RBC to Acquire J.P. Morgan's Third Party Registered Investment Advisor
Servicing Business

Move Expands RBC Wealth Management's U.S. Advisor Services Platform

NEW YORK and MINNEAPOLIS , Sept. 29 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and New York-based J.P. Morgan today announced the signing of a definitive agreement pursuant to which RBC will acquire J.P. Morgan's Third Party Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA") Servicing Business ("IAS").

Details of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2010.

When the transaction is complete, IAS will be renamed and become part of RBC Advisor Services, which is a unit of RBC Wealth Management's U.S. division. RBC Advisor Services specializes in providing custody and clearing services to high performing third party RIAs.

"Growing and enhancing RBC Advisor Services is a strategic priority for our firm, and this acquisition represents an important step in our quest to become the finest investment advisory and wealth management firm in the U.S.," said John Taft , head of RBC Wealth Management, U.S. Division. "Across our multiple business channels, we are focused on serving the high-net-worth segment of the marketplace and IAS shares that focus for RIAs."

"The acquisition of IAS will expand the breadth and depth of our offering to highly successful third party RIAs, and will enhance our competitive position in the high end of the RIA custody marketplace," said Mike Kavanagh , chief administrative officer & head, Independent Business Channels at RBC Wealth Management. "The employees and clients of IAS represent a terrific strategic and cultural fit with our firm."

"RBC has the global resources to provide our IAS employees and third party RIAs with world-class tools and solutions," said Chris Nastopoulos, national sales Manager at IAS. "Additionally, the strength and stability of RBC will continue to provide clients with comfort and security in addition to the high level of service that they expect and deserve. We're excited to continue growing our business as RBC Advisor Services."

The acquisition of IAS marks the latest step in RBC Wealth Management's ongoing expansion in the U.S. The firm has recruited more than 300 financial consultants this fiscal year, by far the most consultants the firm has ever recruited in a single year.

About RBC

Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries operate under the master brand name RBC. We are Canada's largest bank as measured by assets and market capitalization, one of North America's leading diversified financial services companies and among the largest banks in the world, as measured by market capitalization. We provide personal and commercial banking, wealth management services, insurance, corporate and investment banking and transaction processing services on a global basis. We employ approximately 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 18 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada , the U.S. and 53 other countries. For more information, please visit rbc.com.

About RBC Wealth Management

RBC Wealth Management directly serves affluent and high net worth clients in Canada , the United States , Latin America, Europe and Asia with a full suite of investment, trust and other wealth management solutions. The business also provides asset management products and services directly and through RBC and third-party distributors to institutional and individual clients through its RBC Global Asset Management division, and has more than C$490 billion of assets under administration, nearly C$240 billion of assets under management and more than 4,500 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers and trust officers.

The RBC Wealth Management division of Capital Markets Corporation operates in the United States via more than 200 locations in 43 states. Founded in 1909, RBC Capital Markets Corporation is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and other major securities exchanges, as well as the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

    
                 CAUTION REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
    

Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under certain securities laws, including the "safe harbour" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and in any applicable Canadian securities legislation. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe-harbour created thereby.

These forward-looking statements are provided to give additional information about the acquisition and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the acquisition of J.P. Morgan's Third Party Registered Investment Advisor Servicing Business (IAS) by RBC, and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should", "could", or "would".

By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions and other forward-looking information, including statements about the acquisition of IAS by RBC, will not prove to be accurate, or that our assumptions may not be correct. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these statements as a number of important factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to the possibility that the proposed transaction does not close when expected or at all because required regulatory or other approvals are not received or other conditions to the closing are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all; that J.P. Morgan and RBC may be required to modify the terms and conditions of the proposed transaction to achieve regulatory approval, or that the anticipated benefits of the transaction are not realized as a result of such things market environment impacts, including the impact of the volatility in the financial markets and potential lack of liquidity in certain credit markets; general business and economic conditions, including recessionary conditions; competitive factors in the areas where IAS does business; the impact of changes in the laws and regulations, including tax laws, regulating financial services and enforcement thereof (including banking, insurance and securities); judicial judgments and legal proceedings; RBC's ability to complete the acquisition of IAS and to integrate it with RBC successfully; reputational risks, and other factors that may affect future results of RBC and IAS, including changes in trade policies, and the timely development and introduction of new products and services. We caution that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive. Additional information about these and other factors can be found in RBC's 2008 Annual Report and Q3 2009 Report to Shareholders.

Except as required by law, RBC assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

For further information: Media Contacts: RBC, Kevin Foster, RBC, [phone]; Stephanie Lu, RBC, [phone]; Jonell Rusinko, RBC, [phone]; Investor Contacts: James Colburn, RBC, Investor Relations, [phone], For general investor relations information please visit: www.rbc.com/investorrelations