Leaving Jones
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Has anyone left Jones after can sell date during the first year. Will they go after you for the $75000 if you sign with and indy, but don’t go after any customers that you have ?
Left after second year, and they did send a letter from their law firm in St. Louis reminding me of the contract I signed, but have not heard anything else from them. Meanwhile 4 brokers have gone through my office.
Usually there are many reasons someone leaves a firm. I think the biggest frustration with people at EJ is the BS spewed by Regional Leaders and the fact that new advisors with no clue get handed large offices, do absolutely no prospecting, but get all of the credit for being "fast starters."
Spiffy-
Where are you? The firm is in need of defense. You are being attacked.....again. Ron14- There isn't much you have said that I can dispute after 9 years at that firm. Indy is by far a better option. You have to have moxy, gonads...whatever you want to call it, but in the end there is no comparison. And no bs that you speak of from RL's, GP's, etc.[quote=Ron 14]
Usually there are many reasons someone leaves a firm. I think the biggest frustration with people at EJ is the BS spewed by Regional Leaders and the fact that new advisors with no clue get handed large offices, do absolutely no prospecting, but get all of the credit for being "fast starters."
[/quote] Seriously, how many times have you actually seen that happen? Sure, some guys get to walk into "big" offices. Sometimes they are new people. However, there are dozens of people who start with relatively nothing for every one of those people. I've seen people who walked into those big offices fall flat on their face because they DIDN'T know how to prospect and didn't grow the book. I have started to believe this is a Jones only issue. Simply because of how they have structured the business format. Where else do you have a single FA in an office who can't sell their book to the highest bidder? Indy? No. They sell the book. Wirehouse? No. When a wirehouse FA leaves they either sell the book or the BOM splits it up as he sees fit. Am I right in my thinking? If you get that bent out of shape about something that a RL says, then you have thinner skin than necessary. Those guys are some of the best salespeople in the world. They'll tell you the sky is purple if they think it will further their agenda. I love my RL, but I don't believe everything he tells me. I have a brain and I excercise my free will to use it.In my region, there has been a grand total of ONE large office (defined as more than $15mm in AUM) given to a rookie. Actually, there have been no large offices vacated. I take that back, my former mentor took over about 20mm, but he was a producing transfer from AGE. The one guy was like a 40mm office, and it was taken over by an existing FA (about 3 years in) who opted to move here to take the office. Good guy. The regional leader gave his son like a 40mm GK plan. I actually like that. It’s basically passing your business on to your family.
Other than that, there have been a few 5-10mm officed taken by rookies, but that’s probably worse for your career than starting from scratch.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff][quote=Ron 14]
Usually there are many reasons someone leaves a firm. I think the biggest frustration with people at EJ is the BS spewed by Regional Leaders and the fact that new advisors with no clue get handed large offices, do absolutely no prospecting, but get all of the credit for being "fast starters."
[/quote] Seriously, how many times have you actually seen that happen? Sure, some guys get to walk into "big" offices. Sometimes they are new people. However, there are dozens of people who start with relatively nothing for every one of those people. I've seen people who walked into those big offices fall flat on their face because they DIDN'T know how to prospect and didn't grow the book. I have started to believe this is a Jones only issue. Simply because of how they have structured the business format. Where else do you have a single FA in an office who can't sell their book to the highest bidder? Indy? No. They sell the book. Wirehouse? No. When a wirehouse FA leaves they either sell the book or the BOM splits it up as he sees fit. Am I right in my thinking? If you get that bent out of shape about something that a RL says, then you have thinner skin than necessary. Those guys are some of the best salespeople in the world. They'll tell you the sky is purple if they think it will further their agenda. I love my RL, but I don't believe everything he tells me. I have a brain and I excercise my free will to use it. [/quote]Spiff and B24 - let me preface this by saying you two guys are usually right on the money and honest about the things that happen at Jones, but my experience with assets being handed out is much much different.
Since I started 2 years ago not 1 person has made it in my region as a new new. I got a goodknight from afar which provided me with 2mil. Everyone else has done a 10mil goodknight or took over an office of 10mil plus. One guy in my region took over 15 mil and has not brought in 1 single prospect from the area in which he took over the assets, NOT ONE. He is just working with existing clients and walk ins. Obviously, he won't last very long with zero prospecting but he is the new "hero" in the region. Our entire region follows the regional leader around like dogs and what he says goes. Its a miserable environment that most guys don't want to be a part of. If you go your own way you are labeled as not being a "team player." I know this because my goodknight FA pulled me aside to tell me this, along with the fact that I should only wear blue or white shirts, nothing else. Every region and every RL is different, but there is nothing wrong with being fed up or bitter regarding this type of BS. It is a reality and although EJ has a great culture overall it is difficult to put up with regional crap when you are out there on your own island. EJ isnt really your own business, its more of a franchise and you dont know that until you are a few years in.[quote=Ron 14] EJ isnt really your own business, its more of a franchise and you dont know that until you are a few years in.[/quote]
Really? It took you a few years to figure that out?
[quote=Ron 14]Spiff and B24 - let me preface this by saying you two guys are usually right on the money and honest about the things that happen at Jones, but my experience with assets being handed out is much much different.
Since I started 2 years ago not 1 person has made it in my region as a new new. I got a goodknight from afar which provided me with 2mil. Everyone else has done a 10mil goodknight or took over an office of 10mil plus. One guy in my region took over 15 mil and has not brought in 1 single prospect from the area in which he took over the assets, NOT ONE. He is just working with existing clients and walk ins. Obviously, he won't last very long with zero prospecting but he is the new "hero" in the region. Our entire region follows the regional leader around like dogs and what he says goes. Its a miserable environment that most guys don't want to be a part of. If you go your own way you are labeled as not being a "team player." I know this because my goodknight FA pulled me aside to tell me this, along with the fact that I should only wear blue or white shirts, nothing else. Every region and every RL is different, but there is nothing wrong with being fed up or bitter regarding this type of BS. It is a reality and although EJ has a great culture overall it is difficult to put up with regional crap when you are out there on your own island. EJ isnt really your own business, its more of a franchise and you dont know that until you are a few years in.[/quote] Geeesh. That is pretty extreme. My region is NOTHING like that. My guess is that your region is much more saturated with offices, and has been around longer. Our most tenured FA has been with the firm like 17 years, and he was the first office in the state. So most FA's are in the 6-10 year range in my region. Very young region. And FYI, I never once felt that I "owned" my business. Unlimited income potential, yeah. I guess because of my background in business, I understood what they meant when they said the opportunity to "run" your own business. I look at it like being the General Manager of a business, not the owner. I always felt we were pretty much the same as any other wirehouse or regional other than our office structure. IMHO, only knuckleheads took the "business owner" thing to the extreme in thinking that they actually owned something. Anyone that thinks someone else is going to shell out all this money upfront for you to own your own business is just naive. If I ever gave the impression that I felt that way, then I mispoke. And to be honest, how other regions are run - I don't really care. I really only care about myself and how my region operates and how it affects me. My clients don't know or care that in your region you have to wear a blue suit or go to productivity meetings all the time. To be honest, if I were in your region, and what you say is really true, I probably would have left years ago (or maybe after my 3 years if I stayed in the business). Although, and not to put down you or anyone else, I am a bit more "thick skinned" when it comes to business than most people, and I don't take much crap from people above me or beside me. Years in a very tough corporate environment de-sensitized me to that stuff. So how they prop up the "new guy that got a 15mm office" sort of whining - doesn't really get to me. I have to build my own business, not worry about what other little piss-ants got handed to them. So unless someone is inhibiting my ability to build my business my way, I could care less.I know a couple of the people that took chunks of that office when David Lane left. But you probably have some feelings on the issue, so before I tell you what I know, I'd like to hear what you think about the split of David's office. I will say that the history of that office is a great story. Paducah used to have one advisor. Tom Bartow. Then David Lane came in and instead of sitting on his butt and managing a $100 mil office, he darn near tripled the AUM while he was there. Today there are 11 offices in that town. And Jones has an almost unheard of 8% market share. Those Jones FAs are just shy of $500 MM in AUM cumulatively in that county. Not too shabby considering that David could have had a really good life just calling his inherited clients and taking the trails as they roll in. Would it have pissed you off more if they just would have picked someone from the home office to come out and take over the whole office?Paducah,KY need I say more.
Ron - you know what I’ve realized over the years is that the only people who complain loudly about what some other guy got at EDJ are the ones who aren’t working as hard as they should to get it for themselves. I’m not saying that you should work hard so that you can get a big office when it comes around. I’m saying that if you’re working hard and making good money you won’t care what happens outside your office.
I'm one of those guys who took over a book. $9 mil. Buddy of mine started new/new, but about a year and a half in, had the opportunity to take over a $30 MM book. Suddenly, he's got just a few more assets than me. Now, I can either be bitter about it, or realize that it has absolutely no impact on my business and not worry about it. What he does or what the region says about him at regional meetings has ZERO impact on how many phone calls I make or how many new people I meet this week.[quote=iceco1d]
He was living with a girlfriend for a year and she finally kicked him out - had had no money for food or heating oil. I bought him $150 worth of groceries he b, and gave him $100 to get a small delivery of oil -ought weed with it. /QUOTE] Is that wrong?I don’t know…I started as a Goodknight with $4.5MM in assets…If I get to 100+ million and large production numbers as well…I don’t think you can hold that against me…on the other side, if someone is given a $50MM non-competative branch and they are being held up as rainmakers…i agree with you.
You guys can label me a cry baby or bitter, that is fine. If you guys don't believe there is anything wrong with bootlickers and people who are full of BS, that is also fine. I have been successful in business before Jones and I will be after Jones. I made it a point long ago that I will not subject myself to situations where I am controlled or situations in which I am getting smoke blown up my rear. I definitely wont start now in the name of the green machine. You guys will have long prosperous careers at EJ and the firm will love you. All tyrants love people below them that ignore various forms of injustice.