Nepotism alive at Jones
Skip Christensen retires from Edward Jones
"We figured we'd leave after a few years and go to town on a lake in Minnesota where we lived for the previous 19 years," Skip Christensen said.
But something happened.
"Humboldt became home. We had chances to move later and we declined the offers," Skip said.
As 2005 comes to close, it will mark the retirement for Skip as he completely turns the office over to his son, Tony.
"Actually, Tony's been doing the heavy lifting since he came (in 1996)," Skip said.
In retirement, the Christensens have no plans to leave Humboldt.
"We'll go on short trips to see our family in St. Louis. We enjoy our friends here and enjoy living here," Jean said.
Edward Jones runs deep in the Christensen family. Skip and Jean's oldest son, Mark, is a general partner with Edward Jones at the headquarters in St. Louis. He is in charge of Edward Jones offices in Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Mark was the first to join Edward Jones, followed by Skip and then Tony.
Gee, I thought there were only one rep offices at Jones. I guess if your son/brother is a GP, you can have pretty much anything you want....Sharing an office since '96, give me a break. I bet they got more than their fair share of bonuses with two reps producing with one set of overhead.
Unfortunately that same bs goes on everywhere. What really chaps my a$$ is when you get told internally by the firm how so and so is kicking a$$ and doing all the right things. But then when you scratch beneath the surface, you find out that there is some bulsh!t similar to the "Humboldt success story" featured above....
The latest trick is to give a new broker a "temporary office" shared with an existing broker who the Regional Leader wants to take care of. Mysteriously, fully half of the existing broker's overhead disappears instantly, thereby pumping up his trimester bonus and profitability, thereby "qualifying" him or her for more LP (if and when it ever shows up). All of a sudden, brokers who had been barely profitable are earning big bonuses. Eight months later when the newbie fails, things are back to normal until they find a new trainee to dump half of the P&L on.
If you think about this entire scenario, absolutely nothing has changed for Jones in their cost structure. What does change is the effective payout rate of the broker that the GPs want to take care of.
My State Farm agent has done the samething and has his son working with him. Crummy bastards!!!
[quote=Maxstud]My State Farm agent has done the samething and has his son working with him. Crummy bastards!!![/quote]
Yea, well, at least that "crummy bastard" owns his business. What say you clone. BTW I'm not being sarcastic.
Wow my first post and already the name calling begins.
[quote=unsunghero]
[quote=Maxstud]My State Farm agent has done the samething and has his son working with him. Crummy bastards!!![/quote]
Yea, well, at least that "crummy bastard" owns his business. What say you clone. BTW I'm not being sarcastic.
[/quote]
I'm trying to understand why you're angry that a Jones broker brought in his son? It's common practice and I'd consider it as a way to transition towards retirement and bring my kids into MY book of business. Are you saying someone else is more entitled to this guy's book than his own kids? I'm really not clear on the problem.
Mike,
Its a Jones thing. You see Jones talks about their "trade-offs" making them special in our industry. One of them is the single broker office. It is clearly less profitable but to them that doesn't matter. If a typical Jones IR wanted to bring a son/daughter, spouse, whatever into their office either to transition or just share the book, it wouldn't fly at Jones. Unless you are related to the right people(GP) at the home office. That is my point.
Under the Jones bonus system, the more profitable your office is, the more bonus you get. It would make sense that family members would want to share overhead/split expenses and earn a bigger bonus. Funny that this is not avail to everyone.......that is nepotism.
Numerous multiple brokers in offices at Jones and the majority are family relationships.
[quote=Soothsayer]
The latest trick is to give a new broker a “temporary office” shared with an existing broker who the Regional Leader wants to take care of. Mysteriously, fully half of the existing broker’s overhead disappears instantly, thereby pumping up his trimester bonus and profitability, thereby “qualifying” him or her for more LP (if and when it ever shows up). All of a sudden, brokers who had been barely profitable are earning big bonuses. Eight months later when the newbie fails, things are back to normal until they find a new trainee to dump half of the P&L on.
If you think about this entire scenario, absolutely nothing has changed for Jones in their cost structure. What does change is the effective payout rate of the broker that the GPs want to take care of.
[/quote]Sooth,
Your “latest trick” is called the GoodKnight Plan which I am sure your are familiar with. An IR will not be able to share his expenses with a new IR unless he or she has moved assets usually in the $5million range over to the new IR.
Try this link from an Art Leavitt speech back in '97:
http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/speecharchive/1997/spch185.tx t
Here’s an excerpt:
"A great example is Jim Goodknight, of Edward D. Jones in Joplin, Missouri, who’s been an inspiration to his colleagues and a conscientious counselor to his clients. He’s known for going above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of investors. Jim originated a program in which veteran brokers with more accounts than they can handle are encouraged to bring in young talent to mentor. That way, the veteran can focus his attention on fewer customers, and a younger broker can get started under the guidance of an experienced pro. Edward D. Jones liked the idea so much, they named it the Goodknight Plan."
Sooth, why so jealous of Edward Jones? What did they do to you?
BPD
P.S. Jim has done over 6 Goodknight Plans.
[quote=BigPayDay] [quote=Soothsayer]
The latest trick is to give a new broker a "temporary office" shared with an existing broker who the Regional Leader wants to take care of. Mysteriously, fully half of the existing broker's overhead disappears instantly, thereby pumping up his trimester bonus and profitability, thereby "qualifying" him or her for more LP (if and when it ever shows up). All of a sudden, brokers who had been barely profitable are earning big bonuses. Eight months later when the newbie fails, things are back to normal until they find a new trainee to dump half of the P&L on.
If you think about this entire scenario, absolutely nothing has changed for Jones in their cost structure. What does change is the effective payout rate of the broker that the GPs want to take care of.
[/quote]
Sooth,
Your "latest trick" is called the GoodKnight Plan which I am sure your are familiar with. An IR will not be able to share his expenses with a new IR unless he or she has moved assets usually in the $5million range over to the new IR.
Try this link from an Art Leavitt speech back in '97:
http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/speecharchive/1997/spch185.tx t
Here's an excerpt:
"A great example is Jim Goodknight, of Edward D. Jones in Joplin, Missouri, who's been an inspiration to his colleagues and a conscientious counselor to his clients. He's known for going above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of investors. Jim originated a program in which veteran brokers with more accounts than they can handle are encouraged to bring in young talent to mentor. That way, the veteran can focus his attention on fewer customers, and a younger broker can get started under the guidance of an experienced pro. Edward D. Jones liked the idea so much, they named it the Goodknight Plan."
Sooth, why so jealous of Edward Jones? What did they do to you?
BPD
P.S. Jim has done over 6 Goodknight Plans.
[/quote]
Absolote load of crap! In certain instances, expenses are being shared with NO Goodknight plan in place.
Oh excuse me. Of course the “all knowing” sooth couldn’t be wrong. But, you are.
Why the vendetta against Jones?
BPD
[quote=BigPayDay]
Oh excuse me. Of course the "all knowing" sooth couldn't be wrong. But, you are.
Why the vendetta against Jones?
BPD[/quote]
You need to stop being an ear, nose, and throat doc, and become a proctologist. Look a little deeper into the bowels of your company. You'll see that I'm right. I will not comment any further on this matter as it might compromise my identify, or worse yet, that of some of my valued "informants". I stand by my statements 110%.
As to why the vendetta against Jones: They made idiots, parrots, ass-kissers, crooks, and meglomaniacs like you GPs, and gave you titles like "Regional Leader", "Area Leader", and "Shamrock Saturday Leader" when everyone around you knew that you couldn't lead a flock of magpies to a pile of roadkill. You've never had an original thought in your sorry life. Happy New Year!
What statements do you stand by?
BPD
The one where expenses are shared without a Goodknight Plan in place. Now, go back to your home office cubicle on Tuesday, ask around, and you’ll see that I’m right–again. Then let all know what circumstances have to prevail for the circumstances that I speak of to exist.
Mr Pay Day,
Does Doug have to give up his office for his old cubicle? Or are they going to let him keep it?
And
If you are a GP how do you have LP earnings still?
Sooth,
This sounds like a very serious matter. I am certainly glad you brought it to my attention. We wouldn’t want an IR’s bonus to be too big. As my 12 year old daughter would say, “Whatever.” You need to come up with something better than this, all Mighty Sooth. You must really have someone on the inside feeding you some unbeleivable info. I wonder if the Journal knows about this.
Did you ever get a bonus at Jones. Doubt it. Is this why you are JEALOUS?
BPD
Are you saying he could be right? Here comes the jealous talk again…
I didn’t say he was right, but even if he is, who gives a hoot, besides some Jones’ reject who is jealous.
What am I jealous of?
Ex,
I was referencing Sooth, not you.
Oh,
I saw reject and assumed........nevermind.
Is seems like to me that you should have the ability to hire on a newir in your office if you want to to share the costs of running the branch. Is this true that it is discouraged other than for family?
Jones IR it is not your office! It is Edward Jones office you only pay for it!
Sorry for the truth!
Happy New Year.
[quote=BigPayDay]
Sooth,
This sounds like a very serious matter. I am certainly glad you brought it to my attention. We wouldn't want an IR's bonus to be too big. As my 12 year old daughter would say, "Whatever." You need to come up with something better than this, all Mighty Sooth. You must really have someone on the inside feeding you some unbeleivable info. I wonder if the Journal knows about this.
Did you ever get a bonus at Jones. Doubt it. Is this why you are JEALOUS?
BPD[/quote]
Dude, you need to get me figured out to know that I don't post a bunch of bullsh*t on here. When others have said that sales of the preferred funds contribute to an IR's bonus through their P&L, I have been quick to point out that is FALSE. When others have said that only the sales of preferred funds count toward Diversification Trip points, I have been quick to point out that this situarion only existed for a short time and was changed mid-stream during one contest period. I know. I was still working there when this happened. I have also said on this forum several times that Doug Hill was the fall guy in the revenue sharing settlement. For the most part, he is a good man who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I think he should have resigned immediately, but that's a whole other topic. So, when I say expenses are being shared with no Goodknight in place, you can take it to the bank that it is true. There is a whole litany of reasons for why this is a bad policy and practice. Mostly, Regional Leaders can play favorites to suddenly make 1/2 of a broker's overhead disappear.
I did earn bonuses while at Jones. Several of them. I ran my business like a business. I operated a relatively small (in terms of square footage), efficient, no frills office to maximize my bonuses. So, when some jackass can go and lease 2000 sq. ft. and build it out luxuriously, and then fail to be profitable for years despite decent production, what does the RL do? He dumps half of that on an unsuspecting newbie. The good thing about Jones is you can have the kind of office you want. If you want a freakin' Taj Mahal, but can't make it profitable, that's your problem. It is not the job of management to halve your expenses, and falsely make you profitable simply because you over-leased and have the "room" to house an additional IR. Get the point?
Sooth - I vouch for your last comments for it was I that made a few comments that you corrected me on - as you stated.
I also love how you nail BPD - he tries to act as though he's an IR when it 's so obvious that he's at the home ofc - training new IRs. Your comments also point out exactly why I and so many others despise Jones -they are hypocrites. The rules are set for the connected in one way and the unconnected another way.
Keep ranting!
Weddle hopefully will make some real changes, but I kind of doubt it. I think I am getting closer to leaving the mighty ship. Hope I can get the little woman to buy in.
Wondering if others had the same results this year, assets up revenue down.
Jones brokers= clueless as evidenced by this thread.
readytogo: My assets were up and my revenue was down as an indy this past year. What you say? I put 15 million in fee based and C shares last year which caused it though.
Go indy man! I was a top producer at Jones and going indy was such a good move. Been working on fee based business as well as C shares and have about 40% of my business annuitized at this point. It's taken a couple of years--and in spite of what the darkside tells you--it's MUCH better over here. Join the force!
JonesIR,
Are you in for some surprises! Two IRs in one branch?????? Only if you are a big producer, RL, GP (or you are relative of one othe privious three).
Supervision is the big concern from an SRO prospective.
eddjones654
Senior Member
Joined: Dec. 03 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 107 Posted: Jan. 11 2006 at 1:51pm | IP Logged
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JonesIR,
Are you in for some surprises! Two IRs in one branch??? Only if you are a big producer, RL, GP (or you are relative of one othe privious three).
Supervision is the big concern from an SRO prospective.
eddjones : What did you mean supervision is the big concern from and sro perspective?
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