Are Ameriprise Investments always a bad deal? (annuity, bond, IRA)
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I’ve been reading reviews about Ameriprise investments and nearly all point to incredibly high maintenance/investment fees. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? Vanguard seems to have the best rep for the lowest fees.
I’ve been reading reviews about Ameriprise investments and nearly all point to incredibly high maintenance/investment fees. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? Vanguard seems to have the best rep for the lowest fees.
You don't need Ameriprise for anything. If you want to trade actively, do your homework including info posted on these very boards. If you don't want trade actively - then buy some diversified (mix of bonds and stocks) low cost funds and be done with it. In my opinion Fidelity is the best but that's because I've been with them since the early 90's. Or as you said, Vanguard, or there are many other options. I say diversified funds rather than an S&P index fund because the markets have been up for so many years in a row, and they have been up huge since Trump got into office. Election on the way next year. Protect yourself to the downside at least a little. Just my two cents.
One of my friends and his mother used to use an Ameriprise advisor. He asked me to look at his portfolio a couple of years ago. It was a mess of front-loaded sector funds with high ERs, thinly traded partnerships, variable annuities and other inappropriate high-commission junk. There seemed to be no theme to the portfolio construction other than generate the highest commissions possible. My friend said the advisor rotated some of his holdings every year. You can guess why. He is still trying to unwind some of less-liquid assets two years later after beginning his move away from Ameriprise. The same advisor sold his mother a $200K annuity last year a month before her 86th birthday which is that particular annuity's age limit. She has dementia. The annuity can't be cashed out without penalty for 7 or 8 years (can't remember exact length). There may be some good Ameriprise guys out there but based on my knowledge of this one guy's style, I'd stay far away. The size of their average portfolio probably means they can't earn a decent living without selling most of their clients high-expense products that pay high commissions.
As BeerGeek said, you don't have to be a genius to build a simple appropriate portfolio that will cost you thousands of dollars less every year in expenses. Bogleheads is always a good place to begin your investment education.
I’ve been reading reviews about Ameriprise investments and nearly all point to incredibly high maintenance/investment fees. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? Vanguard seems to have the best rep for the lowest fees.
You don't need Ameriprise for anything. If you want to trade actively, do your homework including info posted on these very boards. If you don't want trade actively - then buy some diversified (mix of bonds and stocks) low cost funds and be done with it. In my opinion Fidelity is the best but that's because I've been with them since the early 90's. Or as you said, Vanguard, or there are many other options. I say diversified funds rather than an S&P index fund because the markets have been up for so many years in a row, and they have been up huge since Trump got into office. Election on the way next year. Protect yourself to the downside at least a little. Just my two cents.
I second this advice. This is why I'm always recommending balanced funds. The following balanced funds have gotten nearly the same or better returns as Vanguard's S&P 500 Index fund (cheap Institutional Share class), which returned 6.21% annualized over the last 20 years. Pick one of the below funds and just keep adding $$. I'd go for a lower cost fund like Vanguard Wellington or Dodge & Cox Balanced. The higher cost ones like Oakmark & FPA have great 20 year records but haven't done as well in the last decade and their higher expense ratios are a handicap.
Years ago, a friend referred me to an Ameriprise advisor and I signed up for a retirement account with them.
I was invested in a lot of front loaded “A class” shares of various funds, mostly equity, some bond funds. The loads (5.75% front end load) and fees (1.5% of assets on some funds) on these funds are crazy high and are designed to make Ameriprise and the advisor wealthy, and not you. Also, there was a $500 annual account fee. Beware!
Comparing my returns to the industry benchmarks, Ameriprise could never beat them.
Ameriprise always underperformed the benchmarks. After a few years, I decided to close my account and move everything over to Fidelity. To add insult to injury, they charged me an account closing fee when I closed my account. I was appalled.
I would stay away from Ameriprise. Open an account at Vanguard or Fidelity and select your own investments. The fees are lower and you’ll likely achieve better investment results.
I actually had two retirement accounts at Ameriprise, one Rollover IRA and one Traditional IRA.
The Rollover had assets from previous company 401k’s. The Traditional account was just opened with new assets when I first joined Ameriprise. I had a small balance in the Traditional IRA for the first few years and was hit with a “small balance fee” of $20 per quarter ($80 annually). I cannot recall what the minimum account balance was to avoid that fee.
All of these fees and loads erode into your returns. You keep less and Ameriprise keeps more. I’ve never had these types of fees at Fidelity.
I actually had two retirement accounts at Ameriprise, one Rollover IRA and one Traditional IRA.
The Rollover had assets from previous company 401k’s. The Traditional account was just opened with new assets when I first joined Ameriprise. I had a small balance in the Traditional IRA for the first few years and was hit with a “small balance fee” of $20 per quarter ($80 annually). I cannot recall what the minimum account balance was to avoid that fee.
All of these fees and loads erode into your returns. You keep less and Ameriprise keeps more. I’ve never had these types of fees at Fidelity.
I believe Fidelity is independently owned by the Johnson family, so it’s not publicity traded.
I don’t know the ownership structure of Vanguard, but I don’t believe it’s a publicly traded company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopelesscause
Do Fidelity or Vanguard have shareholders?
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