Ameriprise Financial, Inc. AMP

The business

Ameriprise is two companies that share a name. Advice and Wealth Management is roughly ten thousand financial advisers holding client money and charging a fee on the balance, and it is where the growth is. Asset Management is Columbia Threadneedle, running mutual funds and institutional mandates, and it is losing assets every quarter. There is also a retirement and protection business selling annuities and insurance, which is the remnant of what this company was when it was part of American Express.

The adviser business is the moat. A client with a relationship, a financial plan and their assets custodied in one place does not move for a lower fee, and the adviser who would take them elsewhere is the one Ameriprise recruits from somebody else.