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Regulatory Requirements
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
Regulatory Requirements  
Regulatory Requirements

19. Regulatory Requirements

Restrictions on the transfer of funds exist under regulatory requirements applicable to certain of the Company's subsidiaries. At December 31, 2012, the aggregate amount of unrestricted net assets was approximately $2.1 billion.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners ("NAIC") defines Risk-Based Capital ("RBC") requirements for insurance companies. The RBC requirements are used by the NAIC and state insurance regulators to identify companies that merit regulatory actions designed to protect policyholders. These requirements apply to both the Company's life and property casualty insurance companies. In addition, IDS Property Casualty is subject to the statutory surplus requirements of the State of Wisconsin. The Company's life and property casualty companies each met their respective minimum RBC requirements.

State insurance statutes also contain limitations as to the amount of dividends and distributions that insurers may make without providing prior notification to state regulators. For RiverSource Life, dividends or distributions in excess of statutory unassigned surplus, as determined in accordance with accounting practices prescribed by the State of Minnesota, require advance notice to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, RiverSource Life's primary regulator, and are subject to potential disapproval. In addition, dividends whose fair market value, together with that of other dividends or distributions made within the preceding 12 months, exceeds the greater of (i) the previous year's statutory net gain from operations or (ii) 10% of the previous year-end statutory capital and surplus are referred to as "extraordinary dividends." Extraordinary dividends also require advance notice to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, and are subject to potential disapproval. Government debt securities of $6 million and $7 million at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively, held by the Company's life insurance subsidiaries were on deposit with various states as required by law and satisfied legal requirements. Statutory capital and surplus for RiverSource Life were $3.1 billion, $2.7 billion and $3.7 billion for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2011 and 2010, respectively.

Ameriprise Certificate Company ("ACC") is registered as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the "1940 Act"). ACC markets and sells investment certificates to clients. ACC is subject to various capital requirements under the 1940 Act, laws of the State of Minnesota and understandings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the Minnesota Department of Commerce. The terms of the investment certificates issued by ACC and the provisions of the 1940 Act also require the maintenance by ACC of qualified assets. Under the provisions of its certificates and the 1940 Act, ACC was required to have qualified assets (as that term is defined in Section 28(b) of the 1940 Act) in the amount of $3.5 billion and $2.8 billion at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively. ACC had qualified assets of $3.7 billion and $2.9 billion at December 31, 2012 and 2011, respectively. Ameriprise Financial and ACC entered into a Capital Support Agreement on March 2, 2009, pursuant to which Ameriprise Financial agrees to commit such capital to ACC as is necessary to satisfy applicable minimum capital requirements, up to a maximum commitment of $115 million. For the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011, ACC did not draw upon the Capital Support Agreement and had met all applicable capital requirements.

Threadneedle's required capital is predominantly based on the requirements specified by its regulator, the Financial Services Authority ("FSA"), under its Capital Adequacy Requirements for asset managers.

The Company has four broker-dealer subsidiaries, American Enterprise Investment Services Inc., Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., RiverSource Distributors, Inc. and Columbia Management Investment Distributors, Inc. The broker-dealers are subject to the net capital requirements of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA") and the Uniform Net Capital requirements of the SEC under Rule 15c3-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Ameriprise Trust Company is subject to capital adequacy requirements under the laws of the State of Minnesota as enforced by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.

In 2012, Ameriprise Bank requested regulatory approval to convert from a federal savings bank to a limited powers national trust bank. Conditional approval for this conversion was received in December 2012, and the conversion to a limited powers national trust bank, as well as the renaming of the entity as Ameriprise National Trust Bank, was completed in January 2013. Prior to this conversion, Ameriprise Bank, FSB was subject to regulation by both the Comptroller of Currency ("OCC"), as a federal savings bank, and by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") in its role as insurer of its deposits. Following the conversion, Ameriprise National Trust Bank remains subject to regulation by the OCC and, to a limited extent, by the FDIC. As a limited powers national association, Ameriprise National Trust Bank remains subject to supervision under various laws and regulations enforced by the OCC, including those related to capital adequacy, liquidity and conflicts of interest.