branch administrator

financial advisor

administrateur de bureau

branch supervisor

planificateur

Edward Jones

As a Business Office Administrator, BOA, you work in a small office branch and report to your FA. Although you are trained to believe that you a valued in Edward Jones, HR only cares about the FA. If the FA makes IIROC violations or other violations, and you report your FA to your HR or compliance department, they will do everything to protect the FA. In the end, you would have only damaged your relationship with the FA, who can have HR fire you easily. 

There is a high turnover rate for BOAs. Most that stay are older women with no higher education, are scared to speak up for themselves, and need the money to pay the bills. 

Edward Jones salary increases are non existent practically. They do not increase for inflation every year, except this year where they increased our salary's by 2%. As for annual review increases, it is entirely up to the FA to rate you. There is no Edward Jones standard of what is meeting, exceeding or outstanding performance. It is up to the FA to decide, and even if they decide to give you outstanding the most raise you can receive is 3%.

If your branch is profitable, which in Toronto typically requires 30k gross revenue income, then the branch is eligible to profit sharing. Again, it is up to the FA to decide how much if any of that profit is allocated to the BOA. 

Training is pitiful. You will maybe get 1 day working with an actual BOA. They will make you look at lots and lots of basic slides and answer 5-6 question multiple choice questions. Most of your training will come from calling home office and asking how it is done, and they will mirror your screen and guide you through. 

Also if the branch is below level 5 rating, you will be idle alot of the time. If your FA is not prospecting and bringing in new money, he will be let go for poor performance. There is very little you can do as a BOA to give yourself more work if your FA is not giving you and telling you what to do. 

Edward Jones is bottom of the barrel entry position. Your being paid as a assistants unlicensed assistant, while in a position where the FA pressures you to perform the duties of a licensed assistant. In a culture that values the FA above all else. Working as a BOA you will have maybe monthly 1 hour conference calls with your regional fellow BOAs. Maybe a trimester lunch and meet. And an annual BOA regional meeting where management will pretend how important you are as part of the team.

If a customer makes an investment (which is the only way that you make money, there is no salary) the firm will be paid between 1-3% of the total amount invested. Within a couple of years you will be expected to make $60,000 or more in commissions every month to keep your job. Do the math, it's an insane number for a dying industry.  You will receive 40%of that amount, less any taxes and benefits. 

You will be responsible for everything at the branch level and they will be responsible for nothing. Every Jones broker is fighting to keep their job with the firm. The business model is to use employees as prospecting tools for assets to be invested. When you quit (which you will, eventually, don't kid yourself) the clients are theirs. Not yours.

The"diversification rips" that they love to tout are "earned" with a staggering amount production of their customers money going to Jones so that they can reward you with a fund company kickback (no other way to describe it) so that you can then be marketed to by them in some exotic location. Please buy our fund/insurance etc. At tax time each one will cost you a lot. 

When I finally quit I was on the brink of financial ruin, my health was horrible and my wife was ready to take the kids and leave

5 years later we have finally recovered from the catastrophe that was Edward Jones.

If you are a good sales person, find a real company that makes real money that they can pay you for your talents with. Don't work for a company that doesn't care if your family starves to death or not.

I really enjoyed the comradery, training, and support at Edward Jones.  The Edward Jones analysts are among the best in North America and you will be confident following their portfolio recommendations/guidance for your clients.   

There is a significant gap between advisors who are taking over existing offices, relative to beginning from scratch, and this can be/is largely out of your control.  This is the difference between having little office support (including no office), to having a seasoned administrative assistant, an office, and some clients to serve.  Many of the most successful have waited out those who leave and then distribute your clients among themselves.    If you are in your 20's and 30's, have the ability to work hard and be patient, it is a fantastic place to work.    

Easier transition if you are an experienced Financial Advisor with a healthy portfolio you might approach EJ on joining with additional compensation.

Overall, I have a lot of respect for this company and how they operate and I continue to invest with them.

 

I worked as a BOA for this company for 5 years. As an Administrator it was a decent enough job, easy hours, ok benefits and easy to maintain a social life.
The pay is not in line with the amount of work duties you may have and don't let them fool you about bonuses or advancement as it's all based on your FA. You won't qualify for a thing if they decide you don't deserve it or they dislike you. There have been many instances where the FA has gotten away with harassment and verbal abuses towards their BOA and unless you get the labor board involved, nothing will happen.  

As the saying goes: BOA's cost money, FA's make money. 

If you luck out and get a good person to work in office with, you'll be rewarded and be apart of a Team which makes it a nice place to work for. Just know that you have no job security as it's one FA and one BOA to office and if your FA doesn't meet all the extremely high and unreasonable requirements, you may be out of a job. When I was let go due to the loss of my FA, the Regional Leader of the Northern Alberta Region did not even call me to see if I was ok or offer any support.

If you want to start an investment management practice there is no better place than Edward Jones. Is it hard work? Of course it's hard work! But the perks of success are worth the effort if you can make it through the first 3 or 4 years. The good thing is now they pay a salary for the first four years because they know attrition is highest at this time. What are the perks? Once you get to $12-15M (will take 3-4 years) under management you will make approximately $50k a year. If you can get to this point you will start a snowball effect where your existing clients contribute to accounts and start to refer you business. So within 3 more years you will likely have a 6 figure salary. From there the sky is the limit. Most advisors that succeed with EJ make well over $100,000 and work 40-45 weeks a year. You create your own schedule, even in the early years, so if you have kids it's awesome! They send you on 5 star vacations twice a year if you bring in an achievable amount of assets. Like I said, it's not easy. But if you have the grit and desire, your quality of life after the first several years will be almost unmatched.

. Varied significantly from cold calling, client meeting, prospect meetings, financial planning, statistical reports of the status of the business and  trading of stocks and mutual funds based on client retirement or immediate needs.

. I leaned that based on by prior experience as an VP of Operations and predominately in a corporate office running the business that i was able to step outside.  my comfort zone and have the ability to network and make cold calls and even knock on doors to develop new business.

. Management was excellent and they provided all the tools and mentorship to be successful.

 . The co-worker where like a cog in wheel whereby they would help you to move forward at any opportunity.

. Without a doubt it was what other ways can I generate new prospects to develop new business.  I did what I had to and was successful at it.

. I enjoyed meeting with new clients and after reviewing their holistic needs financially;  bringing a plan that would make it happen.

This review is not just true of Edward Jones but of some other firms as well. Someone just of the streets will probably not succeed no matter how hard of an effort you make. Jones can do a pretty good job teaching you to door-knock (yes you have to do this - a lot) and sales in general. There is only one problem, to succeed as a financial adviser you need to gather assets quickly and you probably won't do that going door to door as a newbie. You need to bag assets from other advisers or have wealthy friends and family who are willing to let you manage their assets. The former cannot be taught and the latter depends on your situation. If you can get 2 to 3 million in a year by these means then you will (probably) be ok, otherwise you will fail, no matter how hard you work. Most of the Edward Jones FAs that are successful got that way by having assets given to them by Edward Jones (took over an existing office, played politics, etc) or brought assets with them from another firm. It is very unlikely you will succeed with Edward Jones if you start from scratch.

client relation, conflict resolution, attention to detail, time management, cooperation within department and outside, service targets statistics and standards, industry knowledge up to date, communication and rapport building, technical program knowledge building and sharing. apply Delighting Customer programs -  to ensure first contact resolution and happy clients.

Performance driven and insightful Licensed Senior Financial Advisor and Client Relations Specialist in a Head Office environment with a proven ability to meet and exceed all performance standards, development and firm goals in a high volume and dynamic environment

The company is made up of (mostly) 2 person offices - an advisor and an administrator. The advisor is the "franchise owner" and the company is "beautifully designed" to favour the advisor over an administrator in all situations. 

If you get a great advisor, you will be able to work in a fantastic environment, and feel valued in your role. If you get a bad advisor, your job is in jeopardy at all times, as you can be let go due to any reason the advisor makes up. There is not many opportunities to transfer, as there must be an opening with another advisor to do so. (Read: little job security) 

The pay is INCREDIBLY low! Especially for the amount of work that is involved with this administrator position. However, in most cases there is a great deal of personal flexibility, as a trade off.

This job is not for everyone. You begin your career with going door to door to build up your base of clients. Prospecting is a major portion of your work in the early years. If you do not think you will like this, do not apply. There is only a 20% survival rate amongst FAs. 

The company is very supportive and they want you to succeed. They do not micromanage you unless you are not doing well. They provide lots of training and you can call any FA in the company for help. 

They provide incentive trips and bonuses if you do well. They also provide you with your own office with an assistant if you are able to open a certain number of accounts in your first year.

They provide health benefits that are ok but they are not as good as those in other industries but if you do well, you will make significant income.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Branch administrator 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Financial advisor 5 salaries reported	$85,000 per year
Administrateur de bureau 3 salaries reported	$24.59 per hour
Branch supervisor 1 salary reported	$90,000 per year
Planificateur 4 salaries reported	$43.50 per hour

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