Equitable Holdings, Inc.

Equitable Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: EQH) combines retirement and protection products with wealth advice and its majority-owned asset manager, AllianceBernstein. Fees, insurance investment returns and client asset flows affect the businesses differently.

September-quarter results

Amounts are USD millions for the three months ended September 30. Operating earnings remove specified investment and insurance market-value movements and other items from reported profit. The further comparison excluding notable items removes separately identified effects, including actuarial assumption changes and unusual expenses.

Common-share earnings figures also deduct preferred dividends. Operating earnings grew about 31%, compared with about 9% when notable items are removed. The current period benefited from those items, while the earlier period had a net cost.

Client flows and investment management

Retirement net inflows were $1.1 billion, roughly flat from a year earlier. Wealth Management advisory inflows rose to $2.7 billion from $2.2 billion.

AllianceBernstein reported $6.6 billion of net inflows, including a $12 billion commercial-mortgage mandate from Equitable. Retail clients withdrew a net $8.4 billion. Despite higher assets under management, Equitable’s asset-management segment reported slightly lower operating profit as lower fee rates and higher expenses offset growth.

Cash and shareholder payouts

Holding-company cash and liquid assets were approximately $900 million at September 30, above management's $500 million minimum target. That figure excludes about $145 million available to AllianceBernstein through its credit facility and is separate from consolidated insurance-business cash.

Equitable returned $320 million in the quarter: $238 million through repurchases and $82 million through dividends. Management maintained its target to distribute 60% to 70% of annual adjusted operating earnings during 2026. Its August update had targeted $1.8 billion of holding-company cash generation for the year.

For the six months ended June 30, consolidated operating cash flow was $1.142 billion, compared with $499 million a year earlier.

Completed sale and pending merger

Equitable completed the sale of its Employee Benefits business to The Hartford on October 13. The September-quarter balances predate that closing.

Its all-stock combination with Corebridge Financial remained pending at the November 2 results, with closing expected by year-end subject to regulatory approvals. The March agreement gives Equitable shareholders 1.55516 shares in the new parent per share, with approximately 49% of the combined company expected to belong to them.

The original transaction plan targeted more than $500 million of annual expense savings by the end of 2028. Future reports can test completion, the conversion of planned savings into earnings and growth in client assets beyond internal mandates.