Marc Costantini, the chief executive officer of Corebridge Financial, and Mark Pearson, the CEO of Equitable Holdings, have been talking to securities analysts this week about how their companies' pending combination would really work.
Corebridge — a Houston-based life and annuity giant that was once owned by American International Group and came to life in 2022 — intends to acquire New York-based Equitable through a "merger of equals" that would put the headquarters of the merged company in Houston, make Costantini the CEO of the merged company and make "Equitable" the name of the merged company.
Equitable was founded in 1859 and has insured people like Thomas Edison.
The merger proposal means "that we're moving on from the Corebridge brand," Costantini told analysts during a call Corebridge held to go over results for the first quarter. "It was not that easy of a move. Even though it's a 4-year-old brand, a lot of people associated with Corebridge had a lot of pride in the brand. But, having said so, it's a 4-year-old brand versus a 167-year-old one. So, the right decision is to move forward with the Equitable brand."
Equitable is the parent of AllianceBernstein, a big asset manager, and the merged company would continue to maintain and invest in that brand, too, Costantini said.
Pearson said during the Equitable analyst call that the deal should help the company accelerate its growth and be a long-term winner in all of the markets in which it competes.
"The companies have complementary strengths, with limited overlap across products," and integrating support operations should save about $500 million per year, Pearson said.
What it means: Corebridge and Equitable will have to get used to each other.
The annuity sales: Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management, the parent of Athene, has talked about seeing some other insurers put annuity business on the books at "ridiculous spreads," meaning that, from his perspective, the companies will earn too little on their own investments to justify the crediting rates they have promised investors.
Executives at Corebridge and Equitable seemed to be more comfortable with the state of the market.
Corebridge increased individual annuity premiums and deposits 1% between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, to $4.3 billion.
"We continue to be very positive about this business," said Christopher Filiaggi, the company's chief financial officer. "The outlook is backed by strong fundamentals and demographic tailwinds that continue to drive demand for our retirement solutions."
Costantini shrugged off an analyst's question about competition.
"The intensity of the competition ebbs and flows depending on who wants to pick their spots where," he said.
Equitable increased its own first-year annuity premiums and deposits to $6 billion, from $5.4 billion.
Nick Lane, the president of Equitable Holdings' Equitable insurance business, said the company is mindful of competitive trends, especially in the hot registered index-linked annuity market.
In 2025, Equitable reported seeing new RILA issuers get attention by offering very low prices, then move toward more sustainable prices.
"We don't see any material change in competitive activity this quarter," Lane said. "Looking forward, we continue to see strong demand for RILAs."
Because consumers' confidence in stock prices is so low right now, "people are looking for protected equity stories," Lane said.
The hunt for refuge from falling stock prices should help AllianceBernstein, Equitable's own advisors and overall annuity sales, he said.
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