Even with a slowdown in net new inflows, RBC's U.S. wealth management division saw its asset tally surge 12% year over year in its fiscal first quarter of 2026.
The Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada reported Thursday that assets under administration at RBC Wealth Management-U.S. rose to $777.2 billion from November of last year through this January, which the bank calls its first quarter.
But net new assets flowing into the U.S. wealth management business were actually down starkly from a year ago. They fell by more than half year over year to just over $4.9 billion (reported as $6.8 billion in Canadian dollars) in the first quarter.
Net new assets are often seen as a key gauge of wealth management firms' success, since they measure only assets coming in from new and existing clients rather than market gains. (In a footnote to its earnings report, RBC explained it has adjusted how it calculates net new assets to include "re-invested interest, dividends, less client asset outflows, fees, commissions, and taxes.")
Even with the falling first-quarter inflows, RBC executives saw much to applaud. All told, nearly $180 billion in assets under administration has been brought into the firm's U.S. wealth management business over the past three years.
Speaking to analysts about the first quarter results, CEO David McKay said the firm's asset inflows in the past 12 months in particular "benefited from market appreciation as North American equity markets rose double digits year-over-year and bond indices also moved higher."
"In addition," he said, "we recorded strong net new assets over the last 12 months, benefiting from clients moving back into the markets as well as continued advisor recruitment."
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Advisor hiring and new offerings
At an investor day
RBC's recent recruiting victories, many of them won over UBS, include:
Creative Strategies for Modern Wealth Group , a seven-person team that had been managing roughly $770 million for UBS in Syracuse, New York.a six-person team that had formerly managed $1 billion for UBS in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan;Hudson River Wealth Management , an eight-member team in Westchester, New York that formerly managed $1.7 billion at UBS;Dalton Bahney and Treinen Wealth Management Group , an eight-person team in Boise, Idaho, that had formerly managed $1.6 billion at UBS; andThe Degenaars Babb Group , an 11-person team of former First Republic advisors that had been managing $5 billion at JPMorgan in New York.
McKay also noted a few new offerings for the firm's U.S. market. They include RBC Echelon, a bevy of services designed for ultrahigh net worth clients, and GoSmart, a commission-free online trading system.
RBC reported that revenue in its U.S. wealth management was up by 12%, hitting $1.93 billion. In
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Cross-selling with the bank and global results
Like many wealth management firms affiliated with large banks, RBC seeks to boost its bottom line by selling bank products to wealth clients and vice versa. McKay spoke Thursday of plans to launch "U.S. mortgage and credit card products to increase penetration within a high net worth client segment in U.S. wealth management."
Even while reporting strong results for its U.S. wealth management unit, RBC said revenue for all of its wealth businesses rose by 9% year over year to hit CA$6 billion in the first quarter. That came on CA$5.3 billion of assets under administration (up 9% year over year), of which nearly CA$1.6 billion was assets under management (up 11%). The wealth units' noninterest expenses were up 4% year over year to nearly CA$4.4 billion, in part because of "higher variable compensation commensurate with increased results" and "higher staff costs."
