How Ameriprise has recruited 4,000 advisors since 2008

Financial advisors face increasing burdens from technology, compliance, demographics and “everything that’s coming at a practice right now,” according to Ameriprise’s top recruiter.

“More and more as I’m traveling the country having meetings with prospective advisors, advisors are just confused with all of what’s going on,” says Manish Dave, the Minneapolis-based firm’s senior vice president for business development and experienced advisor recruiting. “The theme of simplicity has never been more apparent.”

In a podcast interview with Financial Planning Senior Editor Tobias Salinger, Dave explained how one of the largest broker-dealers pitches and serves financial advisors. Ameriprise has 9,930 advisors across its employee and independent channels — including some 4,000 who have affiliated with the firm since 2008.

Dave spoke the week after Ameriprise announced it had attracted two indie advisors with $158 million in client assets from its largest IBD rival, LPL Financial. However, Ameriprise must vie for advisors against a growing number of competitors in this fast-changing industry.

The 13-year Ameriprise veteran acknowledges as much. Dave discussed the firm’s new banking capabilities, its view of advisor headcounts and how it provides open architecture even though it also has insurance and asset management units. He says the firm is pivoting.

Ameriprise aims to provide advisors with “an ecosystem that’s going to translate to true alpha for them from a regulatory side, from a technology side, helping me lead my staff and serve my clients and all those things,” Dave says.

“That’s where our entire value proposition is entirely built around and centered around,” he adds. “It’s really all about how do we help the advisor find that simplicity and execute and really do the things they love?”