Good Vibrations – CRBG and EQH Management Meeting Takeaways

Research evidence excerpt

Good Vibrations – CRBG and EQH Management Meeting Takeaways

Financials | Global Insurance - Life

May 22, 2026

Thomas Gallagher, CFA Good Vibrations – CRBG and EQH

212-446-9439

Thomas.Gallagher@EvercoreISI.com Management Meeting Takeaways

David Motemaden, CFA We recently hosted investor meetings with the CRBG and EQH

212-497-0832 management teams, which are in the process of a merger of equals.

David.Motemaden@evercoreisi.com Our key takes:

Peter Knudsen

212-708-8497 1. They think scale will be increasingly important across their

Peter.Knudsen@evercoreisi.com businesses, and the merger is more about accelerating growth than

Nicolas Lu it is about ROE expansion. Also, because both firms have been

212-497-0812 through restructurings as spinouts of other companies, both are

Nicolas.Lu@evercoreisi.com ready for the ongoing initiatives required as part of this merger

2. We think the initial investor perception around potential revenue

synergies has been muted by the view that the expected benefits

from the $100b of AUM expected to move to AB will largely come

from low fee mandates. However, with some meaningful portion

coming from separate account, higher fee mandates, we think the

potential revenue synergies and earnings benefits could end up

being material over time

3. We came away thinking that concerns around intensifying

competition in their retail annuity business have been somewhat

overblown. While competition is quite intense through select

channels like IMOs, its biggest distribution channels haven’t really

opened the door to many new entrants, keeping pricing and

features more rational

4. In addition to deal-related revenue synergies, our sense is that

product development coordination with Nippon Life in Japan could