speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

Please stand by, we're about to begin. Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Abacus Global Management second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. To distance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key, followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your keypad at any time. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to David Jackson, Abacus Global Management's Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

speaker
David Jackson
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator, and thank you everyone for joining Abacus Global Management's second quarter earnings call. Here with me today are Jay Jackson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Elena Plesco, Chief Investment Officer, and Bill McCauley, Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer. This afternoon at 4.15 p.m. Eastern Time, Abacus Global Management released our second quarter 2026 results. This afternoon's call will allow participants to ask questions about our results. Before we begin, Abacus Global Management refers participants on this call to the investor webpage ir.abacusgm.com for the press release, investor information, and filings with the SEC for a discussion of the risks that can affect the business. Abacus Global Management more specifically refers participants to the presentation furnished today on Form 8K with the Securities and Exchange Commission and reminds listeners that some of the comments today may contain forward-looking statements and as such will be subject to risks and uncertainties which, if they materialize, could materially affect results. More information on the risks, uncertainties, and assumptions relating to forward-looking statements, please refer to Abacus Global Management's public filings. During the call, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Although we believe these measures provide useful supplemental information about our financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP. Please see our public filings for additional information regarding our non-GAAP financial measures, including references to comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Jay Jackson, Abacus Global Management's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, David, and thanks to everyone for joining us. We are thrilled to see so many of you in person at the NYSE last month for our Investor Day, where we shared our vision for Abacus Global Management. We'd encourage everyone to listen to the replay available on our IR website. For those that weren't able to join, our message from Investor Day was clear. We have high conviction that traditional asset management will be revolutionized and improved via personalized longevity data. More importantly, we firmly believe Abacus is uniquely positioned as the leading data and technology platform to enable that revolution. Start with the number that is reshaping our entire industry, $124 trillion. Over the next three decades, that is what will pass from baby boomers to their children and grandchildren, the largest wealth transfer in history, and nearly every dollar of it is being planned today on a guess. Thank you for joining us. Turning an individual's medical, genetic, medication, and biometric data into a portfolio built around the life they actually live. This is possible because we have a 20-year head start built on exactly that data, which positions Abacus to be the intelligence layer for lifespan-linked finance. The clearest way to frame that is a company you all know. Amazon built AWS to run its own marketplace. and it became one of its most important profit engines. Our origination platform is our commerce engine and LifeArk is our AWS. The growth is already showing up in our results. Through the first half of 2026, we raised $544.2 million in inflows into our longevity funds, surpassing our $500 million target for the period. and comparing to approximately $604 million for all of 2025. Separately, we are in the very early days of putting LifeArc to work for others, and this is where the wealth transfer opportunity comes to life. Our partnership with Manning and Napier will let their advisors apply personalized lifespan modeling across the $18 billion they manage for 3,400 clients. Manning and Napier is not the exception. It is the playbook. and that playbook points to something bigger. So when we talk about abacus, we are not a traditional asset manager. We are building the infrastructure for lifespan linked finance. Our mission is to own the data, products and distribution rails that let advisors build portfolios around each individual's specific lifespan drivers. So the next generation invest those $124 trillion around real lifespans That's the opportunity we're building toward, and this quarter gave us real evidence we're on the right path. Bill will take you through the specifics of the quarter in a moment, but I want to pull out two highlights I'm especially excited about. First, we received SEC effectiveness for and launched the ABX Longevity Growth and Income Fund, ticker ABXGX. are our first registered interval fund dedicated to the longevity asset class. For the first time, individual investors and their advisors can access this asset class through a registered vehicle, and it's a direct realization of the strategy we laid out at Investor Day. Second, in building on that same drive to open up the asset class is asset tokenization. Let me be clear about what this is and what it isn't. For Abacus, this is not a crypto strategy. It's a financial infrastructure. We're building an immutable on-chain record of each policy's chain of title, liens, and cash flow rights, which makes the secondary life insurance market more transparent, more transferable, and more investable. This is a market that has historically been opaque and hard to transact, and putting it on-chain begins to change that. We've already started tokenizing enforced policies. and we see this as infrastructure that builds on the strength of our origination platform as we continue to grow our recurring fee-based revenue. Those milestones show the kind of progress we're making. Turning to the nearer term, we feel very good about the trajectory of the business as we move through the balance of the year. Alongside our results, we're providing guidance for the third quarter The momentum we built in the first half across our origination platform and disciplined monetization gives us real confidence in where we're headed. With that, I'll turn it over to Bill to take you through the quarter in detail.

speaker
Bill McCauley
Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer

Thank you, Jay. Today I'll start by detailing our strong operating results for the quarter across our origination platform, fund management, profitability, and continued scaling of our operating cash flow. Next, I will detail our outlook for 2026 from here. including our expectations for the third quarter and close out with an update on the Manning and Napier integration. To begin, as Jay noted, Abacus continued its momentum from the first quarter with close to $200 million in capital deployed in Q2, which brought our year-to-date capital deployed to $362 million. While maintaining discipline, our platform continued to accelerate the number of policies under review. In Q2, we have been able to review 9,314 qualified policies as compared to 8,786 qualified policies in Q1, with total policies reviewed year to date, including non-qualified, reaching over 50,000, a milestone we've been able to achieve by augmenting both top-of-the-funnel leads in our review time of each case with artificial intelligence. As we look to the second half of 2026, we expect inbound policies under review to continue to grow as we further penetrate and leverage distribution channels, including Manning and Napier. Now let me review our financial results for the quarter. Abacus grew revenue by 30% over last year to $73 million. Our growth was driven by Life Solutions, which grew 38.3% to $65.4 million year over year. This growth was partially offset by lower asset management fees, primarily due to a decline in AUM and our ETF strategies, driven by both market conditions and outflows. Those declines have been offset by robust inflows into our longevity funds, totaling $256 million for the quarter. As Jay noted, we continue to see significant potential to capitalize on the power of LifeArk and remain confident that both asset management and technology service fee revenue will make up a growing portion of our revenue base in the future. To that point, technology service fees year to date are approaching $1 million, which is in line with the continued build out and adoption of that business. Moving to our expenses, total operating expense totaled $42.5 million for the quarter. The year over year increase is largely driven by increases in strategic business expenses and other personnel costs from acquisitions and growth as we are ramping the asset management, wealth management and technology sides of the platform. Moving to profitability, our adjusted net income which excludes non-cash stock compensation, non-recurring expenses related to business acquisitions and special projects total 27.1 million or 28 cents per diluted share. We are pleased to be able to say that these numbers are above our Q2 guidance provided in May of $24 to $26 million of adjusted net income and $0.24 to $0.26 of adjusted EPS. To reiterate the point, Abacus is committed to responsible growth that maintains operating margins and mitigates consolidated profitability. Looking at our adjusted EBITDA, the second quarter was successful as we generated $40 million, which is a 27% increase compared to last year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was a healthy 55%. Overall, we are very pleased with the strength in the platform growth, including investments we are making for future growth. Q2 marked another quarter of very strong 30% and 27% respective revenue and EBITDA growth at similar margins. Finally, turning to our balance sheet, our adjusted return on equity was 25%, or 400 basis points higher year over year. Our cash balance ended the quarter at $23.4 million, with policy assets totaling $383 million. Our long-term debt balance, excluding any non-recourse liabilities, stands at $290.8 million. For the third quarter, we expect adjusted net income of $26 to $28 million and adjusted EPS of $0.26 to $0.28 per share. For the full year, following the increase to our guidance last quarter, We are reiterating our expectation for adjusted net income of $100 to $106 million and adjusted EPS of $1 to $1.5 per share. More broadly, we feel good about the trajectory of the business as we move through the second half. The confidence is grounded in the strength of our origination platform, disciplined monetization, and the continued build-out of our fee-based and technology revenue. Let me also cover one housekeeping item on how we present guidance. Our adjusted net income guidance is provided on a gross basis, meaning that any adjustments are made before tax effects, consistent with how we have historically provided guidance and the basis on which our covering analyst model. To reduce any chance of confusion, we are now also providing the tax affected or net equivalents. Beginning with our first quarter 10Q, we included a schedule reconciling our gross adjusted net income and EPS to their net equivalents. That reconciliation appears again in our second quarter 10Q. The approximate tax rate bridging gross add-back items to net is 25%. Other than the tax effect, the assumptions for the gross and net figures are identical. Over time, we expect a transition towards guiding on a net basis and we are providing both figures now to make that transition seamless. Lastly, I want to touch on some of the early success of the operational integration with Manning and Napier. Since closing the investment in May, we have established a live referral channel between the two firms and we are converting Abacus's own unqualified leads into Manning and Napier wealth management clients, putting people who came to us for one need into a full advisory relationship. At the same time, we are mining the policies held on their end and working through their books of business to identify qualified policies that are candidates for settlement, surfacing value that was sitting untapped in their existing client base. And underpinning all of it, we have begun rolling out life arc across their advisor network, putting personalized lifespan modeling directly into the hands of people who sit across from those clients every day. Taken together, these are exactly the early proof points we had hoped to see, and they give us real confidence in how this playbook extends to the next quarter. So with that, let me turn the call to Elena to review performance of our balance sheet and investment strategy.

speaker
Elena Plesco
Chief Investment Officer

Thanks, Bill. This quarter, I want to do three things. Walk through how the balance sheet performed. Talk about what we built on the asset management side and how we funded it. and then step back and put our results in the context of what is happening in the broader alternatives market. Because the contrast this quarter is a big part of the story. Let me start with the balance sheet. For the second quarter, annualized portfolio turnover was two times at the top end of our long-term target range of one and a half to two times. That level of turnover reflects continued demand for the assets we originated. and our ability to recycle capital efficiently while holding our underwriting discipline. We deployed approximately 197.9 million of capital during the quarter, up 62% year over year, which tells you origination volume and investor appetite are both strong. Our average realized gain on policy sales was approximately 25%. comfortably above our long-term target of 20% wealth. I want to underline what that number represents because it is central to how we think about the business. We turn our book roughly twice a year, which means these are not marks on a screen. They are realized transactions at real prices with real counterparties. Every turn of the book is a validation of the fair value we carry. In a market that is right now spending a great deal of energy debating whether private assets marks are real, that distinction matters. And I will come back to that. One measure of the balance sheet efficiency worth noting is holding period. Policies we sold this quarter were held on average for approximately 230 days. versus approximately 153 days for policies still on the balance sheet. That 77-day gap shows we're monetizing more seasoned positions while keeping the newer high-conviction assets working for us as they season. Now let me turn to asset management because this is where the strategy really advanced this quarter. The headline is the launch of the ABX Longevity Growth and Income Fund, which received SEC effectiveness right after the quarter ends. This is the first registered interval fund dedicated to the longevity asset class, and it opens our strategies to individual investors and their advisors for the first time. That is a structural expansion of who can access this asset class, not just another product. On fundraising, our longevity funds collectively raised $544.2 million in the first half of the year, surpassing the $500 million target we set for the period. Capital inflows into those funds in the second quarter alone were approximately $256.1 million, and management and servicing fees across the longevity funds were $6.5 million for the quarter. Total fee-paying AUM across the platform now sits at roughly $3.2 billion and total AUM at $3.5 billion. It is worth stepping back to see how the two sides of the house relate because we manage capital in two places and they run off one engine. The balance sheet originates the assets. The funds are distinct vehicles, but they draw on the same origination platform The same underwriting discipline and the same servicing infrastructure structured for recurring distributions and long-dated capital appreciation. That is the point of the whole model, and it is the proof the flywheel works. The balance sheet demonstrates in cash that these assets perform as underwritten. The funds let outside investors participate. In that at scale, as we grow fee-paying AUM, we grow management fee revenue without a proportional increase in balance sheet capital, which improves both returns and capital efficiency over time. Share of fee-weighted revenue is still in the teens of our mix today, and our target is 70% by 2030. Let me now put all of this in the context of the wider market because I think it frames why our results look the way they do. The dominant story across alternatives right now is private credit and specifically the pressure it is under. Over the last two quarters, we have seen meaningful redemption activity in non-traded credit vehicles, slowing fundraising in parts of that market. and rating agencies openly watching liquidity cushions at credit-focused funds.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

Sales of non-listed BDCs fell sharply in the first quarter.

speaker
Elena Plesco
Chief Investment Officer

The debate has shifted from how fast private credit can grow to whether the marks are honest and whether the liquidity terms hold up under stress. Most of the large managers have argued reasonably that the stress is idiosyncratic rather than systemic. I'm not here to litigate that. What I want to point out is why it is largely not our problem. Our assets are not corporate credit. Their performance is tied to mortality, not to interest rates, spreads, borrower profitability, or the economic cycle. That is the definition of an uncorrelated return and it is exactly what institutional allocators say they're looking for when they diversify away from crowded corporate credit exposure. When the concern in the market is whether an asset can be sold at its carried value, we have a book that turns twice a year and tells us the answer in cash. And when the concern is liquidity mismatch, Our interval fund is purpose-built to align investor liquidity with the underlying assets rather than promise daily liquidity against illiquid holdings. So the environment that is creating stress elsewhere is for us a demonstration of why this asset class exists. Uncorrelated, cash validated, and structurally matched. That is the pitch. In this quarter, the results supported it. Stepping back, the story remains straightforward. We run differentiated origination platform supported by disciplined underwriting and consistent monetization. And we're scaling an asset management platform on top of it that is designed to generate a growing base of fee-related earnings. Those priorities are exactly the ones we weighed out at Investor Day, and the second quarter was real progress against that roadmap. With that, let me turn it back to Jay for some closing thoughts.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Elena. Before we turn to your questions, I'd like to emphasize one important takeaway for our investors and analysts. Clearly, you can hear our excitement for and confidence in how Abacus will change the asset management industry. To say it again, the opportunity in front of us is generationally massive, and we believe Abacus' platform, powered by LifeArk, will capture an increasing share of the value our data delivers to asset managers and their investors. So let me end by saying, you've heard me speak to our stock price and market cap in the past. Let me add this. We believe Abacus will become substantially larger based on our current business lines alone. And best of all, we have considerable visibility into that growth. This is the primary reason why we continue to repurchase our shares. We're excited to execute and deliver the entire opportunity for our shareholders. With that, let's turn it back to the operator for your questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

Thank you. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you'd like to withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Once again, that is star 1 to signal and star 2 to remove. We'll take our first question from Patrick Davitt with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

speaker
Patrick Davitt
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Hey, good evening, everyone. My first question's on the guidance. So you just beat the high end of your guided range for 2Q, beat consensus significantly, and now guiding to a number above consensus in 3Q, but keeping the full year guide at 1 to 105. So through that lens, is there something you see in the pipeline that suggests a lower 4Q for some reason, or are you just staying conservative? Thank you. Yeah, thank you for the question, Patrick.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

We were just staying conservative on the annual guide. We are looking towards the top end of that guide, which would put us in a really good position for Q4. Just when we were targeting our guidance, we wanted to keep it closer to near term in Q3. And then as we looked at Q4, we were just looking more towards the top end of that guide. So we've got a lot of growth in front of us. and I think that was indicative in Q2 and of course raising in Q3 and we expect to see those same types of results that we would have in Q4 which would put us at the top end of the annual.

speaker
Patrick Davitt
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Okay, fair enough. Thank you. And then my follow-ups on the interval fund finally got it launched which is great to see. So I'd be curious to get your kind of updated thoughts on early take-up from advisors you already are close to either at Dynasty or Manning. and to what extent there is a pipeline of more distribution platforms coming online in the future that you're in discussions with. Thanks.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, the Interval Fund is one of a kind. It took a significant amount of time to work through the SEC's process, but we're incredibly proud to have the product that we have out now. We're working very closely with custodians, we've held our board meetings, and we've engaged with a number of very large Distribution, i.e. RIA firms. Dynasty and Manning and others were certainly the top of our list, but we've also got firms outside of those relationships that have been anxiously, enthusiastically awaiting for the arrival of this product. It's essentially an uncorrelated yielding product in a time period where I think investors across the board are seeking these kinds of uncorrelated assets. And what's great about the Interval Fund is that it's not just for retail. This is We've been showing it to all of our pension fund clients that we already work with specifically through our mortality verification. And that's generated a significant amount of interest, too. So not just RIAs, but we're seeing this institutionally gather a lot of attention. And we expect to be taking assets in during Q3. And certainly Q4, I think, will be a very good quarter of new assets into the interval fund.

speaker
Manning

Thanks.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

We'll turn now to Crispin Love with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

speaker
Crispin Love
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Thank you. Good afternoon. Appreciate taking the question. First, capital deployed very strong, nearly $200 million in the quarter. Can you share some of the drivers there of this quarter's deployment and then just expectations going forward over the near term? I believe you've discussed a range of $130 to $150 million in the past Does that still make sense, or could you see elevated quarters similar to the one that you saw this quarter?

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Thank you, Crispin. When we look at Q2, we always try to match capital deployed and origination to new capital in. And so we had another record Q2 in new capital into the longevity funds, and so we wanted to make sure we put that money to work, and we had plenty of opportunity. One of the things that we're finding is that we still have excess demand for the underlying asset. And I'll also highlight, we've spoken a lot about this over the last certainly few quarters in relationship to a securitization. We think we're moving further down that process. And if we are able to move forward with securitization in Q3 or even early Q4, but targeting Q3, As we had said on the prior call, I think that we could comfortably see that capital deployed number increase above our initial target goal of 130 of 150 to that 150 to 175 range. And Q3, though, historically has been a little bit seasonal in the sense of capital deployed and acquisitions and then ramping up stronger in Q4. So we believe we're in a really good spot. I think that we'll see those numbers increase. increase from what we were anticipating, $130 to $150, closer to $150 to $175. We had an exceptional Q2. What I like to point out there is that if we have the capital that matches the demand, and we certainly have the origination and the inventory to match that. So very, very compelling and takes us into what I think is going to finish out to be a pretty strong year.

speaker
Crispin Love
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Great. Thanks, Jay, for that. And then... During the investor day, also during this call, a lot of talk about LifeArk. I know the platform's new, but can you share just the latest there beyond using it internally and with Manning and DePere? I'd assume kind of financial advisors, insurers are the key customers for the product. Have you been able to start selling that yet? And then also curious just what the revenue model could look like. I assume it's subscription-based, cost per person, but just any color on pricing targets there would be helpful. Thank you.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. LifeArk is a program that we've worked on for multiple years and it is gaining significant traction. We were on Fox Business Mornings with Maria this week actually talking about that program and we received a pretty incredible response from individuals who wanted to kind of work through that program. We have a calculator online that they can utilize at abacuslifeark.com and what we have found is that There is a significant amount of direct outreach and then able to partner with Manning in real time. We have also had a significant amount of outreach from large RIA firms across the country that would like to utilize this platform. And so the way that we are looking to monetize the platform is in more of a rev share model versus an individual life model. and in that process we are in negotiations with some firms as to kind of what that rev share model might look like. With that said, our primary focus with LifeArk is rolling this out within the Manning and Napier platform and we're having a significant amount of success there. and many more. Stay tuned. More to come. It's actually happening and moving very, very quickly. We received a significant amount of outreach from very large firms, and the model that we look at pricing this at would be a recurring revenue model in a rev share.

speaker
Crispin Love
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Great. Did Treasury Secretary Besson reach out? You don't need to answer that.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

That's a great question. At this point, I don't know if I can talk about potential contacts, but I will tell you that we have been in contact with a variety of government agencies in relationship to what we're doing with life arc and mortality verification. And I think it's just a matter of time before that program rolls out. I'll just touch on one thing. Hopefully you noticed this in the deck. We went from 4 million lives tracked to over 6 million, quarter over quarter. I mean, just a massive quarter over quarter increase from pension funds, insurance companies, et cetera. So that program is really gaining traction.

speaker
Crispin Love
Analyst, Piper Sandler

Great.

speaker
Manning

Thank you, Jay. I appreciate the call. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

We'll turn now to Andrew Clearman with TD Callen. Please go ahead.

speaker
Andrew Clearman
Analyst, TD Callen

Hey, good early evening. You know, it's an interesting slide with the average realized gains coming in at 25% in the quarter. And it kind of made me think about, you know, where should we frame that? I mean, it's been as high as 37, as low as 21. And then the second part to that question is around the landscape, the demand for... It seems pretty high. And then on the flip side, just the competition to buy policies. So maybe you could talk about those pieces and then ultimately what kind of gains to frame.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. When we think about ROE realized gains, and that's a gross realized gains number, I think that We did have an outlier Q3 last year at 37. And I think we identified that. I think historically, we've typically tracked in this 20 to 20 top in 25% range. And we don't see any reason why that would change in the near term. I think we've put together a very long track record of what those realized gains kind of look like. And as we look into Q3 and Q4. One impact to that as we move along into 27 that I would look at is that what's going to maintain those realized gains and maybe even expand them as we continue to have lower cost of capital? And this touches your other question, Andrew, is that there's a couple of things that can impact that. If we see more success in securitizations or other lower cost of capital formats, then yes, you would see that realized gain maybe move up some. and then we could take a second look at maybe what our historical average has been but we're still maintaining that historical average and I think what's interesting is that then that ties into supply and as we have potentially more competition driving interest in acquiring the contracts, I think what this really comes down to though is that we are the only publicly traded company in our entire industry. We are a large national institutional company that has a broad reach. And so what we're really talking about is what's the addressable market. If you think about it, we've spoken about this, $14 trillion of individual life insurance in force, 90% of that of which typically lapses. If you just break that down into what we think our addressable market is of the $14 trillion on an annual basis, annual, it's about $250 billion. I think as an industry, we're barely scratching 1.5% of that. So Thank you so much for joining us. Here to stay as others have, you know, we've kind of become the alternative to some private credit options and people are looking and seeking for uncorrelated or less correlated yielding products now more than ever. And Abacus is just in a great position to provide those products, provide those investments for people to invest in and participate in. And we have supply to fill that demand. So we're just in a really good spot that's going to continue for not just a few quarters here, for the next several years.

speaker
Andrew Clearman
Analyst, TD Callen

That sounds very attractive. Manning and Napier, so it feels like very early innings still, right? Because it was a May of 26 deal. So it sounds like the runway is on the come, but from your prepared remarks, you seemed very excited. and then you talked a little bit about partnerships. But is it more beneficial to kind of take these equity stakes like you did with Manning and Napier as opposed to just doing a pure revenue share as you were discussing? And with this, are there more Manning and Napiers out there?

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Manning and Napier is a great firm and we think incredibly highly of them. We spent the last few months working through integrations of our strategic alliance and that has proven to be successful and growing. And before we take a look at other firms, we wanted to ensure that the investment that we have in this one is something that is going to generate revenue and the synergies that we're talking about exist and that we can grow and then replicate in other areas of the country. What we have found, at least initially here, is that all those things hold true. We are incredibly excited about Manning & Appear as a firm, as a company. Their people are incredible. That is the type of business that we think that we can even be very additive to in growth with Legion, LifeArk, and investment products. Logically, as we look across the country, yes, there are additional opportunities that if we can find Similar synergies with, I think, is going to have a massive impact on the RAA industry in general. But when we think about our distribution channel and how we continue to distribute our own products, source policies, those manning and appearing firms like them are incredibly appealing.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

Got it. Thank you. We'll turn next to Timothy D'Agostino with B. Reilly Securities. Please go ahead.

speaker
Timothy D'Agostino
Analyst, B. Riley Securities

Yeah, thanks for taking the questions. On the path to 5 billion plus of AUM by year end 26, I guess, could you kind of help bridge the gap of where you are today to getting to that goal? And kind of, you know, is a lot of that coming through the longevity fund? Thank you.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Thank you. Fair question. And It is coming through longevity funds. It's also coming through, as we've talked about, some new products. The interval fund will be, I think, a significant contributor to that asset growth. I think that as we look at our $5 billion target and then you compare that to where we sit with earnings, we're tracking in both areas. And I think that's really the compelling part of this story is we're diversifying assets. A lot of our revenue, but we're not taking away from the other. And this is really what I want to hit home here is that when you look at the life solutions business, that life solutions business continues to grow every single year. And then the asset management business is additive to that. And so when we think about things like our consensus for year end, our guidance for year end, we certainly want to be and believe we'll be at the top end of all those numbers driven by the fact that we're adding and many more. will look at this story and say, oh, wow, okay, look at this recurring revenue story driven by additional assets under management. We shouldn't be trading at single-digit or low double-digit multiples. We should be trading closer to our peer group in the mid-teens.

speaker
Timothy D'Agostino
Analyst, B. Riley Securities

Okay, great. Thank you. And then just another one that's on that same slide regarding the $3 million for technology revenue. Yeah. You know, obviously about, you know, 0.8 million for the first half. Just trying to understand how you get to 3 million. Is there anything of LifeArk involved in that? Just trying to put that together. Thank you.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Yes, we will be adding LifeArk revenue here in the near term. This program we just rolled out a month ago. But what we're seeing on the tech revenue and the subscription revenue in relationship to our mortality verification is The way those contracts are structured is that they increase in revenue as time goes. So, you know, year two revenue is higher than year three and then year one and then year three grows. And a lot of these are three and five year contracts. So you'll see that revenue continue to grow just where the underlying contracts and how they're scheduled. Initially, when you bring on a new client, you're at a lower cost and then you step into higher revenue as you get into two, three, four, and five. So that's where that's projected out. And so we have, I would say, forecasted embedded revenue in contracts that we already have signed. And it does not necessarily include yet the revenue that we believe we'll see from LifeArk. And what's amazing about the LifeArk revenue is that that's going to be super interesting because it's also going to help us in our private wealth channel. So as we're increasing our asset center management in relationship to private wealth, LifeArk is a driver for that because it's providing a service and platform that are bringing people into our private wealth business and driving more recurring revenue.

speaker
Manning

Okay, great. Thank you so much for taking the questions.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

We'll go next to Randy Benner with Texas Capital. Please go ahead.

speaker
Randy Benner
Analyst, Texas Capital

Hey, thanks. Yeah, I still have a couple here. So on the asset management results for the quarter, I think they, you know, they came in below street expectations. And, you know, from the balance of the commentary in the Q&A here, it sounds like that's going to snap back to good growth. But can you explain a little bit more what kind of what drove the lower than expected revenue in the quarter. And in that, was the fee rate on AUM also a little bit lower than expected this quarter?

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, I think the impact there was just driven by ETFs. And an ETF business in itself isn't a wide margin business, but you've seen some rotation out of those ETFs, which is what impacted some of the asset management revenue. But on the life solutions or excuse me, the longevity asset side that that revenue was was doing quite well. So, you know, in any given quarter, you know, we might see some rotation of that asset management revenue as we continue to, you know, increase and shift this into more fee related earnings. But, you know, there wasn't anything from our perspective. We looked at it and we're like, yeah, OK, it makes sense that the ETF saw some shifts. just in different types of assets. And that would have impacted slightly the overall asset management revenue. But when you look at the longer term revenue in relationship to this, specifically some of our private funds and now rolling into our interval fund and other products, I think that reconciles very, very quickly and also kind of shifts more towards consistent growth of revenue there.

speaker
Randy Benner
Analyst, Texas Capital

Okay, and so the fees on AUM for related parties should normalize a little bit higher maybe than what we saw this quarter as we look forward.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes, that's correct.

speaker
Randy Benner
Analyst, Texas Capital

Okay, great. Thanks. And then just one, I think, housekeeping item, but the tax rate was a little bit higher this quarter. It's not outside of the range you see kind of looking back a few quarters, but was that unusual and does that have any implication on kind of the tax rate for the rest of the year.

speaker
Bill McCauley
Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer

Yeah, you'll see, Randy, you'll see that normalized on an annual basis. But in the quarter agreed, it was higher than what we typically see. And that was driven by a couple of a couple of items specifically around 162M and then an interest deduction. So but you'll see that normalized towards our historical rate for the year.

speaker
Randy Benner
Analyst, Texas Capital

OK, Bill, is that Because it was a little higher in the first quarter, I think, too. So is it for the full year, it's around 30% or is it lower than that?

speaker
Manning

It should be a little bit lower than that.

speaker
Randy Benner
Analyst, Texas Capital

Okay. Great. Thanks.

speaker
Dimitri Primashov
Analyst, Freedom Broker

Appreciate it.

speaker
Manning

Sure. Thank you, Randy.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. We'll hear next from Dimitri Primashov with Freedom Broker. Please go ahead.

speaker
Manning

Hi.

speaker
Dimitri Primashov
Analyst, Freedom Broker

Good evening. So I just wanted to clarify regarding the dividends. Should we expect the continued dividends at the current level going further? Thank you.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I apologize. I didn't catch part of your question. Were you asking about the dividends?

speaker
Dimitri Primashov
Analyst, Freedom Broker

Yes. Should we expect the dividends at current levels going further? Oh, I see.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, so we pay an annual dividend, and the way that if you look at kind of how we measure our dividend numbers, which is held up against as a percent of our fee-related earnings and then as a percent of our adjusted net income, if we use the similar path or a similar calculation in 2026, What that would mean is that, yes, you would see an increase in the dividend for 2026. We don't have that final calculation number yet, but based upon what we're seeing here, yes, you would see a percentage increase in relationship to the dividend this year.

speaker
Dimitri Primashov
Analyst, Freedom Broker

Thank you very much. Very helpful.

speaker
Manning

Of course. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

And as there appear to be no additional questions at this time, I'd like to turn the floor back over to Jay Jackson for any additional or closing comments.

speaker
Jay Jackson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, everyone, once again, and really appreciate everyone joining the call. We had a very successful Ambassador Day, and again, I want to thank everybody who made that trip out. And one of the highlights we spoke about is that is utilizing our data in a way to address what we believe to be one of the largest and most significant generational wealth transfers that will ever be seen. And that $124 trillion and using our data to capitalize on that, when we look back on where we are today to where we're going, I truly believe that we are the leader in this specific piece of this generational wealth transfer. And as we continue to monetize it, Abacus is growing into the ability to be able to put a commodity and a price on time. And there's nothing more valuable than that. And we are excited for you to see how we continue to grow our journey and be additive to our entire flywheel. So thank you. And we look forward to Q3.

speaker
Operator
Conference Specialist

Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful rest of your day.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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