Ameriprise Reviews

Pros

High payouts for high producing P2 advisors, nice office space for P1 advisors, good financial planning tools (software) and overall technology resources.

Cons

Constantly changing compensation grid, low skill local management in P1 organization. Poor overall reputation of company, "financial plan" is simply a tool (that clients pay too much for) that assists financial advisors in selling exptremely expensive insurance products and front-loaded mutual funds.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop pushing expensive products, train your advisors to be good financial planners, add a quality or client service metric to compensation grid.

Pros

-Small number of employees, lets you get to know everyone
-They offer reasonable pay
-Management is very supportive and knowledgeable

Cons

-There is not a lot of room for growth
-The small size of the branch I worked at was mostly the reason for this

Advice to Senior Management

-Overall, management is great. some of the managers are a little dull. a slight increase in compensation could make all the difference

Pros

Ameriprise has excellent brand awareness and the resources of a fortune 500 corp. I've been in the advisory role within a mature practice for 5 years now and have been impressed by the amount of support put on my senior management and branch managers. A career as a FA is rewarding in the sense that the skills can be applied to enrich my family and the people in my circles. The knowledge gained through the experiene is highly valuable and portable to otehr industries. AMPF is a place where you can exercise your entrepreneural abilities, but will succeed only with the support of your peers, mentors and coaches. Working in a francisee practice, I can say that the support has been lacking. As a franchisee, you are at the helm of a small business and small business do not have the cash flow and resopurces of a larger corp, there are definetly hurdles to keeping staff motivated and happy because of this lack of resources, or perhaps dependency of cash flow. AMPF is a true planning firm that reaches out to the mass affluent. I beleive that most folks need some sort of planning and AMPF can meet these planning needs.

Cons

Benefits are lacking because the respources of a small business owner is limited.
Small business owners will take care of staff only after they have their needs met, which is understandable
Staff persons who are highly entrepreneural should have a game plan and not stand idle in current position, but plan for new opps to build, serve, and grow

Advice to Senior Management

What are the benefits to staff?

Pros

Individual FA's own their own business so everywhere is different. I started as an intern and stayed on full time. Lots of great experience working under established professionals.

Cons

Was not given the opportunity for advancement so had to seek out other options.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep employees more in the loop.

Pros

For new employees compensation and benefits packages are competitive with similarly sized companies.
Ameriprise faired better during the recession than many of its competitors.

Cons

Although it is talked about publicly, work life balance is not an area of emphasis in many groups.
Rigid compensation structure for existing employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Emphasize work life balance, allowing flexible work arrangements where there is no business case against it.
Require salaries for promoted employees to meet at least the starting salary for the position.

Pros

Small office, intimate work environment.

Cons

Low caliber of support staff, benefits package is appalling.

Advice to Senior Management

Negotiate a group rate on health insurance for franchise owners and staff.

Pros

Employees are given a great deal of responsibility. Overall, through the relationships I was able to form, my experience at Ameriprise was really beneficial.

Cons

The only downside is the location. Minneapolis is a growing and vibrant city in the summer time, I can't say the the same for winter.

Advice to Senior Management

I think the corporate culture and atmosphere can benefit from more relationship building workshops or engagements. There are many great people who work there but unfortunately having that social access is somewhat limited.

Pros

company was really good at recognizing hard work and people were really great to work with

Cons

tend to be a very silo organization so you don't learn more than the tasks assigned to you. Organization tends to take advantage of people and several people end up working long hours.

Advice to Senior Management

make sure to check in with your talent before they leave

Pros

Great Company, People, Work/Life balance, Team

Cons

I think it is a wonderful company to work for, and I am proud to stand behind the excellent example, values, and beliefs that my firm stands for.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Amazing place to start a career if you can stick out the initial 18 month requirement. Best place to start a sales career because of all the support they give.

Cons

You won't really have a life for the first 6 months and will be expected to stay after 5pm minimum 3 nights per week. It is very difficult to be successful without working nights

Advice to Senior Management

Revise transfer requirements. There should be a sales metric incorporated into the decision to transfer an employee if they have performed well but do not find a sales role suitable to their career