Edward Jones Reviews

Pros

Stable company
Culture of coaching, encouragement, not competition
Responsible for our own success
Good for self-motivated workers

Cons

Not all FA's equipped to work as a team
Can be lonely at times
BOA is basically at the mercy of the FA for raises/promotions

Pros

Good Stable Company, Flexable Hours, Understands you have a family, and all of my leaders understand my family will come first. They encourage you to learn, and move to another department. If you want to climb the ladder at this company and don't, it's your own fault. Open door policy. Good Culture.

Cons

Health Benefits are not very good if you have a family or are single with any medical problem.
Pay isn't the best, but there is a trade off. Great Company to work for.

Advice to Senior Management

More choices on health benefits.

Pros

The company is very family oriented so if you have children this is a great company to work for! Plus the compensation is great!

Cons

If you are looking for coworkers (if working in home office this does not apply) this is not the job for you.

Pros

No limitation on what you can achieve.

Cons

Door to door selling is difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer a longer time for trainees to get their series 7 liscense.

Pros

Support from Home office and Region
Flexible Schedule
Great Benefits options

Cons

Competition between regional advisors is high

Pros

Great deal of control over your own success or failure. You have the ability to run your office and visions how you see fit as long as you are legal, ethical and profitable. Huge focus on client satisfaction.

Cons

Feelings of being left alone on an island at times. Management doesn't focus on any type of team atmosphere and, with any sales position, the company only remembers what you have done for them lately. Their computer programs are getting better, but are currently outdated. Compensation is low compared to other firms.

Pros

Very strong culture and ethics. The firm protects its associates and I have never been worried about my position being eliminated even through the financial crisis. Being privately held allows the firm to have a clear long term vision.

Cons

Compensation is very low compared to similar positions in the industry. Moving up in the ranks within the firm further decreases your earning power especially if you move up quickly.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow more freedom for direct leadership to compensate individuals fairly who perform at a high level. Too many strong associates are leaving to go to other firms that are willing to pay.

Pros

Great potential if you can make it to the 7 year mark. It will be a huge amoung of work and struggle up to that point, unless you are lucky enough to get placed into an exsisting office.

Cons

It will take up all your time, and you will not make a very good living, with some limited exceptions.

Advice to Senior Management

Modernize the marketing and prospecting programs to help advisors be successful. The training program needs to be revamped as well.

Pros

I liked the rapport I was able to build among my clients, fellow BOAs and my FA. They were really on top of communication and maintained a decent company culture. People were really friendly and they provided a lot of perks, like BOA training retreats to nice locations where for one night you would get to stay in a nice hotel and attend seminars and do fun things.

Cons

Once you were a BOA the next step was Senior BOA and then that was it, unless you wanted to become an FA or move to St Louis, MO or Tempe, AZ. Your annual bonus was contingent on what your FA decided on, and if you have an FA like mine, the annual bonus was between .17 - .27 cents more an hour. I don't know if the FAs get a bonus for low-balling their BOAs, but mine did not want to give me a decent raise and I was scraping by at 13.79 an hour after three years. They froze bonuses and raises while I was there and quit giving awards for years of service. I was beloved by employees and co-workers alike, but I couldn't pretend to be happy when I wasn't being paid fairly for my services.

Advice to Senior Management

Have there be a secondary review system for BOAs when it comes time for the annual review, if a BOA has an FA who doesn't want to award higher raises, look into the issue instead of having the FA be the end-all word to receiving a raise. My pay was nowhere near covering the cost of living for myself and I found that most of the BOA's who were single and didn't have supplemental income from a spouse were ALL struggling to make ends meet.

Pros

The training is fantastic! Good model.

Cons

Only works if your are comfortable and good at door knocking.