SEI Investments Company

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SEI first quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. And later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. If you should require assistance during the call, please press star, then zero. And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to our host, Alex Whitelum. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Eric. Thank you, everyone. Welcome. We appreciate you joining us today for our first quarter 2024 earnings call. On the call, we have Ryan Hickey, SEI's Chief Executive Officer, Dennis McGonigal, Chief Financial Officer, and Sean Denham, incoming Chief Financial Officer. We have leaders of our business segments, Jay Cipriano, Sandy Ewing, Paul Clowder, Phil McCabe, Sneha Shah, and Sanjay Sharma. Before we begin, I'd like to point out that our earnings press release can be found under the investor relations section of our website at SCIC.com. This call is being webcast live and a replay will be available in the events of webcast page of our website. We would like to remind you that during today's presentation and in our responses to your questions, we have and will make certain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements that appear in today's earnings press release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake to update any of our forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Ryan Hickey.

Ryan? Thanks, Alex, and good afternoon, everyone. We are out of the gates this year with high-quality results, top-line growth, and margin expansion in the first quarter. This deepens our conviction to maintain our focus on excellent execution against our strategic priorities. We are seeing significant traction in our technology and operational businesses as we manage expenses diligently, especially manifesting in profit growth and private banking. Our attention remains on increasing sales and pipeline activity and allocating capital and talent to new growth initiatives and emerging technologies. Accelerating activity and innovation is also a strategic priority in our asset management businesses as market trends and product types, asset allocation, and investment choice continue to be headwinds. Our broader value proposition and solution set is resonating and gaining momentum. We need to translate this momentum into increasing new client acquisition and adoption. We will continue to lean into growing segments in the intermediary and institutional markets. Let me dive into our results for the quarter. Revenues in the first quarter were $511.6 million, up 9% from the first quarter of 2023. Net sales events in the quarter totaled $21.3 million, of which $16.6 million were net recurring. This was driven largely by a combination of technology and operational outsourcing sales of $24.5 million, offset by net negative activity in our AUM-oriented businesses. In our advisor business, we generated over $9 million of revenue with the FDIC insured component of the FDI integrated cash program, which we launched in December 2023. Net income for the quarter increased 23% over the same period to $131.4 million. This is an important indication that our focus on sales, implementing the backlog, and driving more operational leverage across SEI is starting to show results. We have more to do on all fronts. In the quarter, we repurchased approximately 808,000 shares of SEI stock at an average price of $69.32 per share for a total of $56 million of stock purchases. EPS was $0.99 for the first quarter. up 25% over the 79 cents reported in the prior year period. We believe we are well positioned for the remainder of 2024 and into the future. Combining a strong financial position, an unmatched set of capabilities, and an engaged client and employee base, we're focused on delivering comprehensive solutions for the markets we serve and enhancing shareholder value. With that, let me turn to our business lines. our investment manager's business had another exceptional quarter. On the growth front, we had new business and cross-sales in the alternative and traditional markets, notably with the expansion of their product lineup, including CITs and the conversion of mutual funds to ETS. This is a trend we are seeing increase in the traditional asset management segment. We also implemented more than 60 new funds from a competitor onto our private equity platform for one of our larger clients. We continue to expand our reach in global markets. In particular, we are actively engaging with European-based private asset managers, and we've made investments to further strengthen our global operations in Dublin, London, and Luxembourg. The expansion of our IMS services into non-US markets is an important component to our future growth strategy. Most importantly, we hosted 80 of our clients for an annual event earlier this month. and it makes me extremely proud to be part of SCI. When I get the privilege to hear firsthand the experience our clients are having and the excitement they have to continue to grow with us, it shows how powerful our people, our culture, and our capabilities are in the market. Private banking continues to execute effectively. The team carried last year's momentum through the first quarter with solid revenue growth and margin expansion compared to a year ago. While new contract signings were light in the quarter, this is simply a function of contract timing versus activity. The team already has a good start to Q2. We are seeing increased activity and success in the regional community bank segments, UK private client investment managers, and our professional services offering across all segments. This go-to-market strategy was a key part of Sanjay's reorientation of the client-facing teams, and it is being received positively in the markets. The focus and deployment of additional investments in marketing, R&D, and talent over the past 18 months is paying off. Moving to our global asset management businesses, investment advisors saw positive net cash flows of approximately $915 million. This was largely driven by our strategist partner solutions and separately managed accounts, along with AUA growth from advisors leveraging our technology and operational solutions. Offsetting these inflows were outflows in our active mutual fund products as a result of markets shifting to lower-cost products and passive solutions. During the quarter, we brought on 61 new advisors, and we also saw three of our existing RIAs cross the $1 billion threshold on our platform, demonstrating our value in helping our advisors scale and grow their businesses. In the institutional investor segment, we remain focused on growing this business by aligning our cost structure and our talent to drive sales and margin expansion. While our results continue to reflect industry challenges, our teams did a really nice job managing expenses and securing a number of new wins with new and existing clients. Of note, we completed the transition of our first SWP client with a sizable private foundation into our OCIO program. We also re-contracted three clients in the quarter. And finally, we have made adjustments to the cost structure and focus of SEI Novus to improve overall business results. Within our investments in new business segment, we announced our strategic investment in Tippett, a leading platform accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence and wealth management. With this partnership, we expect to more rapidly explore, develop, and deliver new offerings that drive growth for our clients and the broader industry. We also had new wins in the family office services and private wealth businesses. Our partnership with LSV remains strong, and they had another quarter with positive relative performance, which Dennis will discuss. Finally, we've launched new initiatives focused on developing talent for the future and elevating our culture across the organization. One focus area is on professional sales development. offering programs that are designed to expand and increase our bench of sales talent and support our client-centric culture. Another initiative is the launch of an employee-led group, Seismic. Seismic's goal is to unite our innovation centers across the company, create opportunities for every employee to contribute to our growth, and to actualize new business ideas aligned with our organizational objectives. With that, I'd like to thank all my colleagues across SEI for their commitment to our vision. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn it over to Dennis to discuss our financial results for the quarter. Dennis?