Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (AMP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome. I would now like to introduce Mr. Jim Cracchiolo, Chairman and CEO of Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today, and welcome to the 2021 Ameriprise Financial Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I am Jim Cracchiolo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Wendy Mahling, our Corporate Secretary, is also here today. She joined Ameriprise recently given Tom Moore's planned retirement. Tom joined us when we became an independent public company in 2005 and has made numerous contributions to our firm. My fellow directors, and I wish him well as he reaches this important milestone. Wendy will oversee today's meeting, which is completely virtual to support the health and safety of our shareholders, directors and employees. On behalf of everyone at Ameriprise, we hope that you and your loved ones are staying well during this time. It has been over a year now since the pandemic began, and I want to recognize the continued resiliency and perseverance of everyone at Ameriprise. We have remained focused on our clients, and adapted to the rapidly evolving landscape and further reinforced our track record of generating shareholder value. Today, I will provide a business update and answer shareholder questions after the formal part of the meeting. This will allow us to conclude the necessary business of the meeting in the unlikely event of technical issues. You may submit a question on the virtual meeting site for the next 15 minutes. The Inspector of Elections has called the quorum, so we will proceed with the meeting, which I now call to order. I'll begin by introducing my colleagues on the Board of Directors who are seeking reelection. Dianne Neal Blixt; Amy DiGeso; Lon R. Greenberg; Jeffrey Noddle; Robert F. Sharpe Jr.; Brian T. Shea; W. Edward Walter; and Christopher J. Williams. On behalf of all our shareholders, let me recognize and thank the Board for their support and dedication to Ameriprise. I would also like to acknowledge and thank our executive leadership team for their outstanding leadership in helping Ameriprise and our people navigate this challenging period. Their collective contributions have helped ensure our ability to continue managing in this challenging period while successfully executing our strategy for growth. Now I'll turn things over to Wendy to outline the statement of order of business, the proposals being submitted to shareholders and the opening and closing of polls. Wendy?

Thank you, Jim. The Board of Directors has appointed the Carideo Group as inspector of elections for this meeting. Mr. Jon Commers from the Carideo Group has taken the customary oath of office, and we will file it with the records of a meeting. Our Board of Directors fixed March 1, 2021, as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to notice of and to vote at this annual meeting. The following materials will be filed with the minutes of this meeting. A certified list of the holders of common stock of the company as of the close of business on March 1, 2021. This list was prepared by Broadridge Financial Solutions, the company's stock transfer agent and registrar. An affidavit also from Broadridge, certifying the distribution of the notice of Internet availability of proxy materials or paper copies of the proxy materials beginning on March 19, 2021. The notice and proxy materials disclosed the date, time and location of this meeting as well as the items to be voted on. Copies of the proxy materials have also been posted on our proxy voting site. To ensure the orderly conduct of the business of this meeting, the Board of Directors has adopted the order of business and meeting rules of conduct posted on the virtual meeting site. On behalf of the Chairman, I now declare the polls open for voting. If you wish to vote at the meeting and have not yet done so, you may now vote on the meeting site. The polls will remain open until immediately after discussion of the proposals. If you previously returned a proxy card or voted by means of the Internet or telephone and do not wish to change your vote, you do not need to vote at this meeting. If you have not yet turned in a proxy card, or wish to vote your shares in a manner different than you had indicated, you must vote online now. Each of the following 3 proposals is described in the company's proxy statement dated March 19, 2021, and is presented at this meeting by the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is recommending that shareholders vote for each director nominee listed in the proxy statement; and for the 2nd and 3rd proposals. The first proposal is the election of 9 Directors. All of our Director candidates are standing for election for a 1 year term, each to serve until our 2022 annual meeting. The second proposal is a nonbinding advisory vote to approve the compensation of the named executive officers as described in the proxy statement. The third and final proposal seeks ratification of the Audit Committee's selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as the company's independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. The votes required for each proposal to be approved are described in the chart provided on Page 65 of our 2021 Proxy Statement. We will close the poll shortly. So if you wish to vote and have not done so, you may vote online now. As we detail in our proxy statement, the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors approve the engagement of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the 2021 fiscal year, subject to ratification by our shareholders. Mr. Stadtler of PricewaterhouseCoopers is participating in today's meeting and available to answer any questions after the Chairman's business presentation. On behalf of the Chairman, I now declare the polls closed. Mr. Chairman, the Inspector of Elections has provided a preliminary report showing that the management proposals presented at today's meeting, including the election of each of the 9 Director candidates standing for election to serve until the 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, have received the required number of votes to pass. With that, I'll turn the meeting back over to our Chairman, who will adjourn the annual meeting before beginning his business presentation and responding to shareholder questions. Jim?

Thanks, Wendy. This adjourns the formal part of the meeting. Now I'll provide my perspective on our business. And following that, I'll answer some questions. 2020 was an extraordinary year. The pandemic and the related uncertainty created a difficult backdrop. Certainly, it was a tragic year for so many, and a year of intense disruption globally. It was also a year where Ameriprise and our people once again rose to occasion. We navigated the challenges of the environment. And we kept a clear focus on serving our clients and all of our stakeholders. Importantly, we are well prepared when the pandemic began because of the strategic actions we've taken and the investments we've made over many years. We shifted approximately 95% of our employees and advisers to a virtual work setting. The significant investments we've made in technology and our digital capabilities made it a seamless transition, and we benefited from the strength of our long-term client relationships and business continuity planning. While we operated extremely well working virtually, we look forward to working together in person again. As conditions continue to improve with the vaccine rollout and more states lifting restrictions, we're planning to transition more of our employees back to the office over the balance of the year. Regarding the environment in 2020, equity markets reacted swiftly to the onset of the pandemic. This resulted in sharp declines earlier in the year before rebounding on optimism about vaccines and economies reopening. The Fed took aggressive action cutting short-term interest rates to near 0 to create additional liquidity in the marketplace. While the extremely low rates had a significant impact on our revenue and earnings, we were able to offset the impact through strong business results in this environment. In terms of our 2020 adjusted operating results, excluding unlocking, revenues were $11.8 billion, driven by our fee-based business growth. Earnings were $2.1 billion, down 4%, given the Fed's action that impacted after-tax earnings by more than $350 million. Earnings per diluted share of $16.86 were up 4% after the interest rate impact. And return on equity ex AOCI was strong at 36.1%. Our financial strength is an important differentiator for Ameriprise. As you saw last year, when the environment was severely disrupted, our balance sheet, liquidity and quality of our investment portfolio remained strong and ensured we are able to navigate the market and operational headwinds while remaining opportunistic. So operating from a position of strength, we continue to invest for growth and advance our strategic initiatives while managing expenses thoughtfully to maintain profitability. And to help fund those investments, we increased our annual reengineering goal in 2020 while maintaining overall employment levels. We are in an excellent position because of what we put in place, and we remain focused on further strengthening our position as a leading wealth manager while continuing to build on our progress in asset management. We also continue to reposition our retirement and protection solution businesses, reflecting our risk appetite and the low interest rate environment. Overall, we're serving our clients well, fostering even deeper relationships and driving profitable organic growth. And that's reflected in our strong asset growth. Total assets under management and administration grew to $1.1 trillion, up 13% from the prior year, and this new high for Ameriprise is an important milestone that we continue to build upon. In fact, Ameriprise had more than $34 billion in client net inflows last year, a new record. Ameriprise generates significant free cash flow that we invest for growth and return at a very attractive level to shareholders. In 2020, we returned nearly $2 billion to shareholders, which represented approximately 90% of our full year pretax adjusted operating earnings, one of the best in the industry. 2020 marked our 15th year as a public company. Over these years, Ameriprise had one of the leading shareholder returns within the S&P 500 Financials Index, ranking 4th near the top of the charts. And last year, the total return of Ameriprise stock was nearly 20%, significantly outpacing the index. Now I'll discuss progress against our core growth drivers. We're making important strides to extend our leadership position in Wealth Management. Our strength in financial planning and holistic advice differentiates us in the marketplace and helps us stand out in 2020 as it has throughout many of the challenging times. We've delivered strong growth in Ameriprise client assets up 14% to $732 billion with strong client growth. We're investing strategically and are focused on deepening client-advisor relationships while serving more clients through our advice experience. Our leading-edge technology and virtual meeting capabilities ensure that we engage and work with clients extremely well. Our strong digital capabilities contribute to excellent client satisfaction as well as good activity inflows last year, which continues today. We have consistently earned strong client satisfaction. Clients again rated us 4.9 out of 5 stars, which we are especially proud of given the challenges of the year. In fact, with this high level of satisfaction, we have strong growth in client inflows. Clients added more than $27 billion into investment advisory accounts, up 25% from the prior year, bringing investment advisory assets under management to $380 billion, which is among the largest platforms in the industry. The strength of our advisor force is central to our continued success in Wealth Management. We're deeply committed to helping our advisers deliver an exceptional client experience and grow their practices by surrounding them with extensive support that includes leading technology, dedicated field leadership, training, compliance and local and national marketing programs. This excellent adviser value proposition is driving strong productivity growth. In 2020, our advisers generated $674,000 in adjusted operating net revenue per advisers, another new record, and up 8% when adjusting for low interest rates. In fact, our advisers' productivity growth is consistently among the best in the industry, and it's getting noticed. Enabled by our leading-edge technology, we quickly pivoted to a virtual recruiting strategy and continue to attract top advisers, who value the company's premium adviser client experience and want to grow. In fact, in 2020, 336 experienced highly productive advisers joined Ameriprise from firms across the industry. And we continue to strategically invest in Ameriprise Bank, FSB, where total assets grew to $8 billion by year-end. We're building out our product offerings, including adding mortgages nationally as well as pledge lending, which complements our advice and solutions capabilities. Regarding Advice & Wealth Management's financial results in 2020, earnings and margins were quite strong, particularly when you factor in the significant impact of the short-term rate cut as well as our growth investments in the bank. Pretax adjusted operating earnings were $1.3 billion, and margin was nearly 20%. Asset Management is another core growth area and complements our Wealth Management business. 2020 was an excellent year for Columbia Threadneedle Investments, the global asset management business of Ameriprise. Here again, we adapted to the virtual environment smoothly, never losing our focus on our priorities to meet client needs while continuing to grow the business. As an active manager, our research and perspectives are essential. Our investment teams are delivering outstanding investment performance during a period of intense volatility and uncertainty. Across strategies and asset classes, our funds performed very well versus benchmarks and peer groups. Importantly, Columbia Threadneedle ranked in the top 10 over the 1-, 5- and 10-year time frames in the most recent Barron's Best Fund Families ranking, 1 of only 2 firms that ranked in the top 10 across all-time periods. This level and consistency of performance bodes very well in terms of earning future flows. With strong performance and aided by net inflows and a recovery in equity markets, assets under management increased 11% to $547 billion. This included net inflows of $5.7 billion, a significant improvement of nearly $13 billion from the prior year. In fact, we were one of the few active managers that moved into net inflows in 2020. A key driver of this meaningful growth is the traction Columbia Threadneedle is gaining in U.S. intermediary, particularly at the larger broker-dealer firms and independents. The investments we're making in digital capabilities and data analytics are paying off, and position us well to sustain our business momentum. In fact, we were in net inflows at 7 out of the top 8 firms. Looking abroad, retail flows were under pressure mainly due to pandemic and Brexit. We benefited from our move to establish a new fund lineup in Europe, which helped us return to net inflows on the continent, which partially offset outflows in the U.K. In institutional, we're beginning to gain traction in our 3 regions, and we're seeing some progress in winning attractive high fee business. We have a number of high-performing strategies, and our sales pipeline is growing. From a financial results perspective, revenue and asset management declined slightly, and pretax adjusted operating margin remained very strong, increasing to over 39%. We continue to manage expenses well and invest to accelerate growth. Turning to our Retirement & Protection Solutions business. We have high-quality insurance and annuity books of business that serve the long-term needs of our clients. Based on low rates, we continue to reposition the business to better align with the environment. In 2020, we launched our new structured annuity product, which generated strong sales and helped us to continue on mix shift away from products with living benefits. This is appropriate in this environment and generates good returns for the firm. And consistent with our strategic repositioning of the Annuities business, we stopped sales of fixed annuities and moved the book to run off. With regard to fixed annuities, we are actively looking to execute a reinsurance transaction for this closed block. Regarding insurance, we are focused on meeting client needs through our flagship VUL product and disability insurance. Our strong sales in VUL are offsetting lower sales in IUL, given the market environment. In addition, we continue to evolve how we use technology and data to manage risk and streamline processes, including our underwriting. In terms of financials, we're generating good cash flow and returns on this business. Now I'll discuss the strength of our financial foundation. We maintain a very strong capital position as well as generate consistent free cash flow, maintain substantial liquidity and deliver leading returns to our shareholders even in times of severe market stress. I am proud to report that after the 9% increase to our dividend, we announced on Monday we now increased our dividend 17x since becoming a public company in 2005. Importantly, the strength of our cash flow generation ensures we are able to continue to invest in the business to drive long-term growth while also returning capital to our shareholders. As we execute our strategy, we will continue to evolve our business mix to be driven more by wealth and asset management. These businesses represented 72% of the 2020 adjusted operating earnings, which allowed us to free up additional capital. Another critical area of focus for us is operating our businesses responsibly as we consider the interest of all our stakeholders. In a year of significant and unforeseen challenges and change, this was ever more critical and we are proud to earn record client satisfaction, drive excellent employee engagement and be recognized as a responsible employer. Guided by our values, client focus, integrity always, excellence and respect for individuals and communities, Ameriprise supports the communities where our people live and work through targeted grants, volunteer activities and the generosity of our employees and advisers. And importantly, we continue to focus on advancing our diversity and inclusion programs that are core to Ameriprise. Our culture is one where our advisers' diverse backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives are valued and make us stronger collectively. As part of our efforts, we outline how we manage our business responsibly in our Responsible Business Report that we publish annually, and you can find on our website. Before I close, I would like to mention our excellent start to 2021 and the strong results we continue to deliver. We're building nicely off the momentum we generated from the past several quarters. Ameriprise is delivering strong client flows and asset growth as well as generating strong returns. And we announced some exciting news with our agreement to acquire BMO's EMEA asset management business. Consistent with our strategy, it will add to our strong client offering, build on our longstanding priority for growth in Asset Management and complement our established strengths. We expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter. So in closing, I'd like to reiterate that I feel very good about our position and ability to continue executing against our strategy and generating good results for our clients, advisers, employees and shareholders. And with that, let's turn to your questions. I would note that you can expect a brief pause of 1 minute.

Let me go with the first question is a retired adviser. I manage my own accounts with the help of my floor -- former Ameriprise partner and I use brokerage service for a portion of our portfolio to make a number of transactions a year. With the current trend showed 0 commissions on stock trades, my question is when will Ameriprise eliminate commissions on each stock trade. First, thank you for your service as Ameriprise adviser and retiree. As you know, being an adviser, we're a full-service firm in the Wealth Management business and offer advice as part of our model. While we recognize that direct players have a different model and pricing, we feel that the low commissions that we do charge with the support of our advisers do reflect the type of service that we do bring. Keep in mind that direct players that offer rep-assisted trades also have a higher fee for a service that they render there. We continue to ensure that our fees are very competitive with other full-service firms, and we really want our advisers to work with you as a client to author that type of advice that you need for your investments. So thank you for your question. The next question is, has any research been done to show a compelling evidence of additional benefits from a more culturally diverse Board of Directors? If so, what steps has Ameriprise taken to captivate and materialize these benefits? Clearly, I would say, as I think about it, research does show, and in my opinion, I think there are benefits from diversity within groups, whether it's cultural diversity, experience, style, gender, and other factors. With regard to our Board, we state in our proxy that considerations of gender ratio and ethnic diversity, along with experience, knowledge and judgment are very important in identifying and recruiting new directors or the directors currently on the Board. And we believe that maintaining and enhancing the diversity overall in our organization is an important goal. I would also reinforce that as a very strong values-driven company, we're proud of the work that we've done to ensure a more diverse and inclusive culture at Ameriprise, and we'll continue to strive to continue along this journey. Another question here is, is the corporation going to refrain from making political contributions to politicians and their packs that vote for voting restrictions? So in that regard, our firm has established an employee funded political action committee, the Ameriprise PAC, which has its own Board of Directors and only uses its funding for supporting federal candidates, who have demonstrated leadership in advancing sound public policy. The PAC does not contribute to state candidates. The next question is, why do you persist in having the same ingrained Board members who have been on the Board most more than 10 years and who seem to be professional Board members with their myriad of other commitments for both profit and nonprofit? Our complex world demands laser-focused commitment to running the company for the benefit of employees as well as investors. Why is the board allowed to vote on their own compensation? So let me answer the first and then the second. So first part of this question is our outside directors, who are still on the board when we became a public company, are only 2, Jeff Noddle and Rob Sharpe. And they have excellent experience with us from both becoming a public company to today and serve the Board unbelievably well. Lon Greenberg is also the only Director who reached 10 years. So it's a very small number of our directors who have more than 10 years. And we've also added over the last 5 or 6 years, 5 new outside directors. So the average tenure of our outside directors is less than 7, which is very moderate to many boards. In addition, our directors don't have many commitments to other public companies. And I will tell you that they -- all of them devote extraordinary amount of time and attention to Ameriprise. And I think you can see its governance has been strong over the years. The next part of that question was that having to do with -- hold on -- why is the board allowed to vote on their own compensation year after year? This persistent increase in salaries without visible increase in work, is that a balance for return to the companies, employees and investors? So first of all, the board has not increased their compensation every year. They do it periodically after outside consultant review against peer companies. But under the Delaware Law, our directors are responsible for improving their compensation. And when they review their compensation, they make sure that it is based on the time and energy they devoted. And I can clearly tell you that they do devote a significant amount of time to -- and attention to Ameriprise. And I feel very comfortable about the work and the attention that they do pay. Thank you for your question. Next question. Mr. Chairman, the Carpenters Union Pension Fund that have a collective ownership position of 493,000 shares of company stock as long-term investors, we believe the executive compensation plan drive, the successful execution of the company's long-term strategic business plan. To this end, we believe that the compensation committee has established an excellent plan with a good mix of financial and strategic metrics, challenging performance goals and a variety of equity compensation instruments. The plans restricted share unit and stock options deliver 50% of named executive's total compensation and each have a relatively short 3-year ratably vesting schedule. Could you or the chair of the committee, speak to the rationale for these short vesting periods for such a large portion of long-term compensation? Thank you. So first of all, thank you for your very supportive comments about our executive compensation plan. We feel confident that the program and the compensation overall is designed to align to performance, ensure our focus on serving client needs, drive engagement, productivity as well as delivering value to shareholders, not just in the current period, but over the long term. And I think you can see that from our track record. From a strong results today that we received on pay and vote both as well as last year, we are having good engaging conversations with our institutional shareholders. And most of the shareholders also agree with you regarding the plan we put in place is appropriate. As to the 3-year vesting period. On the long term, only 50% ratably vest, the other 50% in our performance unit shares is on a cliff vesting for 3 years. And the long-term represents over 60%, 65% in my case of compensation. I would only say that the Compensation Committee does take into account and use the advice of an outside independent consultant. They look at the competitive frame. It's consistent with market practices out there for our type of business and company. But I would also say that we have strict holding guidelines. So as an example, minus 10x my annual salary, my executives are over 4x, and we make these annual grants so that there's an ongoing vesting over time for good retention. And much of what we do grant is based on us making those better long-term decisions, both strategically and from a business perspective for both, all of our constituents, the shareholders, the employees, and our clients very importantly. So thank you for the question, and we'll continue to really keep that focus that we have for the long term. The next question is for our external auditors. It says how often did PwC meet with the Audit Committee last year? And then the second part of that is, when was the date and results of the latest PwC AICPA-mandated peer review or internal quality control inspection? I'd like to ask John Stadtler, our partner at -- our auditor at PwC to answer that question. John?

Yes, I'm here, Mr. Cracchiolo. Can you hear me?

Yes.

This is John Stadtler speaking from PwC. PwC met with the Ameriprise Audit Committee for a total of 10 times in the past year. In addition, PwC has regular sessions with the Audit Committee Chair, and we have full and open access to both management and the Audit Committee. PwC additionally meets with subsidiary audit committees throughout the year as required by professional standards or Ameriprise's high expectations for governance. To the second question you asked, PwC issues annually an audit quality report, the most recent was issued January of 2021. And that and our most recent triannual peer review report, which received a compliant rating, are available publicly, both on PwC's or the AICPA's website, specifically our last peer review report was issued in November of 2018. Additionally, PwC receives an annual review from the PCAOB, and that PCAOB report leverages both our internal annual reviews as well as this triannual peer review, and that most recent report was issued December 17, 2020, again, publicly available and receiving a compliant report.

Thank you, John. So with that, I'm going to close and reach the end of our meeting. On behalf of Ameriprise Financial's Board of Directors, its officers and employees, I want to thank you again for listening to our annual meeting, and for your support of the company. Thank you, and have a great day.

The annual meeting has now come to an end. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.