Ameriprise is back to “business as usual,” resuming in-person meetings with prospective financial advisors after doing away with them during the coronavirus, its top recruiting executive says.
The wealth manager resumed corporate office tours in Minneapolis and New York with potential recruits in the second quarter, says Manish Dave, Ameriprise’s senior vice president of business development and experienced advisor recruiting. One advisor taking part in Ameriprise’s newly reinstated tours this spring was ex-Merrill Lynch broker Kim Latimer, who managed $211 million in client assets with her team at the wirehouse. Earlier this month, Latimer joined an Ameriprise employee office in Houston led by Branch Manager Britt Kornmann.
Dave and other Ameriprise executives point out that its brokerage force is more productive than those of competitors. At $689,000 in adjusted 12-month operating net revenue per advisor, the firm’s average production is more than $100,000 above any firm providing the metric last year for
Ameriprise is also building recruiting momentum: In addition to the ex-wirehouse team and the largest net quarterly headcount growth
Productivity is at “the heart of why people join Ameriprise,” Dave said in an interview, noting the firm’s advantages in a wealth management marketplace that’s growing more and more fragmented between large and small players.
“If we can't help advisors grow faster than any other firm in the industry, then we're not delivering on that ultimate advisor partnership,” he says. “If you build that ecosystem — which, we've invested billions of dollars to build that ecosystem — then you want to get the results from that which is ultimately measured in productivity growth ... When you don't have that much capital to invest to build that ecosystem, the result is you don't have that corresponding growth.”
Ameriprise won Latimer’s practice to its ranks by beating out the eight other firms interviewed by her, she said in a statement. After eight years with Merrill Lynch, which is part of Bank of America, and an earlier four-year tenure with Morgan Stanley, Latimer was searching for a wealth manager without a bank as its parent firm but with sufficient capabilities to handle complex client needs. Kornmann played a large role in the decision, too, Latimer said.
“The fact that she was female surprised me,” she said. “I had all men recruiting me from other firms. I was so impressed with Britt’s knowledge and honesty. And I was very surprised to learn about the good things Ameriprise had to offer me as an advisor, including the option to go independent someday without my clients needing to change account numbers or without me needing to go to all the trouble.”
Latimer joined Ameriprise on June 18, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.
Representatives for Merrill Lynch didn’t respond to requests for comment on her move.
With a constant flow of advisors breaking away from the wirehouses, some decide that they want to retain the more robust level of services provided to advisors in employee channels like those of Ameriprise, according to recruiter Jodie Papike of Cross-Search. Issues like women in leadership positions and conferences for female advisors can also be “incredibly important” for attracting incoming teams, she notes.
“Some firms have backed up what they said they wanted to do with representation,” Papike says.
Wirehouse advisors also grow weary of requirements to sell clients on other services or products offered by the parent firm or mandates such as gaining new accounts with at least $250,000 in investable assets, says recruiter Mark Elzweig. In addition, firms like Ameriprise and Raymond James show a contrast in their relationship with the respective banks they own from Merrill Lynch’s ties to Bank of America, according to Elzweig.
“They have a lot of resources, Merrill, but a lot of people feel they're more heavy handed,” Elzweig says. “The bank is basically there to service advisors who are interested in lending or whatever the bank has to offer. It’s a completely different experience than being a brokerage unit within the Bank of America empire.”
When Latimer took a flight to Minneapolis for the meeting with Ameriprise’s senior leadership, it was under Center for Disease Control guidelines, which will remain in place as face-to-face recruiting continues, Dave says.
“It's inspiring to see things coming back,” he says. “This transition out of the pandemic, we've never done this before as a country. It’s really fun to see advisors now wanting to get out and travel and engage.”
