Ethos Technologies Inc. Class A Common Stock NASDAQ: LIFE reported what CEO Peter Colis called an “exceptional” first quarter of fiscal 2026, citing triple-digit revenue growth, positive adjusted EBITDA, and an increase to full-year guidance, while also addressing a one-time non-cash charge tied to third-party agent compensation estimates.
First-quarter results: revenue more than doubled
Colis said Ethos generated $193 million in Q1 revenue, up 104% year-over-year, and produced adjusted EBITDA of $34 million. The company also “protected over 88,000 new families,” bringing the cumulative total to “over 600,000 activated policies to date.”
CFO Chris Capozzi added detail on operating metrics, reporting 88,373 policies activated in the quarter and an average revenue per policy of $2,185. Contribution profit was $59 million, representing a 30% contribution margin, which included the impact of a one-time non-cash charge discussed later in the call.
Capozzi also highlighted profitability and growth together, noting adjusted EBITDA margin of 17% and saying the company posted a Rule of 40 score of 121 for the quarter.
Channel performance: direct drove growth, third-party ramp continued
Ethos attributed a large share of Q1 growth to its direct-to-consumer business. Capozzi said direct channel revenue rose to $146 million, up 136% year-over-year, while third-party channel revenue was $47 million, up 42% year-over-year.
Colis pointed to Ethos’ “vertically integrated platform” and what he called the company’s “Virtuous Data Cycle,” saying refinements across the stack—from user experience to underwriting algorithms—have improved conversion rates and supported “strong unit economics at higher levels of ad spend.”
On the Q&A, Colis told Baird analyst Colin Sebastian that the Q2 outlook reflected seasonality and prudence rather than a ceiling on marketing scale. “Q1 is 1 of our strongest seasonal quarters, and Q2 1 of the less strong ones,” he said, adding that the company had seen “continued strength and momentum throughout April and early May.” Colis also said Ethos does not believe it is “encountering the upper bounds of spend.”
Capozzi said Ethos more than doubled advertising spend versus Q4 2025 while maintaining “consistent efficiency.” In response to Barclays analyst Ross Sandler, management said the company plans to disclose return on ad spend annually, and Capozzi characterized Q1 return on ad spend as consistent on both sequential and year-over-year bases.
Asked about the quarter-to-quarter increase in average revenue per policy, Colis said the change was “primarily attributed to channel mix,” with direct representing a larger percentage of revenue in Q1 compared with Q4. He added that Ethos has seen early signs of fit for its accumulation IUL product but said it was “still too nascent to materially impact ARPU at this point.”
Products and partnerships: expanded lineup, Liberty Mutual deal, ChatGPT initiative
Ethos discussed multiple product and distribution developments during the quarter. Colis said the company saw early indicators of product-market fit for its “accumulation indexed universal life insurance product,” which is growing in the third-party channel. He also said Ethos and Banner Life launched two new whole life products—“a simplified issue whole life and guaranteed issue whole life”—to expand coverage in the final expense market. Colis emphasized speed to market, saying the company went “from concept to launching end market in under five months,” and noted that Ethos now offers “12 products across six carriers.”
On the product pipeline, Colis told Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan that the company has a track record of launching “around 3 to 4 new products per year,” but he said Ethos “ascribe[s] very little revenue” in forecasts to newer, less proven products until results are visible. He referenced the accumulation IUL product and a recently launched cancer insurance product with Aflac, describing the latter as “still in the early innings of testing and iteration.”
Ethos also announced a partnership with Liberty Mutual. Colis said Liberty Mutual will leverage Ethos’ underwriting engine and platform to offer a digital-first life insurance experience with instant decisions and no medical exams. In Q&A with Bank of America’s Michael McGovern, Colis said the partnership was “early days” but “contributing nicely,” and described the model as “fairly replicable,” adding the company will seek more partnerships like it. Citizens analyst Carol Jamil asked about exclusivity, and management said “there is not exclusivity around this deal.”
Separately, Colis said Ethos became “the first life insurance provider to build a dedicated experience directly inside” ChatGPT. In response to Barclays’ Sandler, Colis said large language models (LLMs) could play an increasing role in consumer research and “could be one day a material source of client origination,” though he cautioned that life insurance purchasing involves complex steps and “it’s not necessarily intuitive that the entire transactional process will move into LLMs as the default.”
One-time non-cash charge tied to third-party agent compensation estimates
A key topic on the call was a one-time, non-cash expense related to third-party agent compensation and clawback estimates. Capozzi said Q1 contribution profit included a $16.5 million one-time non-cash charge recorded in sales and marketing expense, driven by updates to agent compensation expense and persistency estimates.
Capozzi explained that as cohorts matured, Ethos observed better early-stage policy persistency than originally projected and improved the precision of its clawback billing and methodology for estimating clawback events. Those changes resulted in lower expected clawbacks—which, under the accounting mechanics described on the call, leads to higher agent compensation expense. The update required a $60.5 million reduction in a prepaid asset balance, which he said was the “source” of the one-time non-cash charge.
In response to JPMorgan’s Pablo Singzon, Capozzi said the updated persistency assumptions had a “small favorable” impact on revenue in the quarter—described as a “low single-digit % effect”—but it was not material enough to call out separately. Capozzi added that the updated agent compensation expense estimate is embedded in forward guidance, and for modeling purposes, Ethos expects blended contribution margins to be in the “mid 30% range” going forward.
Cash, operating cash flow, and guidance raised for fiscal 2026
Capozzi said that as of March 31, 2026, Ethos had $224 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, including $33.5 million in net IPO proceeds. Stock-based compensation and related taxes totaled $196 million in Q1, including $183 million related to a vesting condition satisfied upon completion of the IPO in January.
The company ended the quarter with a $345 million commission receivable balance, up 19% sequentially, which Capozzi described as estimated future cash flows earned but not yet received and an indicator of “embedded cash generation potential.”
Cash flow from operating activities was $31 million, up 189% year-over-year. Capozzi said the result included a one-time $13.9 million timing benefit from amended payment terms with a carrier partner; excluding that item, operating cash flow would have been approximately $17 million.
Looking ahead, Ethos raised full-year guidance. For Q2 2026, Capozzi said the company expects:
- Revenue of $114 million to $118 million (31% year-over-year growth at the midpoint)
- Adjusted EBITDA of $20 million to $22 million
For the full year 2026, Ethos now expects:
- Revenue of $561 million to $565 million (45% year-over-year growth at the midpoint)
- Adjusted EBITDA of $103 million to $107 million
Addressing questions about implied growth deceleration after the Q1 outperformance, Capozzi said there was “nothing to call out on the macro front,” and attributed the cadence to seasonal patterns moving from Q1 into Q2 and “an appropriate level of prudence” in the company’s forward guidance.
Ethos ended the call by reiterating its focus on growing its ecosystem, enhancing its platform for agents and customers, and expanding its product portfolio, with Colis describing a strategy built around a vertically integrated digital platform and data-driven underwriting and acquisition.
About Ethos Technologies Inc. Class A Common Stock NASDAQ: LIFE
Ethos Technologies Inc operates a technology-driven, direct-to-consumer platform for the distribution of life insurance products. Through its digital underwriting, data analytics, and proprietary technology, it enables consumers to explore, compare, and purchase life insurance policies online. The platform serves consumers, agents, and insurance carriers, and supports the application and policy issuance process through an online interface. The company works with insurance carriers to offer life insurance products in the United States through digital channels and independent agents.
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