Stifel Financial Corporation

and welcome to the Stiefel Financial fourth quarter 2025 financial results conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Joel Jeffrey, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning and welcome to Stiefel Financial's fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings call. On behalf of Stiefel Financial Corp, I will begin the call with the following information and disclaimers. This call is being recorded. During today's presentation, we will refer to our earnings release and financial supplement, copies of which are available at Stifel.com. Today's presentation may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially. Stifel Financial Corp. does not undertake to update the forward-looking statements in this discussion. Please refer to our notices regarding forward-looking statements and non-GAAP measures that appear in our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ron Koszewski.

Thanks, Joel, and good morning, everyone. 2025 was another record year for Stifel. Firm-wide revenue of $5.5 billion increased 11% and marked the first time we've surpassed $5 billion in revenue in our 135-year history. Record performance in global wealth management in our second highest year of institutional revenue drove these results. Given the volatility we experienced throughout the year, this performance highlights the breadth, quality, and resilience of our franchise. Stepping back, 2025 was a strong year for markets, but it was not without its challenges. Economic resilience, healthy balance sheets, and improving capital markets activity supported growth, even as volatility, geopolitical risk, and policy uncertainty remained very real. As the environment strengthened during the year, our focus on client service allowed us to capitalize on the improving market trends. That focus is reflected in J.D. Power ranking Stiefel number one in employee advisor satisfaction for the third consecutive year and in the fact that 2025 was our strongest financial advisor recruiting year since 2018. On the institutional side, I'd also highlight the performance of our KBW subsidiary. In 2025, we participated in approximately 75% of depository M&A advisory transactions measured by deal volume, underscoring our leadership position in financials and the depth of our client relationships across the sector. Building on that momentum, this morning we announced another depository M&A transaction representing Stellar in its sale to Prosperity Bank. This reflects the continued level of engagement we're seeing across bank boards and management teams as strategic conversations translate into executed transactions. Before getting into the details of our results, I want to step back and briefly address our business model because it's central to understanding Stifel's competitive position. We do have a $41 billion balance sheet. Approximately 80% of our revenue comes from wealth management, asset management, investment banking, and capital markets, with net interest income representing about 20% of the mix. Our balance sheet exists to serve our clients, not as a standalone business. It allows us to provide individual lending, credit and treasury capabilities to companies in the innovation ecosystem, and capital solutions to institutional clients. It's client-serving infrastructure that supports our core business. This structure gives us meaningful competitive advantage. Unlike independent wealth managers, we can enhance the full client experience through integrated lending and cash management. Because our model is advice-led, we generate the growth and returns on an advice-based business. That's why you'll hear us focus our commentary on the businesses that drive our growth trajectory, global wealth, management, and institutional. The balance sheet enables those businesses, but it is not itself a separate business line. We use our balance sheet to support our clients when it's right to do so while remaining well capitalized. Our bottom line results reflect an increased scale in operating leverage. Excluding the first quarter legal accrual, we delivered EPS of $7.92, a pre-tax margin of 21%, and for 2025, a return on tangible common equity of roughly 25%. Strong earnings again generated meaningful excess capital, which allowed us to continue investing in the business, grow our advisor-led client-serving platform, acquire Brian Garnier and the employee wealth business from B. Reilly, and repurchase shares. To put our 2025 performance in proper context, More than two years ago, on our third quarter 2023 earnings call, we discussed our ability to generate, at the time we looked forward, it was our ability to generate $5.2 billion in revenue and $8 a share in normalized environment. And look, at the time, those targets were viewed as aspirational, particularly given that we were on our way to delivering 2023 revenue of $4.3 billion and earnings per share of $4.68 billion. In 2025, we exceeded that revenue target and essentially reached $8 per share in earnings, despite market headwinds in the first quarter. That outcome reinforces both the durability of our model and the operating leverage inherent in the business. Stepping back and taking a longer view of our growth, the trajectory of the firm has been consistent and disciplined. Over the last decade, Steeple's revenues are up 137%. driven by meaningful expansion across both of our operating segments. In global wealth management, revenue has grown 157% over the last 10 years, reaching $3.5 billion. That growth has been driven by sustained advisor recruiting, higher advisor productivity, growth in fee-based assets, and the continued build-out of our client-serving platform, which has improved both the growth and consistency of our results. In our institutional business, revenues nearly doubled over that same 10-year period, reaching $1.9 billion. That growth reflects diversification across advisory, capital markets, and public finance, deeper industry coverage, and continued investment in talent. That long-term execution is also reflected in shareholder returns. Since 1997, the S&P 500 is up roughly nine times. Microsoft, one of the most successful growth companies of our generation, is up approximately 45 times. Steeple, over that same period, is up around 76 times. Even over a more recent horizon, the story is consistent. Over the last five years, Steeple stock is up roughly two and a half times, where Microsoft has roughly doubled and the S&P 500 has not quite doubled. Reflecting that performance and the confidence the board has in the durability of our earnings and cash flows, the board of directors authorized an 11% increase in the common stock dividend beginning in the first quarter of 2026. In addition, the board authorized a three-for-two stock split effective February 26, 2026, for a record as of February 12, 2026. This marks the fifth stock split during my tenure. Taken together, these results enforce what we believed for a long time, that disciplined growth, consistent investment in our people and platform, and a long-term mindset can create significant value for shareholders across market cycles. With that context on our business model and long-term performance, I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Jim Marishen, to walk through our quarterly results and outlook in more detail.