Ahhh…10K NET ($25K GROSS).  Yes, that’s a little tougher nut to crack.

  Nog, yeah, I guess I'm used to a different world.  One where I try to match the timing of my compensation with my efforts, rather than taking it all upfront and then working for free (or almost free) for the next 20 years.

[quote=Indyone]Ahhh…10K NET ($25K GROSS).  Yes, that’s a little tougher nut to crack.

  Nog, yeah, I guess I'm used to a different world.  One where I try to match the timing of my compensation with my efforts, rather than taking it all upfront and then working for free (or almost free) for the next 20 years.[/quote] I remember when I was at Jones and I had a client come in and the C share was better for them. Jones cut payout at the time to 30% on C share business. You have to be REALLY committed to that course of action considering that Jones would cutting your comp by 25% from 40% to 30%.....   Ahhh, the good old days......

[quote=Borker Boy]I was thinking almost the exact same thing, noggin, but was too lazy to do the math.

  The thing about a Jones book is that all of those assets have already been invested and someone has already been paid on them. A person who thinks they can take over even a $25-$30mm book and take it easy will be sadly mistaken.   Regardless of the size of their book - up to a point, of course - the fact that a Jones broker has to constantly hunt new money is beneficial when they get ready to leave, because there's not a ton of pressure to take everything with them as there would be if the majority of the book was annuitized.   They can go indy, bring those who want to come, get a higher payout, and get back to business as usual: hunting new money.[/quote]   I agree with that.  And in many ways, this is why (despite the "best for the client" line) they developed advisory solutions.  Both to placate veteran FA's, and to "monitize" their investment in current clients ().  The thing is, most of the industry went through this transformation 10-15 years ago.  I have a few friends at Merrill, been in the business over 25 years, and they said they essentially took most of their clients (other than their muni buyers) and put them into advisory accounts over the years.  But at one time, ALL of their clients were commission-based.   Actually, I think Jones is setting themselves up pretty nicely by rolling this out last year.  They are adding assets to advisory by the billions, and as the market recovers, their income is going to skyrocket.  The GP's (and big producers) will make up for lost time .    I also think they are starting to recognize that there is a point of diminshing returns in an FA's career (when commission based).  You can only hunt for so long before you run out of steam.  And they have also identified the fact that we need to have time and income to service existing clients.  Personally, I don't think you should need to be at $100mm to make a good living in this business.  Someone at $35-55mm AUM should be able to make a decent living and service their clients.