James M. Cracchiolo
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Ameriprise Financial
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our earnings call. As you saw, Ameriprise delivered a strong 4th-quarter to complete an excellent year. We're building on our good client engagement and demonstrating the strength of our value propositions. Also achieved a number of new records that we'll discuss with you. Regarding the external environment, equity markets were strong amid resilient US economic growth and labor markets. As inflation cooled, the Fed lowered interest rates for the third time in late 2024. However, it looks like there'll be a slower pace for rate cuts this year. With strong business growth and positive markets, assets under management, administration and advisement grew to $1.5 trillion, up 10%. And for our adjusted operating results, we achieved some new highs in the quarter. Total revenues were $4.5 billion, up 13% from strong asset growth and transactional activity. Earnings were $965 million, up 18% with earnings per diluted share up 23% to $9.54 excluding items we noted. Once again, Ameriprise delivered industry-leading return-on-equity of 52.7%, up from 49.7% a year-ago. Our excellent results demonstrate the strength of our overall business. In Wealth management, our goal-based device value proposition continues to drive excellent adviser productivity, business growth and client satisfaction. Total client assets grew to $1 trillion at year end, up 14% from good flows and markets. For the quarter, total client inflows were $11.3 billion, further strengthening from the 3rd-quarter. Wrap assets under management were also up substantially growing 18% to $574 billion, making ours one of the largest platforms in the industry. Wrap flows grew significantly, up 59% to more than $11 billion, which marks an all-time high. This represents an 8% annualized flow rate. We also had another significant pickup in transactional activity, up 17% from a year-ago. Clients continue to hold a higher-level of cash. However, we're seeing a shift from term into wrap and other products. We expect more cash to be put to work and greater transactional activity as we move through 2025. With regard to our advisors, productivity grew nicely again, up 13% to a new record of over $1 million per advisor, reflecting our consistent investments in best-in-class capabilities and support. A key strength of our value proposition is our integrated technology platform and the outstanding value it creates. Our advisers are leveraging our digital tools, CRM as well as our excellent data analytics and solutions to further serve client needs and deepen relationships. The team and I are proud of the recognition that Ameriprise consistently earns in the marketplace. Our client satisfaction is excellent at 4.9 out of five. And for the sixth year in a row, JD Power recognized our phone support for providing an outstanding customer service experience to advisers. In addition, Ameriprise also received JD Power certification for our phone support for clients. And our advisers also continue to stand-out in the industry for their exceptional service, leading growth and high-quality practices. In fact, we had a record 427 teams on the Forbes best-in state wealth Management team's 2024 ranking, which is terrific. Maintaining excellent engagement with our advisers is another key strength. A recent field survey indicated that 90% of our advisers recommend Ameriprise is a great place to work or affiliate with. This high-level of advisor satisfaction with Ameriprise also benefits our recruiting efforts. In the 4th-quarter, we attracted another 91 experienced productive advisers, marking a nice increase in what is the slower time of year for recruiting and we feel-good about our pipeline. With regard to our bank, we continue to generate attractive earnings with balances growing to more than $23 billion, and we see further opportunity to expand our product set with CDs, ELOCs and checking accounts as we move through 2025. Speaking of products, our retirement protection solutions continue to drive strong sales growth and earnings. As I mentioned, we have very good transactional activity in AWM. Part of that included our strong variable annuity sales up 15% for the quarter with robust growth in our structured product. And we also had good sales in our life business, where we focused on VOL and disability products that are appropriate for the environment. Life and health sales grew meaningfully up 26% and the team continues to enhance how we do business, including with accelerated underwriting. Our retirement and protection solutions continue to help us meet clients' comprehensive needs while generating substantial free-cash flow. In Asset Management, we're generating strong financial results as we leverage and evolve our global capabilities for greater efficiency and future growth. For the quarter, assets under management and advisement was $681 billion. The team is delivering consistent competitive investment performance with excellent research and thought leadership. At year end, nearly 70% of our funds globally were above the medium across one and three-year time-frames and 80% or more of our funds outperformed for the five and 10-year period. And we continue to have strong performance in key strategies, including our anchor and strategic funds in the US. In total, 108 Columbia thread needle funds earned four and five-star Morningstar ratings. Regarding flows, we had net inflows of $1.3 billion, a more than $6 billion improvement from a year-ago. In retail, we had total net inflows of $6.1 billion, reflecting stronger gross sales in North-America and EMEA as well as higher reinvested dividends. In Institutional, we had net outflows of $3.9 billion, excluding legacy insurance partner flows due to slower fundings and the expected outflows we've highlighted. To drive future flows, we continue to broaden our investment capabilities to both complement our legacy mutual fund business and meeting evolving market demand. This includes building out our active ETF lineup and further growing our SMA and model delivery businesses. In fact, we had nearly $3 billion of model delivery inflows for the year and our assets under advisement are now over $35 billion, making us the seventh largest provider in the US. For asset management overall, we're completing two years of transformational work that will provide benefits this year and beyond. This includes improved efficiency and evolving the business to better meet client needs, especially in EMEA. And you will continue to see us tightly manage expenses. At the same time, we're investing for growth. Consistent with our firm-wide investments in asset management, we continue to build-out our product-line, data, analytics, AI and other capabilities. Reflecting on the firm overall, it was another strong quarter and year for Ameriprise. We built on a unique 130-year legacy and reinforced our ability to consistently achieve excellent results. Ameriprise continues to deliver strong organic growth and free-cash flow with best-in-class capital returns and an excellent capital position. In the quarter, we returned another $768 million and $2.8 billion for the year. Over the last five years, we returned a substantial amount of capital to shareholders, nearly $12 billion, which resulted in a share count reduction of 22%. And our ROE is consistently one of the best-in the industry and is now 52.7%. Another important differentiator for Ameriprise, we continue to stand-out for our culture and how we operate the business. In fact, we were just recognized again as one of America's Most Responsible companies in 2025 by Newsweek and one of America's Best Companies in 2025 by Forbes. I'm proud of what the Ameriprise team has accomplished and we're in an attractive position for 2025. Now Walter will provide more detail on the quarter and then we'll take your questions. Walter?
