RBC’s wealth management and insurance profits rise in 2025

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has released its financial results for the last quarter of 2025, ended October 31, as well as its 2025 annual report. The institution reported higher profits in its wealth management and insurance segments. 

In the wealth management segment, net income attributable to common shareholders reached $4.2 billion in 2025, compared with $3.4 billion reported for fiscal 2024. This represents an increase of $832 million, or 25 per cent, year over year.

RBC attributes the fiscal year’s results to “higher average fee-based client assets, reflecting market appreciation and net sales, which also led to an increase in variable compensation.” Higher transaction revenues also contributed to the increase. 

Revenues in the wealth management segment totalled $22.4 billion during fiscal 2025, compared with $19.6 billion in 2024. This represents an increase of $2.8 billion, or 14 per cent, over the previous year. Market appreciation, net sales, and the impact of foreign exchange contributed to the gains in this segment. 

The results for this segment for the 2024 and 2025 quarters have been adjusted following a change in RBC’s portfolio segmentation. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, “Personal Banking” and “Commercial Banking” became separate segments. Following this change, direct investments are now included in the “Wealth Management” segment. 

Wealth management revenues rose 20 per cent in the Canadian market. The annual report notes that the institution has approximately 2,000 advisors in its advisory services segment, making it the Canadian leader in terms of assets under administration. 

Assets under administration in the Canadian wealth management division totalled $999 billion as of October 31, 2025, up 17 per cent year over year. A similar increase was seen in assets under management, which stood at $794 billion at the end of the fiscal year. 

Insurance 

In its insurance segment, RBC reports net income attributable to common shareholders of $820 million for fiscal 2025. This is an increase of $96 million, or 13 per cent, compared with fiscal 2024. 

RBC attributes this result to higher earnings from insurance operations. This reflects “improved claims experience in longevity reinsurance and life retrocession products. This was partially offset by the impact of unfavourable annual actuarial assumption updates in life retrocession products.” The bank adds that a lower tax rate due to changes in the earnings mix also contributed to the result. 

For the full fiscal year ended October 31, 2025, insurance revenues totalled $1.3 billion, compared with $1.2 billion in 2024. This represents an increase of $97 million, or 8 per cent. 

However, insurance revenues for the fourth quarter show a 25 per cent decrease in 2025 compared with the same period the previous year. Net income also declined by 40 per cent year over year in the fourth quarter. 

In the travel insurance segment, despite changes in consumer habits and lower spending, the bank experienced sustained growth in this area, particularly thanks to travel insurance integrated with RBC credit cards. 

The institution also reports a 35 per cent reduction in the decision cycle time for critical illness insurance, thanks to the automation of its processes. The underwriting of term life insurance products also benefited from this technological advancement. 

Premiums and deposits 

Premiums and deposits from insurance operations totalled $7 billion for all of fiscal 2025, compared with $6.1 billion in 2024. This represents an increase of $880 million, or 14.3 per cent. 

In a presentation to financial analysts, Vice-President of Finance, Katherine Gibson, noted that approximately 25 per cent of premiums and deposits are from short-term products. “The rest of the activity consists of longer-term products and provides access to assets used to generate investment returns,” she said. 

Regarding the 2025 operating environment, the company states in its annual report that “ongoing geopolitical uncertainty created a challenging environment for the Canadian economy, worsening affordability pressures in the country, undermining consumer confidence and slowing new business growth.” 

Despite this macroeconomic context, RBC notes “steady growth in total premiums and deposits, supported by the strength of our overall insurance product portfolio.” It also observes that the trend among businesses to transfer pension plan risk management to specialists continued. This had an impact on the group annuity business in Canada, which experienced “modest” growth. 

The group 

For its overall operations, RBC reports net income attributable to common shareholders of $19.9 billion in 2025. In 2024, that same income was $15.9 billion. Revenues totalled $66.6 billion in 2025, compared with $57.3 billion the previous year. 

For the full fiscal year, the provision for credit losses totalled $4.4 billion in 2025, compared with $3.2 billion in 2024. This represents a 35 per cent increase. The rise is attributed to higher provisions in the “Commercial Banking,” “Personal Banking” and “Capital Markets” segments. 

The provision for credit losses on impaired loans ratio reached 37 basis points at the end of fiscal 2025. This is an increase of 9 basis points compared with October 31, 2024.