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.
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
