George Papadoyannis Ameriprise is a financial manager who has gotten into a lot of legal trouble with his clients and whose disclosures still have some questionable clauses.
All of these are big warning signs that investors should be aware of before doing business with him. I wrote this review to help you decide if you should work with George or not.
It will show some of the problems that George Papadoyannis tries to keep from his present and potential clients.
About George Papadoyannis Ameriprise: Office, Services, and Divorce
George Papadoyannis is a financial manager for Ameriprise. He works out of San Mateo, California. His office is at 1900 O’Farrell St Ste 360, San Mateo, CA 94403, US, and his phone number is 650-593-9170.
He has both a CFP and an MBA, and he runs the company Papadoyannis & Associates. Ryan Lee, Joshua Lelchook, and Natalia Koritskaya are also well-known people who work at this company. George says he can help his clients reach their financial goals by giving them personalized financial advice. But what he said shows a different picture.
A quick Google search shows that George Papadoyannis and Pamela Silvaroli are getting a divorce. On November 17, 2020, his ex-wife filed a divorce claim in the San Mateo County Superior Courts.
Red Flags in the Disclosures of George Papadoyannis Ameriprise
A long history of court cases
On George Papadoyannis’s FINRA BrokerCheck profile, there are a huge amount of legal disputes. So many disagreements show that George doesn’t put his clients’ needs before his own, which is a big red flag.
FINRA BrokerCheck is a detailed database where you can find all the necessary information about an investment advisor. You can find out the educational qualifications, passed exams, years of experience, past employers, state licenses, and the legal disputes an advisor has had on that platform.
On George’s profile, the first disagreement is from October 28, 2002. In this case, the client said that George stopped keeping an eye on her bank accounts almost a year ago without telling her that he was no longer her financial advisor. He told her to keep investing in the market, so she thought he was still in charge of her account.
The client asked for $70,000 in damages and said that they had been hurt because of carelessness. But the company said that these claims were false and that it was all the client’s fault. This is a common thing for greedy and careless financial advisors to do.
On March 9, 2004, George got into his second fight. Here, several clients asked if the pensions in a qualified plan were right for them and if the fees were fair. They asked for $11,350.33 in damages and got $11,568.90 in the end.
In his answer, George said that he and his company thought the annuities were good, but “not the best choice” for the clients.
Putting clients in too much danger
One big problem with George Papadoyannis is that he gets paid based on how well he does his job. If your advisor gets paid based on how well they do, they have to beat a certain standard to make money.
They use high-risk strategies, even if they aren’t right for their client, to beat the specific standard. Studies show that financial advisors who use this fee structure tend to increase the risk for their clients, which lowers the returns they can get.
So, you end up paying a big fee and getting less money back. Also, if you lose money because of the high-risk tactics, you can’t blame your financial advisor. You “understood the risk” when you signed the contract and became a new client.
Using clients’ money to make money for yourself
The purchases that George Papadoyannis Ameriprise suggests to his clients can be traded. This is a bad deal for clients with big portfolios because George and his firm will be able to use your money to change the returns of certain investments to make money for themselves.
If you are a client of George or his company, you can ask for the names of the investments they trade for themselves.
Conclusion
After looking at the many disagreements George has had and the predatory clauses in his reports, it’s clear that he doesn’t care about his clients. George cares more about his own financial growth than that of his clients, which is a huge warning sign for any investment. Your financial expert should care more about you than about themselves.
Also, his reports show that he has many conflicts of interest that make it more profitable for him to ignore your financial needs.
