Advice and wealth management pretax operating earnings at Ameriprise Financial rose 43 per cent to $119 million for the fourth quarter 2012, from $83 million for Q4 2011.

The fourth quarter 2012 pretax operating margin was 11.8 per cent compared to 9.2 per cent a year ago and included the earnings impact from the firm’s decision to transition out of the banking business, Ameriprise said in its latest earnings release. “Excluding this impact, management estimates that the segment pretax margin would have been 13.1 per cent for the fourth quarter and 11.8 per cent for the full year."

Operating net revenues at the firm's advice and wealth management division increased 11 per cent to $1.0 billion, while total retail client assets grew 14 per cent to a “new high” of $353 billion, it said. Operating expenses rose 8 per cent to $886 million. Meanwhile, general and administrative expenses declined by 3 per cent, which the firm said demonstrated ongoing expense discipline.

In asset management, net revenues finished the last quarter of 2012 at $740 million, up 5 per cent from $702 million at December 31, 2011. However, expenses in this segment rose from the $575 million recorded at December 31, 2011 to $599 million at December 31, 2012 - an increase of 4 per cent.