KKR Stock: Fees, K-Series Funds, Dividend and Debt, Q2 2026

What KKR is made of: three segments and five business lines

KKR reports three segments, and the shorthand most people use for them is slightly off. Asset Management has five business lines: Private Equity, Real Assets, Credit and Liquid Strategies, Capital Markets and Principal Activities. Insurance is Global Atlantic, which KKR bought control of in 2021 and wholly owned from January 2, 2024. Strategic Holdings is a third, separate segment that holds stakes in operating companies the firm owns, mainly from its core private equity strategy: 19 companies at June 30, 2026. Global Atlantic is therefore not part of Strategic Holdings, and Capital Markets is not a segment. The table is KKR's own operating-earnings measure by segment, with shares as our arithmetic.

Operating earnings leave out the lumpy part: carried interest and gains when investments are sold. KKR adds those as “investing earnings”, then subtracts interest and taxes to reach adjusted net income. The bridge for the second quarter, with the same quarter of 2025:

Adjusted net income rose 40.4% (our arithmetic), faster than the 28.9% growth in operating earnings, largely because carried interest after compensation nearly doubled. It is not GAAP: net income to common stockholders was $660.1 million in the quarter and diluted earnings $0.70 a share (Q2 2025: $0.50). The gap reflects items KKR's reconciliation removes, including the effect of consolidated funds, unrealized gains and losses, equity-based compensation and insurance investment gains and losses.

One inconsistency is worth knowing before you copy a number from the filing. The reconciliation table near the end of the 10-Q (page 166) shows Q2 adjusted net income of $1,885.7 million and total segment earnings of $2,335.6 million, each $393.0 million above the MD&A and the segment note (our arithmetic). The components add up to the lower figures, which are the ones used here. Neither the 10-Q nor the 8-K we read explains the difference.

Fee-related earnings: what is in the $1.2 billion

Fee-related earnings, or FRE, are the part of KKR's earnings KKR itself calls the most recurring. It is revenue from fees, less compensation and costs. Here is the Q2 build:

Management fees grew 25.5% (our arithmetic) and were 72% of the quarter's fee revenue. FRE as a share of the three fee lines was 70.3% against 69.1% (our arithmetic: $1,214.1 million over $1,725.9 million, and $886.8 million over $1,283.7 million). By business line, management fees were $491.3 million in Private Equity (up 32.0%), $417.8 million in Real Assets (up 34.6%) and $340.9 million in Credit and Liquid Strategies (up 8.8%, our arithmetic). KKR names four drivers: fees on new capital raised over twelve months at its private equity and infrastructure K-Series vehicles (“net of certain revenue sharing arrangements”), a new fund close at Global Infrastructure Investors V, fees from Arctos after the May 4 acquisition, and fees at North America Fund XIV and Asia Infrastructure III. Offsets were fee step-downs at older funds as they leave their investment periods.

Two items change how to read the growth. First, catch-up fees: approximately $41 million of Private Equity and $52 million of Real Assets management fees in the quarter were earned on new capital raised that is retroactive to the start of the funds' investment periods. That is about $93 million (our arithmetic), 7.4% of the quarter's management fees, which a quarter without new closes would not have. Second, the K-Series classification, below.

The K-Series reclassification, and the FSK waiver

KKR's 10-Q says that “Effective beginning in the second quarter of 2026,” performance revenues from K-Series private equity vehicles of approximately $160 million are reported in fee-related performance revenues, inside FRE. In Q2 2025 about $80 million of the same kind of revenue was reported in net realized performance income, which is outside FRE, and prior periods were not recast. KKR gives its reason as aligning with other listed alternative managers, and says the change has no impact on total segment earnings or adjusted net income. In the table, Private Equity fee-related performance revenues were $168.0 million against nothing a year earlier. Our reading: FRE grew 36.9% in a quarter when roughly $160 million of performance revenue, before compensation, arrived in it by classification; on a like-for-like basis the growth would be smaller, and the filing does not give that figure.

Fee-related performance revenues in Credit and Liquid Strategies fell to $6.4 million from $17.7 million. KKR says there were no performance revenues from FS KKR Capital Corp. (FSK) in the quarter and that “Beginning with the second quarter of 2026,” it has agreed to waive 100% of its portion of the FSK incentive fee for the next four consecutive quarters. The performance participation KKR receives from its evergreen vehicles is, per the 10-K, subject to a preferred return and a high-water mark. For FSK's own numbers see our list of listed BDCs.

Assets under management: $796.5 billion, of which $638.4 billion pays fees

KKR gives two asset figures. AUM counts everything KKR manages or sponsors, including uncalled commitments and all of Global Atlantic's assets. Fee-paying AUM counts only what pays management fees. At June 30, 2026 the second was 80.2% of the first (our arithmetic). The quarter's movement by business line:

AUM grew $38.6 billion in the quarter, and $16.0 billion of that, 41.4% (our arithmetic), was the AUM of Arctos at closing, not new fundraising. Arctos, which KKR bought on May 4, 2026, provides growth capital and liquidity to sports franchises and to private fund sponsors. KKR agreed to pay $1.4 billion of initial consideration and up to $550 million more in equity; under the accounting rules the consideration counted was $560 million, with $162 million of goodwill. The 10-Q says Arctos's revenue and earnings since closing were immaterial. For the year, AUM went from $743.9 billion at December 31, 2025 to $796.5 billion, up 7.1% (our arithmetic), and fee-paying AUM from $604.1 billion to $638.4 billion.

Global Atlantic is $220 billion of the $796 billion, 27.6% (our arithmetic), and most of it sits inside Credit and Liquid Strategies. That means roughly a quarter of what KKR calls AUM is the asset base of an insurance company. Global Atlantic's new business slowed: individual retirement product sales were $2,293 million in Q2 2026 against $3,160 million, and institutional new business was $1,224 million against $3,819 million. Over six months those are down 41.6% and 58.3% (our arithmetic). KKR notes that block reinsurance transactions “may be episodic.”

Uncalled capital not yet paying fees is a pipeline KKR quantifies: $22.4 billion in Private Equity and $19.7 billion in Real Assets at an average fee rate of approximately 1.1%, and $29.9 billion in Credit at approximately 0.5%. If all of it began paying at those rates it would add about $613 million a year of management fees (our arithmetic); KKR says the date it starts “is not guaranteed to occur and may not occur for an extended period of time.”

The K-Series and the wealth channel: what KKR says and what it does not

Over the last five years, the 10-K says, KKR has focused on private wealth as “a key addressable market.” The products are evergreen vehicles with no fixed end date, branded K-Series, covering private equity, infrastructure, credit and real estate, plus two public-private fixed income solutions built with Capital Group that launched in April 2025. We cover them one by one: K-PEC (private equity), K-INFRA, K-FIT (credit), KREST (real estate) and the Capital Group KKR interval funds. What the corporate filings add is the sponsor's view:

Three things are not in the text of the 10-K or 10-Q we read. There is no breakdown of the $42 billion by vehicle, so we cannot say which of the funds above are counted or how much each holds. There is no dollar total for perpetual capital. And there is no count of K-Series redemption requests or how much was paid, which is what our K-PEC and K-INFRA pages try to reconstruct from each fund's own filings.

On perpetual capital, KKR defines it as AUM with “an indefinite term with no predetermined requirement to return invested capital to investors upon the realization of investments.” The 10-K says that includes its evergreen products, certain unregistered K-Series vehicles offered to individual investors, listed companies like KREF and Crescent Energy, “as well as the capital of our insurance companies.” In other words, the number includes Global Atlantic's $220 billion. The risk-factor language, read alongside, is the part a fund holder should read twice: “The portion of our AUM we refer to as perpetual capital is not permanent and is subject to change.” And: certain vehicles, including the K-Series, “permit their investors to redeem their investments, which would have the effect of reducing our AUM.” The 10-K adds that those reductions “may occur with minimal notice” and that agreements with listed and registered vehicles “may be terminated on little or no notice.”

Also in the AUM definition: KKR counts “all of the AUM of KKR's strategic BDC partnership,” which is FS KKR's family of BDCs, in AUM, whether or not KKR earns fees on it.

Capital Markets: where the transaction fees come from

Capital Markets underwrites and syndicates debt and equity, mostly for KKR's own deals. In the quarter it completed 112 transactions (15 equity, 97 debt) against 93, but net fees fell.

Capital Markets was 80.6% of the quarter's net transaction and monitoring fees (our arithmetic: $178.2 million of $221.3 million). Unlike most fund transaction fees, they are generally not shared with fund investors. They depend on deal volume, and about 88% came from sources other than unaffiliated third parties (our arithmetic from the 12% figure). At June 30, 2026 the business had $0.6 billion of underwriting and financing commitments, with arrangements covering a $5.0 billion notional that KKR says reduce its risk on certain debt deals.

Insurance and Strategic Holdings, side by side

Global Atlantic serves over 3.5 million policyholders. Its insurance operating earnings were $288.2 million in Q2 2026 against $277.9 million, and $548.6 million for six months against $536.7 million. Net investment income was $1,954.0 million against $1,788.5 million; higher costs of insurance absorbed most of the increase. For all of 2025 insurance operating earnings were $1,109.4 million against $1,014.5 million.

Strategic Holdings is small in earnings. In Q2 2026 its operating earnings were $37.0 million of dividends, net of an $11.0 million management fee paid to Asset Management, and the dividends came from one company, USI. Segment earnings were $67.1 million including $30.1 million from a partial sale of Viridor. KKR's pro-rata share of the 19 companies' last-twelve-month adjusted revenue was $4.5 billion and adjusted EBITDA $1.1 billion, as of March 31, 2026. For 2025 the segment's operating earnings were $162.1 million against $76.2 million.

The dividend, the preferred stock and the buyback

At the declared rate the common dividend is about $175 million a quarter (our arithmetic: $0.195 times 897.6 million shares), against quarterly fee-related earnings of $1,214.1 million. The Series D preferred stock is a mandatory convertible: KKR says full conversion would add $2.5 billion to book value and 21.4 million shares. KKR's book value was $34.5 billion at June 30, 2026 (non-GAAP) and its cash and short-term investments, excluding Global Atlantic, $5.3 billion. In the table, the repurchase prices are KKR's reported averages, not a view on value.

Debt and liquidity: whose debt is it?

KKR's asset management debt table adds KKR's own notes to the borrowing of funds KKR consolidates, and the two are not the same risk. The company's notes and facilities, and the new facility signed after quarter-end, are the first part.

Funds' and CLO borrowing is 81.7% of the $50.7 billion total (our arithmetic) and, per KKR, is secured by the investments bought, with CLO debt “supported solely by the assets held at the CFEs.” KKR's exposure there is, beyond its capital interest in those vehicles, its commitments to them: unfunded commitments to its funds were $11.1 billion at June 30, 2026, of which $2.7 billion was for core private equity vehicles, and the 10-Q states about $180 million of carried interest previously distributed would be subject to clawback at reported values.

The new facility. On July 30, 2026 KKR Group Partnership and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. signed a $3.0 billion, five-year senior unsecured revolver maturing July 30, 2031, with an option to add $750 million, guaranteed by KKR & Co. Inc. (Form 8-K, accession 0001140361-26-030498). Margin is 57.5 to 112.5 basis points over term SOFR on a ratings grid. Covenants: leverage of no more than 4.0 times covenant EBITDA, excluding Global Atlantic's debt, and at least $195 billion of fee-paying AUM; the $638.4 billion reported is 3.3 times that minimum (our arithmetic). Capital Markets has its own two $750 million facilities, one of them a 364-day line expiring March 26, 2027 whose liabilities KKR says are non-recourse to other parts of its business.

What changed after the quarter ended

The DOJ Hart-Scott-Rodino case. The 10-Q, signed August 6, says the Antitrust Division sued KKR on January 14, 2025 over premerger filings for 2021 and 2022 transactions and that KKR intended to “vigorously defend.” On August 26, 2026 KKR agreed a settlement: contingent on a judgment becoming effective, a KKR subsidiary would pay $250.0 million and the Division would release the claims and end its related investigations (Form 8-K, accession 0001140361-26-034520). KKR said it “strongly” disagrees with the Division's characterization, believes it acted in good faith, and that the penalty “will be fully reimbursed by outside law firms.” That is KKR's statement; we have not seen the stipulation, and the judgment still needs a court's approval.

USI and Aon. On August 31, 2026 KKR's 8-K posted a presentation titled “Sale of USI Insurance Services to Aon plc.” Aon's 8-K of the same day says it agreed on August 30 to acquire USI Advantage Corp. for $17 billion in cash, subject to adjustment for leakage since June 30, 2026, with closing not required before October 19, 2026 and an outside date of June 1, 2027 (accession 0001193125-26-375328). We are treating USI Advantage Corp. and KKR's USI Insurance Services as the same business; KKR's filings do not give its stake or proceeds, so we do not estimate them. The 10-Q, filed before the deal, shows USI was the only source of Strategic Holdings' dividends in Q2 and also a source of mark-to-market gains in KKR's consolidated core private equity vehicles. How the sale changes Strategic Holdings' earnings is not in any filing yet.

A governance date. The 10-Q says the “Sunset Date,” no later than December 31, 2026, is when KKR cancels the Series I preferred stock held by its management entity, gives every common share one vote and takes control of the carry pool.

How the stock compares with owning the funds

Owning KKR stock and owning a KKR fund are opposite sides of the same fee. KKR says its evergreen vehicles, including the K-Series, generally earn it management fees of 0.50% to 1.25% of net or gross asset value, plus a performance participation, and those fees are part of the revenue in this page's tables. A KKR shareholder owns a slice of that revenue stream and of Global Atlantic, and is exposed to the risks KKR itself lists: valuations of illiquid investments, fundraising to individual investors, and redemptions that reduce AUM. The stock trades every day. K-Series and the other non-traded vehicles on our lists, such as the non-traded BDCs and evergreen infrastructure funds, offer liquidity only through their own repurchase terms. For how those terms have worked recently, see our evergreen funds redemption comparison. Nothing here says one is better than the other.

What a holder or interested reader can do with this

This page is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. These are the checks the filings let you make yourself.

• Be clear which KKR you own. Shares of KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR) are the company. K-PEC, K-INFRA, K-FIT, KREST and FSK are separate vehicles with their own NAV, fees and repurchase terms; none of them is a share of the manager.
• Read fee-related earnings, then the footnote. Compare FRE with and without the roughly $160 million K-Series reclassification, and with the catch-up fees on new closes, before deciding what the run rate is. The 10-Q does not give the like-for-like figure.
• Look for the K-Series numbers KKR does not publish. Per-fund repurchase requests and payouts are in each fund's own filings, not in KKR's 10-Q. Our pages on K-PEC, K-INFRA and K-FIT do that.
• Separate KKR's debt from its funds' debt. $9.30 billion of notes and a $3.0 billion undrawn facility are the company; the $41.4 billion is largely collateralized fund and CLO borrowing.
• Watch the next two filings. The Q3 2026 10-Q will be the first periodic report after the DOJ settlement and the USI agreement; the Q2 10-Q was signed August 6, 2026. The court's decision on the final judgment would be a docket item, not an SEC filing.

If you own a K-Series fund or another KKR-sponsored non-traded vehicle and are wondering how it fits your finances, a conversation with a licensed adviser is the logical next step; the filings cannot answer that for you.

FAQ

All figures are from KKR & Co. Inc. (CIK 1404912) filings read on EDGAR on October 15, 2026: Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (accession 0001404912-26-000027, filed August 6, 2026); Form 10-K for 2025 (0001404912-26-000007, filed February 27, 2026); Forms 8-K of July 30, 2026 (0001404912-26-000022, earnings release furnished as Exhibit 99.1, not read), July 31, 2026 (0001140361-26-030498, credit agreement), August 27, 2026 (0001140361-26-034520, DOJ settlement) and August 31, 2026 (0001140361-26-034930, USI presentation); and Aon plc's Form 8-K of August 31, 2026 (CIK 315293, accession 0001193125-26-375328). Percentages and sums marked "our arithmetic" are ours. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.