RIABiz reported that Craig Siegenthaler, the Bank of America analyst who downgraded Ameriprise Financial, did not join the company's Oct. 29 third-quarter earnings call. Three of his peers nonetheless used the call to ask about the issue he had emphasized in cutting the stock ten days earlier, and RIABiz said those questions came as the share price fell.
Bank of America cut its rating on Ameriprise to Underperform from Buy on Monday, Oct. 19, and lowered its price target to $445 from $570, according to a GuruFocus summary of the note. AdvisorHub reported that the stock fell 4.07% to $480.41 on the day of the downgrade. RIABiz summarized the thesis as resting in part on concern that Ameriprise is being compelled to stop paying preemptive bonuses to draw advisors from rivals. That framing is RIABiz's own characterization. Other coverage of the Oct. 19 report, as quoted by Yahoo Finance, focused on margins and departures.
According to AdvisorHub, a minimum of five teams holding $12.75 billion combined departed between May and September, as described in the BofA note. Two of those teams, Rise Private Wealth Management ($4.3 billion) and Fathom Advisors ($1.3 billion), both left in September to launch their own RIAs. ConnectMoney listed the report's authors as Siegenthaler, Kareem Seif, Eli Abboud and Ivory Gao. AdvisorHub also reported that BofA said Ameriprise's transition and recruiting loans grew 25% year over year in 2025.
According to InvestmentNews, Siegenthaler suggested the firm could be pairing reduced platform fees with cash retention bonuses that take the form of forgivable loans. He also wrote that large team departures may now be structural, given the economics of RIA ownership. Bank of America declined to say whether Siegenthaler still stands by the call or why he skipped the Oct. 29 call.
Per Yahoo Finance, CEO Jim Cracchiolo told the earnings call that Ameriprise handles succession, practice purchases and liquidity matters case by case and runs no broad program. He pinned a good deal of the press coverage on unnamed sources and recruiters who have interests of their own, and said retention stays in the high 90s. CFO Walter Berman acknowledged that the firm had selectively adjusted its recruiting offers while rejecting the idea of a significant strategy change, AdvisorHub reported. A spokesperson told InvestmentNews there is no broad-based program. RIABiz wrote that Cracchiolo did not clearly deny that payments exist, stopping short of a flat denial.
The issue predates the downgrade. In late September, RIABiz reported that Ameriprise was offering retention bonuses and fee waivers to elite teams, and that its shares fell 3.5% after that news. According to RIABiz, advisors must agree to a non-disclosure agreement to receive those bonuses and waivers. AdvisorHub reported that a recruiter said the awards could amount to roughly 100% of a broker's yearly revenue. AdvisorHub also reported that Citywire first reported the retention offers.
Ameriprise is headquartered in Minneapolis and trades on the NYSE under AMP. Its Q2 2026 filing reported $1.8 trillion in assets under management, administration and advisement, up 14%, according to the company's SEC filing. Its careers page cites more than 10,000 financial advisors, and its 2025 annual report indicated the ranks expanded past 10,500 by year-end. The company said third-quarter adjusted operating earnings per diluted share rose 14% to $11.26 and announced a new two-year, $5.5 billion share repurchase authorization. On the call, Cracchiolo said the firm recruited 79 experienced advisors in the quarter. Advisor loans reached more than $2 billion at quarter-end, up 29% year over year, and are forgiven if an advisor stays with the firm, according to the Q3 regulatory filing cited by AdvisorHub.
Ameriprise also cited partnerships it described on the call. According to the Q3 call as reported by AOL, about 260 advisors and $28 billion in client assets joined through its Huntington partnership in October. One Yahoo Finance piece described that $28 billion as assets under administration. The firm also plans to add another 29 advisors and $4 billion in assets through Cadence Bank in mid-2027. The sources reviewed do not say whether the retention issue has led to any further analyst action or regulatory review. Whether the payments described in the coverage exist in the form RIABiz outlined remains unresolved in the reporting.