I'm with RJFS, overall I won't complain.  Every place has some minor hangups, but coming from Jones a year ago, I'm pretty happy with them.

Dark Knight:

Are you in the full blow indy platform or one of the others? What are the hangups in your opinion?

I like that they have no subprime junk in their trunk and clients seem to have a good impression of them. They also cap the fees in VA’s.

Yea, I like when an indy firm caps my fees. That’s a great attribute.

Do you like screwing your clients?

I don’t srew my clients, I believe in getting paid a fair fee, and I most certainly don’t believe an indy firm has the right to cap my fees. This is why I chose LPL, and not RJ. RJ is run like a wirehouse.

That is one thing that really gives me pause with RJ.  Capping VA fees gives me the feel of not truly being an independent firm and makes me wonder what else they’ll be changing unilaterally.  I did due diligence on RJ among others and it just had a little more of an “employee” feel vs. a “client” feel…hard to explain, but I remember how I felt.  In fairness, that was three years ago and I’ve never actually worked with RJ, so my impressions are just that.

EZ, that is a fair statement I think.

Here’s a question with an answer that might be “telling”

That is a good question - do they cap the M&E & the commission to the broker? I guess brokers there do fewer L shares and more 7 year cdsc as it might fall within RJ’s guidelines. I don’t do a ton of VA biz but it’s good to hear about the specifics. The group calling on me covers some of their overhead and their payout ends up in the upper 40’s which is pretty decent.

It’s the one where a group covers most of their overhead, I think they are employed by Ray Jay, I think their benefits are through them as well so it’s one step below the full blown indy route. My familiarity with their terminolgy is pretty weak at this point.

The description I got doesn’t seem to match up with any of the ones listed, maybe the employee model?

I believe the VA products are tailor made for RJ. So the expenses and broker commissions were negotiated by RJ and the VA companies.  Bank of America was about to do the same this year but the idea got scrapped because there weren’t enough vendors interested in creating a new product (and having to license it in all the state insurance agencies).  A handful of companies had the new product ready for us but, thankfully, nobody else was interested.

I think the group I am looking at is some sort of hybrid between the branch and indy levels.  Is anyone familiar with this setup?

They are probably an Indy Contractor (90% payout) shop with the bucks to pay you like an employee.

G, I work for the independant employee division.   You are a w2 emp not 1099.  Minimum gross to qualify is 500k.  No upfront $$$ as far as I know.  Payout is 75%+ roughly with no ticket fees. You pay 100% of expenses. RJ does pay your deferred comp and esop which can be substantial.  You run your own show hire your staff and pay all the expenses.  RJ will do your expense spreadsheet, write your rent checks etc and handle all payroll.  Do yourself a favor and visit the home office in St. Pete.  PM me if you like.

I think RJ is a good firm but the one bonehead move that bothered me about the firm within the last year was the move they made which allegedly cut Variable Annuity internal expenses and at the same time drastically cut the commisions on ALL VA’s in the RJ system.  If you don’t sell allot of these the change was a take away to your bottom line but if your book has allot of annuities this was a BIG negative.

RJ made a major error with their annuity fiasco. Hurt their recruiting efforts in a big way.