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• 1894 - John Tappan founds Investors' Syndicate
• 1937 - Company assets reach $100 million
• 1940 - Investors' Syndicate enters the Mutual Fund market in partnership with Investors Mutual
• 1949 - Investors' Syndicate changes its name to Investors Diversified Services, Inc. (IDS)
• 1958 - IDS Life Insurance is created
• 1984 - American Express completes acquisition of IDS Financial Services
• 1986 - IDS acquires Wisconsin Employers Casualty Company of Green Bay and renames it IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company
• 1994 - IDS reaches $100 billion in assets and conducts business under the American Express brand
• 2003 - American Express Financial Corporation acquires London-based Threadneedle Asset Management Holdings Ltd.
• 2005 - American Express announces plans to spin off American Express Financial Corporation into an independent company
• 2005 - American Express Financial Advisors is renamed to Ameriprise Financial, Inc.

Ameriprise Financial is the 4th largest financial advisory firm in the US. The company has over 12,000 financial advisors and 2.8 million clients. The company specializes in meeting the retirement-related financial needs of the mass affluent. Ameriprise Financial ranked 10th in overall client satisfaction in a 2006 JD Powers & Associates survey of full service financial advisory firms.

Contents 1 Ameriprise Advisors 2 SEC settlements 3 Commissions and Referral Fees 4 Refund Policies 5 See also 6 External links 6.1 References

[edit] Ameriprise Advisors

Many Ameriprise advisors are CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(TM) professionals, as defined by the Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards, Inc. Ameriprise financial advisors are licensed to sell a wide variety of financial products like stocks, bonds, options, annuities, insurance and securites products.

• Approximately 60% of Ameriprise financial advisors are independent contractor franchisees — they are not employed by Ameriprise Financial. They are licensed registered representatives of Ameriprise Financial and don’t receive a salary from the company.
• About one-quarter of our financial advisors are employed by Ameriprise Financial ("employee financial advisors").
• The company also has associate financial advisors. These financial advisors are employed by the independent contractor franchisees.

Other credentials held by Ameriprise financial advisors are the American College's Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designations.

[edit] SEC settlements

Ameriprise has 34 regulatory actions against it as listed on NASD. A complete listing of these actions, resolutions and fines can be found on NASD's Broker Check.

Ameriprise was, as of the close of 2005, a top recipient of fines from NASD and SEC regulators. The State of New Hampshire also levied the largest fine in its history against the company, $7.4 million, in early 2005, based on the charge that the company utilized its financial plan fraudulently -- as a vehicle to sell its propriety products, which were often inappropriate, overpriced and underperforming -- in breach of its fiduciary duties to clients. The Wall Street Journal published an article on the company's financial planning methods on February 9, 2004.

On Dec 2, 2005, Ameriprise Financial entered into a $15 million settlement with the SEC for charges of market timing. The settlement addressed practices between January 2002 and August 2003. The SEC accused the company of failing to prevent market-timing -- even after amending its prospectus to include explicit prohibitions against the practice. Market-timing is arguably detrimental to long-term shareholders because of the trading costs the fund incurs when it redeems holdings, the extra cash it needs to hold for redemptions, and other factors. The SEC alleged that after January 2002, when American Express Financial Corporation banned market-timing, the funds still allowed shareholders to rapidly trade the funds, and that some employees rapidly traded through their 401(k) plans. As part of the settlement, Ameriprise is required to make annual presentations to its board of directors about its policies and procedures to prevent market timing.

Ameriprise did not disclose this incident to the shareholders of its funds, now marketed under the name Riversource. American Express made a disclosure in its regulatory filings, but these are seen only by American Express stockholders. Ameriprise, now a separate company, has also not revealed which funds were timed, or the names of the people involved and the exact nature of the disciplinary action taken. Morningstar, Inc., has expressed dismay at the Ameriprise's lack of transparency. Morningstar publishes stewardship grades for mutual funds, indicating the quality of their corporate governance, and it has temporarily reduced the stewship grade for Ameriprise's funds, although it has not impacted the funds overall star ratings from the firm.

On December 2, 2005, The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported that State and federal regulators assessed $57.3 million in fines on Ameriprise Financial Services for inappropriate mutual fund sales trading practices. Ameriprise paid the Securities and Exchange Commission $45 million for inappropriate mutual fund sales trading practices. The National Association of Securities Dealers fined Ameriprise an additional $12.3 million and the Minnesota Department of Commerce levied an additional $2 million in fines for similar violations. In settling with the NASD, Ameriprise (NYSE: AMP) neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but consented to the entry of the findings.

On May 18th, 2006, The Associated Press reported that Ameriprise had lost one of the largest arbitration cases to date. The securities-industry arbitration panel awarded $22 million to a group of Exxon Mobil Corp. retirees who accused brokerage firm Securities America Inc. of improperly steering them into high-risk investments between 1996 and mid-2003. The panel awarded the claimants $22 million, including almost $3.5 million in punitive damages. While the alleged offenses occurred between 1996 and mid-2003, the bulk of them took place in 1997-98, according to attorneys representing the employees. Securities America was acquired by Ameriprise Financial in 1998; its brokers are said to operate as independent business people.

[edit] Commissions and Referral Fees

Ameriprise charges clients a flat fee for a personal financial plan, which typically ranges from $500 - $1,200. Visit the Ameriprise Financial website to learn how advisors are paid.

Ameriprise and its advisors also receive commissions when they direct their clients into mutual funds, annuities, insurance, and various other investment products. The commissions are disclosed to clients in the small print of the complex prospectus, but not by the financial advisor. In its prospectus, Ameriprise describes one of several conflicts of interest as follows:

"certain aspects of our relationship with the [fund group] firms create conflicts of interest or incentives for Ameriprise Financial to promote, and for an advisor to recommend, one fund over another fund. Generally, we have a greater incentive to offer Select Group funds than other funds. As further described below, these conflicts and incentives arise from the marketing and sales support provided to our financial advisors by fund families, revenue sharing payments we receive, our other relationships with fund families, the transaction charges financial advisors pay, and our interest in the sale of RiverSource Investments family of funds."

[edit] Refund Policies

Clients who are not satisfied with their "financial plan" may receive a planning fee refund at any time before their plan is delivered to them, and within 90 days after it is delivered by completing this form.

If clients purchase a variable universal life insurance policy through Ameriprise or annuity, they are allowed a free-look period based on their state laws, after the receipt of the insurance or annuity contract.

In some cases, Ameriprise will use an account called a Strategic Portfolio Service (SPS) Advantage account, which may hold most mutual funds, stocks, options, ETF's, bonds, UIT's. etc with an asset management fee, rather than commission or load structured fee. If the client transfer the funds to another firm, Ameriprise will charge a termination or transfer fee.

[edit] See also

• RiverSource

[edit] External links

• Ameriprise.
• Financial fact sheet and history. Ameriprise.
• Ameriprise Financial (October 3 2006). 2006 Ameriprise Financial Completes First Year as an Independent, Public Company. Press release.
• JD Powers and Associates. 2006 Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study. Press release.
• Nicole Garrison-Sprenger (staff writer). "NASD, state fine Ameriprise $14.3 million", Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, December 5 2005.
• NASD (October 26 2005). NASD Fines Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. $500,000 for Supervisory Violations in 529 College Savings Plan Sales. Press release.
• Ameriprise Financial (May 25 2005). Ameriprise Financial Chosen as New Name for American Express Financial Advisors. Press release.
• Ameriprise Financial (February 1 2005). American Express to Spin Off Financial Advisors Business to Shareholders. Press release.
• Morningstar, Inc. report on regulatory lapses at Ameriprise funds
• Ameriprise Investor Relations
• Ameriprise Advisor Locator
• Ameriprise Yahoo Finance
• Ameriprise Google Finance
• Ameriprise Financial Advisor Jobs

[edit] References

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