Ameriprise??

[HarveyS]

About a decade ago I was overwhelmed with all my accounts and wanted to simplify my life so I opted to move my investments to Merrill Lynch. I had two very nice advisors and they recommended a variety of investment vehicles I could not get into on my own. One which sounds very much like what you were pitched was an option backed closed end fund that paid 2X any upside, but limited the downside to only 10%. This was done with a complex option strategy that I never understood. I bought several of these over time in something akin to a CD ladder and they performed very well, even after fees, as the market was rising.

I am no longer with ML since I realized after going thru an 86 page monthly statement that the relationship did not simplify my investment life. Then I looked at the fees the relationship as a whole was charging. Finally, one of the advisors told me something that was just plain wrong. When I asked about it, they doubled down and said they were 100% certain they were right. I pulled everything out and back to Fido and TDA where I self manage, save the fees, and trade infrequently so I don't have to look thru massive statements. I use personal capital to consolidate my accounts to see asset allocation and sector weights.

If you like the idea of what the Ameriprise guy is pitching, get details on exactly what it is. It's not super-proprietary regardless of what they tell you. Someone else has a similar product. Then see what Fido, TDA, or ML or JPM would charge for the same type of investment.

 

[OldShooter]

@Broland, hopefully you have been discouraged from this idea by now. You can also see the risk you take with proprietary products, per @HarveyS's post.

Here is an edited version of an investment policy statement that I helped write for a nonprofit. I suggest that something like it be part of your IPS as well.
--------------------------------------------------
Prohibited investments are as follows:
· Individual Commodities, Commodity Funds, and Commodity Options
· Hedge Funds and other “alternative” investments except REITs
· Unregistered or restricted stock
· Private Placements
· Initial public offerings (must have two year trading history)
· Security Options (Puts and Calls)
· Limited Partnerships except publically-traded MLPs
· Venture Capital
· Direct Investment in Real Estate
· Interest-only (IO), Principal-Only (PO), and Residual Tranche CMOs
· Annuities
· Illiquid Investments
· Investments that cannot be readily valued using public sources
· Investments that cannot be readily transferred between custodians (!)
--------------------------------------------------
Nothing can guarantee you'll be bulletproof but something like this should help.

HTH

 

[sengsational]

They had a "special deal" with my megacorp. No specifics in the write-up, so I called. They immediately started trying to scrape details about me. I stopped the pitch, told them I was with megacorp and wanted to know what the special deal was. They said they couldn't tell me until I went through the pitch. Then I said, well, at least tell me how much your fees are, they said no. I hung up. The end, except they've been sending me mailings for 15 years, which go directly in the trash.

 

[Andre1969]

Is Ameriprise the outfit that was supposedly founded by a school teacher? I have a good friend, who's a teacher, and he almost got suckered into working for one of those outfits, thinking "If a teacher started it, it must be good!"

His plan was to do it part time, for additional income. I told him to use extreme caution with them, and also said that if he tried to get me to sign up with anything, I'd tear him a new...well, you get the idea!

Well, it turned out that whatever this outfit was, they made most of their money selling these training kits, or something like that, to their prospective new "hires". And that's the way most of their employees made money...by bringing in more new hires under them. So basically, a financial version of Amway.

He backed out of it pretty quickly, but I think they got him for about $200 for this supposed "training kit"

Anyway, maybe it wasn't Ameriprise? But it was something that sounded something like it. "Primerica" maybe? But, regardless, the name doesn't exactly trigger happy thoughts from my brain.

 

[disneysteve]

they have a couple of programs that have "triggers" on when to exit and enter the market(s).

Market timing is a lousy strategy if you're doing it yourself. It's a truly awful strategy if you're going to pay someone else to do it for you. You are essentially guaranteeing that your portfolio will consistently under-perform the market.


I wouldn't do that with Ameriprise or any company or advisor anywhere.

 

[Broland]

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't familiar with Ameriprise, but clearly they don't have a very good reputation in this forum ... not even one neutral much less positive comment!

Guess I'm gonna hang on my own for a while and look at some of the suggestions from y'all.

 

[travelover]

Thanks for all the input. I wasn't familiar with Ameriprise, but clearly they don't have a very good reputation in this forum ... not even one neutral much less positive comment!

Guess I'm gonna hang on my own for a while and look at some of the suggestions from y'all.

The good news is that it doesn't need to be complicated. A simple target year index fund from a place like Vanguard will put you ahead of 90% of investors and it is all hands off.