One of the larger US financial groups, which works with sectors including private banks and wealth managers, delivered a broadly positive set of earnings results for the fourth quarter and all of 2025 yesterday.

SEI, the Oaks, Pennsylvania-headquartered group which provides investment processing and management, and investment operations solutions, yesterday reported attributable net income of $172.5 million in the three months to end-December, 2025, rising 11 per cent on a year earlier. 

For the whole of 2025, attributable net income was $715.3 million, a gain of 23 per cent, the firm said in a statement. 

The operating margin widened in Q4 2025 to 27 per cent from 26 per cent a year before.

Income from operations across all segments was $161.6 million in Q4, rising 11 per cent.

"We closed 2025 with an exceptional fourth quarter, capping one of the strongest years in SEI's history. Q4 results reflect solid revenue growth, margin expansion, and outstanding sales activity across the organization,” CEO Ryan Hicke said. “What's most encouraging is that these results were not reliant on any single business or one-time event, but rather a result of disciplined execution against our strategy and the strength of our integrated enterprise model.”

Private banks
Broken down by segments, SEI’s business of serving private banks logged a 47 per cent surge in operating profit for the fourth quarter, at $28.1 million; for all of last year, it rose 21 per cent to $98 million.

Fourth quarter net sales events in private banking totaled $43.6 million, bringing full-year net sales events to a record $149.9 million. Private banks as a segment led the quarter with $27.5 million of net sales events, which SEI said reflected demand across its capabilities.

The firm gave some detail about its wins in the private banks space last year in an update in early December, 2025.

Investment advisors
On the investment advisors side, operating profit gained 15 per cent in Q4 to $71.89 million; in 2025, it rose 17 per cent to $265.7 million. 

Investment managers generated $20.5 million of net sales events, with more than two-thirds coming from US-based alternative asset managers. This segment booked a Q4 operating profit of 91.3 million, rising 25 per cent, and for the year, it reached $321 million, rising 16 per cent.

At the end of December, SEI had $1.88 trillion in assets, rising from $1.568 trillion at end-2024.

Shares in SEI have risen by 3.72 per cent since the start of January.