NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Equitable Holdings, Inc. (“Equitable Holdings”, “Holdings”, or the “Company”) (NYSE: EQH) today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.

“We reported solid first quarter results with Non-GAAP operating earnings per share of $1.62, or $1.68 excluding notable items, up 25% from the prior year quarter. Within our businesses, we continued to see healthy organic growth momentum, highlighted by $1.3 billion of net inflows in Retirement and $2.0 billion of advisory net inflows in Wealth Management. Looking forward, we remain confident in achieving our 2026 guidance of $1.8 billion of cash generation and over 15% growth in earnings per share,” said Mark Pearson, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Pearson concluded, “I am incredibly excited about the announced merger with Corebridge, which will create a diversified financial services company with leading positions across retirement, life insurance, asset management, and wealth management and accelerate our growth strategy. The transaction will be immediately accretive to earnings per share and cash generation, and we project at least 10% accretion on a run-rate basis by year-end 2028. By leveraging the complementary strengths of Equitable and Corebridge, the combined company will have the scale, product breadth, and distribution platform to deliver superior value to both our customers and shareholders.”

As of March 31, 2026, total AUM/A was $1.1 trillion, a year-over-year increase of 9%, driven by positive net flows and higher markets over the prior twelve months.

Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings for the first quarter of 2026 was $621 million compared to $63 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Non-GAAP operating earnings in the first quarter of 2026 were $472 million compared to $421 million in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusting for notable items³ of $19 million, first quarter 2026 Non-GAAP operating earnings were $491 million or $1.68 per share.

As of March 31, 2026, book value per common share including accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) was $(2.83). Book value per common share excluding AOCI was $19.56. Both of these measures reflect the Company’s 68% ownership stake in AllianceBernstein (“AB”) at book value. Book value per common share excluding AOCI but with AB reflected at fair market value was $34.70.

Business Highlights

• First quarter 2026 business segment highlights:
  • Retirement reported net inflows of $1.3 billion and first year premiums of $6.0 billion were up 10% over the prior year.
  • Asset Management (AllianceBernstein or “AB”)⁴ reported net outflows of $7.1 billion, primarily driven by active equities. The institutional pipeline increased to a record $27.5 billion as of quarter end.
  • Wealth Management (“WM”) reported advisory net inflows of $2.0 billion, with total assets under administration reaching $131 billion.
• Capital management program:
  • The Company returned $223 million to shareholders in the first quarter, including $76 million quarterly cash dividends and $147 million of share repurchases. The Company remains committed to its 60-70% payout ratio target for 2026.
  • The Company reported cash and liquid assets of $1.2 billion at Holdings⁵ as of quarter end, which remains above the $500 million minimum target. The combined NAIC RBC ratio was approximately 475% at year end, above the Company’s target of 400%.
• Delivering shareholder value:
  • The Company has completed the deployment of its $20 billion capital committed to AB. This supports growth in AB’s Private Markets business, which had $85 billion of assets under management as of quarter end.
  • During the first quarter, the Company closed on the acquisition of Stifel Independent Advisors, adding over $9 billion of client assets.
  • On March 26th, the Company announced an agreement to combine with Corebridge Financial in an all-stock merger, creating an industry-leading Retirement, Wealth and Asset Management company. The merger is expected to close by year-end 2026, subject to a shareholder vote and regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings per share and cash generation with 10%+ accretion on a run rate basis by year-end 2028.

Business Segment Results

Retirement

• Assets increased by 14%, driven by market performance and net inflows over the prior twelve months.

• First year premiums of $6.0 billion increased by 10% while net inflows of $1.3 billion were lower than the prior year quarter.

• Operating earnings of $396 million increased versus the prior year quarter, primarily due to higher fee-based revenue and a lower tax rate.

• Operating earnings adjusted for notable items⁷ increased from $385 million in the prior year quarter to $394 million. Notable items of $(2) million in the current period reflect lower net investment income from alternatives, offset by a favorable tax credit.

Asset Management

• AUM increased by 7% due to market performance over the prior twelve months.

• Net outflows were $7.1 billion in the quarter, including net outflows of $5.8 billion in Retail and $1.9 billion in Institutional, partially offset by net inflows of $0.6 billion in Private Wealth.

• Operating earnings increased from $126 million in the prior year quarter to $140 million, due to growth in base fees and a higher ownership percentage of AB.

Wealth Management

• AUA increased by 28% over the last twelve months due to market performance, net inflows and acquired assets from the Stifel transaction.

• Advisory net inflows were $2.0 billion in the quarter, supported by an 11% year-over-year increase in advisor productivity.

• Operating earnings increased from $45 million in the prior year quarter to $55 million, primarily due to growth in client assets and advisory fees.

Corporate and Other (“C&O”)

The operating loss of $119 million in the first quarter decreased from an operating loss of $130 million in the prior year quarter. After adjusting for notable items⁸, the operating loss was $98 million versus a loss of $122 million in the prior year quarter.

Exhibit 1: Notable Items

Notable items represent the impact on results from our annual actuarial assumption review, approximate impacts attributable to significant variances from the Company’s expectations, and other items that the Company believes may not be indicative of future performance. The Company chooses to highlight the impact of these items and give Non-GAAP measures less notable items to provide a better understanding of our results of operations in a given period. Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.

Impact of notable items by segment and Corporate & Other:

Impact of notable items by item category:

Earnings Conference Call

Equitable Holdings will host a conference call at 9 a.m. ET on May 5, 2026 to discuss its first quarter 2026 results. The conference call webcast, along with additional earnings materials, will be accessible on the company’s investor relations website at ir.equitableholdings.com. Please log on to the webcast at least 15 minutes prior to the call to download and install any necessary software.

To register for the conference call, please use the following link:
EQH First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call

After registering, you will receive an email confirmation including dial in details and a unique conference call code for entry. Registration is open through the live call. To ensure you are connected for the full call we suggest registering a day in advance or at minimum 10 minutes before the start of the call.

A webcast replay will be made available on the Equitable Holdings Investor Relations website at ir.equitableholdings.com.

About Equitable Holdings

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH) is a leading financial services holding company comprised of complementary and well-established businesses, Equitable, AllianceBernstein and Equitable Advisors. Equitable Holdings has $1.1 trillion in assets under management and administration (as of 3/31/2026) and more than 5 million client relationships globally. Founded in 1859, Equitable provides retirement and protection strategies to individuals, families and small businesses. AllianceBernstein is a global investment management firm that offers diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals and private wealth clients. Equitable Advisors, LLC (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI and TN) has approximately 4,600 duly registered and licensed financial professionals that provide financial planning, wealth management, retirement planning, protection and risk management services to clients across the country.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “expects,” “believes,” “anticipates,” “forecasts,” “intends,” “seeks,” “aims,” “plans,” “assumes,” “estimates,” “projects,” “should,” “would,” “could,” “may,” “will,” “shall” or variations of such words are generally part of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon Equitable Holdings, Inc. (“Holdings”) and its consolidated subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding projections, estimates, forecasts and other financial and performance metrics and projections of market expectations. “We,” “us” and “our” refer to Holdings and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless the context refers only to Holdings as a corporate entity. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Holdings will be those anticipated by management. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all matters that are not historical facts.

These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and there are certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such forward-looking statements, including, among others: (i) the ability to complete the Proposed Transaction on the timeframe or in the terms currently anticipated or at all, including due to a failure to obtain requisite stockholder, stock exchange, regulatory, governmental or other approvals; (ii) risks related to difficulties, inabilities or delays in integrating the parties’ businesses; (iii) the ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the Proposed Transaction, including estimated run-rate expense synergies and projected cost savings at the time, and to the extent anticipated, as well as expected, operating earnings and cash flow generation; (iv) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the right of either or both parties to terminate the merger agreement; (v) the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the Proposed Transaction on Equitable or Corebridge’s stock price and on their respective business, contractual and operational relationships (including with regulatory bodies, employees, suppliers, clients and competitors); (vi) risk related to business disruptions from the Proposed Transaction that may harm the business or current plans and operations of either or both parties, including diversion of management time from ongoing business operations; (vii) the risk that the Proposed Transaction and the announcement thereof could have an adverse effect on the operations; (viii) the risk that the Proposed Transaction and the announcement thereof could have an adverse effect on the ability of either or both parties to hire and retain key personnel; (ix) the parties’ ability to raise debt on favorable terms or at all; (x) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Equitable, Corebridge, their new parent company or their respective directors; (xi) restrictions on the conduct of Equitable and Corebridge’s respective businesses prior to the closing of the Proposed Transaction and on each of their ability to pursue alternatives to the Proposed Transaction; (xii) the possibility that the Proposed Transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events, or unforeseen or unknown liabilities; (xiii) the potential impact of a downgrade in Equitable or Corebridge’s Insurer Financial Strength ratings or credit ratings or of the new parent company of Equitable and Corebridge following completion of the Proposed Transaction; (xiv) conditions in the financial markets and economy, including the impact of geopolitical conflicts, changes in tariffs and trade barriers, the impact on the Company of a continued shutdown of the U.S. government, and related economic conditions, equity market declines and volatility, interest rate fluctuations, impacts on our goodwill and changes in liquidity and access to and cost of capital; (xv) operational factors, including reliance on the payment of dividends to Holdings by its subsidiaries, protection of confidential customer information or proprietary business information, operational failures by us or our service providers, potential strategic transactions, changes in accounting standards, and catastrophic events, such as the outbreak of pandemic diseases; (xvi) credit, counterparties and investments, including counterparty default on derivative contracts, failure of financial institutions, defaults by third parties and affiliates and economic downturns, defaults and other events adversely affecting our investments; (xvii) our reinsurance and hedging programs; (xviii) our products, structure and product distribution, including variable annuity guaranteed benefits features within certain of our products, variations in statutory capital requirements, financial strength and claims-paying ratings, state insurance laws limiting the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to pay dividends and key product distribution relationships; (xix) estimates, assumptions and valuations, including risk management policies and procedures, potential inadequacy of reserves and experience differing from pricing expectations, amortization of deferred acquisition costs and financial models; (xx) our Asset Management segment, including fluctuations in assets under management and the industry-wide shift from actively-managed investment services to passive services; (xxi) recruitment and retention of key employees and experienced and productive financial professionals; (xxii) subjectivity of the determination of the amount of allowances and impairments taken on our investments; (xxiii) legal and regulatory risks, including federal and state legislation affecting financial institutions, insurance regulation and tax reform; (xxiv) risks related to our common stock and (xxv) general risks, including strong industry competition, information systems failing or being compromised and protecting our intellectual property.

Forward-looking statements, including any financial guidance, should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements, risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in Holdings’ filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as otherwise may be required by law.

Forward-looking Non-GAAP Metrics

The Company has presented forward-looking statements regarding Non-GAAP operating earnings, and Non-GAAP operating earnings per share. These non-GAAP financial measures are derived by excluding certain amounts, expenses or income, from the corresponding financial measures determined in accordance with GAAP. The determination of the amounts that are excluded from these non-GAAP financial measures is a matter of management judgment and depends upon, among other factors, the nature of the underlying expense or income amounts recognized in a given period. We are unable to present a quantitative reconciliation of forward-looking adjusted operating earnings per share and payout ratio targeted to non-GAAP operating earnings to their most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP financial measures because such information is not available, and management cannot reliably predict all of the necessary components of such GAAP measures without unreasonable effort or expense. In addition, we believe such reconciliations would imply a degree of precision that would be confusing or misleading to investors. The unavailable information could have a significant impact on the Company’s future financial results. These non-GAAP financial measures are preliminary estimates and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, among others changes in connection with quarter-end and year-end adjustments. Any variations between the Company’s actual results and preliminary financial data set forth above may be material.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to our results presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP, we report Non-GAAP Operating Earnings, and Non-GAAP operating common EPS, each of which is a measure that is not determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Management principally uses these Non-GAAP financial measures in evaluating performance because they present a clearer picture of our operating performance and they allow management to allocate resources. Similarly, management believes that the use of these Non-GAAP financial measures, together with relevant U.S. GAAP measures, provide investors with a better understanding of our results of operations and the underlying profitability drivers and trends of our business. These Non-GAAP financial measures are intended to remove from our results of operations the impact of market changes (where there is a mismatch in the valuation of assets and liabilities) as well as certain other expenses which are not part of our underlying profitability drivers or likely to re-occur in the foreseeable future, as such items fluctuate from period-to-period in a manner inconsistent with these drivers. These measures should be considered supplementary to our results that are presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP and should not be viewed as a substitute for the U.S. GAAP measures. Other companies may use similarly titled Non-GAAP financial measures that are calculated differently from the way we calculate such measures. Consequently, our Non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies.

We also discuss certain operating measures, including AUM, AUA, AV, policy reserves and certain other operating measures, which management believes provide useful information about our businesses and the operational factors underlying our financial performance.

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings is an after-tax Non-GAAP financial measure used to evaluate our financial performance on a consolidated basis that is determined by making certain adjustments to our consolidated after-tax net income attributable to Holdings. The most significant of such adjustments relates to our derivative positions, which protect economic value and statutory capital, and the variable annuity product MRBs. This is a large source of volatility in net income.

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings equals our consolidated after-tax net income attributable to Holdings adjusted to eliminate the impact of the following items:

• Items related to variable annuity product features, which include: (i) changes in the fair value of MRB and purchased MRB, including the related attributed fees and claims, offset by derivatives and other securities used to hedge the MRB which result in residual net income volatility as the change in fair value of certain securities is reflected in OCI and due to our statutory capital hedge program; and (ii) market adjustments to deposit asset or liability accounts arising from reinsurance agreements which do not expose the reinsurer to a reasonable possibility of a significant loss from insurance risk;

• Investment (gains) losses, which includes credit loss impairments of securities/investments, sales or disposals of securities/investments, realized capital gains/losses and valuation allowances;

• Net actuarial (gains) losses, which includes actuarial gains and losses as a result of differences between actual and expected experience on pension plan assets or projected benefit obligation during a given period related to pension, other postretirement benefit obligations, and the one-time impact of the settlement of the defined benefit obligation;

• Other adjustments, which primarily include restructuring costs related to severance and separation, lease write-offs related to non-recurring restructuring activities, net derivative gains (losses) on certain Non-GMxB derivatives, net investment income from certain items including consolidated VIE investments, seed capital mark-to-market adjustments, unrealized gain/losses and realized capital gains/losses from sales or disposals of select securities, certain legal accruals; a bespoke deal to repurchase UL policies from one entity that had invested in numerous policies purchased in the life settlement market, which disposed of the risk of additional COI litigation by that entity related to those UL policies, impact of the annual actuarial assumption updates attributable to LFPB when the majority of the impact relates to the non-core business; and

• Income tax expense (benefit) related to the above items and non-recurring tax items, which includes the effect of uncertain tax positions for a given audit period and changes to the deferred tax valuation allowance.

In the third quarter of 2025, the Company updated its net investment income (“NII”) segment reporting to better align with our GAAP segments, as well as the reporting of our spread lending programs’ income and expenses. Previously, direct and allocated segment NII were recorded based on assets tied to statutory asset tagging and net statutory liabilities for allocation. To better align with our GAAP segments, the Company changed the recording methodology for direct NII. It is now based on the book yields of assets tied to specific segments, considering general account values plus reserves, net of embedded derivatives. Indirect NII, which was previously allocated based on net statutory liabilities, is now allocated based on general account values and reserves, net of embedded derivatives. Additionally, revenues and expenses from our spread lending programs are now primarily recorded within the Retirement segment. Previously, spread lending revenues and expenses were recorded in Corporate and Other, with the excess of revenues over expenses allocated to the insurance segments based on net statutory liabilities. Prior periods have been revised to reflect these changes.

Because Non-GAAP Operating Earnings excludes the foregoing items that can be distortive or unpredictable, management believes that this measure enhances the understanding of the Company’s underlying drivers of profitability and trends in our business, thereby allowing management to make decisions that will positively impact our business.

We use the prevailing corporate federal income tax rate of 21% while taking into account any non-recurring differences for events recognized differently in our financial statements and federal income tax returns as well as partnership income taxed at lower rates when reconciling Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings to Non-GAAP Operating Earnings.

The table below presents a reconciliation of Net income (loss) attributable to Holdings to Non-GAAP Operating Earnings for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025:

Non-GAAP Operating EPS

Non-GAAP Operating Earnings per common share is calculated by dividing Non-GAAP Operating Earnings less preferred stock dividends by diluted common shares outstanding. The table below presents a reconciliation of GAAP EPS to Non-GAAP Operating EPS for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and 2025.

Book Value per common share, excluding AOCI

We use the term “book value” to refer to total equity attributable to Holdings’ common shareholders. Book Value per common share, excluding AOCI, is our total equity attributable to Holdings, excluding AOCI and preferred stock, divided by ending common shares outstanding.

Other Operating Measures

We also use certain operating measures which management believes provide useful information about our businesses and the operational factors underlying our financial performance.

Account Value (“AV”)

Account value generally equals the aggregate policy account value of our retirement products.

Assets Under Management (“AUM”)

AUM means investment assets that are managed by one of our subsidiaries and includes: (i) assets managed by AB, (ii) the assets in our general account investment portfolio and (iii) the separate account assets of our Retirement and Life businesses. Total AUM reflects exclusions between segments to avoid double counting.

Assets Under Management (“AUA”)

AUA means advisory and brokerage investment assets included in the Company’s Wealth Management segment.

Segment net flows

Net change in segment customer account balances in a period including, but not limited to, gross premiums, surrenders, withdrawals and benefits. It excludes investment performance, interest credited to customer accounts and policy charges.

Consolidated Statements of Income (Loss) (Unaudited)

Earnings Per Common Share

Results of Operations by Segment

Select Balance Sheet Statistics

Assets Under Management (Unaudited)