SEI Investments Company

Hello, and welcome to SEI Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Burke, head of investor relations. You may begin.

Thank you and welcome, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for SEI's second quarter 2025 earnings call. On the call, we have Ryan Hickey, SEI's chief executive officer, Sean Denham, chief financial officer and chief operating officer, and members of our executive management team, Jay Cipriano, Sandy Ewing, Paul Clotter, Michael Lane, Phil McCabe, Mike Peterson, Sneha Shah, and Sanjay Sharma. Before we begin, I would like to point out that our earnings press release and the presentation accompanying today's call can be found under the investor relations section of our website at seic.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. 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, please turn to slide three as I turn the call over to our CEO, Brian Hickey. Brian?

Thanks, Brad, and good afternoon, everyone. We are thrilled to report another strong quarter for SDI. While Sean will dive into the financial details, I'll focus on our strategic momentum, key areas of progress, and where we're sharpening our execution to drive sustained performance. Transparency remains a cornerstone of our approach, and I'll be candid about where I think we're excelling and where we see opportunities for improvement. Let's start with what excites us most. Last week, we announced the transformative strategic investment in Stratos. a leader in the independent advisory space with a proven track record in organic growth, advisor recruitment, client experience, and M&A. Please refer to our Form 8K for more information. This partnership integrates the client-centric model of Stratos with SEI's modern technology, custody, and investment management capabilities, creating a powerful platform for advisors in a rapidly evolving wealth management landscape. This move is strategic and a strong cultural fit. Our deep relationship with Stratos' leadership enhances our ability to deliver unparalleled value across client segments while aligning with our disciplined capital allocation strategy. We believe it positions SEI to capture long-term shareholder value through the growing demand for advice-driven solutions. Additionally, this investment strengthens our ability to innovate across our asset management and administration platforms. leveraging direct insights into end investor needs to benefit our advisor, private banking, and investment manager clients globally. As part of SEI's broader transformation, we've also been evolving our leadership, starting at the top. Yesterday, we announced the appointments of Karen Risi and Tom Maratil to our board of directors. Karen led Vanguard's $2.5 trillion personal investor and wealth management businesses and was responsible for the design and launch of Vanguard's hybrid advisory platform. Tom led the global wealth management business at UBS, which oversees more than $2.8 trillion in assets. Their recent relevant experience and strategic insight will make us stronger as a leadership team. This is another clear signal of our commitment to long-term growth, innovation, and accountability. Now shifting to areas where we see progress but also opportunity. In the second quarter, SEI realized nearly $30 million in net sales events. led by strong momentum again in our investment manager segment. On a trailing 12-month basis, that's a new record for SBI. Absent some private banking delays caused by market volatility in April, we believe Q2 would have been even better, but timing is what it is. Our pipelines across all our businesses, including PV, remain strong. We're actively addressing outflow headwinds to drive sales and asset management, and that team is making tangible progress as evidenced by two quarters of improving net asset flows. Two years ago, $30 million in net sales would have been exceptional. Today, it's a solid baseline, reflecting how far we've come in the scale of our ambition. We're not yet where we want to be, but we're moving faster and with greater focus. The competitive landscape is also shifting in our favor. Firms are rethinking their operating models, and we're leaning into that opportunity. We are seeing increased interest in outsourcing from banks, large RIAs, and alternative asset managers, many of whom have historically managed operations and technology in-house. Last week in New York, I met with global alternative asset managers that are exploring strategic outsourcing partnerships. SEI is uniquely positioned to support their business transformation. Our focus remains on flawless execution to ensure client satisfaction and referenceability, which is why we're proactively investing in talent, technology, and platforms. As mentioned earlier, in our asset management businesses, we're seeing encouraging signs. The momentum is real. AUM net flows in the first half of 2025 were roughly flat against several billion of net outflows in the same period last year. And if you include growth across our broader platform, not just AUM, we're beginning to see early signs of modest net growth. That's meaningful progress. Much of this improvement is tied to our evolving strategy with focused client segmentation, pricing discipline, and a renewed sense of enthusiasm for our value proposition across the ecosystem. There's real energy in those businesses, and it's beginning to translate into results. Now let me address margins, an area where we're always watching closely. Margins stepped down in Q2, reflecting the investments we've been discussing with you over the last few quarters. We continue to make the necessary investments to support future growth and add talent. That impacts the income statement in the short term, but these investments are targeted and intentional, and we're tightening our focus in a few areas. We will remain surgical on hiring. We will reprioritize certain discretionary spend. And we'll continue to streamline internal processes to ensure we're allocating resources where they'll have the greatest impact. With Sean's leadership, we're pairing these investments with increased accountability, measurement, and leverage. Everyone in this room is responsible for delivering on the return on these investments. We will be disciplined while staying committed to our long-term growth strategy. Let me close with this. We are running the company to make sure SEI endures and thrives for the long term, not just quarter over quarter. With the adoption of Stratos and the addition, the growing strength of our foundation, the breadth and depth of our sales pipelines, the execution of our growth strategy, SEI has amazing potential over the next 12 months, the next decade, and beyond. Thank you, and with that, I'll turn it over to Sean.