Edward Jones, a good way of becoming an IFA?

The_kid.

What Scottie failed to mention is that he will be getting paid extra to introduce people to EJ. If EJ can't even be open about that side of the business, is it any wonder that it got fined $75 millions in the US for breaking SEC disclosure rules?

I'd agree with the attrition estimate of about 70%, but they don't want or need too high a success rate - it would cost them too much. They train you, monkey like, to pass exams and then they tell you to focus on old people and to start knocking on their doors before they all go out for the day. Ignore flats and small houses they say, they'll waste too much of your time. Ugh, grubby and tacky.

There's nothing wrong with having a sales force, but when its tarted up in a cheesy, pseudo respectable way like this, then it steps over the line. It also treats the employees like cattle with horrid American style conference sales calls and promises of holidays away that are nothing more than working weekends. And you can't even take your boy/girlfriend!

My advice would be to learn the ropes elsewhere, commission is crap too. Stay clear.

kgb26

Hi ex employee of aforementioned company here. Resigned.
you could join the army, I hear the food is better!
Forget the FSA, why don't the employment laws in this country act to protect people from this organisation? The Times top 100 list doesn't mention the casualties, who the hell do they interview for these things? In my opinion they skate just this side of what is acceptable in both the face of the FSA and reasonable employment practice. Glad to be free.

swiss69

You dont mention what your background is or what qualifications you have so its difficult to advise you.

For me there are two routes in

1. Join a bank as a junior advisor - They will train you and pay for your exams. You will normally have a sales coach/manager who works alongside you until your are signed off and whilst you will have targets whilst training they are normally phased in during training. Banks will recruit people into these roles if they feel you have experience of customer facing and have the neccesary qualifications (outside banking) - For me, whilst banks have their faults in the advice process and very often you can be pigeon holed into selling whatever the bank wants you to, they do train you fairly well, give you lots of leads to see people and regulate you fairly tightly so you definately get a good grounding. 2/3 years should be plenty but I would do as many exams as you possibly can. Diploma level certainly appeals to many IFA firms.

2. Join an IFA firm as sales support so that you can learn the ropes and then maybe take some funded exams. I would certainly stress that you want to be an advisor within 2/3 years and see what they say about that. Paraplanning also gives a grounding but you normally need exams to do this.

This business isnt all big money and big bonuses though. It can be a very high pressured and stressful job and not everyone is suited to it.

As someone else said, there are poor IFA's out there who take as much cash as they can initially and then forget about the client and good ones who take income in different ways, regularly review their clients and build long lasting relationships. There are also some good bank advisors too and some very very poor ones!

dunstonh

Diploma level certainly appeals to many IFA firms.

Further leaks in the RDR proposals due next week suggest that they have set the Diploma level as the required minimum for IFAs with either a 3-5 year time period to get it.

Batty_Bat

I have never seen so much garbage in all my life!

I am an Ed Jones adviser and: -

tied to the company for a period of time? Rubbish
paid for introducing new advisers? Rubbish
part of a salesforce? Rubbish
certain length of service? Rubbish
salary a financial debt? Rubbish
clawback? Rubbish
high attrition level? Probably, because they can't be bothered to get off their backsides and work. Either that, or they're too thick to pass the exams which is where most fail.

Barnyrubs, if you want to join Ed Jones and leave this bunch of losers behind then go for it. They're only jealous because they never had the chance and all they can think of doing is rubbishing that particular company.

Aegis

Batty_Bat wrote: »

part of a salesforce? Rubbish

Of course you're part of a salesforce. You are all employed by Edward Jones and essentially you sell the products that are recommended from the head office. There simply isn't time in the learning and development side of the career path of an Edward Jones salesman to learn enough about the industry to be a full-on adviser, if the timescales on the recruitment website were anything to go by.

salary a financial debt? Rubbish
clawback? Rubbish

These have been shown a number of times by ex-employees, and was certainly a very real possibility when I was going through the recruitment process.

high attrition level? Probably, because they can't be bothered to get off their backsides and work. Either that, or they're too thick to pass the exams which is where most fail.

Any organisation with a 35% attrition rate is going much further than simply getting rid of the lazy or those who can't pass the exams in the timeframe offered. Not to mention the fact that this attrition rate ignores the non-salesforce in the more stable jobs. With only the salesforce, I'd be surprised if this rate was below 40%, which is astonishingly high.

Barnyrubs, if you want to join Ed Jones and leave this bunch of losers behind then go for it. They're only jealous because they never had the chance and all they can think of doing is rubbishing that particular company.

I'd prefer to become a fully quallified adviser my own way than to convince myself I was actually advising with the minimal training Edward Jones actually offers its workforce. 20 weeks from nothing to selling is simply not enough time by any stretch of the imagination to become competant enough to actually advise in a whole-of-market franchise.

For the record, I got most of the way through the initial application process before I decided to withdraw from consideration because I got very worried by the practices mentioned above. I'm now progressing my way towards the adviser level from a different angle where I progress at a pace that allows me to learn the required material and techniques a hell of a lot more thoroughly.

kgb26

Batty_Bat wrote: »

I have never seen so much garbage in all my life!

I am an Ed Jones adviser and: -

tied to the company for a period of time? Rubbish
paid for introducing new advisers? Rubbish
part of a salesforce? Rubbish
certain length of service? Rubbish
salary a financial debt? Rubbish
clawback? Rubbish
high attrition level? Probably, because they can't be bothered to get off their backsides and work. Either that, or they're too thick to pass the exams which is where most fail.

Barnyrubs, if you want to join Ed Jones and leave this bunch of losers behind then go for it. They're only jealous because they never had the chance and all they can think of doing is rubbishing that particular company.

How insulting. Passed all my exams first time, worked 13/14 hr days. resigned because I was uncomfortable with the sales techniques I was asked to employ. Lazy, thick, looser or just capable of independant thought and dedicated to good customer service? You decide.

The_kid.

Batty_Bat wrote: »

.. lots of brainwashed stuff.

Hi Batty,

If you introduced someone you got points for free holidays.

A newly qualified EJ adviser isn't allowed to advise on pensions, so what is she/he supposed to do when the need is obvious? A) pass on the lead to someone else or flog them a bond in order to keep the numbers up and avoid the sack? Rrrright. :undecided

Don't get me wrong. I am grateful to EJ for giving me qualifications. But now, I am learning the ropes properly. I feel under no pressure to get results in order simply to keep my job, I am earning proper commission and not the pittance that Jones gives you, I am building my own book and I am spending time with people who have time for me to learn properly. And not half an hour on some crass speakerphone conferance call or those bolloeaux area manager visits where we both trot around houses looking like a couple of Mormons and where learning played second fiddle to being indoctrinated or brainwashed.

I speak still with a few EJ advisors who detest the set up but who feel tied in (attrition nearer to 65-70% I'd say). The overly dogmatic obsession with whip cracking prescriptive 1980s pressure sales techniques, the almost creepy and intrusive Thank You cards, the cold calling, the withdrawl of salary just when trail commision is about to kick in and those faux US mantras. Nope, walking away had nothing to do with laziness. More - personal pride and integrity.

I notice EJ keeps those big fat US fines quiet too..

http://www1.cchwallstreet.com/ws-portal/content/news/container.jsp?fn=09-30-05

http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-177.htm

http://airwolf.lmtonline.com/lmtbusiness/archive/010305/jrnl6.pdf

http://registeredrep.com/news/finance_edward_jones_hit/

dunstonh

Its just been announced on the next RDR report that IFAs will be required to have the Diploma level exam as a minimum from 2012. New IFAs will be required to have it from 2010 before they can become IFAs.

So, if you plans are to go IFA, then you need to be aware of these new requirements.

Edit: Indeed, an update to that is that the level 4 will be the minimum requirement for sales reps as well as IFAs. Thats going to see the tied sales forces shrink in size. plus the removal of indemnity commission is going to hit a lot of their business models.