Thanks, I am happy. 

[quote=bluestars80]Well, glad you’re happy.  Ameriprise is better
than it was but is still FAR AWAY from their franchise owners like you
being an indy.  Riversource is a PROPRIETARY product, something
those of us working at indies were trying to get away from…[/quote]

[quote] Ameriprise Financial
Services and its affiliates generally receive more revenue from the sale
of the RiverSource Investments family of funds than from the sale of other
funds. Ameriprise Financial Services receives inter-company allocation payments
from its affiliates on revenue generated on the sale of RiverSource Investments
family of funds. Employee compensation and operating goals at all levels
of the company are tied to the company’s success. Certain employees may receive
higher compensation and other benefits based, in part, on assets invested
in the funds of RiverSource Investments.[/quote]



http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/ mf-revenue-sharing.asp

I can think of a couple of other fund companies that generally receive more revenue when they sell their own funds:

1) Vanguard

2) Fidelity

3) Every fund family!

Do you think they'll make more selling their own products, or other companies' products? 

Allreit, next time you sell Vanguard or Fidelity funds, realize that they participate in revenue sharing also (it's in their disclosures), and that you've caused them to make "generally more revenue" than if you had NOT sold their funds.   

Yes, Ameriprise makes more money selling prop funds than non-prop.  Does that mean that I make more on prop vs. non?  No.  And I don't sell much prop funds anyway (less than 10% of my fund biz).

Did you have a point?

[quote=Big Taco]

Allreit, next time you sell Vanguard or Fidelity
funds, realize that they participate in revenue sharing also (it’s in
their disclosures), and that you’ve caused them to make “generally more revenue” than if you had NOT sold their funds. 

Ameriprise is rubbish and you’ll want to take the advice of other posters as well as the info you read on amexsux.com. Ameriprise is a joke in the industry. Your focus will be to bring in as many people into the office and sign them up for a financial plan and then convert those plans into VULs, annuities, and RiverSource mutual funds. At the start you’ll have to do this by bringing in all family members and friends. Ameriprise products are expensive so once your family and friends see the hit they’ll take on their portfolio you’ll probably lose some friends. These VULs and annuities are good for the advisor and Ameriprise since they pay the most to the advisor and they generate guaranteed profits for 10 years due to the surrender charge. If the client pulls out early, then Ameriprise pockets the surrender charge. Consumer Reports did an article on Ameriprise and they found Ameriprise to have some of the highest costs in the industry.

With Ameriprise, you won’t see very many high affluent clients as those people go elsewhere. In a SEC filing, Amerprise said the average client asset is about 93,000 per client per branded advisor. While they tout that this number is increasing, don’t believe this. About 9 or so months back, Ameriprise took all their clients that had little assets and were not actively working with an advisor and shifted these clients to the home office thus artifically inflating the average client asset per branded advisor.

Re Riversource being ranked number 3, don’t believe this either. If you look at the 10 year number you’ll see RiverSource is 47 out of 50. They achieved the high one year ranking by merging poor performing mutuals funds into better performing mutual funds thus wiping away the poor performance for one year. This poor performance is still calculated in the 10 year number.

Re annuities inside an IRA, doing this will be a costly mistake for the client but it’ll be good Ameriprise. The supposed advantages of an annuity are tax deferred, principal guarantee, and payout for life. Do not believe these benefits especially inside an IRA. The IRA is already tax deferred so this is a waste. The principal guarantee is achived by an M&E cost for an IRA this is 0.85% per year so on 100,000 dollars you pay approx 850 dollars for the guarantee and you pay this as long as you own the policy so say the policy falls to 90K and you die you just paid 850 dollars per year 10K worth of insurance. You can go out and buy a long term term life insurance policy and receive a much higher payout versus cost. The income for life is no good. The payout rate depending on how old and what option is about 4.25% per year for a male around 65. As you can see this isn’t very good and this is the reason it pays for life. If you die, Ameriprise pockets the value of the policy. While you can get a payout that guarantees payout for so many years, the payout will be less than the value of the policy plus this’ll decrease the 4.25% to a lower number.

Re P2s VULs and annuities, you’ll hear that P2s don’t push proprietary products. Don’t believe this. Last quarter AMP did around 3.3B in annuities so based on 1000 P1 advisors this would equate to 3.3M per P1 advisor. I don’t think so. This means that P2 advisors push annuities just like the P1s. Same holds true for the VULs.

Back to your question. Avoid Ameriprise or you’ll be sorry.

Ameri-Who…thanks for the info.

I’ve had several buddies tell me they are going to go work for Ameriprise, or excited that they got offers/interviews with Ameriprise. I don’t say much, except tell them to be prepared and read up on the company. They are doing well, and a lot of their advisors do well, so something, even if its minute, has to be going right. So in essence, it depends on your office, your BM, your “boss”, your mentor, the situation, your clientele, etc etc…

Don’t judge the whole firm, but read up on it.

Here’s an example of the brain power of an Ameriprise rookie advisor.  One of my good clients had 2 accounts with me.  A joint account with his wife and a single account in his daughters name which had $155k.  She inherited this from an aunt that passed away a couple of years earlier at a cost of $125k.  The daughter recently married the Ameriprise rookie and she wanted to transfer her account to her new husband.  Makes sense, no problem.

But here’s what he did.  I expected a change of broker of record to come in, nope, got a full liquidation and ship ACAT.  She owned American CIB, GFA, Balanced, and Cap Wld G+I.  All class A.  (I really don’t do much American, but in this case I did).  So he incurred the 30k of LTCG to transfer, and sold out of some of the best funds for the last few years.

When I spoke with my client and informed him, he told me the reason the son in law gave was that “he would be able to save money by owning shares at NAV”. Later found out he bought Riversource which are more expensive than American. Client never found out if those were at NAV though.  My gut tells me his new bride’s account was the only trades of the month. 

[quote=GoingIndy????]Here's an example of the brain power of an Ameriprise rookie advisor.  One of my good clients had 2 accounts with me.  A joint account with his wife and a single account in his daughters name which had $155k.  She inherited this from an aunt that passed away a couple of years earlier at a cost of $125k.  The daughter recently married the Ameriprise rookie and she wanted to transfer her account to her new husband.  Makes sense, no problem.

But here's what he did.  I expected a change of broker of record to come in, nope, got a full liquidation and ship ACAT.  She owned American CIB, GFA, Balanced, and Cap Wld G+I.  All class A.  (I really don't do much American, but in this case I did).  So he incurred the 30k of LTCG to transfer, and sold out of some of the best funds for the last few years.

When I spoke with my client and informed him, he told me the reason the son in law gave was that "he would be able to save money by owning shares at NAV". Later found out he bought Riversource which are more expensive than American. Client never found out if those were at NAV though.  My gut tells me his new bride's account was the only trades of the month. 
[/quote]

So he could of gotten trades at NAV as a broker for his WIFE, and put her in Riversource?  Man, I hope he sleeps with one eye open from now on.........

[quote=AllREIT] [quote=Big Taco]

Allreit, next time you sell Vanguard or Fidelity funds, realize that they participate in revenue sharing also (it's in their disclosures), and that you've caused them to make "generally more revenue" than if you had NOT sold their funds. 

[/quote]

Please find a revenue sharing agreement involving VG. TIA
[/quote]

Please, allreit, just think about it for a second.  Does Vanguard make more selling their own funds, or other investment companies' funds? 

Why do they push all their own funds when you call them?  Are they going to suggest you invest in Fidelity, American Century, Schwab?  I don't think so.  They want to your money to go into Vanguard.  They make more money that way.

Here's a link to the rev sharing pdf.

https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/SearchResultsSec?que ry=revenue%20sharing&origin=home

It must have been reworded by their legal dept. recently, as a few months ago it actually read that revenue sharing is a "significant portion of revenue" for Vanguard.

[quote=Big Taco][quote=AllREIT] [quote=Big Taco]

Allreit, next time you sell Vanguard or Fidelity funds, realize that they participate in revenue sharing also (it's in their disclosures), and that you've caused them to make "generally more revenue" than if you had NOT sold their funds. 

[/quote]

Please find a revenue sharing agreement involving VG. TIA
[/quote]

Please, allreit, just think about it for a second.  Does Vanguard make more selling their own funds, or other investment companies' funds? 

Why do they push all their own funds when you call them?  Are they going to suggest you invest in Fidelity, American Century, Schwab?  I don't think so.  They want to your money to go into Vanguard.  They make more money that way.

Here's a link to the rev sharing pdf.

https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/SearchResultsSec?que ry=revenue%20sharing&origin=home

It must have been reworded by their legal dept. recently, as a few months ago it actually read that revenue sharing is a "significant portion of revenue" for Vanguard.

[/quote]

"So he could of gotten trades at NAV as a broker for his WIFE, and put her in Riversource?  Man, I hope he sleeps with one eye open from now on........."

Well ole "one eye" ain't gonna be doin much else anyway...!

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]

“So he could of gotten trades at NAV as a broker for his WIFE, and put her in Riversource?  Man, I hope he sleeps with one eye open from now on…”

Well ole "one eye" ain't gonna be doin much else anyway...!

[quote=AllREIT] [quote=Big Taco][quote=AllREIT] [quote=Big Taco]

Allreit, next time you sell Vanguard or Fidelity funds, realize that they participate in revenue sharing also (it's in their disclosures), and that you've caused them to make "generally more revenue" than if you had NOT sold their funds. 

[/quote]

Please find a revenue sharing agreement involving VG. TIA
[/quote]

Please, allreit, just think about it for a second.  Does Vanguard make more selling their own funds, or other investment companies' funds? 

Why do they push all their own funds when you call them?  Are they going to suggest you invest in Fidelity, American Century, Schwab?  I don't think so.  They want to your money to go into Vanguard.  They make more money that way.

Here's a link to the rev sharing pdf.

https://flagship.vanguard.com/VGApp/hnw/SearchResultsSec?que ry=revenue%20sharing&origin=home

It must have been reworded by their legal dept. recently, as a few months ago it actually read that revenue sharing is a "significant portion of revenue" for Vanguard.

[/quote]

You don't understand what VG Brokerage services is. VG operates their own mutual funds, and they are operated as a co-operative and thus for minimal profit.

They also run a brokerage platform as a convenience to customers, through that platform its possible to have acess to all the funds that Pershing offers. Those funds with 12b-1 fee's are No-transaction fee funds, other funds have ticket charges.

The big issue is the "supplimental" revenue sharing that takes place at AMP/EDJ to encourage "financial advisors" to promote the sale of RVS and other preferred funds.

VG's brokerage platform is fully client directed, so 12b-1 fee's have no effect on client choices. AMP's/EDJ's platform is  nominally client directed , (but in reality people follow the brokers advice) and so 12b-1 fee's and supplimental revenue sharing (kickbacks) have a major effect on fund choices made.

 


[/quote]

C'mon, man.

Vanguard uses the 12b1s as a "significant source of revenue".  It's in their "revenue sharing disclosure".  Either way, it's used to finance the sale of investments, which generate money for vanguard.  They're not a charity.  They're a business.

Was at AMP for 12 years, Gold FA last 7 yrs there.  Good place to learn how to be a consultant bad place to remain at long term.  Never witnessed a quality rep come to AMP in my time, poor relationship between corp and field, decisions made to please shareholders first and foremost (i.e. offloading CSO's to Phillipnes).  Poor non working technology that is always behind, payouts less than other indy's (not just payout but GDC too.  Have no direction, have no idea who they are in the market place, P3 yanked from reps when I was there then was lied too as to why.  The promises are always huge..sleeping giant yada yada yada. 

Go with AMP if you must, stay away from p1 and team up with P2.  Avoid the prop annuities and insurance and plan your exit in 5 years you'll be richly rewarded.

I was in a restaurant today for lunch, and saw the infamous Ameriprise fish bowl.  This is for the Ameriprise brokers out there, does the "win a free lunch" fish bowl really work?  Do you have some sizable clients you found through the fish bowl? I've always been curious.

OhioAdvisor, I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but times really have changed.  That's not just the koolaid talking.  The spinoff allowed us to keep the billion in annual revenue, instead of giving 85% of it to AmEx.  It's been heavily reinvested back into technology systems, branding, and, as you wrote: establishing who we are in the marketplace.  Also, a lot of the crap that was pulled over the years showed corporate that it's just a way to lose advisors and advisor loyalty.  Their message over the last few years has been to treat advisors as the client, and they've actually followed through for the most part.  It's not perfect, but I've looked around over the years.  No place is perfect.  Thank god AmEx isn't in the picture anymore.

As far as fishbowls:  I wouldn't know.  I don't like the idea of using a free lunch to lure prospects.  They'll eat and forget about you.  If they're there, it should be because they're interested in your content.

[quote=now_indy]

I was in a restaurant today for lunch,
and saw the infamous Ameriprise fish bowl.  This is for the
Ameriprise brokers out there, does the “win a free lunch” fish bowl
really work?  Do you have some sizable clients you found through
the fish bowl? I’ve always been curious.

[quote=Big Taco]

OhioAdvisor, I agree with a lot of what you wrote, but times really have changed.  That's not just the koolaid talking.  The spinoff allowed us to keep the billion in annual revenue, instead of giving 85% of it to AmEx.  It's been heavily reinvested back into technology systems, branding, and, as you wrote: establishing who we are in the marketplace.  Also, a lot of the crap that was pulled over the years showed corporate that it's just a way to lose advisors and advisor loyalty.  Their message over the last few years has been to treat advisors as the client, and they've actually followed through for the most part.  It's not perfect, but I've looked around over the years.  No place is perfect.  Thank god AmEx isn't in the picture anymore.

As far as fishbowls:  I wouldn't know.  I don't like the idea of using a free lunch to lure prospects.  They'll eat and forget about you.  If they're there, it should be because they're interested in your content.

[/quote]

I left in the past 18 months so I am as familiar with AMP as I am with AEFA plus have lunch once a month with the old office.  When AMP can recruit quality reps from outside the industry then they will have turned the corner but not before.  If you have looked around in the industry you would know that even though no place is perfect most indy's are better for your business and managing of client money.  Any AMP advisor that doesn't agree just doesn't want to admit it since that would mean they would have to do something about it and that my friend is a huge under-taking.

[quote=AllREIT] [quote=now_indy]

I was in a restaurant today for lunch, and saw the infamous Ameriprise fish bowl.  This is for the Ameriprise brokers out there, does the "win a free lunch" fish bowl really work?  Do you have some sizable clients you found through the fish bowl? I've always been curious.

[/quote]

Did you stick your business card in?
[/quote]

I should have, but I don't want them calling me. I have a feeling I would not "win" a free lunch.