Welcome to the Q3 2026 earnings call. My name is Connor, and I will be your operator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. During the question and answer session, if you have a question, please press star one on your touch-tone phone. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to Stephanie Rabe. Stephanie, you may begin.
Welcome to Ameriprise Financial's third quarter earnings call. On the call with me today are Jim Cracchiolo, Chairman and CEO, and Walter Berman, Chief Financial Officer. Following their remarks, we'd be happy to take your questions. Turning to our earnings presentation materials that are available on our website, on slide two you'll see a discussion of forward-looking statements. Specifically, during the call you'll hear references to various non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe provide insight into the company's operations. Reconciliation of non-GAAP numbers to their respective GAAP numbers can be found in today's materials and on our website at ir.ameriprise.com. Some statements that we make on this call may be forward-looking, reflecting management's expectations about future events and overall operating plans and performance. These forward-looking statements speak only as of today's date and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.
A sample list of factors and risks that could cause actual results to be materially different from forward-looking statements can be found in our third quarter 2026 earnings release, our 2025 annual report to shareholders, and our 2025 10-K report. We make no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements. On slide three, you see our GAAP financial results at the top of the page for the third quarter. Below that, you'll see our adjusted operating results, followed by operating results excluding unlocking, which management believes enhances the understanding of our business by reflecting the underlying performance of our core operations and facilitates a more meaningful trend analysis. We completed our annual unlocking in the third quarter. Many of the comments that management makes on the call today will focus on adjusted operating results and adjusted operating results excluding unlocking.
With that, I'll turn it over to Jim.
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Ameriprise had a strong third quarter. Our results reflect the quality of our business and the value we bring to clients and advisors. We are performing well in an environment that remains positive but uncertain. In the quarter, equity markets advanced despite periods of volatility, persistent inflation, higher interest rates, and geopolitical unrest. Clients want to work with an advisor and a firm they can trust, with the advice, investment expertise, and solutions to fully serve their needs. That matters even more when conditions are complex. For the quarter, total assets under management, administration, and advisement reached $1.8 trillion, up 8%, and the financial results we generate continue to be very strong.
Excluding unlocking on an adjusted operating basis, net revenues increased 10% to $5.1 billion, supported by higher asset levels and transactional activity, with earnings per share increasing 22%, continuing our consistent record of earnings growth over time. This resulted in our best-in-class return on equity, which rose to over 56% from 52.8% a year ago, reflecting our differentiated economics. We are helping clients achieve their goals, growing earnings, and investing in the business, all while returning substantial capital to shareholders. Let's turn to the business and our progress in the quarter. Our wealth management business is high quality and high returning. Client satisfaction continues to be excellent at 4.9 out of 5, reflecting the value of the advice and experience our advisors deliver. Information is everywhere. What makes the difference is the personal engagement and judgment our advisors bring.
Understanding each client's goals and putting the right solutions into action, that's what drives satisfaction, and that's our sweet spot. As investors seek help with important financial decisions, our advisors are well-positioned. Our continued investment and support translated into more successful advisor practices and have helped Ameriprise advisors grow faster than competitors for many years. Strong organic growth led to advisor productivity increasing another 13% to a record $1.2 million per advisor. Total client assets increased 8% to $1.2 trillion. Wrap assets reached $729 billion, up 12%. The continued growth in assets reinforces the durability of our fee-based earnings. Our investment and banking capabilities give us more ways to meet clients' needs and deepen relationships that drive long-term growth. To that end, Signature Wealth continued to gain traction in the quarter, with more than half of our advisors now using it for clients.
It gives clients access to institutional quality investment management and helps advisors serve them more efficiently. We continue to add features and investment choices. Greater adoption can support asset growth across both wealth management and asset management. Our bank helps us meet clients' broader financial needs and brings assets to Ameriprise. More advisors are incorporating deposit and lending solutions in their practices. As an example, pledged asset lending increased more than 50% and our mortgage portfolio grew 74%. Cash balances remained stable, consistent with how clients and advisors utilize our cash offerings, and transactional activities continued to increase. Also in the quarter, we recruited another 79 experienced advisors to Ameriprise. They are attracted to our culture and advice-based approach. Advisors who join us tell us our support is superior to where they came from, in particular, our integrated technology. Our recruiting momentum continues in a highly competitive market.
There will always be advisor movement and noise in this industry, particularly as people compete very aggressively for business and publicity, and our retention remains very high. Every advisor's practice is different. We bring the strength of Ameriprise to each relationship to support growth, create value for clients, advisors, and the firm. That brings us to our recent win in financial institutions. Earlier this month, we welcomed approximately 260 Huntington Bank advisors with $28 billion in client assets, our largest AFIG deal, and one of the industry's most significant partnerships of its kind. This relationship expands our presence in the bank channel and demonstrates the competitiveness of our business. Huntington advisors now have our integrated technology, planning capabilities, and investment solutions to deepen client relationships and grow assets.
With Huntington's recent acquisition of Cadence Bank, we'll add another 29 advisors and $4 billion in assets moving from another program to us in mid-2027. These partnerships, along with our advisor productivity growth, reflect the strength of what Ameriprise offers from a client and advisor perspective. We see more opportunities ahead to help advisors grow with our premium brand, integrated technology, and support. Following our fall ad campaign, brand awareness among our target audience has reached an all-time high. The Ameriprise brand rates very well with affluent and high net worth investors alongside other leading brands serving this target market. This recognition, together with our credentials, helps attract new clients and advisors. Technology and AI remain significant investment priorities. Our early investment in data systems and safeguards allow us to deploy AI at scale, helping advisors serve clients, gather assets, and reduce administrative work.
In fact, practices using these current capabilities can generate more than 30 hours of additional capacity each week. That's time advisors can put towards clients and business growth. With the additional time, advisors and teams can use AI to bring even more recommendations to clients. In fact, we delivered tens of millions of AI-generated insights, and nearly three quarters of practices are using these insights. This quarter, we're beginning the early release of an AI-powered meeting prep agent and AI service assistant. In 2027, we plan to expand these capabilities with broader data integration and more automated guided workflows, building on the investments we've made, and in addition to the other capabilities that we previously introduced. We invest thoughtfully and strategically in capabilities that work together on an integrated platform. That's a key advantage at Ameriprise.
For example, our technology can connect client insights, meeting preparation, and follow through to help advisors move from identifying a need to taking action. Because we don't simply want advisors to affiliate with Ameriprise, we want them to achieve here. Turning to Retirement & Protection Solutions, the business delivered very good results, including strong margins and good free cash flow generation. As we help more advisors incorporate these solutions for clients in their practices, sales increased 24%. This was driven by high demand for structured variable annuities, variable annuities without living benefit riders, and VUL. RPS strengthens our client experience, and we continue to enhance our product suite. AI is helping us to accelerate underwriting and lowering processing costs while we maintain disciplined risk management. We're also simplifying the digital sales process to make it easier for advisors to bring these solutions to clients.
Turning to asset management, we're delivering attractive investment performance and profitability while expanding our capabilities and distribution to support growth. Assets under management and advisement rose to $743 billion with growth in equities and alternatives. Strong investment performance is key. We offer 92 four and five-star funds globally, and 78% of our retail funds are above median versus peers over three years, 74% over five years, and 87% over 10 years. Having good long-term track records is important in our business. Turning to flows. Our flows were $8.4 billion, excluding legacy insurance flows, primarily driven by certain larger institutional mandates, largely due to client asset allocation decisions. Overall, our retail flows continue to compare consistently with U.S. peers with outperformance in equities and more opportunity for us to gain traction in fixed income.
We're mitigating pressure in our legacy mutual fund franchise and from certain closed blocks that have good economics. We're building out our capabilities in active ETFs, SMAs, and models, where we're seeing good inflows. This includes in our Signature Wealth platform, we're earning a nice share. We also launched two new premium equity income strategies in the United States in the quarter. Our higher fee alternatives business is also gaining momentum, and you're seeing the results in our stable fee rate and attractive margins. Seligman is a source of differentiated performance and nice flows through its long-only technology strategies and technology and healthcare hedge funds. We're also seeing good opportunities in our U.K. and European real estate business, including several attractive asset purchases. We recently announced a strategic collaboration with Hamilton Lane, initially focused on launching a public-private growth equity interval fund in the coming months.
In Global Asset Management, we continue to simplify the business to lower cost and support profitability while investing in technology and AI. Here, we're using AI to expand research capacity, help investment teams assess information faster, and better prepare our distribution teams for client discussions. Our firm-wide approach to AI combines the discipline, investment, and responsible oversight you expect from us, focused on enhancing the experience for clients, advisors, and employees while driving growth and efficiency. At Ameriprise, trusted advice, broad capabilities, and excellent service drives client satisfaction, advisor productivity, and deeper relationships. That translates into attractive financial performance and returns. We continue to generate substantial free cash flow with return on equity above 56%. We also increased our share repurchases in the quarter, and our board approved a new $5.5 billion share repurchase authorization, reflecting the strength and confidence in the long-term value of Ameriprise.
We consistently invest for growth and return significant capital to shareholders. At Ameriprise, our outcomes and their consistency set us apart. When markets are rising, many firms can perform well, but the real test is how you perform when conditions get tougher. We've been through that many times, and we've shown we can navigate change, keep growing, and deliver strong results to our clients, advisors, employees, and shareholders. In closing, in addition to the firm's differentiators I've mentioned, for 2027, Ameriprise was named to Forbes' Most Trusted Companies list and also recognized as one of Forbes' World's Best Employers. These awards reflect the confidence in Ameriprise as both a company to do business with and a place to work. With that, I'll turn things over to Walter for more detail on our financials, and then we'll take your questions. Walter?
Thank you, Jim. Ameriprise continued to deliver strong financial results in the quarter in aggregate and within each of our businesses. Adjusted operating earnings, excluding unlocking, increased 14% and up 22% on a per-share basis. These results reflect the strength and durability of our diversified earnings profile, operating leverage across businesses, and disciplined execution. Total assets under management, administration, and advisement increased 8% to $1.8 trillion, which, coupled with strong client engagement, drove a 10% increase in revenues to $5.1 billion, excluding unlocking. General and administrative expenses increased 3% to $975 million, driven by volume-related expenses, continuing investments for growth, and higher compensation expense from asset growth and performance. The margin remained strong at 28%, excluding unlocking. Our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong, enabling a 93% payout ratio in the quarter, with diluted share count declining 7% to 90 million, reflecting continued share repurchases.
We closed the quarter with $2 billion of excess capital and $2.3 billion of holding company-available liquidity. We are positioned well to invest in profitable growth and drive sustained value creation for clients, advisors, and shareholders through changing markets, rate, and competitive environments. Let's turn to Wealth Management financials on slide six. Adjusted operating net revenues increased 13% to $3.4 billion. Our fee-based and transactional-based revenues remained quite strong, increasing 15%, benefiting from growth in client assets and higher activity levels. Specifically, transaction activity remained strong, increasing 6% compared to the prior year, primarily from increased sales in annuity products and brokerage transactions. We are managing expenses well with G&A up 4%, primarily driven by volume and growth-related investments. For the full year, we continue to expect general and administrative expenses to increase in the mid-single-digit range.
Pre-tax adjusted operating earnings increased 12% to $989 million, with continued strong contributions from both core and cash earnings. Our core earnings grew more than 20%, benefiting from higher client assets and advisory fees, as well as strong transactional activity levels. These results are unique relative to other wealth managers and demonstrate our focus on balancing growth and sustainable profitability across all aspects of our business model. We believe we are in a strong position given our more balanced earnings mix relative to peers. Cash earnings were essentially flat to a year ago, driven by an increase in the bank, offset by lower certificate balances and lower short-term rates. Last, our margin remained excellent at 29%, with strength in both core and cash. We expect margins to stay in this range, assuming normal market conditions. Let's turn to slide seven on advice and wealth management.
Total client assets grew 8% to $1.2 trillion, and wrap assets increased 12% to $729 billion, driven by solid organic growth, strong advisor productivity, and equity market appreciation. Excluding Comerica, client net inflows were up 56% versus last year to $5.3 billion, and wrap net inflows were up 38% versus last year to $6.6 billion, reflecting continued solid underlying organic activity. Our focus remains on driving advisor productivity. In the quarter, revenue per advisor grew 13% to $1.2 million, which is a continuation of a strong track record of growth from consistent strategic investment in the operating framework for AWM in total and for our advisors. This drives sustainable value creation at the practice and company level.
Specific areas of focus to drive these productivity improvements include an excellent value proposition, support and operational foundation for our advisors to consistently deliver a differentiated client experience, organic and inorganic advisor practice growth strategies across the full lifecycle of their practices, stability and depth of our operating and technological capabilities, and our strong field leadership structure. Our approach reinforces the long-term partnership between the firm and the advisor and represents a two-way commitment. As a result of our consistent support over many years, our advisor retention remains strong across our overall advisor base, including long-tenured advisors who have been with the firm for more than 10 years, where retention remains in the high 90% range. This focus led to strong and improving organic client flows, which increased sequentially. Our organic flow rate remained in the 4% range. The inorganic recruiting environment remains competitive in this perceived risk-on backdrop.
In the quarter, we onboarded 79 advisors with good production levels. The pipeline is good, and we have selectively adjusted our offers to reflect a continued competitive environment. We have a proven track record of effective onboarding and on the ability to increase advisor productivity. The combination of organic net new asset growth, coupled with our ability to compete effectively for the right advisors, will enable growth while preserving our margins as we move forward. We will continue to evaluate the facts and circumstances and assess the trade-offs between sustained profitability, flows, and associated risk. Our approach reflects disciplined stewardship of the business with a focus on sustained shareholder value creation over the long term. With regard to our financial institutions business, as Jim said, Ameriprise and Huntington Bank completed their transition of their advisors to Ameriprise on October 19th.
We continue to actively engage additional firms in partnership discussions and have the capacity to grow this platform further. Turning to cash, our total client cash of $81 billion was down 5% year- over- year, primarily from third-party money market funds as well as Comerica transition. Bank assets increased 2% year- over- year, and underlying cash sweep balances were stable. I note that cash sweep has been very consistent with an average account size of approximately $5,000. We benchmark our cash sweep rates regularly to ensure we remain competitive with the industry. Turning to asset management on slide eight. Financial results were strong in the quarter, with pre-tax adjusted operating earnings of 18% to $308 million and an excellent margin of 46%. Total assets under management and advisement increased to $743 billion, up 4% year -over- year from higher ending market levels.
Revenues increased 9% to $990 million, and the underlying fee rate remained consistent at approximately 48 basis points. Expenses remained well managed. General and administrative expenses were up 2%, driven by higher Seligman compensation expense and volume-related expenses. For the full year, we continue to expect general and administrative expenses to be flat, excluding Seligman and other performance fee compensation. Let's turn to slide nine. Retirement & Protection Solutions continued to deliver strong and consistent earnings and free cash flow generation, reflecting the high quality of the business. Excluding unlocking, pre-tax adjusted operating earnings were $198 million. This reflected continued market appreciation and favorable life claims, offset by impacts from variable annuity outflows and higher distribution expenses related to strong structured annuity sales. The company completed its annual actuarial assumption update in the quarter, which resulted in an unfavorable after-tax impact of $74 million. As described in the earnings release.
I'll note the long-term care business is performing well and in line with our expectations, and we've included additional information in the appendix of my presentation. Turning to the balance sheet on slide 10. Balance sheet fundamentals and free cash flow generation remain strong, which is core to Ameriprise and our ability to invest for growth on a sustainable basis, while also returning significant capital to shareholders. Our return on equity is best in class at 56%, excluding unlocking. Given our capital strength and share price opportunity, we accelerated our capital return to $1 billion, which was 93% of operating earnings. We have increased capital return by 24% in the year to $2.9 billion. This included repurchasing 4.9 million shares at an average price of $491, compared to 3.7 million shares at an average price of $508 in year to date 2025.
We have also announced a new larger share repurchase authorization of $5.5 billion through September 30th, 2028. These actions are a demonstration of our confidence we have in our continued free cash flow generation and commitment to return capital to shareholders. In summary, on slide 11, Ameriprise delivered very good results in the third quarter, consistent with our longer-term trend. Over the last 12 months, revenues grew 11%, adjusted EPS increased 19%, return on equity grew 340 basis points, and we returned $3.9 billion of capital to shareholders. This was an acceleration of our very good growth trends in the past five years, with 8% compounded annual revenue growth, 17% compounded annual EPS growth, return on equity improving six percentage points, and we returned over $14 billion of capital to shareholders.
Our unique model consistently generates strong overall results, profitable growth, free cash flow, and a differentiated outcome for our clients, advisors, and shareholders. In closing, we have an excellent foundation and capacity moving forward to make investments for growth, drive organic net new assets, and effectively recruit, enabling consistent and sustained profitable growth. We will continue to evaluate trade-off decisions in the context of delivering on our stewardship principles, maintaining strong margins across our businesses, and commitment to sustained shareholder value creation. With that, we'll take your questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have a question, please press star one on your touch tone phone. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press star one again. If you are using a speakerphone, you may need to pick up the handset first before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press star one on your touch tone phone. Please stand by as we compile the Q&A roster. The first question is from Suneet Kamath of Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks. Good morning. I wanted to start with the comments on the wealth management recruiting and retention strategy. It sounds like you are making some changes to your packages. Some of that has been reported in the press, so we are getting a lot of questions on it. I was just wondering if you could maybe detail how widespread are these changes, what are you doing, and just any additional information on that would be helpful. Thanks.
Suneet, it is Walter. How are you? First premise, we are not making changes. Our entire focus has always been on organic growth, and the strategies that we have are focused on growing their practices and understanding the value proposition we give and how we can improve that with them. That is totally consistent the way we have managed this. That is not a change. That is a focus of the way we operate our business to grow organically and to meet our clients' needs and their needs through that investment. That investment has commitments from us and from them to continue that in a very focused way, and you have seen the results of that as it relates to our performance and implication.
As it relates to that, the strategy and what has generated our margins will continue that way because it is consistent with the way we are doing it, and we get certainly the investment and the payback as it relates to that. What is in the press, I guess from my standpoint, is not dealing with our organic approach to it and not a churn factor to it. We want to grow our value proposition where our bar is at, and we are doing that, and that is what is the focus.
Okay. I mean, not to pin you down, but it sounds like what you are saying is the stuff that is being reported in the press is not consistent with the approach that you are taking.
Yeah. Suneet, first of all, we're out recruiting like everyone else, and we just mentioned that we brought in another good group of advisors. Very clearly what we really put out there is what we do for advisors. I just read another letter last night from an advisor that joined us a year ago from another firm, said they were blown away about the support, the technology, the capabilities. They've never grown as quick over the last year, even through transition.
They said, "We have a very large practice," and to be very honest, they said, "We're always concerned if we were to move what the implications to our clients and the practice would be," and said they thanked us, they thanked the leadership, the recruiting because of what they have here, and they never thought it would be as good. That's what we do, and we explain that including with advisors that might be thinking as getting settled the package. What you see out there is there's a lot of movement. We've always had movement in our industry. In terms of advisors, our retention remains very high. It's in the high 90s, very high for anyone leaving to a competitor.
Now, we have retention because of succession, we have a retention that are impacted by deaths. We have 10,000 somehow. Our advisor count is consistent year- over- year. We haven't lost in that regard. There's a lot of noise out there from anonymous source, from recruiters with their own agendas. I don't want to comment. You can write into anything today and it gets published. We work with advisors to understand what they're looking to do and grow, including people that may be getting office out there. We evaluate arrangements with the advisors to help them achieve their objectives, whether that's through practice acquisition, succession strategies, liquidity. We even make adjustments for complex teams so it's equitable for them and their practices. That's what we look to do to help them accomplish their objectives, at the same time, accomplish our firm objectives.
We work in partnership with our advisors. Whether they're here and not looking to leave or that they get an offer or there's something that they think is always evaluated based on what people are saying out there, whether they deliver it or not. Whether it's going to an RIA or another firm, we look at the comparison. Some advisors don't understand. They think there's something that's rosier or whatever, until you really have to explain to them and understand what the difference is, what they give up, and what it might mean to them. But people will always move, right? Just like all of you go from one firm to another at certain points in time. From our perspective, our retention is very high. What we look at is that productivity. As Walter said, that productivity continues to be strong.
We have good margins and we maintain it. I would just say this, people say, well, 5 and 10 years out or whatever, there is going to be a big payback from this. I look at it and say, "Great, but markets will change, environments will change. Private equity may move someplace else quickly if they cannot get their multiple return. Ameriprise is going to be here, but more importantly, our advisors are going to be highly productive and supported," and that is what we do. I cannot handle anything published in the industry, but sometimes people need to understand a little more before they write things.
Let me just add as a final point, too, because it always comes down to the so what of it. Our strategy that Jim just described is what has generated our performance, our margins, our sustained value. It is currently doing it, and it will do that in the future. We see no denigration from that standpoint. That strategy basically does drive our sustained profitability and meet our stewardship of serving our clients, serving our advisors, and doing it in the most effective way.
Okay, that is helpful. On the follow-up, just on the FIG opportunity, I think that you said that you are looking at some other opportunities out there. I guess, how should we think about the size of those? Should we think about HBAN as sort of the elephant or the big whale and everything else you are looking at would likely be smaller, or are there actually opportunities of similar size? Thanks.
So, Suneet, we already have other smaller firms. Again, we do not mention every one that we bring in or in the pipeline. But Huntington is one of the largest that we have done out there. I think that is going really well. We are there to support and make sure that they can really capitalize on what we brought together and grow. I think there will be other opportunities. I would think that we are now very well established. Huntington will show others that we can support larger activities and do that well. Our capabilities are something that is differentiated out there, and what we do to support advisors and help them really grow productivity, but also serve their clients well. That is what banking institutions want, and that we can provide that service and consistency.
I think that this is a good opportunity, and it opens the door for us.
Got it. Okay, thanks, guys.
Brennan Hawken from BMO Capital Markets is online with a question. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Thank you for laying out the net new assets excluding Comerica. I believe you had previously said that the starting point for that asset base was $19 billion. I just wanted to confirm that. Assuming it is right, could you help us understand what the profile of the five and change billion headwind that preceded this quarter looked like across the quarters ahead of time, just so we can get an underlying assessment of the net new ex the noise? Thanks.
Yeah. As we talked about the Comerica, yes, I can confirm on that basis, the math from that standpoint, the swing and the majority of Comerica was out from that standpoint, and we've experienced $19 billion. There will be some small portion going out going forward. We are again, our organic flows, and that's where we're focused and are certainly stable and growing based on the investments that we talked about. From that standpoint, I feel comfortable that as we look forward, that we will continue to generate good organic growth and certainly deal with the recruitment in an effective way, as we said we would do, on a fact and circumstance base to make sure we generate the right returns that make sense for us and for the right advisors coming into the network. Is that clear?
Great. Yeah. No, that helps. Thanks, Walter. Then just a follow-up to Suneet's question. So, when we look at the trends around your advisor loan growth over the past few years, it's been in line with most peers, despite your stated aversion to recruiting. You guys touched on and gave plenty of color around how you view the press reports, so that's super clear. But the topic of retention loans, could you maybe touch specifically on those tools and your view on those tools, and whether or not maybe the attention might have drawn more FA attention to such optionality here recently?
What we do and where some of our loan build is, because we help with succession, we help with practice acquisitions. So, advisors actually buy other practices, and we help to do that transition so there's liquidity for the selling advisor, and that the teams taking them over can then substantially build without putting out all that cash. So we work in partnership, and that's part of the big loan practices that we do, that helps both them grow, but also it's good for the company, and it serves the clients well. That's what we look at. Then, as I said, as people are evaluating, we will make adjustments based on what they're committed to achieve, what they need to do in their practices for that liquidity, or for team members.
We make adjustments, if they're complex practices, so it's equitable, that will help them achieve what they need to achieve here. So those are the things that we work on, and we do that in partnership. But what we do across 10,000 advisors is help them grow. We don't just associate and say it's up to them. We give them the technology. We work with them on their practice management to see where there's opportunity and how they can do that. We provide experts and coaching. We give them the support and practice with individual support that we provide. Those are the things that differentiate Ameriprise, because we care for them, and we care for what they can deliver to the clients so that's satisfaction. That's what makes Ameriprise strong, and that's what makes the practices strong.
You can term it whatever you want, but that's what we do, and we've been successful. You can look at our numbers consistently, you can look at our retention consistently. You can look at our productivity consistently. But there's a lot of promises out there. You've got good markets, you've got a good environment. People get aggressive. You've got people that are trying to start new firms, consulting, sell their wares. Listen, that's the way the industry is right now. I think it'll change again. It has over the years. I've been in the business for many, many years. But Ameriprise will stay good and strong, and our advisors will be supported and highly productive.
Let me just add one thing, because this is based upon understanding the advisor. This is not a commodity approach to things of just throwing money. This is understanding their objective sets, what we bring to the table for a long-term sustainable element that works for them and works for us. This is geared around their practice to ensure that their practice grows, and we help them grow, building on the capabilities we already give them, and them seizing upon that opportunity. This is not done as one-fits-all. It is done basically on an individual basis, based on their objective sets and our objective sets, and the key operator where it's strategically aligned.
Great. Thanks for taking my question.
Steven Chubak from Wolfe Research is online with a question. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Chris O'Brien on for Steven. Thanks so much for taking our question. I wanted to ask something a little bit more broad on the competitive environment, with potentially two more rate hikes coming in the next 12 months. I am curious if this changes your outlook at all for the overall competitive environment for recruiting, and if it changes your outlook as to what you expect for some of the fee-based firms that have offered some of the more aggressive packages.
Well, yeah. The answer is obviously, we have looked at the environment. We certainly do multi-variable analysis of what the implications are if those two hikes come. We certainly think there is a probability as you look at certainly where the Fed and others have indicated where that is. The key element to us, when we build this in, it is basically a factor of it is non-controllable. It is a benefit. It is something that you do not bank on that is going to continue because you do not control it.
But I do expect, in this situation of risk on, people will seize the moment to basically invest more and provide deals that are out there that go even stretch beyond the seven and eight years because they are counting on that cash. I cannot get into their models. I know what we do. We do it for sustainability. Makes sense considering it. But the issue is we recognize it is non-controllable, and we have a balance between our core profitability and cash profitability.
I would just say one other thing. Fed raises rates. Why are they raising rates? I think you never know what that causes and cracks in the environment, and the market for that matter. Listen, we go through cycles. It is not always a good thing, and it is not always going to go up. So Ameriprise looks at those things, challenges what that is, and ensures that we are in good stead. I cannot talk for others, but they may continue, as Walter said, to get more aggressive, or they may get and understand that the environment could change and there are impacts when it does.
Great. Thank you so much.
My apologies. I will bring him back on stage. Please hold for one technical difficulty. Here, while I re-stage, Tom Gallagher is online with a question from Evercore ISI, and I will bring the other person back on stage.
Current levels.
Sorry, your line is open. Please go ahead. We were not hearing you.
Okay. Can you hear me now?
Yeah, we can hear you.
Yes.
Okay. Walter, I think you mentioned you expect stable AWM margins that are on current levels. Does that contemplate customer cash balances declining? Because I know this quarter you had more moving into money market funds, which I guess pressured the balances. Would you expect that trend to continue, in terms of seeing a decline, or was there something unusual about the quarter?
No, normally in this quarter it drops, and then it starts building up in the fourth quarter. We had Comerica coming through, which distorted that number, but again, that is the fact of it. Actually, it is stable. It is tracking exactly where we are. So that it is incorporated in building, as we said, growing from that standpoint and getting the benefits of certainly as we go pay downs, maturities, and other things as we go forward. So we feel quite comfortable. And with the sweep money, candidly, it is well managed, and we have ALM capability that is understand from that standpoint. So there is nothing unusual.
Walter, you would not expect to see a decline in margin and the AUM that you make on customer cash going forward. Is that a fair-
Yes, that's a fair statement. How's that?
Okay, good. My follow-up is, I know institutional flows were softer this quarter in asset management. Jim, from the way you described it sounded like there were some chunky reallocations related outflows in the quarter. Would you expect that to improve, or do you think that may continue for a while here on the institutional side?
No, I expect that to improve. There's a lot of volatility, particularly in Europe, et cetera, over the last so many months. I expect that to improve. As I also mentioned in my talking points, we're seeing some good activity in some of our alternatives area, which is great. Our real estate area. ETFs will be launching some more. We just put two premium ones to the market. We will actually be doing more next year. Our model business is doing well. Signature Wealth is doing well for Columbia. So, underneath it, even in the outflows in retail, the equity is half of the outflow in the industry on a rate basis. Where we're a little weaker is in fixed income. We're not getting some in certain of the categories, and that's what we're focused on.
But we think that we can get that over time as well. But overall, I think we're making some underlying adjustments. But the institution is what is the visibility right now. But we think that we can get some wins there.
Okay, thanks.
Steven Chubak from Wolfe Research is online with a question. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hey. We already got our question, so thanks so much.
All right. Kareem Seif of Bank of America is online with a question. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for taking my question. Just one question on the gross yields. Recognize that the Fed rate hike happened late in the quarter, but if I look at 2Q versus 3Q, there was a sequential decline in the gross yields across the bank certificates and others. Could you maybe speak to that a little bit?
From that standpoint, as it relates to our strategy, obviously we have invested out with the bank and other things. That is an element of we got the benefit of the short rates, and candidly, it is just our certs and others. There is nothing unusual in there that I would talk about as it relates to yield at all. Because it will work its way through, and that is it. On bank, we are invested out, and from standpoint you will see some benefits. I am not sure. We will check what you are saying, but there is no implication to that.
Got it. Thank you.
Wilma Burdis from Raymond James & Associates, Inc. is online with a question. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning. Was the higher share repurchases in the quarter, can you talk about how you think about that? Was it driven more by the share price in the quarter, or does it represent a change in how you think about repurchases? Thanks.
We have the capacity, and we will evaluate, as we look at opportunistic situations, and that is what occurred in the quarter. We thought it was opportunistic, and that is what we did, and we have the capacity to do it, and we did.
Thank you. Overall, this seems like a pretty good quarter, nice beat on the EPS, good recruiting, good flows in the wrap, and overall just pretty normal results. Seems like Huntington Bank is a good win there. Do you guys feel pretty good about the outlook? Maybe just talk about that. Is this a good run rate type quarter? Thanks.
Yeah, we feel very good. I think, and you look at as well, if you look at the fundamentals of the business, the core activities of the business, the consistency and the productivity, all that we feel good about. Our pipeline continues to be good from our recruiting. Our retention continues to be very high. Overall, from a company perspective, we managed investments well and invested in a lot of good areas that we are seeing good activity on.
At the same time, we manage our expense base well, so the margins will hold. As we move forward, again, we very much focus on that consistency of what we are delivering. You can see it in the last five years, 10 years, whatever you want to look at, and including this year. To your point, I think you can say based on the fundamentals of the business and what we are doing, we feel good.
Thank you very much.
Kenneth Lee from RBC Capital Markets is online with a question. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Just one on the retirement side there. Just given the current rate outlook, higher long-term yields there, do you see potential benefits over time in terms of the earnings generation within that business, especially as you get potentially higher new money yields? Thanks.
Yes. Listen, our RPS business is one that makes huge contributions to our other businesses. Yes, we have managed that risk return. It is an accumulation business, and we feel very comfortable with its contribution, the stability of its contribution, and the way we manage it. Yes, going forward, it will be stable. It also provides a counterbalance when in cycle changes and other things. It is exactly performing the way we designed it and can only make a contribution, not just on the financial side, but also on what it contributes to our ability to meet our clients' needs in AWM and asset management.
The way we're investing will continue to generate good spread there, and good investments that will give us a good return. But, yep.
Got you. Very helpful there. Just one follow-up, if I may, just in terms of the annual unlock, the actuarial review there. Any further color around some of the key policyholder behavior assumption changes that were made there? Thanks.
Yeah. What you're seeing there is currently something that is expected from, and the performance on the behavioral side, both in the variable annuities and the insurance, is all within basically boundaries of understanding of the behavioral aspects of it. So we feel very comfortable for how we're managing risk return on that portfolio to behavioral characteristics. Yes, it is an environment when you have so much appreciation in the equity markets and others. It's totally within our anticipation. So we feel very comfortable with managing that portfolio, and currently the impact is, we feel as we project out, is totally aligned.
Got you. Very helpful there. Thanks again.
Tom Gallagher from Evercore ISI is online with a question. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for the follow-up. Hey, Jim, I just wanted to come back to the kind of the elephant in the room, and I know you've been asked about it already. But when we look at some of those press reports that talked about how, I think the implication was there was some broad retention program being rolled out. It sounds like that's not happening from what you're saying, just to confirm that. The other thing I've noticed is, I guess in some of the prior calls, you were talking about irrational competition for recruiting in terms of some of the packages being offered. I didn't really notice you mentioning that this call. Just a few different questions there, but how are you thinking about that kind of broader trend? Are you still seeing that level of irrational competition for recruiting?
Is it fair to say that you're managing it just one team at a time? So if it makes sense, you might do something about retention, but there's nothing broad that was suggested in some of the articles that were out there. I just want to get a better handle on this. Thanks.
Okay, so you get a write-in from an anonymous source. People are trying to make hay out there in different ways. I would just say there's no program. As we said, and I went through extensive detail in the last two comments, so I don't need to repeat it again. I think you can look it up. But very clear, we work with advisors, we're partnering with them. We do what's necessary to help them grow, succeed, acquisitions, liquidity, things like that. From our perspective, I would say I'm not sure where that came from or what, but let me leave it at that. At the same time, from a recruiting perspective or a package perspective, it's out there for long periods. So maybe when people say to you, "Well, 5 or 10 years from now, you'll get" We don't work that way.
We are very rational, but we bring in people based on a value proposition, what we help them do, and what we achieve. We have an excellent track record with the people who are coming in. Their productivity is strong. They actually thank us for bringing them in. They just say, "We wish we would have spoke to you sooner and contemplated it." Listen, it is what it is, and environments go through this. I have been in the business for many years, and all is not what it seems.
Tom, let me ask this. I review these deals when they get to a certain size, and certainly I can say on a reverse re-engineer, I scratch my head. Even when you consider the benefits that we have and we provide for growth and all the things that Jim mentioned about the investment, and yes, the impact of leaving and when you are dislocating, and when we take a look of what you have to believe they are being offered, and these are having seven, eight-year paybacks on cash, I just scratch my head.
Again, we know what we offer. We know the value we create. I do not get into what other people do, but I would say to the question that was asked before, with interest rates potentially going up, yeah, it is probably going to fuel it. It is non-controllable, but if people want to use that in their offering, there is a point you do have to get paybacks, and those paybacks are pretty extended low.
Short rates, as they go up, will come down once the inflation or economy slows a bit.
Got you. Thank you, guys.
We have no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.