Welcome to InsureChance! If you are looking for a reliable review of Riversource Life Insurance or Ameriprise Financial Life Insurance (affiliate) then you have come to the right page! Here at InsureChance, we provide the most unbiased and informative reviews so that you can make your own educated decision without having our opinions shoved down your throat! Our competitors tend to show their opinions on their reviews because they are either pushing for the company because they offer better commissions or put them down because they don’t offer the best commissions. Not us, we are here to provide the most information and offer you our free service of finding the best company for you and your family, so give us a call today! In this article, we will be discussing Riversource Life Insurance’s history, our review for them, and of course. their products with some highlights.
- Riverstone can be traced back as far as 1894 when they were founded by another name, Investors Syndicate, by John Tappan who was only 24 decided to provide financial solutions to Middle America and give smaller investors access to more benefits, he later introduced the Face Amount Certificate.
- In 1984, American Express Company acquired IDS and in 2005 American Express Financial Advisors renamed themselves Ameriprise Financial. Their new name is a mix of American and Enterprise. Shortly after they Ameriprise Financial announced the RiverSource brand.
- Ameriprise Financial announced the RiverSource brand which includes insurance, annuities and investment products. They have more than $800 billion in assets under management and administration.
- According to A.M Best RiverSource is rated an “A+” or superior. Moody’s rated them an “Aa3” or excellent and Standard & Poor’s rated them an “AA-” or very strong.
- They offer three major types of life insurance policies, Term life, Universal life, and Variable Universal life insurance.
- You should look at their ratings and understand them because it will give you a better idea of their financial stability.
- Term life is a form of temporary life insurance and is perfect for filling those short-term needs. Since it’s a short-term policy you will have to choose the length you want to have coverage for, most companies offer 10, 15, 20, or 30-year policy terms.
- Universal life is a form of permanent life insurance and provides you with coverage that can last your entire lifetime.
- A variable universal life insurance policy is another form of permanent life insurance that provides you with coverage that can last your entire lifetime. The difference between a traditional Universal life and Variable Universal life is that a variable universal life will provide you with an opportunity to invest in the market.
Riversource Life Insurance Company’s History
Riverstone can be traced back as far as 1894 when they were founded by another name, Investors Syndicate, by John Tappan who was only 24 decided to provide financial solutions to Middle America and give smaller investors access to more benefits, he later introduced the Face Amount Certificate. During the Panic of 1907, the country suffered bankrupts and brokerage firms and investors were forced to pull out their money from the banks, but not Investors Syndicate. 22 years later, as the Great Depression lasted and many financial institutions failed, Investor Syndicate stands strong again and paid out every dollar on its due which was a total of $101 million. In 1949, they renamed themselves Investors Diversified Services to more clearly indicate its growing range of products and services. Years later they renamed themselves IDS Life Insurance Company in 1973. In 1984, American Express Company acquired IDS and in 2005 American Express Financial Advisors renamed themselves Ameriprise Financial. Their new name is a mix of American and Enterprise. Shortly after they Ameriprise Financial announced the RiverSource brand. During the 2008 Global economic crisis drove the stock market to decline and Ameriprise Financial responded by advancing $700 million to help meet clients’ immediate cash needs.
About Ameriprise Financial
American Express Financial Advisors renamed themselves to Ameriprise Financial in 2005 to blend “American” and “Enterprise.” They became an independent, publicly owned company with more than 12,000 advisors. With more than 2.7 million individual, business and institutional clients. Ameriprise Financial announced the RiverSource brand which includes insurance, annuities and investment products. They have more than $800 billion in assets under management and administration.
RiverSource Life Insurance Company Review 2017
RiverSource Life Insurance Company been around for more than 120 years keeping their heritage of honoring their obligations alive. On their website, RiverSource Life (or RiverSource Life Insurance Co. of New York) promise to be there for when you need them to help protect you when it matters the most. According to A.M Best RiverSource is rated an “A+” or superior. Moody’s rated them an “Aa3” or excellent and Standard & Poor’s rated them an “AA-” or very strong. They offer three major types of life insurance policies, Term life, Universal life, and Variable Universal life insurance. RiverSource Life has a pretty high rating and offer a wide variety of products to fit everyone’s needs but remember that they are just one of many other life insurance companies.
Why you should look into a company’s rating
Looking into a company’s rating should be part of your checklist when looking to find the best life insurance company to buy coverage from. Why? Well, you should look at their ratings and understand them because it will give you a better idea of their financial stability. If the carrier has a high rating such as an A or A+ you should feel safe knowing they will pay out for your policy. If the company you has a low rating of C or worse D, F, then you should look elsewhere. These ratings show that they are vulnerable to any change of environment (if the stock crashes they will fail) or may not even be around when your family needs the payout. It’s more common for an insurance company to be out of business in their 5th year so always look at the date they were founded too because you don’t want to invest into a company that will not be there for your payout. Your policy and all the money you have invested in premiums will be gone with the wind. So moral of all this is to just take a moment and read the company’s rating before you go in there like swimwear and buy a product from them!
RiverSource Life Insurance Products
Just like many other life insurance companies their products are what can make or break them. Luckily, RiverSource has both a term and permanent life insurance products to fit both short term and long term needs.
- Term Life: First of all, term life is a form of temporary life insurance and is perfect for filling those short-term needs. Since it’s a short-term policy you will have to choose the length you want to have coverage for, most companies offer 10, 15, 20, or 30-year policy terms. The term life insurance products offered by RiverSource have income-tax-free death benefits. RiverSource term life policies are flexible and they have an option to convert
- Universal Life Insurance: Universal life is a form of permanent life insurance and provides coverage for your entire life. The difference between a Universal life and Whole life insurance product is that Universal life is a more flexible product. RiverSource’s Universal policies are all flexible which is fantastic because if you start out with a low coverage amount but later your needs change (this is inevitable) you will be allowed to adjust your policy benefits whenever you would like with these products. Universal policies are also tax-free and have a floor which prevents you from losing money in a bad market. With these policies, you will also have an option of choosing either a no-lapse guarantee policy or an option not to lose money with the floor. Another amazing feature these policies offer is that you can build cash value in which you can borrow against income tax-free for any unplanned event you may need immediate cash for!
RiverSource’s Advantages or Pros
Now that you have an idea of the policies they offer and their highlights we can go over some of their advantages that they have over other companies. The company for one is super financially stable with their high ratings from popular rating agencies. They also have phenomenal reviews if you take a peek at some websites who offer customer reviews. This is a great advantage because you would be surprised how many companies don’t offer their products online for purchase, definitely, cuts time in half and let’s face it nobody has the time to deal with robotic people over the phone.
RiverSource’s Disadvantages or Cons
With everything that is good, there is the bad. One of the big cons is that their VUL product is limited in certain states. This is a huge downfall because you always want to make sure as a company that your products can be for everyone otherwise what is the point of catering to people’s needs if you leave out some people from other places? Another downfall is the fact that many other companies offer their cash value growth as a guarantee under their variable universal life insurance policy, but not RiverSource, their policy is not guaranteed to build cash value. The fact that they don’t offer a whole life insurance policy makes them not as competitive as they could be. Other than those three downfalls there aren’t many other complaints, however, you should always keep in mind that RiverSource is just another big box life insurance company and there are much more in the market with high ratings and a wider range of products.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, when looking for the best life insurance company you should always look at some reviews about the company because in a good review it will show the company’s history, rating, and highlights of the company’s products. We always recommend our clients to shop around for quotes because what one company gives you, another may give you a better quote. Just like you would shop around for a car in different dealers because you want to make sure you are getting the best rate possible, life insurance is the same way. However, we do have a quote engine below this article you can fill out to see for yourself the different rates you can get with different companies. You can also take advantage of our free service and let us do all the shopping around for you as well as the application while you sit back and enjoy life. Here at InsureChance, we work with over 60 top rated companies which give us a bigger selection of choices to make sure we find the best life insurance company for our clients. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us by calling us or by leaving a comment below!
