Disclaimer: We are reader supported. We may be compensated from the links in this post, if you use products or services based on our expert recommendations. Please read our Advertising Disclosure.
Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC stands as a prominent name in the wealth management industry in the United States. Initially known as American Express Financial Advisors, the firm transitioned to a publicly traded entity in 2005.
Operating as both a broker-dealer and investment advisor, Ameriprise Financial Services is headquartered in Minneapolis, with numerous smaller branches scattered nationwide.
A significant number of its financial advisors double as insurance agents and brokers, offering a comprehensive suite of financial advisory services alongside insurance and investment products.
However, for investors considering opening a gold IRA to safeguard and diversify their wealth against inflation, Ameriprise falls short. The firm does not provide IRAs that accommodate physical precious metals.
Rest assured, we have thoroughly researched and identified the top companies that offer precious metals IRAs.
Our curated list features the best, safest, and most ethical firms, ensuring you can establish a secure and robust gold IRA with confidence.
Before we get started:
We understand how difficult it is to pick a company that you can trust with your hard earned savings. That's why we create informative and useful information to give you as much knowledge as possible to make the right decision.
We created a list of our highest recommended investment companies, to make comparing and choosing the company best suited to your needs as easy as possible.
Look to see if Ameriprise was selected to our "highest recommendation" list this year!
Or...
Get a FREE Gold Investing Packet from our #1 recommendation, by clicking the button below:
Protect Your Savings - Tax and Penalty Free!
Amerprise Background Info
Ameriprise’s history dates back to 1894 when the company was known as Investors Syndicate.
The firm has changed its name and ownership a couple of times – and has acquired other companies such as British investment firm Threadneedle, quantitative platform Dynamic Ideas, Columbia Management, J. & W. Seligman, and H&R Block Financial Advisors.
According to Investment News, LPL Financial is the only other wealth management company to make more money than Ameriprise.
Ameriprise had over $4.8 billion in revenue whereas LPL Financial had around $5.2 billion in revenue in 2018. Of the $4.8 billion, $2.6 billion was in fees, and $1.25 billion was in commissions.
What Exactly is a Gold IRA?
A precious metal or gold IRA is a self-directed individual retirement account that has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, especially among people who are looking for stability and diversity in their investment portfolio.
This financial instrument offers investors the opportunity to include physical gold, in the form of bars and coins, in their tax-exempted retirement accounts.
Gold, which has for many decades been considered a solid hedge against geopolitical crisis and inflation, is ideally suited to provide diversification away from hard currencies for long-term investors.
The main goal of most gold IRA investors is the long-term preservation of their wealth – and a gold IRA is a powerful, stable, and safe vehicle for securing long-term wealth accumulation.
To enhance the security and safety of your investment, all your physical gold is stored in a safe depository until you reach retirement – at which point the gold can be easily converted into cash or shipped to your preferred address.
Also, it’s important to note that rolling over or transferring your existing retirement account does not involve paying any taxes to the government.
Why Put Gold in Your IRA?
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) protect your retirement as well as your family's financial security.
These special accounts allow you to set aside tax protected savings that you can use in the future.
With these long term accounts it's important to allocate a significant portion to assets that are solid and reliable, so you have a secure and worry-free retirement.
You can have cash in an IRA, but that is devaluing at a rapid pace and inflation is out of control.
You need an asset that's dependable, retains it's value, and even increases in value over time, and there is no better asset for this than gold.
With the world's economy struggling through lockdowns, shortages, wars, and inflation, uncertainty has never been higher and investors are protecting themselves by placing physical gold in IRA's.
A gold IRA investment prospers from these crisis that negatively affect most other assets.
Risk is knowing the economic dangers and doing nothing to protect yourself and your family.
Safety is knowing the economic dangers and taking action to protect your financial future, and this is easy to do with a gold IRA.
Benefits of Owning a Gold IRA
By investing in a precious metals IRA, you will diversify your retirement portfolio on a tax-sheltered basis and maintain this tax exemption for life.
This means that rolling over or transferring any amount of your existing IRA account into a precious metals IRA will not incur any tax payments.
Also, by creating a precious metals IRA, you can benefit from making a yearly contribution of $7,000 if you are above 50 years old, and $6,000 if you are below 50 years old.
It’s essential to pick a reliable gold IRA company that can assist you to diversify with precious metals to secure your retirement portfolio, avoid tax pitfalls and navigate regulatory requirements.
The following are the 3 main reasons why wealth managers recommend investing in a gold IRA:
Investing a portion of your retirement in precious metals and gold diversifies your portfolio into a unique asset that has a proven track record of securing wealth especially when currencies, governments, and markets falter.
Conventional investment vehicles are all currency-based, from bonds to stocks. Physical precious metals and gold offer an extra layer of diversification.
Over time, inflation devalues your investments. Precious metals offer a hedge against both deflation and inflation and protect your wealth from the negative impacts of inflation.
Historical performance of precious metals shows that in the long run, gold has excellent profit potential. For example, in 2000, Gold was worth about $200 an ounce. In 2017, an ounce of gold was worth more than $1,200 – bringing in a 5 times return on investment.
Gold is a reliable store of value and has a long history of going up in value over time. Historical data shows that the price of gold rises through the years, even when the economy is in shambles, making it a suitable addition to any retirement portfolio.
Wealth experts use precious metals and gold as a hedge against deflation and inflation, dollar devaluation, and changing political and economic environment.
What is a Self-Directed IRA?
A self-directed IRA is a retirement account that allows individuals to take charge of their financial future. As with a traditional 401(k) or IRA, a self-directed IRA offers you the chance to enjoy amazing tax exemptions.
It comes with all the advantages that you expect from a retirement account with two major distinctions – greater control of your retirement portfolio and more investment options.
With a self-directed IRA, you can safeguard your retirement savings by avoiding currency-based assets to diversify with alternative assets like gold.
Types of Gold IRA Accounts
Just like traditional retirement accounts, there are various types of accounts that each offer different tax exemptions. The following are the 3 main types of Gold IRA Accounts out there today:
Conventional Gold IRA
A conventional gold IRA is a tax-deferred retirement savings account that operates just like pre-tax conventional IRAs in terms of taxes. In most cases, your gains and contributions will not be taxed or will be tax deductible.
The IRS imposes yearly contribution limits of $6,500 if you are above 50 years old and $5,500 if you are under 50 years old. With a pre-tax IRA, you are required to pay taxes on your distributions during retirement.
Roth Gold IRA
This type of gold IRA account is an after-tax retirement savings account and operates just like a traditional Roth IRA.
While there are no upfront tax deductions on contributions, the biggest benefit of Roth gold IRA is that you don’t have to remit any taxes down the line when you begin to take distributions during retirement.
SEP Gold IRA
This type of gold IRA account is available to self-employed people and business owners. The account operates just like a pre-tax IRA account in that contributions are tax exempted, but provide higher contributions limits. Instead of the $5,500 limit, you can contribute $53,000 or 25% of your income, whichever is less.
Gold Stocks vs Gold ETF vs Gold IRA
There are many ways to own gold. You can purchase gold and store it in a safe or in your home or whichever location you prefer. You can purchase shares in a gold mining company. There is also a gold IRA, gold futures, and a gold ETF.
So, what distinguishes all these avenues of owning gold?
A gold ETF is a commodity fund that is bought and sold like a stock. They are comprised of assets that are secured by gold, in reality, the investors don’t truly own the physical gold.
The way it works is that they own portions of assets that are gold-related, which gives a greater mix to the allocation in their portfolio.
Typically, these financial vehicles give investors exposure to precious metals through smaller capital investments than what’s attainable via future contracts and physical investment.
But, the common thing investors don’t understand is that the cost of trading gold-backed ETFs is quite high and this may outweigh their benefits.
Conversely, gold futures are contracts that are bought and sold on exchanges. The seller and buyer agree that the latter will purchase the commodity at a pre-defined price at a specified time in the future.
Individuals can invest in the commodity without committing the capital to cover the entire asset, so there is some level of flexibility in how and when the deal is closed.
The main problem with gold futures is leverage which almost always gets abused and is not safe for conservative investors.
Purchasing shares in a mining company is another option. You will not own any physical gold, but you’ll have stock in the mining company that mines the gold.
An investor can also purchase physical gold and store it at a safe location up until the point when you need to sell it.
An IRA (Individual Retirement Account) is something that every investor should have. This is because IRAs offer amazing tax benefits.
Contributions on conventional IRAs are often tax-deductible and IRA earnings can accumulate tax-exempt in your account until you withdraw your money upon retirement.
A gold IRA is simple an individual retirement account that stores gold as opposed to other paper assets. For instance, a traditional IRA might hold mutual funds, bonds, or stocks – all paper-based investments.
With a gold IRA, your investment is in actual physical gold that can be sold when needed. This means that if the value of the dollar plummets and the economy shatters into pieces, your IRA will still have value because gold is a reliable store of value.
Picking The Best Investment
Deciding where to invest in the long run is a challenging task. Everyone wants to put their money into something that is reliable and increases in value over time.
While all precious metals can be placed into this category, purchasing gold certificates, coins, or gold bars doesn’t provide the tax benefits of a gold IRA.
Sure, it may be an excellent idea to invest in a gold ETF, however, the best option for a smart and prudent investor is to first open a gold IRA account.
Not only will you enjoy the benefit of owning physical gold, but you’ll also get the tax exemptions associated with this kind of savings account.
Services Offered by Ameriprise Financial
Ameriprise offers a wide variety of financial services, including financial planning, continuous portfolio management services, and asset allocation.
As mentioned earlier, financial advisors are also qualified to sell insurance and financial products, for which they get a commission. Portfolio management can be on a non-discretionary or discretionary basis, based on the investment program.
It can also be via a wrap fee program.
Ameriprise currently offers the following investment programs:
The Strategic Portfolio Service (SPS) Advantage program is the only non-discretionary program Access Accounts and Active Portfolios only invest in ETFs and mutual funds. Additionally or clients can open brokerage accounts.
Red Flags
Ameriprise had a total of 138 disclosures in its most recent SEC filings.
It’s important to note that Ameriprise is a fee-based wealth manager. A huge majority of Ameriprise advisors are also insurance brokers and agents who get transaction-based fees or commissions.
This creates potential conflicts of interest. With that in mind, the company is legally bound to work in the clients’ best interests.
Conclusion
If you have a small pool of funds but still want an expert to manage your portfolio, Ameriprise could be a suitable choice for you.
You can use some of the company’s investment programs with a minimum initial investment of only $25,000 and enjoy a wide variety of investment programs and products.
Moreover, you can find a local advisor in most parts of the country.
It is important to consider your rate before signing up because the firm’s services can be expensive. Also, some advisors may get bonuses for suggesting certain products.
Ameriprise is a decent company, but we do not recommend them.
They are not the best choice for gold and precious metals and certainly not a choice for investors looking to protect their savings with a gold IRA.
There are much better options, especially our #1 recommendation on our list of the best gold companies to work with.
You can get a Free Gold Investors Guide from our top gold and precious metals company recommendation by clicking the link above or you can read our article of the top companies we reviewed this year:
>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the top gold IRA companies. <<
Or, if you like what you have read about Ameriprise, you can go to there website below:
I started BMOGAM Viewpoints as a way to compile all my views on investing in one place. I own my home, have some real estate, and own a few stocks like most people, but what really drives my interest in investing is I have a strong love of precious metals, especially gold.
