Certain property fund limited partnerships that the Company consolidates have floating rate revolving credit borrowings of $381 million as of December 31, 2009.
Certain Threadneedle subsidiaries guarantee the repayment of outstanding borrowings up to the value of the assets of the partnerships.
The debt is secured by the assets of the partnerships and there is no recourse to Ameriprise Financial.24.
Earnings per Share Attributable to Ameriprise Financial Common Shareholders The computations of basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share attributable to Ameriprise Financial common shareholders are as follows:
## Table 0 ##
(1) Diluted shares used in this calculation represent basic shares due to the net loss.
Using actual diluted shares would result in anti-dilution.
Basic weighted average common shares for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007 included 3.4 million, 2.1 million and 1.6 million, respectively, of vested, nonforfeitable restricted stock units and 4.6 million, 3.1 million and 3.5 million, respectively, of non-vested restricted stock awards and restricted stock units that are forfeitable but receive nonforfeitable dividends.
Potentially dilutive securities include nonqualified stock options and other share-based awards.25.
Shareholders’ Equity The Company has a share repurchase program in place to return excess capital to shareholders.
Since September 2008 through the date of this report, the Company has suspended its stock repurchase program; as a result there were no share repurchases during the year ended December 31, 2009.
During the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, the Company repurchased a total of 12.7 million and 15.9 million shares, respectively, of its common stock at an average price of $48.26 and $59.59, respectively.
As of December 31, 2009, the Company had approximately $1.3 billion remaining under a share repurchase authorization.
The Company may also reacquire shares of its common stock under its 2005 ICP and 2008 Plan related to restricted stock awards.
Restricted shares that are forfeited before the vesting period has lapsed are recorded as treasury shares.
In addition, the holders of restricted shares may elect to surrender a portion of their shares on the vesting date to cover their income tax obligations.
These vested restricted shares reacquired by the Company and the Company’s payment of the holders’ income tax obligations are recorded as a treasury share purchase.
The restricted shares forfeited and recorded as treasury shares under the 2005 ICP and 2008 Plan were 0.3 million shares in each of the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007.
For each of the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, the Company reacquired 0.5 million of its common stock through the surrender of restricted shares upon vesting and paid in the aggregate $11 million, $24 million and $29 million, respectively, related to the holders’ income tax obligations on the vesting date.
In 2009, the Company issued and sold 36 million shares of its common stock.
The proceeds of $869 million will be used for general corporate purposes, including the Company’s pending acquisition of the long-term asset management business of Columbia, which is expected to close in the spring of 2010.
See Note 5 for additional information on the Company’s pending acquisition of Columbia.
In 2008, the Company reissued 1.8 million treasury shares for restricted stock award grants and the issuance of shares vested under the P2 Deferral Plan and the Transition and Opportunity Bonus (‘‘T&O Bonus’’) program.
In 2005, the Company awarded bonuses to advisors
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:
## Table 1 ##
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.
In December, our board of directors ratified its authorization of a stock repurchase program in the amount of 1.5 million shares of our common stock.
As of December 31, 2010 no shares had been repurchased.
We have paid dividends for 71 consecutive years with payments increasing each of the last 19 years.
We paid total dividends of $.54 per share in 2010 compared with $.51 per share in 2009.
Aggregate Contractual Obligations A summary of our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2010, is as follows:
## Table 2 ##
As of December 31, 2010, the liability for uncertain income tax positions was $2.7 million.
Due to the high degree of uncertainty regarding timing of potential future cash flows associated with these liabilities, we are unable to make a reasonably reliable estimate of the amount and period in which these liabilities might be paid.
We utilize blanket purchase orders to communicate expected annual requirements to many of our suppliers.
Requirements under blanket purchase orders generally do not become committed until several weeks prior to the company’s scheduled unit production.
The purchase obligation amount presented above represents the value of commitments considered firm.
RESULTS OF OPERATIONS Our sales from continuing operations in 2010 were $1,489.3 million surpassing 2009 sales of $1,375.0 million by 8.3 percent.
The increase in sales was due mostly to significantly higher sales in our water heater operations in China resulting from geographic expansion, market share gains and new product introductions as well as additional sales from our water treatment business acquired in November, 2009.
Our sales from continuing operations were $1,451.3 million in 2008.
The $76.3 million decline in sales from 2008 to 2009 was due to lower residential and commercial volume in North America, reflecting softness in the domestic housing market and a slowdown in the commercial water heater business and was partially offset by strong growth in water heater sales in China and improved year over year pricing.
On December 13, 2010 we entered into a definitive agreement to sell our Electrical Products Company to Regal Beloit Corporation for $700 million in cash and approximately 2.83 million shares of Regal Beloit common stock.
The transaction, which has been approved by both companies' board of directors, is expected to close in the first half of 2011.
Due to the pending sale, our Electrical Products segment has been accorded discontinued operations treatment in the accompanying financial statements.
Sales in 2010, including sales of $701.8 million for our Electrical Products segment, were $2,191.1 million.
Our gross profit margin for continuing operations in 2010 was 29.9 percent, compared with 28.7 percent in 2009 and 25.8 percent in 2008.
The improvement in margin from 2009 to 2010 was due to increased volume, cost containment activities and lower warranty costs which more than offset certain inefficiencies resulting from the May flood in our Ashland City, TN water heater manufacturing facility.
The increase in profit margin from 2008 to 2009 resulted from increased higher margin China water heater volume, aggressive cost reduction programs and lower material costs.
Selling, general and administrative expense (SG&A) was $36.9 million higher in 2010 than in 2009.
The increased SG&A, the majority of which was incurred in our China water heater operation, was associated with selling costs to support higher volume and new product lines.
Additional SG&A associated with our 2009 water treatment acquisition also contributed to the increase.
SG&A was $8.5 million higher in 2009 than 2008 resulting mostly from an $8.2 million increase in our China water heater operation in support of higher volumes.

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Years Ended December 31,
2009	2008	2007
(in millions, except per share amounts)
Numerator:
Net income (loss) attributable to Ameriprise Financial	$722	$-38	$814
Denominator:
Basic: Weighted-average common shares outstanding	242.2	222.3	236.2
Effect of potentially dilutive nonqualified stock options and other share-based awards	2.2	2.6	3.7
Diluted: Weighted-average common shares outstanding	244.4	224.9	239.9
Earnings (loss) per share attributable to Ameriprise Financial common shareholders:
Basic	$2.98	$-0.17	$3.45
Diluted	$2.95	$-0.17 (1)	$3.39

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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%

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(dollars in millions)	Payments due by period
Contractual Obligations	Total	Less Than1 year	1 - 3Years	3 - 5Years	More than5 years
Long-term Debt	$261.0	$18.6	$181.2	$29.2	$32.0
Fixed Rate Interest	22.4	6.1	9.0	5.1	2.2
Operating Leases	30.2	7.2	7.9	5.4	9.7
Purchase Obligations	45.5	45.5	-	-	-
Total	$359.1	$77.4	$198.1	$39.7	$43.9

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Question: In the year with lowest amount of Distribution fees, what's the increasing rate of Net investment income? (in %)
Answer: 67