IGM Financial Inc.

Welcome to the IGM Financial Second Quarter 2024 Analyst Call and Webcast. As a reminder, all participants are in a listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star then zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kyle Martin, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Betsy. And good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining me today on the call, we have James O'Sullivan, President and CEO of IGM Financial. Damon Murchison, President and CEO of IG Wealth Management. Luke Gould, President and CEO of McKinsey Investments. and Keith Potter, Executive Vice President and CFO of IGM Financial. Before we get started, I would like to draw your attention to our cautions concerning forward-looking statements on slide three of the presentation. Slides four and five summarize non-IFRS financial measures and other financial measures used in the material. And on slide six, we provide a list of documents that are available on our website related to IGM Financial's second quarter results. I'll turn it over to James.

Okay, thank you, Kyle, and good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining us today as we discuss IGM Financial's second quarter results, which demonstrate how our businesses are successfully executing against their growth strategies. Turning to slide eight, adjusted EPS was 93 cents during the quarter, up 4.5% year over year. Our earnings were supported by strong growth in our AUM&A across our core operating companies and strategic investments, up almost 15% relative to last year. IGM's Q2 ending AUM&A, which represents our core companies, is also our highest on record. We're seeing positive signs and indicators in each of our businesses. In wealth management, IG Wealth has been very successful in the mass affluent and high net worth segments, and we've seen this success accelerate further in recent months and quarters. Rockefeller Capital Management's growth in the high net worth and ultra high net worth segment of the U.S. wealth market continues to impress. Driven by a combination of strong organic growth from their existing advisors, and their ability to attract top financial advisors to Rockefeller's leading platform. Wealthsimple's proven ability to deliver for Canadians continues to drive impressive new client acquisition and expansion of share of wallet within their existing clientele. Within asset management, McKenzie's gross sales have rebounded impressively, relative to both 2022 and 2023. Their ability to bring relevant investment management solutions to independent financial advisors and wealth management partners such as PFSL and Wealthsimple is driving this growth. China AMC, the second largest asset manager in China, continues to take advantage of their leading competitive positioning to drive AUM growth across product and distribution categories. And Northleaf achieved higher fundraising results this quarter than any period we've recorded to date. The team is leveraging their global private market investment solutions across private equity, infrastructure, and private credit to drive continued growth. In the context of these strong results, we continue to invest to drive growth while also returning capital to shareholders through our attractive dividend and opportunistic share buybacks, which we maintained through July and into August. We are reiterating our 4% expense growth guidance for full year 2024, which includes just under 3% growth in the first half of the year and slightly higher growth in the second half of the year due to seasonality differences. Turning to the current operating environment for our businesses, starting with recent financial market conditions on slide nine. Equity markets generally continued to rise during the second quarter and into the month of July. However, recent volatility has partially offset gains from the first seven months of the year. On slide 10, we present the Canadian fund industry. The Canadian mutual fund industry remained in net redemptions during Q2, though we are seeing year over year improvements in net sales across a number of product categories. This is encouraging. While the Bank of Canada decision in June and July to begin lowering its overnight rate is constructive, for medium-term industry flow outlook, the effect of interest rates normalizing will, all else being equal, improve the industry environment over a period of quarters, not months. We anticipate industry net redemptions will continue into the second half of the year with a gradual improvement as we move forward to 2025. Slide 11 outlines IGM's consolidated AUM&A, which reached a record high at the end of Q2 and began in July. On the right is our second quarter earnings, which I spoke to on a previous slide. Slide 12 contains our earnings contributions by segment. Keith will speak to this in more detail later in the call. On slide 13, we present ending AUM and aid by business. My earlier comments highlighted the key drivers that are contributing to the solid 15% year-over-year growth, including our strategic investments. With that, I will turn the call over to Damon, who will speak to the performance in our wealth management segment.