From the bash(1) man page:
exec [-cl] [-a name] [command [arguments]]
If command is specified, it replaces the shell. No new process
is created. The arguments become the arguments to command. If
the -l option is supplied, the shell places a dash at the begin-
ning of the zeroth arg passed to command. This is what login(1)
does. The -c option causes command to be executed with an empty
environment. If -a is supplied, the shell passes name as the
zeroth argument to the executed command. If command cannot be
executed for some reason, a non-interactive shell exits, unless
the shell option execfail is enabled, in which case it returns
failure. An interactive shell returns failure if the file can-
not be executed. If command is not specified, any redirections
take effect in the current shell, and the return status is 0.
If there is a redirection error, the return status is 1.
Particularly, note "command ... replaces the shell".
-Seva