SEI Investments Company

Hello, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to FDI fourth quarter 2025 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 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. I would now like to hand the call 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 Fourth 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, including Michael Lane, Phil McCabe, Mike Peterson, Sneha Shah, Sanjay Sharma, and Amy Slowinski. Before we begin, I'd 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. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Ryan. Ryan?

Thank you, Brad, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to report that SEI ended the year with an exceptional quarter, capping off one of the strongest years in our 58-year history. Earnings per share totaled $1.38 for the quarter. After accounting for some of the noisier items that Sean will walk through, Q4 represents our highest ever quarterly earnings performance. What's most exciting is that these results were impressively broad-based, driven by revenue growth and margin expansion across almost all business segments. This was a total FDI effort, not driven by a single business or a one-off event. It's a testament to the power of our integrated approach and the relentless execution from teams across the globe. We also sprinted to the finish line with our sales events, posting a total of $44 million, one of our highest ever quarterly results and capping off our strongest year ever for sales events. Notably, private banking delivered a standout performance, posting $28 million in net sales events. As we discussed on our last earnings poll, we were confident in the strength of our private banking pipeline, and I'm pleased to report that we're doing exactly what we said we would, translating that pipeline into meaningful results. This quarter's success is the result of disciplined execution against a clear strategy. My expectation is that the sales momentum we generated in Q4 will carry into 2026, and it's not just banking. Asset management is building traction, and IMS continues to benefit from structural demand for outsourcing, especially amongst large alternative managers. We've been signaling for several quarters that we're working with some of the largest global alternative asset managers, including first-time outsourcers, and I expect we'll have some meaningful developments to announce by the April earnings call. During the quarter, we also achieved a major milestone with the first close of our Stratos partnership. Stratos brings a proven advisor and client-centric model that's a strong cultural fit with SCI. It also gives us deeper insight into the needs of end clients, strengthening our appreciation of how advisors and intermediaries run their businesses. We're already seeing tangible benefits, including greater awareness of SCI across the RIA and broker-dealer channels. and renewed inbound interest in our capabilities. Our focus now is on integrating our technology and investment management strengths with Stratos' platform and continuing to learn from their team as we scale together. This is a long-term strategic partnership, and we're focused on adding value in ways that support rather than disrupt their impressive organic growth. Stepping back from the numbers, it's important to focus on what's driving SCI's success. These outcomes are rooted in deliberate choices and a deep understanding of where our strengths align with the most attractive opportunities in the industry, specifically the growing demand for outsourcing, especially from alternative managers, and the continued convergence of public and private markets, as well as the enduring demand for advice from end clients. These themes are intensifying, and we've leaned into these secular tailwinds with intentional investments over the last several years, and these are translating into repeatable performance. For example, we commercialized our private banking professional services, data cloud, and SaaS offering, strengthening client retention and unlocking new growth opportunities. We added new leadership and talent across the organization, driving sharper execution, infusing fresh ideas, and increasing accountability. We laid the foundation for our global capability center, which we expect will help us scale operations more efficiently as we continue to grow. And through the Stratos partnership, we expanded our reach in the advisor channel, positioning SEI to capture new flows and deliver greater client value. As we look to 2026, we intend to double down on what's working. We're accelerating investment management product launches in ETFs, SMAs, models, and select alternative products where we have an edge. These launches build on our early traction, including more than $1 billion of net inflows into ETFs this year for SEI. We're continuing to evolve the operating model of our IMS business, transitioning from fund-by-fund operations to platform-level services. with shared tooling, workflow automation, and data services, so we can onboard and expand with large investment managers more efficiently. We are leveraging automation and AI to lower unit costs and expand access to our solutions, supporting entry into underserved segments while maintaining client experience at scale. For instance, in the fourth quarter, we made a strategic investment in Avantos, an AI-native operating system for client onboarding. It's a great example of SCI's commitment to creating a more connected, scalable, and intelligent experience across our platforms. And as always, we'll pursue these priorities with discipline, holding ourselves accountable for maximizing the enterprise value of SCI. You've heard us be ultra transparent for the last several quarters and at our investor day about our strategy and how we're running the company differently. The team is in place, our priorities are clear, And 2026 is about focus and execution on the roadmap we've laid out together. Against that backdrop, our job in 2026 is actually simple. Go execute. With that, Sean will take us through the quarterly results in more depth.

Sean? Thank you, Ryan. Starting with slide four, and to reiterate Ryan's commentary, SEI has an outstanding fourth quarter, both including and excluding unusual items impacting results. which collectively reduced EPS by approximately $0.08. Those items included $20 million of elevated corporate overhead expense related to severance and M&A fees incurred in the quarter. This was partially offset by a $3 million tax benefit from purchased energy credits and a $3 million revenue accrual true-up benefit captured within IMS. We always have accrual adjustments based on actuals versus estimates, but in the fourth quarter that adjustment was more pronounced than normal. We also had some items that, while not unusual, did go our way in the quarter, notably LSV performance fees that were more than $3 million above the prior year at SEI share and the $4 million gain on VIEs attributable to the LSV hedge fund seed investment we discussed last quarter. Also, while Stratos formally closed in the fourth quarter, we only owned the business for a few weeks, and many of the planned advisor roll-ups were finalized in early January. Given this timing, Strato's financial impact was not meaningful to fourth quarter results. We will provide a fuller and more substantive update next quarter. On a gap basis, EPS increased 16% year over year and 6% sequentially, and excluding unusual items from the current and prior periods, EPS would have been at an all-time record, exceeding the prior record achieved in Q4 of last year. Overall, 2025 represents an excellent year for SEI, with double-digit earnings growth and more than a full percentage point of operating margin expansion. Slide 5 summarizes performance by business segment. Like Ryan mentioned, strong Q4 performance was broad-based with positive contributions from each business segment, both revenue and operating profit, when measured against both the prior year and prior quarter. Private banking revenue benefited from recent professional services wins, which convert into revenue more quickly than we've historically reported as recurring sales events. Margins also increased due to cost leverage on revenue growth and the fact that these new professional services wins are overall margin accretive. IMS benefited from a $3 million revenue accrual true-up I mentioned earlier. Even excluding this benefit, revenue and margins increased meaningfully from both the prior year and prior quarter, driven by recent wins coming online and a modest contribution from market appreciation in our traditional business. Our two asset management segments realized sequential growth, which was driven by market appreciation and healthy flows in our advisor's business, which offset the impact of client losses in the institutional segment, and the continued pressure on mutual fund outflows across the asset management industry. Our integrated cash program is reflected in both the prior year and prior quarter comparison. In the fourth quarter, this program contributed $21 billion to revenue, matching the levels achieved in the prior quarter and prior year. Slide six illustrates our consolidated margin, which, as we've discussed with this group before, is something we are increasingly focused on at the management team. more so than the individual margins achieved in a single business segment, certainly in any given quarter. Consolidated operating margins were weighed down by severance in M&A costs captured in corporate overhead. Excluding these costs, consolidated operating margins significantly increased on both a year-over-year and sequential basis. Turning to sales events on slide 7, private banking led the quarter with $28 million of net sales events. Results were driven by two significant new mandates. In the largest of these, SEI will provide SWP software as a service, implementation services, and ongoing enterprise-wide professional services. This represents our second SWP SaaS client, demonstrating the underlying demand for our SaaS delivery model. This engagement began with advisory work on strategy and system design, and the expanded award reflects the client's decision to have SEI execute the whole program. This underscores an emerging trend in private banking. We are increasingly partnering with clients in an advisory capacity, which may lead to larger and longer-duration professional services engagements. While we're very pleased with this momentum, we would also remind you that these large engagements can create variability in quarterly sales results. and the fourth quarter represents a strong outcome that should not be extrapolated as a run rate. IMS realized net sales events of $20 million, with just over two-thirds coming from U.S.-based alternative managers and with no single win accounting for a significant percentage of the total. Our advisor segment net events were flattish in Q4. A key highlight was positive flow into SEI-managed ETFs from off-platform investors. We talked about the strategic opportunity to distribute SEI investment products through third-party models, and the fourth quarter showed encouraging early progress on that initiative, offsetting the continued pressure from mutual fund outflows. Negative institutional segment sales events primarily reflect client losses in the UK. During the quarter, we continued to streamline leadership and reset the cost structure to position this business for improved economics. According to our asset performance on slide 8, SEI achieved both AUM and AUA growth, both sequentially and year-over-year. AUA growth of 3% was supported by strong wind momentum and, to a lesser extent, market appreciation. AUM growth of 2% is attributable to market appreciation, which offset modest outflows in the quarter, primarily in the institutional business. With that said, focusing only on AUM growth understates some meaningful progress, especially within advisors. Over the past year, we moved further up market, increasing the average size of advisors we're winning. And we're beginning to see early success selling the full SEI ecosystem, such as our tax management and overlay capabilities, which drove an additional $2 billion of net new assets on the platform. As a result, advisors delivered their best net inflow year in over a decade, signaling tangible momentum behind our upmarket strategy and broader ecosystem approach. LSV assets under management increased 3.5% versus Q3 due to strong underlying fund performance and market appreciation, which offset $3 billion of net outflows in the fourth quarter. Underlying LSV performance remains solid, as evidenced by the $22 million of performance fees in Q4, or $8 million at SEI share. Turning to CAPA allocation on slide nine. During the fourth quarter, we repurchased $101 million of shares, bringing full share repurchases to $616 million, representing nearly 6% of total shares outstanding from the end of 2024. We also completed the largest component of Stratos acquisition entirely with balance sheet cash, ending the year with $400 million of cash and no debt. We remain committed to returning 90% and 100% of free cash flow to shareholders in the form of both dividends and share repurchases. Before concluding, I want to spend a minute talking about our forward expectations. SAI has never provided earnings guidance, and that is a practice we intend to continue. However, there are a handful of items to keep in mind, especially towards the beginning of 2026. Some of these items are normal seasonality. Our tax rate is typically the lowest in Q4. Performance fees from LSV are typically highest in Q4 and lowest in Q1. The first quarter has two fewer days than the fourth quarter. The gains on our LSV investment are unlikely to repeat at Q4 levels, and we implement annual compensation increases effective January 1st. Most of this impact is below the line, not operating income. Beyond these lumpier items, we are also advancing the accelerated investments Ryan discussed. We are hiring to support our strong pipeline and major wins across business lines. and we expect depreciation and amortization to step up next quarter due to placing certain large investments into service. We recognize that these investments must be balanced through thoughtful resource reallocation and ongoing cost-efficiency efforts. As part of this discipline, we implemented a targeted reduction in force in December, affecting approximately 3% of our global workforce. This action, which drove the seven charges I referenced, reflects our commitment to ensuring that the cost of future-focused investments is supported by a more efficient and scalable operating model. These actions support what we communicated during our investor day regarding our goal of long-term double-digit earnings growth and consistent margin expansion. Stepping back, the fourth quarter captained an outstanding year for SEI, one marked by broad-based financial strength, record sales performance, and meaningful strategic progress across the enterprise. As Ryan highlighted, we are excited about the opportunities ahead and believe SCI is exceptionally well positioned entering 2026. We look forward to building on this progress and continue to deliver long-term value for our clients, employees, and shareholders. With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Kristen Love with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone. First, more than two-thirds of your sales events came from alts in the quarter. Can you just give a little more color there? Was that primarily from new wins or expanding relationships with current clients? And then you also made a comment, Ryan, I think early in your comments about momentum in sales and to expect positive announcements during April earnings or something like that. Does that relate to any specific activity so far in 2026 or just good visibility?

So I'll answer the first one or your second one first, Crispin. Happy New Year, man. Yes, we like what we see on the sales momentum front, which is consistent with previous quarters. But we thought we would call out because there's been conversations that we talked about last year about some opportunities we have with just some – with a couple larger organizations. that predominantly have been sourced. We make good progress there, so we expect to have some more tangible update on the April earnings call about that. That's specifically in the IMS business. I'll kick to Phil on your first question. I believe, Crispin, your question was specifically about two-thirds of the sales events in IMS.

Yeah, just where is that coming from? Is it new wins or is it expanding relationships within your current sales class?

Sure. Hi, Crispin. This is Phil. I'll start by saying For the quarter, the quarter, it was about $20 million. It's normally a little bit seasonably low in Q4. Nothing was necessarily that notable to call out. It was a combination of new business and cross sales around the globe. What I'd say is the pipeline's really strong. We're looking forward to a great 2026. And as far as the larger wins are concerned, we're going to cover that a lot more with the Q1 results. And as Ryan said, we have a great track record with these large enterprise clients moving to outsourcing. And some of these deals are household names, and it's going to take a lot of work to get them in through the pipeline and executed into the run rate. So a lot of that depends on how much invested capital we get, and we're actively working on defining the magnitude and the scope.

Great. Thank you, Phil, on that. And then just also on sales events in the quarter, there's a fairly wide gap between the net recurring and non-recurring. Can you discuss some of the drivers there? Is that due to the professional services aspect that you mentioned, Sean, or anything else to call out?

Absolutely, Kristen. I mean, it's definitely driven by the continued growth of the professional services strategy that Sanjay has deployed. And I think if we try to call out here, some of these we believe have probably a more repeatable or longer tail element to them, but we continue to characterize them under the one-time professional services kind of banner, if you will. A lot of those are with existing clients and also some new names. But Sanjay, you want to expand a little bit on that?

Yeah, sure. So if you look at the professional services, you could look at it in two different buckets. And now services which we are providing before even the clients that are engaging with us through SWP or our platforms. So we have started engaging with our prospects and clients very earlier in advising capacity. And that is a reflection of our fourth quarter results as well. The second part is that since we are engaging at that early stages, we are able to influence the overall strategy. We are able to define that the North Star for the clients in terms of how their overall technology landscape is going to change, how their operating model is going to change, and then we are participating in that journey, how the transformation we can make happen. And that's the reflection of our overall professional services strategy, and that is reflected in our fourth quarter results.

And I think what's really important, Kristen, is from a value proposition perspective, We're really seeing a distinct transition in the market. When you look at Phil's market, where we historically maybe have been characterized as ops for the fund, we have really evolved more into a platform for the firm from our client's perspective. And Sanjay's business maybe traditionally was investment processing and technology for the fiduciary business. They're now being seen more as a technology and platform partner in the C-suite of these organizations. We're really excited about the expansion, not just of our sales capabilities, but the expansion of SEI's footprint in the mind of the buyer and the clients in these organizations with these changes.

Great. Thank you. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you taking my question. Thank you.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Alex Bond with KDW.

Your line is open. Hi. This is Natalie Null on for Alex Bond, and thank you for taking my question. On the private bank segment, the margin there stepped up sequentially on a stronger sales quarter, but thinking about the margin in the context of professional services offering, can the margin for the segment maybe stay in the high-teens range on the back of stronger professional services? Or is the step up this quarter somewhat episodic and we should anticipate a return closer to the mid-teens near term with upside potential if professional services sales are strong?

Yeah, so thanks for your question. I think if you look over the last probably eight quarters or so, you've seen steady increase in the margins in PB. We would expect margins to be in that area. They've been choppy over the last couple quarters. Sometimes they're a little lower. Sometimes they go a little higher depending on the mix, how much professional service is in there. Professional services margins typically are higher than our platform. The SWP services and our operating revenue as well. So, you know, we don't really get too much guidance around future margins, but I think you can expect it to be you know, within spitting distance of that range.

Okay, perfect. And maybe if you could also provide any color on the larger two mandate wins called out for the private bank segment.

Yeah, sure. I can talk about that. So as I mentioned that now we are engaging with our prospects as early as before even they are issuing RFPs sometimes. And in that process, we are helping them to define their overall transformation agenda. And then we are helping them to how to achieve that. So with these two prospects, we started working almost 18 plus months ago. And in that process, we engaged with them in advisory capacity, created the overall blueprint for transformation. So this event is a good combination of our core platform, SE Enterprise capabilities, and professional services. And I think what's great as well, Alex, that's in color.

You know, one is a pretty meaningfully sized regional community bank in the U.S., and the other I would consider to be a large kind of private wealth manager. Both were outsourcers on competitive platforms and really to see the overall value, not just in SWP, but as Sean and Sanjay mentioned, around kind of the broader suite of capabilities for the long term for their strategic growth.

And if I could add another point, one of this – Out of these two, one of the last clients we assign is our second Software-as-a-Service client. That's a great point. And that reflects our focus and attention to that strategy as well.

Great. Thanks for the additional color. Thank you.

Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Schmidt with Wimbler. Your line is open.

Hi. Good afternoon. How much were the underlying expenses down from the workforce reductions? It sounds like those changes were made sort of late in the quarter. So just wondering how we should think about kind of the run rate impact by segment going forward.

Yeah, this is Sean. I would say that the, you know, you could think about the decrease, in compensation related to the RIF at a relatively equal amount of compensation increases in raises for the year. So typically we'll have, you know, you can go back and look kind of at the history, but a consistent level of raises starting in January, you can kind of think about the reduction in the compensation to, for the most part, match those raises.

Okay. Okay. So kind of flattish. Okay. And then in the IMS business, it looks like the margin was around 40% if you adjust for that revenue accrual threw up. And I think you've been guiding that even 39% or even less you've been investing in that business. So I was curious, is that just from kind of a strong... operating leverage in the quarter, and is 40% the right run rate to think about going forward there?

Okay, I'll take it, Jeff. We did have that revenue accrual true-up, which was a little bit over $3 million. We also had a couple other one-times for conversion fees and professional services, and some other one-times, probably about $2 million. So that total was about $5 million or so. Without that $5 million, we'd be right in the 5% quarter-over-quarter growth rate. In addition, it was relatively strong just from converting new business. Sean, is there anything you would add to that?

Yeah, I would add, you know, we've alluded to some Q1 opportunities for us that we'll talk about further in April. We are continuing to higher up in anticipation of those. So, you know, if you're thinking about run rate on margin specifically in IMS, We, as we said in prior quarters, we are continuing to make investments inside IMS and our other business units and continuing to hire in anticipation, specifically in private banking and IMS. So, you know, so whether margins continue at that rate, you know, I would expect certain expenses to start hitting a little more in Q1.

Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Carnell Smith with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. So, on Stratos, how should we think about the run rate impact of the acquisition to the investment advisor segment once it gets fully consolidated? At the moment, we can only see the NCI related to it for a little bit less than a third of a quarter. And then on that topic, when would you expect to have an updated timeline related to, like, the planned resegmentation that we heard about at Investor Day?

Yeah, so thanks for the question. So we're not going to give guidance on the run rate into 26 around Stratos. I can give a little color on Q4. So we had about $5 million in revenue related, which was sent in the advisory segment. We had just under $1 million of operating income, which included nearly $2 million of amortization expense on the acquired intangibles. That's a 100% share. And again, we'll have more information in Q1 as we have a full quarter under our belt.

Got it. And then just sticking with Stratos on the go-forward strategy, like during the integration phase, is it still continuing to pursue acquisitions, or are those paused during the integration?

No. In fact, in early January, We had – so part of the strategy was, as you know, acquiring additional entities, providing capital to Stratos to roll them up. So nothing has changed from that plan that we spoke about previously. In early January, Stratos completed the acquiring additional interest in some of the entities that they had minority interest in. And there will also, in January, there will be some additional acquisitions that were planned as part of the kind of diligence process and expectation as we acquired that.

Got it. Thanks for taking my question.

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, it's 1-1 to ask the question. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from Patrick O'Shaughnessy. with Raymond James, your line is open.

Hi, good afternoon. Coming back to the topic of those two big non-recurring sales events and private banks in the quarter, from a modeling perspective, how do we think about the revenue recognition impact of those sales events over the coming quarters?

Just real quick, Patrick, the two wins we're talking about are recurring. So the two firms that Sanjay and I were referencing with some color, they're traditional, you know, recurring revenue SWP wins. The rest were professional services. Some of those extensions from those existing firms and some of those existing clients and non-SWP clients. So just want to make sure you were clear on that.

Got you. Appreciate the clarification.

And then your question is how to even up the professional services backlog?

Yeah, so, you know, $23 million sales event quarter, do we think about that hitting in the next two quarters, the next eight? Like, is there a general, like, time frame you guys have in mind that that is going to be realized?

See, that's what I like about professional services. That's something we can start realizing immediately. And some of these complex projects, they run over 12 months, 18 months. And that's how these associated professional services are spread as well. And many of them, they will continue after going live as well.

Helpful. Thank you. And then in institutional investors, you mentioned that the negative sales event in the quarter was tied to some UK client losses. Just curious, like how strategically important is the UK market to that business?

Michael, do you want to take that one, Michael?

Yeah. The institutional business in the UK is a fraction of the overall OCIO and institutional business. It's important to us, and we're continuing to grow that with the addition of Sanjay taking on the role he has on the international side of the business. So we continue to grow that business, and it's an important part of our business. Some of the movement in that is also where we added additional assets into SEI products within some of those, but the way that we credit those, it doesn't actually show up in revenue. So, there was some transaction activity that took place in that end of the business in the institutional space within the UK as well. But strategically, we do believe that the institutional business is a growth business for us, and we have made quite a few changes, including with Sean's notes on the RIF in December, we've made quite a few changes in terms of the leadership of the institutional business. And we now have put that in the hands of Kevin Matthews, who has a long, successful track record in that space. And so he, along with the rest of the team, we are working on an improved operating model and strategy that we are starting to execute today.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back over to CEO Ryan Hickey for closing remarks.

Thank you. And thank you, everybody, for the great questions and your continued engagement with SEI. We're really excited about the path ahead. Look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. And quickly, a little sidebar, Paul Clauter is in the room. As many people will know, Paul is a longtime executive of FDI who will be retiring in February after 30 glorious years at the company. Paul, Bill McCabe, and I actually all joined the executive committee about 10 years ago today at the same time. Paul has been a great friend, a great leader, but an ambassador to our clients and our employees for the brand of what FDI stands for. So you'll hear some clapping in the room here while we close the call and congratulate Paul.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen that concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.