Ameriprise Financial is not an independent financial planning organization. They will lead you into illiquid investments like REITs and into high fee based VULs through a sales pitch that they claim will help you avoid taxes. Of course, the part that you are not told, they are getting high commissions on each of these investment types. To top it all off, they want to charge you for this financial advice in addition to the commissions that they receive. Stay away from these guys. Google«Ameriprise VUL» and you will find that I am not the only former, unhappy customer.