Ameriprise Reviews

Pros

Technology is top notch
great financial planning resources
autonomy

Cons

Difficult to grow a practice
no support
you will go broke before you make a living with this company

Pros

Monday to Friday workweek
Immediate benefits (health, vision, dental, paid time off)
Supportive management

Cons

The job is 100% over the phone, can get "burned out" making 150+ outbound dials a day
Balancing dialing time, setting appointments, and studying for the Series 7, Series 63, and Insurance

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back the Kaplan trainers to assist new employees in passing their exams

Pros

Good exposure to the entire practice.
Financial Analysts are extremely available and willing to help through projects.
Interesting look at different investing philosophies, conservative philosophies for the most part.
Great work/life balance, hours are really flexible, just get your work done and your free to do as you please.

Cons

Somewhat slow paced, if you're interested in joining a high intensity brokerage firm look elsewhere.
Financial Analysts cancel on clients fairly frequently.

Advice to Senior Management

Speed up business, waiting for replies from Home office takes too long and seems to cause advisors to miss profit-capturing opportunities.

Pros

The interaction with clients was great!

Cons

Management wasn't helpful at all. Members only club to say the least

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees would like to be paid their entire commission on time and not split with an employee that did not contribute anything.

Pros

-Nice co-workers
-Free lunches
-Good training resources

Cons

-Our branch manager only came in 1-2 times a week, he never knew what was going on in the office
-Mid-year and year-end reviews were a joke. We were reviewed by a FOTL that did not work out of our office. Unbelievable how our reviews were conducted by someone we barely knew and vice versa.
-Raises are a joke too. Eventually, all staff employees somehow find out how much the other staff people are making hourly.
-Hourly wages were much lower than the industry standard.
-Because the managers were never around, staff employees would take advantage and make up their own schedules. Come in late, leave early, but get paid for the full 8 hours.
-Back office employees need to be trained more for the brokerage side of the business.
-Many clients have transferred out their accounts because they felt that Ameriprise's fees were too high.

Advice to Senior Management

-Spend more time in the office. Know what is going on in your branch.
-Bring back montly one-on-one meetings with every employee in the branch. Many of us felt that managers just did not care. Yet, management keeps on pushing to increase business.
-Just because someone has been with the company for 20+ years, it does not mean that the rest of can be ignored. We know how to do our jobs and would like recognition as well.
-Weekly free staff lunches were great. But if the company has that much money to burn, it should go to our paychecks instead.

Pros

Good commissions for financial advisors, ability to make alot of money without alot of heirarchy, ability to make your own work schedule once you have achieved a high enough sales goal.

Cons

Poor professional development for employees that arent brokers. Staff are not treated well or paid well. Little ability to move up in the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay better, lead your non-financial advisor staff to career paths within the company.

Pros

Very nice benefits package. More conservative work environment that didn't allow for many off-task activities. Newer office building with updated technology.

Cons

Needed more community based initiatives in the workplace. Not enough time given for team building exercises on a regular basis.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop multiple career tracks that are available to every employee and provide more information related to the higher level positions.

Pros

Entrepreneurial spirit about the way the company is run. A large amount of freedom is given to employees in the products your able to sell.

Cons

If you work for the corporate side of Ameriprise, then this will not apply to you. But working for a franchisee Ameriprise is like being stuck in the same role for the rest of your career.

Advice to Senior Management

I would advise manage to give it's employees better benefits and stock options. They should try to cater to more high end clients to raise commisions.

Pros

Good efficient processes.
Glen Salow is a strong leader
Profitable business
Good chances for promotions and raises
Company is always looking for newer and better ways to do things.

Cons

Processes sometimes ties down things.
Downtown location means parking can be a problem
Company is never shy to carry out layoffs...but again that keeps them profitable

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening more to your people. Sometime you get into the clouds and start building dreams that will never make it to reality. Also share more of your goals and long term vision with employees.

Pros

The main thing that working at Ameriprise has taught me was the holistic approach to financial planning. I believe the training was good enough to teach me how to be a comprhensive financial planner.
Co-workers are great to work with. They all are friendly and helpfull if you have any questions.

Cons

The sales goals were unreasonable due to the economic environment.
Company went through a lot of down sizing and eliminated much needed support positions.