Ameriprise Financial Inc.'s second-quarter profit jumped 17 percent, pushed upward by investor clients eager to ride the rising stock market and the company's efforts to control expenses.
Ameriprise profit soars as rising stock market attracted investors
Its advice and wealth management unit grew 32 percent in the period.
July 26, 2017 at 1:58PM
The Minneapolis-based financial advisory firm said Tuesday it earned $393 million, or $2.50 a share, in the April-to-June period. The pretax operating profit of its advice and wealth management unit, its biggest business, grew 32 percent to $291 million.
Revenue was up 4 percent to $3 billion. Excluding the effect of an accounting change, revenue was up 6 percent, chiefly because of an inflow of investment capital from clients of its wealth advisers.
"In this low-volatility environment, clients are putting their money to work," Jim Cracchiolo, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.
Fee-based inflows amounted to $4.5 billion, nearly double the $2.3 billion that clients added to their accounts in the same period a year ago. That burst also produced "nice gains in adviser productivity," Cracchiolo said in the statement.
The company said it was managing $512 billion for individual clients at the end of the quarter, up from $462 billion a year ago. Its adviser roster grew by 81 to 9,640.
Total assets under management and administration grew 7 percent to $835 billion.
Ameriprise's asset management unit, which operates Columbia Threadneedle mutual funds and other investment vehicles, experienced a 19 percent jump in pretax operating profit to $176 million.
Ameriprise said its expenses grew 1 percent in the quarter but that it trimmed general and administrative spending by 3 percent.
Evan Ramstad • 612-673-4241
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