Ameriprise Financial Advisors – Leach And Associates

My mother had some money with Ameriprise when she passed away several years ago. Since that time her heirs, including myself and my sisters, have repeatedly tried to get the money she put away with them. They are extremely stubborn and thrown up many road blocks to keep her heirs from getting the money that is rightfully ours. We are very frustrated with their customer service and we believe they are trying to keep the money for themselves despite the evidence and information we have provided to them to release the money. It is not a huge amount of money but their bureaucracy makes it seem like we will never see the cash.

My wife and I came here on a recommendation and spent a fair bit of time with one of their financial planners. I won’t give his name because this poor review isn’t about him; he was pleasant and pretty good at explaining the ins and outs of retirement planning.
We signed up, paid the $ 1500 annual fee, and made the arrangements to have a set amount deducted automatically from our bank account each month. Pretty simple transaction, right? Apparently not.
The first month rolled around and there was no withdrawal, nor was there the second month. I emailed the adviser about this and after about a week he finally called me, and asked for another blank check to begin the process anew. I sent one to him the same day. Next month comes around, and Ameriprise still hasn’t managed to do this one simple thing (this in addition to consistently misspelling my wife’s name on the account, despite asking them to correct it more than once).
I emailed once again asking why this was still (not) happening, and got no response. After ten days of being ignored I emailed again, and finally had a reply saying that they had been «working very hard» to resolve this problem. Um, how hard does an institution whose main business is finance need to work to arrange a simple automated monthly transfer — something that, these days, everyone from utilities to car loans does, instantly, online?
Between the inefficiency and the slow customer service — neither of which left us with any confidence about the firm’s ability to do the important stuff, like investing — we gave up and said we wanted to sever the relationship and seek financial services elsewhere.
At which point Ameriprise told us they were refusing to refund our annual fee because it was «outside the 90-​day refund window». So here we are, out $ 1500 and having just wasted our time on a frustrating experience with a company that loves to take your money but doesn’t care enough to do what you pay it for.
UPDATE, Sep 2012: I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and the Ameriprise headquarters office responded promptly and refunded the $ 1500 fee.

I came here once for a job interview. Little did I realize it’s pretty much a legal pyramid and kind of like the adult version of «Cutco». I walked out after about 15 minutes realizing this is not the kind of thing I want to get into (I already fell for the Cutco thing in high school). I could see this as a useful service, but something about it just screams «Scam» all over it. That and there are many other similar business models out there for the same type of job of «financial planner»… trying to lure you with the whole «run your own business» schpeals.
~G

This all started when my company re-​designed our business cards. What do you do with old business cards? Throw them into every fishbowl drawing in Lower Queen Anne.
Among other things I won, was free lunch for me and some friends at Racha, from Ameriprise Financial. After a pleasant, brief talk about what they can help with, I went ahead and took them up on the free consultation with financial planner, James Justus. Or, as he amusingly refers to himself now, my «financial trainer». Heh.
So far, so good. He has not been pushy about any sales, and my money that’s just been sitting on it’s ass, earning a pittance in my savings account, is now finally pulling it’s own weight and getting me closer to home ownership. James has a great sense of humor, and has already taught me a lot about where my money can go. All this, and we’ve only met three times.
As for how my investments turn out, well, that has yet to be seen. But I feel pretty good about this. If you have a goal that requires a lot of capital, and no bloody clue how you’ll ever actually get there, James is your guy. Plus, you gotta admire a guy who can talk money AND have a good sense of humor, first thing in the morning.