Credit: JHVEPhoto/Adobe Stock
Executives at Ameriprise Financial think that great advisors are still difficult to attract and keep.
James Cracchiolo, the company's chief executive officer, talked to securities analysts about the advisor supply last week, during a conference call the company held to go over earnings for the fourth quarter of 2025 with securities analysts.
Ameriprise recruited 91 advisors during the latest quarter, increasing the total count to 10,503.
The average amount of revenue per advisor for the previous 12 months increased to $1.1 million during the quarter, up 8% from the average for the fourth quarter of 2024.
"Experienced advisors continue to choose Ameriprise," Cracchiolo told the analysts. "The pipeline for experienced recruits across channels remains attractive."
Walter Berman, the chief financial officer, said advisor retention levels were also strong.
But Berman said that Ameriprise has to offer strong transition packages to attract advisors, and Steven Chubank, an analyst with Wolfe Research, said he believes that the advisor recruiting backdrop has been getting tougher.
"Listen," Cracchiolo said, in response to a question from Craig Siegenthaler of Bank of America, "it's a competitive market there. But we feel very good about where we are."
Siegenthaler asked Cracchiolo about the impact of big advisor force acquisitions at an unnamed competitor. He appeared to be referring to LPL Financial's efforts to integrate the advisors affiliated with Atria, Commonwealth and Prudential.
"From our perspective, we know things are happening from an industry perspective," Cracchiolo said. "We feel, from our perspective, that we'll continue to bring on good, experienced people."
The earnings: Ameriprise reported $1 billion in net income for the latest quarter on $5 billion in revenue, compared with $1.1 billion in net income on $4.5 billion in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
Assets under management, administration and advisement increased 11%, to $1.7 trillion.
Life insurance and annuities: Ameriprise, which has its roots in selling life insurance and annuities, is now focusing mainly on specific types of life and annuity products, such as variable universal life policies, registered index-linked annuities and variable annuities with significant benefits guarantees.
Life and annuity sales increased to $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, up 6% from the total for the year-earlier quarter.
Portfolio construction tool: Cracchiolo said one thing Ameriprise can offer incoming advisors is a new wealth management platform.
"We think it will be very good," he said.
The platform can help advisors build, monitor and rebalance clients' portfolios. The latest addition is support for separately managed accounts that are actively managed.
Investment option menu: Ameriprise product menu managers are expanding separately managed account offerings, adding access to alternative assets and rolling out more actively managed ETFs.
In the latest quarter, the company added six active ETFs in the United States.
"I actually think, over time, active will reassert itself," Cracchiolo said.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.