Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

Welcome to the Q3 2026 earnings call. My name is Connor, and I will be your 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. During the question-and-answer session, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your touch-tone phone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Stephanie Rabe. Stephanie, you may begin.

Welcome to Ameriprise Financial's third quarter earnings call. On the call with me today are Jim Cracchiolo, 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'll see a discussion of forward-looking statements. Specifically, during the call, you'll 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 at ir.ameriprise.com. 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 sample list of factors and risks that could cause actual results to be materially different from forward-looking statements can be found in our third quarter 2026 earnings release, our 2025 annual report to shareholders, and our 2025 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 third quarter. Below that, you'll see our adjusted operating results, followed by operating results excluding unlocking, 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. We completed our annual unlocking in the third quarter. Many of the comments that management makes on the call today will focus on adjusted operating results and adjusted operating results excluding unlocking. and with that I'll turn it over to Jim.

Good morning everyone and thanks for joining us today. Ameriprise had a strong third quarter. Our results reflect the quality of our business and the value we bring to clients and advisors. We're performing well in an environment that remains positive but uncertain. In the quarter, equity markets advanced despite periods of volatility, persistent inflation, higher interest rates and geopolitical unrest. Clients want to work with an advisor in a firm they can trust, with the advice, investment expertise, and solutions to fully serve their needs. That matters even more when conditions are complex. For the quarter, total assets under management, administration, and advisement reach $1.8 trillion of 8%, and the financial results we generate continue to be very strong, excluding unlocking on an adjusted operating basis. Our net revenues increased 10%, to $5.1 billion supported by higher asset levels and transactional activity with earnings per share increasing 22%, continuing our consistent record of earnings growth over time. This resulted in our best in class return on equity, which rose to over 56% from 52.8% a year ago, reflecting our differentiated economics. We're helping clients achieve their goals, growing earnings, and investing in the business, all while returning substantial capital to shareholders. Let's turn to the business and our progress in the quarter. Our wealth management business is high quality and high returning. Client satisfaction continues to be excellent at 4.9 out of 5, reflecting the value of the advice and experience our advisors deliver. Information is everywhere. What makes the difference is the personal engagement and judgment our advisors bring, understanding each client's goals and putting their right solutions into action. That's what drives satisfaction, and that's our sweet spot. As investors seek help with important financial decisions, our advisors are well positioned. Our continued investment and support translated into more successful advisor practices and have helped Ameriprise advisors grow faster Thank you for joining us today. Our investment and banking capabilities give us more ways to meet clients' needs and deepen relationships that drive long-term growth. To that end, Signature Wealth continued to gain traction in the quarter, with more than half of our advisors now using it for clients. It gives clients access to institutional quality investment management and helps advisors serve them more efficiently. And we continue to add features and investment choices. Greater adoption can support asset growth across both wealth management and asset management. Our bank helps us meet clients' broader financial needs and brings assets to Ameriprise. More advisors are incorporating deposit and lending solutions in their practices. As an example, pledge lending increased more than 50% and our mortgage portfolio grew 74%. Cash balances remain stable, consistent with how our clients and advisors utilize our cash offerings. and transactional activities continue to increase. Also in the quarter, we recruited another 79 experienced advisors to Ameriprise. They're attracted to our culture and advice-based approach. And advisors who join us tell us our support is superior to where they came from, in particular, our integrated technology. Our recruiting momentum continues in a highly competitive market. There will always be advisor movement and noise in this industry, particularly as people compete very aggressively for business and publicity, and our retention remains very high. Every advisor's practice is different. We bring the strength of Ameriprise to each relationship to support growth, create value for clients, advisors, and the firm. That brings us to our recent win in financial institutions. Earlier this month, we welcomed approximately 260 Huntington Bank Advisors with $28 billion in client assets, our largest AFIG deal and one of the industry's most significant partnerships of its kind. This relationship expands our presence in the bank channel and demonstrates the competitiveness of our business. Huntington Advisors now have our integrated technology and many more. And we see more opportunities ahead. to help advisors grow with our premium brand, integrated technology, and support. Following our full ad campaign, brand awareness among our target audience has reached an all-time high. The Ameriprise brand rates very well with affluent and high net worth investors alongside other leading brands serving this target market. This recognition together with our credentials helps attract new clients and advisors. Technology and AI remain significant investment priorities. Our early investment in data, systems, and safeguards allow us to deploy AI at scale, helping advisors serve clients, gather assets, and reduce administrative work. In fact, practices using these current capabilities can generate more than 30 hours of additional capacity each week. That's time advisors can put towards clients and business growth. With the additional time, advisors and teams can use AI to bring even more recommendations to clients. In fact, we delivered tens of millions of AI-generated insights, and nearly three-quarters of practices are using these insights. This quarter, we're beginning the early release of an AI-powered meeting prep agent and AI service assistant. In 2027, we plan to expand these capabilities with broader data integration and more automated guided workflows, building on the investments we've made, and in addition to the other capabilities that we've previously introduced. We invest thoughtfully and strategically in capabilities that work together on an integrated platform. That's a key advantage at Ameriprise. For example, our technology can connect client insights, meeting preparation, and follow-through to help advisors move from identifying a need to taking action. Because we don't simply want advisors to affiliate with Ameriprise, we want them to achieve here. Turning to retirement protection solutions, the business delivered very good results, including strong margins and good free cash flow generation. As we help more advisors incorporate these solutions for clients and their practices, sales increased 24%. This was driven by high demand for structured variable annuities, variable annuities without living benefit riders, and DUL. RPS strengthens our client experience, and we continue to enhance our product suite. And AI is helping us to accelerate underwriting and lowering processing costs while we maintain disciplined risk management. We're also simplifying the digital sales process to make it easier for advisors to bring these solutions to clients. Turning to asset management. We're delivering attractive investment performance and profitability while expanding our capabilities and distribution to support growth. Assets under management and advisement rose to $743 billion with growth in equities and alternatives. Strong investment performance is key. We offer 92 four- and five-star funds globally, and 78% of our retail funds are above-medium versus peers over three years, 74% over five years and 87% over 10 years. Having good long-term track records is important in our business. Turning to flows, outflows were $8.4 billion, excluding legacy insurance flows, primarily driven by certain larger institutional mandates, largely due to client asset allocation decisions. Overall, our retail flows continue to compare consistently with U.S. payers, with outperformance in equities and more opportunities for us to gain traction and fixed income. We're mitigating pressure in our legacy mutual fund franchise and from certain closed blocks that have good economics. We're building out our capabilities in active ETS, SMAs, and models. We are seeing good inflows. This includes in our signature wealth platform. We're earning a nice share. We also launched two new premium equity income strategies in the United States in the quarter. Our higher-fee alternatives business is also gaining momentum, and you're seeing the results in our stable fee rate and attractive margins. Selveman is a source of differentiated performance and nice flows through its long-only technology strategies and technology and healthcare hedge funds. We're also seeing good opportunities in our UK and European real estate business, including several attractive asset purchases. And we recently announced a strategic collaboration with Hamilton Lane, initially focused on launching a public-private growth equity interval fund in the coming months. In global asset management, we continue to simplify the business to lower cost and support profitability while investing in technology and AI. Here we're using AI to expand research capacity, help investment teams assess information faster, and better prepare our distribution teams for client discussions. Our firm-wide approach to AI combines the discipline, investment, and responsible oversight you expect from us, focused on enhancing the experience for clients, advisors and employees while driving growth and efficiency. At Ameriprise, trusted advice, broad capabilities and excellent service drives client satisfaction, advisor productivity and deeper relationships. That translates into attractive financial performance and returns. We continue to generate substantial free cash flow but return on equity above 56%. We also increased our share repurchases in the quarter and our board approved a new $5.5 billion share repurchase authorization reflecting the strength and confidence in the long-term value of Ameriprise. We consistently invest for growth and return significant capital to shareholders. At Ameriprise, our outcomes and their consistency set us apart. When markets are rising, many firms can perform well. But the real test is how you perform when conditions get tougher. We've been through that many times, and we've shown we can navigate change, keep growing, and deliver strong results to our clients, advisors, employees, and shareholders. In closing, in addition to the firm's differentiators I've mentioned, for 2027, Ameriprise was named the Forbes Most Trusted Companies list, and also recognized as one of Forbes World's Best Employers. These awards reflect the confidence in Ameriprise as both a company to do business with and a place to work. With that, I'll turn things over to Walter for more detail on our financials and then we'll take your questions. Walter.