Equitable Holdings, Inc.

What does Equitable Holdings own?
Equitable Holdings owns the Equitable insurance and retirement businesses, the Equitable Advisors distribution network, and approximately 68% of asset manager AllianceBernstein (NYSE: AB).

Is Equitable Holdings merging with Corebridge?
Yes. The all-stock merger announced March 26, 2026 was approved by shareholders on July 30, 2026 and is expected to close by year-end 2026, creating a company of about $22 billion that keeps the Equitable Holdings name.

Is Equitable Holdings the same as AXA?
No. AXA acquired Equitable in 1991, but the US business was spun off in a 2018 IPO and renamed Equitable Holdings in 2020. AXA no longer owns any stake.

Is AllianceBernstein owned by Equitable?
Equitable holds approximately 68% of AllianceBernstein's economics and controls it through ownership of the AB general partner. AB trades separately on the NYSE under ticker AB.

Who is the CEO of Equitable Holdings?
Mark Pearson is president and CEO. Corebridge CEO Marc Costantini is designated to lead the combined company after the merger closes.

When was Equitable founded?
The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States was founded in New York City in 1859 by Henry Baldwin Hyde.

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States was founded in New York City in 1859 by Henry Baldwin Hyde, a former Mutual Life executive who built it into one of the country's largest insurers. Equitable pioneered group pension products and grew into a mutual insurance giant occupying the Equitable Building at 120 Broadway, a building so large it helped inspire New York's 1916 zoning resolution.

The 20th century brought steady expansion, then a reckoning. In the late 1980s Equitable was hobbled by guaranteed investment contract liabilities issued at high rates that markets could not support. Facing insolvency risk, the company agreed to be acquired by French insurer AXA in 1991, a deal that injected about $1 billion and led to demutualization in 1992. The company operated as AXA Financial, with Equitable Life as its flagship US subsidiary.

AXA gradually reduced its US exposure. In May 2018 the American business was spun off in an initial public offering as AXA Equitable Holdings on the NYSE, raising about $2.75 billion in one of the larger insurance IPOs of the decade. AXA sold down its remaining stake through 2019 and 2020, and the company renamed itself Equitable Holdings in January 2020, restoring the standalone identity it had not held since 1991.

Since independence, management has reshaped the balance sheet. A 2024 reinsurance transaction with RGA moved roughly $32 billion of legacy liabilities off the books, and Equitable bought additional AllianceBernstein units, lifting its economic interest to approximately 68% by 2026. AllianceBernstein itself, formed from the 1967 merger of Bernstein-Macaulay and Alliance Capital, had been acquired by Equitable in 2000 and went public in 2002; it moved its headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee in 2021.

On March 26, 2026, Equitable and Corebridge Financial, the former AIG life and retirement unit, announced a definitive all-stock merger valuing the combined company at approximately $22 billion. Each Equitable share converts to 1.55516 shares of a new holding company, each Corebridge share to one share, leaving Corebridge holders with about 51% and Equitable holders with about 49%. The new company will be named Equitable Holdings, Inc., led by Corebridge CEO Marc Costantini, and will combine Corebridge, Equitable, and AllianceBernstein under one roof. Stockholders approved the deal on July 30, 2026 with roughly 97% of Equitable votes in favor, and closing is expected by year-end 2026 subject to regulatory approvals.

Equitable publishes an annual sustainability report covering responsible investing, workforce diversity, and community programs, including the Equitable Foundation's grantmaking. As an insurer its principal ethical exposure is product fairness: how annuities are priced, sold, and disclosed to retirement savers.

The Equitable Advisors channel has invested in fiduciary-aligned practices as regulators, including the SEC under Regulation Best Interest and state insurance departments adopting the NAIC suitability model, have tightened sales standards for annuity recommendations. The company is not a Certified B Corporation.

Equitable's legacy 403(b) business for teachers has drawn recurring criticism over high-fee annuity products sold in school districts, an issue documented in a widely read 2016 New York Times series that predated the company's independence. Sales practices in the educator market have since attracted tighter suitability regulation nationwide.

Like all variable annuity writers, Equitable faces periodic litigation over product features and disclosures, and regulators monitor its hedging and capital practices. Separately, the Corebridge merger will draw Hart-Scott-Rodino and state insurance regulator review before closing, though approval is expected given the limited competitive overlap.