Please help me, I am SCREWED!

[bryan]

I ended up with Ameriprise, all 2.6 million of my investments. The financial planner has as of lately told me:

I can only use my dividends, cannot access cash held by my Ameriprise account

He is trying to push me toward Non Public Traded REITs

I did a lot of research, and this "fee based" planner is trying to restrict access to my money so he can get a bigger proportional fee off of account size and wants Non Public Traded REITs because he wants to offer a "stable asset with high dividends with an illiquid asset so he can shield himself against volatility for a bigger proportional fee off of account size,,,but I now know better about these ponzi schemes...Ameriprise gets nice commissions from these Non Public Traded illiquid REITs so new customer money can always keep paying these high dividends

I need help! I need to run from these *ssh@le&! I am afraid that I will find myself wanting to fight a rabid grizzly bear than getting ready to fight these *ssh@le&! How can I get out of this without Ameriprise ripping the crap off of me! Please help me! I AM NOT KIDDING!

Now this financial planner *ssh@le&! is also suggesting that he wants to restrict dividends...guess he doesn't want to set aside taxes for these funds and just DRIP them so his proportional fee gets bigger.

Please help me.

 

[haha]

I ended up with Ameriprise, all 2.6 million of my investments. The financial planner has as of lately told me:

I can only use my dividends, cannot access cash held by my Ameriprise account

He is trying to push me toward Non Public Traded REITs

I did a lot of research, and this "fee based" planner is trying to restrict access to my money so he can get a bigger proportional fee off of account size and wants Non Public Traded REITs because he wants to offer a "stable asset with high dividends with an illiquid asset so he can shield himself against volatility for a bigger proportional fee off of account size,,,but I now know better about these ponzi schemes...Ameriprise gets nice commissions from these Non Public Traded illiquid REITs so new customer money can always keep paying these high dividends


I need help! I need to run from these *ssh@le&! I am afraid that I will find myself wanting to fight a rabid grizzly bear than getting ready to fight these *ssh@le&! How can I get out of this without Ameriprise ripping the crap off of me! Please help me! I AM NOT KIDDING!

Now this financial planner *ssh@le&! is also suggesting that he wants to restrict dividends...guess he doesn't want to set aside taxes for these funds and just DRIP them so his proportional fee gets bigger.

Please help me.

So how does someone who lives in an upscale community and manages to put together $2.6mm do something like this? When you want a new car, do you walk into a dealer and give him a blank check? That would be way safer than what you have actually done. There are people here who have extricated themselves from Ameriprise, some will be along to make suggestions. But I have no clue, only bafflement.

One suggestion- next time you are given a proposition, google it before you send the check, rather than after.

Ha

 

[growing_older]

Troll?

 

[foxfirev5]

Somethings not passing the sniff test here.

 

[REWahoo]

So how does someone who lives in an upscale community and manages to put together $2.6mm do something like this?

Perhaps it is inherited money? Whatever the reason, let's not be too harsh on the new member and give him the benefit of doubt.

Bryan, here is a thread with links to other discussions about leaving Ameriprise. Maybe they will offer some ideas you can use:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/how-to-leave-ameriprise-need-help-54482.html#post1030725

 

[Richard4444]

Sorry Bryan for what you are going through. I have never been approached by Ameriprise, but thanks to this board, I now know to not deal with them. There are many reasons why we all make poor investment decisions - the support that this Board gives helps us all in so many ways. Much gratitude to all the members Rich

 

[pb4uski]

Come on - grow a pair. Just tell him no and that you don't want to hear about it ever again. What is so hard about that. Its your money and you dictate what it is invested in or not invested in.

At the same time, start exploring your options to get away from Ameriprise. It will depend on what crap you have invested in. If you money is in annuities, your're probably screwed and will need to either stick it out or pay high surrender fees for your freedom or use any surrender penalty free withdrawal provisions the contract has.

Good luck.

 

[Gumby]

Find out exactly what assets are held in your account. Determine any surrender fees or charges, and decide whether paying them is worth it (probably will be). Then order the advisor to deliver you a check for the account balance. For IRA money, you'll need to set up an IRA account at Vanguard or Fidelity and direct a custodian to custodian transfer so you don't have negative tax consequences. Follow the link by REWahoo for more detail.

 

[growing_older]

You can also work this from the other direction. If you call Vanguard (or some other reasonable low cost company like Fidelity, Schwab or TRowePrice) and talk to THEM, they can manage the transfers for you. For 2.6 million you will get the highest level of concierge service from any of these companies and they will even put their agent on the line with you to call Ameriprise and arrange all the transfers.

I'm not sure I see the difficulty here. If it's your money in the accounts at Ameriprise, how do you accidentally end up with them as a broker and how do you end up with such a large account while professing to know a lot about money from extensive research, but know nothing about transferring accounts? In any case, even if they charge you a few hundred bucks (out of 2.6 million) you will be much better off getting the assets into some sensible Vanguard index funds than leaving it with the sharks. Good luck.

 

[marko]

You can also work this from the other direction. If you call Vanguard (or some other reasonable low cost company like Fidelity, Schwab or TRowePrice) and talk to THEM, they can manage the transfers for you. .

+1 ! It's YOUR money! Cancel the account, get a lawyer if you have to.

 

[W2R]

Bryan, welcome to the Early Retirement Forum. I am sorry to read that Ameriprise is making things so difficult, but you can escape from their clutches. REWahoo's link (below, in his post that I quoted) should help.

Perhaps it is inherited money? Whatever the reason, let's not be too harsh on the new member and give him the benefit of doubt.

Bryan, here is a thread with links to other discussions about leaving Ameriprise. Maybe they will offer some ideas you can use:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f26/how-to-leave-ameriprise-need-help-54482.html#post1030725

 

[Texas Proud]

It would be informative if you mentioned HOW you ended up there....

As others have said, it just does not make sense that all of a sudden you moved $2.6 mill to them and found out how bad they are....


As someone else said, grow a pair.... I would tell them what I wanted and not let them do anything but that.... another firm will be very happy to help... even if it takes a few thousand for you to get out, that is still a bargain in the long run...

 

[eytonxav]

You can also work this from the other direction. If you call Vanguard (or some other reasonable low cost company like Fidelity, Schwab or TRowePrice) and talk to THEM, they can manage the transfers for you. For 2.6 million you will get the highest level of concierge service from any of these companies and they will even put their agent on the line with you to call Ameriprise and arrange all the transfers.

.

+2 good advice

 

[FIREd]

Welcome bryan,

Quite a few of us successfully escaped Ameriprise's clutch. With a bit of determination, you can too. Remember it's your money.

Before proceeding though, you need to educate yourself so that you can avoid jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

 

[kyounge1956]

With that level of assets, I'm sure you can afford to consult with a fee-only financial planner for an hour or two to set up a plan for extricating yourself from the clutches of Ameriprise--help you figure out when it is worthwhile to pay the surrender charge (if any) and when to wait and withdraw the money later. I had nowhere near the amount of money with them that you had, but it really was not hard to get it away from them once I made up my mind to do it. I just opened a new IRA account with another custodian and told them to send the money. There were some hitches with one side not wanting to accept the other side's forms, and I think I had to fill out both sets to get the money transferred, but in the end, I was able to get it out of Ameriprise and into my new IRA.

I don't have enough money to qualify for concierge services. Maybe the concierge could do this instead.

 

[Donzo]

Tough way to learn the important lesson about sharks in the finance industry. Cut your losses (prob. small) and get your money to Vanguard or Fidelity. With a portfolio of your size - your investment advice will be free with these companies. I agree about having VG or FD assist you with the transfer of funds.

 

[travelover]

Troll?

+1

 

[Animorph]

I ended up with Ameriprise, all 2.6 million of my investments. The financial planner has as of lately told me:

I can only use my dividends, cannot access cash held by my Ameriprise account

...

Now this financial planner *ssh@le&! is also suggesting that he wants to restrict dividends...guess he doesn't want to set aside taxes for these funds and just DRIP them so his proportional fee gets bigger.

We need more data about the type of account you have. Maybe a trust account where you are a beneficiary? You can only spend your dividends but not any principal? What did you want to do with your dividends? Is the financial planner the trustee? Why does he get to control things against your will? Is this some type of contractual thing, like a variable annuity? It sounds like something much different than a simple managed account.