Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

may begin.

Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Ameriprise Financial's first 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 will see a discussion of forward-looking statements. Specifically, During the call, you will hear references to various non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide insight into the company's 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 this 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 simple list of factors and risks that could cause actual results to be materially different from forward-looking statements can be found in our first quarter 2024 earnings release, our 2023 annual report to shareholders, and our 2023 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 first quarter. Below that, you see our 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 We'll focus on adjusted operating results. And with that, I'll turn it over to Jim.

Good morning. Yesterday, Ameriprise reported good first quarter results to start the year. We're positioned well and focused on helping our clients amid a complex climate. And we're also benefiting from our excellent capabilities across the business. Clearly, the operating environment remains dynamic. Equity markets have had strong year-over-year growth as the U.S. economy is proving resilient. However, inflation remains above the Fed's target, and therefore, interest rates remain high. The economic picture is not as strong in the UK and EMEA. Overall, many investors are holding cash on the sidelines or in shorter-duration products, which will eventually move to other investments. This means opportunity for our business with our quality gold-based device and active solutions. With that backdrop, for our first quarter adjusted operating results, total revenue increased 11% to $4.1 billion. Earnings grew 10% to $878 million, and earnings per diluted share was up 16% to $8.39. And our return on equity, ex-AOCI, remains outstanding at 49%. Ameriprise assets under management and administration were $1.4 trillion, up 15% from a year ago, driven by client net flows and equity market appreciation. In wealth management, we remain on our path to provide goal-based advice to more clients, backed by a highly satisfying and referable experience. I've had the opportunity to speak to a number of our advisors at our first quarter field conferences. They consistently shared that our client value proposition and the level of support we provide are real differentiators, both in terms of driving high client satisfaction and practice growth. Total client assets increased to $954 billion, up 19%. We saw a nice increase in transactional activity, up 17% in the quarter. Client inflows were good at $8.5 billion. While clients are still maintaining high cash holdings, money is starting to move into other products such as structured products, brokerage, and back into WRAP, including in fixed income. WRAP inflows with $6.5 billion, and the platform has grown to $522 billion, up 20%. The bank is also an important complement. We're currently holding assets of more than $22 billion and generating very good spread revenue as we focus on deepening relationships and bringing in assets clients hold elsewhere. With $82 billion sitting in cash, we still have a significant opportunity to help clients reposition portfolios as markets settle. Our Ameriprise advisor force is one of the largest in the industry, and we've consistently delivered some of the highest growth rates. Productivity increased nicely again, up 11% to $942,000 in adjusted operating net revenue per advisor. Regarding recruiting, we added 64 experienced advisors in the quarter and our pipeline looks good as we proceed through the year. As a long-standing leader in advice, Ameriprise and our advisor practices are well positioned to serve the growing consumer need for advice across segments. We know that the mass affluent and affluent consumers want advice and that the opportunity continues to grow. From a recent study, 44% of affluent investors say they need even more advice today than in the past. And there are also greater need among the majority of younger investors. More people can benefit from what we offer. And in fact, in the quarter, we were proud to earn a Hudson Wallets 2024 top performer in understands me and shares my values, unbiased, puts my interests first, and explains things in understandable terms. We also invest significantly to provide our advisors a fully integrated technology suite, which is proven to simplify processes, help deliver a great client experience, and drive referrals. As we shared, we're also investing in advanced analytics that can help to drive further efficiency and opportunity. And in the quarter, we're also recognized with a Bank Insurance Securities Association Technology Innovation Award for our exclusive e-meeting capability, which greatly simplifies and enhances client meeting preparation. Regarding financials, our margins and wealth management remain among the best in the business at nearly 30%. Looking ahead, our planning model positions us to sustain strong margins as clients adjust portfolios to reflect equity market and interest rate dynamics. Regarding retirement and protection, we also saw a good increase in sales in the first quarter. We recently made product enhancements in both structured annuities and VUL and adjusted our wholesaling support to help more advisors deliver these solutions and increase efficiencies to the business. Variable annuity sales were up 32% with very strong results in structured annuities consistent with investor appetite. In the four years since we launched our structured annuity product, it has become our top selling annuity and ranks among the top 10 in the industry. In our insurance business, Sales are also very good, increasing 8% with the majority of the sales in our higher-margin accumulation variable universal light products, where we added new features at the start of the year. Overall, our retirement protection business consistently delivers strong earnings and profitability. By the way, in the corridor, long-term care continued to generate positive earnings of $16 million as we benefited from higher interest rates and consistent claim levels. We also continue to generate good earnings in asset management, even with flows being pressured. The team delivered strong performance for clients and focused on fully leveraging our global capabilities to drive efficiencies. Total assets under management were up 7% to $652 billion. Regarding our investment performance, we continue to generate good short, medium, and long-term performance across product lines. One weaker area was in fixed income to a difficult year in 22, but that's working through our medium-term numbers. That said, we have good overall performance. In fact, the strength of our numbers was reflected in the most recent Barron's rankings of the best fund families where Columbia Threadneedle ranked in the top 10. I'll also highlight that in a recent survey of top asset management firms by institutional investor, Columbia Threadneedle ranks sixth out of 330 asset managers for our active engagement with issuers. Though we remain in net outflows for the quarter, in retail we did see improvement in gross sales. In North America, equity and fixed income flows improved. In EMEA, flows also improved and were in net inflows in continental Europe, giving a nice pickup in equities. In the UK, we remain pressured. In institutional, we ran outflows due to redemptions and lower fee mandates and impacts from previously announced portfolio manager changes, as well as slower new fundings. We have a strong offering and are tailoring it to better serve client demand and drive flows. This includes expanding our model delivery in the U.S., advancing our real estate capabilities, as well as further strengthening our bank loan CLO business. In asset management, we continue to drive synergies and efficiency gains, and you can see that in our normalized G&A expenses down 3%. In terms of overall asset management profitability, the North America region is performing well while EMEA faced a bit more pressure based on market conditions. Now that we're through the integration in EMEA, we're very much focused on leveraging our capabilities globally, gaining better efficiencies while reducing expenses. For Ameriprise overall, the level of results we consistently achieve is driven by the totality of what we have here, as well as our ability to invest for growth and manage expenses very well. This includes our excellent returns and earnings growth. And in terms of track records, our long-term track records are excellent. Just looking back over the last five years, I would highlight EPS as an example, where we have delivered 15% compounded annual growth. Our return on equity of 49% is among the highest in the industry year after year. Also very significant, we consistently deliver a differentiated level of shareholder return, returned another $650 million in capital in the quarter, and we just announced another dividend increase of 10%. Overall, it was a great start to the year across many dimensions. What's behind our results? Our talented team. In the quarter, we received additional external recognition for who we are and how we work together. In fact, Forbes put Ameriprise on their Best America Large Employers 2024 ranking, and Newsweek ranked us one of America's greatest workplaces for women. In closing, I would also like to highlight that in June, we will mark our 130th anniversary, which is a unique and significant milestone in any industry. Our priority has always been our clients. Also key to our longevity is our ability to innovate and evolve for the future. Ameriprise is going to continue to navigate for clients and invest in opportunities for growth, and I feel good about our ability to build on our position this year. Now, Walter will share additional detail on the quarter and some of the numbers. Walter?