You know what boomers are really have fun with? The Cingular commercial with Beth Anne... idk my bff jill?

We're developing the Boomer version of texting:
WAIITR? Why am I in this room?
IFYRN: I forgot your real name
WRUA: Where are you again?
more: http://goinglikesixty.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/a-classic-post-boomer-texting/

Anyone that uses Ameriprise 'financial advisors' must be on more drugs than Hopper ever used. Here are 12 reasons why you should not use Ameriprise:

1. Ameriprise has 36 regulatory actions against them for various misdeeds, including lying to clients, market timing, pushing poor performing yet expensive prop (house) funds, selling inappropriate investments, hiding revenue sharing and much more. You can find all regulatory actions against Ameriprise here:
http://www.nasd.com/InvestorInformation/InvestorProtection/NASDW_005882

2. Ameriprise participates in revenue sharing, which creates a conflict of interest with clients.

http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp
http://www.fool.com/investing/brokerage/2006/03/17/beware-of-revenue-sharing.aspx

3. Ameriprise is a laughing stock with other financial advisors.
http://forums.registeredrep.com/ (Do a search on 'Ameriprise')

4. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' are really brokers - salesmen - with conflicts of interest with you and your best interests. They will not tell you about all the fees you are paying and then show you a chart like this:
http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/advise.html

Wouldn't a REAL 'financial ADVISOR' tell you these things and help you keep as much of your nestegg as possible instead of sucking you dry?

5. Ameriprise hires kids with no experience, teaches them how to read a script and some hardcore sales techniques, has them get some sales licesnes and then turns them loose on their 'natural market' (friends and family).

6. People that do their own investing do much better than people using 'financial advisors':
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/BoomerBucks/20061206_investment_advice_a1.asp

7. Ameriprise cares more about their stockholders than their clients:
"It's clear from Ameriprise's statement that it is more eager to comfort shareholders in the company rather than address the concerns of fund investors"

http://news.morningstar.com/article/article.asp?id=150861&_QSBPA=Y&_QSBPA=Y

8. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' do not clearly tell clients what they are paying for ALL fees. Ask some clients what fees they are paying. Many will even tell you, "I don't pay any fees".

9. This one is perhaps the most dangerous. Ameriprise salesmen are consumate con-men. They win over their clients so that if a client reads what I have posted here he will either think that his financial advisor, his trusted buddy, is NOT like this and will not even do the research. If a client does do some research and asks some tough questions, he will be manipulated in one of several ways: confusing double talk, guilt inducement (don't you trust me?), annoyance and/or distain (just leave these things to me, you could never understand them'). Because people are afraid to handle their own money, they can easily be manipulated.
I have a secret to tell you - proper investing is easy. Just buy a Vanguard retirement date fund, for example.

10. Ameriprise sells insurance and the salesman (your 'advisor') gets big commissions when you buy a variable annuity or VUL policy. Very few people should be buying these policies, yet Ameriprise tries to sell them to almost every client that walks in the door.
http://www.consumerfed.org/releases2.cfm?filename=022403ror.txt

11. Ameriprise 'financial advisors' only hold to a 'suitability' standard and do not do what is in the client's 'best interest'. There is a huge difference between the two, morally and legally.

"Our advisors' goal is to help you select suitable investments that help you achieve your financial goals."
http://www.ameriprise.com/amp/individual/products/investing/mf-revenue-sharing.asp

12. Consumer Reports has discovered that investing through Ameriprise is expensive:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/BIZ/705250324/1005

There are many MORE reasons to avoid this firm. Many of the reasons I listed above also apply to other firms. Learning to do your own investing is easy (really) and no one else will care about your money more than you do. If you must use someone else to handle your financial future, here is some good reading:
http://www.efmoody.com/whouse.html

Let's keep this simple. Hopper is, like every other celebrity, using his name, reputation and yes, street cred to advance a product. The specifics of the company are irrelevant in the selling of the message.

It's his name and his face with this sponsor, and in my opinion, it's a match made on Madison Avenue.

Who better than a former Hollywood renegade with style, talent, opinions and endless panache to speak out for this new generation of consumers. This group has never done it by the book, isn't going down easily - and neither is Hopper.

While Madison Avenue is only beginning to realize the influence, the size and discretionary buying power of this newly redefined demographic, we are continually assaulted day after day with earnest, respectable and well groomed pitch men and women selling us all manner of erectile dysfunction remedies and heartburn medications. Meanwhile, statistics and studies reveal a group who are hitting the road in record numbers, donning leathers and helmets to see what's out there. From magazines to news programs, we're witnessing an exodus of major proportion with retirees selling off everything and sailing the world. Who better than Dennis Hopper, attractive, cool, edgy, iconoclastic, who continues to wear a pair of shades like Hollywood royalty, to be the spokesperson for this new reconstituted generation.

Radar, I would suggest you rethink your
results; maybe brush up on marketing prowess and look at what sells, who buys and why.

You think that's selling out?! Check out his voice for GPS navigation systems... http://www.navtones.com