Jones and BOA Pay
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[quote=rankstocks]This thread has to be some kind of joke. My BOA gets a bonus of around $1500 just for being at my office that Jones started a couple years ago. Profitibility bonuses have been non-existent because there has been no bonus’ for around a year. The average advisor’s income is down 20-30%, but it sounds like because a BOA doesn’t get a 5% raise, Natell thinks Jones is a crook. If your wife worked for a decent Jones broker Natell, I’m sure when we get back into some decent bonus brackets, she’ll get plenty of extra cash to bring home. I can’t believe people are bitching about not getting a pay raise in this economy…let me guess…you voted for Obama, love democrats, and think Capitalism is evil…[/quote]
Oh that’s right, poor Edward Jones. Poor FAs. Laughable. Read the thread before you post please. I’m done explaining my point here. grrrrrrrr
[quote=natell]
Wow, this must be an Edward Jones forum.
[/quote]
You really have this whole forum thing figured out…
You say its not about the money, as in you don’t need the money - fair enough.
But either you or your wife has associated her self worth by the amount of $ she gets for her BOA job. Its just a number pal, if you don’t need the money then why are you spending time complaining about pennies, you could have just met another client and grossed a few K. Then tip your wife for some $%#$ she does around the house…
I’m a little disappointed in your thought process… for an RIA- but I could always be positive and think your the RIA in my town
[quote=prometheus.grp]
[quote=natell]
Wow, this must be an Edward Jones forum.
[/quote]
You really have this whole forum thing figured out…
You say its not about the money, as in you don’t need the money - fair enough.
But either you or your wife has associated her self worth by the amount of $ she gets for her BOA job. Its just a number pal, if you don’t need the money then why are you spending time complaining about pennies, you could have just met another client and grossed a few K. Then tip your wife for some $%#$ she does around the house…
I’m a little disappointed in your thought process… for an RIA- but I could always be positive and think your the RIA in my town
[/quote]
I didn’t realize that I was so far over your heads here. I guess I learned today just how simple you are here. My little worker bees. Oh well. Moving on.
Actually, the little worker bee is your wife. She can get paid less than she needs to feel respected and she’ll go right about doing her work and her hubby will cry on her behalf.
Pretty cold responses.
I get natell’s point – Jones holds itself out to be a great place to work, but in this case they are not treating their employees fairly. It’s the common knock on Jones.
Yeah, maybe it’s just a corporate thing, but it’s a stupid corporate practice. Generally corps that are fair to their employees have more long term success than those who exploit them.
We are fortunate in this business to make the money we do. The guys making 500k should realize that they are no more ‘productive’ than the nurse or the teacher – they are just fortunate to work in a system that is set up to reward them financially.
The guys making 500k are much more productive than the nurse or the teacher. “Productive” doesn’t mean more important. In business, “productivity” is about bringing in profit.
If BOA's are underpaid, they are free to go elsewhere. It's not good for the corporation to over pay them. I don't have a clue as to their compensation. It just seems pretty silly to complain about pay when it's awfully hard for a talented individual to be underpaid since he/she isn't being forced to stay at the job.[quote=anonymous]The guys making 500k are much more productive than the nurse or the teacher. “Productive” doesn’t mean more important. In business, “productivity” is about bringing in profit.
If BOA's are underpaid, they are free to go elsewhere. It's not good for the corporation to over pay them. I don't have a clue as to their compensation. It just seems pretty silly to complain about pay when it's awfully hard for a talented individual to be underpaid since he/she isn't being forced to stay at the job.[/quote]Well, I'd respectfully disagree. We have a system that measure our productivity to our benefit.
But what about physical therapist or nurse who helps an accident victim recover and become a productive citizen? He or she is not rewarded for that if you put an economic cost-benefit number on that.
Or what about the high school coach who steers kids who otherwise would have washed out of life and gets them into college so they can be productive.
Or the military personnel who are rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan. Certainly they will never be rewarded financially for their efforts (but other people will.)
Life is full of examples of people being underpaid and overpaid.
We are in the latter camp and should be looking out for the people who help us make what we do.
natell - I own an RIA. How is it that your wife is allowed to work for Jones? I would think that’s a conflict of interest.
Second, WHY is she working there? Does she not support you and believe in what you believe.
I’m sorry, I don’t understand how you can justify to clients that you are a better option, when your own family - your WIFE - works for Jones.
As for BOA’s being underpaid - the ones that aren’t very good are. The ones that are good are probably paid commensurate with their work.
buyandhold,
The one aspect you are neglecting in your liberal diatribe is the skillset required to do each job. I would argue there would be a significant portion of the population that could become a teacher or nurse and do a fairly good job at it. However, being in this business for as long as I have, only around 1 in a thousand in the general population could become an advisor that builds a book over 100 million and makes more than 500k/year. An advisor has to have an exremely rare combination of skills: persistance, work ethic, large comfort bubble, product knowledge, enthousiasm, people skills, closing ability, to include a few. So don't even tell me a teacher is underpaid or that I am overpaid.BH, I totally agree with you. It would have been much better if Jones just laid off the BOA's that they needed to in order to hit their internal numbers. That would have been much better than foregoing 3% raises for a year or two. When I worked in the corporate world, I would have MUCH rather been laid off than been stunned with a 0% pay raise. They are stupid and cold hearted for keeping all the hourly staff on at same-pay. But I guess if they laid them off, they could NEVER find someone to replace them and answer the phone, enter orders, open the mail, make calls, etc. No, I take that back. They should have cut FA payout by 5%. The FA's don't really earn it anyway, and I am sure none of the FA's would leave the firm and go somewhere for a higher payout. And they can EASILY hire a few new 500K producers to replace them. They are a dime-a-dozen.Pretty cold responses.
I get natell’s point – Jones holds itself out to be a great place to work, but in this case they are not treating their employees fairly. It’s the common knock on Jones.
Yeah, maybe it’s just a corporate thing, but it’s a stupid corporate practice. Generally corps that are fair to their employees have more long term success than those who exploit them.
We are fortunate in this business to make the money we do. The guys making 500k should realize that they are no more ‘productive’ than the nurse or the teacher – they are just fortunate to work in a system that is set up to reward them financially.
I have to agree with rank.
People are paid what they are because others cannot do the job. We’ve had this conversation before I believe. College coaches are paid more than college professors NOT because they are smarter or influence more lives, but because they can do something only a small minority of people can do: Win games.
The same goes with FAs and BOAs. Nurses and Physicians. Generals and privates. Why do SF soldiers get paid more than regular infantry?
FAs (like rank said the ones that have a lot of assets) can do what others cannot. A good BOA is easier to find.
Nurses go through nursing school. Not as difficult as Medical School. Thus, nurses get paid less (although depending on the specialties, some nurses get paid more than some physicians).
SF soldiers are required to complete certain training and the wash-out rate is high. Infantry school is easy. Anybody who can do what they are told and fake push-ups when the DS isn’t looking will make it. And, they’ll make it anyway because the Army needs the numbers.
Just a thought for you. How many RIAs do you think there are out there whose wives work for EDJ? One? Maybe two? I don't think that goes very far in the way of not revealing your, or her, identity. Not that anyone cares who you are, I'm just saying that if you want to keep your identity hidden, don't give up info like that. As to the BOA pay freeze - it's not just a BOA pay freeze. The HQ people have had their pay frozen too. And I promise you that many of them work as hard if not harder than your wife does. I'm sure she works hard, but life in a branch can be much less taxing than life in HQ. While B24 might have been having a little fun at your expense, his statements are accurate. I think the last response I read from Weddle was that if we wouldn't have frozen wages, we would have had to lay off around 400 people. No doubt those 400 would have come from HQ instead of the BOA ranks, but still, that's 400 people that still have a job in this economy in this industry. Does it suck that they haven't reinstated the wage increases yet? Yep. For both BOAs and HQ people, it sucks. It also sucks that FAs, BOAs, and HQ associates didn't get bonuses and that LP earnings were so far down last year. I would tell you GP earnings were really down too, but I don't know that for a fact. This has certainly not been a spectacular time in the financial history of the firm. All of us have felt some pain in one way or another. But, your wife, and those 400 other people, still have jobs. My guess would be those raises will kick in again in 2010. Just a complete guess on my part, but that's the best you're going to get right now. You know, if I were your wife's FA, I'd be looking for a way to replace her. I'd be concerned about where her loyalties lie. I can't imagine the dinner table conversations between the high and mighty Natell and the overworked, underpaid Mrs. Natell would be anything positive about Jones. I would think that would create a very negative vibe in the office everyday.The freeze on pay raises and bonus’ at Jones for BOAs is still in place yet the company is making millions of dollars every quarter. It seems once again the little people are taken advantage of while the big wigs take home their greedy share of profits. I think it is shameful that this company hides behind their paid for image as a great place to work and yet does this to their own hard working employees.
There is no disputing this Edward Jones. The BOAs have been taken advantage of and it’s time someone spoke out. I will not reveal my identity as my wife is a BOA and I do not want her taken even more advantage of. She is the hardest working person I know and when the company first came out with this freeze on bonus and raises she was all for it, now Jones is just using it to line their big shots pockets. Don’t need to come here and deny it, the number tell the story.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff]
You know, if I were your wife’s FA, I’d be looking for a way to replace her. I’d be concerned about where her loyalties lie. I can’t imagine the dinner table conversations between the high and mighty Natell and the overworked, underpaid Mrs. Natell would be anything positive about Jones. I would think that would create a very negative vibe in the office everyday. [/quote]Yup. I can’t believe the FA hasn’t called home office and said the reason his numbers aren’t that good is because his BOA is sending all of the referrals to Natell, Inc.
The only time companies increase wages is when too many people are leaving and/or the supply of talented applicants is getting thin.
Jones doesn’t think anyone is going to leave.
but....they fired me?The only time companies increase wages is when too many people are leaving and/or the supply of talented applicants is getting thin.
Jones doesn’t think anyone is going to leave.
You know what, I feel for Natell’s wife and sorry so talented an individual isn’t getting $60K a year. I’m glad she’s a hard worker, and happy for Natell to be so proud of the woman. Good for the both of you.
The world is full of hardworking, talented people that are underpaid. Here's a newsflash: if you don't appropriately value your own work, the rest of the world is under no obligation to pay you what you're worth. No obligation, regardless of whether or not the company is in the list of Top Ten Places by Penthouse Forum Fortune Magazine. If she's that damn good, hire her yourself or tell her to find a street corner and have her start selling something. But please, someone get the BOA crowd to stop whining about how much they don't get paid - err - respected for what they do.This is no big surprise to anyone associated with EDJ. I went indy, brought my BOA and doubled her base pay. She was underpaid for years, but now she is more fairly compensated.
I don’t know, $18/hr., bonus, good benefits, 401K match AND profit sharing, to me is not underpaid for what my BOA does.
Now, if the firm would allow the BOA's to be licensed and do more, then it might be different. I am sure there are some offices around the company with kick-a$$ assistants, getting paid well. A bog prodcuer in my old region actually send hi BOA's on their own "diversification trips" when they hit certain milestones each year (he is close to $1mm producer) like Italy and other places. He bonuses them REALLY well, and takes good care of them. That's what it's all about.