Ameriprise 2015 Annual Report Download - page 25

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Our Principal Brands
We utilize multiple brands for the products and services offered by our businesses. We believe that using distinct brands for
these products and services allows us to differentiate them in the marketplace.
We use the Ameriprise Financial brand as our enterprise brand, as well as
the name of our advisor network and certain of our retail products and
services. The retail products and services that use the Ameriprise Financial
brand include those that we provide through our advisors (e.g., financial
planning, investment advisory accounts and retail brokerage services) and
products and services that we market directly to consumers or through
affinity groups (e.g., personal auto and home insurance).
On March 30, 2015, we launched a new global brand — the Columbia
Threadneedle Investments brand, which represents the combined
capabilities, resources and reach of Columbia Management and
Threadneedle. This new brand is intended to reinforce the strength of both
firms in their established markets of the UK, Europe and the U.S. and to
help us grow our presence in key markets including Asia Pacific, Latin
America, Africa and the Middle East.
We use our RiverSource brand for our annuity and protection products
issued by the RiverSource Life companies, including our life and disability
income insurance products.
History and Development
Our company has a more than 120 year history of providing financial solutions designed to help clients achieve their
financial objectives. Our earliest predecessor company, Investors Syndicate, was founded in 1894 to provide face-amount
certificates to consumers with a need for conservative investments. By 1937, Investors Syndicate had expanded its
product offerings through Federal Housing Authority mortgages, and later, mutual funds, by establishing Investors Mutual,
one of the pioneers in the mutual fund industry. In 1949, Investors Syndicate was renamed Investors Diversified
Services, Inc., or IDS. In 1957, IDS added life insurance products, and later, annuity products, through IDS Life Insurance
Company (now known as ‘‘RiverSource Life Insurance Company’’). In 1972, IDS began to expand its network by delivering
investment products directly to clients of unaffiliated financial institutions. IDS also introduced its comprehensive financial
planning processes to clients, integrating the identification of client needs with the products and services to address those
needs in the 1970s, and it introduced fee-based planning in the 1980s.
In 1979, IDS became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alleghany Corporation pursuant to a merger. In 1983, our company
was formed as a Delaware corporation in connection with American Express’ acquisition of IDS Financial Services from
Alleghany Corporation in 1984. We changed our name to ‘‘American Express Financial Corporation’’ (‘‘AEFC’’) and began
marketing our products and services under the American Express brand in 1994. To provide retail clients with a more
comprehensive set of products and services, we significantly expanded our offering of non-proprietary mutual funds in the
late 1990s. And in 2003, we acquired the business of Threadneedle Asset Management Holdings.
On September 30, 2005, American Express consummated a distribution of the shares of AEFC to American Express
shareholders, at which time we became an independent, publicly traded company and changed our name to ‘‘Ameriprise
Financial, Inc.’’ In 2008, we completed the acquisitions of H&R Block Financial Advisors, Inc. and J. & W. Seligman & Co.
Incorporated. In 2010, we completed the acquisition of the long-term asset management business of Columbia
Management from Bank of America, which significantly enhanced the scale and performance of our retail mutual fund and
institutional asset management businesses.
In 2006, we sold our large-scale retirement plan recordkeeping business to Wachovia Bank, N.A. (now Wells Fargo
Bank, N.A.). We initiated the disposition of our institutional trust and custody business in 2008 to J.P. Morgan Chase
Bank, N.A. and completed that restructuring in early 2009. In 2011, we completed the sale of Securities America
Financial Corporation and its subsidiaries (‘‘Securities America’’) to Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, Inc.
In January 2013, we completed the conversion of our federal savings bank subsidiary, Ameriprise Bank, FSB (‘‘Ameriprise
Bank’’), to a limited powers national trust bank now known as Ameriprise National Trust Bank. In connection with this
conversion, we terminated deposit-taking and credit-originating activities of Ameriprise Bank.
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