Ameriprise 2009 Annual Report Download - page 20

Advisors who use our brand name can affiliate with our company of our branded advisors had been with us for more than 10 years,
in two different ways. Each affiliation offers different levels of with an average tenure of nearly 18 years. Among branded
support and compensation, with the amount of compensation we advisors who have been with us for more than 10 years, we have a
pay to each branded advisor determined by a schedule that takes retention rate of over 95%. We believe this success is driven by the
into account the type of service or product provided, the type of choice we offer branded advisors about how to affiliate with our
branded advisor affiliation and other criteria. The affiliation company, together with our competitive payout arrangements and
options are: the distinctive support that helps them build their practices.
>Employee Advisors. Under this affiliation, a financial advisor Our third platform, the unbranded advisor network served by SAI
is an employee of our company, and we pay compensation and its subsidiaries, offers our own and other companies’ mutual
competitive with other employee advisor models. We provide funds and variable annuities as well as the investment and
our employee advisors a high level of support, including local protection products of other companies.
office space and staff support in exchange for a payout rate
lower than that of our branded franchisee advisors. Each of our three platforms of affiliated financial advisors
provides clients access to our diversified set of cash and liquidity,
>Branded Franchisee Advisors. Under this affiliation, a asset accumulation, income, protection, and estate and wealth
financial advisor is an independent contractor franchisee who transfer products and services, as well as a selection of products
affiliates with our company and has the right to use the from other companies, as more fully described below.
Ameriprise brand. We pay our branded franchisee advisors a
higher payout rate than we do to our employee advisors as they Brokerage and Investment Advisory Services
are responsible for paying their own overhead, staff
compensation and other business expenses. In addition, our Individual and Family Financial Services
branded franchisee advisors pay a franchise association fee and
Our branded advisors deliver financial solutions to our advisory
other fees in exchange for the support we offer and the right to
clients by building long-term personal relationships through
associate with our brand name. The support that we offer to our
financial planning that is responsive to clients’ evolving needs. We
branded franchisee advisors includes generalist and specialist
utilize the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.’s
leadership support, technology platforms and tools, training
defined financial planning process of Engage, Gather, Analyze,
and marketing programs.
Recommend, Implement and Monitor. This process involves
We offer a dedicated call center for remote-based sales and service gathering relevant financial information, setting life goals,
to Ameriprise retail customers. The employee advisors in the examining clients’ current financial status and determining a
Ameriprise Advisor Center (‘‘AAC’’) serve retail customers who do strategy or plan for helping clients meet their goals given their
not have access to or do not want a face-to-face relationship with a current situation and future plans. Once we have identified a
local financial advisor. Financial consultants in the AAC provide financial planning client’s objectives, we then recommend a
personal service and financial planning through phone-based solution set consisting of actions — such as paying down debt,
interactions and may provide product choices in the context of the increasing savings and investment, protecting income and assets,
client’s needs and objectives. creating a will, and including tax qualified formats in the client’s
allocation of savings and investment — as well as products to
During 2009, we took a number of steps to enhance the address these objectives with clients accepting what they
performance of our branded platform. We recruited over 500 determine to be an appropriate range and level of risk. Our
experienced financial advisors from other firms while reducing the financial planning relationships with our clients are characterized
number of lower producing advisors. We streamlined our field by an ability to thoroughly understand their specific needs, which
leadership structures to manage our branded advisor networks enables us to better help them meet those needs, achieve higher
more efficiently and effectively, and we consolidated field offices overall client satisfaction, hold more products in their accounts
where we believed it was appropriate to do so. We invested in the and increase the company’s assets under management.
development of enhanced brokerage tools and technology, and in
October we consolidated the brokerage platforms for our branded Our financial planning clients pay a fixed fee for the receipt of
advisors to one, common platform. We intend to continue financial planning services. This fee is based on the complexity of a
investing in our brokerage platform to further improve efficiency client’s financial and life situation and their advisor’s particular
and ease of use for our advisors and to enhance the experience of practice experience, and is not based on or related to actual
our clients. investment performance. If clients elect to implement their
financial plan with our company, we and our affiliated financial
Our strong financial advisor retention rate speaks to the value advisors generally receive a sales commission and/or sales load
proposition we offer advisors. As of December 31, 2009, over 50%
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