Ameriprise Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

Flexibility-remote access
Recognize for your achievements

Cons

Too much red tape for processes

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to make improvements with field employees

Pros

If you are willing to basically give up your life for two to three years and you're good at selling you can make a lot of money.

Cons

You are expect to work a minimum of 60 hours a week. 100% commission. In the beginning you basically need to cold call people to create prospects. They want you to memorize scripts.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Once past the intial start up period you are your own boss basically. If you want to suceed it's up to you. Flexible hours - as long as you get your job done. Unlimited earning potential - if you work like a dog for many years.

Cons

No lead source anymore - biggest problem! you must find a way to generate your own leads with limited budget, limited guidance, limited interaction with peers and management. You have to seek out involvement. You have no ownership in your practice/clients. Requires ALOT of time to keep practice up and running. No work/family balance - it's hard for many years.

Advice to Senior Management

Give the advisors a lead source!!!

Pros

Career advnacement and ability to control your own destiny.

Cons

Its a challenging field in general, not just this company or position so be prepared to work hard.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to monitor effectiveness of field leaders.

Pros

It's a flexible career which allows you to work as much or as little as you want. My favorite part is that you are able to build great relationships with clients that you like that can last a lifetime.

Cons

It's hard work and a lot of it. I would not recommend it if you have significant financial responsibilities or if you do not want to work long hours in the beginning. The fact that you do not have a big base means that you will likely not be sure how you are going to pay your bills.

Advice to Senior Management

I think they have done a good job of raising standards and although it makes the job more difficult I think it is ultimately worth it.

Pros

None. A lot of big promisses... none delivered!

Cons

You are expected to work long hours for very little pay. They are most likely violating employment laws. They lie about the amount of money you will make. There is litlie to no training before they expect you to start bringing on clients. The expect you to bring on your family and friends before you are trained and you have any clue about what you are askiing you family and friends to sign up for. 1 in 10 make it past the first 10 weeks... by then they have hooked your family and friends who have signed a 1 year contract and payed a lot of money.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't lie or mislead people about this career. Invest in your employees and train them before you ask them to start selling.

Pros

The pros to working with AMP is the training as an advisor. They give you scripts for the phone calls, the initial interview meetings and the implementation meetings, including verbatim objections. Along with that in the beginning a manager will help you conduct all of your meetings. They teach you about the different personality types, investments, questioning, compliance (obviously), and marketing. Compared to other companies in the industry from what I have learned our training for new hire FA's is top notch. The only company I have heard similar comments about training is Edward Jones. The payouts are good compared to most of the employee based brokerage houses. The the top payout is 55%. 5% of that goes to company stock so its really a net 50% payout. The payout grid is based 60% on GDC, 20% on clients acquired and 20% financial plans sold. To get a payout in that neighborhood you would have to be writing about 225k GDC, get 30 clients acquired, sell 35 plans (as a side note for clients acquired you get bonus points for how big the client is so a $500K account is equal to 5 points). Also, there is an "advisor coach" role that you can get in that pays you 20% of the GDC you write for an advisor you coach, which is a pretty sweet way to hold you over during slumps. Also, another plus is the marketing support: They pay for all of your marketing and give you some leads (the leads they give you are not nearly enough to build a book off). Then after you have been there 3 years, have 20 million AUM and 150GDC rolling you can go P2 which means you can be an independent contractor with AMP (1099 worker). After 3 years of P2 you can sell your book. I know a guy who sold his book of about 20 million, all wrap for $500k.

Cons

The biggest negatives to Ameriprise are as follows:
*Most people will never make it-In the time last year I have seen at least 25 people quit. As you could imagine this creates pockets of negativity in the office.
*Managers give new people unrealistic potential income numbers-When I started they said that the average advisor makes $170k a year by there 3rd or 4th year. Yea right! I have seen with my own eyeballs probably 4 or 5 people do this. Maybe 170K GDC but that you put you at about 75K-80K.
*The hours in the beginning are horrendous- You work 8-8 Monday-Thursday and 8-5 Friday. Keep in mind in your first year you would be lucky to crack $45K or better in income.
*The structure is good in the beginning but when you have some momentum it could actually slow you down.
*There is no salary, it’s a draw of $24K-It is too complex for me to explain but hear is the general idea. Its like me saying, I am going to give you a license to sell my stuff, if you have a week that you don’t sell anything hear is a credit card that you can cash advance $24K from. When you do have a week that you sell stuff you need to pay me back FIRST, then pay yourself second.
*Some of the marketing is a little embarrassing and ineffective-When you first start at AMP they will introduce you to something call "fish bowl marketing". The way it works is you put a fishbowl in a local restaurant, someone drops there business card in it, you call them and tell them that they have been selected for a lunch for them and 10 people. The day of the lunch you do a 10 minute canned presentation before lunch is served, collect comment cards and then leave. The reality is they hardly ever work. I only know of a small handful of people who can get them to work with any consistency. The rest of the people are gambling with the company's money.

Advice to Senior Management

We need to do a better job giving resources to people who can convert on it. We would be better having smaller offices with higher producing advisors than big offices where 20 to 30 people quit every year.

Pros

What you can do for your clients is extremely fulfilling. You have the ability to change lives for the better. as you are working with clients you comprehensively evaluate thier situation, and have a chance to use a wide variety of products to fulfill thier needs.

Cons

"Churn and burn" mentality, leaders are inept and create a hostile work environment. They care about how well you pull in new clients. No one cares about the quality of your work and as a result some clients are really helped, but many advisors are just out to beat the business out of people and then forget them. The office environment is negative, and turnover is high. Most of us do not enjoy work life. Work/life balance is horrible.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your people well if you want them to do well for you.