Talk to as many FA's as you possibly can before joining
A lot of what you are told is sugarcoated in the beginning. I'd highly recommend researching this in depth before choosing to go this route. The bottom line is, if you are New/New, the chances of you surviving are extremely low. Either you won't bring in enough assets, or they will starve you out with their ridiculously low salary. I took a 50% pay cut from my last job to this one. From what I've seen and learned, the process for deciding who gets what office and who has assets shared with them is extremely political and usually a HUGE conflict of interest. If you know or are related to the right people, you could potentially be set up for long-term success. If you don't know many people within your region starting out, the chances that you are put in a position to succeed are rare. The only path to success without knowing the right people and getting a portion of some assets shared with you is to knock on doors for 30-40 hours per week and HOPE that you get lucky and find the select few right people. The worst part of this is that all of the people that have been handed huge books of business and are successful as a result of it will tell you that you have to nonstop grind and knock on doors for 40 hours per week (when they NEVER had to do that themselves). With that being said, I have personally witnessed people in my own region nonstop grind and build a successful business without getting a book. It is possible, but it requires luck as much as anything.
There is a lot o
ProsMaking your own schedule. Meeting countless people.
ConsPolitics of decision-making, Training isn't what they say it is, Extremely low pay for first few years.
My experience with Edward Jones started out on a positive note, however that quickly changed due to the office I was placed in. Don't get me wrong, Headquarters was VERY helpful, and they were always willing to answer my questions, no matter how complicated they were. The support you receive from Home Office is unlike what you get with the majority of other companies.
My negative perception of this job relates to the treatment I received from my advisor. As advisors, they are not given management training whatsoever. The company prides itself on the branch being a "partnership", but the advisor is the one bringing in the assets and doing all of the selling, so ultimately they are the boss.
2-person office: Working in a two person branch is tough. For me, I had an unhealthy relationship with my advisor. I found the advisor to be manipulative, cruel, and impossible to please. There were many instances in which I was blamed for what former administrators had done. Simple mistakes sparked instant conflict within the office, even if they were mistakes made by a prior administrator. Anger was expressed if small things weren't done in the office, things that would take maybe 10-20 seconds to complete/fix and could be done by either of us. Responsibilities laid heavy on me, especially as a new administrator. I am all for a challenge, but at a few months in, I was uncomfortable completing tasks in which I had not received training. I was told to "figure it out", and raced aroun
ProsWork/Life Balance, Set Schedule, PTO
Cons2-Person office, Lonely, Inconsistent Management, Training on your own and not face-to-face
I came to Jones because of the lauded training program, and thought it would be a place to be proud to be a part of. Found out too late much of the carefully crafted image is just that: the surveys on Best Place to Work, and Best Training Program are faked and filtered so only favorable reviews are used. The much-repeated adage that anyone will help you is not true, after asking around many regions and finding that most volunteer trainers are only doing it for advancement of their own careers and care little for your success. You will NOT be running your own business as they claim. You are a W2 employee, and what you do is the same as outside sales, with that same freedom and that same attitude from management that the only thing they care about you for is what you bring in. Your P&L is the same as being a department head, not running your own business. You can't even hire/fire your teammate, the office administrator, without their approval. Much of the training is platitudes, and telling you what you should be doing, berating you if you aren't successful, and explaining that those who fail are those who just "didn't do the work" regardless of how many hours they put in, with little help toward HOW to do the work, answering questions, and guiding you. Little to no product training, yet you are responsible for people's life savings, and their attitude is that they only allow generic investments, so "you can't hurt anyone". Not the best feeling for new people learning finance,
ProsYou set your hours, great administrative help, marketing materials are fantastic
ConsRecruiting is deceitful, training is not what they say, quotas set in before you learn the job or what you are selling and increase every month, one bad month can cost you your career as you struggle to make it up while quotas continue to rise
When you start a career with Edward Jones you're told that everyone wants you to succeed and is there to help when you need it. This couldn't be further from the truth. The overall way that they deal with clients in a one-to-one setting is great and you get a great chance to become friends with a lot of fabulous people... BUT ... the reality is that they want you to succeed so that their bonuses are larger not because they want you to succeed. They want us to work the 60+ hours to ensure that they get their bonus. I have worked in a region of the company whose primary goal as a region is to be in the top 5 regions. Nothing else seems to matter after listening to our regional manager.....NOTHING. If you're a "rockstar" then they will help you as much as they possibly can but for those of us struggling the help seems to dry up and no one has the time all of a sudden. I spent a lot of time trying to find that just right person or group of persons that would be willing to be a mentor. The search was tough and still haven't gotten a mentor that is really there to help to the point of I don't even know what I'm looking for in a mentor. They actually started calling them business coaches now, no more field development person from the home office NO HELP. Each office has 1 advisor and most of the time 1 branch office administrator. The goal of the company is 20,000 advisors by 2020 and the assets to go with that goal. Then the partners get an ever increasing bonus - believe
ProsMostly nice people but many that are not.
ConsLONG, LONG, LONG Hours, difficult to meet the standards that they set, high turnover
To start with, you "can" earn an exceptional income with Edward Jones ....... if you can make 5 years. Here's a few things you need to be aware of if considering a financial advisory position with Edward Jones.
Edward Jones requires a home study program to achieve your series 7 and series 66 passing test scores. You will be paid an hourly wage during this period of training. The time allotted for this is approximately 8 weeks to digest and comprehend about 1200 pages of financial legal ease. This will require about 70 to 80 hours a week of continuous study. Once you have completed this you are required to gather more than 300 face to face contacts with address and phone numbers of which you will cold call while at a 4 day training session in St Louis while instructors listen in. There are minimum goals to achieve during this time. Pere pressure is used to press you to perform. If you don't show up with a few people set up to buy while during this session, you will not hit your goals.
Edwards Jones is proud of the idea that they "make you drink from a fire hose". You will experience information overload during these sessions with very little time allowed to digest and practice the info.
Once you have received a can sell date, which is at the time you attend this session, you will be put on a daily set of contacts and sales/commission goals that will require you to work long hours 6 and 7 days a week to achieve. You will know after a few weeks of door to door cold call sales
Prosextremely high income
Conspoor training program over a very short period of time
I was not fired, I resigned from Edward Jones, due to the realties I began to see. I love building relationships and networking; I believed Edward Jones's philosophy was truly to build relationships with your community, but I was fooled. It is a great place to work if you are a sales person and you like doors slammed in your face or threatened by home owners. Luckily for me I didn't care, but there were some young ladies who had to call the police.
EJ provides the train for the tests and pays you to study for the tests. They also pay for your to travel once you pass the tests. Some of the people are very helpful and friendly but many of the older veteran advisors can be hard to deal with. Edward Jones is hiring a lot of new advisors and saturating the field. Many veteran advisors are feeling as if they need to protect their book of business. I don't blame the veterans at all. They have built their business and worked hard to do it. Edward Jones does not have a set area for advisors to prospect in, they only require you not to target current clients of EJ Advisors. But, when EJ is telling you that you have to have so much in new assets by a certain amount of time, people begin to get creative. It becomes a resource scarcity issue. EJ will tell you they are all about building the relationships with people, but if you do not have enough new assets in a certain time frame you will get calls and they do fire people. It is a sales job, no matter how you explain it. You have a q
Good Company, Good Training, Terrible ramp up period
I love the company and the culture but depending on your situation getting ramped up and successfully bringing in enough clients so you can make ends meet can take well over a year. In the mean time your pay decreases at a rapid rate so you have to make it up on your commissions. If you don't then you fall below expectations and could be out on your tail with no severance and no benefits. I'd say it's a good place to start if your single. If your a family man it is a big gamble that you are going to make enough money even if you bust your tail and do everything they say to do. Client creation and asset accumulation is very tough and if you don't meet the right people and they don't have a good reason to leave their current FA and bring assets to you then good luck living on the small investors. You need to be bringing in at least $200K a month new just to survive. The commission rate the first three years is terrible. The insurance is major medical so be prepared to pay all your doctors bills because it's only good if you get into a major accident. Be sure you ask up front about the salary ramping down. They were not up front with me on this. I was told for 2 years I'd have a guarantee base while I built my business. Wrong! At month 10 because I received a Goodknight my salary is going down. Goodknight does not mean your life is on easy street. Veteran FA's give you the bottom of the barrel and you are supposed to be able to make something out of it. It hel
ProsOwn Business, Fellow Advisors, Home Office
ConsStarting pay, expectation increases too soon
2.0
Branch Administrator | Pennsylvania | Jan 30, 2020
BOA Position is Boring & Lonely
I was really excited to get my new job at Edward Jones until a few months in I quickly realized this was not the job for me.
If you are looking into a job as a BOA at Edward Jones, you need to realize that the financial advisor (FA) you interview with is going to be the person you interact with all day every day. You will have no coworkers to talk to throughout the day. Other BOA's in the region welcome you the first week or so but that's about the only time you'll talk to them. I thought I'd be fine with the FA I had but unfortunately I learned as time went on that he and I had absolutely nothing in common so it makes it even harder for conversations. You get to interact with the clients when they come in but that's not for long and for my situation, most of the clients are above 50 years old and don't seem to want to talk to the new girl, they just want to know where the older woman is that had worked here for years.
When it comes to the work, I have always been able to finish my "To Do" list within the first hour. After that it's just answering phone calls and making phone calls. The majority of the time at work I spend calling clients and asking for them to come in for their annual reviews. You have to call the ones that are upcoming, the ones that are overdue, the ones that are required, the ones that are suggested. Sometimes I feel like I'm just working at a call center.
The high deductible insurance is frustrating. The pay is OK I guess. However there really is no
Job applicants beware!
Work/life balance: You will have no life in the first several years because you will be making outbound sales calls in person and on the phone. You will have to make hundreds of calls per day to make 25 people talk to you in earnest about their savings. You will face a lot of hostile people you call. Why? You are cold calling them.
Comp/Benefits: Jones says their average rep makes such and such their first year. Lies! They exclude people who were fired, laid off for not making sales quotes in year one and beyond. They will never tell you their turnover rate because they guard their image very carefully. Think multi-level marketing. After expenses, their payout is close to 30% or less.
Job security/advance: None. You are only as good as your last month of sales/revenue within a 3 month average. One bad month and you are on probation. 2 bad months they're ready to replace you. Your clients and assets? HQ and senior reps are circling to divide it up among themselves. Your failure is their benefit. They hire thousands of recruits each year. Why? Cheap to train on massive scale. You gather assets, generate revenue. You fail. They retain assets and revenue. Thank you for your service soldier.
Management: Mantra: we care about you. Anyone will help you. (Code: we care only if you gather assets and generate revenue. No, not anyone can help you, they are busy counting how much they are going to make in bonuses, get your clien
I started as a BOA making $12/hr. This is in a little town in Texas. (I moved here from Dallas where I made much more money as a Legal Secretary with over 20 years experience.) The benefits helped make up for the low pay, plus the promise of bonuses after the Financial Advisor (FA) became profitable. My first FA left after 2.5 years to join another company, so I transferred to another branch with an FA just starting out. I was again promised bonuses when he became profitable. After a couple of years, I got a couple of mediocre bonuses, then my FA became somewhat of a Jekyll/Hyde type (to say the least), talking to me like I was an idiot and raising his voice and just plain being rude and mean. My complaints to home office got me nowhere. He downgraded my performance rating so that I would not get a large bonus. The bonus is partly based on your performance rating by the FA. All my performance reviews for five years were the highest you could get - Outstanding. But all of a sudden I was downgraded to Needs Improvement, one step from Not Acceptable. There was no reason for this and I quit the next day. They never paid me my last bonus (however small it would have been) because I was not employed on the date the bonus checks are written, even though the bonus covered four months that I was employed and worked hard. I had complained to home office and my regional leader about what this FA was doing - lying, making things up about my performance, harassing me, making things diffic
Prosas a boa, if you happen to work for an fa who is making good money and is nice, it could be a good thing for you. if the fa is new, it will take 2-3 years to begin making bonuses, that is if they decide to share them - they are not required to do that.
Conslow pay for boa's, home office will not stand up for you, they will support the fa no matter what, even if the fa is abusing you - the fa brings in the cash
This is "my" experience at EJ, some may have a different experience. I believe, your experience will depend on your branch, the level of the FA and the location. I was alone 70% of the time in a windowless environment. I barely received a phone call, rarely did anyone ever come in and I had little to no work. I had to try very hard to be productive in some manner along with trying to keep my sanity. I know other BOA's who are very busy and happy in their positions. Please be sure the environment is appropriate for you when you interview. If you are a social person, ask how often clients come in, take note of the activity in the office.
Most EJ offices are on street level, mine was not, I was trapped in a building behind a closed door without a window or anyone to speak with. I felt very vulnerable, with only one way in or out of the office, no exit out the back. I would keep the door locked when I was alone. You must know that you will not have a co-worker to chat with and there is no one there to help you or answer a question. You are on your own, you learn to navigate the system by yourself. The home office at EJ is fantastic, you can find answers on their system or call and have an answer immediately, they are very helpful.
You must also get along with your FA, they are the one and only person you will have human contact with. I believe that it is a very hard decision to make when you interview; if you will get along with the one other person in the office.
ProsFair pay, benefits, 401K
ConsLonely, solitary, very slow, quiet
Questions And Answers about Edward Jones
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Edward Jones?
Asked Aug 9, 2016
Don't. The chances of working for a horrible FA and a great one are 50/50. You won't know until you're in. You will speak to so many departments that don't talk to each other. The process is grueling and it might be the worse mistake you ever make.
Answered Oct 15, 2020
Poorly trained fans then the boa is made to do the fa job. Especially difficult with lack of proper training..
U learn aa you go unless u get a arrogant fa then u run everything.
Answered Jun 2, 2020
Do BOAs receive annual reviews and salary increases?
Asked Feb 14, 2017
Branch Office Administrators are an essential part of the Branch Team at Edward Jones.
Successful Financial Advisors truly partner with, and reward their talented and successful Branch Office Administrators. The annual review process is collaborative and offers Financial Advisors the opportunity to discuss + together rate the Branch Office Administrator’s performance. Firm defined merit metrics are employed to assign % wage increases based upon the overall performance rating achieved by the Branch Office Administrator. These %’s vary from year to year based upon economic, firm performance and local market factors.
In addition to hourly wage reviews/increases, the firm offers generous profit sharing, milestone and other bonuses/incentives.
Further, successful and profitable Branch teams earn trimester profitability bonuses, which most Financial Advisors share partially (~10% of the overall bonus) with their Branch Office Administrator(s)—for the bonus rewards the BRANCH TEAM’s success/efficiency. The firm typically matches the amount shared by the Financial Advisor up to 10%; meaning the Branch Office Administrator(s) receive(s) ~20% of the original Branch bonus.
For some Branch Office Administrators in high producing branches, the bonus sharing + firm match can account for half or more of their overall annual compensation.
Please note, the firm does not outline specific bonus sharing rules, guidelines or guarantees.
After ~5 years of service, successful Branch Office Administrators are eligible for promotion to Senior Branch Office Administrators, with a generous raise.
Finally, the firm offers exceptional training, solid benefits and the truly unique opportunity for proven Branch Office Administrators/other associates to join the limited partnership.
I don’t imagine many successful Branch Office Administrators venture to this job hunting site to leave feedback about positive experiences... That said, beware of the negativity and subjectivity of feedback presented by the folks who’ve failed and find themselves seeking another opportunity.
Answered Jun 19, 2020
Some Financial Advisors hold back on giving your annual review on time. Many do not share any type of bonus with the Branch Office Administrator, so be content with your hourly pay as meager as it is.
Answered Jul 25, 2018
How are the working hours at Edward Jones?
Asked Aug 7, 2016
Salaried employees are expected to work 60 - 80 hours per week.
Answered Apr 4, 2019
Working hours or business hours is how it etc. lol
Answered Jun 15, 2018
What is the work environment and culture like at Edward Jones?
Asked Jun 30, 2016
Environment is ok, but unless u get decent respectful fa, its horrible. They micromanage you and as stated above fa does no wrong and boa is not heard.
Answered Jun 2, 2020
Be careful. They are changing in a negative way
Answered Dec 6, 2018
What questions did they ask during your interview at Edward Jones?
