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Nepotism alive at Jones

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Dec 29, 2005 4:36 am

Skip Christensen retires from Edward Jones

Skip Christensen is retiring after 20 years with Edward Jones Investments in Humboldt. He plans to stay in Humboldt and enjoy following his grandchildren. Skip and Jean Christensen chose to come to Humboldt with Edward Jones Investments without ever seeing the town.

"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.

Dec 29, 2005 3:31 pm

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....

Dec 29, 2005 4:10 pm

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. 

Dec 29, 2005 8:14 pm

My State Farm agent has done the samething and has his son working with him.  Crummy bastards!!!

Dec 29, 2005 9:46 pm

[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.

Dec 29, 2005 10:23 pm

Wow my first post and already the name calling begins.

Dec 29, 2005 10:58 pm

[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.

Dec 29, 2005 11:07 pm

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.

Dec 30, 2005 12:55 am

Numerous multiple brokers in offices at Jones and the majority are family relationships.

Dec 30, 2005 1:54 am

[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.

Dec 30, 2005 4:23 am

[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.

Dec 30, 2005 4:41 am


Oh excuse me. Of course the “all knowing” sooth couldn’t be wrong. But, you are.



Why the vendetta against Jones?



BPD

Dec 31, 2005 3:33 am

[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! 

Dec 31, 2005 3:41 am

What statements do you stand by?



BPD

Dec 31, 2005 3:58 am

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.

Dec 31, 2005 4:04 am

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?

Dec 31, 2005 4:10 am


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

Dec 31, 2005 4:13 am

Are you saying he could be right?  Here comes the jealous talk again…

Dec 31, 2005 4:17 am

I didn’t say he was right, but even if he is, who gives a hoot, besides some Jones’ reject who is jealous.

Dec 31, 2005 4:26 am

What am I jealous of?