I have been an advisor at Ameriprise for over 3 years and recently left to greener pastures. I noted that there are alot of folks that want to cancel and get refunds for their VULs, VAs, IRA fees, etc. Here is my insider's secret to getting full refunds.

For VUL's and VA's, the common thought is that you have to either either surrender the policies (and pay fees and taxes), 1035 them to other companies or let the policy run its course. But there is another option that allows you to get 100% of your money back: mail a written complaint letter with return receipt to your local Ameriprise Branch FVP (field vice president) stating the following points:

1. The name of the advisor that sold you the product
2. The reason that you feel cheated (most likely the fact that fees and terms were not explained)
3. The remedy you seek (refund of all your money, waiver of fees, etc)

You should then receive a full refund within 4-6 weeks without paying surrender fees or penalities.  Let me explain how this works:

By law, all written client complaints (whether justified or false) must be filed on the advisor's U-4 license as a negative disclosure.  If left as is, this is a death sentence for the advisor's career and draws unwanted attention from goverment regulators to the branch office. This is the worst thing that can happen to the advisor, the FVP and branch office. The advisor and FVP will want to resolve the issue right away with you before the goverment regulators get involved. The advisor has his career at stake and the FVP can loose his 6 figure bonus if too many complaints are filed.

The problem for the FVP is that the burden of proof is on the advisor. If the advisor cannot show proficiency in explaining the product sold and/or does not have written dated proof that he disclosed every fee, every charge, every penatly and every term with you before the sale occured, then you are entitled to a full refund for non-disclosure. And even if the advisor has proof and proficiency, you would have to be given a chance to dispute his proof and proficiency at arbitration or court. But this of course means that the goverment regulators would be involved and the FVP wants to avoid this at any cost - and I mean "at any cost".

The easiest thing for the FVP is to settle your complaint quietly and before compliance or any regulators get involved. I saw it happen time and time again. Clients with VUL's received all their paid premiums back including growth. VA clients were given the full value of the account plus all fees that they were charged over the years. Even clients with IRAs were credited back all their custodial fees and sales charges.


The last thing Ameriprise wants is to have advisors with complaint disclosures on their licenses or regulators sniffing around client files. The FVP will settle with you immediately as long as you agree to keep it quiet and withdraw your formal complaint.

Hope this helps.

los3steve, this is one of the most disgusting posts that I have seen written by a registered rep (or ex registered rep).

Nobody should ever follow this advice as a means to simply get money back.   If you truly feel that your advisor intentionally cheated you, by all means file a written complaint.

Your written complaint has the very real possibility of  completely ruinning someone's career in this industry.  Therefore, before anyone takes this tact,  make sure that you are positive that the advisor deserves to be fired because this is a strong possibility no matter how small the complaint.  Los3Steve is assuming that all FVP's are crooks who will break the law and not report the complaint.   The FVP would be risking their career by not reporting the complaint.  This is serious business.

Again, if an advisor is intentionally screwing you, complain!  If you complain just to get your money back, the advisor is getting screwed.

DoopedAgain wrote on Apr 16^th, 2008, 9:34am:

They don't care about you so why should you care about them. You have only one way to go and that is up. Go for it.

garbage wrote on Apr 17^th, 2008, 12:20am:


If the advisor receives a complaint that is career threatening, the last thing Ameriprise wants to do is to fire the advisor. This is because when a broker-dealer like Ameriprise terminates an advisor, the broker-dealer must file the reason for termination with the government.  If the filed reason is anything like "fraud", "forgery", "theft", etc, it will initate an immediate investigation by goverment regulators which can lead to having the office shut down and millions of dollars in fines. Ameriprise wants to avoid this at all costs.

The worse possible thing that will happen to your advisor from your complaint is that he will be asked to quit. By letting the advisor quit, the company can simply file the reason for termination as "voluntary resignation". This allows the company to deal with your complaint without bringing in goverment regulators to investigate.  It also allows the advisor to leave without having any blemishes on his licenses. Both parties walk away with clean hands and your compaint will either be ignored, denied, settled or go to arbitration. However, the most likely scenario is the one I wrote above.

You shouldn't worry about your advisor's career. First of all, he very likely did scam you (either by choice or by his manager). Second, with his licenses and background at Ameriprise, he can get a job ANYWHERE in the industry. You could even say that you are helping him by getting him out of a boiler-room firm. Any other firm he lands at will be a step up for him.


garbage wrote on Mar 15^th, 2008, 2:39am:


The FVP risks his career with every filed complaint as well. I believe an FVP can only have 12 filed complaints per year against his advisors otherwise he himself is terminated (asked to quit). At 5 complaints, he completely looses his six-figure bonus.  How many complaints do you suppose come in at the typical Ameriprise office? My office got an average of 1 per week and yet the office only has 2 filed complaints on record with FINRA in the last 5 years.

Garbage,

How long did you work at Ameriprise?

Oh! That's right ... you NEVER worked at Ameriprise! You just troll on this website to prospect for disgrunteled clients. Anyone that has worked at Ameriprise is well aware that it promotes "sweeping everything under the rug".

How long did you work at Ameriprise?

Oh! That's right ... you NEVER worked at Ameriprise!

I would think that you would treat that as a postive.  I seem to be the one person here who doesn't have an axe to grind against Ameriprise, nor any reason to defend them.


You just troll on this website to prospect for disgrunteled clients.

I troll on this site to not let you post bs that goes unchecked.  If I was looking to troll for disgruntled clients, wouldn't I be abusing Ameriprise?

Second, with his licenses and background at Ameriprise, he can get a job ANYWHERE in the industry.

Sorry, but I had to go back to this quote.  Are you serious?  I'm afraid that you are.

Los3steve, why don't you just speak honestly?    Have you ever been in the industry?  

I'm asking because there are some big clues in your post that would make anyone knowledgeable about the field think that you are full of it.

1) You can't spell the names of the 3 of the 4 firms that were recruiting you.

2) The people who have a 65 almost always have their 63, so there is no reason to get the 66.

3) There is no separate license to sell LTCi.  LTCi is health insurance.  One needs to just pass their health exam.  In some states, they may need some CEs that are LTCi specific.  

4) Goldman Sachs usually recruits people from the top Ivy League MBA programs.   Their typical minimum is $2,500,000, but they want accounts over $5,000,000.  They're not looking to recruit Los3Steve who is building his business by giving away lunch to a bunch of secretaries at the local pizza palace.  

5) You are confusing a "a whole bunch of names and phone numbers" with "high quality leads".

6) You are overestimating the importance of having a 7, 65 and insurance license since a person of reasonable intelligence can get these with less than 30 days of studying.

So, Steve, where are you now?  Should we assume that you are at Goldman Sachs since many of their top people get bonuses of 7 figures?  Did you turn GS down for something better?

Your credibility and character have been discredited because you have constantly posted incorrect information.

I've already said that what you have said will work.   You appear to not have enough industry knowledge to understand that ANY complaint has the possibility to cost someone dearly in their career.  

Complaints need to be done because a complaint is warranted and not because someone is trying to get money back.