Ameriprise Financial, Inc. is the successor to American Express Financial Advisors (AEFA), which was a subsidiary of American Express Company. The company’s headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The firm began in 1894 but did not start marketing mutual funds until 1940. In 1949, it was renamed Investors Diversified Services, Inc. (“IDS”). In 1984, it was purchased by American Express Corporation. The company changed its name to American Express Financial Services in 1994 and was spun off from American Express in 2006. In 2007, Ameriprise Financial claimed that it had 12,000 brokers and more than $474 billion in assets under management.
