Ameriprise Fees 2026: SPS Advantage, 2.0% Cap, Cash Sweep

What we read, and what is missing from it

We pulled every current Ameriprise brochure from the SEC's Investment Adviser Public Disclosure site on November 13, 2026 and saved the text: the managed accounts wrap fee brochure and its combined version with financial planning (both dated September 2026 and submitted September 25, 2026), the Financial Planning Service brochure (September 2026), Premier Retirement Income and Retirement Plan Consulting Services (March 2026), and the Custom Advisory Relationship Agreement (form 114935 Z, 09/26). We added the firm's Form ADV Part 1 as filed September 25, 2026, its Form CRS (August 2026), its own brokerage fee page and sweep rate page as served on November 13, 2026, FINRA's BrokerCheck report, the SEC orders, and Ameriprise Financial, Inc.'s 10-Q for September 30, 2026.

One thing is not in any of them: the minimum advisory fee rate for each asset tier. The brochure says the advisory fee is based in part on the total value of the assets in your accounts and that “There are minimum Advisory fee rates that vary based on this total value,” and the agreement refers to the “applicable Advisory Tier” without printing a table. The only tier table in the documents is for the Platform Fee. If your advisor quotes a rate, ask which tier it sits in and what the firm's floor is for your household.

Our earlier page on what an advisor costs across 21 firms shows Ameriprise's ceiling next to Edward Jones, Merrill, Morgan Stanley and others; this page goes inside the one firm.

Every program in the brochure, side by side

Ameriprise Financial Services sponsors one wrap fee program, called Advisory Solutions, with several programs inside it. The brochure says the Asset-based Fee “is a wrap fee”. The table below is built from the brochure's program chart and fee table.

Three changes in the June and September 2026 brochures matter to an existing client. First, Active Portfolios stopped taking new accounts on July 31, 2026. Second, Ameriprise plans “in the second half of 2026” to migrate Select Separate Accounts holding certain strategies into Signature Wealth; until then it discloses that it receives a higher platform fee on those accounts than on the same strategy in Signature Wealth, and calls that a conflict of interest. Third, from August 1, 2026 Envestnet can run “overlay” services (a Private Wealth Consulting program and a Tax Overlay Service) for an extra 0.05% to 0.10% that is not shared with Ameriprise or your advisor.

Three advisory services sit outside the wrap program: the Financial Planning Service, with a minimum annual fee of $500 and, for the Personal Wealth Group, $50.00 a month to start; Premier Retirement Income, at 0.15% under $1,000,000 of managed assets, 0.12% from $1,000,000, 0.09% from $2,000,000 and 0.07% from $4,000,000 (March 2026 brochure); and Retirement Plan Consulting Services for plan sponsors. If you pay for planning inside the managed account (the “consolidated advisory fee service”), the brochure says the advisory fee and the planning fee together cannot exceed 2%.

What $250,000 to $2,000,000 pays at the maximum

The brochure sets the Advisory Fee ceiling and the platform and manager components; it does not set the rate you pay. These figures show the most the documents allow, not what any client pays. They exclude fund expenses, the Envestnet overlay fee and the SPS Advisor infrastructure fee (0.03%, which is $75, $150, $300 and $600 on these balances before the credit the brochure describes).

All dollar figures are our arithmetic. The tier row assumes the whole balance is your household's advisory assets, because the platform tier follows household assets: under $1,000,000 is 0.05%, $1,000,000 to $1,999,999.99 is 0.04%, $2,000,000 to $9,999,999.99 is 0.03%, and $10,000,000 or more is 0.02%. The last row divides the third-quarter advisory fee revenue by the average advisory wrap assets in Ameriprise's 10-Q and annualizes it. That revenue is before the advisor's share, so it tells you the firm-wide average sits near half the ceiling; it does not tell you where a $500,000 account sits.

Small balances: the household minimum Asset-based Fee is $100 a year, and the brochure warns that if the effective fee exceeds 3%, managed accounts “may not be the most cost-effective investment vehicle for you”.

How the 2.0% is set, moved and billed

The brochure builds the fee in layers, and each layer works differently:

• The ceiling. Your Negotiated Advisory Fee is the highest rate that can apply to any account in your relationship without a new signature. The brochure says it “may be lower than or up to 2% but may not exceed 2% for any individual Account at any time.” Raising it needs your signature; lowering it does not.
• The floor. If your assets fall below the tier that supports your negotiated rate and stay there through any grace period, Ameriprise can raise the fee in what it calls a “Passive Advisory Fee Change”, by at most 0.25% and never above 2%. The agreement says it will give advance written notice and, after three months without the assets coming back, raise the rate to the minimum for your new level.
• Grandfathered rates. If a prior account carried a lower rate, you may have a “Grandfathered Advisory Fee” that stays until you renegotiate, move programs or add the planning service. The brochure tells you to ask which one you have.
• Billing. Fees are charged monthly in advance on the 14th, from cash in your sweep, based on the prior month-end value. If the cash is not there, Ameriprise “may be required to sell more shares than is necessary to cover this amount”.
• Householding. Linked household accounts can be combined to reach a lower advisory tier, but pension and group retirement plans generally cannot be linked.

Who gets the fee, and what the brochure says about conflicts

The brochure says the advisory fee is the only component shared with your advisor: independent contractor franchisees “generally receive 72% to 91%, and employee financial advisors generally receive 0% to 46%, of the Advisory Fee”, with bonuses that can lift the effective payout to 91% and 57%. The platform fee and the manager fee are not shared with the advisor. From September 2026 the brochure also discloses that Ameriprise pays advisors who transfer eligible clients to its Personal Wealth Group either $1,000 or the advisory fee earned from that client in the prior 12 months, if the client stays at least 12 months.

The conflicts it names, in its own words:

• Wrap versus brokerage. “Generally, Ameriprise Financial Services, our affiliates, and your financial advisor will receive more revenue from a Managed Account that generates an ongoing revenue stream than a transaction fee-based brokerage account.” It adds: “The same or similar services provided to you under the Asset-based Fee may be available to you at a lower fee from another service provider.”
• Proprietary products. The brochure lists, among what Ameriprise and its affiliates receive, “More revenue, in aggregate, from the purchase of products sponsored or managed by Ameriprise, Columbia Management and RiverSource” than from other firms' products. In Active Portfolios it says affiliates “receive greater revenue when you select a portfolio managed by CMIA”. RiverSource, the annuity and insurance affiliate, receives revenue of up to 0.65% of average daily net assets from the funds inside its variable contracts, in addition to contract charges. Ameriprise Certificate Company earns investment spread on Ameriprise certificates. Annuities are not eligible holdings in a managed account, but the same advisor can sell them outside it.
• Revenue sharing, which the brochure calls cost reimbursement. About 140 mutual fund families are offered and 30 “Full Participation Firms” pay Ameriprise's affiliate AEIS (American Enterprise Investment Services Inc., the clearing broker) up to 0.20% a year on mutual fund assets and 0.18% on 529 plans; actively managed ETFs pay up to 0.18% plus an annual program fee of up to $400,000 per manager; money market sweep funds pay up to 0.37%. The brochure says payments taken from fund assets “reduce the investor return on their investment”. It says Ameriprise rebates 12b-1 fees to managed account clients and uses Advisory Shares as the primary class.
• Cost of the model. The brochure's own explanation for the payments: “In the absence of this revenue Ameriprise Financial Services would likely charge higher fees or other charges to clients”.
• Growth incentive. The Form CRS says “we have an incentive to encourage you to increase assets in your account”.

The brokerage account: what it costs instead of the wrap fee

Ameriprise says a client can implement a plan in a commission-based brokerage account, a fee-based managed account, or both. In brokerage you pay commissions, sales charges and the fees below. The figures come from Ameriprise's own brokerage and custodial fee page as served on November 13, 2026; the page carries no date, and an older PDF schedule (form L 12/24) lists some different amounts, so the page's own warning applies: “All fees are subject to change.”

For readers who hold non-traded REITs or BDCs: the maintenance and IRA fees are waived on accounts that hold only eligible alternative investments; the page separately lists the $150 non-traded custody lines and does not say whether those are waived. See our pages on what a financial advisor costs a real estate investor and alternative investment platforms advisors use for the product side.

The Form CRS (August 2026) describes the same split in one sentence for each account: in a managed account you pay “an asset-based fee, which is based on a percentage of your account value, charged in advance and assessed monthly”; in brokerage, “a quarterly maintenance or custodial fee” plus transaction fees. Margin loans in brokerage are priced from a base rate of 10.75% as of September 18, 2026, from base minus 1.00% (9.75%) above $500,000 to base plus 2.00% (12.75%) under $25,000.

The cash sweep: what idle cash earns and who keeps the rest

Uninvested cash in a managed account is moved daily into a sweep program. Ameriprise's rate page (effective November 9 and November 16, 2026, identical on both dates) lists the same tiers for the Ameriprise Insured Money Market Account (AIMMA, a multi-bank program) and the Ameriprise Bank Insured Sweep Account (ABISA, a single-bank program at Ameriprise Bank, FSB):

The same page lists the money market fund sweep: BNY Dreyfus Government Cash Management, Wealth Shares at a 3.54% seven-day yield and Institutional Shares at 3.79% (November 9, 2026). Its cash rates page lists the firm's own 12-month Flexible Savings Certificate at a 3.00% effective annual yield under $100,000 and 3.10% from $100,000 (rates as of November 11, 2026). Which sweep an account gets depends on the account: the brochure assigns AIMMA to SPS Advantage and to non-qualified accounts in the other programs, ABISA to qualified accounts in the discretionary programs, and the Dreyfus funds to certain 403(b) and trust accounts.

On $100,000 of cash, 0.03% is $30 a year, against $3,540 at a 3.54% yield (our arithmetic; the products differ, and the brochure says a money market fund is not a bank deposit). Meanwhile the advisory fee runs on that cash: at the 2.0% ceiling, $100,000 of idle cash costs $2,000 a year in advisory fee alone. The brochure itself says positional money market funds, brokered CDs and similar products are “generally expected to offer higher returns than the Sweep Program we make available for your Managed Account”, and that they can be bought in non-discretionary managed accounts such as SPS Advantage.

What Ameriprise earns on the sweep, in its own filings:

• AIMMA. Program banks pay the clearing broker AEIS “compensation” set at a benchmark such as the Federal Funds Rate “plus or minus a spread”. The rate page's example: a bank paying the Federal Funds Rate of 4.00% plus 0.15% pays AEIS 4.15%; if the client is credited 0.05%, AEIS retains 4.10%. As of September 18, 2026, “the rates paid by unaffiliated banks in the program were up to 4.25%.”
• ABISA and Ameriprise Bank in AIMMA. Ameriprise Bank, FSB earns the “spread” between what it pays and what it earns, and does not pay AEIS for the sweep.
• Money market sweep. AEIS may receive marketing support of up to 0.37% of the fund balance.
• Ranking. The brochure says affiliate revenue is “expected to be” the highest when cash goes to ABISA or to AIMMA with Ameriprise Bank as a program bank, second highest in AIMMA at unaffiliated banks, and lowest in a money market fund. Advisors do not share in sweep revenue.
• The 10-Q. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. reported $18 million of off-balance-sheet brokerage cash revenue in the third quarter of 2026 ($21 million a year earlier) and $65 million in nine months, and $80.5 billion of cash in its client accounts at September 30, 2026 ($84.8 billion a year earlier).

Scale: what the Form ADV Part 1 shows

Ameriprise Financial Services reported $660,474,421,776 of regulatory assets under management in its Form ADV filed September 25, 2026, in 2,424,045 accounts: $356,290,579,112 discretionary in 1,522,835 accounts and $304,183,842,664 non-discretionary in 901,210. It reports $654,622,813,492 as sponsor of a wrap fee program and $5,851,608,283 as sponsor and portfolio manager of the same program, which together equal the whole $660.5 billion. Its clients are 1,189,138 individuals with $278.4 billion and 183,925 high net worth individuals with $368.5 billion, together about 98% of the assets. It also reports 124,349 clients for whom it has no regulatory assets under management. The firm lists 14,056 employees, of whom 13,441 are registered representatives of a broker-dealer, 12,771 are investment adviser representatives and 11,728 are licensed insurance agents. As the filed form shows it, Item 5.E marks compensation as a percentage of assets, hourly charges and fixed fees, and not commissions, although the CRS and the brochure describe commission-based brokerage.

In the Q3 2026 10-Q, Ameriprise Financial, Inc. reports wrap assets of $728.9 billion at September 30, 2026 ($650.3 billion a year earlier) and advisory fee revenue in Advice and Wealth Management of $1,965 million for the quarter, up 18.1% from $1,664 million, and $5,621 million for nine months.

The regulatory record: counts first, then the largest orders

Form ADV Item 11 asks about the firm and its advisory affiliates, defined to include “all of your current employees” other than clerical staff, so a Yes does not say whom an event involved. The filed form attaches Disclosure Reporting Pages. FINRA's BrokerCheck report for the firm lists 80 regulatory events, all final, 1 civil event and 103 arbitrations, plus 22 disclosures from non-registered control affiliates. We do not name any individual representative.

Two points on the firm's own brochure. Its Disciplinary Information section lists “certain regulatory and legal settlements” of the last ten years: the 2024 SEC order, the 2018 SEC order, the 2017 SEC order and the 2016 FINRA order. It does not list the April 2026 FINRA order or the February 2018 SEC order. And it says Ameriprise entered into each of the listed settlements “without admitting or denying the allegations”, while the SEC's order of August 14, 2024 says “Respondent admits the facts set forth in Section III below”. The firm's own Form ADV disclosure page for that order also says it admitted the facts.

What a client can do with this

This is a reading of documents, not a view on whether Ameriprise is a good or bad choice. A client who wants to know what they pay can use it as a checklist:

1. Ask for the Asset-based Fee in writing, broken into its parts. The brochure says the fee components are displayed when you open or change a managed account and that you can request current rates from your advisor. You want the Advisory Fee, the Platform Fee, any Manager Fee and any planning fee as separate percentages, and the dollar total on your balance.
2. Compare the advisory fee with the 2.0% ceiling and with your Negotiated Advisory Fee. The brochure caps the Advisory Fee at a maximum annual rate of 2.0% and leaves the rate to negotiation between you and your financial advisor. Ask what your negotiated ceiling is and whether the assessed rate sits below it.
3. Ask what the firm's minimum rate is for your household tier, since the brochure does not print it, and whether your household is linked for householding.
4. Check the program. Ask why the account is in SPS Advantage, SPS Advisor, Signature Wealth or an Envestnet program, who has discretion, and whether the strategy or fund is managed by an Ameriprise affiliate such as CMIA.
5. Look at the cash. Find your sweep program on a statement, the balance in it and the rate, then ask how much of the advisory fee you pay on it. The brochure says money market funds, brokered CDs and Treasury bills can be held in non-discretionary accounts.
6. If you hold annuities, certificates or Columbia funds, ask what Ameriprise or its affiliates earn on them. The brochure says affiliates earn more on proprietary products.
7. If you are thinking of leaving, ask what a transfer costs. The brochure says unused advisory fee is prorated and rebated when an account closes, and the fee page lists $125 for a transfer out.
8. Use the SEC's tools too. Search the firm at adviserinfo.sec.gov and investor.gov/CRS, and ask any individual advisor about their own disciplinary history.

If you want a second opinion on what you pay, the box below goes to an adviser-matching service.

For changes to the Ameriprise fee brochures, the email alert near the top of this page covers them. Our page on fee-only versus fee-based advisers shows how the SEC's adviser file records compensation, and the page on fiduciary advisors explains the legal standards the CRS refers to.

Sources: Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC (CRD 6363, SEC file 801-28543) Form ADV Part 2A Appendix 1, Managed Accounts wrap fee brochure and Managed Accounts and Financial Planning Service combined brochure, September 2026 (IAPD versions 1059176 and 1059175, submitted September 25, 2026); Financial Planning Service brochure, September 2026 (1059174); Premier Retirement Income (1029682) and Retirement Plan Consulting Services (1029683), March 2026; Ameriprise Custom Advisory Relationship Agreement, form 114935 Z (09/26); Form ADV Part 1A filed September 25, 2026; Form CRS, August 2026, from ameriprise.com; Ameriprise brokerage and custodial fees page, brokerage sweep options page and cash rates page, retrieved November 13, 2026; FINRA BrokerCheck report for CRD 6363, retrieved November 13, 2026; SEC orders Release No. 34-100707 (August 14, 2024), 34-83848 (August 15, 2018), 33-10462 (February 28, 2018) and 34-82244 (December 8, 2017); Ameriprise Financial, Inc. Form 10-Q for September 30, 2026 (accession 0000820027-26-000054). Dollar figures marked “our arithmetic” are ours; the revenue yield is a company-wide average, not a client rate. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. If a brochure has changed since November 13, 2026, the version on the SEC's adviser site governs.