Ameriprise won't seal its roughly $1 billion acquisition of Columbia Management non-money-market business until spring 2010, but the insurance brokerage already spent $3 million on the deal last quarter. In its third quarter earnings report, released Wednesday, Minneapolis-based Ameriprise also revealed that it spent $7 million last quarter propping up RiverSource money market funds in this low-rate environment.

Ameriprise and Bank of America unveiled the Columbia deal on September 30.

Ameriprise also saw quarterly net flows improve to $2.3 billion for its asset managers, RiverSource in the US and Threadneedle in the UK. (The two units boasted $2.2 billion in year-to-date net inflows as of September 30.)

According to Ameriprise, both the money fund support payments and the $3 million spent so far on Columbia "are excluded from core operating earnings in the third quarter of 2009" and are after tax. 

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