$18.33 per account EDJ settlement
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Actually Gone, I have never had someone from Jones (okay other than this knucklehead 23 year-old recruiter that did a presentation for us) mention anything about the technology and how difficult it would be anywhere else.
For me, I personally would have concerns about technology, among other things, going independant. And I am not saying this to prop up Jones. I am saying at ANY non-indy firm, you don't have to deal with those things (tech, payroll, taxes, etc.). I honestly would prefer to be independant, but (beyond the obvious starting-out issues) I am not sure if I want to deal with setting up an LLC, dealing with payroll, dealing with tech, dealing with compliance issues, worrying about how to hold all the clients assets in one account (versus having to be in fund name), benefits, etc. At some point, I am going to start asking some real pointed questions about all this (not for at least a few years). But if at that point my net plus bonus plus profit sharing plus benefits/reimbursements, etc. are within striking distance of being independant, I have to seriously consider what I would do, and whether it is worth the switch. Five percent difference might not do it (and trust me, I don't want to be a solo do-it-yourself office). I know most on this board have additional reasons beyond the net that prompt them to move, but at this point, I am still getting far more out of Jones than they get out of me (I am not making much profit for them, they pay for a lot of seminar expenses I do, my medical is REAL low, since I am still subsidized within 46 months I think, I get good profit sharing, etc.). Also, I don't really yet see much of the political oddities that many speak of at Jones. So I guess for now I am content. BUT, the allure of owning my own firm, marketing the way I want, etc. is pretty strong. Time will tell...but not before 5 years.Broker24,
How long have you been an FA and what is your gross...(PM if you wish) and I can tell you what you would expect as a net net payout vs. EJ. I've got a spiffy spreadsheet just for that.Speaking from experience uwec1986’s Spreadsheet is pretty accurate.
Also FWIW a 24/7 service similar to what Jones provides (a phone call away) can be purchased on the private market for $1900/mo to monitor about 10 computers. It would be less than that for fewer stations, and with more than one producer it is split between advisors (I pay about 1/3 of that). It is probably a luxury item in our office, but eliminates those "what if" scenarios I worried about while at EJ. B24 you are concerned about the right things, but you need to consider the tax implications of being an owner v. an employee as well. You'd be amazed. I would suggest you consider going Indy on the early side of what is feasible to make yourself more portable. Otherwise you'll get too big and use that as your excuse in the future. I moved at about 20k/mo gross and 30 million, and I feel it was a very nice balance between big and small for moving. CIBIn 14 months I’ve been in my office with two desktop computers networked together and networked with a printer…I’ve NEVER been down one day…even one minute DUE to MY equipment. Now, we all know the problems LPL had last fall, but nothing on my end has failed, broke.etc…so I assume I’m 16800 ahead on my P/L…and counting. Oh…wait…my phone went dead because it was unplugged from the power strip and the batteries ran out…okay so what are a pack of AA batteries…8bucks…I’m ahead 16792…and counting.
I believe that if we can get a breakthrough on this one issue (tech/telecom) we can overcome all the other issues.
Brkr24-Take CIB's advice. I wholeheartedly agree with his post. If you were in my area you could join us. Many don't want to be completely alone, but realize the price at jones is too high. P/M with CIB and uwec and me if you want to. The net difference in your pocket is shocking. you can gross 300k and triple net live on 60k at jones, or gross 300k and triple net live on 150k to 180k elsewhere. that's a nice raise. look at uwec's spreadsheet for clarity on this. Spiff-My ATL went to the Carolinas when he moved from St Louis..is it you??Spiff… Yup you should be broken up about your clients still holding those… except for USB they are all down 35-60%. The will recover sometime in the next decade I suppose. Your clients might break even before they retire. Oh wait a second, Jones sold those to people that were already retired didn’t they? If I remember the pitch some of you guys were using correctly it went something like “why buy the CD when they are paying their shareholders more in dividends?”
As for those hold until the your kids inherit them bonds, they are probably OK until the Fed decides inflation is a problem and they start raising rates again. Then what? Are you going to justify holding them when the values begin to drop? Are you still out there pumping 30 year bonds that don't have a chance of keeping up with inflation with these pathetically low rates? You don't have to be a market timer to realize that sometimes just getting out of the way of the bus is the right thing to do.OK, it's Friday afternoon, and I'm tired of cold calling old prospects. I should be out talking with people in person, but I don't feel like it right now. So, I'm going to push this a little farther.
Spears - So, no toner for that printer? No virus/spyware protection? You're internet access is free? You got your two desktops plus nice printer plus phones for $700? Who DO you call when your computer eventually stops working? Who do you call when that printer gets so jammed up that it can't be used anymore and you can't fix it? I'm guessing that LPL will supply you with all of the contact management software, data base info, RT quotes, financial planning software, etc for free? So, I'm sure there's no cost to you there. Who pays for Microsoft office if you use that? I wouldn't expect a 14 month old computer to have any issues. My desktop hasn't ever had a glitch either and it's well over 14 months old. And I paid ZERO out of pocket for it. Now, I'm NOT saying that there isn't a way to get access to all of the technology I use right now at Jones at a lower cost if I DIY. But, you guys went indy because, among other things, you felt that was something you could do better than Jones and felt like doing it. I'm not going to stay at Jones because of the technology. I'm not going to leave because I can get a Dell computer for $300.[quote=GoneIndy02]I believe that if we can get a breakthrough on this one issue (tech/telecom) we can overcome all the other issues.
Brkr24-Take CIB's advice. I wholeheartedly agree with his post. If you were in my area you could join us. Many don't want to be completely alone, but realize the price at jones is too high. P/M with CIB and uwec and me if you want to. The net difference in your pocket is shocking. you can gross 300k and triple net live on 60k at jones, or gross 300k and triple net live on 150k to 180k elsewhere. that's a nice raise. look at uwec's spreadsheet for clarity on this. Spiff-My ATL went to the Carolinas when he moved from St Louis..is it you?? [/quote] Nope not me. I'm not even sure I know who that is. You may have come through training before my time.It was all covered in my startup costs...10k at the MOST...so ok, I'll play with you spiff. I saved 4400 my first year...and I'm ahead 3600 in 08. If you want me to add in the two laptops, the new LG Voyager phone I just purchased through my corp...maybe I'm at even this year. You're right...its worth the 1200 or 1300 or whatever..you're right. My bad...so you know that is a freakin awesome Idea...I will start another corp and call it BSPEARS COMPUTER REPAIR...I will sign a contract for...what do you think..1200, maybe 1400 per month with BSPEARS FINANCIAL SERVICES to cover their maintenance and supplies. FREAKIN AWESOME...thanks Spiff...another great way to reduce my taxable income.....YOU ARE BRILLIANT...
I really can’t believe you guys are spending all this time arguing about the tech charge at EJ, because it really doesn’t matter what its called or what its supposed to pay for. All that matters is how much you have to earn to get a bonus. Since I’m an employee ( Yea, I knew I was an employee right from the very beginning, the w-2 was a big sign) my employer can decide to pay me a bonus based on their criteria if they so choose. So lets say they pay me a profit bonus if my office exceeds their number by $4,000, they set the number however they want because they are the employer. So I raise my hand and say I don’t think the tech cost are accurate and they shouldn’t be included, so my employer says ok thats fine with us we wont include $1300/month for tech cost, but you now need to exceed your number by $5300 to get a bonus.
They set the number, you have to beat it to get the bonus. Doesn't really matter how they decide to allocate the number, its their number and you have to beat to get a bonus.Computer maintenance is overrated. I still have the original dual-screen notebook system I bought almost 3 years ago when I went indy and it's still a very powerful and functioning beautifully. The few issues I've had have been mostly resolved by Googling a question and following the fix instructions. When I have a thornier issue, I have a couple of computer guys I can call, with typical service calls running $100 or less. Maybe I've been lucky, but I haven't spent much money after the initial purchase. Just in case something fatal happens, I keep data backed up on an external hard drive and have a spare Lenovo tower sitting in the conference room just waiting to be fired up. If you plan reasonably for contingencies, computer maintenance doesn't need to be a burden.
The reason that this is a great topic for discussion is that it’s a constant, monthly, nonvariable issue that jones folks think is a great deal. A piece of the big picture we want you to understand.
Great post Indyone.I don’t really want them to understand anything. I want them to stay with Jones so I don’t have to compete with another 10,000 FA’s with decent products to offer.
Follow up to me starting a new Shell corp to charge my main Corp 1200-1400 per month to cover Technology, as a way to lower my taxable income. “I can’t justify this expense if we were to get audited by the IRS”. quote by BSPEARS accountant. I asked if I could rent all the equipment back to the corporation and charge them rent of 1200-1400 per month. He hung up…Thanks Spiffy for that crappy ass Idea!!
Bspears: check and see if you can pay your kids (if you have any), for the maintenance and quit giving them an allowance. If they are like my kids, you’ll make it back up in shoes and clothes in no time at all! (I would check with my own accountant, but I don’t deal with ridicule very well).
[quote=bspears]
It was all covered in my startup costs...10k at the MOST...so ok, I'll play with you spiff. I saved 4400 my first year...and I'm ahead 3600 in 08.
[/quote] And you haven't even mentioned the tax benefits...you get to write off 100% of the above startup in year-one saving another 20-30% in taxes reducing your cost from 10k to 8k or 7k. When I was at EJ, I had my own computer, scanner and fax because the cheap ba$stards wouldn't pay for it (1998 - 2003). As I'm sure you know Spiff, as a W2 employee, you can't write off the first 2% of your expenses....to include adversing, office supplies and of course....TP! Since I'm so full of $hit, I used a lot of TP...all a write-off now. The whole point about the technology cost is that you seem to think it's a good value and it just isn't. Nor is it a good value to give EJ 61% of your gross. PM me your email address and I'll send you the spreadsheet...it's very fair to EJ but after you get to about $150k in production...it does not pay to stay. I pay a flat fee of about $1400/mon to the BD and ticket charges but get a 100% payout, very few product restrictions and great research. My spreadsheet focus' in on the expenses so you can back into your profitability. All you need to know is: Rent expense, BOA hourly rate and the rest should be fairly standard for your area. Just do the math and let us all know if you're getting a good value for your 61%...I don't think so.[quote=GoneIndy02]The reason that this is a great topic for discussion is that it’s a constant, monthly, nonvariable issue that jones folks think is a great deal. A piece of the big picture we want you to understand.
Great post Indyone.[/quote] For the record, none of us have said it's a great deal. Every time I look at it I wonder what exactly it's really covering. Then I pick up the phone and go back to work, knowing it's one of the many things I can't control. But you guys make it sound like the technology you have at whatever indy firm you're at doesn't cost you anything. It may not be $1350 per month, but it's not free.