Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Today’s final question will come from the line of Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please go ahead.

Ryan Krueger: Hi, thanks. Good morning. I think we’ve often seen some level of seasonality with cash balances within AWM to come down some sequentially from the fourth quarter to the first quarter. Is that something you would expect to occur in this year.

Walter Berman: Absolutely. Yes. I think we do expect and we will probably experience the same seasonality and that’s been part of our overall planning. So it’s — we don’t see any change.

Ryan Krueger: Okay. Got it. And then just — I know there was a question on overall G&A expenses. Perhaps AWM is a little bit — you have maybe more insight into the outlook there, given the backdrop from an earnings standpoint. Can you give any sense of your expectation for growth in AWM, G&A expenses in ’23?

Walter Berman: I think, again, we’ll go back to is geared towards making sure we get the payback on that with discipline as we focus. And so we’ll manage it relative to the revenue and the growth opportunities we see, but we will be very disciplined in it. And I think it will be in ranges that you’ve seen in the past. But again, it’s situational.

Ryan Krueger: Okay. Thank you.

James Cracchiolo: Yes. I mean, AWM this year, remember, we had a bounce back in meetings and other travel and T&E, again, coming back from a pandemic sort of thing where we cut all those things out as well as we may continue to make good investments in the growth of the bank and bringing in advisors, et cetera. So you’re going to have merit and other things that are there. But I think on a balance basis, our expenses will be managed pretty well. And we don’t see that accelerating in any way. But as Walter said, whatever we’re making investments, we’ll get good returns on, but I don’t think that will be at a high level.

Operator: We have no further questions at this time. This concludes today’s conference. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.