Equitable Holdings, Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Holdings’), operates as a financial services company.
The company has three primary business lines — retirement, asset management, and affiliated distribution — that it runs through its complementary and well-established principal franchises, Equitable, AllianceBernstein, and Equitable Advisors. The company manages across these franchises, providing the following at each franchise:
Equitable — Retirement and protection str...
Equitable Holdings, Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries (‘Holdings’), operates as a financial services company.
The company has three primary business lines — retirement, asset management, and affiliated distribution — that it runs through its complementary and well-established principal franchises, Equitable, AllianceBernstein, and Equitable Advisors. The company manages across these franchises, providing the following at each franchise:
Equitable — Retirement and protection strategies to individuals, families, and small businesses across the country;
AllianceBernstein — Diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients worldwide; and
Equitable Advisors — Financial planning, wealth management, retirement planning, protection, and risk management services to clients across the country.
Within the company’s three business lines, the company has six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Asset Management, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy. The company continues to maintain market-leading positions in Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Asset Management, and Protection Solutions, while its Wealth Management segment continues to grow in prominence.
The company distributes its products through a premier affiliated and third-party distribution platform, consisting of:
Affiliated Distribution:
The company's affiliated retail sales force, Equitable Advisors, which has approximately 4,600 licensed financial professionals who advise on retirement, protection, and investment advisory solutions; and
More than 200 Bernstein Financial Advisors, who are responsible for the sale of investment products and solutions to Private Wealth clients.
Third-Party Distribution:
Distribution agreements with banks, broker-dealers, insurance carriers, brokerage general agencies, independent marketing organizations, and wires, giving the company access to approximately 150,000 financial professionals to market its retirement, protection, and investment solutions; and
An AB global distribution team of more than 500 professionals, who engage with more than 4,800 retail distribution partners and more than 700 institutional clients.
Segment Information
The company is organized into six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Asset Management, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy. It reports certain activities and items that are not included in its segments in Corporate and Other.
Individual Retirement—The company is a leading provider of variable annuity products, which primarily meet the needs of individuals saving for retirement or seeking retirement income by allowing them to invest in various markets through underlying investment options.
Group Retirement—The company offers tax-deferred investment and retirement services or products to plans sponsored by educational entities, municipalities, and not-for-profit entities, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
Asset Management—The company is a leading provider of diversified investment management and related services to a broad range of clients globally.
Protection Solutions—The company focuses its life insurance products on attractive protection segments, such as VUL and COLI insurance, and its employee benefits business on small and medium-sized businesses.
Wealth Management—The company is an emerging leader in the wealth management space with a differentiated advice value proposition, that offers discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts, financial planning and advice, insurance, and annuity products.
Legacy—This segment primarily consists of the capital-intensive fixed-rate GMxB business written in the Individual Retirement market prior to 2011.
Individual Retirement
The company's Individual Retirement segment is a leading provider of individual variable annuity products.
Products
The company's products are primarily sold to affluent and high-net-worth individuals saving for retirement or seeking guaranteed retirement income. Its current product offerings primarily include:
Structured Capital Strategies (‘SCS’): SCS is a registered index-linked variable annuity product that allows the policyholder to invest in various investment options, whose performance is tied to one or more securities indices, commodities indices, or ETFs, subject to a performance cap, over a set period of time. The risks associated with such investment options are borne entirely by the policyholder, except the portion of any negative performance that the company absorbs (a buffer) upon investment maturity. The company had introduced SCS Income, a new version of SCS, offering a GMxB feature.
Retirement Cornerstone (‘RC’): The company's Retirement Cornerstone variable annuity product offers two platforms: RC Performance, which offers access to a broad selection of funds with annuitization benefits based solely on non-guaranteed account investment performance, and RC Protection, which offers access to a focused selection of funds and an optional floating-rate GMxB feature providing guaranteed income for life.
Investment Edge: The company's investment-only variable annuity is designed to be a wealth accumulation product that defers current taxes during accumulation. An optional SIO feature allows a policyholder to invest in various investment options whose performance is tied to one or more securities indices, subject to a performance cap, with some downside protection over a set period of time. This optional SIO feature leverages the company's innovative SCS offering. Investment Edge does not offer any GMxB feature other than an optional return of premium death benefit.
The company's Individual Retirement segment works with EIMG to identify and include appropriate underlying investment options in its products, as well as to control the costs of these options and increase profitability of the products.
Markets
For the company’s Individual Retirement segment, the company targets sales of its products to both retirees seeking retirement income and a broader class of investors, including affluent, high-net-worth individuals and families saving for retirement, registered investment advisers and their clients, as well as younger investors who have maxed out contributions to other retirement accounts but are seeking tax-deferred growth opportunities.
The company's customers can prioritize certain features based on their life-stage and investment needs. In addition, its products offer features designed to serve different market conditions. SCS serves clients with investable assets who want exposure to equity markets but also want to guard against a market correction. SCS Income serves clients who want exposure to equity markets but also want to protect against market correction while seeking guaranteed income. Retirement Cornerstone serves clients who want growth potential and guaranteed income with increases in a rising interest rate environment. Investment Edge serves clients concerned about rising taxes.
Distribution
The company distributes its variable annuity products through Equitable Advisors, its affiliate, which is registered both as a broker-dealer and as an investment adviser and whose retail sales force sells both proprietary and third-party variable annuity, life insurance, employee benefits, and investment products and services. It also distributes its variable annuity products through third-party distribution channels, which include banks, broker-dealers, and insurance partners. For the year ended December 31, 2024, Equitable Advisors represented 35% of the company's variable annuity FYP in this segment, while its third-party distribution channel represented 65% of the variable annuity FYP in this segment.
Group Retirement
The company's Group Retirement segment offers tax-deferred investment and retirement services or products to plans sponsored by educational entities, municipalities, and not-for-profit entities, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. The company operates in the 403(b), 457(b), and 401(k) markets where it sells variable annuity and mutual fund-based products. RBG, a dedicated subset of over 1,200 Equitable Advisors (which include both broker-dealer representatives and investment advisory personnel), is the primary distributor of its products and related solutions to individuals in the K-12 education market.
The tax-exempt 403(b)/457(b) market, which includes the company's 403(b) K–12 education market business, accounted for 65% of Gross Premiums within the Group Retirement business for the year ended December 31, 2024. The institutional lifetime income market accounts for 15%, the corporate 401(k) market accounts for 17%, and the remaining 3% is Other as of December 31, 2024.
Products
The company's products offer educators, municipal employees, and corporate employees a savings opportunity that provides tax-deferred wealth accumulation. Its innovative product offerings address all retirement phases with diverse investment options.
Variable Annuities
The company's variable annuities offer defined contribution plan record-keeping, as well as administrative and participant services combined with a variety of proprietary and non-proprietary investment options. The variable annuity investment lineup mostly consists of proprietary variable investment options that are managed by EIMG, which provides discretionary investment management services for these investment options that include developing and executing asset allocation strategies and providing rigorous oversight of sub-advisors for the investment options. This helps to ensure that the company retains high-quality managers and leverages its scale across both the Individual Retirement and Group Retirement products. In addition, the company's variable annuity products offer the following features:
Guaranteed Investment Option (‘GIO’)—Provides a fixed interest rate and guarantee of principal.
Structured Investment Option (‘SIO’)—Provides upside market participation that tracks certain available indices, subject to a performance cap, with some downside protection against losses in the investment over a one, three, or five-year period. This option leverages the company's innovative SCS individual annuity offering.
Personal Income Benefit—An optional GMxB feature that enables participants to obtain a guaranteed withdrawal benefit for life for an additional fee.
While GMxB features and Institutional products with guaranteed benefits provide differentiation in the market, this accounts for approximately 1.2% of the company's total AV (other than ROP death benefits) as of December 31, 2024.
Open Architecture Mutual Fund Platform
The company also offers a mutual fund-based product to complement its variable annuity products. This platform provides a similar service offering to its variable annuities. The program allows plan sponsors to select from thousands of proprietary and third-party-sponsored mutual funds. The platform also offers a group fixed annuity that operates very similarly to the GIO as an available investment option on this platform.
Services
Both the company's variable annuity and open architecture mutual fund products offer a suite of tools and services to enable plan participants to obtain education and guidance on their contributions and investment decisions and plan fiduciary services. Education and guidance are available online or in person from a team of plan relationship and enrollment specialists and/or the advisor that sold the product. The company's clients’ retirement contributions come through payroll deductions, which contribute significantly to stable and recurring sources of renewals.
Markets
The company primarily operates in the tax-exempt 403(b)/457(b), corporate 401(k), and other markets.
Tax-exempt 403(b)/457(b)/401(a): The company's core customer base consists of governmental plans, of which Public School Districts and their employees make up the majority of its portfolio.
Overall, the 403(b) and 457(b) markets represent 53% of FYP in the Group Retirement segment for the year ended December 31, 2024. The company seeks to grow in these markets by increasing its presence in the school districts where it currently operates and also by potentially growing its presence in school districts where it currently does not have access.
Corporate 401(k): The company targets small and medium-sized businesses with 401(k) plans that generally have assets. Its product offerings accommodate startup plans and plans with accumulated assets. Typically, the company's products appeal to companies with strong contribution flows and a smaller number of participants with relatively high average participant balances. The under-asset plan market is well aligned with the company's advisor distribution, which has a strong presence in the small and medium-sized business market, and complements its other products focused on this market.
Institutional 401(k): The company's Institutional business offers GMxB and other annuity guarantees to large institutional retirement plans (>$500M in assets). The products are distributed through leading asset managers in the defined contribution markets. The company is actively seeking to expand its institutional business.
Other: The company's other business includes an affinity-based direct marketing program where it offers retirement and individual products to employers that are members of industry or trade associations and various other sole proprietor and small business retirement accounts.
Distribution
The company primarily distributes its products and services to this market through Equitable Advisors, primarily using RBG and third-party distribution firms. For the year ended December 31, 2024, these channels represented approximately 66% and 34% of its sales, respectively. The company also distributes through direct online sales, which include engaging existing clients to increase contributions online. Its direct-to-consumer program uses data analysis combined with digital media to engage educators, teach them about their retirement needs, and increase awareness of its products and services. The company employs internal and external wholesalers to exclusively market its products through Equitable Advisors and third-party firms that are licensed to sell its products. Equitable Advisors also accounted for 98% of the company's 403(b) sales in 2024.
Asset Management
The company's Asset Management business provides diversified investment management and related services globally to a broad range of clients through AB’s three buy-side distribution channels: Institutions, Retail, and Private Wealth Management. AB Holding is a master limited partnership publicly listed on the NYSE. The company owns an approximate 62% economic interest in AB. As the general partner of AB, it has the authority to manage and control its business. The company is AB’s largest client.
Products and Services
Investment Services
AB is fully invested in delivering better outcomes for its clients. Key to this philosophy is developing and integrating both high-quality fundamental and quantitative research, as well as regular company engagement where appropriate. AB’s global research network, intellectual curiosity, and collaborative culture allow AB to advance clients’ investment objectives, whether AB’s clients are seeking idiosyncratic alpha, total return, downside mitigation, or sustainability and impact-focused outcomes.
AB’s investment services include expertise in:
Actively-managed equity strategies across global and regional universes, as well as capitalization ranges, concentration ranges, and investment strategies, including value, growth, and core equities;
Actively-managed traditional and unconstrained fixed income strategies, including taxable and tax-exempt strategies;
Actively-managed alternative investments, including fundamental and systematically-driven hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, and direct assets (e.g., direct lending, private credit, real estate debt, and private equity);
Portfolios with Purpose, including Sustainable, Impact, and Responsible+ (climate-conscious and ESG leaders) equity, fixed income, and multi-asset strategies that address AB’s clients' desire to invest their capital with a dedicated ESG focus, while pursuing strong investment returns;
Multi-asset services and solutions, including dynamic asset allocation, customized target-date funds, and target-risk funds; and
Passive management, including index, ESG index, and enhanced index strategies.
Markets
AB operates in major markets around the world, including the United States, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), and Asia.
Distribution Channels
AB distributes its products and solutions through three buy-side distribution channels: Institutions, Retail, and Private Wealth Management.
Institutions
AB offers its institutional clients, which include private and public pension plans, foundations and endowments, insurance companies, central banks, and governments worldwide, and Holdings and its subsidiaries, separately managed accounts, sub-advisory relationships, structured products, collective investment trusts, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other investment vehicles (‘Institutional Services’).
AB manages the assets of its institutional clients pursuant to written investment management agreements or other arrangements, which generally are terminable at any time or upon relatively short notice by either party. In general, AB’s written investment management agreements may not be assigned without the client’s consent.
Retail
AB provides asset management and related services to a wide variety of individual retail investors globally through retail mutual funds AB sponsors, mutual fund sub-advisory relationships, separately-managed account programs, and other investment vehicles (‘Retail Products and Services’).
AB distributes its Retail Products and Services through financial intermediaries, including broker-dealers, insurance sales representatives, banks, registered investment advisers, and financial planners. These products and services include open-end and closed-end funds that are either registered as investment companies under the Investment Company Act or not registered under the Investment Company Act and generally not offered to U.S. persons. They also include separately-managed account programs, which are sponsored by financial intermediaries and generally charge an all-inclusive fee covering investment management, trade execution, asset allocation, and custodial and administrative services. In addition, AB provides distribution, shareholder servicing, transfer agency services, and administrative services for its Retail Products and Services.
Private Wealth Management
AB partners with its clients, embracing innovation and research to address increasingly complex challenges. AB’s clients include high-net-worth individuals and families who have created generational wealth as successful business owners, athletes, entertainers, corporate executives, and private practice owners. AB also provides investment and wealth advice to foundations and endowments, family offices, and other entities. AB’s flexible investment platform offers a range of solutions, including separately-managed accounts, hedge funds, mutual funds, and other investment vehicles, tailored to meet each distinct client’s needs. AB’s investment platform is complemented with a wealth platform that includes complex tax and estate planning, pre-IPO and pre-transaction planning, multi-generational family engagement, and philanthropic advice, in addition to tailored approaches to meeting the unique needs of emerging wealth and multi-cultural demographics.
AB manages these accounts pursuant to written investment advisory agreements, which generally are terminable at any time or upon relatively short notice by any authorized party, and may not be assigned without the client’s consent.
Bernstein Research Services
Effective April 1, 2024, AB and Societe Generale (‘SocGen’) completed their previously announced transaction to form a global joint venture with two joint venture holding companies, one outside of North America and one within North America (‘NA JV,’ and together the ‘JVs’). AB owns a majority interest in the NA JV while SocGen owns a majority interest in the joint venture outside of North America. AB has deconsolidated the Bernstein Research Services business and retained the Bernstein Private Wealth Management business within its existing U.S. broker dealer, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC.
Custody
AB’s U.S.-based broker-dealer subsidiary acts as custodian for substantially all of AB’s Private Wealth Management AUM and some of its Institutional AUM. Other custodian arrangements, directed by clients, include banks, trust companies, brokerage firms, and other financial institutions.
Protection Solutions
The company's Protection Solutions segment includes its life insurance and employee benefits businesses.
Life Insurance: The company offers a targeted range of life insurance products aimed at serving the financial needs of its clients. It serves all Equitable client segments, but specializes in small to medium enterprises and high-income and/or high-net-worth clients. Equitable Advisors represented approximately 66% of the company’s total life insurance sales for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Employee Benefits: In the employee benefits market, the company targets its products toward small and medium-sized businesses. Its core products consist of Group Life Insurance (including Accidental Death & Dismemberment), Supplemental Life, Dental, Vision, Short-Term Disability, and Long-Term Disability. In addition, the company offers a full suite of Supplemental Health products, including Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity. The company’s employee benefits solutions are distributed through Equitable Advisors and select third-party firms, including the traditional broker channel, strategic partnerships (medical partners, professional employer organizations (‘PEOs’), and associations), General Agencies, TPAs, and Retail Equitable Advisors.
Life Insurance
Products
The company's life insurance products are primarily designed to help individuals and small and medium-sized businesses with protection, wealth accumulation, and transfer of wealth at death, as well as corporate planning solutions, including non-qualified deferred compensation, succession planning, and key person insurance. The company targets select segments of the life insurance market, including VUL and COLI. It currently focuses on the asset accumulation and protection segments of the market. The company plans to grow its operating earnings over time through earnings generated from sales of its repositioned product portfolio and by proactively managing and optimizing its in-force book.
The company's primary life insurance offerings include:
VUL: VUL uses a series of investment options to generate the investment return allocated to the cash value. The sub-accounts are similar to retail mutual funds: a policyholder can invest policy values in one or more underlying investment options offering varying levels of risk and growth potential. These provide long-term growth opportunities, tax-deferred earnings, and the ability to make tax-free transfers among the various sub-accounts. In addition, the policyholder can invest premiums in a guaranteed interest option, as well as an investment option the company calls the MSO, which provides downside protection from losses in the index up to a specified percentage.
COLI: COLI is a VUL insurance product tailored specifically to support professionals, executives, and small business owners. COLI products generally provide a death benefit to the company upon the insured employee’s death, offer potential tax advantages (as mentioned above in VUL), and can be used for executive benefits, business succession planning, and key employee retention.
Other Products and Benefits: In addition to VUL and COLI, the company also offers other products, including IUL and term life products. The company offers a portfolio of riders to enable clients to customize their policies. The company's Long-Term Care Services Rider provides an acceleration of the policy death benefit in the event of a chronic illness. The MSO II rider, referred to above and offered via a policy rider on the company's variable life products, enables policyholders to manage volatility.
The company's in-force book spans three insurance companies, Equitable Financial, Equitable America, and Equitable L&A. Equitable L&A is closed for new business. Certain term products and permanent products riders from Equitable America and Equitable Financial have been reinsured to its captive reinsurer EQ AZ Life Re. The company's in-force portfolio is made up of core product offerings as described above, as well as past generation product offerings that include current assumption universal life insurance, whole life insurance, and other products.
Markets
While the company serves all Equitable client segments, it specializes in small to medium enterprises and high-income/high-net-worth clients and their advisers. The company also complements its product suite with term products for clients with simpler needs. The company focuses on creating value for its customers through the differentiated features and benefits it offers on its products.
Distribution
Beginning in 2025, the company's life insurance products will be primarily distributed through Equitable Advisors. The company also uses third-party firms to distribute its COLI product.
Employee Benefits
The company's employee benefits business is dedicated to serving small and medium-sized businesses, which are a priority segment for it. The company offers these businesses a unique technology platform and a competitive suite of group insurance products. By leveraging its innovative platform, the company has established strategic partnerships with major insurance and health carriers, becoming their primary benefits provider.
Products
The company's product offering includes a suite of Group Life Insurance (including Accidental Death & Dismemberment), Supplemental Life, Dental, Vision, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Critical Illness, Accident, and Hospital Indemnity insurance products.
Markets
The company's employee benefit product suite is designed for small and medium-sized businesses that seek simple, technology-driven employee benefits management. The company built its employee benefits business based on feedback from brokers and employers, ensuring its relevance to the market it serves. The company is committed to continuously evolving its product suite and technology platform to meet market needs.
Distribution
The company's Employee Benefits solutions are distributed through the traditional broker channel, strategic partnerships (medical partners, PEOs, and associations), General Agencies, TPAs, and Equitable Advisors.
Wealth Management
The company is an emerging leader in the wealth management space with a differentiated advice value proposition that offers discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts, financial planning and advice, life insurance, and annuity products.
Equitable Advisors
Equitable Advisors is central to how the company serves its clients. The company's approximately 4,600 financial advisors offer distinctive financial planning advice with access to a sophisticated suite of products and services designed to address even the most complex financial needs. The company supports its advisors through a national branch footprint with over 80 locations, an integrated digital platform, a robust training program, strong marketing capabilities, and cutting-edge client management tools. The company continuously invests in the development and refinement of capabilities designed to maximize advisor productivity and client satisfaction. Its differentiated financial advisor support system creates a compelling value proposition and an important driver of recruitment and retention of its financial advisors.
The following three pillars of Equitable Advisors’s value proposition are unique as they are designed around deep client relationships, integrated technology, and ‘supported independence’:
Client Promise: The Equitable Advisors wealth management experience is centered around the company's promise to its clients to create a relationship of trust (understanding and respecting each client situation), to help each client achieve their financial goals (comprehensive financial advice), and everything in between.
Supporting the company’s Clients and its Advisory Practice: The personalized client relationships that evolve from the Equitable Advisor client promise are underpinned by integrated digital capabilities that help its advisors differentiate their practices while creating an industry-leading experience that delights advisors and their clients.
Enabling Advisor Independence: Finally, the company's advisor platform is designed around ‘supported independence,’ where it recognizes the ambition of its advisors who would like the freedom and flexibility to build their own practice with the benefits of an established brand that reflects long-term stability and financial integrity.
Products & Services
Comprehensive advice considers every aspect of a client’s financial future. The company offers a broad range of financial solutions that are designed to serve a client through their financial journey in life, from asset accumulation to retirement, income, and protection. While market volatility has a significant impact on asset appreciation, the company's advisors have a proven track record of supporting strong growth in advisory net flows, resulting in continued asset accumulation and growth. Additional revenues are produced through the distribution of industry-leading proprietary and non-proprietary insurance and annuity products to the company's retail client base. The company offers the following products and services through its Wealth Management segment:
Brokerage products and services for retail clients: As of December 31, 2024, the Equitable Advisors broker-dealer business.
Discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts: The company receives fees based on the assets held in that account, as well as related fees or costs associated with the underlying securities held in that account.
Life insurance and annuities products from the company's proprietary and non-proprietary suite: The company receives a portion of the revenue generated from the sale of unaffiliated products and certain administrative fees.
Financial planning and advice services: The company provides personalized financial planning and financial solutions for which it may charge fees and may receive sales commissions for selling products that aid in the client’s plan.
Legacy
This segment primarily consists of the capital-intensive fixed-rate GMxB business written in the Individual Retirement market. The company historically offered a variety of variable annuity benefit features, including GMxB features (i.e., GMDBs and GLBs) to its policyholders. The remainder of these products either feature only ROP death benefits or do not contain GMxB features. As this business was priced and designed under conditions of the global financial crisis and is materially different from the company's current product offering, it has chosen to manage this block and report its results separately from its core Individual Retirement Business. Since discontinuing the products offered in this segment, the company has undertaken several risk management transactions to minimize the risk this block of business poses to it.
The fees the company receives from this block of business mirror the fees it receives from its Individual Retirement business.
Corporate and Other
Corporate and Other includes certain of the company's financing and investment expenses. It also includes the Closed Block, run-off group pension business, run-off health business, benefit plans for its employees, and certain unallocated items, including capital and related investments, interest expense, and corporate expense. AB’s results of operations are reflected in the Asset Management segment.
Equitable Investment Management
EIMG is the investment advisor to the EQ Advisors Trust, the company's proprietary variable funds, and previously served as investment advisor to the 1290 Funds, the company's retail mutual funds, and as administrator to both EQ Advisors Trust and the 1290 Funds (each, a ‘Trust’ and collectively, the ‘Trusts’). Equitable Investment Management, LLC (‘EIM LLC’) became the investment advisor to the 1290 Funds and the administrator for both Trusts. EIMG and EIM LLC are collectively referred to as ‘Equitable Investment Management.’
Equitable Investment Management
Equitable Investment Management supports each of the company's retirement and protection businesses. Accordingly, Equitable Investment Management results are embedded in the Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Protection Solutions, and Legacy segments. EIMG helps add value and marketing appeal to the company's retirement and protection solutions products by bringing investment management expertise and specialized strategies to the underlying investment lineup of each product. In addition, by advising on an attractive array of proprietary investment portfolios (each, a ‘Portfolio,’ and together, the ‘Portfolios’), EIMG brings investment acumen, financial controls, and economies of scale to the construction of underlying investment options for the company's products.
EIMG provides investment management services to proprietary investment vehicles sponsored by the company, including investment companies that are underlying investment options for its variable insurance and annuity products, and EIM LLC provides investment management services to the company's retail mutual funds. Each of EIMG and EIM LLC is registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act. EIMG serves as the investment adviser to EQ Advisors Trust and to two private investment trusts established in the Cayman Islands. EQ Advisors Trust and each private investment trust is a ‘series’ type of trust with multiple Portfolios. EIMG provides discretionary investment management services to the Portfolios, including, among other things, portfolio management services for the Portfolios; selecting, monitoring, and overseeing investment sub-advisers; and developing and executing asset allocation strategies for multi-advised Portfolios and Portfolios structured as funds-of-funds. EIMG is further charged with ensuring that the other parts of the company that interact with the Trusts, such as product management, the distribution system, and the financial organization, have a specific point of contact.
EIMG has a variety of responsibilities for the management of its investment company clients. One of EIMG’s primary responsibilities is to provide clients with portfolio management and investment advisory services, principally by reviewing whether to appoint, dismiss, or replace sub-advisers to each Portfolio, and thereafter monitoring and reviewing each sub-adviser’s performance through qualitative and quantitative analysis, as well as periodic in-person, telephonic, and written consultations with the sub-advisers. Currently, EIMG has entered into sub-advisory agreements with more than 40 different sub-advisers, including AB. Another primary responsibility of EIMG is to develop and monitor the investment program of each Portfolio, including Portfolio investment objectives, policies, and asset allocations for the Portfolios, select investments for Portfolios (or portions thereof) for which it provides direct investment selection services, and ensure that investments and asset allocations are consistent with the guidelines that have been approved by clients.
EIM LLC is the investment advisor to the company's retail 1290 Funds and provides administrative services to both Trusts. EIM LLC provides or oversees the provision of all investment advisory and portfolio management to the 1290 Funds. EIM LLC has supervisory responsibility for the management and investment of 1290 Fund assets and develops investment objectives and investment policies for the funds. It is also responsible for overseeing sub-advisors and determining whether to appoint, dismiss, or replace sub-advisors to each 1290 Fund. Currently, EIM LLC has entered into sub-advisory agreements with six different sub-advisors. The administrative services that EIM LLC provides to the Trusts include, among others, coordination of each Portfolio’s audit, financial statements, and tax returns; expense management and budgeting; legal administrative services and compliance monitoring; portfolio accounting services, including daily net asset value accounting; risk management; oversight of proxy voting procedures, and an anti-money laundering program.
General Account Investment Management
Equitable Financial Investment Management, LLC (‘EFIM’) is the investment manager for Equitable Financial’s General Account portfolio. Equitable America had entered into an investment management agreement with Equitable Financial Investment Management America, LLC (‘EFIMA’), by which EFIMA became the investment manager for Equitable America’s General Account portfolio.
EFIM and EFIMA provide investment management services to the Equitable Financial and Equitable America General Account portfolios, respectively. They each provide investment advisory and asset management services, including, but not limited to, providing investment advice on strategic investment management activities, asset strategies through affiliated and unaffiliated asset managers, strategic oversight of the General Account portfolio, portfolio management, yield/duration optimization, asset liability management, asset allocation, liquidity, and close alignment to business strategies, as well as advising on other services in accordance with the applicable investment advisory and management agreement. Subject to oversight and supervision, EFIM and EFIMA may each delegate any of their duties with respect to some or all of the assets of the General Account to a sub-adviser.
Regulation
The company’s insurance subsidiaries are licensed to transact insurance business and are subject to extensive regulation and supervision by insurance regulators in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Bermuda.
Equitable Financial is domiciled in New York and is primarily regulated by the Superintendent of the NYDFS.
Equitable America and EQ AZ Life Re are domiciled in Arizona and are primarily regulated by the Director of Insurance of the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Equitable L&A is domiciled in Colorado and is primarily regulated by the Commissioner of Insurance of the Colorado Division of Insurance. Equitable Bermuda is domiciled in Bermuda and primarily regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (the ‘BMA’).
The company and certain policies and contracts offered by it is subject to regulation under the Federal securities laws administered by the SEC, self-regulatory organizations, and under certain state securities laws.
Certain of the company’s subsidiaries, including Equitable Advisors, Equitable Distributors, SCB LLC, and AllianceBernstein Investments, Inc., are registered as broker-dealers (collectively, the ‘Broker-Dealers’) under the Exchange Act. The Broker-Dealers are subject to extensive regulation by the SEC and are members of, and subject to regulation by, FINRA, a self-regulatory organization subject to SEC oversight. Among other regulations, the Broker-Dealers are subject to the capital requirements of the SEC and FINRA, which specify minimum levels of capital (‘net capital’) that the Broker-Dealers are required to maintain and also limit the amount of leverage that the Broker-Dealers are able to employ in their businesses. The SEC and FINRA also regulate the sales practices of the Broker-Dealers.
Certain of the company’s Separate Accounts are registered as investment companies under the Investment Company Act. Separate Accounts interests under certain annuity contracts and insurance policies issued by the company is also registered under the Securities Act. EQAT and 1290 Funds are registered as investment companies under the Investment Company Act, and shares offered by these investment companies are also registered under the Securities Act. Many of the investment companies managed by AB, including a variety of mutual funds and other pooled investment vehicles, are registered with the SEC under the Investment Company Act, and, if appropriate, shares of these entities are registered under the Securities Act.
Certain subsidiaries and affiliates, including EIMG, EIM LLC, Equitable Advisors, and AB, and certain of its subsidiaries are registered as investment advisers under the Investment Advisers Act.
EIMG is registered with the CFTC as a commodity pool operator with respect to certain portfolios and is also a member of the NFA. AB and certain of its subsidiaries are also separately registered with the CFTC as commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisers; SCB LLC is also registered with the CFTC as a commodity introducing broker. The CFTC is a federal independent agency that is responsible for, among other things, the regulation of commodity interests and enforcement of the CEA. The NFA is a self-regulatory organization to which the CFTC has delegated, among other things, the administration and enforcement of commodity regulatory registration requirements and the regulation of its members. As such, EIMG is subject to regulation by the NFA and CFTC and is subject to certain legal requirements and restrictions in the CEA and in the rules and regulations of the CFTC and the rules and by-laws of the NFA on behalf of itself and any commodity pools that it operates, including investor protection requirements and anti-fraud prohibitions, and is subject to periodic inspections and audits by the CFTC and NFA. EIMG is also subject to certain CFTC-mandated disclosure, reporting, and record-keeping obligations.
The company and certain of its subsidiaries provide regular financial reporting, as well as, in certain cases, additional information and documents to the SEC, FINRA, the CFTC, NFA, state securities regulators and attorneys general, the NYDFS, and other state insurance regulators, and other regulators regarding its compliance with insurance, securities, and other laws and regulations regarding the conduct of its businesses.
The company provides certain products and services to employee benefit plans that are subject to ERISA and certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the ‘Code’).
Many of AB’s subsidiaries are subject to the oversight of regulatory authorities in jurisdictions outside of the United States in which they operate, including the Ontario Securities Commission, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the European Securities and Markets Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K., the CSSF in Luxembourg, the Financial Services Agency in Japan, the Securities & Futures Commission in Hong Kong, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Financial Services Commission in South Korea, the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
The company is subject to the rules and regulations of the NYDFS, which in 2017 adopted the Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services Companies (the ‘NY Cybersecurity Regulation’), a regulation applicable to banking and insurance entities under its jurisdiction.
History
The company was founded in 1859. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 2003. It was formerly known as AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Equitable Holdings, Inc. in January 2020.
