Ameriprise Financial Advisors

I have been doing business with this office for over five years. Victor Koby, my account exec. Is honest, reliable and professional. JD, his assistant, has been knowledgable and efficient. Tina at the front desk is friendly and professional. The office is well run. I have done hundreds, if not thousands of trades with them. Vic has been in the business for decades, and I would recommend him and his team to anyone. In addition, Ameriprise does not engage in propriariary trading, or corporate finance activities, so the firm does not have the conflicts of interest with their clients that most brokerages have. Highly recommended.

Just moved to San Diego from the east coast and was in search of a new financial advisor. Seeing as that I’m in my early 30s I didn’t disclose my full net worth as I interviewed brokers from each of the top firms in the local area. It was very important to me to be known by my name and not by my asset size.
My first interaction with Ameriprise came on a Friday afternoon as I called in looking for an advisor I found using their advisor locator tool on
. I narrowed my search to 3 and thought I’d call in and agree to meet with whomever was still in the office as most brokers in the area seemed to leave at the market close. Let’s just say I was extremely impressed to find that all 3 were still there at 3pm!
Fast forward to the meeting, I was greeted at the office with a warm smile and a hello. As I sat in the lobby I noticed several employees walking by all with smiles on their face, it seemed they actually enjoyed being at work.
When I met with the Ameriprise advisor I did not feel that I was being labeled as a «small account» and after that initial 45 minute meeting I felt like I had not only made a new friend but someone I could trust to manage my money. In closing, I then transferred in the $ 500,000 I had just received from a death in the family

So I signed on with Ameriprise last year to ensure I’m on track to save for retirement. I was naïve, so naïve. We paid I think $ 500 for some genuine advice from a qualified person. I guess for one year, it’s not the *worst* way to spend money, but our advisor moved out of the area last fall, and nobody from Ameriprise contacted us.
So, $ 1000 for experts (another advisor’s fee) to tell me to max out my 401K, be sure to diversify with post-​tax investments, and to make sure we have a will and power of attorney. OK, I’m sure a Suze Orman book could have told me that for $ 19.95… $ 7.95 for paperback.
I’m going to call their impersonal «home office» to request a refund. Wonder how that will go. Ha!

Financial Planning is an odd thing. You’re paying someone for help but you can’t really explain what that help looks like.
I’m a 25 year old yuppie who is mindful of life ahead and I want to make sure that when I’m 75 I’m getting my grandchildren awesome wedding presents as opposed to asking my then grown children for help with my bills. In order to do this I need to start a solid plan now, and as such I sought financial planning. Most of the big financial houses are only interested in you if you’ve got $ 500K to play with, which I definitely do not so I ended up speaking to a guy from Ameriprise. Ameriprise is nice because they’ll still talk to you if you’re just getting started out (plus 1 star).
Ameriprise reaches customers by doing those little luncheon things and after one of those I thought, what the hell, I’ll give the guy a shot. I paid $ 300 for one year of advising and today my fellow Unilocalers I am going to tell you what they told me and save you $ 300 in these 13 steps.
1. Get disability insurance — If something happens to you, you’ll need it.
2. Put $ 500 in your savings accounts for the purpose of being able to access it instantly in an emergency. They call this tier 1.
3. Get disability insurance.
4. Set a goal to get around 3 months salary in an easy to access liquid account such as a high interest savings account from
. They call this tier 2.
5. Get disability insurance.
6. You want to get an additional 3 months salary (that’s 6 months if you count #4) in an even higher return but slightly less liquid investment such as bonds. Forgetting that I don’t know of many bonds getting above the 4.5% interest rate in my ING account, but hey I’m sure they exist. They call this tier 3.
7. Get disability insurance.
8. If you want to save for something like your first house/​condo you need to put a plan in place. Never mind what that plan is, you’re just getting started out Chuckie, and besides what are you thinking?! Buying a house??? You should be more concerned with…
9. Getting disability insurance.
10. Pay off your credit cards in an orderly fashion. Start with say 15% of your income going to it everyday but if and only if you are already…
11. Getting disability insurance.
12. Max out your 401K where earnings grow tax deferred as well as a Roth IRA where your earnings are not taxable. Do this simultaneously as to put yourself in the best shape when you withdraw the money. Alternative investments? Until you’re socking the maximum away in both of these don’t even think about it. But while we’re on the subject of alternatives, you should definitely consider…
13. Getting disability insurance.
While the information was useful it was pretty much common sense and for the most part I was already doing all of it. Pay off your debt (which I just did woo hoo!), max out your 401K/IRA’s and have some money in the bank in case something bad happens. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET DISABILITY INSURANCE. :laughs: You must realize your financial adviser is really a salesperson. The disability insurance pitch was so pushy that I’m sure their pockets got padded quite nicely for it and to be honest it turned me off. Obviously, I did not buy it. It’s a hard sell when my company already provides it, but dammit they tried! I would have had a bit more respect for them had they actually looked at what I already had insurance and investment wise and compared/​contrasted what they offered as opposed to saying «most companies…»
They did not provide me any earth shattering ideas or investment strategies as I was hoping. Rather, I had someone state a disciplined approach to saving.
At the end of the day I paid $ 300 for IRA management. What a crock. Needless to say I won’t renew and once this year is up, I’ll move all of my stuff over to Vanguard.
So two stars. I didn’t feel the advice given was bad or incorrect. I just did not find it worth the price and you my friend just got 6000 nickels worth of «advise» for free! He he get it? «Geeze I crack myself up.»