Ameriprise Financial

Ameriprise Financial Reviews

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About Ameriprise Financial

Ameriprise offers a wide variety of financial products, including investment, retirement, insurance and banking options. The company operates nationwide, with local agents available to take your call and offer financial guidance on more than just investments. Ameriprise also provides educational resources on its website, like market insights and financial calculators.

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Personalized service
  • Online account management
  • Variety of investment products
  • Advisors across the U.S.

Cons

  • Unclear advisor fees
  • Advisors aren’t all fiduciaries

Bottom Line

Ameriprise Financial is an established company that offers banking, cash management, insurance and investments. However, some may be leery due to its its non-fiduciary staff and negative news coverage.

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What is Ameriprise?

Ameriprise is a global financial services firm offering financial planning, insurance and investments. It has advisors across the country who give personalized financial and investment advice. Ameriprise can help with a number of financial goals, including:

  • Retirement
  • Investing
  • Planning for education
  • Personal finance
  • Insurance and annuities

You can get in-depth financial advice for almost all aspects of your life, including specific advice for achieving a particular goal. You also get to choose whether you’re involved in managing your account or whether it’s entirely managed for you.

Ameriprise’s advisors offer:

  • Investment strategies, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other structured products
  • Insurance policies, including life, disability, income, auto and home insurance
  • Banking and cash management, including Ameriprise certificates, trusts and other lending solutions
  • Retirement accounts, including IRAs, Roth IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, SEP IRA, 401(k)s and 403(b)s

How does Ameriprise work?

With Ameriprise Financial, you get a dedicated financial advisor to help you meet your financial goals. The firm uses many types of investment strategies and offers various programs and products so that you can decide how to invest your money.

In addition to Ameriprise’s investment guidance and solutions for brokerage accounts, insurance and annuities, you can receive financial advice for:

  • Budgeting and cash flow
  • Education savings
  • Tax strategies
  • Retirement savings
  • Small business planning strategies
  • Estate planning strategies

Advisors provide personalized recommendations for investments, asset allocation and other portfolio advice. They also track the progress of your goals and meet with you regularly to keep you up to date. As you progress, you and your advisor can readjust your goals.

You can also monitor your financial situation by tracking investments, accessing accounts, tracking goal progress and sharing information with your advisor. Ameriprise provides offline methods of contact as well, including over-the-phone and in-person services.

Ameriprise fees

With Ameriprise Financial, your initial consultation with a financial advisor is free. Fees for follow-up consultations aren’t listed online because services are tailored to your needs and chosen options.

The fees Ameriprise lists on its website include:

  • Annual account maintenance and custodial fees between $10 and $100
  • A $39.95 fee per no-load mutual fund
  • Legal transfer fees of $30

Ameriprise may waive account maintenance and custodial fees if certain conditions are met.

Ameriprise FAQ

Does Ameriprise Financial have local agents?

Yes. You can find local advisors on the company’s website by searching for your ZIP code or city.

Where is Ameriprise Financial available?

Ameriprise Financial is available across the United States and internationally. The company’s digital tools allow you to access your accounts from almost anywhere, and there is also a nationwide network of advisors. The company’s headquarters are located in Minneapolis, but it also has offices in Boston, New York, India and London.

Are Ameriprise’s fees high?

Ameriprise doesn’t disclose all of its fees online, so it’s hard to say. We’ve included some of its listed fees in the above section, but it’s still important to check with your advisor to know what specific costs to expect.

Is Ameriprise a pyramid scheme?

Ameriprise is a legitimate company that does not appear to operate as a pyramid scheme at the time of publishing. The company has received news coverage related to multiple Ponzi schemes within the company, but these incidents do not appear to be ongoing or inherent to Ameriprise’s business model.

Is Ameriprise good?

In general, Ameriprise Financial is a good company. It offers a variety of services, including banking and investing. You have a say in how involved your advisors are, and you can handle your accounts both online and offline. Ameriprise’s controversial past and shortage of fiduciaries make it hard to recommend the company as a first choice, though.

Ameriprise Financial Reviews

ConsumerAffairs has collected 404 reviews and 554 ratings.

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Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10
CoverageStaff

Reviewed Oct. 23, 2023

Ameriprise advisors - especially my most recent - continually told me they were fiduciaries meaning they were working in my best interest and totally transparent. They had my money for over 20 years - yes, that's right, 20 years and they made way more off my investments than I did. In fact, over the 20 years, I lost money. I understand that can happen with investments. But if my fiduciary advisor had been upfront and honest with me and not out and out lied - I would never have invested in the most recent VUL policy. She out and out lied about 1 facet of the plan and then never disclosed 2 other things - because if she had, she knew I would never have bought the policy.

I've lost over 20K in a little over 2 years (that's half my investment). She not only made substantial commissions (big loads that are never discussed with the client) during that 2.5 years, but she also made $2500 per year for her expert advice. DO NOT do business with Ameriprise and definitely not with their branch, Opus Advice First in Oxford, CT.

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Customer ServiceStaff

Reviewed April 3, 2023

I originally started with a financial advisor from another company but was under Ameriprise for at least 3-4 years. I never knew a lot coming into this but always received genuine guidance and honest feedback. I worked with a Dmitry B. and Tony G. my time with Ameriprise and really appreciated them not pressuring me to make decisions with my own money. Every so often I would get calls regarding updates to my accounts or suggestions to make based on the current market but always felt my decisions were respected and heard. Thanks again to those gentlemen and helping me reach my financial goals!

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    Reviewed Jan. 18, 2023

    I bought into a number of "alternative investments" in 2015 after explaining to my advisor that I was looking to offset the volatility of the public stock exchanges with growth investments that were less volatile. I communicated I was willing to trade return rate for stability but wanted to do better than fixed income returns. She recommended a number of these private equity vehicles, most paying a periodic dividend until fund closing at which time the shares are liquidated and paid out - obviously at a rate intended to be higher than when purchased.

    While most investments have suffered through the Covid experience, I just had one of these funds liquidate at 25% below what I invested in it 6 years ago. Unlike the public exchanges, I had no option to hold the shares longer to get more recovery. The majority of shares voted to cash in so I was dealt my loss. Expensive lesson learned on volatility. Would have fared much better keeping this money in the public exchanges. Make sure you consider all the rules of the game with these private funds.

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    Staff

    Reviewed Oct. 28, 2022

    They are in business to make themselves $$. Ameriprise claims that most clients belIeve their advisors cares about them. Advisors are well trained to act like they care. What they really care about is extracting enormous fees for their pretense. Stay away from all financial management services.

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    Customer ServiceCoverageStaff

    Reviewed Oct. 22, 2022

    Under a previous advisor, who retired, I was under an annity plan that I had no issues with until his replacement said it was no longer supported so I had to select another; that was technically not true as I later found out it was just a rider to the plan that was retired. Nevertheless, under the impression a plan I liked was gone, I sought something similar as a replacement and the advisor selected a plan which I assumed met that criteria. It did not; it actually increased payout to Ameriprise and put a cap on my gains. I found out only after a superior called, as part of a routine call, to confirm my selection and my questions soon unearthed the duplicity of the advisor including that there were other plans that better mirrored my needs that was never mentioned.

    Long story short, I did my own research and selected another plan and signed the paperwork. It was not executed by the advisor; I found out about this failure 3 months later on a review of a statement - which meant 3 months of losses for funds that had not been moved to the new plan I selected, due to willful negligence or failure.

    Another superior deftly intervenes and claims that they will make things right and cover any losses to me due to their failures and offers another expert to better explain the plan I selected; said expert's agenda was not to better explain but to trigger a non-existent change so Ameriprise can send me a "new" application and reset the clock, as if I made my request 3 months later instead of 3 months prior, with said expert informing the Ameriprise department that will review my "new" application will likely reject it, which begs the question why I was being asked to do all this 3 months after the plan should have been executed! You guessed it - so Ameriprise can get themselves out of the consequences of their failure by pinning it on a non-factor after-the-fact.

    I was willing to work through the miss but the unethical maneuverings and attempt to escape instead of rectify the losses that they caused finally broke the camel's back. If a financial institution is engaging in such unethical practices and advisors look out for their interests not their customers, then best to look elsewhere. I am loyal to a fault but such practices cannot be tolerated anyway, especially with a financial institution entrusted with people's funds.

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    Customer ServicePriceOnline & App

    Reviewed Sept. 22, 2022

    My employer gave my an option of 3 third party service providers for my 401k. 2 of those options were Ameriprise advisors. I called all 3 options to discuss the fees that I would be charged to use them for my 401k. I ended up selected one of the Ameriprise advisors, specifically The Permanence Group. Dan who I spoke with over the phone told me that I would have a self-directed brokerage account with no asset under management fee, a $100 annual fee, and that I would have to pay $6 per trade. I was told that I would have access to trade essentially anything: stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, etc. These fees were already a bit high compared to what I am used to paying with Vanguard or Fidelity, but it was the cheapest of the options I had available. My intention was to make recurring automated purchases of low-cost mutual funds or ETFs, so paying $100/year plus $6/month seemed acceptable.

    After my account was funded, via paycheck deduction, I logged into my account to get an automated monthly purchase set up. Ameriprise's website told me that I was not allowed to trade online. I tried to initiate an online chat via their website, but got a message that the chat function was not available for my account type. I called into the number on their website. I was told that I was not allowed to purchase the mutual funds that I was interested in, and only had access to specific mutual fund providers. Fidelity and Vanguard were not on the list. So I tried to buy an ETF. I was told that when buying an ETF I could not just request to have my entire cash balance invested, I had to specify the number of shares I wanted to buy, which would result in some cash still sitting in my account. This seemed odd to me considering that it is 2022 and fractional share purchases are pretty common, but whatever, I just wanted to get my cash invested.

    I was then informed that I would be charged $56 in trading commissions and fees! Not only is this a ridiculous price, but it is almost 10 times the amount I was told I would be paying when I signed up. To summarize: Ameriprise lied to me about their fee structure, would not allow me to trade online, would not allow me to purchase mutual funds from 2 of the largest most reputable fund companies, and would not allow me to purchase fractional shares.

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    Reviewed Aug. 9, 2022

    I gave Ameriprise some money with the intent of getting a small but steady growth and maintain the capital. They said they invested in a safe mutual fund. My advisor moved to a new role and I am not sure who was monitoring my account. After two years, my account is below the initial amount I invested. Ameriprise made money by charging me their quarterly fees though. I would not trust them again.

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    Reviewed Jan. 28, 2022

    In my experience a true fiduciary is better for peace of mind. Please do your homework and seek multiple views before deciding on an advisor. My experience was to give more money to my advisor during 2020 who put me in fund and notes that had higher fees and lower returns while churning/selling off assets I already had, as well ones they had previously purchased (Sold many at a loss to watch them skyrocket later). The end result was poor returns, while their site stated 10-12 percent, I wound up with much lower when looking at what I had given and what I ended up with. In addition, a 1% AUM fee is just the beginning, when you add their fees and and the fund fees it's over 2%. There is enough data out there for self directing assets in a Vanguard et al.. Buyer beware or you may wind up behind as the market dips which has now compounded their (my) errors.

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    Customer ServiceStaff

    Reviewed Aug. 13, 2021

    I used to have a healthy stock portfolio. Starting out I wasn’t reinvesting my dividends; therefore I wasn’t growing as much either. When I joined Ameriprise Financial and turned over my portfolio to them; they reinvested my dividends- which in turn bought me more stock so that when I needed money to buy my car it was there. The people at Ameriprise are very nice, professional, willing to answer any and all questions that you may have. I look forward to handing over my SIP and 401k over to them to see how they can assist me once again.

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    Reviewed Aug. 9, 2021

    Their back office is filled with thieves and scammers. Avoid this platform if you don't want to be stolen from. Choose Fidelity, Schwab, or any of the other options. These people have carefully crafted strategies where they look at their clients' accounts and quite literally search for ways to take large amounts of money from them by trading in the opposite direction. Top tier scumbags in the back office. Run away. Save your money.

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    Ameriprise Financial Company Information

    Company Name:
    Ameriprise
    Year Founded:
    1894
    Address:
    3500 Packerland Drive
    City:
    De Pere
    State/Province:
    WI
    Postal Code:
    54115-9070
    Website:
    www.ameriprise.com