SEI Investments Company (SEIC): History, Ownership, Mission, How It Works & Makes Money

How does a financial services company with a nearly six-decade history, SEI Investments Company (SEIC), continue to navigate the complex world of investment processing and asset management in late 2025?

The answer lies in its diversified technology-driven model, which has helped it manage, advise, or administer approximately $1.8 trillion in assets as of September 30, 2025, while delivering a consolidated operating margin of 28% in the third quarter.

Honestly, when you look at their nine-month 2025 revenue of $1.689 Billion and a record $106.3 million in net sales events year-to-date, it's clear their shift to being a leading global provider of financial technology and operations is defintely paying off.

So, if you're trying to understand the blueprint for sustained growth in FinTech, you need to see how SEI is translating its mission-to build brave futures through connection-into tangible financial results.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) History

You want to understand the DNA of SEI Investments Company (SEIC)-where it came from and how it became a $1.8 trillion asset administrator as of September 30, 2025. The direct takeaway is that SEI's journey is a half-century-long pivot from a bank training simulation company to a global financial technology and outsourcing powerhouse, driven by a founder who bet his own house on the idea.

Honestly, this isn't a story of slow, steady growth; it's a story of calculated, transformative shifts, particularly the early and sustained focus on technology as a core product, not just a support function. That's the key difference.

Given Company's Founding Timeline

Year established

1968

Original location

Suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with current headquarters in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

Founding team members

The company was founded by Alfred P. West, Jr., who, as of November 2025, still serves as the Executive Chairman.

Initial capital/funding

The initial capital was $400,000, which Alfred P. West, Jr. secured by mortgaging his own home.

Given Company's Evolution Milestones

Given Company's Transformative Moments

The company's trajectory hasn't been a straight line, but a series of calculated, market-aware shifts. What really matters is how they repeatedly moved from a service provider to a platform provider. That's how you scale.

One defintely major shift was in the late 1990s when they began offering investment operations services to alternative investment managers, branding it as Total Operational Outsourcing. This wasn't just a new service; it was a new business model, turning back-office complexity into a scalable, high-margin product.

Here's the quick math on their recent performance: for the first nine months of 2025, SEI reported consolidated revenues of $1.689 billion and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $4.25. This kind of growth-with nine-month income from operations up 15% to $465.7 million-shows the model is working. Also, they repurchased 6.2 million shares for $515.2 million in the first nine months of 2025, a clear capital allocation move to boost shareholder value.

Other key transformative decisions include:

• Pioneering goals-based investing in 2003, which became the strategic foundation for many of their investment management solutions.
• The continuous, aggressive development of the SEI Wealth Platform (SWP), which is critical to their standing as a wealth management technology leader.
• Strategic acquisitions, such as the 2023 purchases of Altigo and National Pensions Trust, reinforcing their commitment to transforming private fund investing and expanding their UK defined contribution presence.
• Global expansion, which has diversified their revenue streams-a necessary move when you have a scalable tech platform.

If you want to dive deeper into who is currently capitalizing on these shifts, you can read Exploring SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Next step: Finance and Strategy teams should map SEI's current $1.1 trillion average assets under administration (AUA) for the first nine months of 2025 against the SWP client pipeline to project 2026 platform fee revenue by the end of next week.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Ownership Structure

SEI Investments Company's ownership structure is dominated by institutional money managers, creating a governance environment where major decisions are heavily influenced by the world's largest investment firms, but still balanced by significant insider holdings.

Given Company's Current Status

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company, trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SEIC. As of November 2025, the company's valuation is influenced by a consensus full-year 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimate of around $4.86 per share. The company maintains a strong financial position, reporting year-to-date (YTD) revenue through Q3 2025 of $1.689 billion and YTD diluted EPS of $4.25. This public status means its strategy and financial health are under constant scrutiny by the market, which is why transparency in its Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of SEI Investments Company (SEIC). is defintely critical.

Given Company's Ownership Breakdown

The company's outstanding shares, approximately 122 million as of late 2025, are primarily held by institutional investors. This high institutional ownership-a common trait among large financial technology and asset management firms-means passive index funds and active managers hold the majority of the voting power. This gives firms like Vanguard Group and BlackRock, Inc. substantial influence over corporate governance matters. Insider ownership, while smaller, is still a meaningful stake that aligns management's interests with long-term shareholder value.

Given Company's Leadership

The company is steered by a seasoned executive team, with a clear separation of the Chairman and CEO roles, providing a check-and-balance in governance.

• Executive Chairman: Alfred P. West, Jr.
• Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Ryan P. Hicke, who is responsible for the global business strategy across the company's three pillars: technology, operations, and asset management.
• Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer (CFO/COO): Sean J. Denham, who oversees the financial and operational strategy.
• Head of Asset Management: Michael F. Lane, guiding the company's investment solutions.
• Head of SEI's Investment Managers business: Phil N. McCabe, focusing on the core business of servicing traditional and alternative asset managers.

This leadership structure is focused on disciplined execution of the enterprise strategy, which recently led to the board authorizing a $650 million stock buyback program, allowing the repurchase of up to 6.4% of outstanding shares to enhance shareholder returns.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Mission and Values

SEI Investments Company's core purpose goes beyond just processing assets; it is about creating a future-proof financial ecosystem for its clients. The company's mission is fundamentally focused on driving client growth through a powerful blend of technology, operations, and investment expertise.

Given Company's Core Purpose

You're looking at a firm that manages, advises, or administers approximately $1.8 trillion in assets as of September 30, 2025, so their cultural DNA is what underpins that scale. Their values are the real engine, guiding how they deliver on that massive commitment to clients, not just the numbers.

For example, record net sales events totaled $106.3 million for the first nine months of 2025, a clear sign that this client-centric, problem-solving approach is defintely resonating in the market.

Official mission statement

The formal mission statement of SEI Investments Company is to build brave futures through the power of connection. This isn't just a feel-good phrase; it reflects their strategy of integrating disparate services-technology, operations, and asset management-into one cohesive platform.

They see their work as a dual-part commitment:

• Solving problems is our foundation.
• Powering the future is our mission.

This is a firm that believes in connecting the dots for you, which is crucial in a fragmented financial world.

Vision statement

The vision at SEI Investments Company is explicitly forward-looking, centered on anticipating the next phase of industry evolution for their clients and shareholders. They are always looking to what's beyond the horizon and reimagining what's possible.

Their vision is executed through a commitment to core values like Courage and Innovation:

• Think and act like owners, embracing risk to drive client growth.
• Optimize the operating model to maximize enterprise value added.
• Drive growth for clients, the industry, and shareholders by focusing on what's next.

The goal is to help you deploy your capital-money, time, or talent-more effectively, so you can better serve your own clients and achieve your growth objectives.

Given Company slogan/tagline

The most concise summary of SEI Investments Company's offering and vision is their concept of a unified service model. It's a simple, powerful idea.

• One ecosystem for growth.

This tagline perfectly captures the breadth of their capabilities-investment processing, operations, and asset management-all in one place. You can see the tangible results in their Q3 2025 performance, where their consolidated operating margin improved to 28%, reflecting strong operating leverage and cost discipline. If you want a deeper dive into how these values translate to the balance sheet, check out Breaking Down SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) How It Works

SEI Investments Company operates as a sophisticated, full-service outsourcing partner, essentially acting as a chief operating officer, chief technology officer, and chief investment officer all rolled into one for financial institutions and advisors. The company makes its money by charging fees on the $1.8 trillion in total assets it manages, advises, or administers as of September 30, 2025, plus technology and processing fees for its platforms.

SEI Investments Company's Product/Service Portfolio

SEI's core value proposition is delivering an integrated bundle of financial technology (FinTech), operational outsourcing, and asset management-the three pillars of its business. This approach allows clients to offload complex, non-core functions and focus on their own client relationships. The company's revenue split highlights this, with roughly 55% coming from technology and operations outsourcing and 40% from asset management fees. [cite: 8 (from previous step)]

SEI Investments Company's Operational Framework

The operational framework is built on a business-to-business (B2B) model where SEI provides the mission-critical infrastructure, not just the software. You get the platform, the people, and the process. This integrated model drives efficiency by eliminating the need for clients to manage multiple vendors and disparate systems, which is a massive headache for most firms.

Here's the quick math on their global reach: The core SEI Wealth Platform is designed to support trading and transactions across 128 stock exchanges in 40 countries and 43 currencies. That's serious scale. This comprehensive approach is what allows them to achieve a consolidated operating margin of 28% in Q3 2025.

• Single Operating Infrastructure: The SWP uses straight-through processing, meaning transactions flow seamlessly from order to settlement, reducing manual errors and time.
• Integrated Service Centers: Global service centers in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, India, and South Africa provide 24/7 operational support and redundancy. [cite: 7 (from previous step)]
• Strategic Capital Allocation: The company is actively reshaping its focus, evidenced by the $94.4 million gain in Q2 2025 from selling its Family Office Services business and the $527 million strategic investment in Stratos Wealth Holdings to double down on the wealth management space. [cite: 5, 7 (from previous step)]

For more on the underlying numbers, you can read Breaking Down SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

SEI Investments Company's Strategic Advantages

SEI's competitive edge isn't just one product; it's the unique combination of all three core competencies-technology, operations, and asset management-delivered on a single, unified platform. Most competitors specialize in one area, but SEI's integrated offering is defintely a differentiator.

• Full-Stack Integration: The ability to offer a unified, end-to-end solution (SWP) is a significant barrier to entry for competitors who would need to build or acquire all three pillars.
• Scale and Pricing Power: Managing, advising, or administering approximately $1.8 trillion in assets provides massive scale, which allows them to negotiate favorable investment fees and pass on cost efficiencies to clients.
• Discretionary Expertise: As one of the first and largest OCIO providers, SEI has decades of experience in taking on fiduciary responsibility for institutional clients, which builds deep, sticky relationships.
• Client Longevity: The company boasts decades-long client relationships, with its flagship processing system, TRUST 3000, having been a leading solution for over 55 years.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) How It Makes Money

SEI Investments Company makes its money primarily by blending financial technology (FinTech) with asset management services, essentially acting as a comprehensive outsourced operations and investment partner for other financial institutions and investors. They earn recurring fees based on the value of assets they manage (Assets Under Management or AUM) and assets they administer (AUA), plus fixed fees for their proprietary technology platforms like the SEI Wealth Platform (SWP).

SEI Investments Company's Revenue Breakdown

You need to see where the money is actually coming from, not just the total. For the third quarter of 2025 (Q3 2025), the company reported total consolidated revenues of $578.5 million. Here is a breakdown of that revenue by business segment, which clearly shows the core drivers of their business model.

Business Economics

The economic fundamentals of SEI Investments Company are rooted in a scalable, fee-based model where revenue growth is tied directly to global market performance and the volume of assets they service. This is a powerful combination: the more assets under their care, the more they make, without a proportional increase in operational costs.

Here's the quick math: The company manages, advises, or administers approximately $1.8 trillion in assets as of September 30, 2025. This massive scale allows them to achieve operating leverage (where revenue grows faster than expenses), which is why the Q3 2025 operating margin was a healthy 28%. You want to see that margin expand, and it is.

• Fee Structure: Revenue is predominantly recurring, based on a percentage of AUM/AUA, plus fixed technology platform fees.
• Integrated Cash Program: A significant tailwind for the Investment Advisors segment is the Integrated Cash Program contribution, which was $21 million in Q3 2025, up $10 million year-over-year. This is essentially interest income from client cash balances, a direct benefit of rising interest rates.
• Alternatives Focus: The Investment Managers segment is seeing double-digit revenue growth in alternatives, indicating strong demand for their specialized outsourcing services in less liquid, higher-fee asset classes. This is defintely a high-margin area to watch.
• Sales Momentum: Net sales events-new business signed-hit a record $106.3 million year-to-date through Q3 2025, signaling future revenue strength.

To be fair, the Investments in New Businesses segment saw a 48% revenue decline in Q3 2025, but this reflects a strategic portfolio reshaping, including the sale of the Family Office Services business earlier in the year. You have to be willing to prune a portfolio to focus on high-growth areas. If you want to dive deeper into the firm's strategic direction, you can review their Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of SEI Investments Company (SEIC).

SEI Investments Company's Financial Performance

The financial results for the first nine months of 2025 (YTD 2025) demonstrate consistent execution of the company's enterprise strategy. The key takeaway is that the core business is expanding its margins while actively returning capital to shareholders.

• Year-to-Date Revenue: Consolidated revenues for the nine months ended September 30, 2025, were $1.689 billion, an 8% increase over the same period in 2024.
• Profit Growth: Operating income grew even faster, rising 15% to $465.7 million YTD 2025. This margin expansion is the sign of a well-run FinTech platform business.
• Earnings Per Share (EPS): Diluted EPS was $4.25 YTD 2025, a dramatic 32% increase from the prior year.
• Capital Return: SEI Investments Company remains committed to capital return, repurchasing 1.6 million shares for $141.6 million in Q3 2025 alone. This reduces the share count, helping to boost EPS.
• Operational Health: The consolidated operating margin for the nine-month period was 28%, up from 26% in the prior year, showing improved operating leverage.

What this estimate hides is the inherent volatility tied to market-based fees; a sharp market downturn would immediately pressure these numbers, but for now, the momentum is clearly positive.

SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Market Position & Future Outlook

SEI Investments Company is solidly positioned as a leading financial technology and operations provider, managing, advising, or administering approximately $1.7 trillion in assets as of June 30, 2025, giving it significant scale. The company is strategically shifting to capitalize on the wealth management sector's digital transformation, aiming for sustained growth by investing heavily in technology and talent.

Competitive Landscape

You need to look past the massive Assets Under Management (AUM) figures and focus on the technology and outsourcing side, which is SEI's core differentiator. In the specialized investment-portfolio-management software space, SEI has a smaller, but highly sticky, market share. Their real competitive edge is the integrated platform model, which bundles asset management, operations, and technology into one solution for clients.

Opportunities & Challenges

The financial services industry is defintely pushing for more outsourcing, which is a huge tailwind for SEI's business-to-business (B2B) model. Their strategic investment in Stratos Wealth Holdings, announced in 2025, shows a clear path to capturing more of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) market, which is consolidating fast. But, honestly, you can't ignore the rising cost base from these necessary technology and talent investments, which can pressure margins in the near term.

Industry Position

SEI's position is unique because they sit at the intersection of asset management and financial technology (FinTech). They aren't just a money manager; they are a critical operating partner for other financial institutions. Their Q3 2025 revenue of $578.5 million and diluted EPS of $1.30 show operational strength despite market headwinds. The company's return on equity has averaged a strong 32.00%, which signals efficient capital use and a clear competitive advantage over many peers.

• Technology-First Focus: Intentional investments in technology and infrastructure are positioning the company to scale its core capabilities.
• Operational Efficiency: The sale of the Family Office Services business in Q2 2025, which generated a $94.4 million gain, reflects a commitment to streamlining the business and focusing on high-growth, scalable solutions.
• Valuation Disconnect: Analysts estimate a stable EPS of $5.50 per share, but the stock has recently traded at a discount to its estimated intrinsic value, suggesting potential upside if growth targets are met.

To dive deeper into the nuts and bolts of their financial health, you should check out Breaking Down SEI Investments Company (SEIC) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors. This is a business that's executing with discipline, but they need to keep the pedal down on tech investment to stay ahead.