Corebridge Financial and Equitable Holdings have agreed to an all-stock merger valued at approximately $22 billion that will create a life insurance, annuity, wealth and asset management company serving more than 12 million customers with $1.5 trillion in assets under management and administration.
The companies announced Wednesday that the firm will operate under the Equitable name from a Houston headquarters and is expected to close by year-end 2026, with a shareholder vote in the summer. Both New York-based Equitable and Houston-based Corebridge are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
If completed, the merger would bring together advisory and annuity seller Equitable and its asset manager, AllianceBernstein, with Corebridge, one of the country’s largest sellers of annuities and life insurance geared toward retirement and workplace 403(b) and 457(b) retirement plans. It would also add to Corebridge’s distribution a network of more than 5,000 Equitable advisors and $140 billion in wealth-related assets under administration.
The firms said the combined entity would realize about $500 million in savings by the end of 2028, coming largely from eliminating redundant services, including employee roles, and combining vendors and technology systems. The one-time cost to realize those savings would be about $750 million, executives said on an investor call after the announcement.
Marc Costantini, president and CEO of Corebridge, will serve as president and CEO of the combined company, while Robin Raju, Equitable’s chief financial officer, will serve as CFO. Equitable CEO Mark Pearson will transition to a role as executive chair.
“We’re here to serve the customer and ensure that Americans retire with confidence and dignity, and that’s first and foremost what drives these two companies,” CEO Pearson said on the call. “Secondly, scale matters … diversification matters. The sources of revenue matter, and when you bring these two businesses together, we see a lot of growth in serving our customers as they accumulate funds for retirement.”
Raju added that the merger will help the firm create products with “lower unit costs” that will make them more attractive to clients, along with a wider distribution network to cross-sell.
“The investment capabilities that we have with AB, BlackRock, Blackstone and Corebridge’s internal teams, along with Equitable Advisors, [creates] a bigger growth engine that makes us more attractive to get access to more customers across the U.S. and capture that retirement opportunity,” he said.
Corebridge will continue its strategic asset management partnerships with Blackstone and BlackRock, according to executives. The firms also said that, over time, a merged entity would shift about $100 billion of Corebridge’s general and separate account assets to AllianceBernstein, “further enhancing its scale and competitive positioning.”
Under the merger agreement, each share of Corebridge common stock will be exchanged for one share of the new parent company’s common stock. Following the close, Corebridge shareholders will own approximately 51% of the combined company, and Equitable shareholders will own approximately 49%.
The firms forecast that a combined entity would generate more than $5 billion in operating earnings and over $4 billion in cash. They also said that expected earnings per share and cash generation would increase by more than 10% by the end of 2028.
The combined company will have a 14-member board of directors, with seven directors designated by each company, including Costantini and Pearson, who will serve as executive chairs.
Corebridge and Equitable frequently rank among the top five annuity sellers in the U.S., according to data from industry tracker LIMRA.
