AG Edwards

Depends on what city. If you are considering St. Louis region I would not consider because you will have too much competition from other AGE reps.



Personnally I think AGE is a shade above EDJ with respect to hypocrisy. From the clients perspective it does not matter. You will be the one managing the conflict of interest between yourself and your firm wrestling over how much of the clients money belongs to you!

Lance, I beg to differ AGE is not a shade above EDJ, it is a whole f**king galaxy above EDJ.  Bob Bagby makes Doug Hill look like a saint.  Oh Ben, who did you leave us with this POS as a CEO. The convict is running the prison now.  Stop the bullsh*t with the SEC, NYSE, the state of Massachussetts, Illinois, and FLorida and give the money back you and your managers stole. I've said my peace.

In my haste I should have said AGE is a whole f**king galaxy below EDJ. 

I work for AGE, and have no clue what you are talking about.  I’m relativley new to AGE and think it is heads and shoulders above both Morgan Stanley and the bank I worked for.  Platform and tech are good.  Maybe I’ve been missing something lately.  I’ve been very happy so far.  my payout is great, 401k is second to none, reputation is great.  Can somebody clue me in here.

I stand corrected. The only thing I know about Bagby is that he can not keep his johnson in his trousers! But the real criminal at AGE is a guy name Doug Kelly - He is the maestro behind all of their Doug has more corporate titles than anyone else in the industry



Check out this from the AGE Website…



"Douglas L. Kelly - Executive Vice President, CFO, Corporate Secretary, Treasurer, Director of Law and Compliance, Director of Administration

Douglas L. Kelly is treasurer, chief financial officer and corporate secretary of A.G. Edwards, Inc. and its brokerage subsidiary, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. He also serves as executive vice president and director of the Administration and Law and Compliance divisions of A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.

Mr. Kelly oversees the firm’s compliance and law practices as well as its accounting, tax, internal audit, real estate acquisition and risk management areas."





I got to believe that Bagby is Kelly’s lackey, he appears to have his finger in everything…has anyone ever seen a public company where one guy has so much authority over so many areas.



My prediction…embarrassing class action lawsuit exposes scandal and Doug and Bagby are forced out. Cought with their pants down and their finger in the pie



Sometime I just start laughing thinking about these frickin hypocrits and the obvious conflict of interest their caught in between the brokers, the shareholders, the clients and the regulators and the plaintiff bar



I am sick of throwing rocks at EDJ - I think I can have more fund with AGE … Thanks VotedforKerry!

Hey Dude you big DOPE!



You work for your clients

I wonder if Bob and Doug have the cajones to perjure themselves in court.  Lying to any government official is I believe a crime just ask Martha.  As for Dude, the grownups are talking here.  But just look on a search engine an insert "market timing + a g edwards" and here is one for the record books cut and paste this yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_08/b3821095.htm.

Happy Reading and Welcome to AGE

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_08/b382109 5.htm

Voted for Kerry, Lance:

Thanks for the insights.  I guess I'll go hang my head in defeat, cry my ass off and pray for forgiveness that I'll be saved for my bad deeds as an AG Edwards broker. 

The link didn't clarify for me why AG Edwards is a crappy company, just that we had a crappy broker, I'm sure we have had many more, just like any other firm.

The market timing scandal: Give me a f*ckin break!

The other issues alluded to didn't clarify anything for me and or moneyadvisor.  I asked a sincere question, you guys are just straight up c*cksuckers. 

Money,

Whatever the hell these guys are making a fuss about, I still haven't figured out.  These are probably the guys who invest their whole lives creating the "bash" on Ed Jones threads and can't seem to move on.

I'm sure AG edwards has not been a perfect company, no one has, even Raymond James has gotten slammed.  My understanding is that the reputation is great relative to other "big" firms and I love working here.

I'm still hoping that Lance and Voted can bury their idiotic egos and give us some usefull insights that clarify their issues with AG Edwards as a company.  I've heard that Bob Bagby is no Ben Edwards and leaves a lot to be desired, but it hasn't impacted my business.  He's not calling me and telling me to F*ck my clients.  I am working for them and taking very good care of their financial situations.  I don't have proprietary product pressures like I did at Morgan StanFee or the bank. 

Buddy, he hasn’t asked you yet.  In all seriousness the company execs and managers had a scheme to defraud investors through market timing, late trading, and revenue sharing.  They knew exactly what they were doing.  Before you go running your mouth.  As advisors we are expected to protect clients and put them above the firm and above ourselves.  Once you violate that trust, it cannot be undone.  AGE stole at will and doesn’t seem one bit interested in returning that money.  All they can do is deny when many of us know the truth.  And for those who came forward and confronted AGE internally, those people were shown the door.  AGE violated their own internal policies and Federal and State securities laws in the process.  These people deserved better.  I know you are new, but before you call people idiotic, just walk a mile in their shoes.

Damn Dude, I had to read your posts again.  What are you like 12?  But I like your spirit, defending a company you hardly know.  Geez, you think I had just insulted your mother or something.

I'll say this. Anything now is better than this half attempt at having a BD with an insurance co.  I had them close a wrap account on a client when all they wanted was to open up a new account with check writing.  They say they have a BD but really its 5-8 people sitting somewhere using NFS.  I know for sure I need to make a change.  Selling insurance was not my intent.  I did no need a series 7 to puch annuities.  Thats why I'm BD shopping.

I worked for AGE for a few years and was once high on their kool aid. Then reality set in and I realized that they are just another wirehouse. I started a few years ago when Bagby started changing things. Some of the changes have been for the better (technology) and some for the worse (branch management, home office pressure). My branch manager isn't worth a s%!@. He actually thinks he's bringing in the business when he is cherry picking the home office leads and exiting brokers books of business.

2 other things I didn't like were the push to sell more managed futures and annuities.

I was really pumped when I joined the firm. Had a good BM (non-producing)then moved to a new branch and had  a really shi*&^ producing BM. But that's the way it goes. I can remember the Saturday morning breakfast club broadcasts. They had a guy on one time from NJ or NY that all he did was seminars for annuities or managed futures. Only 2 choices for his clients.Yeah his payout was great but what about the clients.

Voted,

I asked a sincere question and all you guys did was dump a bucket of crap on my head.  If you really were interested in something other than inflating your self esteem you would have just answered my question.  How can I walk in your shoes if I don't know where you come from?  I didn't know that you worked for AGE. 

Frankly, anyone who sh*ts on someone for asking a quesiton is an a*shole in my book.

Even if AGE was involved in that garbage, you tell me a major firm that wasn't?  Hell even smaller "independent" firms like RJ have been hit up by the regulators.  Your words are equally valid for virtually all of the major financial services firms.  Based on your ferver, I was expecting to hear of something uniquely eggregious, that is not common knowledge.  I'm not defending the perpetrators or deeds of the wrongdoers (which should be punished), just putting it into perspective given the last 5 years in our business.  I was getting calls almost daily at Morgan when they were in the WSJ on an almost daily basis.  It happened to 'em all. 

As far as I'm concerned AGE is a fine firm to work for relative to the other Brokerages.  Money, you'd probably like it here.

Dude, the events that transpired at AGE we're much different.  Were they egregious? No other firm had the CEO and CFO directly connected to securities fraud.  You act like I was accusing them of stealing $100 from petty cash.  If you walked into a bank and stole $10 or $20 mil would you get a fine or a thirty year prison sentence.  What exactly is the difference in what AGE did? 

Look Voted,

Fine, I get your point.  I don't see it in my everyday work or environment, I'm not worried about how it will affect my business. 

My issue is your disrespectful response to my question. 

I'm not comparing it to stealing petty cash, it is bad; but not any worse than the World Com, Enron, Bshare proprietary fund etc, etc.....  crap that's been going on.  Investor's have gotten bilked for billions of dollars the last five years..... old news friend.  Does not make it o.k. but why aren't you as energetic or balanced about the smithbarney, merill, morgan(...on on on and on) improprieties.

That BM Gibbs in Georgia was  hyped internally by AGE for being a
big producer. Funny how they aren’t talking about him any more. A lot
of the AGE producing BM’s aren’t worth a sh@#. <!–
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Dude - you are wound up too tight boy! Making yourself look like a on this board!



A. I posted the first response to this thread, which I thought was very meaningful and to the point for anyone thiking about going to AGE.



B. Again Dude, YOUR WORK FOR YOUR CLIENTS, if you think you work for the firm then you are just a helpless fool. The client pays you with their assets. Follow the money Dude! be loyal to the client not the firm…that will get you no where!



C. Dude any firm can not escape the absolute conflict of interest between their shareholders and their clients. Firms will always make as much as they can without getting caught!   





Now please apologize to me for calling me a bad name





Hugs



Lance

Dude, read my posts again.  I’m not anti-AGE, I am anti-Bagby, Kelly and the rest of his cronies.  There are alot of fine people at AGE but these crooks aren’t it.  But for godsakes lighten up.  Geez, telling you about AGE is like telling a five year old that there is no such thing as Santa Claus.  

And for No Idea,  I hear you brother.  Sad times indeed.

I’m not defending AGE at all.  I’m just making the point that AGE is no worse than any of the other big brokerage firms and if I had a choice, AGE seems like one of the better choices.  I enjoy my environment and the pay/benefits as well as our platform.  I serve my clients not AGE.  I was merely curious, no need to be rude about it.  Maybe I mistook your response (seems like you are mistaking mine, I’m not defending AGE or anyone, just trying to put things into perspective), it’s hard to gauge people’s intentions or attitude by written word alone.  Peace gentlemen…

Dude,

I really think you owe me and Vote an apology for calling us c*&ksuckers...  I do not think that we rude at all. It really hurts my feelins when someone calls me a c&*ksucker.

Lance

Lance said:

Hey Dude you big DOPE!

You work for your clients

Voted said:

As for Dude, the grownups are talking here

Reply:

This is not rude?  Like I said maybe I mistook your guy's tone (easy to do when all you have is text).  I was just asking a question, you are making assumptions that I'm defending AGE, which is certainly not the case, I was just reporting that I haven't had any problems here and that all the other big brokerages are having problems too.  You also are making assumptions that I feel like I work for AGE, not my clients, which is also incorrect. 

Do you really want an apology? fine.  Sorry, no harm intended; I was just responding to what I felt was a rude response to my sincere question.  Peace.

You girls should all kiss and make up…

From Prudential Analyst report.....

Investment Thesis

Still Managed Somewhat Like a Private Company. A.G. Edwards is unashamedly old-fashioned.

While it is no longer led by a member of the founding family, management still does not set financial

goals or targets, and while they won’t necessarily admit it, we believe the customer is effectively put

before the shareholder. Return on equity has swung from over 20% in the good times to single-digits in

bad, but management has not been aggressively cutting costs to improve down-market performance.

Their view is that such actions would damage the franchise, which is a valid argument in the context of

customer satisfaction. Another consideration is that A.G. Edwards simply may not have the opportunity

to cut as deeply as others in the space, since it does not have centralized customer service and processing

centers. Front-line advisors and their staff handle these tasks, so any cutting of the “back-end” would at

the same time impair the front-end. In any event, we believe longer-term shareholders must be willing to

stomach volatile profitability performance, and recognize the customer-first emphasis. As a result, in

fiscal 2002 and 2003 A.G. Edwards generated the same pre-tax income as in fiscal 1992, thus its ten year

compounded annual growth is technically zero.

Yeah, we have had a few bad brokers that have put our name in the headline.  All of these brokers were fired before their story hit.  I feel sorry for the investors that were mistreated by their individual brokers and some mistakes were made by our firm, but in my opinion AG edwards is still the best place to serve my clients needs. 

Heck even Prudential says we have a customer first emphasis, as if that is a bad thing.

VA,

Thanks.

[quote=blarmston]You girls should all kiss and make up...[/quote]

Let's all hold hands and sing a song.  Maybe we can get Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to intervene.

Let’s sit around a campfie and sing kum-bayah (or however it’s spelled)

VA, you’re pretty funny.  THE CROOKS ARE STILL ONBOARD.  As for you Dude, I can’t speak for Lance, but I accept your apology.  We’ll just blame this on misplaced anger due to the stress of coldcalling and in your case probably a lack of a girlfriend.  But I think you are a standup honest guy and I wish you all the best.  Merry X-Mas.