Ameriprise 2010 Annual Report Download - page 17

Part I.
Item 1. Business.
Overview
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is a holding company incorporated in Delaware primarily engaged in business through its
subsidiaries. Accordingly, references below to ‘‘Ameriprise Financial,’’ ‘‘the Company,’’ ‘‘we,’’ ‘‘us,’’ and ‘‘our’’ may refer to
Ameriprise Financial, Inc. exclusively, to our entire family of companies, or to one or more of our subsidiaries. Our
headquarters is located at 55 Ameriprise Financial Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55474. We also maintain executive
offices in New York City.
We provide financial planning, products and services that are designed to be utilized as solutions for our clients’ cash and
liquidity, asset accumulation, income, protection, and estate and wealth transfer needs. Our model for delivering these
solutions is centered on building long term, personal relationships between our affiliated advisors and clients, and in the case
of our products distributed through unaffiliated advisors, by supporting those advisors in building strong client relationships. We
believe that our focus on personal relationships, together with our strengths in financial planning and product development
and distribution, allow us to fully address the evolving financial needs of our clients and our primary target market segment,
the mass affluent and affluent, which we define as households with investable assets of more than $100,000.
Our branded affiliated advisors’ financial planning and advisory process is designed to provide comprehensive advice that
focuses on all aspects of our clients’ finances. This approach allows us to recommend actions and a broad range of product
solutions consisting of investment, annuity, insurance, banking and other financial products that can help clients attain over
time a return or form of protection while accepting what they determine to be an appropriate range and level of risk.
Our approach puts us in a strong position to capitalize on significant demographic and market trends, which we believe will
continue to drive increased demand for our financial planning and other financial services. Our emphasis on deep client-
advisor relationships has been central to the success of our business model through the extreme market conditions of the
past few years, and we believe it will help us to navigate future market and economic cycles. We continue to establish
Ameriprise Financial as a financial services leader as we focus on meeting the financial needs of the mass affluent and
affluent, as evidenced by our continued leadership in financial planning, a client retention percentage rate of 93%, and our
status as a top ten ranked firm within core portions of our four main business segments, including the size of our U.S.
advisor force, long-term U.S. mutual funds, variable annuities and variable universal life insurance.
Our multi-platform network of affiliated financial advisors is the primary means by which we develop personal relationships
with retail clients. As of December 31, 2010, we had a network of more than 11,400 financial advisors and registered
representatives (‘‘affiliated financial advisors’’). We refer to the affiliated financial advisors who use our brand name as our
branded advisors, and those who do not use our brand name but who are affiliated as registered representatives of ours,
as our unbranded advisors. The financial product solutions we offer through our affiliated advisors include both our own
products and services and the products of other companies. Our branded advisor network is the primary distribution
channel through which we offer our life insurance and annuity products and services, as well as a range of banking and
protection products. We offer our branded advisors training, tools, leadership, marketing programs and other field and
centralized support to assist them in delivering advice and product solutions to clients. We support unaffiliated advisors
with sales and service support and our solutions which they provide to clients. We believe our approach not only improves
the products and services we provide to their clients, but also allows us to reinvest in enhanced services for clients and
increase support for financial advisors. Our integrated model of financial planning, diversified product manufacturing and
affiliated and unaffiliated distribution affords us a deep understanding of our clients, which allows us to better manage the
risk profile of our businesses. We believe our focus on meeting clients’ needs through personal financial planning results in
more satisfied clients with deeper, longer lasting relationships with our company and higher retention of our experienced
financial advisors.
We believe we are well positioned to further strengthen our offerings to existing and new clients and deliver profitable
long-term growth to our shareholders. Our five strategic objectives are:
• Be the leading financial services provider to the mass affluent and affluent.
• Become the platform of choice for financial planning and advice-focused advisors.
• Sustain our leadership in financial planning and advice.
• Capture greater assets and protection in force through our strong product solutions and broad distribution reach.
• Ensure an increasingly stronger and more efficient operating foundation.
Our five operating segments are:
• Advice & Wealth Management;
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