August 29, 2010
My husband and I hired a financial advisor in 1996. The person was an independent business working with Ameriprise. In the beginning I felt he was representing our best interest. However as the years went on I felt he was representing the interest of Ameriprise first. At one point he advised us to take a home equity loan to put into the market. Common sense told us not to do that so we didn't. I also was getting pretty angry with all the fees. Wrap fees kept piling up on each account as he broke up our monies into smaller chunks. He also never told us to pull our money out and we watched at our investments went up and down. Before 2008 downturn I thought we had dialed down our risk level only to find out by seperate analysis that our portfolio was "very" aggressive.
We are still working with a financial advisor but in a smaller firm. I wish it was clearer who's interest the Financial Advisor is representing. I understand they are making a living...but at what cost to the investor?
Thank you,
Cathy