Ameriprise Financial Reports Fourth Quarter 2019 Results

Earnings Per Diluted Share			Return on Equity, ex. AOCI
Fourth Quarter 2019:			Fourth Quarter 2019:
GAAP	$3.53		GAAP	33.1%
Adjusted Operating	$4.20		Adjusted Operating (1)	38.6%

Perspective from Jim Cracchiolo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
 
“Ameriprise delivered another strong quarter, completing a year of significant progress. We served more clients in our affluent target market, earned strong asset flows and deepened the personal, advice-based relationships our advisors have with clients.
 
“Advice & Wealth Management is leading our growth, and Asset Management is gaining traction with steady improvement in client flows over the past several quarters. In 2019, total assets under management and administration across the firm reached a new high, up 18 percent.
 
“Our capital strength remains an important differentiator. Our business generates significant free cash flow and with our strategic actions in 2019, we freed-up additional capital to invest for growth and return to shareholders. In the quarter, we returned $689 million to shareholders through dividends and ongoing share repurchases. And on a full-year basis, we returned $2.4 billion, which is 110 percent of our adjusted operating earnings in-line with our plan. 

“As we look forward, Ameriprise is in an excellent position to serve even more individual investors and institutions through personal, advice-based relationships and high-performing solutions.”
 

• Adjusted operating earnings per diluted share increased 11 percent
  to $4.20 and adjusted operating return on equity increased 80 basis points to 38.6 percent.⁽²⁾ Operating results in Corporate were negatively impacted by $42 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, related to elevated impairments on low income housing investments and severance, as well as compensation expense associated with the company’s share price appreciation in the quarter.

 

• Ameriprise closed on the sale of its Auto & Home business to American Family Insurance, which added over $700 million to our excess capital. The transaction generated a $161 million net benefit on a full year GAAP pretax basis and was excluded from operating results.

 

• Adjusted operating net revenue was up 6 percent to $3.0 billion, excluding Auto & Home.

 

• Assets under management and administration were $973 billion and Advice & Wealth Managmeent total client assets were $643 billion - both represented record highs. 

 

• Advice & Wealth Management and Asset Management generated approximately 75 percent of adjusted operating revenue and pretax adjusted operating earnings in the quarter.

 

• Total pretax adjusted operating margin was a strong 21.2 percent, driven by a 22.6 percent margin in Advice & Wealth Management and a 36.2 percent net adjusted margin in Asset Management.
   
• Ameriprise generated substantial free cash flow in the year and returned $0.7 billion to shareholders in the quarter through share repurchase and dividends, for a total of $2.4 billion for the full year. Excess capital increased to $2.2 billion at year end.

(1) Excludes third quarter unlocking impact.
(2) See reconciliation on page 8.

The full press release is available for download below. Earnings materials are also available on the Investor Relations site at ir.ameriprise.com.