Ameriprise 2009 Annual Report Download - page 76

General and administrative expense decreased $15 million, or 7%, to $192 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, primarily due to
expense controls.
Protection
Our Protection segment offers a variety of protection products to address the protection and risk management needs of our retail clients
including life, disability income and property-casualty insurance. Life and disability income products are primarily distributed through
our branded advisors. Our property-casualty products are sold direct, primarily through affinity relationships. We issue insurance
policies through our life insurance subsidiaries and the property casualty companies. The primary sources of revenues for this segment
are premiums, fees, and charges that we receive to assume insurance-related risk. We earn net investment income on owned assets
supporting insurance reserves and capital supporting the business. We also receive fees based on the level of assets supporting variable
universal life separate account balances. This segment earns intersegment revenues from fees paid by the Asset Management segment for
marketing support and other services provided in connection with the availability of RiverSource VST Funds under the variable universal
life contracts. Intersegment expenses for this segment include distribution expenses for services provided by the Advice & Wealth
Management segment, as well as expenses for investment management services provided by the Asset Management segment.
The following table presents the results of operations of our Protection segment:
Years Ended December 31,
2009 2008 Change
(in millions, except percentages)
Revenues
Management and financial advice fees $ 47 $ 56 $ (9) (16)%
Distribution fees 97 106 (9) (8)
Net investment income 422 252 170 67
Premiums 1,020 994 26 3
Other revenues 386 547 (161) (29)
Total revenues 1,972 1,955 17 1
Banking and deposit interest expense 1 1 — —
Total net revenues 1,971 1,954 17 1
Expenses
Distribution expenses 22 18 4 22
Interest credited to fixed accounts 144 144 — —
Benefits, claims, losses and settlement expenses 924 856 68 8
Amortization of deferred acquisition costs 159 333 (174) (52)
General and administrative expense 226 251 (25) (10)
Total expenses 1,475 1,602 (127) (8)
Pretax income $ 496 $ 352 $ 144 41 %
Our Protection segment pretax income was $496 million for 2009, an increase of $144 million, or 41%, from $352 million in 2008.
Net revenues
Net revenues increased $17 million, or 1%, to $2.0 billion for the year ended December 31, 2009, due to an increase in net investment
income and premiums, partially offset by a decrease in other revenues related to updating valuation assumptions.
Net investment income increased $170 million, or 67%, to $422 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, primarily due to net
realized investment gains of $27 million in 2009 compared to net realized investment losses of $92 million in the prior year primarily
related to impairments of Available-for-Sale securities. In addition, investment income earned on fixed maturity securities increased
$46 million compared to the prior year driven by higher yields on the longer-term investments in our fixed income investment portfolio.
ANNUAL REPORT 2009 61