SEI Investments Company

Thank you, everyone, for standing by. Welcome to the SEI second quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the call to your host, Leslie Wojcik. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for our second quarter 2024 earnings call. On the call, we have Ryan Hickey, SDI's Chief Executive Officer, Sean Denham, Chief Financial Officer, and members of our Executive Committee, Jay Cipriano, Sandy Ewing, Paul Clauter, Bill McCabe, Mike Peterson, 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 sbic.com. This call is being webcast live, and a replay will be available on the events and 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. I'll now turn it over to CEO, Ryan Hickey. Ryan.

Thanks, Leslie, and good afternoon, everyone. Our positive momentum carried through the second quarter as we once again delivered strong profit growth quarter over quarter, and continued solid execution of sales in our technology and operational platforms. We posted $1.05 EPS for the quarter, $22 million in sales, of which $15.9 million is recurring, and $519 million in revenue. Sean will provide a detailed breakdown of all corporate and business segment financials shortly. I'm a little over two years into the role, and at a high level, I'm really pleased with with these five key areas. First, our sales pipeline of market activity. Client engagement is high. The reception to an enterprise positioning is resonating, and our total addressable markets are expanding. Second, EPS growth. As a result of increased market activity, expense management, and execution on our continued optimization programs, we continue to drive earnings growth. Third, unit results. IMS revenue and profit growth, really strong. Private banking, margin expansion, and revenue growth potential, and the increased focus on reimagining and growing our advisor and institutional businesses remain a priority. Four, culture and talent. Infusion of new talent and leadership, as well as engagement and employee mobility across SEI, is becoming part of our DNA again. The executive team has gelled really well, and we are unified in our vision on organic and inorganic growth priorities. And lastly, RIA expansion. Platform adoption in the RIA space is growing, and our ability to operate in that market creates strategic opportunity. From a more strategic perspective, we are proactively addressing industry headwinds and capitalizing on tailwinds to position ourselves for long-term success. For example, there is an increasing trend of consolidation in the intermediary space, especially with RIAs and broker-dealers. As advisor firms navigate transitions, including expanding their capabilities, monetizing their businesses, or planning for succession, we are actively engaged with them to provide more optionality to remain with SCI and accelerate their success with us. Another significant trend is public markets continue to seek opportunities to expand access to private markets, and private asset managers are seeking access to the public markets. Phil is in the room, and IMS is in the center of this every day. He could comment during the Q&A. But we are well-positioned to expand our footprint and capitalize on this trend across technology, operations, as well as asset management. We are also experiencing increased demand across European private asset managers, and our investment in the SEI access platform across multiple markets will be a driver of future growth. Investor needs and demand continue to evolve. We also believe the shift in market preference and product types, asset allocation, and investment choice presents opportunity, and that portfolio customization and tax optimization are key to meeting investors' needs in today's economic environment. We've proactively made fee reductions in our SMA program in April and launched new SMAs and ETFs to increase client retention as well as new client acquisition. We really like the medium to long-term growth prospects of these businesses if we can capture more AUM. And finally, the overall demand for outsourcing grows daily. We're seeing increased engagement in sales with our professional services offerings, inside the regional and community bank segments and the UK private client investment manager segment. Wealth management, operations, and technology infrastructure change. Those initiatives are complex and require significant expertise to successfully execute. SEI's professional services offerings are not only helping our clients execute these transformation programs successfully, but also helping our clients as they work on new initiatives to grow their business and improve operating efficiency. We believe this offering has enterprise applicability across all of SCI's segments. The market is looking to SCI to provide more services and capabilities, and that's a testament to our delivery, client-centric focus, investment in innovation, and long-term capital strength. As we all know, innovation is critical. A component of increasing scale and leverage across the company is investing in emerging growth ideas to maximize return on invested capital to shareholders and harness new technologies. For example, we are actively exploring the application of AI in all three of our pillars of expertise, targeting internal efficiencies, client service improvements, and operational automation. We are also progressing AI business cases through our strategic partnership with Tiffin. As I mentioned earlier, we want SCI to be a premier destination for existing and future talent. There are exciting signs that we are recapturing that space. In March, Sean joined SCI from Grant Thornton, and over the last four months, he has not only immersed himself in our business and culture, but he's brought new ideas to the table and challenged us in ways that are helping drive results. He is ready for your Q&A in a few minutes. Also in September, Michael Lane will join the SEI executive team from BlackRock, leading our advisor and institutional businesses. Michael brings years of experience across financial services, and we believe his leadership and depth of industry knowledge will help us further execute our growth strategy, expand our total addressable market, and capitalize on further market opportunities. We look forward to welcoming Michael in September and introducing him to all of you. Our conviction around our performance for 2024 remains steadfast. The foundation of SEI is strong. Our core businesses are delivering solid results, and we are leaning into future growth initiatives. With our formidable balance sheet, unmatched set of capabilities, and laser-focused strategy, we believe we are well-positioned to drive growth and continually delivering value to our shareholders. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn it over to Sean to discuss our financial results for the quarter. Sean?