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Ameriprise Financial Replaces Advisor Technology

- Completing separation from American Express in 2007 a priority- Webification of all things will translate into financial services- Firm will provide institutional-level portfolio management to retail clients


Ameriprise Financial and RiverSource Investments
Glen Salow
EVP, Service Delivery and Technology

Glen Salow Ameriprise Financial

PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
EVP and CIO of American Express Co., a position Salow assumed in March 2000 after holding the role of SVP in the organization since 1997; CIO, Aetna Retirement Services, a division of Aetna Life and Casualty; senior leadership roles at Lehman Brothers and Consco Enterprises.

EDUCATION:
B.S. in accounting, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey; M.B.A., Monmouth University.

Ameriprise Financial and RiverSource Investments
55 Ameriprise Financial Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55474

SIZE OF FIRM:
$474 billion in assets owned, managed and administered as of March 31, 2007.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY?
I just bought a little Leica digital camera. It has an old-world lens that does extraordinary photography, but it has a digital engine and it's the size of my cell phone.

WHO IS THE MOST ADMIRABLE TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE OUTSIDE OF THE FINANCIAL COMMUNITY?
John Leggate, CIO for British Petroleum, is one of the deepest thinkers I've met as a CIO. He's concerned about catching technology waves early.

What's Next?
The "webification" of things is going to change our lives. It's fundamentally the ability to enable objects to become part of the Web. It can be anything as simple as a laundry dryer that reaches out and calls home when it needs help, but also is programmable through the Web. So as new fabrics come out, the appliance company can sell you new programs to optimally dry those fabrics. I think the implications are just amazing. That will certainly carry over in some ways to financial services.

VITALS

IT Budget

N/A

Key Technology Management

N/A

Size of Technology Team:

N/A

Percent of IT Projects Outsourced:

N/A

Key Technology Partners:

N/A

Success Metrics:

As we approve investments, we do a rigorous cost-benefit analysis that includes both financial and nonfinancial indicators. On a periodic basis, we review the outcome against the expectation. The metrics that are associated with our investments are automatically put into the plan. If I say I'm going to invest $1 million in a new service transaction that is going to save me $2 million a year, my budget just got cut by $2 million next year. It creates a balancing mechanism between the desire to get the funding and not wanting to over-commit so that you can't deliver.

2008 INITIATIVES

Client Web Site
We need to build out our client Web site to complement what we've done for our advisers, and turn the client Web site into a place where clients can have collaborative interactions with advisers.

Self-Service
We're continuing to enhance our client service capabilities. While our financial advisors provide a high level of service, there are some instances when our clients will want to do some things on their own online, and we want to enable that.

Integration

Data and business integration, including the way we work with business partners.

TOP 3 CURRENT PROJECTS

Completing Separation From American Express

There are three components: having your own physical infrastructure; deploying a whole new set of systems -- general ledger, human resources, etc. -- for which we used to rely on the parent; and creating or copying existing capabilities that were shared.

Financial Adviser Technology Replacement

We've gone to a release basis to fundamentally swap out the vast majority of the software and capabilities that our financial advisers use today. It covers everything from helping to identify prospects, turning those prospects into clients, helping clients to express their dreams, translating those dreams into plans and executing those plans.

Roll Out Active Portfolios

Active Portfolios is a new product that makes institutional-level investment management available to retail clients, based on their financial plan.

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