I'm w/you nip...leaving the bank to go indy and have something besides the gold watch to show for my efforts when I am old and gray.  My experience is that the quality of referrals at most banks is not what it should be, because crappy referrals pay the same as good referrals.

Hawg, you've got to be kidding...or overdosed on the Kool-aid.  EdJones is no way to build your own business.  If you believe that, try selling your EdJones clients when you are ready to retire...

no, i’m not kidding. if i want to sell my business i’ll go indie and sell it. i’ve been with jones 10+ years. i love it. don’t get me wrong, i think about going indie sometimes. but that would take some work. i’ve built a great business with jones. i have the freedom to do what i want, but it’s nice to have some national recognition. i have 3 family members who work for jones, a couple of years ago i took a month off and went hunting in africa, they sent someone from the home office to cover for me, and i got to keep the commissions. try that in your indie office. i don’t plan on retiring. you can do this stuff when your 90! why retire, you retire you die! i whittle it down to 200 cherry picked clients and they can come do their portfolio reviews at my ranch in arizona. what i don’t understand is all the jones haters on this forum. i guess it’s kind of like all the american haters in the mid-east. hawg

Hawg, man,  do you not realize at least half of us worked at edj
before? are you a first year rookie pretending to be a vet? get a grip,
I work in a non-perfect bank and am better off and so far happy - been
doing it for 4 yrs now. By the way, since I left I have obtained a 24
and 65, cfp pending. No more of that freagin 700/mo memo coming out of
my check!

by the way, I do not hate edj, actually I look back fondly and recall
many memories and am grateful for learning the early years of the biz
thru them. things they made me do… I am glad I was too young and
ignorant to know batter (that’s why they like to hire people w/no prev
experience in brokerge - they’ll go thru that crap cause they know no
better) but now am kind of glad I did them. With all due respect, since
I left 4 yrs ago I cannot believe how much mnore I have learned…built
on the foundation I learned thru ol edj…kind of like looking back on
high school after graduating from college - so hats off to you jones,
thanks and good luck

no. i actually am a vet. although a young one. i started in my late twenties and am almost 40 now. I like it, I understand if you don’t people are different. but, what i don’t get is the sheer animosity i see on this site. jones has been very good to me. i’m starting on my cfp now, but not to get more business, because in my ten years i’ve had one person ask me about it, and they opend an account anyway when i told them i didn’t. i’m getting it just because i enjoy learning, and i like accomplishing goals. but i digress. i have transferred lots of accounts from bank broker and wirehouses, and most of the bad crap i see go on in clients portfolios has been mostly through bank brokers and wirehouses, not my fellow jones irs. jones gave me a shot when i got out of the military and i’ve been happy ever since. i love the taste of koolaid!!! boy i bet mike wishes he never said that phrase! hawg

hawg,

Why would you wait to go indy.  If you have the revenue, you should go sooner and start building a business that is really yours.  The bigger you grow it at Jones the harder and more work it will be to move it to and independant firm.

I’ve been reading a lot of positive remarks about jones. I sent them my resume and was invited  for an interview. After reading their website I didn’t think it was the best route for me considering I have no experince as a FA, and very little in sales. Did I make a mistake? Should I have pursued it with out any thought. I’m currently waiting for my back ground check with AGE to clear. AGE appeared to be a better home for a rookie than Jones. Could someone confirm this.

brainflux, you’ll get a biased response from me, because i love jones, my wife, my sister, and my sister-law all work at jones, in addition to alot of good friends. i also have a couple of great friends at AGE. either one would make a great choice. it’s not really about the firm. it’s about you. that’s who the client’s will open the account with. i prefer jones because i run my own office. it has the most freedom (except for the independents). it has a great culture, and perhaps the best training. it’s extremely conservative. if you want to be a “stockbroker” it is not a good choice. if you want to conservatively help people achieve their financial goals it’s perfect. it’s a great place to work, and they take good care of their employees. the only way i’ll leave god willing is in a bodybag! hawg

Yea you pay $1000/month for healthcare and get to sell “A” share mutual funds as your selection for products all day long. Great firm! They really take care of their employees.

if all you want to do is sell mf and med/lt bonds - then ej is the firm
for you, if you want to do anything else(stocks,options, managed
money,syndicate, fee based etc) AGE is the better choice. As far as I
know, any firm allows you the freedom to succeed or fail anyway you see
fit, so the “enjoy the most freedom at EJ” comment is incorrect. 

blah blah, yeah EJ roolz.  At my bank, first year retention is
75%, and first year income is $80K average, with 0 out of pocket and
benes worth another $20K.   Or you can go into management
like me and get paid a salary, still make commssions, and get four
weeks PAID vacation per year. 



If I were an EJ guy, I’d seriously consider coming to work for the
bank.  If you can do your 30 door knocks per day successfully,
you’ll make $100,000 THIS YEAR, and not at some mythical future time
after you’ve almost starved trying to “build your business.”  

Whats needed to get into management?

my bank segregates out clients with over $1MM in investible assets for
our Private Client Services department.  They have the same
capabilities as any wirehouse, only they can tie in a decent trust
dept. and commercial banking, too.  It’s different from the
regular reps like me who sit in the branches.

EZ$:



management?  you need to show that you can work and play well with
others.  Frankly, it’s a lay down gig.  Typical "bankers"
don’t know spit about marketing-- calling, F2F, seminars, etc. 
They can’t sell worth a damn either.  Show them some basics, and
their loan production goes through the roof, and you’re a hero to the
company.  After years of calling people to set investment
appointments, let me tell you, selling loans and lines of credit over
the phone to long term bank clients is cake.  Teach three others
how to do this, and the branch profitability takes off.  Better
still, teach the tellers to call and set appointments for the
bankers.  My deal is {salary} + commissions-- about .5% of dollars
invested into annuity or mutual funds, regardless of product or share
class, (also get paid on loans, credit cards, new checking accts,)
annual bonus of up to 125% my salary, and various quarterly bonuses
along the way.  I get a corporate credit card, travel and expense
reports, four weeks paid vacation, sick time and “float” days, whatever
the hell they are. 



Best of all, the way it’s set up, I can refer business to my full time
Financial Advisor, and still get paid full pop whether I write it or he
does.  I can refer mortgages to my mortgage rep and again, still
make full incentive whether I do the paperwork or hand it off.  I
can do a CD for a customer if it’s appropriate and not have to whine
that I didn’t get paid anything for the trouble.  I’ve had some
bumps in my career the last few years, but this deal is kickass. 
Most other licensed Managers don’t know how good it is-- they got their
licensing last and can’t sell worth sh*t, (“so, explain to me what’s
the difference between a Roth and a Traditional IRa again?”) while I
can push through $300K per month in sales and do fairly well.  My
bank has some structural problems like any behemoth company does, but
they’ve got the comp plan down pretty good for my position.  
 

Sounds like you're a client manager not management. A glorified personal banker. I know that gig and wouldn't have it for anything. I can knock down much more than a CM and not have to be bothered with the politics of being paid a salary. I'm glad you like it, not for me.

The CMs I know with my bank will never make much more than a 100k, that's a top performer also and the bank puts them through hell with reports and accountability. BTW if they miss their goals for more than a couple quarters their ass will be on the sidewalk faster than you know.

It seems to me that EJ is good. I mean some people like more freedom to say I am independent and all the pros that come with that. At the same time independets have the freedom they are bound by the business. Like any successful venture there is a period when the business owns you.

In about a year I will know more, but this web site really informs the "groupies" on what is up.. Thanks..

If one were to move from a fee based independent firm with 8 years of expirience / CFP - making salary and bonus, but was part of a team of advisors and is being held to a non-compete and wanted to move to one a large bank’s Private Client Services division without a book to bring along, what could the expected compensation package format be? 

I would like to amend my previous post - I am held to a non-solicit, not a non-compete.

If you dont have a book where you can promise that a certain percentage will go with you, then you really dont have much bargaining power when it comes to negotiating an upfront check to go over. You can use your experience and POTENTIAL to bring over some of the group’s assets as a tool to potentially get a higher salary, but chances are the new firm will not toss a lucrative check your way to switch… OPne strategy- tell new firm that small amount will come with you, then when you move some decent coin you will look like a superstar… Just a thought.

I am not sure that a bank is where I will be going, but there is a potential opportunity that I am mulling over.  Getting a check to switch is not a priority knowing that I don't have much to offer in the form of assets, at least not at this time, some clients may follow me and I will use that as some leverage.    I am a bit behind the 8 ball in that being part of a team has prohibited me from having my own clients to take.  The position I am in has given me great expirience from the ground up and there is a potential opportunity to buy-into the practice, but I am not sure that I want to actually "own" my own business and  be responsible for all of the overhead, payroll, personnel issues, etc.  I am definitely a self starter and have an entrepenueral streak, but I don't want to run the entire show, not anymore - at least not in this profession with all of the compliance regs and reporting one needs to deal with in today's environment to go along with everyting else.  I have seen what it is like for a small indendent firm over the last 8 years of market cycles, terrorism,  and local economic issues, and regulatory, and it makes the business I love lose it's luster to have to deal with all of the periferal stuff while serving clients.  The operations just sets you back too much.  Yeah, as an independent you get a 93% payout, but guess where a huge amount of that money goes.  Anyway --

Back to bank questions - does the Private Client Services area run strictly on commission or do they pay some sort of salary.  I have looked at job postings for some of the major banks just to get an idea before I go any further with my opportunity, and I could only find one bank that showed a description of "draw/commission plus performance and incentive bonus".  I am not looking for a hand out but at the same time I do have credentials and expirience and would need at the very least a decent base for the first year or two.  I have heard a lot about banks paying salaries, but this description didn't seem to say anything about that.  I did see that private bankers make a salary but that is not really where I want to go.  I really want to stay in investments, and from what I have been reading a lot of the Private Client Services are going towards financial planning - because that is what the high net worth are demanding (middle to high net worth are my niche.  This is where I have been for the past 8 years and it is where all of my contacts are.)

Thanks