Skip navigation

Concerns About Edward Jones

or Register to post new content in the forum

50 RepliesJump to last post

 

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Dec 22, 2011 1:09 pm

EJ's new tagline should be:  Edward Jones - Training ground of independents

I know that when I left a while back in my region (I was a little over 4 yrs with EJ) that the 4 fa's ahead of me on the chart (if you are with ej you know what I mean) left to go independent and there was probably a 2.5 year gap in experience between me and the next highest in 'seniority' (sorry, no other way to explain it) and behind me on the chart there was already a gap of about a year from people who hadn't made it and left the business.  If that hold true for the dozens of other regions nationwide..there is a big gap between what were seg 5 producers and your 1's and 2's.  Are the 3's and 4's leaving in droves?  I don't have any friends left there so I haven't been able to keep up with whats happening for the last couple of years..

Dec 22, 2011 2:08 pm

[quote=Donedrinkin]

EJ's new tagline should be:  Edward Jones - Training ground of independents

I know that when I left a while back in my region (I was a little over 4 yrs with EJ) that the 4 fa's ahead of me on the chart (if you are with ej you know what I mean) left to go independent and there was probably a 2.5 year gap in experience between me and the next highest in 'seniority' (sorry, no other way to explain it) and behind me on the chart there was already a gap of about a year from people who hadn't made it and left the business.  If that hold true for the dozens of other regions nationwide..there is a big gap between what were seg 5 producers and your 1's and 2's.  Are the 3's and 4's leaving in droves?  I don't have any friends left there so I haven't been able to keep up with whats happening for the last couple of years..

[/quote]

That's about right. I was a lone blip on the radar screen- at least 18 months to the next FA and about 15 months to the one behind me. The last survivor in the region from that "era". Now that I am indy, it's exactly the chart you've described.

Feb 22, 2012 5:13 pm

Haven't been on in a while. But as an update, the past year has seen TONS of FA's in my region leave. A lot have obviously failed out, but I have seen more FA's leave to go indy in the last year than in the past several years combined. It's a REAL problem right now. Some of the guys on the LT team I know have told me that there is a lot of pressure at corporate right now. They are struggling to figure out what direction to take the firm. They have come out with a lot of new recruiting tools and incentives, new hire pay rules, lots of stuff. But I don't think any of it is enough to get them over the hump. The bottom line seems to be that newbies are struggling to bring in new assets, so all the income continuiation stuff does is prlong the agony. And the outflow of FA's to independence is staggering. And it doesn't matter that it's not the veterans leaving (although vets ARE leaving, just not as much as the 3-7 year guys). These are the guys that typically grow firm revenues - the veterans don't grow that much. The ONLY saving grace right now is that everyone seems to be converting to advisory, so that is driving up revenue on existing assets.

Things are getting strange around here.

Mar 5, 2012 3:42 pm

Just had a Jones IRA come over and had prepared the client for a $95 transfer fee. I now see Jones has raised the fee to $135!

They've got to be losing brokers and accounts in droves now to ratchet up the transfer out fee that high. They only moved to $95 a couple of years ago.

Also just noticed also that the old slogan, "Over 7 million investors..." has suddenly become,. "NEARLY 7 million investors".

Mar 5, 2012 3:57 pm

Are you certail that didn't include their IRA fee?  I just transfered an Edward Jones account a few days ago and didn't see it at that level.

Interesting catch on the change in investors, if you have a net loss of clients at a firm that size... can't be a good thing.  Why does Ed Jones loses so many advisors?

Mar 5, 2012 4:46 pm

Oh- good call - I'll check on that. I wouldn't be surprised, though. They added the $95 fee last year to nonqualified accounts, as well.

Mar 16, 2012 11:47 pm

I've been with jones since 1995 but not for much longer.  The changes are many and they are getting worse.  They want advisors to use the advisory platform but the performance is lacking.  The products are becoming more and more limited every day.  Not enough positives to offset the negitives at this point for me.  It's about time to go and my clients work with ME, not EDJ so I don't have concerns about moving my accounts wherever I land.

Apr 19, 2012 8:07 pm

So I recently began the hiring process with EJ and this is what brought me to your forum. The humor, sarcasm, and insight made me want to join. I hear so much negative about EJ and wonder why they boast they are in the top 50 places to work for. I am looking to get sponsored for my 7 and 66. Is there a better way? Is Jones that bad for a newb? If im hust gonna find myself fucked in 3years like I did selling mortgages than I might as well sell Hondas. Any advice is appreciated please.

May 22, 2012 11:57 am

Nehemiah sorry no one got back to you sooner. I don't check in here as often as I used to because of all the spam posts lately.

Anyway,to answer your question, you have to learn the business somewhere, and I'm not talking about just the technical aspects of it or getting your licenses. You need to learn the right work habits, how to handle rejection (you think you can now but you need to learn skills to build endurance to it), portfolio construction, etc. For that, Jones can be one of the best places to start because so much of it is already done for you, like a franchise system. After 3 years, if you are not happy, consider your options!

For me, Jones started out great - good region, really decent veterans willing to work with you, etc. But I had been a business owner in the past and Jones was sold to me as your own business. It is not, and I felt misled. Although the training was really good, I grew REALLY sick of the Prozak-infused, group-hug, smile-through-clenched-teeth corporate culture. Pretty early on I decided that I would give them the three years but would then go back to being truly self-employed.

Many many newbies washed out in my time. Nearly all of us who started from scratch failed out. Your chances of survival will be much better if you can get a Goodknight or an open office. Just my opinion.

Just go in with your eyes wide open, and check out at least two or three other B/D's before you commit. And best of luck to you!

Jun 10, 2012 11:09 pm

Edward Jones is not for everyone. Edward Jones is not perfect. That being said I have had a positive experience. I started four years ago and am doing fairly well. I have seen one person leave that was doing well. All of the others I saw leave were below standard or just not doing well. I remember when I first started. I read all of the negitive comments on here and was really concerned. Only to find out many not all of the people but many did not know what they were talking about. Read the first post in this thread. None of his fears have come to be a reality. Go your own way do what you want. If you work at most of the firms out there, and give it EVERYTHING you have. You will be fine maybe.