assumes a hypothetical severe credit stress scenario at least as bad as the global financial crisis and a decline of 40% in equity markets. We estimate slightly less than a 50% decline in RBC ratio, which from a starting point of 475% still leaves us comfortably above our 400% target. As a result, we are well positioned to handle a potential downturn in credit markets. That being said, today, we do not see any signs of weakness in our portfolio. In the appendix, we provided updated disclosures on our private credit portfolio, which represents 18% of our general account and is 95% investment grade assets that match well against our liabilities. Let me now turn to cash. We ended the first quarter with $1.2 billion of cash at the holding company, above our $500 million target, and we remain on track to achieve our target of 2026 cash generation of $1.8 billion. During the first quarter, we returned $223 million to shareholders, including $147 million of share repurchases. We were in a blackout period from buying back shares for the second half of the quarter due to the merger with CoreBridge, which depressed our payout ratio for the period. We remain committed to delivering our 60% to 70% payout ratio target for 2026 and recognize that share buybacks look extremely compelling at the current valuation. We plan to be in the market purchasing shares during the open windows between now and the closing of the transaction. On Slide 12, we show a timeline with key dates related to the merger and a specific time period of when we will be able to repurchase stock. Both Equitable Holdings, Inc. and CoreBridge trade at a significant discount relative to where we believe they should be valued, making buybacks meaningfully accretive to shareholders. As a result, you can expect that we will be active in the market during the windows that are available to us. We expect to file the initial merger proxy statement today after market close, and we can repurchase shares from that point until we mail the final proxy. There is not a set date for that mailing, but we do not expect it to occur until at least early June. We would then be able to repurchase shares again after the shareholder vote. If any repurchases from our 2026 capital plan are not completed prior to the merger close, we plan to execute them as part of an ASR shortly after the closing. As a reminder, the exchange ratio for the merger is fixed and will not be affected by any share repurchases executed by either company. I will now turn the call back over to Mark for some closing comments. Mark?

Thanks, Robin. Equitable Holdings, Inc. delivered solid first quarter results, and we remain confident in achieving our EPS growth and cash generation guidance for 2026, even with the volatile market backdrop. Looking forward, I am incredibly excited about the powerhouse franchise we are creating through the merger with CoreBridge. As we have talked about this morning, the combined company will have the scale, distribution strength, and product breadth to deliver differentiated growth and returns. I am confident that this merger positions us to win with customers and deliver superior value to shareholders over time. We will now open the call for questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you are muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Wesley Carmichael with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. Thank you. My first question was on the Retirement segment, and you had a pretty good earnings result in the quarter. Previously, I think you talked about spread compression abating in 2026, at least on a percentage basis. Do you still think that is the case given the mix of the book here, and could you talk a little bit about what you are seeing on the cost-of-funds side from a competitive dynamic?

Sure, Wes. Thank you for your question. We were happy to see spreads stabilize here in the first quarter. If you look quarter over quarter, spread income/NIM was up $11 million quarter over quarter. If you exclude alts, it was up even more, and excluding some of the MVA benefit, it was up about 1 basis point net. So if you look at it, it was about 1.69%, and I think that is the level you can probably expect at this point, and you can expect spread income to grow as the general account, excluding embedded derivatives, grows. The two primary factors that you see are, yes, with the abatement of some of the higher-margin in-force that has run off, that is a smaller part of the business mix, but also the discipline in the new business underwriting that we are seeing. Despite what you hear on the competition, RILA sales were up 14% year over year, and the pricing discipline has been maintained and the margins have been good. So the combination of that with the runoff of the in-force should lead to stabilization of spreads going forward.

Got it. Thanks, Robin. And then maybe just a more broad one on the Equitable Holdings, Inc.–CoreBridge merger. I know you reiterated EPS guidance with materials. Just wondering if you have done a bit more work, in earnest, on progress toward the merger. Have any of your expectations changed in terms of the financial impact, and maybe where you are seeing more or less opportunity relative to a little bit more than a month ago when the deal was announced?

Thanks, Wes. It is Mark Pearson. The things we would say are the integration planning process is well underway now with the top 50 or so leaders from each of the organizations. We really are confirming through that the complementarity of the two businesses. We are stronger together in terms of our product breadth, in terms of our distribution, and in terms of scale. So that is confirming everything we have told you in terms of the synergy opportunities and the look forward. We are also pretty excited on the revenue synergy side, but we are going to save telling you that until 2027 when we have done the work, and we can start to quantify it for you. We are confirming the expense synergies now and also starting to work on the revenue side as well.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Suneet Kamath with Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks. I just wanted to start on the buyback. With the window opening later tonight, how should we think about the pace of buybacks over the next month? And is there any sort of restriction or coordination required with CoreBridge, or are you operating on your own, so to speak?

Sure. Thanks, Suneet. As we laid out in the presentation, we are excited to say we are going to be back in the market with share buybacks. We expect to file the proxy this evening, and that enables us to open up the window again until the final mailing that will happen in June. Within that time period, expect us to be active in the market. The returns on a share buyback are very attractive at this point in time, so that is one of the reasons why we wanted to be back in. Both we and CoreBridge will coordinate together to make sure that share buybacks maintain accretion for shareholders throughout the period. Then, as I laid out in the presentation, after the shareholder vote that will open up the next window for share buybacks. Anything that is not completed by the closing will be completed as an ASR if needed. Shareholders should expect the same level of capital return from both companies that they would have otherwise received. We are happy to say we are going to be back in the market because buybacks are accretive given that both stocks look cheap right now.

Okay. That is helpful. And then on the $70 billion to $80 billion of originated liabilities that you are talking about, is there a practical limit in terms of how much assets AB can originate in order to back those liabilities?

No. We are fortunate.

With $70 billion to $80 billion of liabilities, we are going to have four asset managers that we will leverage. Obviously, AllianceBernstein, our in-house; also we get to benefit from some of the capabilities that CoreBridge brings to the merger—so Blackstone, BlackRock, and their internal capabilities as well. $70 billion to $80 billion provides lots of assets to put to work, and allows us to be disciplined on the general account and get the best risk-adjusted returns on those assets across the board. We would expect everybody to benefit. Obviously, AB will from the broader revenue synergies as well. That does not take into account the future growth. That is the $100 billion in separate account and general account assets that will move over to AB as a starting point, and then there will be upside from there with the future growth of the $70 billion to $80 billion benefiting AB and our other asset managers as well.

Okay. Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Krueger with KBW. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Thanks. Good morning. In the merger call, you talked about 2% to 4% synergies from capital and taxes that were part of the 10% plus overall synergies. I wanted to ask if that is a true best estimate, or did you embed some conservatism there, and could you possibly, as you do more work, see some upside to capital benefits of the merger?

Thanks, Ryan. It is important to repeat a few benefits we spoke about. It is going to be day-one accretive and 10% plus on a run-rate basis going forward. In addition, the diversification of both businesses together means we will have more stability in earnings and cash flows, which I think will lead to a lower cost of capital and a better profile for us going forward. To your question on the 10% plus synergies, we referenced 6% to 8% coming from expense synergies. There, we said we expect to at least get $500 million; there should be upside to that. The remainder will be from tax and capital, which I would say is our best estimate at this point in time. We will always do more work going forward. You can see both companies, Equitable Holdings, Inc. and CoreBridge, very active in terms of capital management since the IPO, so you can expect that to continue going forward. Most importantly, as Mark mentioned earlier, these numbers do not include the benefit of revenue synergies. I think that is what will differentiate this transaction on a go-forward basis: more assets and revenues going to AllianceBernstein, leveraging CoreBridge’s indexed IUL and fixed annuity products with Equitable Advisors, and leveraging our B/D with their third-party distribution. If we can be successful in capturing more revenue with the two companies together, we will be a stronger franchise that deserves a higher multiple going forward.

Thank you. And then just one question on the PGAAP impacts. I understand that it is contingent on where interest rates are, and there is probably a lot of work to be done on this. But maybe directionally, can you give any sense of whether, if the merger closed now, this would be more likely to be a positive or negative potential impact to your GAAP earnings?

I think it is too early to say at this point in time. As we put together the PGAAP, we will finalize that prior to close, and we will certainly give you that guidance. I think there will be moving parts in the PGAAP on the balance sheet. Obviously, the book value of the combined companies will be bigger, and that will be reflective of wherever the market cap of Equitable Holdings, Inc. is at that standpoint. On the income side, there will be moving parts between VOBA, DAC, and fair value of some of the assets. We will do that work, and as we do that work, we will disclose it as we get closer to the close of the transaction.

Your next question comes from the line of Thomas George Gallagher with Evercore ISI. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Good morning. One question about the quarter and then one about the merger. On the quarter, the MVA gains that you had in Retirement—Robin, can you comment on absolute dollars of earnings that that represented this quarter? And would you expect there to be any sustainability there? Was there something unusual about why they were higher?

Sure. Thanks. The key point for me is that spreads stabilized ex-alts and ex-the MVA, so about a 1 basis point improvement. The MVA was approximately $10 million in the quarter. We do not expect benefits on a go-forward basis; that is not something we include in our forecast or budgeting. As you have seen, that has been positive or negative through different periods over time. But excluding the MVA and excluding the impact of alts, spreads improved by 1 basis point quarter over quarter.

Gotcha. So $10 million was the earnings contribution?

Yes, approximately.

Gotcha. And my question on the merger—I listened closely to what you have been saying about the revenue synergies. I have not heard much of an emphasis on your institutional spread business, which I know is small for you; it is bigger for CoreBridge. But is that an opportunity? Because when I look at you and CoreBridge on a standalone basis, you are probably half the size, or maybe 30% or 40% of the size of that business compared to the Met’s and the Pru’s of the world. So I am just wondering, is that a business that we should expect you to really scale up?

Sure. For CoreBridge and Equitable Holdings, Inc., the FABN market has been attractive. It has generated good returns for us. It is obviously spread dependent, so depending on where our spreads trade at different time periods, that allows us to go in and out. With the balance sheet being much bigger, it gives us more capacity to lean in to that market, given the spreads are there and pricing is there. So it is certainly an opportunity for us with the larger balance sheet going forward.

Okay. Thanks.

Your next question comes from the line of Joel Hurwitz with Dowling & Partners. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning. Robin, first, can you just talk about mortality perspective in the quarter? It looked pretty good with reported benefit ratio at 83.1%.

Yes. It was nice to have a good quarter on mortality. Our benefit ratio is 83%; that is the lowest it has been in any quarter over the last year, which is good. Overall, we saw lower claims and fewer high face-amount claims specifically, which benefited us this quarter. Going forward, we think the guidance that we have given to the market appropriately captures what we would expect to see in mortality, and we look forward to speaking more about good mortality and focusing on the growth in the other businesses as well going forward.

Got it. And then in Retirement, it looks like you are starting to utilize flow reinsurance for some of your spread business. Can you talk about what products that is on, how much you plan to do, and the economics for Equitable Holdings, Inc.?

Sure. Yes. In the fourth quarter, we started to do some flow reinsurance on our RILA product. Flow reinsurance is a tool that we think is helpful for us when making a product accretive going forward, so it is an important tool in the toolkit. We could look at flow reinsurance in other products as well, and even post-merger, CoreBridge does some flow reinsurance as well. As long as it is accretive for us versus not doing it, it is something that we will look at selectively in different products. It is important to have a good counterparty, which we have, and we try to make sure AB continues to manage a portion of the assets for us going forward. We also have Bermuda as a tool in our toolkit as well. We will look at that for flow reinsurance for selective products for our internal products, and potentially for third-party opportunities going forward as well. Flow reinsurance is something that we will always look at across our businesses.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Alex Scott with Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Thanks. One I have is on cash flow. I wanted to see if you could talk a bit about the cash generation of the business and how that will trend through the integration process, with some higher expenses related to the integration itself and probably some sort of hockey stick dynamic. Could you help us think through the way that will progress over the next few years?

It is probably a little bit too early to give you too many specifics. Both companies obviously have strong cash flow generation. On the Equitable Holdings, Inc. side, we continue to feel comfortable with our $1.8 billion guidance that we provided this year and the $2 billion for 2027. Expect that to be in addition to the investments that we have in growth to help grow our new business franchises across the board. As part of the integration, we will target $500 million plus in expense synergies and expect that will be a 1.5 times investment with a very good payback associated with it. That investment is split between cash and non-cash, and on the timing we will provide further updates as we get closer to the close of the transaction and the integration planning is more complete.

Got it. That is helpful. And then a related topic is just the excess capital level that you have right now, particularly at the opco level—pretty significant. CoreBridge has a pretty significant MedEx of capital as well. How will this transaction change the way you approach the amount of excess capital you hold over time? It has been a while now that you have sat on a pretty high level, and you mentioned the stress test does not even take you down that close to your buffer at this point, and that was a pretty extreme stress test. Are you thinking about that differently with the transaction coming on?

We will have an Investor Day in 2027 where we will give further guidance on all those metrics. Stepping back, as we mentioned, the two companies are stronger together. The balance sheets are more resilient; they are more diversified across each other. There will be a lower cost of equity across the company, and we will be well positioned to maintain through different cycles in the market, whether that be credit or equity, because of the diversification of the businesses. What does that do? It allows us to leverage excess capital for best use for shareholders. Obviously, buybacks are a very attractive use given the valuations of both companies, but it also allows us to invest in growth. We see very good returns across the RILA market and the other markets across both companies. The more we can invest in growth and grow earnings going forward, which will translate into growth in cash, that will benefit shareholders over the long term. We will evaluate investments in growth and share buybacks for uses of excess capital as the two companies come together.

Got it. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Yaron Kinar with Mizuho. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Just a couple on capital deployment. If the windows end up being a bit narrower than expected or liked, and ultimately you have to complete the buyback through an ASR at the end of the year, is that 15% plus EPS growth target still achievable?

Yes. I think we are pretty comfortable. If you look at where we stand this quarter, we are at plus 25% on an EPS basis overall. That was with a lower share buyback in the first quarter. If you look at the windows that we have available to us, we believe we can deploy a lot of capital in the markets to buy back stock at these levels, keeping within our 60% to 70% payout ratio by year-end. The windows that we have are pretty broad and give us the availability and timing needed to deploy our capital plan. Anything that is left, we will complete in an ASR, so we feel comfortable with the guidance. Remember, the guidance for this year is that we would be above our 12% to 15%, and we still expect to be above our 12% to 15% as we progress during the year.

Great. And then the second one also on capital deployment. With the Stifel deal done, I think you had expressed interest in continuing to grow the Wealth business both organically and inorganically. Assuming, though, that given where the share price is today, buybacks would be a far more attractive capital deployment avenue than doing a deal in Wealth?

It is deal specific. Ultimately, we are in a fortunate position where the company can execute on its capital return program for shareholders and invest for growth. That is a position of strength that we are in right now. We want the Stifel transaction to complete its closure to advisors who will transition to our platform later this year. We can also look for opportunities at AllianceBernstein to grow on the asset management side as well. Obviously, where the share price is now, any deal needs to be accretive to shareholders, as you see this merger is as well. Ultimately, we are well positioned because we can buy back stock at this price and deploy excess capital to fuel future growth and make us a stronger company going forward.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Wilma Burdis with Raymond James. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey. Good morning. Given that one of your buyback windows will be May 6 through sometime in June, maybe we could drill down a little bit. Is there any limit to the amount Equitable Holdings, Inc. could buy given limitations on the percentage of daily trading volume? Could you help us a little bit with the math there?

We obviously have some limitations on average daily trading volume that we have to keep, but we feel—and I think CoreBridge would say the same—that the windows available to us provide the flexibility we need to be in the market to buy back stock. We will have this time period between when we file the proxy tonight and the final proxy in June to complete a decent amount of share buyback, and we will also have the ability again post the shareholder vote. We feel pretty comfortable to execute within a reasonable average daily trading volume our capital plans this year. We would expect to end with an ASR at our 60% to 70% payout ratio and no change in the amount of capital returned to shareholders for this year.

Okay. If there is any way you can give a little bit more detail just on that there, just as a quick follow-up. And then second question: I think the commentary that you have implied on the capital and tax benefits, I back-calculated it to around $500 million to $1.5 billion of capital that would be freed up by the deal. Any way to tell us if that estimate is somewhere in the ballpark?

I do not have more color on the share buyback at this time. On the capital and tax benefits of the deal, as we mentioned, the EPS accretion will be 6% to 8% from the expenses—hopefully more than that. We would expect it to be more, given the size of synergy potential we have between both organizations. Then we will have capital and tax benefits as well. We are not going to give nominal amounts at this time. Going forward, as we get into the Investor Day next year, you can expect more information on those numbers and also the revenue synergy. Do not forget that is the big part that we get excited about internally—what this brings to AllianceBernstein, what this brings to our Wealth Management business, and what this does for broader product distribution across both companies that will lead to a higher multiple over time.

Absolutely. Love the distribution. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Pablo Sing Son with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. Just a follow-up on the mortality. So 1Q and 4Q tend to be the highest mortality quarters for you. Given this, should we expect Corporate & Other loss to be there sequentially, or was 1Q just too favorable?

In the quarter, we did have some favorability in mortality. As we mentioned, the benefit ratio was 83%; that is lower than it was last quarter, as you can see in the supplement, and also lower than it was over the last year. The Corporate & Other guidance that we gave for the full year was a $350 million to $400 million loss. We expect to be within that guidance if you look on a normalized basis this quarter. Also keep in mind, going forward, the benefit of the RGA transaction really limits the volatility related to mortality for us. I think you are starting to see those benefits come through, and we do expect that to continue.

Thanks, Robin. And then second question is the implementation of VM-22. Do you see that having any material impact, whether from a price or capital standpoint, on the fixed annuity block you are getting from CoreBridge?

I would like CoreBridge to answer that on the VM-22 side. We have done diligence on each other—on the asset side, on the liability side, and potential regulation—and we feel comfortable with where both companies combined are positioned ahead of any regulation or asset changes.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Tracy Benguigui with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning. Going back to the PGAAP changes, you mentioned some of the moving parts, but I want to touch on AB. It seems like a big thing that folks misunderstand about Equitable Holdings, Inc. is your asset leverage—they are not looking at the right denominator. My personal view is statutory capital matters more. Now with this merger coming up, I understand that your PGAAP could mark up AB. Should we expect a large goodwill asset? And I am also curious, is doing the deal the only way to mechanically recognize AB's equity value?

Thanks, Tracy. I think you are right. The way to look at it is not GAAP leverage—stat is a bigger piece and something that a lot of people do not look at. On the GAAP side, it does not capture the full market value of AllianceBernstein outside of a transaction like this. Since we own AllianceBernstein, we cannot write up the asset as it exists today. That is one of the benefits of the transaction. It will lead to some additional goodwill, but there are a lot of moving parts related to the PGAAP, so it is too early to give you precise numbers on how the PGAAP works. Ultimately, both companies—if you look—on a statutory basis are going to be at $25 billion of pro forma capital. The GAAP equity is going to be above $30 billion. We feel very well positioned in terms of the size of both balance sheets and especially well positioned having AB, a Wealth Management franchise, and a broader Retirement platform to grow sales.

Staying with a 68% stake?

Currently, we are quite happy with our ownership of AllianceBernstein at approximately 68% to 69%. AB is a key part of the flywheel and expected to grow. The synergy potential of AB is pretty significant. Maybe I will ask Onur to talk about the revenue synergies potential with the AllianceBernstein team, but I think that is a big part of this deal—the benefits to AllianceBernstein and getting the $100 billion of general and separate account assets.

Thanks, Robin. We are very excited about the $100 billion plus that Mark and Robin mentioned. It is going to come from both the general account and the separate account businesses, as well as funds and retirement plans. We have multiple opportunities to do work over the next seven to eight months before the merger closes. We have a very bankable bottom-up plan, and that comes on top of a record pipeline we had before the CoreBridge–Equitable Holdings, Inc. merger, so it builds on a very sizable pipeline that already exists. We are very excited about that, and also like the fact that it is a diverse set of asset classes, ranging from public to private, fixed income, multi-asset, and equities, that will allow us to scale multiple platforms all at the same time.

So would you want to take that stake up if you like the business?

No change right now in our stake of AllianceBernstein. After we purchased the increase last year, we went from 62% to approximately 68% to 69%. We have no other plans at this time. We are really focused on the combined firms and execution of this merger. As Mark mentioned on the call, we established the integration office, we got our teams together, and everybody is focused on planning to execute the expense and revenue synergies and making sure we have the right people in the right seats. That is our focus at this time.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Mark Douglas Hughes with Truist. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Good morning. In the RILA business, sales are pretty strong. I wonder if you could discuss the competitive environment and then maybe touch on the biggest impact, biggest benefit from the merger on distribution?

Great. As you mentioned, overall we had a strong quarter in sales and volume, with RILAs up 14% and $1.3 billion of net flows, translating to a 6% trailing 12-month organic growth rate. We are very mindful of competitive trends. As we mentioned last quarter, we saw new entrants in 2025 revert back to more rational pricing in the fourth quarter, and we do not see any material change in competitive activity this quarter. Looking forward, we continue to see strong demand for RILAs driven by favorable demographics and macro uncertainty. I would highlight consumer sentiment is at an all-time low, so people are looking for protected equity stories, and we believe we have a durable edge to capture it—generating attractive yields through AB, our differentiated distribution with Equitable Advisors and our third-party networks. As Robin and Mark alluded to, the merger will expand our reach in that area. Finally, we have deep relationships and scale. As the pie has grown, we have nearly doubled our sales over the last four years, and this was another first quarter in record sales and volume. On the benefits on distribution: better reach, deeper relationships, and as Mark mentioned, we see scale becoming increasingly important to generate profitable growth and protect margins. CoreBridge will give us both of these immediately, so we think we are in a privileged position to capture a disproportionate share of value in the growing retirement market.

Understood. Then of the $70 billion to $80 billion in liability origination capacity, how much of that is third party versus owned distribution?

Yes. The way to look at it is the $70 billion to $80 billion is for the combined companies post-merger. Today, for Equitable Holdings, Inc., about 35% of our sales in the Retirement business come through Equitable Advisors. That is the way to look at it.

We have reached the end of the Q&A session. This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.