My Comments
Anyone that uses Ameriprise 'financial advisors' must be on more drugs than Hopper ever used. Here are 12 reasons why you should not use Ameriprise:
1. Ameriprise has 36 regulatory actions against them for various misdeeds, including lying to clients, market timing, pushing poor performing yet expensive prop (house) funds, selling inappropriate investments, hiding revenue sharing and much more. You can find all regulatory actions against Ameriprise here:
http://www.nasd.com/InvestorInformation/InvestorProtection/NASDW_005882
2. Ameriprise participates in revenue sharing, which creates a conflict of interest with clients.
http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp
http://www.fool.com/investing/brokerage/2006/03/17/beware-of-revenue-sharing.aspx
3. Ameriprise is a laughing stock with other financial advisors.
http://forums.registeredrep.com/ (Do a search on 'Ameriprise')
4. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' are really brokers - salesmen - with conflicts of interest with you and your best interests. They will not tell you about all the fees you are paying and then show you a chart like this:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/advise.html
Wouldn't a REAL 'financial ADVISOR' tell you these things and help you keep as much of your nestegg as possible instead of sucking you dry?
5. Ameriprise hires kids with no experience, teaches them how to read a script and some hardcore sales techniques, has them get some sales licesnes and then turns them loose on their 'natural market' (friends and family).
6. People that do their own investing do much better than people using 'financial advisors':
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20061206_investment_advice_a1.asp
7. Ameriprise cares more about their stockholders than their clients:
"It's clear from Ameriprise's statement that it is more eager to comfort shareholders in the company rather than address the concerns of fund investors"
http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=150861&_QSBPA=Y&_QSBPA=Y
8. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' do not clearly tell clients what they are paying for ALL fees. Ask some clients what fees they are paying. Many will even tell you, "I don't pay any fees".
9. This one is perhaps the most dangerous. Ameriprise salesmen are consumate con-men. They win over their clients so that if a client reads what I have posted here he will either think that his financial advisor, his trusted buddy, is NOT like this and will not even do the research. If a client does do some research and asks some tough questions, he will be manipulated in one of several ways: confusing double talk, guilt inducement (don't you trust me?), annoyance and/or distain (just leave these things to me, you could never understand them'). Because people are afraid to handle their own money, they can easily be manipulated.
I have a secret to tell you - proper investing is easy. Just buy a Vanguard retirement date fund, for example.
10. Ameriprise sells insurance and the salesman (your 'advisor') gets big commissions when you buy a variable annuity or VUL policy. Very few people should be buying these policies, yet Ameriprise tries to sell them to almost every client that walks in the door.
http://www.consumerfed.org/releases2.cfm?filename=022403ror.txt
11. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' only hold to a 'suitability' standard and do not do what is in the client's 'best interest'. There is a huge difference between the two, morally and legally.
"Our advisors' goal is to help you select suitable investments that help you achieve your financial goals."
http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp
12. Consumer Reports has discovered that investing through Ameriprise is expensive:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/BIZ/705250324/1005
There are many MORE reasons to avoid this firm. Many of the reasons I listed above also apply to other firms. Learning to do your own investing is easy (really) and no one else will care about your money more than you do. If you must use someone else to handle your financial future, here is some good reading:
http://www.efmoody.com/whouse.html
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Anyone that uses Ameriprise 'financial advisors' must be on more drugs than Hopper ever used. Here are 12 reasons why you should not use Ameriprise:
1. Ameriprise has 36 regulatory actions against them for various misdeeds, including lying to clients, market timing, pushing poor performing yet expensive prop (house) funds, selling inappropriate investments, hiding revenue sharing and much more. You can find all regulatory actions against Ameriprise here:
http://www.nasd.com/InvestorInformation/InvestorProtection/NASDW_005882
2. Ameriprise participates in revenue sharing, which creates a conflict of interest with clients.
http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp
http://www.fool.com/investing/brokerage/2006/03/17/beware-of-revenue-sharing.aspx
3. Ameriprise is a laughing stock with other financial advisors.
http://forums.registeredrep.com/ (Do a search on 'Ameriprise')
4. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' are really brokers - salesmen - with conflicts of interest with you and your best interests. They will not tell you about all the fees you are paying and then show you a chart like this:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/advise.html
Wouldn't a REAL 'financial ADVISOR' tell you these things and help you keep as much of your nestegg as possible instead of sucking you dry?
5. Ameriprise hires kids with no experience, teaches them how to read a script and some hardcore sales techniques, has them get some sales licesnes and then turns them loose on their 'natural market' (friends and family).
6. People that do their own investing do much better than people using 'financial advisors':
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20061206_investment_advice_a1.asp
7. Ameriprise cares more about their stockholders than their clients:
"It's clear from Ameriprise's statement that it is more eager to comfort shareholders in the company rather than address the concerns of fund investors"
http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=150861&_QSBPA=Y&_QSBPA=Y
8. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' do not clearly tell clients what they are paying for ALL fees. Ask some clients what fees they are paying. Many will even tell you, "I don't pay any fees".
9. This one is perhaps the most dangerous. Ameriprise salesmen are consumate con-men. They win over their clients so that if a client reads what I have posted here he will either think that his financial advisor, his trusted buddy, is NOT like this and will not even do the research. If a client does do some research and asks some tough questions, he will be manipulated in one of several ways: confusing double talk, guilt inducement (don't you trust me?), annoyance and/or distain (just leave these things to me, you could never understand them'). Because people are afraid to handle their own money, they can easily be manipulated.
I have a secret to tell you - proper investing is easy. Just buy a Vanguard retirement date fund, for example.
10. Ameriprise sells insurance and the salesman (your 'advisor') gets big commissions when you buy a variable annuity or VUL policy. Very few people should be buying these policies, yet Ameriprise tries to sell them to almost every client that walks in the door.
http://www.consumerfed.org/releases2.cfm?filename=022403ror.txt
11. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' only hold to a 'suitability' standard and do not do what is in the client's 'best interest'. There is a huge difference between the two, morally and legally.
"Our advisors' goal is to help you select suitable investments that help you achieve your financial goals."
http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp
12. Consumer Reports has discovered that investing through Ameriprise is expensive:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/BIZ/705250324/1005
There are many MORE reasons to avoid this firm. Many of the reasons I listed above also apply to other firms. Learning to do your own investing is easy (really) and no one else will care about your money more than you do. If you must use someone else to handle your financial future, here is some good reading:
http://www.efmoody.com/whouse.html