I have worked with Ameriprise for 6 years. It was the worst experience of my life. But that is another topic. This topic is about why not to consider Ameriprise as your firm to work at. If you are a broker looking for a new firm, consider this first:

• You do not own your clients even if you purchased them- If you decide that AMP is not right for you and your clients and move on to a different firm, they will try their hardest to keep your clients. They will spread your book out to several advisors for them to call. They will reach out to every client by mail, email, and telephone to try to set appointments with them. So don't think for a minute that you own your book. They tell you that you do, you don't.
• All their products are still proprietary- - RiverSource is virtually all you can use for Life & DI as well as annuities, their are a few other options but not worth looking at. If you wrap up all your clients with RiverSource products, you can bring those products with you when you leave.
• Institutional Management Groups- AMP has one that you can use, Wilshire and Associates. Ameriprise dictates what the can use inside the portfolio. If you notice, 25 to 40% of the funds inside the portfolio are Columbia funds. It depends on the aggressive level. Does that sound like a conflict of interest? This is the same with the Annuity contracts. 30% to 40% of the funds are Columbia inside.
• Ameriprise kills you on payouts- REITS pay 7%... AMP pays you 5%, keeps 2% for themselves. Then you split the 5% (based on your payout).
• Insurance products They pay less than 50% of the annual premium. Almost every company out there pays 80-110% of the annual premium. Hugh difference in payouts.
• AMP has consistantly increased your fees to work there since I started 6 years ago.
• Tools All the tools you use for financial planning are now al-la-carte. They charge you seperatly now.
  ]Payout Grids have increased significantly in the past four years. 2009- $110,000 (72%), 2010- $135,000 (72%), 2011 $155,000 (72%), 2012 $180,000 (72%). Good luck trying to get the 91% payout they boast that they have.
• Poor Support Worst support you can ever imagine. All their support and customer service is farmed out to the Phillipeans and India. I don't know why it is called Ameriprise. It should be called Indiaprise. Their support doesn't have much experience and they just read from a computer screen. You can forget a complicated case. Maximum capacity is only $1,000,000 or less. You can forget it if you have client with a higher net worth. I hope this helps. Good luck.