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Ameriprise Financial Planning- I was told I would be working with a CFP/CPA to create a financial plan. They misrepresented the planners (Michael Olson) qualifications, although he is a graduate of Hamline University he is in no way a certified financial planner or a certified public account, his lack of qualifications were reflected in the numbers presented in the "financial plan" if that is what you want to call it. Instead of a financial plan which reflected my current assets and future goals I was provided something more like a brochure with inaccurate numbers and rather than provide me with solid financial advice the entire brochure/financial plan advertised Ameriprise services and made recommendations to switch my current banking to theirs for less interest. I paid $200 for the plan and since it took him over a month to develop it I had to pay an additional $25 for the monthly service which was a complete ripoff. I took the plan to an actual CPA/CFP who has 20 years of experience he couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. Not only was the financial plan off his advice and numbers were completely inaccurate for example he claimed 12 month T-Bills were 4% when in reality they were paying like 0.02% less than savings.

On March 24th 2014 Tracey Larsen the Client Support Associate at Ameriprise told me I would be working with a Michael Olson and represented him as a CFP/CPA to create a financial plan with specific details on taxation, etc. I purchased this plan for $200 and agreed to pay $25 a month after the plan was finalized for future consultation. After sending my financial information to them they repeatedly asked I invest my money in low interest CD's and MM savings with Ameriprise not taking into account my personal financial goals.

This conflict of interest defeated the purpose of paying for a financial plan. After a month of waiting and phone interviews in which they tried to sell me on their brokerage services, mutual funds, IRA's, etc. I told them it would be a conflict on interest to purchase investment products from them since they are doing my plan.

They dumped the plan off in my Ameriprise documents section and never took the time to go over it with me. I sent questions to my advisor who never responded to my emails 6 days later. I printed out the Financial Plan and took it to my broker who couldn't believe how inaccurate the figures were, the entire financial plan was inaccurate and therefore useless. The financial planner used old interest rates to calculate his projections, and didn't keep good communication with me.

After I filed a complaint with there office and the BBB they are still refusing to give back my hard earned money they are low lifes. Here is my response to them denying me a refund:

Adam Speer/Jay Christman

First and foremost I didn’t “alledge” anything unlike your organization I don’t have a track record a mile long of class action lawsuits into the millions of dollars. Tracey Larsen did present him as a CFP/CPA that could help me with solve my financial issues, once again they are lying, whoever is reading this you can either believe me or them check their credentials on google they are terrible. I have no reason to lie I was seeking financial planning and taxation advice from a qualified individual, why would anyone pay to get advice from someone who lacks any I emphasize ANY credentials, I would be better off getting advice from a neighbor there is no difference. Your company has a history of screwing people out of their hard earned money, including its own employees and maybe that’s the reason it was forced into changing its name.

The financial plan provided by Michael Olson was completely inaccurate based off the figures I provided him with, I don’t see how you had him verify the accuracy of the data considering he isn’t qualified in anything and he is the one who wrote it. On the other hand I did your job for you and took his financial plan to an actual CFP/CPA and the figures were grossly inaccurate with the data I provided him with. Not only did he not get the amounts correct, but the growth over time was severely inaccurate based on historical figures.

Michael did not do any research, he plugged in numbers using a cookie cutter template and the CFP/CPA I showed to easily figured out how inaccurate it was. Michael was provided with all the information he needed to put together a financial plan including phone conversations and data sent electronically. I mentioned I was interested in purchasing a house and a vehicle and growing my current investment and retirement accounts. That was completely ignored the focus instead was handing all of my money to him an unqualified broker.

After taking on a major class action lawsuit for creating financial plans that posed a “conflict of interest” and losing millions of dollars you would think the thickheaded *** in charge would have figured out not to do business like that but I guess not. The worst part is instead of getting a financial plan I got a brochure, the entire thing filled with advertisements from Ameriprise, the “plan” advocated to take all my money in other accounts and move it to them, it was so ridiculous they wanted me to invest in high risk mutual funds 80/20 all the while borrowing off them all so they can bleed me for everything I have.

The more sales Michael Olson the unqualified thief makes the more money the company makes and the bigger bonuses he gets, meanwhile my dream of owning a home goes down the tubes. What does Michael Olson care if all my money is tied up for years, he was telling me to put some of my money into Ameriprise CD’s which pay less than my current savings account all so he can get a kickback.

I agreed to pay $199 for a financial plan that would mainly solve some taxation questions I had from a qualified CFP/CPA. I was never told it would be $474 and I would be making payments, I was told $199 then a service fee that can be cancelled at any time of $25. In fact in this statement you wrote you contradict yourself, you talk about a balance to be paid in installments of $25 per month then you talk about monthly billings as if it were a service, well which lie is it?

I can provide a deposition from more than one financial planner who is qualified as a CFP/CPA that the plan is not accurate based on both historical data and the projections made and the figures do not reflect current assets that were provided to Michael Olson, and the plan provided doesn’t take into account my personal goals, and overall is worthless. When this is all said and done you are going to be begging to give back the money you stole

Monetary Loss: $225.

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

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There's enough information out there now a days that one does not need to pay someone to manage their retirement.

Many companies use "financial planners" that have been trained but not certified or licensed by a government/consumer agency. Most advisors and companies will try to sell you annuities which locks up your money in their policies.

Several ways to avoid paid advisors.

First do as much as you can yourself. Invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. If you do not want to actively trade stock or mutual funds use income funds or high dividend paying stocks. Set up an IRA, track any 401Ks you have, learn some tax free strategies.

Diversify.

Practice. Deposit the minimum in an online account and trade yourself, do your taxes yourself line by line at least once-no turbo tax-have someone check it if you are not used to it.

Do not wait until retirement to learn how to trade or learn about finance.

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