1 /5 S Sm: Troy Evans of Ameriprise did a great job pretending to be my "financial planner," when he wanted me to buy his investments, but when they went bad and my financial life was in ruins, he simply stopped working for me.
Like some others, I got really lucky with a stock that I had through a work situation. Because I was now a single "at home" mom, raising two children alone, I thought that Troy could manage my assets, which (as he said) were enough to live on for the rest of my life if I planned correctly. I went to Troy hoping to divest myself of some of my "risky" stock and reinvest in a diversified portfolio that would earn me money and keep me safe financially. This didnt happen.
In short, Troy took my money, put it in completely risky investments (google Inland American REIT, which I still cant get out of eight years later) and then didnt do another thing for me except sell his bad investments. He lied to me about Inland American, saying I shouldnt worry about the paperwork that said it could be a very long-term investment. When I called him worried about my investments just prior to the crash, he told me it was novice investor jitters and that I should just hold tight. When I called and asked if I should have the kids college money in a 529 plan or some other safer investment tool, he said no, that he thought it would do much better with him.
What I didnt know was that Troy wasnt really developing the best financial plan for me. He was developing a financial plan that would make him money. He put me in more risky investments, that did fine for a short time and then dumped my original investment to about 2/3 of its original value. This might have been ok, if I wasnt living off of the money and didnt have kids headed to college, but this wasnt the case. Troy had simply hadnt built the right protections into place. ( Ironically, if I had held on to my "risky" stock instead of investing with Troy, I would have almost tripled my original investment by now and would have no financial concerns.)
Even worse, after he lost this chunk of money, Troy just stopped working on my account. He was still charming and personable on the phone, but when I asked for my financial plans, he couldnt find them. When I wanted him to transfer money to a Roth IRA at the end of the year, he couldnt be found. When I wanted him to re-do my financial plan and re-balance my portfolio, he made up one excuse after another about why he couldnt do it. When I called him during ski season, he was always on the slopes. While my financial life was falling apart, he seemed to be doing great. I talked to another friend who had had the same experience with him. What we didnt know then was that he had apparently gotten some business with employees from Genentech and didnt need to bother with his old clients now that he had his next cash cow. Nice guy.
If you need your money, dont trust Troy Evans of Ameriprise.
