Hello, I am a 47 year old female that is looking for an advisor in Michigan. I was meeting with my Dad's advisor, who I thought was a good fit, till I started asking questions through email. He answered a few of my questions about being a fiduciary and his rate, but then would not answer anything else. When I met with him in person today, he finally answered my questions and said he prefers to answer questions in person. He also told me no financial institution would list their trading fees, and there were laws passed in Michigan that made all advisor's fiduciaries. I just want to find out if any of this is true and if anyone has any recommendations for finding a good advisor, i was not comfortable with hiring him after this interaction. This advisor is with Ameriprise, who has an office in the local Bank my Dad uses.
Weird interaction with Advisor?
byu/thornblade666 inpersonalfinance
Posted by thornblade666
5 Comments
Uh no. He’s trying to avoid getting sued by avoiding a paper trail. Run away
What are you wanting a financial advisor for? Do you have questions? If so, you might post them here and see if we can assist
Check out Facet. Flat rate. No percentages.
Run! Do not get a financial advisor especially one that charges a percentage, even a small amount will add up astronomically. instead read Ramit Sethis book I will teach you to be rich, best investment education there is!
While I don’t think there’s an issue with an advisor preferring in-person over email, there are red flags here even ignoring Ameriprise’s mixed reputation.
Obfuscation of fees or fee structure so complex they can’t be easily explained with a canned response over email is a warning sign.
No, not all advisors are fiduciaries in Michigan. Saying this either makes him malicious or incompetent, so another warning sign.
And finally, speaking from experience having worked at a bank both in the branch and in central/strategic roles, advisors working out of a branch are not the cream of the crop. They get business by finding bank customers with little investment education and exploit their lack of knowledge. Yes, there are some good ones but that’s the exception, not the norm.
At the very least be very careful with this advisor and pay close attention to fees, especially if he’s routing your dad to proprietary Ameriprise funds