Technology at EJ
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Congratulations…now get off this board and transfer, transfer, transfer those clients like your career depends on it (it does). If you’ve done a good job for them, they’ll probably refer more new business to you as an independent…I’ve often wondered if that was because they were concerned for me, but I decided that the results were more important than the cause…
[quote=Indyone]No sense in starting a new thread for more or less the same re-hash, but I was curious how many of you on the inside knew about this one…
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/REG/241311594/1009/TOC This John Lindsey character sounds like a real prick.[/quote] Actually....he is a good guy and a million dollar producer. I don't know the complaintant...but my guess is that he was right on...obviously, the powers that be disagreed.I know the story. I have met her and know others close to her. SHe is a very nice lady and treated like *@#% by the GPs at Jones. If they did what they did to your wife or daughter you be very angry. If what they did to her in the meeting with the GPs were on tape and it were leaked many of Jone’s clients would transfer their accounts because they would see an ugly, big corporate and unethical side they are very unaware of.
I left 2 years ago and it has been the best thing I have done for my clients, my family and myself. I was a transfer to EJ from another firm and never really fit because I did not drink the KoolAid. It was a scary move but very glad I did it. I feel much better about the level of investment management and service I am able to provide. Its not all just about AMerican funds and long term bonds. NO revenue sharing issues. No conflicts of interest. THe furhter rmoved I am the more I realize how much I was kept in the dark........AND I WAS THE REBEL LOOKING FOR BETTER WAYS. Well thats enough. Indy is much better and in my opinion the lady in the article was very poorly treated, especially by a company who brags about how friendly they are. By the way, she is not the only person I saw treated in an abusive manner. I truly makes my stomach turn when I think of the things that i saw.Spoken like a true…former transfer broker…if you come to a firm and you can’t embrace the culture…you are not being fair to your firm…or yourself…It’s funny to hear someone criticize the use of American Funds…It happens to be a fine Fund family and the least advantageous of the preferred families at EDJ yet still the most used…That being said…my book consists of other investments other than AFS and LT Bonds…
I chose to drink the Kool-Aid because I see how well my clients do and how we are trained from the onset to treat them. It is truly a unique firm, not perfect , of course, and i'm sure being independant is right for lots of folks and I wish you all well. However, for me, Jones is the perfect place...I realize I give up certain things, but after weighing all of the pros and cons...it is the right spot for me...who knows...maybe in 10 years my mind will change but I doubt it....Maybe I have a unique situation where my region is unbelievably helpful from the RL down...The FA's that I know who have left to go indy (and there have been a few) have been treated well by others and to my knowledge, still keep in touch with lots of former co-workers. Just my $0.02EMBRACE THE CULTURE.
I was never accused of notembracing the culture. I was actually quite emraced in the culture of the firm (served as mentor, hosted a Goodknight, faithfully attended regional meetings and served my region). Quite contrary to your statement, it was I ho was not fully embraced by the firm, or at least some in my region......especially my regional leader. I admit I was in an region with especially poor leadership..................not the same region as the lady in the article, but a very tyrannical region that was cold and abusive to many IRs. Important to note is that I personally was not the direct victim the unjust treatment of the regional leader so my move was not runnig away because I couldn't handle the heat. Additionally, I did not move becasue I wasn't making the grade at Jones..... I was seg 4 and would be seg 5 by now. When you say, " Spoken like a true...former transfer broker...if you come to a firm and you can't embrace the culture....you are not being fair to your firm...or yourself" you are sadly only regurgitating the company rhetoric they use to deflect legitmate opposition to their policy or philoshophy. EJ, in my opnion, does some things very well and some things not so well. However, many andivsors at other firms do exceptional and ETHICAL work for their clients and as suprising as it may sound, many of these advisors actually meet face to face with thier clients. I got so sick and tired of the firm trying to impress IR's with the notion that EJ is the only firm that does this. Hey Kool Aid, I am glad that you are happy at Jones. It is a great place for many to run thier practices. For many the Indy world is not the proper place to be. Please understand that I am not laying a whoesale assault on Jones as many do in this fourm, but was adding my 2 cents becasue I feel that the RL and the firm were wayy off the mark on her treatment. Sadly I have seen others treated similarly and can tell you that I would never allow such treatment in my own organization. If you were to perform you own un-biased investigation I think you ay find that she was not treated in a professional manner. I would certainly hope that you would be apped if your spouse or child were treated as she was. PS I did not criticize the use of American funds. I still hold some American Funds positons in my clients portfolios today. What i was commenting on, and must not have done a good job of, was the rhetoric that many at Jones espouse of Americn funds being the best funds and nobody really needs antything else. American funds are fine but I beleive that better portfolios can be built and manged by adding in ETFs and other active mangers in a fee based platform.My posts, too, are both negative and pos on jones-I went indy 2 months ago. Very happy cuz it fits me much better. Also, ETFs mentioned that are not used at Jones: had a friend call to ask why her fairly new account (held with my former RL) had huge cap gain distrib in 07 as the account value went down. Of course, the RL sold what made her the most–and it wasn’t something tax efficient like ETFs! Countrywide, the amount of MFs in taxable accounts at Jones is HUGE-- almost all due to commmisions. CONFLICT>>>>CONFLICT>>>CONFLICT>>>
If any of the preferred mutual funds also did ETF's, you would see a lot of ETF's in portfolios at Jones. The reason you don't is that word called access. No ETF companies have wholesalers that call on Jones to my knowledge. No visibility , no business.I have to think that’s more stupidity and poor planning on the part of the FA, not necessarily Jones. You can be quite tax efficient in mutual funds if you want to be.
No, no, no. Jones even has an ETF Focus list of “preferred” ETFs with automatic dividend reinvestment, but it DOES NOT MATTER for one simple reason: 2% commision versus 5.75/4.50/3.5 % . Very very simple. Clients pay taxes because the broker needs it this month.
I’m curious, if you submitted an investment proposal consisting of ETF’s not on the approved list, but still fairly conservative, would EDJ shoot it down? An example of an ETF issuer I like and recommend is WisdomTree, but according to your post, it’s not on the EDJ preferred list.
Of course, I can understand why EDJ would be hesitant to allow the "short"-type ETF's, but the conservative ones? Thanks!That’s a good question. I think as long as it follows our guidelines for purchasing stock, we could buy it (pretty much no penny stocks).
Jones doesn’t actually have ANY input into the portfolios we construct. If we wanted to create portfolios of all John Hancock funds, we could. ETFs are no different. If I decide I want to switch my business completely to EFTs, which BTW I think would be retarded, I could do it. Just because there is a list of preferred funds or ETFs doesn’t mean we are forced to use them.
Oh yeah, Jones just took Putnam off of the preferred list. Thought you ex Jones guys would like to hear that.Did they take Putnum off the recommended list or focus list or whatever they call it? Don’t they have 2 levels of fund families the preferred list and 1 tier lower (I don’t remember the name). I seem to remember that when they took Federated off they just moved it down to a different list.
Yes, they moved it from the preferred list to the focus list. Too many lists around here. Currently on the focus list is AllianceBernstein, DWS Scudder, Federated, Pioneer, MFS, and soon to be Putnam. It’ll be interesting to see if one of those families gets bumped up to the preferred list.