Edgar Filing: Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc.

10-K

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K



(Mark One)
þ	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
	FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2015
OR
o	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
	FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO

Commission file number: 001-35826

Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)



Delaware	45-0969585
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)

875 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 800 Milwaukee, WI	53202
(Address of principal executive offices)	(Zip Code)

(414) 390-6100

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:



Class A Common Stock, $0.01 par value		The New York Stock Exchange
(Title of each class)		(Name of each exchange on which registered)

Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes o No þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes þ No o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§ 229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):



Large accelerated filer þ		Accelerated filer o
Non-accelerated filer o	(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)	Smaller reporting company o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes o No þ

The aggregate market value of common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant at June 30, 2015, which was the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $1,817,954,619 based on the closing price of $46.46 for one share of Class A common stock, as reported on the New York Stock Exchange on that date. For purposes of this calculation only, it is assumed that the affiliates of the registrant include only directors and executive officers of the registrant.

The number of outstanding shares of the registrant’s Class A common stock, par value $0.01 per share, Class B common stock, par value $0.01 per share, and Class C common stock, par value $0.01 per share, as of February 23, 2016 were 40,501,778, 18,327,222 and 15,649,101, respectively.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS



		Page
	PART I
Item 1.	Business	1
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	14
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	30
Item 2.	Properties	30
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	30
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	30

	PART II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	31
Item 6.	Selected Financial Data	34
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	37
Item 7A.	Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures Regarding Market Risk	64
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	66
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	100
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	100
Item 9B.	Other Information	100

	PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	101
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	104
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	116
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	119
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	125

	PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	126
	Signatures	128

Except where the context requires otherwise, in this report:


•	“Artisan Funds” refers to Artisan Partners Funds, Inc., a family of Securities and Exchange Commission registered mutual funds.


•	“Artisan Global Funds” refers to Artisan Partners Global Funds PLC, a family of Ireland-domiciled funds organized pursuant to the European Union’s Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (“UCITS”).


•	“client” and “clients” refer to investors who access our investment management services by investing in mutual funds, including the funds of Artisan Funds or Artisan Global Funds, or by engaging us to manage a separate account in one or

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more of our investment strategies (such accounts include collective investment trusts and other pooled investment vehicles for which we are investment adviser, each of which we manage on a separate account basis).

•

“Company”, “Artisan”, “we”, “us” or “our” refer to Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (“APAM”) and, unless the context otherwise requires, its direct and indirect subsidiaries, including Artisan Partners Holdings LP (“Artisan Partners Holdings” or “Holdings”), and, for periods prior to our IPO, “Artisan,” the “company,” “we,” “us” and “our” refer to Artisan Partners Holdings and, unless the context otherwise requires, its direct and indirect subsidiaries. On March 12, 2013, APAM closed its IPO and related IPO Reorganization. Prior to that date, APAM was a subsidiary of Artisan Partners Holdings. The IPO Reorganization and IPO are described in the notes to our consolidated financial statements included in Part II of this Form 10-K.


•	“IPO” means the initial public offering of 12,712,279 shares of Class A common stock of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. completed on March 12, 2013.


•	“IPO Reorganization” means the series of transactions Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. and Artisan Partners Holdings completed on March 12, 2013, immediately prior to the IPO, in order to reorganize their capital structures in preparation for the IPO.


•	“2013 Follow-On Offering” means the registered offering of 5,520,000 shares of Class A common stock of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. completed on November 6, 2013.


•	“2014 Follow-On Offering” means the registered offering of 9,284,337 shares of Class A common stock of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. completed on March 12, 2014.


•	“2015 Follow-On Offering” means the registered offering of 3,831,550 shares of Class A common stock of Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. completed on March 9, 2015.

Forward-Looking Statements

This report contains, and from time to time our management may make, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “may”, “might”, “will”, “should”, “expects”, “intends”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “estimates”, “predicts”, “potential” or “continue”, the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, may include projections of our future financial performance, future expenses, anticipated growth strategies, descriptions of new business initiatives and anticipated trends in our industry, our business or our financial results. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. Among the important factors that could cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are: fluctuations in quarterly and annual results, adverse economic or market conditions, incurrence of net losses, adverse effects of management focusing on implementation of a growth strategy, failure to develop and maintain the Artisan Partners brand and other factors disclosed under “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Form 10-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:


•	our anticipated future results of operations;


•	our potential operating performance and efficiency;


•	our expectations with respect to future levels of assets under management, including the capacity of our strategies and client cash inflows and outflows;


•	our expectations with respect to industry trends and how those trends may impact our business;


•	our financing plans, cash needs and liquidity position;


•	our intention to pay dividends and our expectations about the amount of those dividends;


•	our expected levels of compensation of our employees;


•	our expectations with respect to future expenses and the level of future expenses;


•	our expected tax rate, and our expectations with respect to deferred tax assets; and


•	our estimates of future amounts payable pursuant to our tax receivable agreements.

Performance and Assets Under Management Information Used in this Report

We manage investments primarily through mutual funds and separate accounts. We serve as investment adviser to Artisan Funds and as investment manager of Artisan Global Funds. We refer to funds and other accounts that are managed by us with a broadly common investment objective and substantially in accordance with a single model account as being part of the same “strategy”.

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We measure the results both of our individual funds and of our “composites”, which represent the aggregate performance of all discretionary client accounts, including mutual funds, invested in the same strategy, except those accounts with respect to which we believe client-imposed investment restrictions (such as socially-based restrictions) may have a material impact on portfolio construction and those accounts managed in a currency other than U.S. dollars (the results of these accounts are maintained in separate composites, which are not presented in this report).

The performance of accounts with investment restrictions differs from the performance of accounts included in our principal composite for the applicable strategy because one or more securities may be omitted from the portfolio in order to comply with the restrictions and the weightings in the portfolio of other securities are correspondingly altered. The performance of non-U.S. dollar accounts differs from the performance of the principal composite for the applicable strategy because of the fluctuations in currency exchange rates between the currencies in which portfolio securities are traded and the currency in which the account is managed or U.S. dollars, respectively. Our assets under management in accounts with investment restrictions and non-U.S. dollar accounts represented approximately 2% and 7%, respectively, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015. Results for any investment strategy described herein, and for different investment vehicles within a strategy, are affected by numerous factors, including: different material market or economic conditions; different investment management fee rates, brokerage commissions and other expenses; and the reinvestment of dividends or other earnings.

The returns for any strategy may be positive or negative, and past performance does not guarantee future results. In this report, we refer to the date on which we began tracking the performance of an investment strategy as that strategy’s “inception date”.

In this report, we present the average annual returns of our composites on a “gross” basis, which represent average annual returns before payment of fees payable to us by any portfolio in the composite and are net of commissions and transaction costs. We also present the average annual returns of certain market indices or “benchmarks” for the comparable period. Indices that are used for these performance comparisons are broad-based market indices that we believe are appropriate comparisons of our investment performance over a full market cycle. The indices are unmanaged and have differing volatility, credit and other characteristics. You should not assume that there is any material overlap between the securities included in the portfolios of our investment strategies during these periods and those that comprise any MSCI, Russell or BofA Merrill Lynch index referred to in this report. At times, this can cause material differences in relative performance. It is not possible to invest directly in any of the indices. The returns of these indices, as presented in this report, have not been reduced by fees and expenses associated with investing in securities, but do include the reinvestment of dividends.

The MSCI EAFE^® Index, the MSCI EAFE^® Growth Index, the MSCI EAFE^® Small Cap Index, the MSCI EAFE^® Value Index, the MSCI ACWI^® Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index^SM are trademarks of MSCI Inc. MSCI Inc. is the owner of all copyrights relating to these indices and is the source of the performance statistics of these indices that are referred to in this report.

The Russell 2000^® Index, the Russell 2000^® Value Index, the Russell Midcap^® Index, the Russell Midcap^® Value Index, the Russell 1000^® Index, the Russell 1000^® Value Index, the Russell Midcap^® Growth Index and the Russell 2000^® Growth Index are trademarks of Russell Investment Group. Russell Investment Group is the owner of all copyrights relating to these indices and is the source of the performance statistics that are referred to in this report.

The BofA Merrill Lynch US High Yield Master II Index is licensed from BofA Merrill Lynch, which is the source of the performance statistics of this index.

In this report, we present Morningstar, Inc., or Morningstar, ratings for series of Artisan Funds. The Morningstar ratings refer to the ratings by Morningstar of the share class of the respective series of Artisan Funds with the earliest inception date and are based on a 5-star scale. Morningstar data contained herein (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers, (2) may not be copied or distributed and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™, which is based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund’s monthly performance, including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating^TM is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with the rated fund’s three-, five- and 10-year Morningstar Rating metrics.

Throughout this report, we present historical information about our assets under management, including information about changes in our assets under management due to gross client cash inflows and outflows, market appreciation and depreciation and transfers between investment vehicles (i.e., Artisan Funds and separate accounts). Gross client cash inflows and outflows represent client fundings, terminations and client initiated contributions and withdrawals (which could be in cash or in securities).

iii

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Market appreciation (depreciation) represents realized gains and losses, the change in unrealized gains and losses, net income and certain miscellaneous items, immaterial in the aggregate, which may include payment of Artisan’s management fees or payment of custody expenses to the extent a client causes these fees to be paid from the account we manage. The effect of translating into U.S. dollars the value of portfolio securities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar is included in market appreciation (depreciation).We also present information about our average assets under management for certain periods.

We use our information management systems to track our assets under management, the components of market appreciation and depreciation, and client inflows and outflows, and we believe the information set forth in this report regarding our assets under management, market appreciation and depreciation, and client inflows and outflows is accurate in all material respects. We also present information regarding the amount of our assets under management and client inflows and outflows sourced through particular investment vehicles and distribution channels. The allocation of assets under management and client flows sourced through particular distribution channels involves estimates because precise information on the sourcing of assets invested in Artisan Funds or Artisan Global Funds through intermediaries is not available on a complete or timely basis and involves the exercise of judgment because the same assets, in some cases, might fairly be said to have been sourced from more than one distribution channel. We have presented the information on our assets under management and client inflows and outflows sourced by distribution channel in the way in which we prepare and use that information in the management of our business. Data on our assets under management sourced by distribution channel and client inflows and outflows are not subject to our internal controls over financial reporting.

None of the information in this report constitutes either an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell any fund securities, nor is any such information a recommendation for any fund security or investment service.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

Founded in 1994, we are an investment management firm that provides a broad range of U.S., non-U.S. and global investment strategies, each of which is managed by one of our seven distinct and autonomous investment teams. Since our founding, we have pursued a business model that is designed to maximize our ability to produce attractive investment results for our clients, and we believe this model has contributed to our success in doing so. We focus on attracting, retaining and developing talented investment professionals by creating an environment in which each investment team is provided ample resources and support, transparent and direct financial incentives, and a high degree of investment autonomy. Each of our investment teams is led by one or more experienced portfolio managers with a track record of strong investment performance and is devoted to identifying long-term investment opportunities. We believe this autonomous structure promotes independent analysis and accountability among our investment professionals, which we believe promotes superior investment results.

The following table sets forth our revenues and our ending and average assets under management for the periods noted:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015		2014		2013
	(in millions)
Total revenues	$	806	$	829	$	686
Ending assets under management	$	99,848	$	107,915	$	105,477
Average assets under management	$	106,484	$	107,865	$	89,545

Each of our investment strategies is designed to have a clearly articulated, consistent and replicable investment process that is well-understood by clients and managed to achieve long-term performance. Throughout our history, we have expanded our investment management capabilities in a disciplined manner that we believe is consistent with our overall philosophy of offering high value-added investment strategies in growing asset classes. We have expanded the range of strategies that we offer by launching new strategies managed by our existing investment teams as those teams have developed investment capacity, such as our Global Small-Cap Growth strategy, which we launched in June 2013, as well as by launching new strategies managed by new investment teams recruited to join Artisan. During 2014, we established the Artisan Credit Team, which manages the Artisan High Income strategy, our first fixed income strategy. During 2015, we established the Artisan Developing World Team, which manages the Artisan Developing World strategy.

We launch a new strategy only when we believe it has the potential to achieve superior investment performance in an area that we believe will have sustained client demand at attractive fee rates over the long term. We strive to maintain the integrity of the investment process followed in each of our strategies by rigorous adherence to the investment parameters we have communicated to our clients. We also carefully monitor our investment capacity in each investment strategy. We believe that management of our investment capacity protects our ability to manage assets successfully, which protects the interests of our clients and, in the long term, protects our ability to retain client assets and maintain our profit margins. In order to better achieve our long-term goals, we are willing to close a strategy to new investors or otherwise take action to slow or restrict its growth, even though our short-term results may be impacted.

In addition to our investment teams, we have a management team that is focused on our business objectives of achieving profitable growth, expanding our investment capabilities, diversifying the source of our assets under management and delivering superior client service. Our management team supports our investment management capabilities and manages a centralized infrastructure, which allows our investment professionals to focus primarily on making investment decisions and generating returns for our clients.

We offer our investment management capabilities primarily to institutions and through intermediaries that operate with institutional-like decision-making processes and have longer-term investment horizons, by means of separate accounts and mutual funds. As of December 31, 2015, separate accounts represented $46.3 billion, or 46%, of our assets under management.

We serve as the investment adviser to Artisan Partners Funds, Inc., an SEC-registered family of mutual funds that offers shares in multiple classes designed to meet the needs of a range of institutional and other investors, and as investment manager of Artisan Partners Global Funds PLC, a family of Ireland-based UCITS funds that began operations in 2011 and offers shares to non-U.S. investors. Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds comprised $53.5 billion, or 54%, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015.

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We access traditional institutional clients primarily through relationships with investment consultants. We access other institutional-like investors primarily through consultants, alliances with major defined contribution/401(k) platforms and relationships with financial advisors and broker-dealers. We derive essentially all of our revenues from investment management fees, which primarily are based on a specified percentage of clients’ average assets under management. These fees are derived from investment advisory and sub-advisory agreements that are terminable by clients upon short notice or no notice.

As of December 31, 2015, we had approximately 370 employees. Our employees, including our investment professionals and senior management, to whom we have granted equity collectively owned approximately 29% of the equity ownership interests in our company, based on Class B common stock and unvested restricted shares held by employees as of December 31, 2015.

Investment Teams

We provide clients with multiple long-only, equity investment strategies spanning market capitalization segments and investing styles in both U.S. and non-U.S. markets. We also offer one fixed income strategy, the Artisan High Income strategy. Each strategy is managed by one of the investment teams described below. Each team operates autonomously to identify investment opportunities in order to generate strong, long-term investment performance.

The table below sets forth the total assets under management for each of our investment teams and strategies as of December 31, 2015, the inception date for each investment composite, the value-added by each strategy since inception date, and the Overall Morningstar Rating™ for the series of Artisan Funds managed in that strategy.



Investment Team and Strategy	AUM as of December 31, 2015	Composite Inception Date	Value-Added Since Inception Date⁽¹⁾as of December 31, 2015	Fund Rating⁽²⁾as of December 31, 2015
	(in millions)
Global Equity Team
Non-U.S. Growth Strategy	$30,187	January 1, 1996	618	««««
Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth Strategy	1,323	January 1, 2002	448	«««
Global Equity Strategy	786	April 1, 2010	554	«««««
Global Small-Cap Growth Strategy	138	July 1, 2013	(88)	Not yet rated

U.S. Value Team
U.S. Mid-Cap Value Strategy	7,959	April 1, 1999	404	«««
U.S. Small-Cap Value Strategy	854	June 1, 1997	315	««
Value Equity Strategy	1,556	July 1, 2005	(119)	««

Growth Team
U.S. Mid-Cap Growth Strategy	15,103	April 1, 1997	560	««««
U.S. Small-Cap Growth Strategy	2,270	April 1, 1995	115	««««
Global Opportunities Strategy	7,556	February 1, 2007	641	«««««

Global Value Team
Non-U.S. Value Strategy	16,257	July 1, 2002	673	«««««
Global Value Strategy	13,925	July 1, 2007	550	«««««

Emerging Markets Team
Emerging Markets Strategy	571	July 1, 2006	(23)	««

Credit Team
High Income Strategy	989	April 1, 2014	553	Not yet rated

Developing World Team

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Developing World Strategy	374	July 1, 2015	560	Not yet rated

Total AUM as of December 31, 2015	$99,848

(1) Value-added since inception date is the amount in basis points by which the average annual gross composite return of each of our strategies has outperformed the broad-based market index most commonly used by our clients to compare the performance of the relevant strategy since its inception date. Periods of one year or less are not annualized. The broad-based market indices used to compute the value added since inception date for each of our strategies are as follows: Non-U.S. Growth strategy-MSCI EAFE® Index; Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategy-MSCI EAFE® Small Cap Index; Global Equity strategy-MSCI ACWI® Index; Global Small-Cap Growth strategy-MSCI ACWI® Small Cap Index; U.S. Small-Cap Value strategy-Russell 2000® Index; U.S. Mid-Cap Value strategy-Russell Midcap® Index; Value Equity strategy-Russell 1000® Index; U.S. Mid-Cap Growth strategy-Russell Midcap® Index; Global Opportunities strategy-MSCI ACWI® Index; U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategy-Russell 2000® Index; Non-U.S. Value strategy-MSCI EAFE® Index; Global Value strategy-MSCI ACWI® Index; Emerging Markets strategy-MSCI Emerging Markets IndexSM; Developing World Strategy-MSCI Emerging Markets Index; High Income strategy—Bank of America Merrill Lynch U.S. High Yield Master II Index. Unlike the BofA Merrill Lynch High Yield Master ll Index, the Artisan High Income strategy may hold loans and other security types. At times, this does cause material differences in relative performance.
(2) The Morningstar Rating™ compares the risk-adjusted performance of the Artisan Funds series to other funds in a category assigned by Morningstar based on its analysis of the funds’ portfolio holdings. The top 10% of funds receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating™ is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with the rated fund’s three-, five- and 10-year Morningstar Rating metrics. The Artisan Funds, the ratings of which are reflected in the table above, and the categories in which they are rated are: Artisan International Fund-Foreign Large Blend Funds Category; Artisan International Small Cap Fund-Foreign Small/Mid Growth Funds Category; Artisan Global Equity Fund-World Stock; Artisan Small Cap Value Fund-Small Value Funds Category; Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund-Mid Cap Value Funds Category; Artisan Value Equity Fund-Large Value Funds Category; Artisan Mid Cap Fund-Mid Cap Growth Funds Category; Artisan Global Opportunities Fund-World Stock; Artisan Small Cap Fund-Small Growth Funds Category; Artisan International Value Fund-Foreign Small/Mid Funds Category; Artisan Global Value Fund-World Stock; Artisan Emerging Markets Fund-Diversified Emerging Markets Funds Category. Morningstar ratings are initially given on a fund’s three-year track record and change monthly.

Global Equity Team

Our Global Equity team, which was formed in 1996 and is based in San Francisco and New York, manages four investment strategies: Non-U.S. Growth, Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth, Global Equity and Global Small-Cap Growth. Mark L. Yockey is the founder of our Global Equity team and has been portfolio manager of each of the team’s strategies since their inception. Charles-Henri Hamker and Andrew J. Euretig are associate portfolio managers of the Non-U.S. Growth strategy and portfolio co-managers (with Mr. Yockey) of the Global Equity strategy. Mr. Hamker also serves as portfolio manager of the Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth and Global Small-Cap Growth strategies with Mr. Yockey. The Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategy is closed to most new investors and client relationships. We closed the Non-U.S. Growth strategy to most new retail and intermediary investors on February 1, 2016, and we plan to close the strategy to most new institutional investors and employee benefit plans on October 1, 2016.

The Global Equity team employs a fundamental stock selection process focused on identifying companies within its preferred themes with sustainable growth characteristics at valuations that do not fully reflect their long-term potential. The team’s objective is to invest in companies that are industry leaders and have meaningful exposure to and will benefit from long-term secular growth trends. To identify long-term, sustainable growth characteristics of potential investments, the team seeks high-quality companies that typically have a sustainable competitive advantage, a superior business model and a high-quality management team. Finally, the team uses multiple valuation metrics to establish a target price range and assesses the relationship between its estimate of a company’s sustainable growth prospects and the company’s current valuation.

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	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years		Inception
Non-U.S. Growth (January 1, 1996)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(2.83	)%	7.70	%	8.13	%	6.37	%	10.60	%
MSCI EAFE^® Index	(0.81	)%	5.01	%	3.60	%	3.03	%	4.42	%

Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth (January 1, 2002)
Average Annual Gross Returns	12.63	%	9.94	%	9.24	%	9.39	%	14.54	%
MSCI EAFE^® Small Cap Index	9.59	%	10.44	%	6.32	%	4.55	%	10.06	%

Global Equity (April 1, 2010)
Average Annual Gross Returns	2.18	%	11.91	%	11.65		—		12.44	%
MSCI ACWI^® Index	(2.36	)%	7.69	%	6.08		—		6.90	%

Global Small-Cap Growth (July, 1, 2013)
Average Annual Gross Returns	7.72	%	—		—		—		6.37	%
MSCI ACWI^® Small Cap Index	(1.04	)%	—		—		—		7.25	%

U.S. Value Team

Our U.S. Value team, which was formed in 1997 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia, manages three investment strategies: U.S. Small-Cap Value, U.S. Mid-Cap Value and Value Equity. Scott C. Satterwhite, James C. Kieffer, George O. Sertl, Jr. and Daniel L. Kane are the portfolio co-managers for each of these strategies. Mr. Satterwhite plans to retire in September 2016. The U.S. Small-Cap Value and the U.S. Mid-Cap Value strategies are closed to most new investors and client relationships. In late February 2016 we announced that we plan to cease managing assets in the U.S. Small-Cap Value strategy. In connection with that decision, the board of directors of Artisan Funds approved a plan to reorganize Artisan Small Cap Value Fund into Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund. The reorganization is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016. We plan to work with separate account clients on the transition or liquidation options available for their accounts.

The U.S. Value team’s strategies employ a fundamental investment process used to construct diversified portfolios of companies that the team believes are undervalued, are in solid financial condition and have attractive business economics. The team believes companies with these characteristics are less likely to experience eroding values over the long term compared to companies without such characteristics.

The team values a business using what it believes are reasonable expectations for the long-term earnings power and capitalization rates of that business. This results in a range of values for the company that the team believes would be reasonable. The team generally will purchase a security if the stock price falls below or toward the lower end of that range.

The team prefers companies with an acceptable level of debt and positive cash flow. At a minimum, the team seeks to avoid companies that have so much debt that management may be unable to make decisions that would be in the best interest of the companies’ shareholders. The team also favors cash-producing businesses that it believes are capable of earning acceptable returns on capital over the company’s business cycle.

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	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years		Inception
U.S. Small-Cap Value (June 1, 1997)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(11.24	)%	2.31	%	2.47	%	5.34	%	10.60	%
Russell 2000^® Index	(4.41	)%	11.65	%	9.18	%	6.80	%	7.45	%

U.S. Mid-Cap Value (April 1, 1999)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(8.77	)%	8.80	%	9.34	%	8.32	%	12.92	%
Russell Midcap^® Index	(2.44	)%	14.18	%	11.43	%	7.99	%	8.88	%

Value Equity (July 1, 2005)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(8.30	)%	7.20	%	8.52	%	5.96	%	6.45	%
Russell 1000^® Index	0.92	%	15.01	%	12.44	%	7.40	%	7.64	%

Growth Team

Our Growth team, which was formed in 1997 and is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, manages three investment strategies: U.S. Mid-Cap Growth, Global Opportunities and U.S. Small-Cap Growth. James D. Hamel, Matthew H. Kamm, Craigh A. Cepukenas, and Jason L. White are the portfolio co-managers of all three strategies. Mr. Kamm is the lead portfolio manager of the U.S. Mid-Cap Growth strategy; Mr. Hamel is the lead portfolio manager of the Global Opportunities strategy; and Mr. Cepukenas is the lead portfolio manager of the U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategy. The U.S. Mid-Cap Growth and U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategies are currently closed to most new investors and client relationships.

The Growth team’s investment process focuses on two distinct areas-security selection and capital allocation. The team’s investment process begins by identifying companies that have franchise characteristics (e.g. low cost production capability, possession of a proprietary asset, dominant market share or a defensible brand name), are benefiting from an accelerating profit cycle and are trading at a discount to the team’s estimate of private market value. The team looks for companies that are well positioned for long-term growth, which is driven by demand for their products and services at an early enough stage in their profit cycle to benefit from the increased cash flows produced by the emerging profit cycle.

Based on the investment team’s fundamental analysis of a company’s profit cycle, the investment team classifies each portfolio holding in one of three stages. Garden^SM investments generally are smaller positions in the early part of their profit cycle that may warrant a larger allocation once their profit cycle accelerates. Crop^SM investments are positions that are being increased to or maintained at a full weight because they are moving through the strongest part of their profit cycle. Harvest^SM investments are positions that are being reduced as they near the investment team’s estimate of full valuation or their profit cycle begins to decelerate. The team overlays the security selection and capital allocation elements of its investment process with a desire to invest opportunistically across the entire global economy. The team seeks broad knowledge of the global economy in order to position it to find growth wherever it occurs.



	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years		Inception
U.S. Mid-Cap Growth (April 1, 1997)
Average Annual Gross Returns	3.44	%	15.44	%	13.03	%	11.11	%	15.55	%
Russell Midcap^® Index	(2.44	)%	14.18	%	11.43	%	7.99	%	9.96	%

Global Opportunities (February 1, 2007)
Average Annual Gross Returns	9.12	%	12.61	%	12.11	%	—		9.42	%
MSCI ACWI^® Index	(2.36	)%	7.69	%	6.08	%	—		3.01	%

U.S. Small-Cap Growth (April 1, 1995)
Average Annual Gross Returns	1.61	%	13.85	%	13.76	%	8.18	%	9.94	%
Russell 2000^® Index	(4.41	)%	11.65	%	9.18	%	6.80	%	8.79	%

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Global Value Team

Our Global Value team, which was formed in 2002 and is based in San Francisco, California, manages two investment strategies: Non-U.S. Value and Global Value. N. David Samra and Daniel J. O’Keefe are the portfolio co-managers of both strategies. Mr. Samra is the lead portfolio manager of the Non-U.S. Value strategy, and Mr. O’Keefe is the lead portfolio manager of the Global Value strategy. The Non-U.S. Value strategy is closed to most new investors and client relationships. We re-opened the Global Value strategy across pooled vehicles on October 1, 2015. The strategy remains closed to most new separate account clients.

The Global Value team’s strategies employ a fundamental investment process used to construct diversified portfolios of companies. The team seeks to invest in what it considers to be high quality, undervalued companies with strong balance sheets and shareholder-oriented management teams.

Determining the intrinsic value of a business is the heart of the team’s research process. The team believes that intrinsic value represents the amount that a buyer would pay to own a company’s future cash flows. The team seeks to invest at a significant discount to its estimate of the intrinsic value of a business. The team also seeks to invest in companies with histories of generating strong free cash flow, improving returns on capital and strong competitive positions in their industries. The team believes that investing in companies with strong balance sheets helps to reduce the potential for capital risk and provides company management the ability to build value when attractive opportunities are available. The team’s research process also attempts to identify management teams with a history of building value for shareholders.

The team ranks companies that make it through this analytical process according to the degree of the discount of the current market price of the stock to the team’s estimate of the company’s intrinsic value. The team manages its strategies by generally taking larger positions in companies where the discount is greatest and smaller positions in companies with narrower discounts (subject to adjustments for investment-related concerns, including, diversification, risk management and liquidity).



	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years		Inception
Non-U.S. Value (July 1, 2002)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(0.64	)%	9.96	%	9.09	%	9.25	%	12.67	%
MSCI EAFE^® Index	(0.81	)%	5.01	%	3.60	%	3.03	%	5.93	%

Global Value (July 1, 2007)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(1.83	)%	11.70	%	11.66	%	—		7.64	%
MSCI ACWI^® Index	(2.36	)%	7.69	%	6.08	%	—		2.14	%

Emerging Markets Team

Our Emerging Markets team, which was formed in 2006 and is based in New York, New York, manages a single investment strategy. Maria Negrete-Gruson is the portfolio manager for the Emerging Markets strategy. In late February 2016, a client of our Emerging Markets strategy communicated its intent to terminate its account with us during the second quarter of 2016. The client’s account represents approximately one-half of the assets under management in the Emerging Markets strategy as of the date of this filing.

The Emerging Markets team employs a fundamental research process to construct a diversified portfolio of emerging market companies. The team seeks to invest in companies that it believes are uniquely positioned to benefit from the growth potential in emerging markets and possess a sustainable global competitive advantage. The team believes that over the long-term a stock’s price is directly related to the company’s ability to deliver sustainable earnings, which the team determines based upon financial and strategic analyses. The team also believes that a disciplined risk framework allows greater focus on fundamental stock selection. The team incorporates its assessment of company-specific and macroeconomic risks into its valuation analysis to develop a risk adjusted target price. The risk-rating assessment includes a review of the currency, inflation, monetary and fiscal policy and political risks to which a company is exposed. Finally, the team believes that investment opportunities develop when businesses with sustainable earnings are undervalued relative to peers and historical industry, country and regional valuations. The team values a business and develops a price target for a company based on its assessment of the business’s sustainable earnings and risk assessment.

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	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years	Inception
Emerging Markets (July 1, 2006)
Average Annual Gross Returns	(10.95	)%	(5.56	)%	(6.26	)%	—	2.82	%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index^SM	(14.92	)%	(6.76	)%	(4.80	)%	—	3.05	%

Credit Team

Our Credit team, which was formed in 2014 and is based in Mission Woods, Kansas, manages a single investment strategy. Bryan L. Krug is the portfolio manager for the High Income strategy. The Credit team seeks to invest in issuers with high quality business models that have compelling risk-adjusted return characteristics. The team invests primarily in non-investment grade corporate bonds and secured and unsecured loans of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers. The team’s research process has four primary pillars: business quality; financial strength and flexibility; downside analysis; and value identification.

The team analyzes the general health of the industry in which an issuer operates, the issuer’s competitive position, the dynamics of industry participants, and the decision-making history of the issuer’s management. To understand an issuer’s financial health, the team believes it is critical to analyze the history and trend of free cash flow. The team also considers an issuer’s capital structure, refinancing options, financial covenants, amortization schedules and overall financial transparency. The team seeks to manage the risk of loss with what it believes to be conservative financial projections that account for industry position, competitive dynamics and positioning within the capital structure. To determine the value of an investment opportunity the team uses multiple valuation metrics. The team looks for credit improvement potential, relative value within an issuer’s capital structure, catalysts for business improvement and potential value stemming from market or industry dislocations.

The Credit team generally determines the amount of assets invested in each issuer based on conviction, valuation and availability of supply. Based on the team’s analysis it divides the portfolio into three parts. Core investments are generally positions with stable to improving credit profiles and lower loan to value ratios. Spread investments are those where the team has an out-of-consensus view about a company’s credit improvement potential. Opportunistic investments are driven by market dislocations that have created a unique investment opportunity.



	As of December 31, 2015
Investment Strategy (Inception Date)	1 Year		3 Years	5 Years	10 Years	Inception
High Income (April 1, 2014)
Average Annual Gross Returns	2.02	%	—	—	—	2.59	%
BofA Merrill Lynch High Yield Master II Index	(4.64	)%	—	—	—	(2.94	)%

Developing World Team

Our Developing World team, which was formed in 2015 and is based in San Francisco, California, manages a single investment strategy. Lewis S. Kaufman is the portfolio manager for the Developing World strategy.

The Developing World team employs a fundamental investment process to construct a diversified portfolio of securities that offers exposure to developing world economies. In pursuit of this goal, the team generally invests substantially in companies domiciled in or economically tied to countries the team considers to have characteristics typical of the developing world. The team generally seeks to emphasize business value compounders, which it defines as financially sound, free cash flow generative companies with sound business models that are exposed to the growth potential of the developing world. The team may seek to mitigate currency volatility by emphasizing investments in countries and currencies that are less dependent on foreign capital. The Developing World team believes a portfolio of companies with these characteristics will be well positioned to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns over the long term.

The Developing World strategy began operations in June of 2015. Its gross return since composite inception (July 1, 2015) is (11.75)% compared to (17.35)% for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the same period.

Distribution, Investment Products and Client Relationships

The goal of our marketing, distribution and client service efforts is to establish and maintain a client base that is diversified by investment strategy, investment vehicle (for example, across mutual funds and separate accounts), distribution channel (for example, institutional, intermediary and retail) and geographic region.

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We focus our distribution and marketing efforts on institutions and on intermediaries that operate with institutional-like, centralized decision-making processes and longer-term investment horizons.

We have designed our distribution strategies and structured our distribution teams to use knowledgeable, seasoned marketing and client service professionals in a way intended to limit the time our investment professionals are required to spend in marketing and client service activities. We believe that minimizing other demands allows our portfolio managers and other investment professionals to focus their energies and attention on the investment decision-making process, which we believe enhances the opportunity to achieve superior investment returns.

Our distribution efforts are centrally managed by Dean J. Patenaude, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Distribution, who oversees and coordinates the efforts of our marketing and client service professionals. We are expanding our distribution efforts into non-U.S. markets, with our primary non-U.S. efforts focused currently on the United Kingdom, other European countries, Australia, Canada and certain Asian countries where we believe there is growing demand for global and non-U.S. investment strategies. In our non-U.S. distribution efforts, we use regional specialists who draw on the knowledge and expertise of our strategy-focused professionals. As of December 31, 2015, 14% of our total assets under management were sourced from clients located outside the United States.

Institutional Channel

Our institutional distribution channel includes traditional institutional clients, such as U.S.-registered mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective investment trusts we sub-advise; state and local governments; employee benefit plans including Taft-Hartley plans; foundations; and endowments. We offer our investment products to these types of institutional clients directly and by marketing our services to the investment consultants that advise them. As of December 31, 2015, approximately 39% of our assets under management were sourced through investment consultants, and no single consulting firm represented clients (including investors in Artisan Funds) having more than 7% of our assets under management.

Our institutional distribution channel also includes defined contribution/401(k) plans. An investor in the defined contribution/401(k) marketplace may access our services via Artisan Funds shares and separate accounts (including collective investment trusts). Although the vehicles utilized in the defined contribution marketplace continue to evolve, most of our defined contribution/401(k) assets under management are invested in Artisan Funds, shares of which are offered as an investment option on a number of 401(k) platforms. We include defined contribution/401(k) plan assets in our institutional distribution channel because we access these assets through investment consultants who advise defined contribution/401(k) plans and other institutional decision makers. As of December 31, 2015, our largest 401(k) plan provider relationship accounted for approximately 4% of our assets under management.

As of December 31, 2015, 65% of our assets under management were sourced through our institutional channel.

Intermediary Channel

We maintain relationships with a number of major brokerage firms and larger private banks. More broker-dealers have moved to an open architecture model under which they strive to offer “best-in-breed” investment strategies to their clients, as do the larger private banks and trust companies with which we have relationships. In those organizations, the process for identifying which funds to offer has been centralized to a relatively limited number of key decision-makers that exhibit institutional decision-making behavior, which we believe allows us to gain broad exposure to broker-dealer and private bank clients in a manner consistent with our distribution strategy. We also maintain relationships with a number of financial advisory firms that offer our investment products to their clients. These advisors range from relatively small firms to large organizations. We access high net worth individuals and other non-institutional or small institutional investors through these relationships.

As of December 31, 2015, approximately 30% of our assets under management were sourced through our intermediary channel, and our largest intermediary relationship represented approximately 3% of our assets under management.

Retail Channel

We primarily access retail investors indirectly through mutual fund supermarkets through which investors have the ability to purchase and redeem shares without another intermediary. The providers of mutual fund supermarkets typically have recommended lists that are effective in promoting purchases of shares of mutual funds included in the list. Investors can also invest directly in the series of Artisan Funds. Our subsidiary, Artisan Partners Distributors LLC, a registered broker-dealer, distributes shares of Artisan Funds. Publicity and reviews and rankings from Morningstar, Lipper and others are important in building the Artisan Partners brand, which is important in attracting retail investors. As a result, we publicize the ratings and rankings received by the series of Artisan Funds and work to ensure that potential retail investors have appropriate information to evaluate a potential investment in Artisan Funds. We do not generally use direct marketing campaigns as we believe that their cost outweighs their potential benefits.

As of December 31, 2015, approximately 5% of our assets under management were sourced from investors we categorize as retail investors.

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Access Through a Range of Investment Vehicles

Our clients access our investment strategies through a range of investment vehicles, including separate accounts and mutual funds. As of December 31, 2015, approximately 46% of our assets under management were in separate accounts, and Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds accounted for approximately 54% of our total assets under management.

Separate Accounts

We manage separate account assets within most of our investment strategies. As of December 31, 2015, we managed 217 separate accounts spanning 147 client relationships. Our separate account clients include pension and profit sharing plans, corporations, trusts, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, government entities, insurance companies, investment advisers, and private funds, as well as mutual funds, non-U.S. funds and collective investment trusts we sub-advise. We generally require a minimum account size of $20 million to $100 million, depending on the strategy, to manage a separate account. The separate accounts we manage include all or part of the portfolios of several U.S.-registered mutual funds and non-U.S.-based funds pursuant to sub-advisory agreements with their primary advisers. The institutions with which we enter into sub-advisory relationships include financial services companies supplementing their own product offerings with externally managed products. For these clients, the portfolio or sub-portfolio we manage is managed in accordance with one of our identified investment strategies. We also offer access to our Non-U.S. Growth, Value Equity, Global Equity, Global Opportunities and Developing World strategies through Artisan-branded collective investment trusts. The fees we charge our separate accounts vary by client, investment strategy and the size of the account and are accrued monthly, but generally are paid quarterly in arrears.

Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds

U.S. investors that do not meet our minimum account size for a separate account, or who otherwise prefer to invest through a mutual fund, can invest in our strategies through Artisan Funds. We serve as the investment adviser to each series of Artisan Funds, SEC-registered mutual funds that offer no-load, open-end share classes designed to meet the needs of a range of institutional and other investors. Each series of Artisan Funds corresponds to one of the investment strategies we offer to clients. In contrast to some mutual funds, investors in Artisan Funds pay no 12b-1 fees, which are fees charged to investors in addition to management fees to pay for marketing, advertising and distribution services associated with the mutual funds. Expenses for marketing, advertising and distribution services related to Artisan Funds, including payments to broker-dealers and other intermediaries, are paid out of the investment management fees we earn. We earn investment management fees, which are based on the average daily net assets of each Artisan Fund and are paid monthly, for serving as investment adviser to these funds.

We also serve as investment manager of Artisan Global Funds, a family of Ireland-based UCITS funds. Artisan Global Funds began operations in the first quarter of 2011 and offers shares to non-U.S. investors. Currently we offer a sub-fund of Artisan Global Funds corresponding to each of the Global Opportunities, Global Value, Global Equity, Value Equity and Emerging Markets strategies. As with Artisan Funds, investors in Artisan Global Funds do not pay fees for marketing, advertising and distribution services. Expenses for marketing, advertising and distribution services related to Artisan Global Funds, including payments to broker-dealers and other intermediaries, are paid out of the investment management fees we earn, which are based on the average daily net assets of each sub-fund and are generally paid quarterly.

Regulatory Environment and Compliance

Our business is subject to extensive regulation in the United States at the federal level and, to a lesser extent, the state level, as well as by self-regulatory organizations and outside the United States. Under these laws and regulations, agencies that regulate investment advisers have broad administrative powers, including the power to limit, restrict or prohibit an investment adviser from carrying on its business in the event that it fails to comply with such laws and regulations. Possible sanctions that may be imposed include the suspension of individual employees, limitations on engaging in certain lines of business for specified periods of time, revocation of investment adviser and other registrations, censures and fines.

SEC Regulation

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership and Artisan Partners UK LLP are registered with the SEC as investment advisers under the Advisers Act, and Artisan Funds and several of the investment companies we sub-advise are registered under the 1940 Act. The Advisers Act and the 1940 Act, together with the SEC’s regulations and interpretations thereunder, impose substantive and material restrictions and requirements on the operations of advisers and mutual funds. The Securities Act and the Exchange Act, along with the regulations and interpretations thereunder, impose additional restrictions and requirements on mutual funds. The SEC is authorized to institute proceedings and impose sanctions for violations of those Acts, ranging from fines and censures to termination of an adviser’s registration.

As an investment adviser, we have a fiduciary duty to our clients. The SEC has interpreted that duty to impose standards, requirements and limitations on, among other things: trading for proprietary, personal and client accounts; allocations of investment opportunities among clients; use of soft dollars; execution of transactions; and recommendations to clients. We manage accounts for our clients on a discretionary basis, with authority to buy and sell securities for each portfolio, select broker-dealers to execute trades and negotiate brokerage commission rates. In connection with certain of these transactions, we receive soft dollar credits from broker-dealers that have the effect of reducing certain of our expenses.

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All of our soft dollar arrangements are intended to be within the safe harbor provided by Section 28(e) of the Exchange Act. If our ability to use soft dollars were reduced or eliminated as a result of the implementation of statutory amendments or new regulations including regulations imposed by non-U.S. regulators, our operating expenses would increase.

As a registered adviser, we are subject to many additional requirements that cover, among other things, disclosure of information about our business to clients; maintenance of written policies and procedures; maintenance of extensive books and records; restrictions on the types of fees we may charge; custody of client assets; client privacy; advertising; and solicitation of clients. The SEC has authority to inspect any investment adviser and typically inspects a registered adviser periodically to determine whether the adviser is conducting its activities (i) in accordance with applicable laws, (ii) in a manner that is consistent with disclosures made to clients and (iii) with adequate systems and procedures to ensure compliance.

For the year ended December 31, 2015, 68% of our revenues were derived from our advisory services to investment companies registered under the 1940 Act, including 65% from our advisory services to Artisan Funds. The 1940 Act imposes significant requirements and limitations on a registered fund, including with respect to its capital structure, investments and transactions. While we exercise broad discretion over the day-to-day management of the business and affairs of Artisan Funds and the investment portfolios of Artisan Funds and the funds we sub-advise, our own operations are subject to oversight and management by each fund’s board of directors. Under the 1940 Act, a majority of the directors must not be “interested persons” with respect to us (sometimes referred to as the “independent director” requirement). The responsibilities of the board include, among other things, approving our investment management agreement with the fund; approving other service providers; determining the method of valuing assets; and monitoring transactions involving affiliates.

Our investment management agreements with these funds may be terminated by the funds on not more than 60 days’ notice, and are subject to annual renewal by each fund’s board after the initial term of one to two years. The 1940 Act also imposes on the investment adviser to a mutual fund a fiduciary duty with respect to the receipt of the adviser’s investment management fees. That fiduciary duty may be enforced by the SEC, by administrative action or by litigation by investors in the fund pursuant to a private right of action. The number of cases brought by investors pursuant to this private right of action has increased in recent years.

As required by the Advisers Act, our investment management agreements may not be assigned without the client’s consent. Under the 1940 Act, investment management agreements with registered funds (such as the mutual funds we manage) terminate automatically upon assignment. The term “assignment” is broadly defined and includes direct assignments as well as assignments that may be deemed to occur upon the transfer, directly or indirectly, of a controlling interest in us.

Artisan Partners Distributors LLC, our SEC-registered broker-dealer subsidiary, is subject to the SEC’s Uniform Net Capital Rule, which requires that at least a minimum part of a registered broker-dealer’s assets be kept in relatively liquid form. At December 31, 2015, Artisan Partners Distributors LLC had net capital of $153,664, which was $128,664 in excess of its required net capital of $25,000.

ERISA-Related Regulation

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership is a fiduciary under ERISA with respect to assets that we manage for benefit plan clients subject to ERISA. ERISA, regulations promulgated thereunder and applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code impose certain duties on persons who are fiduciaries under ERISA, prohibit certain transactions involving ERISA plan clients and provide monetary penalties for violations of these prohibitions.

Non-U.S. Regulation

In addition to the extensive regulation we are subject to in the United States, one of our subsidiaries, Artisan Partners UK LLP, is authorized and regulated by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, which is responsible for the conduct of business and supervision of financial firms in the United Kingdom. The Central Bank of Ireland imposes requirements on UCITS funds subject to regulation by it, including Artisan Global Funds, as do the regulators in certain other markets in which shares of Artisan Global Funds are offered for sale, and with which we are required to comply. We are also subject to regulation internationally by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, where we operate pursuant to orders of exemption, and by various Canadian regulatory authorities in the Canadian provinces where we operate pursuant to exemptions from registration. Our business is also subject to the rules and regulations of the countries in which we conduct investment management activities, including the countries in which our investment strategies make investments. We may become subject to additional regulatory demands in the future to the extent we expand our business in existing and new jurisdictions. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Industry—We are subject to extensive regulation” and “Risk Factors—Risks Related to our Industry—The regulatory environment in which we operate is subject to continual change, and regulatory developments designed to increase oversight may adversely affect our business.”

Competition

In order to grow our business, we must be able to compete effectively for assets under management. Historically, we have competed to attract assets to our management principally on the basis of:

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•	the performance of our investment strategies;


•	continuity of our investment professionals;


•	the quality of the service we provide to our clients; and


•	our brand recognition and reputation within the institutional investing community.

Our ability to continue to compete effectively will also depend upon our ability to retain our current investment professionals and employees and to attract highly qualified new investment professionals and employees. We compete in all aspects of our business with a large number of investment management firms, commercial banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies and other financial institutions. For additional information concerning the competitive risks that we face, see “Risks Factors—Risks Related to Our Industry—The investment management industry is intensely competitive.”

Operations, Systems and Technology

With respect to our equity strategies, we perform middle- and back-office functions internally, generally using third-party software and technology for functions such as trade confirmation, trade settlement, custodian reconciliations, corporate action processing, performance calculation and client reporting, customized as necessary to support our investment processes and operations. With respect to our High Income strategy, which is currently our only fixed income strategy, we outsource most of the middle- and back-office functions to service providers that we supervise. Artisan Funds and Artisan Global Funds outsource the functions of custodian, transfer agent and portfolio accounting agent to third parties whose services to Artisan Funds or Artisan Global Funds we supervise. We also have back-up and disaster recovery systems in place.

Employees

As of December 31, 2015, we employed approximately 370 full-time and part-time employees. None of our employees is subject to collective bargaining agreements. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good and have not experienced interruptions of operations due to labor disagreements.

Our Structure and Reorganization

Holding Company Structure

We are a holding company and our assets principally consist of our ownership of partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings, deferred tax assets and cash. As the sole general partner of Artisan Partners Holdings, we operate and control all of its business and affairs, subject to certain voting rights of its limited partners. We conduct all of our business activities through operating subsidiaries of Artisan Partners Holdings. Net profits and net losses are allocated based on the ownership of partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings. As of December 31, 2015, we owned approximately 54% of Artisan Partners Holdings, and the other 46% was owned by the limited partners of Artisan Partners Holdings.

The historical consolidated financial statements presented and discussed elsewhere in this document are the combined and consolidated results of Artisan Partners Asset Management and Artisan Partners Holdings. Because Artisan Partners Asset Management and Artisan Partners Holdings were under common control at the time of our IPO reorganization in March 2013, Artisan Partners Asset Management’s acquisition of control of Artisan Partners Holdings was accounted for as a transaction among entities under common control. Artisan Partners Asset Management has been allocated a part of Artisan Partners Holdings’ net income since March 12, 2013, when it became Artisan Partners Holdings’ general partner as part of the IPO reorganization discussed below.

IPO Reorganization

In March 2013, we completed our IPO. In connection with the IPO, we and Artisan Partners Holdings completed a series of reorganization transactions, which we refer to as the IPO Reorganization, in order to reorganize our capital structures in preparation for the IPO. The IPO Reorganization was designed to create a capital structure that preserves our ability to conduct our business through Artisan Partners Holdings, while permitting us to raise additional capital and provide access to liquidity through a public company. Multiple classes of securities at the public company level were necessary to achieve those objectives and maintain a corporate governance structure consistent with that of Artisan Partners Holdings prior to the IPO Reorganization. The IPO Reorganization included, among other changes, the following:


•	Our appointment as the sole general partner of Artisan Partners Holdings.

•

The modification of our capital structure into three classes of common stock and a series of convertible preferred stock. We issued shares of our Class B common stock, Class C common stock and convertible preferred stock to pre-IPO partners of Artisan Partners Holdings. Each share of Class B common stock corresponds to a Class B common unit of Artisan Partners Holdings. Each share of Class C common stock corresponds to either a Class A, Class D or Class E common unit of Artisan Partners Holdings. Subject to certain restrictions, each common unit of Artisan Partners Holdings (together with the corresponding share of Class B or Class C common stock) is exchangeable for a share of our Class A common stock.

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•

A corporation (“H&F Corp”) merged with and into Artisan Partners Asset Management, which we refer to in this document as the H&F Corp Merger. As consideration for the merger, the shareholder of H&F Corp received shares of our convertible preferred stock, contingent value rights, or CVRs, issued by Artisan Partners Asset Management and the right to receive an amount of cash. In November 2013, the CVRs issued by Artisan Partners Asset Management were terminated with no amounts paid or payable thereunder. In June 2014, the shareholder of H&F Corp converted all of its then-remaining shares of convertible preferred stock into shares of Class A common stock and sold those shares. We no longer have any outstanding shares of convertible preferred stock, and Artisan Partners Holdings no longer has any outstanding preferred units.


•	The voting and certain other rights of each class of limited partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings were modified. In addition, Artisan Partners Holdings issued CVRs to the holders of the preferred units. In November 2013, the CVRs issued by Artisan Partners Holdings were terminated with no amounts paid or payable thereunder.

•

We entered into two tax receivable agreements (“TRAs”), one with the pre-H&F Corp Merger shareholder of H&F Corp (“Pre-H&F Merger Shareholder”) and the other with each limited partner of Artisan Partners Holdings. Pursuant to the first TRA, we will pay to the Pre-H&F Merger Shareholder a portion of certain tax benefits we realize as a result of the H&F Corp Merger. Pursuant to the second TRA, we will pay to certain limited partners of Artisan Partners Holdings a portion of certain tax benefits we realize as a result of the purchase or exchange of their limited partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings.

The diagram below depicts our organizational structure as of December 31, 2015:

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(1)	Our employees to whom we have granted equity have entered into a stockholders agreement with respect to all shares of our common stock they have acquired from us and any shares they may acquire from us in the future, pursuant to which they granted an irrevocable voting proxy to a stockholders committee currently consisting of Eric R. Colson (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Charles J. Daley (Chief Financial Officer) and Gregory K. Ramirez (Executive Vice President). The stockholders committee, by vote of a majority of the members, will determine the vote of all of the shares subject to the stockholders agreement. In addition to owning all of the shares of our Class B common stock, our employees owned unvested restricted shares of our Class A common stock representing approximately 7% of our outstanding Class A common stock as of December 31, 2015.
(2)	Each share of Class B common stock initially entitles its holder to five votes per share. The stockholders committee holds an irrevocable proxy to vote the shares of our common stock held by the Class B common stockholders.
(3)	Each class of common units generally entitles its holders to the same economic and voting rights in Artisan Partners Holdings as each other class of common units, except that the Class E common units have no voting rights except as required by law.

Available Information

Our principal executive offices are located at 875 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 800, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202. Our telephone number at this address is (414) 390-6100 and our website address is www.artisanpartners.com. We make available free of charge through our website all of the materials we file or furnish with the SEC as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file or furnish such materials with the SEC. Information contained on our website is not part of, nor is it incorporated by reference into, this Form 10-K. The company was incorporated in Wisconsin on March 21, 2011 and converted to a Delaware corporation on October 29, 2012.

The public may read and copy any of the materials we file with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. Information on the operation of the Public Reference Room may be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330. The SEC also maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxies and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

An investment in our Class A common stock involves substantial risks and uncertainties. You should carefully consider each of the risks below, together with all of the other information contained in this document, before deciding to invest in shares of our Class A common stock. If any of the following risks develops into an actual event, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be negatively affected, the market price of your shares could decline and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to our Business

The loss of key investment professionals or members of our senior management team could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, a substantial portion of our total assets under management is in six of our strategies, several of which are closed to most new investors and client relationships.

We depend on the skills and expertise of our portfolio managers and other investment professionals and our success depends on our ability to retain the key members of our investment teams, who possess substantial experience in investing and have been primarily responsible for the historically strong investment performance we have achieved. Mark L. Yockey is the sole portfolio manager for our largest strategy, the Non-U.S. Growth strategy, which represented $30.2 billion, or 30%, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015. Charles-Henri Hamker and Andrew J. Euretig are associate portfolio managers of the Non-U.S. Growth strategy. Our Non-U.S. Value strategy, which represented $16.3 billion, or 16%, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015, is managed by co-managers N. David Samra (lead manager) and Daniel J. O’Keefe. Mr. O’Keefe (lead manager) and Mr. Samra also co-manage our Global Value strategy, which represented $13.9 billion, or 14%, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015. James D. Hamel, Matthew A. Kamm, Craigh A. Cepukenas and Jason White are portfolio co-managers of our U.S. Mid-Cap Growth (of which Mr. Kamm is lead manager) and Global Opportunities (of which Mr. Hamel is lead manager) strategies, which represented $15.1 billion, or 15%, and $7.6 billion, or 8%, respectively, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015.The U.S. Mid-Cap Value strategy, of which James C. Kieffer, Scott C. Satterwhite, George O. Sertl and Daniel L. Kane are co-managers, represented $8.0 billion, or 8%, of our assets under management as of December 31, 2015. In September 2013, Mr. Satterwhite provided his three-year advance retirement notice.

Because of the long tenure and stability of our portfolio managers, our clients generally attribute the investment performance we have achieved to these individuals. The departure of a portfolio manager, even for strategies with multiple portfolio managers, could cause clients to withdraw funds from the strategy which would reduce our assets under management, investment management fees and our net income, and these reductions could be material if our assets under management in that strategy and the related revenues were material.

The departure of a portfolio manager also could cause consultants and intermediaries to stop recommending a strategy, and clients to refrain from allocating additional funds to the strategy or delay such additional funds until a sufficient new track record has been established. We also depend on the contributions of our senior management team led by Eric R. Colson, and our senior marketing and client service personnel have direct contact with our institutional clients and consultants and other key individuals within each of our distribution channels.

The loss of any of these key professionals could limit our ability to successfully execute our business strategy and may prevent us from sustaining the historically strong investment performance we have achieved or adversely affect our ability to retain existing and attract new client assets and related revenues.

Any of our investment or management professionals may resign at any time, join our competitors or form a competing company. Although many of our portfolio managers and each of our named executive officers are subject to post-employment non-compete obligations, these non-competition provisions may not be enforceable or may not be enforceable to their full extent. In addition, we may agree to waive non-competition provisions or other restrictive covenants applicable to former investment or management professionals in light of the circumstances surrounding their relationship with us. We do not carry “key man” insurance that would provide us with proceeds in the event of the death or disability of any of the key members of our investment or management teams.

Competition for qualified investment, management and marketing and client service professionals is intense and we may fail to successfully attract and retain qualified personnel in the future. Our ability to attract and retain these personnel will depend heavily on the amount and structure of compensation and opportunities for equity ownership we offer. Any cost-reduction initiative or adjustments or reductions to compensation or changes to our equity ownership culture could negatively impact our ability to retain key personnel. Generally, an employee-partner that exchanged and sold the maximum number of Class B common units that he or she was entitled to sell during each one-year period beginning in March 2014 would hold, at December 31, 2018, approximately 44% of his or her beginning Class B common units. In addition, changes to our management structure, corporate culture and corporate governance arrangements could negatively impact our ability to retain key personnel.

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If we are unable to maintain our investment culture or compensation levels for investment professionals, we may be unable to attract, develop and retain talented investment professionals, which could negatively impact the performance of our investment strategies, our financial results and our ability to grow.

Attracting, developing and retaining talented investment professionals is an essential component of our business strategy. To do so, it is critical that we continue to foster an environment and provide compensation that is attractive for our existing investment professionals and for prospective investment professionals. If we are unsuccessful in maintaining such an environment (for instance, because of changes in management structure, corporate culture, corporate governance arrangements, or applicable laws and regulations) or compensation levels for any reason, our existing investment professionals may leave our firm or fail to produce their best work on a consistent, long-term basis and/or we may be unsuccessful in attracting talented new investment professionals, any of which could negatively impact the performance of our investment strategies, our financial results and our ability to grow.

If our investment strategies perform poorly, clients could withdraw their funds and we could suffer a decline in our assets under management and/or become subject to litigation, which would reduce our earnings.

The performance of our investment strategies is critical in retaining existing client assets as well as attracting new client assets. If our investment strategies perform poorly for any reason, our earnings could decline because:


•	Our existing clients may withdraw funds from our investment strategies or terminate their relationships with us.


•	The Morningstar and Lipper ratings and rankings of mutual funds we manage may decline, which may adversely affect the ability of those funds to attract new or retain existing assets.


•	Third-party financial intermediaries, advisors or consultants may rate our investment products poorly, which may lead our existing clients to withdraw funds from our investment strategies or reduce asset inflows from these third parties or their clients.

Our investment strategies can perform poorly for a number of reasons, including general market conditions; investor sentiment about market and economic conditions; investment styles and philosophies; investment decisions; the performance of the companies in which our investment strategies invest and the currencies in which those investment are made; the liquidity of securities or instruments in which our investment strategies invest; and our inability to identify sufficient appropriate investment opportunities for existing and new client assets on a timely basis. In addition, while we seek to deliver long-term value to our clients, volatility may lead to under-performance in the near term, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

In contrast, when our strategies experience strong results relative to the market, clients’ allocations to our strategies typically increase relative to their other investments and we sometimes experience withdrawals as our clients rebalance their investments to fit their asset allocation preferences despite our strong results.

While clients do not have legal recourse against us solely on the basis of poor investment results, if our investment strategies perform poorly, we are more likely to become subject to litigation brought by dissatisfied clients. In addition, to the extent clients are successful in claiming that their losses resulted from fraud, negligence, willful misconduct, breach of contract or other similar misconduct, these clients may have remedies against us, the mutual funds and other funds we advise and/or our investment professionals under various U.S. and non-U.S. laws.

The historical returns of our existing investment strategies may not be indicative of their future results or of the investment strategies we may develop in the future.

The historical returns of our strategies and the ratings and rankings we or the mutual funds that we advise have received in the past should not be considered indicative of the future results of these strategies or of any other strategies that we may develop in the future. The investment performance we achieve for our clients varies over time and the variance can be wide. The ratings and rankings we or the mutual funds we advise have received are typically revised monthly. Our strategies’ returns have benefited during some periods from investment opportunities and positive economic and market conditions. In other periods, general economic and market conditions have negatively affected investment opportunities and our strategies’ returns. These negative conditions may occur again, and in the future we may not be able to identify and invest in profitable investment opportunities within our current or future strategies.

Difficult market conditions can adversely affect our business in many ways, including by reducing the value of our assets under management and causing clients to withdraw funds, each of which could materially reduce our revenues and adversely affect our financial condition.

The fees we earn under our investment management agreements are typically based on the market value of our assets under management, and to a much lesser extent based directly on investment performance. Investors in the mutual funds we advise can redeem their investments in those funds at any time without prior notice and our clients may reduce the aggregate amount of assets under management with us with minimal or no notice for any reason, including financial market conditions and the absolute or relative investment performance we achieve for our clients. In addition, the prices of the securities held in the portfolios we manage may decline due to any number of factors beyond our control, including, among others, a declining market, general economic downturn, political uncertainty or acts of terrorism. In connection with the severe market dislocations of 2008

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and 2009, for example, the value of our assets under management declined substantially due primarily to the sizeable decline in stock prices worldwide. In the period from June 30, 2008 through March 31, 2009, our assets under management decreased by approximately 43%, primarily as a result of general market conditions. The growth of our assets under management since 2009 benefited from the prolonged bull market in equity securities around the world. That prolonged bull market may increase the likelihood of a severe or prolonged downturn in world-wide equity prices which would directly reduce the value of our assets under management and could also accelerate client redemptions or withdrawals.

If any of these factors cause a decline in our assets under management, it would result in lower investment management fees. If our revenues decline without a commensurate reduction in our expenses, our net income will be reduced.

The significant growth we have experienced over the past decade has been and may continue to be difficult to sustain.

Our assets under management increased from $44.8 billion as of December 31, 2005 to $99.8 billion as of December 31, 2015. The absolute measure of our assets under management represents a significant rate of growth that has been and may continue to be difficult to sustain. For instance, between June 30, 2014, and December 31, 2015, our assets under management declined from $112.0 billion to $99.8 billion. The continued long-term growth of our business will depend on, among other things, retaining key investment professionals, attracting and recruiting new investment professionals, maintaining existing investment strategies and selectively developing new, value-added investment strategies. Our business growth will also depend on our success in achieving superior investment performance from our investment strategies, as well as our ability to maintain and extend our distribution capabilities, to deal with changing market conditions, to maintain adequate financial and business controls and to comply with new legal and regulatory requirements arising in response to both the increased sophistication of the investment management industry and the significant market and economic events of the last decade.

We may not be able to manage our growing business effectively or be able to sustain the level of long-term growth we have achieved historically.

Our efforts to establish and develop new teams and strategies may be unsuccessful and will likely negatively impact our results of operations and could negatively impact our reputation and culture.

We seek to add new investment teams that invest in a way that is consistent with our philosophy of offering high value-added investment strategies and would allow us to grow strategically. We also look to offer new strategies managed by our existing teams. We expect the costs associated with establishing a new team and or strategy initially to exceed the revenues generated, which will likely negatively impact our results of operations. New strategies, whether managed by a new team or by an existing team may invest in instruments (such as certain types of derivatives) or present operational (including legal and regulatory) issues and risks with which we have little or no experience. Our lack of experience could strain our resources and increase the likelihood of an error or failure. The establishment of new teams and/or strategies (in particular, alternative investment teams or strategies) may also cause us to depart from our traditional compensation and economic model, which could reduce our profitability and harm our firm’s culture.

In addition, the historical returns of our existing investment strategies may not be indicative of the investment performance of any new strategy, and the poor performance of any new strategy could negatively impact our reputation and the reputation of our other investment strategies.

We may support the development of new strategies by making one or more seed investments using capital that would otherwise be available for our general corporate purposes. Making such a seed investment would expose us to capital losses.

Failure to properly address conflicts of interest could harm our reputation or cause clients to withdraw funds, each of which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The SEC and other regulators have increased their scrutiny of potential conflicts of interest, and we have implemented procedures and controls that we believe are reasonably designed to address these issues. However, appropriately dealing with conflicts of interest is complex and if we fail, or appear to fail, to deal appropriately with conflicts of interest, we could face reputational damage, litigation or regulatory proceedings or penalties, any of which may adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, as we expand the scope of our business and our client base, we must continue to monitor and address any conflicts between the interests of our stockholders and those of our clients. Our clients may withdraw funds if they perceive conflicts of interest between the investment decisions we make for strategies in which they have invested and our obligations to our stockholders. For example, we may limit the growth of assets in or close strategies or otherwise take action to slow the flow of assets when we believe it is in the best interest of our clients even though our aggregate assets under management and investment management fees may be negatively impacted in the short term. Similarly, we may establish or add new investment teams or strategies or expand operations into other geographic areas or jurisdictions if we believe such actions are in the best interest of our clients, even though our profitability may be adversely affected in the short term. Although we believe such actions enable us to retain client assets and maintain our fee schedules and profit margins, which benefits both our clients and stockholders, if clients perceive a change in our investment or operations decisions in favor of a strategy to maximize short term results, they may withdraw funds, which could adversely affect our investment management fees.

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Several of our investment strategies invest principally in the securities of non-U.S. companies, which involve foreign currency exchange, tax, political, social and economic uncertainties and risks.

As of December 31, 2015, approximately 47% of our assets under management across our investment strategies were invested in strategies that primarily invest in securities of non-U.S. companies. In addition, some of our other strategies also invest on a more limited basis in securities of non-U.S. companies. Approximately 43% of our assets under management were invested in securities denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates could negatively affect the returns of our clients who are invested in these strategies. In addition, an increase in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to non-U.S. currencies is likely to result in a decrease in the U.S. dollar value of our assets under management, which, in turn, would likely result in lower revenue and profits. See “Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures Regarding Market Risk-Exchange Rate Risk” in Item 7A of this report for more information about exchange rate risk.

Investments in non-U.S. issuers may also be affected by tax positions taken in countries or regions in which we are invested as well as political, social and economic uncertainty. Declining tax revenues may cause governments to assert their ability to tax the local gains and/or income of foreign investors (including our clients), which could adversely affect clients’ interests in investing outside their home markets. Many financial markets are not as developed, or as efficient, as the U.S. financial markets, and, as a result, those markets may have limited liquidity and higher price volatility, and may lack established regulations. Liquidity may also be adversely affected by political or economic events, government policies, and social or civil unrest within a particular country, and our ability to dispose of an investment may also be adversely affected if we increase the size of our investments in smaller non-U.S. issuers. Non-U.S. legal and regulatory environments, including financial accounting standards and practices, may also be different, and there may be less publicly available information about such companies. These risks could adversely affect the performance of our strategies that are invested in securities of non-U.S. issuers and may be particularly acute in the emerging or less developed markets in which we invest. In addition to our Emerging Markets and Developing World strategies, a number of our other investment strategies are permitted to invest, and do invest, in emerging or less developed markets.

We may not be able to maintain our current fee structure as a result of poor investment performance, competitive pressures, as a result of changes in our business mix or for other reasons, which could have a material adverse effect on our profit margins and results of operations.

We may not be able to maintain our current fee structure for any number of reasons, including as a result of poor investment performance, competitive pressures, changes in global markets and asset classes, or as a result of changes in our business mix. Although our investment management fees vary by client and investment strategy, we historically have been successful in maintaining an attractive overall rate of fee and profit margin due to the strength of our investment performance and our focus on high value-added investment strategies. In recent years, however, there has been a general trend toward lower fees in the investment management industry, and some of our investment strategies that tend to invest in larger-capitalization companies and were designed to have larger capacity and to appeal to larger clients, have lower fee schedules. In order to maintain our fee structure in a competitive environment, we must retain the ability to decline additional assets to manage from potential clients who demand lower fees even though our revenues may be adversely affected in the short term. In addition, we must be able to continue to provide clients with investment returns and service that our clients believe justify our fees.

If our investment strategies perform poorly, we may be forced to lower our fees in order to retain current, and attract additional, assets to manage. We may not succeed in providing the investment returns and service that will allow us to maintain our current fee structure. We may also make fee concessions in order to attract early investors in a strategy or increase marketing momentum in a strategy. Downward pressure on fees may also result from the growth and evolution of the universe of potential investments in a market or asset class. For example, prevailing fee rates for managing portfolios of emerging markets securities have declined as those markets and the universe of potential investments in emerging markets companies have grown. In the first quarter of 2013, we reduced the rates of our standard fee schedule for managing assets in our Emerging Markets strategy. Changes in how clients choose to access asset management services may also exert downward pressure on fees. Some investment consultants, for example, have implemented programs in which the consultant provides a range of services, including selection, in a fiduciary capacity, of asset managers to serve as sub-adviser at lower fee rates than the manager’s otherwise applicable rates, with the expectation of a larger amount of assets under management through that consultant. The expansion of those and similar programs could, over time, make it more difficult for us to maintain our fee rates. Over time, a larger part of our assets under management could be invested in our larger capacity, lower fee strategies, which could adversely affect our profitability. In addition, plan sponsors of 401(k) and other defined contribution assets that we manage may choose to invest plan assets in vehicles with lower cost structures than mutual funds (such as a collective investment trust, if one is available) or may choose to access our services through a separate account. We provide a lesser array of services to collective investment trusts and separate accounts than we provide to Artisan Funds and we receive fees at lower rates.

The investment management agreements pursuant to which we advise mutual funds are terminable on short notice and, after an initial term, are subject to an annual process of review and renewal by the funds’ boards. As part of that annual review process, the fund board considers, among other things, the level of compensation that the fund has been paying us for our services, and that process may result in the renegotiation of our fee structure or increase the cost of our performance of our obligations. Any fee reductions on existing or future new business could have an adverse effect on our profit margins and results of operations.

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We derive substantially all of our revenues from contracts and relationships that may be terminated upon short or no notice.

We derive substantially all of our revenues from investment advisory and sub-advisory agreements, all of which are terminable by clients upon short notice or no notice. Our investment management agreements with mutual funds, as required by law, are generally terminable by the funds’ boards or a vote of a majority of the funds’ outstanding voting securities on not more than 60 days’ written notice. After an initial term, each fund’s investment management agreement must be approved and renewed annually by that fund’s board, including by its independent members. In addition, all of our separate account clients and some of the mutual funds that we sub-advise have the ability to re-allocate all or any portion of the assets that we manage away from us at any time with little or no notice. These investment management agreements and client relationships may be terminated or not renewed for any number of reasons. The decrease in revenues that could result from the termination of a material client relationship or group of client relationships could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Investors in the pooled vehicles that we advise can redeem their investments in those funds at any time without prior notice, which could adversely affect our earnings.

Investors in the mutual funds and some other pooled investment vehicles that we advise or sub-advise may redeem their investments in those funds at any time without prior notice and investors in other types of pooled vehicles we sub-advise may typically redeem their investments on fairly limited or no prior notice, thereby reducing our assets under management. These investors may redeem for any number of reasons, including general financial market conditions, the absolute or relative investment performance we have achieved, or their own financial condition and requirements. In a declining stock market, the pace of redemptions could accelerate. Poor investment performance relative to other funds tends to result in decreased purchases and increased redemptions of fund shares. For the year ended December 31, 2015, we generated approximately 80% of our revenues from advising mutual funds and other pooled vehicles (including Artisan Funds, Artisan Global Funds, and other entities for which we are adviser or sub-adviser), and the redemption of investments in those funds would adversely affect our revenues and could have a material adverse effect on our earnings.

We depend on third parties to market our investment strategies.

Our ability to attract additional assets to manage is highly dependent on our access to third-party intermediaries. We gain access to investors in Artisan Funds primarily through consultants, 401(k) platforms, mutual fund platforms, broker-dealers and financial advisors through which shares of the funds are sold. We have relationships with some third-party intermediaries through which we access clients in multiple distribution channels. Our two largest intermediary relationships across multiple distribution channels represented approximately 11% and 9% of our total assets under management as of December 31, 2015.

We compensate most of the intermediaries through which we gain access to investors in Artisan Funds by paying fees, most of which are a percentage of assets invested in Artisan Funds through that intermediary and with respect to which that intermediary provides shareholder and administrative services. The allocation of such fees between us and Artisan Funds is determined by the board of Artisan Funds, based on information and a recommendation from us, with the goal of allocating to us all costs attributable to marketing and distribution of shares of Artisan Funds. In the third quarter of 2014, the portion of those fees allocated to us was increased, which increased our expenses.

In the future, our expenses in connection with those intermediary relationships could further increase if the portion of those fees determined to be in connection with marketing and distribution, or otherwise allocated to us, increased. Clients of these intermediaries may not continue to be accessible to us on terms we consider commercially reasonable, or at all. The absence of such access could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We access institutional clients primarily through consultants. Our institutional business is highly dependent upon referrals from consultants. Many of these consultants review and evaluate our products and our firm from time to time. As of December 31, 2015, the investment consultant advising the largest portion of our assets under management represented approximately 7% of our total assets under management. Poor reviews or evaluations of either a particular strategy or us as an investment management firm may result in client withdrawals or may impair our ability to attract new assets through these intermediaries.

Substantially all of our existing assets under management are managed in long-only, equity investment strategies, which exposes us to greater risk than certain of our competitors who may manage significant amounts of assets in non-long only or non-equity strategies.

Fourteen of our 15 existing investment strategies invest primarily in long positions in publicly-traded equity securities. Our High Income strategy, which accounted for only $1.0 billion of our $99.8 billion in total assets under management as of December 31, 2015, invests in fixed income securities. Under market conditions in which there is a general decline in the value of equity securities, the assets under management in each of our 14 equity strategies is likely to decline. Unlike some of our competitors, we do not currently offer strategies that invest in privately-held companies or take short positions in equity securities, which could offset some of the poor performance of our long-only, equity strategies under such market conditions. Even if our investment performance remains strong during such market conditions relative to other long-only, equity strategies, investors may choose to withdraw assets from our management or allocate a larger portion of their assets to non-long-only or non-equity strategies. In addition, the prices of equity securities may fluctuate more widely than the prices of other types of securities, making the level of our assets under management and related revenues more volatile.

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Our failure to comply with investment guidelines set by our clients, including the boards of funds, and limitations imposed by applicable law, could result in damage awards against us and a loss of our assets under management, either of which could adversely affect our results of operations or financial condition.

When clients retain us to manage assets on their behalf, they generally specify certain guidelines regarding investment allocation and strategy that we are required to follow in managing their portfolios. The boards of funds we manage generally establish similar guidelines regarding the investment of assets in those funds. In general, we have experienced an increase in client-imposed guidelines. We are also required to invest the U.S. mutual funds’ assets in accordance with limitations under the 1940 Act and applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code. Other clients, such as plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended, or ERISA, or non-U.S. clients, require us to invest their assets in accordance with applicable law. Our failure to comply with any of these guidelines and other limitations could result in losses to clients or investors in a fund which, depending on the circumstances, could result in our obligation to reimburse clients or fund investors for such losses. If we believed that the circumstances did not justify a reimbursement, or clients and investors believed the reimbursement we offered was insufficient, they could seek to recover damages from us or could withdraw assets from our management or terminate their investment management agreement with us. Any of these events could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.

Operational risks may disrupt our business, result in losses or limit our growth.

We are heavily dependent on the capacity and reliability of the communications, information and technology systems supporting our operations, whether developed, owned and operated by us or by third parties. We also rely on manual workflows and a variety of manual user controls. Operational risks such as trading or other operational errors or interruption of our financial, accounting, trading, compliance and other data processing systems, whether caused by human error, fire, other natural disaster or pandemic, power or telecommunications failure, cyber-attack or viruses, act of terrorism or war or otherwise, could result in a disruption of our business, liability to clients, regulatory intervention or reputational damage, and thus materially adversely affect our business. The potential for some types of operational risks, including, for example, trading errors, may be increased in periods of increased volatility, which can magnify the cost of an error. Although we have not suffered material operational errors, including material trading errors, in the past, we may experience such errors in the future, which could be material and the losses related to which we would be required to absorb. Insurance and other safeguards might not be available or might only partially reimburse us for our losses.

Although we have back-up systems in place, our back-up procedures and capabilities in the event of a failure or interruption may not be adequate, and the fact that we operate our business out of multiple physical locations may make such failures and interruptions difficult to address on a timely and adequate basis. As our client base, number and complexity of investment strategies, client relationships and/or physical locations increase, and as our employees become increasingly mobile, developing and maintaining our operational systems and infrastructure may become increasingly challenging.

Any changes, upgrades or expansions to our operations and/or technology or implementation of new technology systems to replace manual workflows or to accommodate increased volumes or complexity of transactions or otherwise may require significant expenditures and may increase the probability that we will experience operational errors or suffer system degradations and failures. If we are unsuccessful in executing upgrades, expansions or implementations, we may instead have to hire additional employees, which could increase operational risk due to human error.

We depend substantially on our Milwaukee, Wisconsin office, where a majority of our employees, administration and technology resources are located, for the continued operation of our business. Any significant disruption to that office could have a material adverse effect on us. We also depend on a number of key vendors for various fund administration, accounting, custody and transfer agent roles and other operational needs. The failure of any key vendor to fulfill its obligations could result in financial losses for us and/or our clients.

Our operational systems and networks are subject to evolving cybersecurity or other technological risks, which could result in the disclosure of confidential client information, loss of our proprietary information, business interruptions, damage to our reputation, additional costs to us, regulatory penalties and other adverse impacts.

We are heavily reliant upon internal and third party technology systems and networks to view, process, transmit and store information, including sensitive client and proprietary information, and to conduct many of our business activities and transactions with our clients, vendors/service providers (collectively, “vendors”) and other third parties. Maintaining the integrity of these systems and networks is critical to the success of our business operations and to the protection of our proprietary information and our clients’ information. We rely on our (and our vendors’) information and cybersecurity infrastructure, policies, procedures and capabilities to protect those systems and the data that reside on or are transmitted through them.

To date, we have not experienced any material breaches of or interference with our systems and networks; however, we routinely encounter and address such threats. Our experiences with and preparation for cybersecurity and technology threats have included phishing scams, introductions of malware, attempts at electronic break-ins, and unauthorized payment requests. Any such breaches or interference that may occur in the future could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

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We are subject to international, federal and state regulations, and in some cases contractual obligations, that require us to establish and maintain policies and procedures designed to protect sensitive client, employee, contractor and vendor information. The increasing reliance on technology systems and networks and the occurrence and potential adverse impact of attacks on such systems and networks, both generally and in the financial services industry, have enhanced government and regulatory scrutiny of the measures taken by companies to protect against cybersecurity threats. As these threats, and government and regulatory oversight of associated risks, continue to evolve, we may be required to expend additional resources to enhance or expand upon the security measures we currently maintain.

Despite the measures we have taken and may in the future take to address and mitigate cybersecurity and technology risks, we cannot guarantee that our systems and networks will not be subject to breaches or interference. In particular, although we take precautions to password protect and encrypt our mobile electronic devices, if such devices are stolen or misplaced, they may become vulnerable to hacking or other unauthorized use, creating a possible security risk. Any such event may result in operational disruptions as well as unauthorized access to or the disclosure, corruption or loss of our proprietary information or our clients’ or employees’ information, which in turn may result in legal claims, regulatory scrutiny and liability, reputational damage, the incurrence of costs to eliminate or mitigate further exposure, or the loss of clients or other damage to our business. In addition, the trend toward broad consumer and general public notification of such incidents could exacerbate the harm to our business, financial condition or results of operations. Even if we successfully protect our technology infrastructure and the confidentiality of sensitive data, we may incur significant expenses in connection with our responses to any such attacks and the adoption and maintenance of additional appropriate security measures. We cannot be certain that advances in criminal capabilities, discovery of new vulnerabilities, attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in our or our vendors’ systems, data thefts, physical system or network break-ins or inappropriate access, or other developments will not compromise or breach the technology or other security measures protecting the networks and systems used in connection with our business.

The High Income strategy, which we launched in 2014, presents certain investment, operational and other risks that are different in kind and/or degree from those presented by our other investment strategies, and we have less experience with those risks.

In order to establish our first fixed income strategy, the High Income strategy, which we launched in 2014, we developed, and contracted with third parties for, the operational infrastructure and systems necessary to operate a fixed income strategy, including infrastructure and systems for trading and valuing fixed income securities and other credit instruments. Prior to the launch of the strategy, we had not previously operated a fixed income strategy, and the new strategy primarily invests in securities and other instruments (such as high yield corporate bonds, secured and unsecured loans, revolving credit facilities and loan participations) with which we had no or limited operational experience. The below-investment-grade instruments in which the High Income strategy invests and the debtors to which the strategy is exposed present different risks and/or degrees of risk (including liquidity and legal risks) than our other strategies, which invest primarily in publicly-traded equity securities. In particular, the instruments in which the strategy invests may be less liquid than higher-rated bonds and are not as liquid as most of the publicly-traded equity securities in which our other strategies primarily invest. This potential lack of liquidity may make it more difficult for Artisan High Income Fund to accurately value these securities for purposes of determining the fund’s net asset value per share and, under certain circumstances, may make it more difficult for the fund to manage redemption requests. In order to identify, monitor and mitigate our exposure to these new or increased risks, we have implemented or modified a number of policies, procedures and systems and hired new individuals with relevant experience. However, neither the measures we have taken, nor the Credit team’s investment decision-making and execution, can eliminate the risks associated with investing in the instruments described above. Any real or perceived problems with respect to our High Income strategy (or any of our individual strategies) could negatively impact our reputation and business more generally.

In addition, the High Income strategy and other future strategies may invest in additional instruments (such as credit default swaps and other types of derivative instruments) or present other operational (including legal and regulatory) issues and risks with which we have little or no experience.

Employee misconduct, or perceived misconduct, could expose us to significant legal liability and/or reputational harm.

We are vulnerable to reputational harm because we operate in an industry in which integrity and the confidence of our clients are of critical importance. Our employees could engage in misconduct (such as fraud or unauthorized trading), or perceived misconduct, that adversely affects our business. For example, if an employee were to engage in illegal or suspicious activities, we could be subject to regulatory sanctions and suffer serious harm to our reputation (as a consequence of the negative perception resulting from such activities), financial position, client relationships and ability to attract new clients. Our business often requires that we deal with confidential information. If our employees were to improperly use or disclose this information, even if inadvertently we could suffer serious harm to our reputation, financial position and current and future business relationships. It is not always possible to deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent this activity may not always be effective. Misconduct or perceived misconduct by our employees, or even unsubstantiated allegations of such conduct, could result in significant legal liability and/or an adverse effect on our reputation and our business.

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If our techniques for managing risk are ineffective, we may be exposed to material unanticipated losses.

In order to manage the significant risks inherent in our business, we must maintain effective policies, procedures and systems that enable us to identify, monitor and mitigate our exposure to operational, legal and reputational risks. Our risk management methods may prove to be ineffective due to their design or implementation, or as a result of the lack of adequate, accurate or timely information or otherwise. If our risk management efforts are ineffective, we could suffer losses that could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or operating results. Additionally, we could be subject to litigation, particularly from our clients or investors, and sanctions or fines from regulators.

Our techniques for managing operational, legal and reputational risks in client portfolios may not fully mitigate the risk exposure in all economic or market environments, including exposure to risks that we might fail to identify or anticipate. Because our clients invest in our strategies in order to gain exposure to the portfolio securities of the respective strategies, we have not adopted corporate-level risk management policies to manage market, interest rate, or exchange rate risks that would affect the value of our overall assets under management.

Our indebtedness may expose us to material risks.

In August 2012, we entered into a $100 million five-year revolving credit agreement and issued $200 million in unsecured notes consisting of $60 million Series A notes maturing in 2017, $50 million Series B notes maturing in 2019, and $90 million Series C notes maturing in 2022. As of December 31, 2015, no amounts were outstanding on the revolving credit facility. Nevertheless, we continue to have substantial indebtedness outstanding in the amount of $200 million in unsecured notes, which exposes us to risks associated with the use of leverage. Our substantial indebtedness may make it more difficult for us to withstand or respond to adverse or changing business, regulatory and economic conditions or to take advantage of new business opportunities or make necessary capital expenditures. In addition, our notes and revolving credit agreement contain financial and operating covenants that may limit our ability to conduct our business. To the extent we service our debt from our cash flow, such cash will not be available for our operations or other purposes. Because our debt service obligations are fixed, the portion of our cash flow used to service those obligations could be substantial if our revenues have declined, whether because of market declines or for other reasons. The Series A, Series B and Series C notes bear interest at a rate equal to 4.98%, 5.32% and 5.82% per annum, respectively, and each rate is subject to a 100 basis point increase in the event Artisan Partners Holdings receives a below-investment grade rating. Each series requires a balloon payment at maturity. Any substantial decrease in net operating cash flows or any substantial increase in expenses could make it difficult for us to meet our debt service requirements or force us to modify our operations. Our ability to repay the principal amount of our notes or any outstanding loans under our revolving credit agreement, to refinance our debt or to obtain additional financing through debt or the sale of additional equity securities will depend on our performance, as well as financial, business and other general economic factors affecting the credit and equity markets generally or our business in particular, many of which are beyond our control. Any such alternatives may not be available to us on satisfactory terms or at all.

Our note purchase agreement and revolving credit agreement contain, and our future indebtedness may contain, various covenants that may limit our business activities.

Our note purchase agreement and revolving credit agreement contain financial and operating covenants that limit our business activities, including restrictions on our ability to incur additional indebtedness and pay dividends to our stockholders. For example, the agreements include financial covenants requiring Artisan Partners Holdings not to exceed specified ratios of indebtedness to consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (as defined in the agreements), or EBITDA, and interest expense to consolidated EBITDA. The agreements also restrict Artisan Partners Holdings from making distributions to its partners (including us), other than tax distributions or distributions to fund our ordinary expenses, if a default (as defined in the respective agreements) has occurred and is continuing or would result from such a distribution. The failure to comply with any of these restrictions could result in an event of default, giving our lenders the ability to accelerate repayment of our obligations. As of December 31, 2015, we believe we are in compliance with all of the covenants and other requirements set forth in the agreements.

We provide a broad range of services to Artisan Funds, Artisan Global Funds and sub-advised mutual funds which may expose us to liability.

We provide a broad range of administrative services to Artisan Funds, including providing personnel to Artisan Funds to serve as a director and as officers of Artisan Funds and to serve on the valuation committee of Artisan Funds, the preparation or supervision of the preparation of Artisan Funds’ regulatory filings, maintenance of board calendars and preparation or supervision of the preparation of board meeting materials, management of compliance and regulatory matters, provision of shareholder services and communications, accounting services including the supervision of the activities of Artisan Funds’ accounting services provider in the calculation of the funds’ net asset values, supervision of the preparation of Artisan Funds’ financial statements and coordination of the audits of those financial statements, tax services including calculation of dividend and distribution amounts and supervision of tax return preparation, and supervision of the work of Artisan Funds’ other service providers. Although less extensive than the range of services we provide to Artisan Funds, we also provide a range of similar services, in addition to investment management services, to Artisan Global Funds, including personnel to serve as directors.

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In addition, we from time to time provide information to the funds for which we act as sub-adviser (or to a person or entity providing administrative services to such a fund) which is used by those funds in their efforts to comply with various regulatory requirements. If we make a mistake in the provision of those services, Artisan Funds, Artisan Global Funds or the sub-advised fund could incur costs for which we might be liable. In addition, if it were determined that Artisan Funds, Artisan Global Funds or the sub-advised fund failed to comply with applicable regulatory requirements as a result of action or failure to act by our employees, we could be responsible for losses suffered or penalties imposed. In addition, we could have penalties imposed on us, be required to pay fines or be subject to private litigation, any of which could decrease our future income or negatively affect our current business or our future growth prospects.

The expansion of our business outside of the United States raises tax and regulatory risks, may adversely affect our profit margins and places additional demands on our resources and employees.

We have expanded and continue to expand our distribution efforts into non-U.S. markets, including the United Kingdom, other European countries, Canada, Australia and certain Asian countries, among others. Our client relationships outside the United States have grown from approximately 30 as of December 31, 2012 to approximately 90 as of December 31, 2015. Clients outside the United States may be adversely affected by political, social and economic uncertainty in their respective home countries and regions, which could result in a decrease in the net client cash flows that come from such clients. These clients also may be less accepting of the U.S. practice of payment for certain research products and services through soft dollars or such practices may not be permissible in some jurisdictions, which could have the effect of increasing our expenses.

This expansion has required and will continue to require us to incur a number of up-front expenses, including those associated with obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals and office space, as well as additional ongoing expenses, including those associated with leases, the employment of additional support staff and regulatory compliance. In addition, we organized and serve as investment manager of, Artisan Global Funds, a family of Ireland-based UCITS funds, that began operations during the first quarter of 2011. Our U.S.-based employees routinely travel outside the United States as a part of our investment research process or to market our services and may spend extended periods of time in one or more non-U.S. jurisdictions. Their activities outside the United States on our behalf may raise both tax and regulatory issues. If and to the extent we are incorrect in our analysis of the applicability or impact of non-U.S. tax or regulatory requirements, we could incur costs, penalties or be the subject of an enforcement or other action. Operating our business in non-U.S. markets is generally more expensive than in the United States. Among other expenses, the effective tax rates applicable to our income allocated to some non-U.S. markets, which we are likely to earn through an entity that will pay corporate income tax, may be higher than the effective rates applicable to our income allocated to the United States, even though the effective tax rates are lower in many non-U.S. markets, because our U.S. operations are conducted through partnerships. In addition, costs related to our distribution and marketing efforts in non-U.S. markets generally have been more expensive than comparable costs in the United States. To the extent that our revenues do not increase to the same degree our expenses increase in connection with our continuing expansion outside the United States, our profitability could be adversely affected. Expanding our business into non-U.S. markets may also place significant demands on our existing infrastructure and employees.

Failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

As a public company, we are subject to a variety of reporting requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Sarbanes-Oxley requires, among other things, that we maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. In accordance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley, our management is required to conduct an annual assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and include a report on these internal controls in the annual reports we file with the SEC on Form 10-K. If we are not able to continue to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a capable manner, we may be subject to adverse regulatory consequences and there could be a negative reaction in the financial markets due to a loss of investor confidence in us and the reliability of our financial statements. This could have a material adverse effect on us.

A change of control could result in termination of our investment advisory agreements with SEC-registered mutual funds and could trigger consent requirements in our other investment advisory agreements.

Under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the 1940 Act, each of the investment advisory agreements between SEC-registered mutual funds and our subsidiary, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, will terminate automatically in the event of its assignment, as defined in the 1940 Act.

Upon the occurrence of such an assignment, our subsidiary could continue to act as adviser to any such fund only if that fund’s board and shareholders approved a new investment advisory agreement, except in the case of certain of the funds that we sub-advise for which only board approval would be necessary. In addition, as required by the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended, or the Advisers Act, each of the investment advisory agreements for the separate accounts we manage provides that it may not be assigned, as defined in the Advisers Act, without the consent of the client. An assignment occurs under the 1940 Act and the Advisers Act if, among other things, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership undergoes a change of control as recognized under the 1940 Act and the Advisers Act. If such an assignment were to occur, we cannot be certain that we will be able to obtain the necessary approvals from the boards and shareholders of the mutual funds we advise or the necessary consents from our separate account clients.

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Risks Related to our Industry

We are subject to extensive regulation.

We are subject to extensive regulation in the United States, primarily at the federal level, including regulation by the SEC under the 1940 Act and the Advisers Act, by the U.S. Department of Labor under ERISA, and by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. The U.S. mutual funds we manage are registered with and regulated by the SEC as investment companies under the 1940 Act. We are also subject to regulation in the United Kingdom by the Financial Conduct Authority. The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority imposes a comprehensive system of regulation that is primarily principles-based (compared to the primarily rules-based U.S. regulatory system). The Advisers Act imposes numerous obligations on investment advisers including record keeping, advertising and operating requirements, disclosure obligations and prohibitions on fraudulent activities. The 1940 Act imposes similar obligations, as well as additional detailed operational requirements, on registered investment companies, which must be adhered to by their investment advisers. We have also expanded and continue to expand our distribution effort into non-U.S. markets, including the United Kingdom, other European countries, Canada, Australia and certain Asian countries, among others. The Central Bank of Ireland imposes requirements on UCITS funds subject to regulation by it, as do the regulators in certain other markets in which shares of Artisan Global Funds are offered for sale, and with which we are required to comply with respect to Artisan Global Funds. In the future, we may further expand our business outside of the United States in such a way or to such an extent that we may be required to register with additional foreign regulatory agencies or otherwise comply with additional non-U.S. laws and regulations that do not currently apply to us and with respect to which we do not have compliance experience. Our lack of experience in complying with any such non-U.S. laws and regulations may increase our risk of becoming party to litigation and subject to regulatory actions.

Accordingly, we face the risk of significant intervention by regulatory authorities, including extended investigation and surveillance activity, adoption of costly or restrictive new regulations and judicial or administrative proceedings that may result in substantial penalties. Among other things, we could be fined or be prohibited from engaging in some of our business activities. The requirements imposed by our regulators are designed to ensure the integrity of the financial markets and to protect customers and other third parties who deal with us, and are not designed to protect our stockholders. Consequently, these regulations often serve to limit our activities, including through net capital, customer protection and market conduct requirements. See “Regulatory Environment and Compliance”.

In addition to the extensive regulation to which we are subject in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, we are also subject to regulation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, where we operate pursuant to an order of exemption, and by Canadian regulatory authorities in the Canadian provinces where we operate pursuant to exemptions from registration. Our business is also subject to the rules and regulations of the countries in which we conduct investment management activities. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations in the foreign countries where we invest and/or where our clients or prospective clients reside could result in fines, suspensions of personnel or other sanctions. See “Regulatory Environment and Compliance”.

The regulatory environment in which we operate is subject to continual change, and regulatory developments designed to increase oversight may adversely affect our business.

The legislative and regulatory environment in which we operate has undergone significant changes in the recent past. We believe that significant regulatory changes in our industry are likely to continue on a scale that exceeds the historical pace of regulatory change, which is likely to subject industry participants to additional, more costly and generally more punitive regulation. The requirements imposed by our regulators (including both U.S. and non-U.S. regulators) are designed to ensure the integrity of the financial markets and to protect customers and other third parties who deal with us, and are not designed to protect our stockholders. Consequently, these regulations often serve to limit our activities and/or increase our costs, including through customer protection and market conduct requirements. New laws or regulations, or changes in the enforcement of existing laws or regulations, applicable to us and our clients may adversely affect our business. Our ability to function in this environment will depend on our ability to constantly monitor and promptly react to legislative and regulatory changes. There have been a number of highly publicized regulatory inquiries that have focused on the investment management industry. These inquiries already have resulted in increased scrutiny of the industry and new rules and regulations for mutual funds and investment managers. This regulatory scrutiny may limit our ability to engage in certain activities that might be beneficial to our stockholders. See “Regulatory Environment and Compliance”.

We may be adversely affected as a result of new or revised legislation or regulations imposed by the SEC, other U.S. or non-U.S. governmental regulatory authorities or self-regulatory organizations that supervise the financial markets. We also may be adversely affected by changes in the interpretation or enforcement of existing laws and rules by these governmental authorities and self-regulatory organizations, as well as by courts. It is impossible to determine the extent of the impact of any new U.S. or non-U.S. laws, regulations or initiatives that may be proposed, or whether any of the proposals will become law. Compliance with any new laws or regulations could be more difficult and expensive and affect the manner in which we conduct business.

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The investment management industry is intensely competitive.

The investment management industry is intensely competitive, with competition based on a variety of factors, including investment performance, investment management fee rates, continuity of investment professionals and client relationships, the quality of services provided to clients, corporate positioning and business reputation, continuity of selling arrangements with intermediaries and differentiated products. A number of factors, including the following, serve to increase our competitive risks:


•	Unlike some of our competitors, we do not currently offer passive investment strategies or alternative investment strategies, nor do we offer “solutions” products like target-date funds.


•	A number of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources, more comprehensive name recognition and more personnel than we do.


•	Potential competitors have a relatively low cost of entering the investment management industry.


•	Some investors may prefer to invest with an investment manager that is not publicly traded based on the perception that a publicly-traded asset manager may focus on the manager’s own growth to the detriment of investment performance for clients.


•	Other industry participants, hedge funds and alternative asset managers may seek to recruit our investment professionals.


•	Some competitors charge lower fees for their investment management services than we do.

For example, to the extent that there is a trend in favor of low-fee passive products such as index and certain exchange-traded funds, that trend will favor those of our competitors who provide passive investment strategies. Additionally, intermediaries through which we distribute our mutual funds may also sell their own proprietary funds and investment products, which could limit the distribution of our investment strategies. If we are unable to compete effectively, our earnings would be reduced and our business could be materially adversely affected.

The investment management industry faces substantial litigation risks which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations or cause significant reputational harm to us.

We depend to a large extent on our network of relationships and on our reputation in order to attract and retain client assets. If a client is not satisfied with our services, its dissatisfaction may be more damaging to our business than client dissatisfaction would be to other types of businesses. We make investment decisions on behalf of our clients that could result in substantial losses to them. If our clients suffer significant losses, or are otherwise dissatisfied with our services, we could be subject to the risk of legal liabilities or actions alleging negligent misconduct, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and/or fraud. These risks are often difficult to assess or quantify and their existence and magnitude often remain unknown for substantial periods of time, even after an action has been commenced.

We may incur significant legal expenses in defending against litigation whether or not we engaged in conduct as a result of which we might be subject to legal liability. Substantial legal liability or significant regulatory action against us could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations or cause significant reputational harm to us.

Risks Related to Our Structure

Control by our stockholders committee of approximately 65% of the combined voting power of our capital stock and the rights of holders of limited partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings may give rise to conflicts of interest.

Our employees to whom we have granted equity (including our employee-partners) hold approximately 65% of the combined voting power of our capital stock and have entered into a stockholders agreement pursuant to which they granted an irrevocable voting proxy with respect to all shares of our common stock they have acquired from us and any shares they may acquire from us in the future to a stockholders committee. Any additional shares of our common stock that we issue to our employee-partners or other employees, including shares of common stock issued under our Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan, will be subject to the stockholders agreement so long as the agreement has not been terminated. Shares held by an employee cease to be subject to the stockholders agreement upon termination of employment.

The stockholders committee has the ability to determine the outcome of any matter requiring the approval of a simple majority of our outstanding voting stock and prevent the approval of any matter requiring the approval of 66 2/3% of our outstanding voting stock. For so long as the shares subject to the stockholders agreement represent at least a majority of the combined voting power of our capital stock, the stockholders committee is able to elect all of the members of our board of directors (subject to the obligation of the stockholders committee under the terms of the stockholders agreement to vote in support of certain nominees) and will thereby control our management and affairs, including determinations with respect to acquisitions, dispositions, borrowings, issuances of securities, and the declaration and payment of dividends. In addition, subject to the class approval rights of each class of our outstanding capital stock and each class of Artisan Partners Holdings limited partnership units, the stockholders committee is able to determine the outcome of all matters requiring approval by a majority of stockholders, and is able to cause or prevent a change of control of our company or a change in the composition of our board of directors, and could preclude any unsolicited acquisition of our company. The stockholders committee has the ability to prevent the consummation of mergers, takeovers or other transactions that may be in the best interests of our Class A stockholders.

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In particular, this concentration of voting power could deprive Class A stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares of Class A common stock as part of a sale of our company, and could affect the market price of our Class A common stock. Because each share of our Class B common stock initially entitles its holder to five votes, the stockholders committee possesses the power and control described above even though the shares subject to the stockholders agreement represent less than a majority of the number of outstanding shares of our capital stock. If and when the holders of our Class B common stock collectively hold less than 20% of the aggregate number of outstanding shares of our capital stock, shares of Class B common stock will entitle the holder to only one vote per share.

The stockholders committee currently consists of Eric R. Colson (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Charles J. Daley, Jr. (Chief Financial Officer) and Gregory K. Ramirez (Executive Vice President). All shares subject to the stockholders agreement are voted in accordance with the majority decision of those three members

Our employee-partners (through their ownership of Class B common units), AIC (through its ownership of Class D common units) and the holders of Class A common units have the right, each voting as a single and separate class, to approve or disapprove certain transactions and matters, including material corporate transactions, such as a merger, consolidation, dissolution or sale of greater than 25% of the fair market value of Artisan Partners Holdings’ assets. These voting and class approval rights may enable our employee-partners, AIC or the holders of Class A common units to prevent the consummation of transactions that may be in the best interests of holders of our Class A common stock.

In addition, because our pre-IPO owners (including members of our board of directors) hold all or a portion of their ownership interests in our business through Artisan Partners Holdings, rather than through Artisan Partners Asset Management, these pre-IPO owners may have conflicting interests with holders of our Class A common stock. For example, our pre-IPO owners may have different tax positions from us which could influence their decisions regarding whether and when we should dispose of assets, whether and when we should incur new or refinance existing indebtedness, especially in light of the existence of the tax receivable agreements, and whether and when Artisan Partners Asset Management should terminate the tax receivable agreements and accelerate its obligations thereunder. In addition, the structuring of future transactions may take into consideration these pre-IPO owners’ tax or other considerations even where no similar benefit would accrue to us.

Our ability to pay regular dividends to our stockholders is subject to the discretion of our board of directors and may be limited by our structure and applicable provisions of Delaware law.

We intend to pay dividends to holders of our Class A common stock as described in “Dividend Policy”. Our board of directors may, in its sole discretion, change the amount or frequency of dividends or discontinue the payment of dividends entirely. In addition, as a holding company, we are dependent upon the ability of our subsidiaries to generate earnings and cash flows and distribute them to us so that we may pay dividends to our stockholders. We expect to cause Artisan Partners Holdings, which is a Delaware limited partnership, to make distributions to its partners, including us, in an amount sufficient for us to pay dividends. However, its ability to make such distributions will be subject to its and its subsidiaries’ operating results, cash requirements and financial condition, the applicable provisions of Delaware law that may limit the amount of funds available for distribution to its partners, its compliance with covenants and financial ratios related to existing or future indebtedness, including under our notes and our revolving credit agreement, its other agreements with third parties, as well as its obligation to make tax distributions under its partnership agreement (which distributions would reduce the cash available for distributions by Artisan Partners Holdings to us). In addition, each of the companies in our corporate chain must manage its assets, liabilities and working capital in order to meet all of its cash obligations, including the payment of dividends or distributions. As a consequence of these various limitations and restrictions, we may not be able to make, or may have to reduce or eliminate, the payment of dividends on our Class A common stock. Any change in the level of our dividends or the suspension of the payment thereof could adversely affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Our ability to pay taxes and expenses, including payments under the tax receivable agreements, may be limited by our holding company structure.

As a holding company, our assets principally consist of our ownership of partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings, deferred tax assets and cash and we have no independent means of generating revenue. Artisan Partners Holdings is a partnership for U.S. federal income tax purposes and, as such, is not subject to U.S. federal income tax. Instead, Artisan Partners Holdings’ taxable income is allocated to holders of its partnership units, including us. Accordingly, we incur income taxes on our proportionate share of Artisan Partners Holdings’ taxable income and also may incur expenses related to our operations. Under the terms of its amended and restated limited partnership agreement, Artisan Partners Holdings is obligated to make tax distributions to holders of its partnership units, including us. In addition to tax expenses, we are also required to make payments under the tax receivable agreements, which we expect will be significant, and we may incur other expenses related to the tax receivable agreements and our operations. We intend to cause Artisan Partners Holdings to make distributions in an amount sufficient to allow us to pay our taxes, make any payments due under the tax receivable agreements, and pay any additional operating expenses. However, its ability to make such distributions will be subject to various limitations and restrictions as set forth in the preceding risk factor. If, as a consequence of these various limitations and restrictions, we do not have sufficient funds to pay tax or other liabilities or to fund our operations, we may have to borrow funds and thus our liquidity and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. To the extent that we are unable to make payments when due under the tax receivable agreements for any reason, such payments will be deferred and will accrue interest at a rate equal to one-year LIBOR plus 300 basis points until paid.

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We will be required to pay the tax receivable agreement beneficiaries for certain tax benefits we claim, and we expect that the payments we will be required to make will be substantial.

We are party to two tax receivable agreements. The first tax receivable agreement generally provides for the payment by us to the Pre-H&F Merger Shareholder of 85% of the amount of cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local income tax that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in certain circumstances) as a result of (i) tax attributes of the preferred units acquired by us in the merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of the private equity fund into us in March 2013, (ii) net operating losses available to us as a result of the merger, and (iii) tax benefits related to imputed interest.

The second tax receivable agreement generally provides for the payment by us to current or former limited partners of Artisan Partners Holdings of 85% of the amount of the cash savings, if any, in U.S. federal, state and local income tax that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in certain circumstances) as a result of (i) certain tax attributes of their partnership units sold to us or exchanged (for shares of Class A common stock, convertible preferred stock or other consideration) and that are created as a result of such sales or exchanges and payments under the TRAs and (ii) tax benefits related to imputed interest.

The payment obligation under the tax receivable agreements is an obligation of APAM, not Artisan Partners Holdings, and we expect that the payments we will be required to make under the tax receivable agreements will be substantial. Assuming no material changes in the relevant tax law and that we earn sufficient taxable income to realize all tax benefits that are subject to the tax receivable agreements, as of December 31, 2015, we expect that the reduction in tax payments for us associated with (i) the H&F Corp merger described above, (ii) our purchase of limited partnership units from, and exchanges of limited partnership units by, certain of our investors in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and (iii) future purchases or exchanges of limited partnership units as described above would aggregate to approximately $1.4 billion over generally a minimum of 15 years, assuming the future purchases or exchanges described in clause (iii) occurred when the market value of our Class A Common stock was $36.06, the closing price of our Class A common stock on December 31, 2015. Under such scenario we would be required to pay the other parties to the tax receivable agreements 85% of such amount, or approximately $1.2 billion, over generally a minimum of 15 years. The actual amounts may materially differ from these hypothetical amounts, as potential future reductions in tax payments for us and tax receivable agreement payments by us will be calculated using the market value of our Class A common stock at the time of purchase or exchange and the prevailing tax rates applicable to us over the life of the tax receivable agreements and will be dependent on us generating sufficient future taxable income to realize the benefit. As of December 31, 2015, we recorded a $589.1 million liability, representing amounts payable under the tax receivable agreements equal to 85% of the tax benefit we expected to realize from the H&F Corp merger described above and our purchase of limited partnership units from, and the exchanges of partnership units by, certain of our investors in 2013, 2014 and 2015, assuming no material changes in the related tax law and that we earn sufficient taxable income to realize all tax benefits subject to the tax receivable agreements. The liability will increase upon future purchases or exchanges of limited partnership units with the increase representing amounts payable under the tax receivable agreements equal to 85% of the estimated future tax benefits, if any, resulting from such purchases or exchanges. Payments under the tax receivable agreements are not conditioned on the counterparties’ continued ownership of us.

The actual increase in tax basis, as well as the amount and timing of any payments under these agreements, will vary depending upon a number of factors, including the timing of purchases or exchanges of limited partnership units, the price of our Class A common stock at the time of the purchase or exchange, the extent to which such transactions are taxable, the amount and timing of the taxable income we generate in the future and the tax rate then applicable as well as the portion of our payments under the tax receivable agreements constituting imputed interest or depreciable or amortizable basis. Payments under the tax receivable agreements are expected to give rise to certain additional tax benefits attributable to either further increases in basis or in the form of deductions for imputed interest, depending on the tax receivable agreement and the circumstances. Any such benefits are covered by the tax receivable agreements and will increase the amounts due thereunder. In addition, the tax receivable agreements provide for interest, at a rate equal to one-year LIBOR plus 100 basis points, accrued from the due date (without extensions) of the corresponding APAM tax return to the payment due date specified by the tax receivable agreements. In addition, to the extent that we are unable to make payments when due under the tax receivable agreements for any reason, such payments will be deferred and will accrue interest at a rate equal to one-year LIBOR plus 300 basis points until paid.

Payments under the tax receivable agreements will be based on the tax reporting positions that we determine. Although we are not aware of any issue that would cause the IRS or other taxing authority to challenge a tax basis increase or other tax attributes subject to the tax receivable agreements, we will not be reimbursed for any payments previously made under the tax receivable agreements if such basis increases or other benefits are subsequently disallowed (however, any such additional payments may be netted against future payments (if any) that are made under the tax receivable agreements). As a result, in certain circumstances, payments could be made under the tax receivable agreements in excess of the benefits that we actually realize in respect of the attributes to which the tax receivable agreements relate.

In certain cases, payments under the tax receivable agreements may be accelerated and/or significantly exceed the actual benefits we realize in respect of the tax attributes subject to the tax receivable agreements.

The tax receivable agreements provide that (i) upon certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combinations or other changes of control, (ii) in the event that we materially breach any of our material obligations under the agreements, whether as a result of failure to make any payment within six months of when due (provided we have sufficient funds to make such payment), failure to honor any other material obligation required thereunder or by operation of law as a result of the rejection of the

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agreements in a bankruptcy or otherwise, or (iii) if, at any time, we elect an early termination of the agreements, our (or our successor’s) obligations under the agreements (with respect to all units, whether or not units have been exchanged or acquired before or after such transaction) would be based on certain assumptions. In the case of a material breach or if we elect early termination, those assumptions include that we would have sufficient taxable income to fully utilize the deductions arising from the increased tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits related to entering into the tax receivable agreements. In the case of a change of control, the assumptions include that in each taxable year ending on or after the closing date of the change of control, our taxable income (prior to the application of the tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits related to entering into the tax receivable agreements) will equal the greater of (i) the actual taxable income (prior to the application of the tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits related to entering into the tax receivable agreements) for the taxable year and (ii) the highest taxable income (calculated without taking into account extraordinary items of income or deduction and prior to the application of the tax deductions and tax basis and other benefits related to entering into the tax receivable agreements) in any of the four fiscal quarters ended prior to the closing date of the change of control, annualized and increased by 10% for each taxable year beginning with the second taxable year following the closing date of the change of control. In the event we elect to terminate the agreements early or we materially breach a material obligation, our obligations under the agreements will accelerate. As a result, (i) we could be required to make payments under the tax receivable agreements that are greater than or less than the specified percentage of the actual benefits we realize in respect of the tax attributes subject to the agreements and (ii) if we materially breach a material obligation under the agreements or if we elect to terminate the agreements early, we would be required to make an immediate payment equal to the present value of the anticipated future tax benefits, which payment may be made significantly in advance of the actual realization of such future benefits. In these situations, our obligations under the tax receivable agreements could have a substantial negative impact on our liquidity and could have the effect of delaying, deferring or preventing certain mergers, asset sales, other forms of business combinations or other changes of control. There can be no assurance that we will be able to finance our obligations under the tax receivable agreements. If we were to elect to terminate the tax receivable agreements as of December 31, 2015, based on an assumed discount rate equal to one-year LIBOR plus 100 basis points, we estimate that we would be required to pay approximately $1.0 billion in the aggregate under the tax receivable agreements.

If we were deemed an investment company under the 1940 Act as a result of our ownership of Artisan Partners Holdings, applicable restrictions could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Under Sections 3(a)(1)(A) and (C) of the 1940 Act, a company generally will be deemed to be an “investment company” for purposes of the 1940 Act if (i) it is, or holds itself out as being, engaged primarily, or proposes to engage primarily, in the business of investing, reinvesting or trading in securities or (ii) it engages, or proposes to engage, in the business of investing, reinvesting, owning, holding or trading in securities and, absent an applicable exemption, it owns or proposes to acquire investment securities having a value exceeding 40% of the value of its total assets (exclusive of U.S. government securities and cash items) on an unconsolidated basis. We do not believe that we are an “investment company”, as such term is defined in either of those sections of the 1940 Act.

As the sole general partner of Artisan Partners Holdings, we control and operate Artisan Partners Holdings. On that basis, we believe that our interest in Artisan Partners Holdings is not an “investment security” as that term is used in the 1940 Act. However, if we were to cease participation in the management of Artisan Partners Holdings, our interest in Artisan Partners Holdings could be deemed an “investment security” for purposes of the 1940 Act.

We and Artisan Partners Holdings intend to continue to conduct our operations so that we will not be deemed an investment company. However, if we were to be deemed an investment company, restrictions imposed by the 1940 Act, including limitations on our capital structure and our ability to transact with affiliates, could make it impractical for us to continue our business as contemplated and could have a material adverse effect on our business.

Risks Related to Our Class A Common Stock

The market price and trading volume of our Class A common stock may be volatile, which could result in rapid and substantial losses for our stockholders.

The market price of our Class A common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. In addition, the trading volume of our Class A common stock may fluctuate and cause significant price variations to occur. If the market price of our Class A common stock declines significantly, investors may be unable to sell shares of Class A common stock at or above their purchase price, if at all. The market price of our Class A common stock may fluctuate or decline significantly in the future. Some of the factors that could negatively affect the price of our Class A common stock, or result in fluctuations in the price or trading volume of our Class A common stock, include:


•	Variations in our quarterly operating results.


•	Failure to meet analysts’ earnings or other expectations.


•	Publication of research reports about us or the investment management industry.


•	Departures of any of our portfolio managers or members of our management team or additions or departures of other key personnel.


•	Adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or securities we may issue in the future.

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•	Actions by stockholders.


•	Changes in market valuations of similar companies.


•	Actual or anticipated poor performance in one or more of the investment strategies we offer.


•	Changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations, or differing interpretations thereof, affecting our business, or enforcement of these laws and regulations, or announcements relating to these matters.


•	Adverse publicity about the investment management industry generally, or particular scandals, specifically.


•	Litigation and governmental investigations.


•	The relatively low trading volume and public float of our Class A common stock.


•	Sales of a large number of shares of our Class A common stock or the perception that such sales could occur.


•	General market and economic conditions.

Future sales of our Class A common stock in the public market could lower our stock price, and any future grant or sale of equity or convertible securities may dilute existing stockholders’ ownership in us.

The market price of our Class A common stock could decline as a result of future sales of a large number of shares of our Class A common stock, or the perception that such sales could occur.

These sales, or the possibility that these sales may occur, also may make it more difficult for us to raise additional capital by selling equity securities in the future, at a time and price that we deem appropriate.

We are party to a resale and registration rights agreement pursuant to which the shares of our Class A common stock issued upon exchange of limited partnership units are eligible for resale. Such shares of Class A common stock may be transferred only in accordance with the terms and conditions of the resale and registration rights agreement. The common units of Artisan Partners Holdings discussed below are exchangeable for shares of our Class A common stock on a one-for-one basis.

There is no limit on the number of shares of our Class A common stock that our Class A limited partners or AIC are permitted to sell. As of December 31, 2015, our Class A limited partners owned approximately 7.9 million Class A common units and AIC owned approximately 7.0 million Class D common units.

For an employee-partner, in each one-year period, the first of which began in March 2014, the partner is generally permitted to sell up to (i) a number of vested shares of our Class A common stock representing 15% of the aggregate number of common units and shares of Class A common stock received upon exchange of common units (in each case, whether vested or unvested) he or she held as of the first day of that period or, (ii) if greater, vested shares of our Class A common stock having a market value as of the time of sale of $250,000, as well as, in either case, the number of shares such holder could have sold in any previous period or periods but did not sell in such period or periods. As of December 31, 2015, our employee-partners owned 18.3 million Class B common units. Approximately 3.3 million of those units will be eligible for exchange and sale in the first quarter of 2016. We may waive or modify these restrictions.

In addition, we have filed a registration statement registering 15,000,000 shares of our Class A common stock for issuance pursuant to our 2013 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan and 2013 Non-Employee Director Plan. We have awarded 4,765,725 restricted stock units or restricted shares of Class A common stock to our employees and employees of our subsidiaries. 3,278,084 of these awards vest pro rata over the five years from the date of issuance and may be sold upon vesting. 1,487,641 of these awards are career shares or restricted stock units, which generally will only vest upon the grantee’s qualifying retirement. We may increase the number of shares registered for this purpose from time to time. Once these shares have been issued and have vested, they will be able to be sold in the public market.

We may also purchase limited partnerships units of Holdings at any time and may issue and sell additional shares of our Class A common stock to fund such purchases. We cannot predict the size of future issuances of our Class A common stock or the effect, if any, that future issuances and sales of shares of our Class A common stock may have on the market price of our Class A common stock. Sales or distributions of substantial amounts of our Class A common stock (including shares issued in connection with an acquisition), or the perception that such sales could occur, may cause the market price of our Class A common stock to decline.

The disparity in the voting rights among the classes of our capital stock may have a potential adverse effect on the price of our Class A common stock.

Each share of our Class A common stock and Class C common stock entitles its holder to one vote on all matters to be voted on by stockholders generally, while each share of our Class B common stock entitles its holder to five votes on all matters to be voted on by stockholders generally for so long as the holders of our Class B common stock collectively hold at least 20% of the number of outstanding shares of our capital stock. The difference in voting rights could adversely affect the value of our Class A common stock by, for example, delaying or deferring a change of control or if investors view, or any potential future purchaser of our company views, the superior voting rights of the Class B common stock to have value.

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Anti-takeover provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws and in the Delaware General Corporation Law could discourage a change of control that our stockholders may favor, which could negatively affect the market price of our Class A common stock.

Provisions in our restated certificate of incorporation, amended and restated bylaws and in the Delaware General Corporation Law, or the DGCL, may make it more difficult and expensive for a third party to acquire control of us even if a change of control would be beneficial to the interests of our stockholders. Those provisions include:


•	The disparity in the voting rights among the classes of our capital stock.


•	The right of the various classes of our capital stock to vote, as separate classes, on certain amendments to our restated certificate of incorporation and certain fundamental transactions.


•	The ability of our board of directors to determine to issue shares of preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, which could be used to thwart a takeover attempt.


•	Advance notice procedures that stockholders must comply with in order to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which may discourage or deter a potential acquiror from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquiror’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of us.


•	A limitation that, generally, stockholder action may only be taken at an annual or special meeting or by unanimous written consent.


•	A requirement that a special meeting of stockholders may be called only by our board of directors or our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, which may delay the ability of our stockholders to force consideration of a proposal or to take action, including the removal of directors.


•	The ability of our board of directors to adopt, amend and repeal our amended and restated bylaws by majority vote, while such action by stockholders would require a super majority vote, which makes it more difficult for stockholders to change certain provisions described above.

The market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected to the extent that the provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws discourage potential takeover attempts that our stockholders may favor.

Our restated certificate of incorporation designates the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as the sole and exclusive forum for certain types of actions and proceedings that may be initiated by our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that, unless we consent in writing to an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, our restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws or (iv) any action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine, in each case subject to the Court of Chancery having personal jurisdiction over the indispensable parties named as defendants therein and the claim not being one which is vested in the exclusive jurisdiction of a court or forum other than the Court of Chancery or for which the Court of Chancery does not have subject matter jurisdiction. Any person purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in any shares of our capital stock shall be deemed to have notice of and to have consented to this provision of our restated certificate of incorporation. This choice of forum provision may limit our stockholders’ ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or agents, which may discourage such lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, employees and agents. Alternatively, if a court were to find this provision of our restated certificate of incorporation inapplicable to, or unenforceable in respect of, one or more of the specified types of actions or proceedings, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such matters in other jurisdictions, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

Our indemnification obligations may pose substantial risks to our financial condition.

Pursuant to our restated certificate of incorporation, we will indemnify our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law against all liability and expense incurred by them in their capacities as directors or officers of us. We also are obligated to pay their expenses in connection with the defense of claims. Our bylaws provide for similar indemnification of, and advancement of expenses to, our directors, officers, employees and agents and members of our stockholders committee. We have also entered into indemnification agreements with each of our directors and executive officers and each member of our stockholders committee, pursuant to which we will indemnify them to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law in connection with their service in such capacities. Artisan Partners Holdings will indemnify and advance expenses to AIC, as its former general partner, the former members of its pre-IPO Advisory Committee, the members of our stockholders committee, our directors and officers and its officers and employees against any liability and expenses incurred by them and arising as a result of the capacities in which they serve or served Artisan Partners Holdings.

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We have obtained liability insurance insuring our directors, officers and members of our stockholders committee against liability for acts or omissions in their capacities as directors, officers or committee members subject to certain exclusions. These indemnification obligations may pose substantial risks to our financial condition, as we may not be able to maintain our insurance or, even if we are able to maintain our insurance, claims in excess of our insurance coverage could be material. In addition, these indemnification obligations and other provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation, and the amended and restated partnership agreement of Artisan Partners Holdings, may have the effect of reducing the likelihood of derivative litigation against indemnified persons, and may discourage or deter stockholders or management from bringing a lawsuit against such persons, even though such an action, if successful, might otherwise have benefited us and our stockholders.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that certain of our investors do not have an obligation to offer us business opportunities.

Our restated certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, certain of our investors and their respective affiliates (including affiliates who serve on our board of directors) have no obligation to offer us an opportunity to participate in the business opportunities presented to them, even if the opportunity is one that we might reasonably have pursued (and therefore they may be free to compete with us in the same business or similar business). Furthermore, we renounce and waive and agree not to assert any claim for breach of any fiduciary or other duty relating to any such opportunity against those investors and their affiliates by reason of any such activities unless, in the case of any person who is our director or officer, such opportunity is expressly offered to such director or officer in writing solely in his or her capacity as an officer or director of us. This may create actual and potential conflicts of interest between us and certain of our investors and their affiliates (including certain of our directors).

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business or our industry, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business, or about the investment management industry generally. If one or more of the analysts who cover us downgrades our stock or publishes unfavorable research about our business or about the investment management industry, our stock price would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of us or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which could cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments

None

Item 2. Properties

We operate our business from offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; Atlanta, Georgia; New York, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; Mission Woods, Kansas; Sydney; London; Singapore and Toronto. Most of our business operations are based in Milwaukee. Our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, along with other employees, are based in San Francisco. We lease office space in each location and believe our existing and contracted-for facilities are adequate to meet our requirements.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

In the normal course of business, we may be subject to various legal and administrative proceedings. Currently, there are no legal or administrative proceedings that management believes may have a material effect on our consolidated financial position, cash flows or results of operations.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures

Not applicable

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Shares of our Class A common stock have been listed and traded on the NYSE under the symbol “APAM” since March 7, 2013. The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the high and low intra-day sale prices in dollars on the NYSE for our Class A common stock and the dividends per share of Class A common stock we declared during the periods indicated.



	High		Low		Dividends Declared
For the quarter ended March 31, 2014	$	71.86	$	57.50	$	2.18
For the quarter ended June 30, 2014	$	65.65	$	51.72	$	0.55
For the quarter ended September 30, 2014	$	57.62	$	50.66	$	0.55
For the quarter ended December 31, 2014	$	53.12	$	44.86	$	0.55
For the quarter ended March 31, 2015	$	50.93	$	44.34	$	1.55
For the quarter ended June 30, 2015	$	48.15	$	43.05	$	0.60
For the quarter ended September 30, 2015	$	48.39	$	34.57	$	0.60
For the quarter ended December 31, 2015	$	40.62	$	33.24	$	0.60

There is no trading market for shares of our Class B common stock or Class C common stock.

On December 31, 2015, the last reported sale price for our Class A common stock on the NYSE was $36.06 per share. As of February 23, 2016, there were approximately 114 stockholders of record of our Class A common stock, 44 stockholders of record of our Class B common stock, and 30 stockholders of record of our Class C common stock. These figures do not reflect the beneficial ownership or shares held in nominee name, nor do they include holders of any restricted stock units.

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Performance Graph

The following graph compares the year-end cumulative total stockholder return on our Class A common stock from the date the shares began trading on the NYSE on March 7, 2013 to December 31, 2015, with the year-end cumulative total return of the S&P 500^®and the Dow Jones U.S. Asset Managers Index. The graph assumes the investment of $100 in our common stock and in the market indices on March 7, 2013 and the reinvestment of all dividends.



	3/7/2013	12/31/2013	12/31/2014	12/31/2015
Artisan Partners Asset Management, Inc.	$100.00	$188.06	$141.46	$108.85
S&P 500 Index	$100.00	$121.75	$138.42	$140.33
Dow Jones U.S. Asset Managers Index	$100.00	$124.20	$133.86	$117.85

The information contained in the performance graph and table shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or “filed” or incorporated by reference in future filings with the SEC, except to the extent that the company specifically incorporates the information by reference into a document filed under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.

Dividend Policy

Subject to board approval each quarter, we expect to pay a quarterly dividend during 2016. After the end of the year, our board expects to consider paying a special dividend that will take into consideration our annual adjusted earnings, business conditions and the amount of cash we want to retain at that time. During the first quarter of 2016, our board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.60 per share of Class A common stock and a special annual dividend of $0.40 per share. Although we expect to pay dividends according to our dividend policy, we may not pay dividends according to our policy or at all. We intend to fund dividends from our portion of distributions made by Artisan Partners Holdings from its available cash generated from operations. The holders of our Class B common stock and Class C common stock are not entitled to any cash dividends in their capacity as stockholders, but, in their capacity as holders of limited partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings, they generally participate on a pro rata basis in distributions by Artisan Partners Holdings.

The declaration and payment of all future dividends, if any, will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors. In determining the amount of any future dividends, our board of directors will take into account: (i) our financial results, (ii) our available cash, as well as anticipated cash requirements (including debt servicing), (iii) our capital requirements and the capital requirements of our subsidiaries (including Artisan Partners Holdings), (iv) contractual, legal, tax and regulatory restrictions on, and implications of, the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries (including Artisan Partners Holdings) to us, including the obligation of Artisan Partners Holdings to make tax distributions to the holders of partnership units (including us), (v) general economic and business conditions and (vi) any other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant.

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As a holding company, our assets principally consist of our ownership of partnership units of Artisan Partners Holdings, deferred tax assets and cash. Accordingly, we depend on distributions from Artisan Partners Holdings to fund any dividends we may pay. We intend to cause Artisan Partners Holdings to distribute cash to its partners, including us, in an amount sufficient to cover dividends, if any, declared by us. If we do cause Artisan Partners Holdings to make such distributions, holders of Artisan Partners Holdings limited partnership units will be entitled to receive equivalent distributions on a pro rata basis.

Our dividend policy has certain risks and limitations, particularly with respect to liquidity. Although we expect to pay dividends according to our dividend policy, we may not pay dividends according to our policy, or at all, if, among other things, Artisan Partners Holdings is unable to make distributions to us as a result of its operating results, cash requirements and financial condition, the applicable laws of the State of Delaware (which may limit the amount of funds available for distribution), its compliance with covenants and financial ratios related to indebtedness (including the notes and the revolving credit agreement) and its other agreements with third parties. Our note purchase and revolving credit agreements contain covenants limiting Artisan Partners Holdings’ ability to make distributions if a default has occurred and is continuing or would result from such a distribution. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources”.

Under the Delaware General Corporation Law, we may only pay dividends from legally available surplus or, if there is no such surplus, out of our net profits for the fiscal year in which the dividend is declared and/or the preceding fiscal year. Surplus is defined as the excess of the fair value of our total assets over the sum of the fair value of our total liabilities plus the par value of our outstanding capital stock. Capital stock is defined as the aggregate of the par value of all issued capital stock. To the extent we do not have sufficient cash to pay dividends, we may decide not to pay dividends.

Artisan Partners Holdings’ Distributions

Artisan Partners Holdings has made the following distributions to holders of its partnership units, including APAM, during the periods indicated:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015	2014
Distributions	(in millions)
For the quarter ended March 31	$79.4	$131.6
For the quarter ended June 30	$109.2	$116.5
For the quarter ended September 30	$81.1	$81.6
For the quarter ending December 31	$99.2	$97.5

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities

As described in Note 10, “Stockholders’ Equity”, to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this report, upon termination of employment with Artisan, an employee-partner’s unvested Class B common units are forfeited. Generally, the employee-partner’s vested Class B common units are exchanged for Class E common units. The employee-partner’s shares of Class B common stock are canceled and APAM issues the former employee-partner a number of shares of Class C common stock equal to the former employee-partner’s number of Class E common units. Class E common units are exchangeable for Class A common stock subject to the same restrictions and limitations on exchange applicable to the other common units of Holdings. There were no such issuances during the three months ended December 31, 2015.

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Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

The following table sets forth the total shares of our Class A common stock authorized and issued (or to be issued) under our equity compensation plans as of December 31, 2015:



	As of December 31, 2015
	Authorized	Issued (or to be issued)	Number of Securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans	Equity Type
2013 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan	14,000,000	3,663,065	10,336,935	Restricted Share Awards Restricted Stock Units
2013 Non-Employee Director Plan	1,000,000	47,718	952,282	Restricted Stock Units

These plans were approved by our sole stockholder prior to our IPO in March 2013. For restricted stock units issued to employees, the shares of Class A common stock underlying the restricted stock units will generally be issued and delivered promptly following the vesting of the awards. For restricted stock units issued to non-employee directors, the shares of Class A common stock underlying the restricted stock units will generally be issued and delivered on or promptly following the termination of the non-employee director’s service on the Board.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The following tables set forth selected historical consolidated financial data of Artisan Partners Asset Management as of the dates and for the periods indicated. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013 and the selected consolidated statements of financial condition data as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this document. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2011 and the consolidated statement of financial condition as of December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011 have been derived from consolidated financial statements not included elsewhere in this document. The historical consolidated financial statements are the combined results of Artisan Partners Asset Management and Artisan Partners Holdings. Because Artisan Partners Asset Management and Artisan Partners Holdings were under common control at the time of the IPO Reorganization, Artisan Partners Asset Management’s acquisition of control of Artisan Partners Holdings was accounted for as a transaction among entities under common control. Artisan Partners Asset Management has been allocated a part of Artisan Partners Holdings’ net income since March 12, 2013, when it became Artisan Partners Holdings’ general partner.

You should read the following selected historical consolidated financial data together with “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes.

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	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013			2012			2011
	(in millions, except per-share data)
Statements of Operations Data:
Revenues
Management fees
Mutual funds	$	543.3		$	575.4		$	464.3		$	336.2		$	305.2
Separate accounts	260.4			252.3			219.0			167.8			145.8
Performance fees	1.8			1.0			2.5			1.6			4.1
Total revenues	$	805.5		$	828.7		$	685.8		$	505.6		$	455.1
Operating Expenses
Salaries, incentive compensation and benefits	372.2			350.3			309.2			227.3			198.6
Pre-offering related compensation-share-based awards	42.1			64.7			404.2			101.7			(21.1		)
Pre-offering related compensation-other	—			—			143.0			54.1			55.7
Total compensation and benefits	414.3			415.0			856.4			383.1			233.2
Distribution and marketing	43.6			49.1			38.4			29.0			26.2
Occupancy	12.5			11.3			10.5			9.3			9.0
Communication and technology	25.5			21.0			14.4			13.2			10.6
General and administrative	27.2			25.4			27.3			23.9			21.8
Total operating expenses	523.1			521.8			947.0			458.5			300.8
Operating income (loss)	282.4			306.9			(261.2		)	47.1			154.3
Non-operating income (loss)
Interest expense	(11.7		)	(11.6		)	(11.9		)	(11.4		)	(18.4		)
Net gain (loss) of Launch Equity	—			(4.0		)	10.7			8.8			(3.1		)
Loss on debt extinguishment	—			—			—			(0.8		)	—
Net gain on the valuation of contingent value rights	—			—			49.6			—			—
Net investment income	0.4			0.7			5.1			0.7			0.3
Net loss on the tax receivable agreements	(12.2		)	(4.2		)	—			—			—
Other non-operating income (loss)	—			(0.3		)	—			(0.8		)	(1.9		)
Total non-operating income (loss)	(23.5		)	(19.4		)	53.5			(3.5		)	(23.1		)
Income (loss) before income taxes	258.9			287.5			(207.7		)	43.6			131.2
Provision for income taxes	46.8			48.8			26.4			1.0			1.2
Net income (loss) before noncontrolling interests	212.1			238.7			(234.1		)	42.6			130.0
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests-Artisan Partners Holdings LP	130.3			173.1			(269.6		)	33.8			133.1
Less: Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests-Launch Equity	—			(4.0		)	10.7			8.8			(3.1		)
Net income (loss) attributable to Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc.	$	81.8		$	69.6		$	24.8		—			—

Per Share Data:
Earnings (loss) per basic and diluted common share	$	1.86		$	(0.37	)	$	(2.04	)	—			—
Weighted average basic and diluted common shares outstanding	35.4			27.5			13.8			—			—
Dividends declared	$	3.35		$	3.83		$	0.86		—			—

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	As of December 31,
	2015		2014		2013		2012			2011
Statement of Financial Condition Data:	(in millions)
Cash and cash equivalents	$	166.2	$	182.3	$	211.8	$	141.2		$	127.0
Total assets	946.5		849.5		581.4		287.6			224.9
Borrowings⁽¹⁾	200.0		200.0		200.0		290.0			324.8
Total liabilities	829.9		742.0		449.1		603.1			508.8
Temporary equity-redeemable preferred units⁽²⁾	—		—		—		357.2			357.2
Total equity (deficit)	$	116.6	$	107.5	$	132.3	$	(672.7	)	$	(641.1	)
⁽¹⁾ In August 2012, we issued $200 million in unsecured notes and entered into a $100 million five-year revolving credit agreement. We used the proceeds of the notes and $90 million drawn from the revolving credit facility to prepay all of the then-outstanding principal amount of our $400 million term loan. We used a portion of the net proceeds of our IPO to repay all of the $90 million drawn from the revolving credit facility. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources”.
⁽²⁾ Under the terms of Artisan Partners Holdings’ limited partnership agreement in effect prior to the IPO Reorganization, the holders of the preferred units had a right to put such units to the partnership on July 3, 2016 under certain circumstances.

The following table sets forth certain of our selected operating data as of the dates and for the periods indicated:



	As of and for the Years Ended December 31,
	2015			2014		2013		2012		2011
Selected Unaudited Operating Data:	(in millions)
Assets under management⁽¹⁾	$	99,848		$	107,915	$	105,477	$	74,334	$	57,104
Net client cash flows⁽²⁾	(5,848		)	788		7,178		5,813		1,960
Market appreciation (depreciation)⁽³⁾	$	(2,219	)	$	1,650	$	23,965	$	11,417	$	(2,315	)
⁽¹⁾ Reflects the dollar value of assets we managed for our clients in our strategies as of the last day of the period.
⁽²⁾ Reflects the dollar value of assets our clients placed with us for management, and withdrew from our management, during the period, excluding appreciation (depreciation) due to market performance and fluctuations in exchange rates.
⁽³⁾ Represents the appreciation (depreciation) of the value of our assets under management during the period due to market performance and fluctuations in exchange rates, as well as income, such as dividends, earned on assets under management.

The following table shows net income, operating income, operating margin and the corresponding adjusted measures for Artisan Partners Asset Management for the periods indicated.



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013			2012			2011
	(dollars in millions)
Net income attributable to Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (GAAP)	$	81.8		$	69.6		$	24.8		$	—		$	—
Adjusted net income (Non-GAAP)	$	197.3		$	228.9		$	180.3		$	122.4		$	108.4
Operating income (loss) (GAAP)	$	282.4		$	306.9		$	(261.2	)	$	47.1		$	154.3
Adjusted operating income (Non-GAAP)	$	324.5		$	371.7		$	288.9		$	202.9		$	188.9
Operating margin (GAAP)	35.1		%	37.0		%	(38.1		)%	9.3		%	33.9		%
Adjusted operating margin (Non-GAAP)	40.3		%	44.9		%	42.1		%	40.1		%	41.5		%

For a further discussion of our adjusted non-GAAP measures and a reconciliation from GAAP financial measures to non-GAAP measures, including adjusted net income per adjusted share and adjusted EBITDA, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Supplemental Non-GAAP Financial Information”.

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Overview

We are an investment management firm focused on providing high-value added, active investment strategies to sophisticated clients globally. Our operations are conducted through Artisan Partners Holdings and its subsidiaries. We derive essentially all of our revenues from investment management fees. Nearly all our fees are based on a specified percentage of clients’ average assets under our management. We operate our business in a single segment.

We have seven autonomous investment teams that manage a broad range of U.S., non-U.S. and global investment strategies. Strategies are offered through multiple investment vehicles to accommodate a broad range of client mandates.

2015 financial and business highlights included:

•

The maintenance of an environment and culture in which our investment professionals continued to deliver strong investment performance. At year-end, the 5-year average annual returns of 8 of our 12 investment strategies with 5-year track records exceeded the returns of the applicable benchmark. Six of those strategies beat their benchmark on average by over 450 basis points per year during the 5-year period. Our Global Opportunities and Global Equity strategies, both of which are open to new clients and investors and have realizable capacity, beat their benchmarks by over 600 and 550 basis points, respectively, over the 5-year period.


•	The hiring and on-boarding of our seventh investment team, the Developing World team, and the successful launch of the team’s first strategy, the Artisan Developing World strategy. The Developing World strategy is consistent with our high value added philosophy and reflects our goal of launching new strategies with high degrees of freedom that are not easily replicated with passive products.


•	The successful first full-year for the Artisan High Income strategy, the firm’s first credit strategy. At year-end, the strategy had assets under management of $988.9 million.


•	The further expansion of our global distribution efforts, including opening new offices in Australia and Canada. At year-end, $14.2 billion of our total assets under management were from clients domiciled outside the U.S.


•	Executing our variable expense financial model in order to deliver a strong adjusted operating margin of 40.3%. Our 2015 revenues of $805.5 million and adjusted operating income of $324.5 million are the second highest annual revenues and income in the firm’s history, behind only 2014. We also continued to distribute over 100% of our adjusted earnings to our investors.


•	The successful completion of our March 2015 follow-on offering and the continued evolution of our capital structure.


•	Maintaining and enhancing relationships and communication with clients, employees, investors and potential new investment talent.

Organizational Structure

On March 12, 2013, Artisan Partners Asset Management Inc. (“APAM”) and the intermediary holding company through which APAM conducts its operations, Artisan Partners Holdings LP (“Holdings”), completed a series of transactions (the “IPO Reorganization”) to reorganize their capital structures in connection with the initial public offering (“IPO”) of APAM’s Class A common stock. The IPO Reorganization and IPO were completed on March 12, 2013. The IPO Reorganization was designed to create a capital structure that preserves our ability to conduct our business through Holdings, while permitting us to raise additional capital and provide access to liquidity through a public company. Refer to Note 2, “Reorganization and IPO” to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 8 of this report for further discussion of the IPO and its impact on the consolidated financial statements.

The historical results of operations discussed below are the combined results of APAM and Holdings. Because APAM and Holdings were under common control at the time of the IPO Reorganization, APAM’s acquisition of control of Holdings was accounted for as a transaction among entities under common control. APAM has been allocated a part of Holdings’ net income since March 12, 2013, when it became Holdings’ general partner. Our employees and other limited partners of Holdings held approximately 46% of the equity interests in Holdings as of December 31, 2015. As a result, our post-IPO results reflect that significant noncontrolling interest.

2015 Offering and Unit Exchanges

On March 9, 2015, we completed an offering of 3,831,550 shares of Class A common stock and utilized all of the proceeds to purchase an aggregate of 3,831,550 common units of Holdings from certain of the limited partners of Holdings. In connection with the offering, APAM received 3,831,550 GP units of Holdings.

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During the year ended December 31, 2015, certain limited partners of Holdings exchanged 826,809 common units (along with a corresponding number of shares of Class B or Class C common stock of APAM) for 826,809 shares of Class A common stock. In connection with the exchanges, APAM received 826,809 GP units of Holdings. The offering and unit exchanges increased APAM’s equity ownership interest in Holdings from 47% at December 31, 2014 to 54% at December 31, 2015.

Tax Impact of IPO Reorganization and Offerings

In connection with the IPO, we entered into two tax receivable agreements (“TRAs”). The first TRA generally provides for the payment by us to the pre-H&F Merger shareholder of H&F Corp of 85% of the applicable cash savings, if any, of U.S. federal, state and local income taxes that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in certain circumstances) as a result of (i) the tax attributes of the preferred units acquired by us in the merger of a wholly owned subsidiary of the private equity fund into us in March 2013, (ii) net operating losses available as a result of the merger, and (iii) tax benefits related to imputed interest. The second TRA generally provides for the payment by us to current or former limited partners of Holdings of 85% of the amount of cash savings, if any, of U.S. federal, state and local income taxes that we actually realize (or are deemed to realize in certain circumstances) as a result of (i) certain tax attributes of their partnership units sold to us or exchanged (for shares of Class A common stock, convertible preferred stock or other consideration) and that are created as a result of such sales or exchanges and payments under the TRAs and (ii) tax benefits related to imputed interest. Under both agreements, APAM generally will retain the benefit of the remaining 15% of the applicable tax savings.

Transactions during the year resulted in the following impact to deferred tax assets and amounts payable under the TRAs:



	Amounts payable under tax receivable agreements			Deferred Tax Asset - Amortizable basis
	(in millions)
December 31, 2014	$	489.2		$	552.0
2015 Follow-On Offering and Exchanges	107.7			126.7
Amortization	—			(33.1		)
Payments under TRA	(20.0		)
Change in estimate	12.2			14.7
December 31, 2015	$	589.1		$	660.3

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Financial Overview

Economic Environment

Global equity market conditions can materially affect our financial performance. During 2015, our AUM decreased 7%, 2% of which was due to market depreciation. The following table presents the total returns of relevant market indices for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015		2014		2013
S&P 500 total returns	1.4	%	13.7	%	32.4	%
MSCI All World total returns	(2.4	)%	4.2	%	22.8	%
MSCI EAFE total returns	(0.8	)%	(4.9	)%	22.8	%
Russell Midcap® Index total returns	(2.4	)%	13.2	%	34.8	%

Key Performance Indicators

When we review our performance we consider, among other things, the following:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013
	(unaudited; in millions)
Assets under management at period end	$	99,848		$	107,915		$	105,477
Average assets under management⁽¹⁾	$	106,484		$	107,865		$	89,545
Net client cash flows	$	(5,848	)	$	788		$	7,178
Total revenues	$	806		$	829		$	686
Weighted average fee⁽²⁾	76 bps			77 bps			77 bps
Adjusted operating margin⁽³⁾	40.3		%	44.9		%	42.1		%
⁽¹⁾We compute average assets under management by averaging day-end assets under management for the applicable period.
⁽²⁾ We compute our weighted average fee by dividing annualized investment management fees by average assets under management for the applicable period.
⁽³⁾ Adjusted measures are non-GAAP measures and are explained and reconciled to the comparable GAAP measures in “-Supplemental Non-GAAP Financial Information” below.

Because we earn investment management fees based primarily on the value of the assets we manage across a reporting period, we believe that average assets under management for a period is a better metric for understanding changes in our revenues than period end assets under management.

The weighted average fee represents annualized investment management fees as a percentage of average assets under management for the applicable period. We have historically been disciplined about maintaining our rates of fees. Over time, industry-wide fee pressure could cause us to reduce our fees.

The 2015 decrease in the weighted average fee rate is a result of the shift in the mix of our AUM between our investment strategies and vehicles, primarily the reduction in the proportion of our total assets managed through Artisan Partners Funds.

Assets Under Management and Investment Performance

Changes to our operating results from one period to another are primarily caused by changes in the amount of our assets under management. Changes in the relative composition of our assets under management among our investment strategies and vehicles and the effective fee rates on our products also impact our operating results.

The amount and composition of our assets under management are, and will continue to be, influenced by a variety of factors including, among others:


•	investment performance, including fluctuations in both the financial markets and foreign currency exchange rates and the quality of our investment decisions;


•	flows of client assets into and out of our various strategies and investment vehicles;


•	our decision to close strategies or limit the growth of assets in a strategy or a vehicle when we believe it is in the best interest of our clients; as well as our decision to re-open strategies, in part or entirely;


•	our ability to attract and retain qualified investment, management, and marketing and client service professionals;


•	industry trends towards products or strategies that we do not offer;

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•	competitive conditions in the investment management and broader financial services sectors; and


•	investor sentiment and confidence.

The table below sets forth changes in our total AUM:



	For the Years Ended December 31,						Period-to-Period
	2015			2014			$			%
	(unaudited; in millions)
Beginning assets under management	$	107,915		$	105,477		$	2,438		2.3	%
Gross client cash inflows	18,577			22,953			(4,376		)	(19.1	)%
Gross client cash outflows	(24,425		)	(22,165		)	(2,260		)	(10.2	)%
Net client cash flows	(5,848		)	788			(6,636		)	(842.1	)%
Market appreciation (depreciation) ⁽¹⁾	(2,219		)	1,650			(3,869		)	(234.5	)%
Ending assets under management	$	99,848		$	107,915		$	(8,067	)	(7.5	)%
Average assets under management	$	106,484		$	107,865		$	(1,381	)	(1.3	)%



	For the Years Ended December 31,						Period-to-Period
	2014			2013			$			%
	(unaudited; in millions)
Beginning assets under management	$	105,477		$	74,334		$	31,143		41.9	%
Gross client cash inflows	22,953			22,290			663			3.0	%
Gross client cash outflows	(22,165		)	(15,112		)	(7,053		)	(46.7	)%
Net client cash flows	788			7,178			(6,390		)	(89.0	)%
Market appreciation (depreciation) ⁽¹⁾	1,650			23,965			(22,315		)	(93.1	)%
Ending assets under management	$	107,915		$	105,477		$	2,438		2.3	%
Average assets under management	$	107,865		$	89,545		$	18,320		20.5	%
⁽¹⁾ Includes the impact of translating the value of assets under management denominated in non-USD currencies into U.S. dollars. The impact was immaterial for the periods presented.

Net client cash flows for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2014 included net outflows of approximately $616 million and $635 million, respectively, from Artisan Partners Funds annual income and capital gains distributions, net of reinvestments.

We believe that growth in AUM in an investment strategy requires the availability of attractive investment opportunities relative to the amount of AUM in the strategy at a time when the strategy has a competitive performance track record and there is stable or growing client demand for the strategy or asset class. When we believe that each of these factors is present with respect to an investment strategy, we say we have “realizable capacity” in that strategy. We discuss realizable capacity in general, rather than discussing the capacity of our strategies in precise dollar amounts, because capacity is affected by a number of factors, evolves over time, and is subject to change.

We are confident that we have sufficient realizable capacity to continue to thoughtfully grow. In particular, we believe that we currently have realizable capacity in our Global Opportunities and Global Equity strategies, where we believe we are well-positioned to take advantage of client and investor demand.

During 2015, the Global Opportunities strategy had net inflows of $2.0 billion and the Global Equity strategy had net inflows of $101 million. While our past inflow experience does not guarantee future activity, if these strategies continue to perform well relative to their benchmarks and global strategies remain in demand, we expect that they will continue to gather assets.

Additionally, our High Income strategy, which we launched in March 2014, has performed well relative to its benchmark since its inception and generated net inflows of $429 million during 2015, despite having a short-term track record. We also saw strong interest in our Developing World strategy during the year, which launched at the end of June 2015 and has generated net inflows of $380 million since that time.

During 2015, our Non-U.S. Growth strategy, managed by our Global Equity team, had $2.0 billion of net inflows. On February 2, 2016 the Non-U.S. Growth strategy closed to most new retail and intermediary investors. On October 1, 2016, we will further close the Non-U.S. Growth strategy to most new institutional investors and employee benefit plans. We expect that the closing on October 1, 2016 will have some impact on the strategy’s net flows prior to that date, though we cannot estimate the impact with any certainty because of the many factors involved.

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Across the firm, we experienced total net outflows of $5.8 billion during 2015. The strategies managed by our U.S. Value team experienced total net outflows of $6.5 billion during the year. If the U.S. Value team’s strategies continue to underperform their benchmarks and client trends continue, we expect the team’s strategies will continue to experience net outflows. In addition, in late February 2016 we announced that we plan to cease managing assets in the U.S. Small-Cap Value strategy. In connection with that decision, the board of directors of Artisan Funds approved a plan to reorganize Artisan Small Cap Value Fund into Artisan Mid Cap Value Fund. The reorganization is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016. We plan to work with separate account clients on the transition or liquidation options available for their accounts.

Our Global Value strategy experienced $1.1 billion of net outflows during 2015. We re-opened the Global Value strategy across pooled vehicles on October 1, 2015. The strategy remains closed to most new separate account clients. We cannot estimate the impact of the re-opening on net flows with any certainty because of the many factors involved.

In late February 2016, a client of our Emerging Markets strategy communicated its intent to terminate its account with us during the second quarter of 2016. The client’s account represents approximately one-half of the assets under management in the Emerging Markets strategy as of the date of this filing.

We monitor the availability of attractive investment opportunities relative to the amount of assets we manage in each of our investment strategies. When appropriate, we will close a strategy to new investors or otherwise take action to slow or restrict its growth, even though our aggregate AUM may be negatively impacted in the short term. We may also re-open a strategy, widely or selectively, to fill available capacity or manage the diversification of our client base in that strategy. We believe that management of our investment capacity protects our ability to manage assets successfully, which protects the interests of our clients and, in the long term, protects our ability to retain client assets and maintain our profit margins.

As of the date of this filing, our Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth, Non-U.S. Value, U.S. Mid-Cap Growth, U.S. Small-Cap Value, U.S. Mid-Cap Value and U.S. Small-Cap Growth strategies are closed to most new investors and client relationships. As discussed above, our Non-U.S. Growth strategy is closed to most new retail and intermediary investors and, on October 1, 2016, we will further close the strategy to most new institutional investors and employee benefit plans.

When we close a strategy, we typically continue to allow additional investments in the strategy by existing clients and certain related entities, which means that during a given period we could have net client cash inflows even in a closed strategy. However, when a strategy is closed or its growth is restricted we expect there to be periods of net client cash outflows.

We measure the results of our “composites”, which represent the aggregate performance of all discretionary client accounts, including mutual funds, invested in the same strategy except those accounts with respect to which we believe client-imposed investment restrictions may have a material impact on portfolio construction and those accounts managed in a currency other than U.S. dollars.

The table below sets forth the total AUM for each of our investment teams and strategies as of December 31, 2015, the inception date for each investment composite, and the average annual total returns for each composite and its respective broad-based benchmark (and style benchmark, if applicable) over a multi-horizon time period as of December 31, 2015. Returns for periods of less than one year are not annualized.

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	Inception	Strategy AUM	Average Annual Total Returns (Gross)					Average Annual Value-Added¹ Since Inception (bps)
Investment Team and Strategy	Date	(in $MM)	1 YR	3 YR	5 YR	10 YR	Inception	Average Annual Value-Added¹ Since Inception (bps)
Global Equity Team
Non-U.S. Growth Strategy	1/1/1996	30,187	(2.83)%	7.70%	8.13%	6.37%	10.60%	618
MSCI EAFE Index			(0.81)%	5.01%	3.60%	3.03%	4.42%
Non-U.S. Small-Cap Growth Strategy	1/1/2002	1,323	12.63%	9.94%	9.24%	9.39%	14.54%	448
MSCI EAFE Small Cap Index			9.59%	10.44%	6.32%	4.55%	10.06%
Global Equity Strategy	4/1/2010	786	2.18%	11.91%	11.65%	N/A	12.44%	554
MSCI All Country World Index			(2.36)%	7.69%	6.08%	N/A	6.90%
Global Small-Cap Equity Strategy	7/1/2013	138	7.72%	N/A	N/A	N/A	6.37%	(88)
MSCI All Country World Small Cap Index			(1.04)%	N/A	N/A	N/A	7.25%

U.S. Value Team
U.S. Mid-Cap Value Strategy	4/1/1999	7,959	(8.77)%	8.80%	9.34%	8.32%	12.92%	404
Russell^® Midcap Index			(2.44)%	14.18%	11.43%	7.99%	8.88%
Russell^® Midcap Value Index			(4.78)%	13.40%	11.24%	7.60%	9.46%
U.S. Small-Cap Value Strategy	6/1/1997	854	(11.24)%	2.32%	2.47%	5.34%	10.60%	315
Russell^® 2000 Index			(4.41)%	11.65%	9.18%	6.80%	7.45%
Russell^® 2000 Value Index			(7.47)%	9.06%	7.67%	5.57%	8.34%
Value Equity Strategy	7/1/2005	1,556	(8.30)%	7.20%	8.52%	5.96%	6.45%	(119)
Russell^® 1000 Index			0.92%	15.01%	12.44%	7.40%	7.64%
Russell^® 1000 Value Index			(3.83)%	13.08%	11.27%	6.15%	6.36%

Growth Team
U.S. Mid-Cap Growth Strategy	4/1/1997	15,103	3.44%	15.44%	13.03%	11.11%	15.55%	560
Russell^® Midcap Index			(2.44)%	14.18%	11.43%	7.99%	9.96%
Russell^® Midcap Growth Index			(0.20)%	14.88%	11.53%	8.16%	8.59%
U.S. Small-Cap Growth Strategy	4/1/1995	2,270	1.61%	13.85%	13.76%	8.18%	9.94%	115
Russell^® 2000 Index			(4.41)%	11.65%	9.18%	6.80%	8.79%
Russell^® 2000 Growth Index