Executives at Ameriprise Financial Inc. say they believe their annuity operation is recovering from the affects of uncertainty about the U.S. Department of Labor's fiduciary rule.
James Cracchiolo, the Minneapolis-based financial services company's chief executive officer, said Wednesday that annuity sales fell off earlier because of financial advisors' questions about how they ought to proceed.
"Now, some of that is starting to stabilize and starting to refresh," Cracchiolo said, during a conference call with securities analysts that was streamed live on the web.
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Overall annuity performance is at the lower end of the usual range, but now an increase in flows of cash into variable annuities without living benefits guarantees is compensating for lower sales of other products.
"The book remains very solid," Cracchiolo said.
Ameriprise held the call to go over second-quarter earnings.
The company is reporting $393 million in net income for the quarter on $3 billion in revenue, up from $335 million in net income on $2.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2016.
