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spk16: Good morning. My name is Rob and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Equitable Holdings, Inc. second quarter 2022 results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again press star 1. Thank you. Michelle Mudirisulu, Head of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.
spk05: Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Equitable Holdings' second quarter 2022 earnings call. Materials for today's call can be found on our website at ir.equitableholdings.com. Before we begin, I would like to note that some of the information we present today is forward-looking and subject to certain SEC rules and regulations regarding disclosure. Our results may materially differ from those expressed in or indicated by such forward-looking statements. So I'd like to refer you to the Safe Harbor language on slide two of our presentation for additional information. Joining me on today's call is Mark Pearson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Equitable Holdings, Robin Raju, our Chief Financial Officer, Nick Lane, our President of Equitable Financial, and Kate Burke, Alliance Bernstein's Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will be discussing certain financial measures that are not based on generally accepted accounting principles, also known as non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and related definitions may be found on the investor relations portion of our website in our earnings release, slide presentation, and financial supplement. I would now like to turn the call over to Mark and Robin for their prepared remarks.
spk08: Good morning. Thank you for joining. With a sharp decline in asset prices this year, we thought it is important today to highlight how our economic framework protects our balance sheet and ensures consistent cash returns to shareholders. Our operating subsidiaries, Equitable and AB, are not immune to these falling asset values but are showing their resilience. We see strong demand across all Equitable lines and record sales in our individual retirement segment. AB reported a 2% fee rate improvement with growth in municipals, active equity, and alternatives, offsetting outflows from fixed income. Turning to slide three, in a quarter that has seen equity markets fall by a further 16%, an inverted yield curve, and persistent inflation, our attention naturally turns to protecting the balance sheet. Our economic management and hedging programs are working as intended, and we close the quarter with an RBC ratio above target at 440%. Our investment portfolio is relatively conservative and is geared towards high-quality investment-grade issuers with an average credit rating of A3. We ended the quarter with strong hold-go cash of $1.3 billion and returned $295 million of capital in the quarter. Additionally, in July, we upstreamed $930 million from our insurance subsidiary to the whole co. This will further support financial flexibility and provides confidence around our target 50 to 60% payout ratio. We continue to make progress towards mitigating the remaining $1 billion of redundant reserves associated with the Regulation 213 and remain on track to complete by year end. Furthermore, As a result of our capital management program and continued strong business performance, we maintain our $1.6 billion cash flow guidance for the year. Non-GAAP operating earnings for the quarter were $526 million, or $1.31 per share, 4% lower than first quarter 2022. This primarily reflects a reduction in fees from lower account values and lower assets under management. Additionally, our alternatives portfolio generated favorable returns in the quarter, but lower than a year ago. Assets under management at the end of the quarter was $754 billion, reflecting the market drawdowns and positive net flows from our retirement and wealth management businesses offsetting modest outflows from AB. Our top-selling Ryla product, which provides downside protection for clients, continues to perform well in these markets, and the quarter saw record sales and new business values. We also completed the Carvel acquisition, and are pleased to note Carvel raised a further $2 billion of assets under management, since we announced the transaction. While we are not immune to falling markets, our business operations are performing well and our capital management program continues to ensure we maintain healthy solvency ratios. On slide four, we dig deeper into our capital management program and our solvency ratios. We have broken the last three years down into half-year segments, showing movements in the S&P 500 in blue and movements in the 10-year Treasury rate in green. This is a period which covers the COVID pandemic, the return of inflation, and much more aggressive central bank tightening cycle. The dramatic fall in both equity and bond values in the first half of 2022 is clearly shown with the S&P down more than 20%, and the return on treasuries have had their worst performance in over 40 years. Recognizing that we have no innate ability to reliably predict markets, Equitable's risk philosophy is designed to protect through volatile times. This slide shows the results of how our product design, fair value hedging, and economic reserving come together to ensure we deliver on our promises to both our clients and our shareholders. Over this three-year period, our reported RBC ratio has never fallen below 400%. The surplus cash at Holco today is $1.3 billion, and we have been one of the very few companies that have consistently returned capital irrespective of the market conditions. Robin will go into some more detail here, but I would like to leave you with two important differentiators for equitable. Firstly, our economic management is based on fair values, that is, interest rates as they are as per the forward curve, not some arbitrary estimate. And policyholder reserves based on actual experience, again, not some arbitrary estimate. And secondly, hedging on our VA portfolio. We hedge first dollar exposure to equity markets, and we immunize the balance sheet against interest rate movements. This is unique to Equitable. This is how we protect our balance sheet, and this is how we protect cash generation for shareholders. Of course, in these times, we need both a robust balance sheet and a resilient business model. Turning to slide five, our businesses pair well with each other and drive synergies that are hard to replicate. With affiliated distribution, leading retirement and asset management subsidiaries, we participate in the whole value chain, benefiting both solutions we offer to clients and returns we provide for shareholders. We have meaningful synergy initiatives across our businesses. At the half year, we have deployed nearly 50% of the $10 billion general account capital commitment to generate additional yield and support growth in AB's higher multiple private markets business. In our retirements business, we reported $5 billion in total premiums, up 10% over the prior year. Our individual, group, and protection segments all posted higher premiums above last year. I particularly want to highlight that this was a record sales quarter for our individual retirement business, further demonstrating the continued need clients have for our products. Net inflows of $1.3 billion in our core retirement products are up 52%, the highest since our IPO, helping drive record value of new business. We have realized $141 million of incremental investment income, and we expect to complete our 2023 $180 million target ahead of time. Net productivity saves amount to $39 million. And again, we are on track for our 2023 target. Turning to asset management. Alliance Bernstein continues to perform well despite the current market conditions. AB's net outflows in the quarter were modest compared to many peers, supported by positive flows of $1.3 billion within the institutional business, excluding low fee acts and redemptions. While AB is not immune from industry-wide outflows in taxable fixed income, we see organic growth in active equities, municipals, alternatives, and multi-asset. Notably, AB continues to grow in actively managed strategies. Quarter two is the 11th consecutive quarter of organic growth within our active equity offerings, which along with growth in private alternatives has contributed to a 2% fee rate improvement over prior year. We also benefit from strong long-term performance, 82% of equity funds and 63% of fixed income funds have outperformed peers over the last five years. This gives us confidence in our future outlook. As previously mentioned, AB completed the acquisition of Carvel Investors last month. Carvel's ability to raise an additional $2 billion of third-party AUM between transaction announcement in March and close in July further supports the opportunity for growth. AB now has $54 billion in their private markets platforms. An important differentiator for Equitable is our affiliated distribution. We like this business. We continue to see strong flows within our broker-dealer with $2.7 billion in total sales, 85% of which is in fee-based advice accounts. On a year-over-year basis, average assets under advice is up 3%, supporting earnings and cash flows. Our advisors, a critical component to the success of our retirement business, representing approximately 50% of total premiums in the quarter. Overall productivity is up 9% over prior year. I'll now pass over to Robin to go over our results in more detail.
spk03: Thanks, Mark. Turning to slide six, I will highlight total company results for the quarter.
spk15: Reported results were $1.31 per share, down 4% sequentially, primarily due to lower markets in the quarter. Adjusting for $5 million of notable items in the quarter, non-GAAP operating earnings were $531 million, or $1.33 per share, down 10% on a comparable year-over-year per share basis. As expected, the year-over-year decrease in earnings per share left notables was primarily driven by lower fee revenue in both our retirement and asset management businesses. Additionally, prior year results included two months of earnings from the block that was reinsured to Venable. Overall, results were within our expectations as market movements in the quarter impacted average AUM on a year-over-year basis. Turning to GAAP results, we reported $1.7 billion in GAAP net income this quarter. which was primarily driven by the non-economic accounting treatment of our GAAP liabilities. As a reminder, the large gains reflect the variance between the movements in our GAAP liabilities versus the movements in our economic hedging program. This mismatch is unintuitive and will be reduced post-LDTI implementation next year, as GAAP accounting will move close to the fair value. I can also confirm that our expected transition adjustment remains positive as current market conditions combined with our industry low 2.25% GAAP interest rate assumptions continues to support a favorable impact to our book value on LDTI. Quarter end AUM was down 13%. as market movements were partially offset by positive net flows in our retirement and asset management businesses over the last 12 months. Looking ahead, we are mindful of potential headwinds that may impact fee-based earnings, but we continue to focus on the execution of our general account rebalancing program, which has achieved $141 million of the $180 million target and expense efficiencies of $39 million, as we remain on track to achieve our 80 million net savings target. This, combined with our strong results in asset management, which outpace peers, and record flows in our individual retirement business, position Equitable Holdings well to support client needs and deliver shareholder value during these times. Turning to slide seven, I would like to expand on Mark's earlier comments on our strong capital position and the effectiveness of our hedge program. Both a testament to our economic management of the business, but also the actions we have taken over the last 10 years to ensure our product portfolios head through a simple program that avoids surprises for investors. Over the last decade, we fully moved to an economic reserving approach, which incorporates realistic assumptions. This means that reserves reflect both interest rates aligned with the prevailing forward curves and policyholder behavior assumptions that reflect the now 20-plus years of experience. As a result, the interest rates and other assumptions assumed at the time of our original product pricing do not impact our reserves. Our base case assumes that policyholders will always maximize the value of their contracts. Furthermore, this approach applies to all of our businesses, both our legacy VA and the new business we write today, leading to high confidence in the integrity of our reserves and the certainty of future cash flows. It not only ensures the new business generates strong risk-adjusted returns, but allows us to avoid taking risks that cannot be hedged. Economic reserving not only differentiates equitable from our peers, but is especially important in periods of market dislocation. Turning to our approach to hedging, we believe we have one of the simplest and most predictable hedge programs in the market. We seek to protect economic liability in our GMXP portfolio through a daily rebalance dynamic program that fully hedges first dollar equity movements and interest rate exposures with simple, plain vanilla instruments. Both immunize and impact the markets on guarantees we provide to clients. This is supported, though, by our static hedging program, targeting GC98, protecting our statutory balance sheet and RBC ratio by hedging a portion of our base fees on our insurance products. While economic management and fair value hedging are key components to protecting our balance sheet, product design minimizes the effects of other risk factors. Over the last decade, we have made significant strides to transition our in-force and shift our new business towards products that support sound economic risk management while meeting our client needs for accumulation, income, and protected equity solutions. Starting in 2009, we introduced passive investments in hedge goal indices paired with volatility management strategies. to protect against extreme equity market volatility. Today, approximately 75% of our in-force is in passive, hedgeable instruments, with over 80% of equity exposure incorporating volatility management. This significantly reduces basis risk by more than 90%, which in turn improves our hedge effectiveness, manufacturing costs, and capital stability. We have also shifted new product design with 100% of new business post-financial crisis in fund options that invest in passive, hedgeable indices and integrate tools that minimize the impact of elevated volatility, providing better risk-adjusted returns for clients and protecting shareholder interest. In addition, our economic approach led to innovation of new products, creating the Ryla category in 2011. with our industry-leading SDS products leading the fastest-growing market within the VA space. As a reminder, this product is perfectly ALMS and investing credit, allowing us to compete against fixed-index annuities at a lower cost of capital. The combination of our economic management philosophy, rich experience data, hedging programs, and product design, in conjunction with our deep talent bench, give Equitable its unique edge in creating capital efficient retirement solutions that deliver a narrow set of outcomes with consistent cash generation and capital return. I will now turn to capital management program on slide eight and highlight how capital allocation is driving long-term shareholder value. Our retirement asset management and affiliated advice businesses continue to generate positive returns for shareholders as we execute against our strategic initiative. The close of AB's transaction with Carvel demonstrates our ability to execute against this strategy to drive a higher multiple growth without impacting capital returns. Using AB units to fund the transaction in a deal that has no impact on capital return today and will be accretive to EQA shareholders over time. We also continue to maximize financial flexibility holding excess capital at holdings, which is even more important given market headwinds and a challenging economic outlook. Our $930 million annual dividend from our retirement business in July was above our $750 million target. This gives us confidence in our $1.6 billion of cash flow guidance to the market for the year, with the retirement dividend offsetting some of the equity market impact on our other business lines. As a result, we continued to deliver our consistent 50% to 60% payout target, retiring $295 million in the quarter, which included $220 million of share repurchases. Our half-year RBC ratio was at 440%, highlighting our ability to maintain a strong capital position despite volatility in the markets. This reflects the strength of our fair value risk management and hedging programs. In addition, our capital position and financial flexibility was strengthened at holding with $1.3 billion of cash as of quarter end and upstreaming $930 million from our retirement company. We remain on track to mitigate the remaining redundant reserves associated with Bright 213 this year. and we are fortunate to be able to point to both our strong capital position and our robust business performance across all business lines, supporting consistent capital returns for shareholders. Looking ahead, we are mindful of the challenge and market conditions, but we are well positioned to execute against our capital return objectives. I will now turn the call back to Mark for closing remarks.
spk03: Mark?
spk08: Thanks, Robin. Before we open up the line for questions, I would like to summarize the highlights from the quarter. First, our economic reserving and fair value hedging program are unique to equitable and protect our balance sheet. We have shown a consistent and strong RBC ratio, 440% as of quarter end. Second, we focus on maximizing economic value to generate distributable cash flows. With our strong cash position at Holdings, we reaffirm our $1.6 billion of cash generation for the year. Last, our complementary retirement asset management and advice businesses continue to perform as expected through these turbulent markets. We see strong new business activity and value of new business across our subsidiaries. With that, I would like to open the line for questions.
spk16: At this time, I would like to remind everyone, in order to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from the line of Tom Gallagher from Evercore ISI. Your line is open.
spk12: Good morning. Just wanted to start on the RBC ending at 440. I would concur with your comments that that was a pretty good result, especially relative to some peers. But it also implies that you didn't generate any capital during the first half of the year. So I just want to understand the components of this and how to think about it going forward. Can you talk about what the kind of normalized underlying earnings power you believe is in the business? Is it still running? at around $800 million annually. And if that's right, did the $400 million get consumed by hedge breakage and or higher required capital? Any help thinking through that would be appreciated.
spk15: Thanks, Tom. Good morning. So our robust 440% RBC ratio as of half year is a reflection of the effectiveness and strength of our economic hedging program. as the hedge gains protected our statutory capital against the recent adverse market movements. In a half year where markets decreased by 20%, we were able to maintain our capital solvency and upstream additional capital to the holding company. Like any period, there were several positives and negative one-timers, which ultimately offset. The primary driver was the impact and the protection of the hedge program and the cash flows that our business generates. but it was offset slightly by adverse mortality in the first quarter, and also market impact year-to-date, which impacted base fees that we generate. Looking ahead, we remain within our target range, and we are consistent, and we still see annual cash flows of $750 million as the guidance that we have within the insurance company.
spk12: Okay, gotcha. And then my follow-up is I just want to understand – the parameters around this $2 billion higher reserve for Reg 213. Are there certain scenarios where that will change over time? Can you give some guardrails, you know, under certain market scenarios where you would see that changing either, you know, positive or negative markets?
spk15: Sure. So with Reg 213, as you recall, we initially had $2 billion of redundant reserves. As of last year, we resolved about half of that through the $1 billion triple X reinsurance transaction with Swiss Re. In addition, we restructured the operating companies to now have 50% of the cash flows unregulated. And we remain on track, as we mentioned in the call, to fully mitigate the remaining. Reserves move with markets, similar to the REC 213 reserves. But the important factor for us is the reserves required above CT98. And that's what we would need to solve for in the $1 billion redundancy over time, and that's what we plan to solve for. But you certainly have reserve movements between VM21 and Reg. 13 below it, but it's offset by the hedging results.
spk12: And, Rob, just a quick follow-up on that, if I could. Are there scenarios where we'll be talking about there's an extra billion dollars, let's say, under certain market conditions that you'll have to solve for again? I think that's the concern in the market, that you may fully solve for the $2 billion, but under certain market conditions, is it possible this reserve increases?
spk15: Now, look, we're fully focused on resolving this. We're confident at the end of the year end we'll be resolving this $1 billion redundant reserves and we'll no longer have to concern ourselves with Reg 213. Okay, thank you.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Ryan Kruger from KBW. Your line is open.
spk14: Hi, thanks. Good morning. I had a question on the general account repositioning. I think you achieved close to 80% of the originally guided NII upside, but have only redeployed about 50% of the assets. So could you comment on, I guess, is that accurate? And then if so, I guess, can you comment on the potential upside to the original NII upside target that you gave?
spk15: Sure, Ryan. So the general account rebalancing program, we targeted $180 million by year end 2023, of which we've achieved $141 million. So good results to this point. We do expect that we'd finish that $180 million earlier as a result of higher rates and spreads. So there may be upside on top of that as we head into 2023. The second part of your question is the $10 billion that we committed to AB, that we're about 50% deployed, but there are two separate targets. We want to commit $10 billion to AB by 2023 and complete the $180 billion, but the two don't go together. So we'll get benefits from the $10 billion fully deployed, not only in the additional income, but AB's strong track record in raising four to five times of third-party capital, which you know, effectuates the synergies between the insurance company and the asset management company and delivering value for shareholders over the long term.
spk14: Okay, got it. And then, could you just comment on your ULSG exposure and any color you can give on your own last trends versus current assumptions?
spk15: Sure. So as we mentioned in the presentation, our economic management means that we manage our assumptions to emerging experience in order to minimize large deviations in our reserving. As such, our policyholder behavior assumptions for all of our life business are based on the recent experience. Our objective is we never want to surprise investors adversely. Additionally, while some of our peers do have large exposure to ULFG, our exposure is minimal. So we remain quite confident in our reserving integrity due to our economic focus on the reserves.
spk02: Great. Thank you.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Alex Scott from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.
spk01: Hey, first one I had for you is on the sort of the cash conversion of earnings. you know, capital deployment this year. I mean, even relative to my estimates, which don't have alternatives being bad in the back half of the year yet, you know, it's coming in above the 50 to 60% range that you guys have talked about. And when I consider all, it's probably going to be bad in the back half. I mean, it's coming in materially better. So I guess the question is what, you know, what is allowing that to happen and, You know, despite, you know, you've got Reg 213 going on, markets down, et cetera. What's allowing that to happen at the end of the day? And, you know, why shouldn't we believe that you could continue to be actually above that 50% to 60% range?
spk15: Look, the core at the end of the day is our hedging program and how we manage the business. We first dollar hedging helps protect and down equity markets and then our supplement that with a statutory hedge helps protect the balance sheet. That's why we were able to upstream the 930 million in July and felt comfortable to do so and the regulator felt comfortable to do so. It's because the strength of our economic management. Our guidance maintains because we upstream more than our 750 million guidance from the retirement company, we still expect to have 1.6 billion. And we'd expect that we continue to stay within our 50% to 60% payout ratio. Our objective is always to maintain a consistency in returning cash to shareholders. And you've seen that over time, and that'll continue.
spk01: Got it. Second question I had is on just a holding company liquidity position. You gave it as the end of the quarter. It obviously goes up because of the July dividend. Should we think about any of that being needed for a potential solution to Reg 213? Is it possible some of that gets used to be put into an internal captive or something like that to facilitate a solution, or is that not in the picture?
spk15: I don't see that in the picture right now. As I mentioned in the last call, then we continue, we have two options that we're working on to resolve Reg 213, external reinsurance and internal reinsurance. We've made progress on both of them in the quarter, so we feel confident that we have the solutions to resolve Reg 213, and Reg 213 will be behind us as of year-end. Thanks.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Elise Greenspan from Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
spk04: Hi, thanks. Good morning. My first question, now that you guys closed the Carvel deal, and I know in your prepared remarks, right, you mentioned, you know, how you were able to complete that deal, right, without using any of your excess capital. Can you just update us, right, on just M&A thoughts from here and the pipeline and, you know, where you might focus on transactions and, you know, if there would ever be deals that you would, you know, consider actually using your excess capital to finance?
spk08: Hi, Elise. It's Mark. I'll take that one. Yes, you're right. The Carvel deal was a really terrific deal for AB and for Equitable. On AB's side, it really filled in some blank spaces on the private asset side. We've seen the power of Carvel in being able to raise $2 billion since the date of the acquisition. And as you recall, we funded it from some of the units in Equitable's holding of some of the units. So it was positive on the equitable side as well. Look, we've always said that now we're sort of four or five years in since the IPO. We will look at opportunities for inorganic growth, but we've always said that our strategy is not dependent on that. So if something that comes along that makes sense, we'll take a look at it as Carvel did, but it's not needed for our strategy. The areas where we would be interested are would of course be on wealth management. That's an area which supports our low capital intent strategy and something where we've got a very solid unit to date. Employee benefits would be something we'd be interested in, and just growing out our alternate platform at AEB. So they're the areas we look, but as I say, we would always do it in a way that is accretive for shareholders as well.
spk04: Okay, thanks. And then my second question, you know, mortality was favorable in the quarter. You know, can you just give us an update on what you're, you know, seeing with COVID? Obviously, we've seen the number of deaths really slow. And was the favorable mortality just driven off of, you know, some releases of IBNR for COVID as well?
spk15: Hey, Lisa, I'll take that. So the favorable mortality that we experienced was solely in conjunction with the sharp decline in U.S. COVID deaths. You know, we were obviously surprised with the U.S. COVID deaths in the first quarter at 158,000, and, you know, pleased to see that decrease to 30,000. But we continue to monitor COVID trends in the U.S. as cases and hospitalizations are on the rise, but deaths are still not trending upward. But that said, we're maintaining our 30 to 60 million guidance per 100,000 U.S. deaths, and we'll continue to support our clients through these uncertain times. But the favorability is linked to the lower U.S. debts related to COVID.
spk04: Thanks for the color.
spk16: Your next question comes from a line of Jimmy Bular from J.P. Morgan. Your line is open.
spk11: Hey, good morning. So, Robin, you mentioned that despite the market being weak to fear, your cash flow guidance of $1.6 billion hasn't changed significantly. Is it fair to assume that cash flow next year would still be impacted to the extent that in the unregulated subsidiaries, with the markets being weak, earnings are probably going to be pressured, but then in the regulated businesses, the lack of increase in stat capital, given the stable RBC, despite no dividends being taken out, that and lower earnings in stats this year than you might have expected at the beginning of the year still will have an impact on your cash flows next year? Or are there any other puts and takes that would be positive or negative?
spk15: Hey, Jimmy. First, this year, the 1.6, the reason we're able to still keep the 1.6 is because we're upstreaming more than the $750 million guidance we gave in the retirement company. But our businesses are not immune to markets. We've transitioned to a capitalized business, which means we are exposed to fee-oriented impacts from equity markets. So both the retirement and asset management company will certainly be impacted by markets, but we'll have a better feel for it as we get to the end of the year in terms of guidance for 2023.
spk11: Understand. And to the extent you take out more, then obviously less flexibility next year unless you want to deplete the capital base further. Correct. And then on buybacks, the amount in 2Q dropped below what you've done in 1Q, and obviously 1Q was lower than what you've done in 4Q or in the second half of last year. How should we think about the capital that you have at the holding company being used for buyback? Should we assume that the pace of buyback this year is not going to be impacted given your strong cash flow overall for the year, or are you slowing down buyback a little bit given the uncertain macro environment?
spk15: Yeah, thanks, Jimmy. Obviously, we're cognizant of the market environment around us. But because we're able to protect our balance sheet through the hedging program, that first dollar hedging, and then additionally the statutory hedging, we are able to maintain buybacks at our pace. So our goal is to be consistent in the market and deliver returns to shareholders as we've demonstrated over the past. On a year-to-date basis, we have returned a total of over $750 million to shareholders, including dividends. That's slightly ahead of the pace for the year relative to our guidance. This also translates to a 13% free cash flow yield, which we believe provides a significant value for shareholders at a level that's sustainable due to the strength of our hedging program and economic management. So we remain fully committed to our 50% to 60% payout ratio and expect that to continue. I wouldn't read too much in small timing difference between quarters, as we'll continue to keep the pace and return capital to shareholders.
spk11: Okay. Thank you.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Kilgerman from Credit Suisse. Your line is open.
spk07: Hey, good morning. It's been some time since you did the transaction with Venable on the variable annuity block. Are you getting much interest in any of your other legacy blocks and what's Equitable's interest in divesting of another block at this stage?
spk08: Andrew, it's Mark. As Robin has indicated, the priority for us has been mitigating the Reg 213 redundant reserves. That's where all of our focus has been. And as Robin said, we remain pretty confident that we'll have a solution for the remaining half of that by the end of this year. That's really where the team and myself have been working. Okay, so not much focus there then, correct, Mark? Correct at the moment. It's been reg 213. That's been the dominant factor for us. Got it.
spk07: And then just looking at SCS first year premiums at 2.2 billion, that's pretty robust. I think it's a record year. Can you talk about market interest in the RILA product in general and how Equitable is doing in terms of its market share and competing?
spk09: Sure, I'll take that one. We see demand for protected equity solutions continuing to grow. First, given the structural shift as baby boomers enter their next life stage. And then second, further amplified by the current market dislocation volatility. It's really a solution that's right for this time. As Mark and Robin highlighted, we had record second quarter sales over $3 billion. And as a pioneer in developing this market over a decade ago with solutions anchored in economic realities, we think we've got a sustainable edge given our focus, our continuous innovation, and our differentiated distribution platform. This is both our over 4,000 equitable advisors as well as our longstanding privileged third-party distribution relationships.
spk02: Excellent. Thank you.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Sani Kamath from Jefferies. Your line is open.
spk13: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Just back on individual retirement, you know, one issue we've seen with some companies that have sort of healthy blocks is this concept of sort of floored-out reserves where you get this mismatch between hedges and reserve changes. Just wondering, as your block evolves from, you know, post-reinsurance, is this something that could impact your capital position and your reserve position in that business?
spk15: Hey, Sunita, it's Robin. Yeah, the CSV floor, certainly at some point, it could be in a period of highly rising equity markets, much farther away from where we are today. But as your block becomes more healthier, that is something that the NIC regulation could be exposed. It doesn't impact equitable today, and we're far away from that point as we sit here today. Okay, got it.
spk13: And then I guess in wealth management, One of the things that we've seen from other wealth-managing companies is sort of leverage to rising interest rates through either cash sweep programs or banks, the establishment of a bank. Is that something that you guys do or could do in the future? Just curious if that's an opportunity ahead.
spk09: Great. I'll take that one. This is Nick. In the rising interest environment, it does help our earnings from sweeps. Over the next several months, we expect to benefit from this. Additionally, I would say our advisors continue to generate strong gross flows and net flows, adding to our overall AUA and earnings power of the business.
spk13: Can you quantify the benefit that you expect, or is it not material?
spk02: We don't quantify it at this time. Okay, thanks.
spk16: Your next question comes from the line of Tracy Benke from Barclays. Your line is open.
spk06: Thank you. Nice achievement of streaming 930 million opcode dividend. That's above your $750 million guidance. Just a few questions there. Was part of that a special dividend since it was above your guide and it was above your 865 million ordinary dividend capacity? And I'm just wondering if that higher dividend may change the mix this year of cash flow sources. Would it be more skewed towards regulated source versus not regulated? I think your guide is 50-50 split, and you did reaffirm the $1.6 billion cash flow in total.
spk15: Sure, Tracy. So our guidance from the retirement company and annual earnings that we expect is $750 million. To get to the $1.6 million, you have to add back Alliance Bernstein and then our investment management agreement that we have between the different life companies. The $750 million, our ordinary dividend capacity for the year, the actual formula ended up being $930 million. So it's purely a function of our ordinary dividend formula, and that's what we've upstreamed. This year, yes, since we upstreamed more out of the regulated company, that percentage may be slightly higher this year. But over the long term, our guide is 50-50 and the $1.6 billion of cash flows.
spk06: Got it. And on GA optimization, any comments if you could see room for further enhancements?
spk15: Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, we achieved $141 million in the quarter. We're delighted of the progress we've made in partnership with AB and the LifeCo. We think we'll come ahead of the target of $180 million, which was year-end 2023, as a function of rising rates and higher spreads that we're investing in today versus being forefront up. So we're pleased with progress. There's certainly probably upside, but we're cautious. in the current credit environment too. We want to be cognizant of the risk that may be out there. So we're focused on highly rated names and ensuring that we're taking appropriate credit risk in this time.
spk06: Okay. Just one more. I just want to make sure I understand the earlier conversation on favorable mortality. So there was a function of lower COVID losses. But there will be a point in time where COVID will be an endemic from pandemic, like the flu. So then I can't imagine every quarter we'll see favorable mortality at COVID a date. So I'm wondering if there are other offsets in there, like non-COVID mortality that ran below trend.
spk15: Yeah, both of them ran below trend, non-COVID and COVID. The COVID mortality for us, though, was very minimal in the quarter. So it is the mortality overall on non-COVID related came in under, and we continue to see good results through this month. So we're pleased where we are and we maintain our 75 million guidance for the protection solution segment, but acknowledge there's volatility around it with mortality.
spk16: Okay. Your next question comes from a line of Mark Hughes from Truist Securities. Your line is open.
spk10: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Your guidance around the $150 million impact from a 10% market move, is that pretty mechanical or given that we've had a lot of volatility, do you see that that is still pretty much on the mark or is your experience perhaps a little bit different?
spk02: Hey, Mark.
spk15: Yeah, no, we're still, we still believe in the 10%, 150 million guidance across the retirement and asset management company. And, you know, based on what we're seeing, it aligns pretty well. Okay.
spk10: And then any change you've seen, maybe either in individual retirement or group retirement around customer behavior, perhaps with withdrawals? I think you talk about lower outflows from the legacy VA block. You clearly seem to be getting more inflows, particularly with the SCS product. So just sort of curious whether in these times of inflation, consumer stress, that sort of thing, whether... you notice any behavioral changes in your customer base?
spk09: Yeah, Mark, this is Nick. I think in these times, consumers are looking for more resilient portfolios, and I think it speaks to the power of insurance as an asset class. So we're seeing that in terms of demand for new products, and we're not seeing material changes in enforced behavior at this time.
spk02: Thank you. And there are no further questions at this time. This does conclude today's conference call.
spk16: Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
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