And it's really a function of where we are starting off with the AUM. So that allowed us to actually bring the ratio down.Then starting off for the year, again, we are going to start at 48.5%, which is actually a full percentage point lower and then where we had started a year ago. The information contained on this website is general information only and does not provide you with financial advice or take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Fourth-quarter GAAP net revenues of $987 million increased 23% from the prior year period.
The income fund is top decile for the one-, three- and five periods. Also, in 2020, intangible assets resulting from Alliance Capital acquisition of Bernstein 20 years ago are about to be fully amortized. Was there any [Inaudible]Your next question comes from the line of Mike Carrier of Bank of America. Corporate contacts Full Listing of Corporate Contacts. You guys are executing on the initiatives that you outlined.It's yes, not resonating in much of a multiple improvement and it feels like a lot of it ultimately has to do with the structure with the K-1 and obviously, the ownership. These products are supportive of continued growth in our targeted affluent and highly complex client base.We grew our advisor base by 6%, which is at the high end of our target due to lower-than-expected advisor turnover.
Full year active net inflows were $27.2 billion, exceeding $5 billion in each quarter of 2019. Excluding that, the average fee rate remains more than twice the channel average.
In feugiat nibh felis, id faucibus tortor ultrices a. Ut quis velit turpis. We -- I think, it was around 4% for 2019 when you X out some of the errors in the FX dynamics.
Donec id dui tellus. Seth, a little bit of a bigger-picture question for you.So when we take a step back, AllianceBernstein has been one of the best flowing AXA managers in the space with pretty attractive fee rates. In the bottom left chart, you can see Institutional gross sales of $5.4 billion increased sequentially, resulting in net inflows of $1.4 billion as active equity inflows of $2.6 billion grew at an annualized rate of 27%. Investor news. Now let's turn to investment performance beginning on Slide 6.In fixed income, global diversified approach has continued to drive highly competitive risk-adjusted returns with 81% of assets outperforming over three years and 92% of assets outperforming over five years. So they are pleased with the overall level and service performance which we are providing today.And, Mike, it's John. He may have something to add here. We have been proactive in addressing what we think is a structural cost challenge, and be it long-only industry by trying to utilize technology to automate lots of processes.So I think more importantly, in the short term, relocating our headquarters to Nashville. And our large-cap growth [Inaudible] to be maintained top quartile performance over the three- and five-year period. We continued to show significant diversity inflows of 33 funds, attracted net inflows of $100 million or more in the year, 17 of them equities, 14 fixed income and on two multi-asset.At year-end, AB retail assets under management were $239 billion, an all-time high, up 32% versus the prior year. Moving to private wealth management on Slide 11. Fourth-quarter revenues of $817 million, operating income of $264 million and our margin of 32.3% all increased year on year. I'm curious as to kind of what might drag this kind of toward the high end or above your range.And I guess we would have expected it might have come in a bit higher, just given where performance fees were this quarter.This is John. But with respect to the headcount, we are looking for, we are hoping to see five-odd percent kind of growth rate year over year there.And we think that's about as fast as we can manage to grow organically just given the commitment to education we make on each of our new client financial advisor we bring in.I guess, I I'd also say we remain very focused on growing the productivity of the advisors that we have in place.
Firmwide net inflows of $25.2 billion were the best we produced since before the global financial crisis and were led by retail, which had net inflows of $23.8 billion. As a leading investment management and research firm, AllianceBernstein's unique combination of expertise, insights and global reach allows us to anticipate and advance what’s next—applying collective insights to help keep our clients at the forefront of change. It's been slowly creeping up. Interim results to 30 June 2020 11 August 2020. This conference call is being webcast and accompanied by a slide presentation that's posted in the Investor Relations section of our website, www.alliancebernstein.com. So our trading, market cap is about $3 billion. Second, we recorded a $3 million GAAP P&L credit to reduce the contingent payment liability and a $3 million GAAP P&L intangible asset impairment charge related to a previous acquisition. Have a great day.Stock Advisor launched in February of 2002. For the full year of 2019, transition cost totaled $33 million, compared to estimated expense savings of $16 million, resulting in a net $17 million reduction in operating income.That is about a net $0.06 reduction in EPU, which is $0.02 less than we had expected.