Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

My name is Krista, and I'll be your conference operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your touchtone phone. And as a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Alyssa Charity. Alyssa, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to Ameriprise Financial's fourth quarter earnings call. On the call with me today are Jim Cracciolo, Chairman and CEO, and Walter Berman, Chief Financial Officer. Following their remarks, we'd be happy to take your questions. Turning to our earnings presentation materials that are available on our website, on slide two you see a discussion of forward-looking statements. Specifically, during the call, you will hear reference to various non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide insight into company operations. Reconciliation of non-GAAP numbers to their respective GAAP numbers can be found in today's materials and on our website. Some statements that we make on the call may be forward-looking, reflecting management's expectations about future events and overall operating plans and performance. These forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. A sample list of factors and risks that could cause actual results to be materially different from forward-looking statements can be found in our fourth quarter 2023 earnings release, our 2022 annual report to shareholders, and our 2022 10-K report. We make no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements. On slide three, you see our GAAP financial results at the top of the page for the fourth quarter. Below that, you see adjusted operating results, which management believes enhances the understanding of our business by reflecting the underlying performance of our core operations and facilitates a more meaningful trend analysis. Many of the comments that management makes on the call today will focus on adjusted operating results. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

Good morning, everyone. I hope that 2024 started off well for each of you. As you saw in our earnings release, Ameriprise delivered a strong fourth quarter to complete an excellent year. I'm proud of our team and what we've accomplished. We've navigated the environmental uncertainty well, supported our clients, and further demonstrated the strength of our value propositions. Regarding the operating environment, what was more positive to end 2023 and start the new year, we know there are questions regarding the continuation of economic growth, inflation, and the timing of interest rate reductions. Of course, markets are unpredictable. However, at Ameriprise, our expertise is preparing both our clients and the business to be successful, even in an uncertain climate. Now, with that backdrop, let's move to our results. For the quarter, revenue growth continued to be robust, up 8%, reflecting good organic growth and positive markets. We again generated strong earnings growth with EPS up 10%, or 14% normalized for the items referenced in our press release. And our nearly 50% ROE is consistently among the best in the industry. We also delivered excellent full-year adjusted operating results, excluding unlocking and the items we referenced. Revenue was $15.4 billion, up 8%. Earnings increased 18% to $3.3 billion. and our EPS was $30.46, up another 24%. In fact, these are record results for Ameriprise, and assets under management and administration were near an all-time high at $1.4 trillion. Across the firm, we're very well positioned to help investors with our compelling client experience and complement the businesses, capabilities, and talented team. With regard to some business highlights, Wealth management delivered another strong quarter. Our efforts are centered on engaging more people in our advice-based client experience, which helps our clients achieve more of their goals and creates higher satisfaction, net flows, and productivity growth. Client acquisition was up nicely in the quarter, especially in the 500 to 5 million client segment. Total client assets increased to a new record of $901 billion, up 19%, and client flows were approximately $23 billion. Total transactional activity picked up a bit in the quarter. However, given the environment, clients continued to maintain higher cash levels, with assets and cash products growing to about $82 billion. Over time, we expect these assets will be further deployed as clients return to the markets more fully. Year after year, Our advisor productivity growth is consistently among the best in the industry. In fact, it increased another 11% to a new high of $916,000 per advisor in the quarter. Our field force is highly engaged, and they value the AmeriPrize culture, as do the experienced advisors we recruit. In the quarter, we brought on board 166 productive advisors, which includes the Comerica advisors who joined us. Recruits tell us that associating with Ameriprise has given them a strong client value proposition, integrated technology, and the leadership support they need to provide first-class service to their clients and grow their practices. Our bank continues to provide benefits and grow nicely. Bank and certificate assets increased 28% to $37 billion. We see good opportunity here to further deepen client relationships and bring in more of our client assets that they hold at other banking institutions. As you can see, our consistent focus and investment in the business is driving strong results. And we're not standing still. We continue to invest significantly to drive further efficiency and organic growth. Advisors using our integrated e-meeting capability, customer relationship platform, and online advisor dashboards find that these tools enhance their ability to deliver for clients and manage their practices as well as identify growth opportunities. We're also leveraging advanced analytics and accelerating enhancements to our mobile and digital experiences on our public and secure sites to engage more clients and prospects. I'd also highlight that Ameriprise brand awareness is strong and steady, and our growth opportunity continues to be significant. Client and prospects across segments need meaningful contact and advice more than ever, And that's where we're concentrating. Earlier this month, I met with our field leaders to kick off the year. They're highly engaged and energized about our position and ability to build on our success in 2024. Next, in retirement and protection, we're driving good sales. These solutions help serve our clients' comprehensive needs, and the business is consistently a strong earnings contributor. The team is focused on providing a best-in-class experience with an ease of doing business and its resulting embedded sales. Total variable annuity sales were up 15% with good sales in our structured product. Protection sales were up 6% driven by our higher margin VUL product. In addition, we just introduced new enhancements to our core product lines to help further serve our clients' evolving protection and income needs. Moving to asset management. We continue to serve clients in an evolving market. Assets under management grew nicely in the fourth quarter, up 9% to $637 billion, driven by market appreciation and positive foreign exchange. In terms of some color on flows, our U.S. retail mutual fund outflows were in line with the industry. Though they remain pressured, we had a bit of a pickup in gross sales, and redemptions have slowed from a year ago. UK retail remains soft and we're seeing some improvements in Europe. For global institutional, our outflows were elevated as we expected due to the actions we took to realign resources, including portfolio management changes. Our product capabilities are extensive and the team is concentrating on regaining sales momentum. Performance is critical to that and we're delivering consistent competitive investment performance that reflects our research expertise. Our 3-, 5-, and 10-year numbers are very strong, and we saw a nice pickup in the one-year fixed income numbers. And I highlight that we continue to have 113 4- and 5-star Morningstar-rated funds in our lineup. Like other active managers, we're managing industry pressure and doing a great deal to refine our operating processes while reducing expenses globally. We're enhancing our efficiency and effectiveness while making good investments, including in data and analytics. we're focused on leveraging our performance as well as our global distribution and servicing capabilities. So, for Ameriprise, it was another great year and a continuation of our significant growth over many years. In addition, we built on our record of strong financial performance, including generating one of the best ROEs in the industry. And with that, we consistently demonstrate our ability to return to shareholders. In the fourth quarter, Ameriprise returned another $587 million, and for the full year, we returned $2.5 billion to shareholders. Over the last five years, we returned a substantial amount to shareholders that resulted in a share count reduction of 25%. As I look at Ameriprise, we continue to be well positioned. The strong performance we achieve is underscored by the industry accolades Ameriprise consistently earns. Over the course of the year, this is the type of recognition we receive. 4.9 out of 5 stars in client satisfaction from our clients. Our employee and advisor engagement ranks among the best across all industries. We have one of the highest customer trust scores in financial services. J.D. Power has awarded us for outstanding customer service experience for advisor phone support five years in a row. Ameriprise is the winner in the wealth management category from Kiplinger's. In addition, we've been recognized as a military-friendly employer nine years in a row and as a best place to work for disability inclusion. Finally, Ameriprise is among the best-managed companies of 2023 on the Wall Street Journal Management Top 250 list. For the firm overall, as we enter our 130th year in the business, our foundation and business are strong. I'm immensely proud of our people, and we have a great opportunity to continue our success together in 2024. Now I'll turn things over to Walter, and then we'll take your questions.