Ameriprise Financial Profit Rises 44%

By Tess Stynes 

Ameriprise Financial Inc. said its fourth-quarter earnings rose 44% as the financial-service company continued to benefit from a strong performance its advice-and-wealth-management business.

Overall, Ameriprise Financial reported a profit of $425 million, or $2.22 a share, up from $296 million, or $1.46 a share, a year earlier.

Per-share operating earnings, which exclude realized gains and losses, market effects on variable annuity benefits and other items, rose to $2.30 from $1.87.

Revenue increased 4.9% to $3.09 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of $2.21 and revenue of $3.06 billion.

Advice-and-wealth-management fees rose 6.6% to $1.49 billion.

Assets under management and administration increased 5% to $806 billion.

The company's advice-and-wealth-management segment has helped Ameriprise post higher operating earnings in recent years, as have contributions from the company's acquisition of the long-term asset-management business of Columbia Management from Bank of America Corp. in 2010.

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