Ameriprise Lunch

I think everyone in corporate America has had at least one free lunch from Ameriprise. Today's lunch was my second. For those who don't know, these lunches are typically a selling too for Ameriprise advisers who try to sell you on their services for the first 10 minutes of your lunch, and then leave you alone. They go away with your contact information and with the "threat" that you could be called.

I attend these type of lunches grudgingly; while free lunch is good, who has time during lunch to hear a sales pitch?

But today's lunch got me thinking. How much longer will these advisers be around for?

Most people who have significant wealth would not pick up a financial planner in such an odd fashion. I would think the target audience would be the middle to upper-middle class. Yet, with the huge rise in free personal finance blogs and the constant stream of free personal financial advice from conventional media, in 5 years, are people still going to pay for the advice?

Anyone with half a mind and access to Google could get pretty much any mundane personal finance question answered.

I would think their days are numbered.