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This site is anonymous.  Just stop crying and take a breath.  Everything is fine.  Another VUL will be inappropriately placed tomorrow, just relax!

Ironically enough, after checking your profile, you have another post just after this one . . .

Good grief. Another idiotic Ameripoff salesman. Where do they find these guys?

Not so many jumping in.  What was Wachovia fined today?  = 600 Million, interesting.    Think about this, here are my concerns:

It is unfortunate someone would want to ban the truth from the site.  It seems that whenever there are positive notes regarding advisor and client experiences or AMP objectives there is a more passionate force that overrides the positive truths.  My concern is not regarding the site, in fact, the company is doing better than it has in some time with client acquisition, advice services, client retention, assets acquired and third party product distribution.  The brokerage platform continues to expand and as P1 tenures it too will continue to prosper.  Any argument/ discussion on this is a mute point.  

That said, my issue is in considering the financial health of the average American household today.  My fear is that this site impacts individuals considering beginning to save, irrespective of the financial services firm.  Imagine the steps; someone begins to evaluate all the major players in financial services and come across this service.  Then after seeing the home page, they type “Merrill class action” or “Morgan Stanley class action” or “Linsco/ Private Ledger class action” and someone doesn’t realize that the NASD has cracked down on just about every firm in the industry for something.  Then, instead of seeking guidance they are frozen in action.  This means they continue to take no action, they don’t save, they don’t invest in the companies within our economy or in their own futures.  They are not motivated to call 800 – no load fund.  They continue on their same, inefficient path.  

The role of a financial advisor is critical for the financial health of our society.  People are not saving enough, they are under-protected and for the most part do not realize the doldrums of their financial futures.  For the most part, they won’t have a pension plan, they won’t have an adequate level of social security and they surely won’t have savings b/c they do not have a financial partner to keep them grounded and focused.  

The reality of this all is that the reasonably educated investors that are out there realize that the site is about some personal grudge.  They are able to see through it, evident by AMP continuing to bring on new high value clients each day, the majority of the assets being placed with non prop companies and those clients continue to refer.  

Having a significant amount of passion around improving the average American’s financial circumstances, I feel that your internet resource is a negative impact on the overall financial success of our society.  The new/ average investor does not know what to do and where to go.  Regardless of AMP, Vanguard, Merrill, Wachovia, Fidelity anywhere is better than nowhere.

Ameriprise has many good, family oriented people that are truly having a positive impact on their clients’ lives.  The advisors sometimes work with call in prospects, sometimes through referrals and many times are responsible for educating those in the market place about the importance of taking their financial health into their own hands.  But as you know, it can be difficult working with people and money.  And advisors will continue on this path b/c there is pride in taking the road less traveled and they realize the significance of the role.  If anything, we should be commending the current and especially the newer advisors coming into the business.  

It is my humble opinion that this site can only do harm to those that should really be seeking guidance.  That’s all.  My hope is that you use your talents for a more impactful, positive and influential cause.

Just imagine if we where all able to use our talents to have a beneficial impact on what really matters.  If we can have unemotional and fact base discussions about how we can benefit those around us, I am open to further discussion.  If it is going to be one way bashing, I am not interested.

Thank you for your attention.  

OHL wrote on Aug 28^th, 2006, 9:06pm:

Heh!!!

It's you whos ulterior motive is probably driven by a career at aefa that you feel bitter about.  There's a few of you on here.  Let it go.

Only 20 people a day are getting poor free "advice" from aefa haters?  great odds out of 300million americans.

"It seems that whenever there are positive notes regarding advisor and client experiences or AMP objectives there is a more passionate force that overrides the positive truths."

Give links to examples of this. And don't use this as an example:
http://www.amexsux.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1136262510/5#5

" My concern is not regarding the site, in fact, the company is doing better than it has in some time with client acquisition, advice services, client retention, assets acquired and third party product distribution. "

You need to read the quarterly reports. You are losing clients.

" The brokerage platform continues to expand and as P1 tenures it too will continue to prosper.  Any argument/ discussion on this is a mute point.  "

Why are offices closing?  

"That said, my issue is in considering the financial health of the average American household today."

Mine is, too. And it makes me sick to know that Americans using you salesmen are doing much worse than Americans that make their own investing choices:

"This is the first study ever to scientifically quantify the benefits that investors may enjoy if they work with financial advisors. The authors asked these essential questions:

1. Do advisors give clients access to funds that are harder to find and evaluate? The answer is yes, but as you will see, as a whole, advisor-selected funds underperform funds that investors select on their own.

2. Do advisors help clients find funds that are lower cost (excluding distribution costs)? After analyzing several trillion dollars worth of transactions, the answer is no.

3. Do advisors give clients access to funds with better performance? The answer is a resounding no. I know this is shocking.... But the scientific evidence shows that many of the ... advisors in America not only underperform indexes--they underperform what most people do on their own if they don't have an advisor.

4. Do advisors provide superior asset allocation? After years of research covering trillions of dollars of asset allocations, the finding is that advisors do not provide superior asset allocation. Even without this study, one only had to look at how advisors overemphasized technology funds in the late 1990s and how many advisors are overemphasizing energy, gold, and foreign funds today.

5. Do advisors help correct bad investor behavior such as chasing fads and chasing performance? The sobering answer is no. In fact, the evidence shows that advisors even contribute to such behavior. Again, look at all the money advisors are pouring into energy, gold, and foreign funds.

There are no studies of which I am aware that can contradict the findings of the BCT study. An implication of these findings is that investors suffer a loss of billions of dollars a year in lower performance and in fees if they hire financial advisors to select mutual funds."

http://advisor.morningstar.com/articles/doc.asp?s=1&docId=4482&pgNo=0

You are so very concerned about Americans and their financial health, DD....what do you think of this study?  

Despite a bunch of whining and denial on this site, there has been no rebuttal to this study. Go read it. It's called "Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Brokers in the Mutual Fund Industry" and is written by Daniel Bergstresser of Harvard Business School, John Chalmers of the University of Oregon, and Peter Tufano of Harvard Business School.

"My fear is that this site impacts individuals considering beginning to save, irrespective of the financial services firm."

What if this site encourages people to LEARN? To research brokerages and their conflicts of interest; to learn about investment costs and their terrible impact on investments over time; to learn proper investing principles; to learn to do it themselves and save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs. THAT is what you really fear. Investor knowledge. Investor ability. Investor competance. Investor independence from you.

" Imagine the steps; someone begins to evaluate all the major players in financial services and come across this service.  Then after seeing the home page, they type “Merrill class action” or “Morgan Stanley class action” or “Linsco/ Private Ledger class action” and someone doesn’t realize that the NASD has cracked down on just about every firm in the industry for something."

So you now claim that your broker industry is rotten. But there are independent, fee-only advisors that you completely ignore. And Vanguard!  

"  Then, instead of seeking guidance they are frozen in action."

No, they start to learn how to do their own investing or go to an independent, fee-only advisor who charges by the hour or a one time fee. Or they use a firm that wasn't involved in the scandals. THAT is what you fear. That the firms that rip off clients (like Ameripoff) will lose business.

" This means they continue to take no action, they don’t save, they don’t invest in the companies within our economy or in their own futures.  They are not motivated to call 800 – no load fund.  They continue on their same, inefficient path. "

This is a tired old scare tactic. And, same inefficient path? We DIY'ers are doing better than your clients!  THAT is what you fear. That we investors don't need you at all. That you provide no value.

continued.......

"That makes the professional lives and opinions of those responsible for this site almost meaningless. "

Of course this is a Top Ten Corporate Hate Site according to Forbes. And I think you can see that Ameripoff is getting 99% of the action.

Plus, this site is referred to all over the web.

Also, if you google 'Ameriprise', guess what comes up second?

macca wrote on Aug 29^th, 2006, 9:24am:


Yet out of 2 million clients you are forced to "import" things from other websites, and make up phoney stories about fake clients