Ok Newbie,

You have no clue.  I had 6 clients ask me point blank why I left.  I told them and then they said, "That's not what she told me."  Then I said what did she tell you.  To a person they said, "He had some problems with the IRS."

I then arranged a conference call with one of my friends from college  I told him to ask her, "Why did SpikedKoolAid Leave?"  She then opened her big mouth and said, "He did something unethical and Edward Jones is an ethical firm and that's why we had to let him go."  How can I make this S^#$ up?!

From the attorneys I've spoke with they all told me that you have to prove that there has been monetary damage and then you can receive a monetary settlement. 

As for reputation,  I built the Edward Jones brand and reputation in my town.  My reputation has never been better because my clients and colleagues (CPA's, Attorneys) in my town respect me for the change I've made even in the face of Jones trying to do everything to keep the clients. 

I forgot that Jones flew Egghead(Skranka) out to my town.  They spent $10,000 to have him run a seminar.  17 people showed up for a free dinner.  There were more IR's there than prospective clients/former clients in the audience.  In 8 years of building a $500,000 branch I never even got a phone call from Egghead and then when I leave they try and fly him out to put out the fire. 

It has been almost a contest to see how quickly they can help me systematically close the office that I built for Edward Jones.  They keep telling the clients that they referred to me to run over to SpikedKoolAid and transfer their account. 

$10,000 for a seminar?  Sorry this whole story of yours doesn't meet the smell-o-meter test.

You know as well as I do that what happened was your clients got a phone call from a Jones broker--that that broker urged them to stay, but did not slur your reputation.  Other brokers would not engage in stuff like that because they often expect to leave themselves and would not want it done to them.

There seems to be enough things about Jones to whine about without having to make up things.

If you did not get your clients to move with you they felt more comfortable with Jones than they do with you.  You should go look in the mirror and do some self examination rather than wasting time on an internet forum trying to pretend your departure actually registered in St. Louis.

[quote=NASD Newbie]

$10,000 for a seminar?  Sorry this whole story of yours doesn't meet the smell-o-meter test.

You know as well as I do that what happened was your clients got a phone call from a Jones broker--that that broker urged them to stay, but did not slur your reputation.  Other brokers would not engage in stuff like that because they often expect to leave themselves and would not want it done to them.

There seems to be enough things about Jones to whine about without having to make up things.

If you did not get your clients to move with you they felt more comfortable with Jones than they do with you.  You should go look in the mirror and do some self examination rather than wasting time on an internet forum trying to pretend your departure actually registered in St. Louis.

[/quote]

putsy,

on the subject of ej you are absolutely clueless as to how low stl will go.  If the "branch" was large enough, 10K for a seminar with o.h. and dinner is not unconceivable.  but then you know everything

Let the wrath of the "dark siders" commence.

[quote=xej1984]

on the subject of ej you are absolutely clueless as to how low stl will go.

[/quote]

Are you not the nimrod who believes that I am an EJ executive, here to spout the company line?

Now you're saying that I am absolutely clueless?

$10,000 for dinner for 17 would be close to $600 per head.  Does that make sense to you--that a firm would spend $600 per head to pitch their products to people looking for sound financial planning advice?

I know, I know--there are other expenses.  A plane ticket and a hotel room for a couple of people.

OK, let's make it $450 per person--does that make sense?  That's the kind of money that is spent on entertaining CEOs, not buying dinner for Gomer and Gomerette to come hear about the financial pyramid and how EIAs fit into it.

[quote=NASD Newbie]

[quote=xej1984]

on the subject of ej you are absolutely clueless as to how low stl will go.

[/quote]

Are you not the nimrod who believes that I am an EJ executive, here to spout the company line?

Now you're saying that I am absolutely clueless?

$10,000 for dinner for 17 would be close to $600 per head.  Does that make sense to you--that a firm would spend $600 per head to pitch their products to people looking for sound financial planning advice?

I know, I know--there are other expenses.  A plane ticket and a hotel room for a couple of people.

OK, let's make it $450 per person--does that make sense?  That's the kind of money that is spent on entertaining CEOs, not buying dinner for Gomer and Gomerette to come hear about the financial pyramid and how EIAs fit into it.

[/quote]

I be he!

Clueless and an ej executive go hand in hand.....you're also the correct vintage and arrogance (you know everythin about the biz and are will tell everybody so) .... so you fit the bill as a an ej gp perfectly

You know as well as I do that what happened was your clients got a phone call from a Jones broker–that that broker urged them to stay, but did not slur your reputation.  Other brokers would not engage in stuff like that because they often expect to leave themselves and would not want it done to them.

That might be true if the person calling the clients when you leave is actually the broker who will be taking over the vacant office.  It is not.

The people calling are from a boiler room atmosphere in St Louis who are never planning to meet with clients face to face.  They get on the phone the instant your butt leaves the chair and begin the process of "conserving" the office by telling lies and spreading innuendos about your character and business ethics.  They then process to churn the accounts.  Those guys get the commissions for any trades that are done before a new broker is assigned to the office so they just don't give a sh*t about either the client or the new broker and they certainly don't care how they smear the outgoing broker. 

Spiked is absolutely correct.  If it weren't for the fact that a.) I had already informed my best clients...meaning those I wanted to retain.... about my upcoming move and b.) most of those clients were my clients before I came to Jones and had known me for years as the wonderful, ethical and cute person that I am , the nasty tactics would have worked.  Sure I did lose a few clients that I wanted, but such is life.

As to the cost of the dinner..... I imagine that they expected a tad more that 17 people to show up.  Gee how disappointing.

[quote=NASD Newbie]

[quote=xej1984]

on the subject of ej you are absolutely clueless as to how low stl will go.

[/quote]

Are you not the nimrod who believes that I am an EJ executive, here to spout the company line?

Now you're saying that I am absolutely clueless?

$10,000 for dinner for 17 would be close to $600 per head.  Does that make sense to you--that a firm would spend $600 per head to pitch their products to people looking for sound financial planning advice?

I know, I know--there are other expenses.  A plane ticket and a hotel room for a couple of people.

OK, let's make it $450 per person--does that make sense?  That's the kind of money that is spent on entertaining CEOs, not buying dinner for Gomer and Gomerette to come hear about the financial pyramid and how EIAs fit into it.

[/quote]

I'm with NASDY on this one. The numbers don't make sense.

Ten thousand dollars is what it would cost to throw one of those investment seminar dinners for about 150 to 200 people.

Nobody, but nobody, expects to turn out more than a couple of dozen people for a dinner--regardless of how nice the place may be.  The rooms that are provided for such gatherings will only hold a relative few people, thus the potential costs are held down.

+++++

Do you, Babbling Looney, think that calls were being made suggesting that the departing broker had IRS problems--or do you think they were far more subtle than that?

It's my conclusion that Jones is not going to put themselves in legal jeopardy for a few accounts from a broker who was washing out of the business.

When I left the calls were something to the tune of

"We are an ethical firm and she just didn't fit into our business model."  Gee, what do you think they were getting at here?

"There were some problems....(pregnant pause).... and we don't where she went. So.... where are all your CDs, when do they come due and how much interest are you getting. We have a really great 30 year bond paying 5% interest. If you have the money available you should buy some TODAY."    Hmmm....now the client is supposed to think....What kind of problems.

"We understand that she was having financial troubles.......  Your mutual funds are really not performing as they should and we think your account has not been monitors as it should be.  Let's move all those Franklin Fund that you have into American Funds.  Yada Yada ."  They may not have mentioned the IRS directly, but the implication is there that I am having money problems and it is meant to scare the clients about what I might have been doing to their accounts to create commissions.

You can believe what you want. I KNOW what they were telling my clients because they called me at home and told me so within HOURS of my leaving the office.  The calls were made with the express purpose of discrediting and slandering me and to churn the client's accounts.

Your persistent delusion that because someone has decided to leave the serfdom of EDJ to open an independent practice equates to washing out of the business....is just that a delusion.

Get over yourself.

looney, did you also send the “cease and desist” letter asap?

[quote=babbling looney]

[/quote]

Why did you not sue them for slander?  You do not have to prove monetary damages--just damage to reputation would be enough.

If they were churning your clients why did you not urge those clients to bring churning allegations against them?

Everybody is whining about how terrible they were treated, how terrible the clients were treated--but nobody ever does anything to rectify it.

I would think that an honorable thing to do would be to contact the NASD--perhaps even the SEC--and bring the entire firm to its knees.  By doing nothing you are simply aiding and abetting the continuation of what amounts to a systematic destruction of the industry.

Why did you not pick up the phone and call the NASD?  You're a big girl, former banker--you know what's right and what's wrong.  Why didn't you do something about it?

[quote=NASD Newbie][quote=babbling looney]

[/quote]

Why did you not sue them for slander?  You do not have to prove monetary damages--just damage to reputation would be enough.

Right just little ole loser me against a big organization.  Ha. I know better than to beat my head against the wall.  It wasn't worth the effort since hardly anyone believed them anyway.  Besides, I was too busy ACATing my clients.  

If they were churning your clients why did you not urge those clients to bring churning allegations against them?

They didn't get to churn my clients since I moved most of them out.  If they didn't want to change and come with me then they weren't my clients anymore and not my responsibility. 

Everybody is whining about how terrible they were treated, how terrible the clients were treated--but nobody ever does anything to rectify it.

Yes, I suppose I could have put on my Don Quixote outfit and spent way too much time trying to tilt at that windmill.  Frankly I have better things to do.

I would think that an honorable thing to do would be to contact the NASD--perhaps even the SEC--and bring the entire firm to its knees.  By doing nothing you are simply aiding and abetting the continuation of what amounts to a systematic destruction of the industry.

Why did you not pick up the phone and call the NASD?  You're a big girl, former banker--you know what's right and what's wrong.  Why didn't you do something about it?

Actually I did speak to my attorney about the whole situation and he said unless the clients themselves bring suit and can prove damages there wasn't much I could do especially since financial damages of moving from one investment to another are not immediately apparant in most cases.   He also felt that it would be hard to prove my own financial damages as I was now doing better than ever since leaving the company and that a reputation damage suit is a very difficult suit to prove or quantify.  In a court I might spend years of my time and win, if at all, a paltry sum in actual damages and who knows what a jury would award in punitive damages since they would probably not be sympathetic to either the plaintiff or the defendant.  A waste of time.

The only reason I am wasting this time is because you refuse to accept that the S.O.P. at Jones is what we have said it to be.

[quote=babbling looney]

The only reason I am wasting this time is because you refuse to accept that the S.O.P. at Jones is what we have said it to be.[/quote]

You're right I don't accept it.  What I accept is that they made phone calls to your clients in an attempt to save them--all firms do that.

What I accept is that veiled references to capability--even honesty--may have been made because I too have done that and have taught others how to do it in such a way as to avoid legal issues.

What I do not accept is that Jones is so naive that they would allow people--who by your own story were some sort of home office task force that was in action to save accounts--to slander their departing reps.

Hell, it portrays them in a negative light to do that and they don't know who they are talking to on the other end.

I'm disappointed to come to the realization that you're just another Jones hater.

We are disappointed that you continue to be naive despite your centuries of wisdom.  <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Your belief that brokers from Jones (or many other firms) do not call and say things that would disparage an exiting broker is so stupid I do not know where to even start. 

Your perspective is very confusing at times.  You seem to look at some situations like this one through rose colored glasses, yet you are the biggest cynic on this board. 

You have made 2 examples recently that are completely asinine and you should be embarrassed at believing. 

1.  Brokers call and say things in a compliant manner on the phone.  They would never say something slanderous, as that would be illegal.  XYZ firm would never endorse doing anything illegal, so that means that the brokers would never dream of doing so either.  All brokers follow procedures in contacting clients, and never use scare tactics or tell lies.  Doing so would be unethical and a broker’s conscience would always keep him from doing so.  A broker would never act in a fashion not acceptable to the firm’s code of ethics, especially when there are commissions to be made!!! 

So, you don’t think these annuity salesman ever call and guarantee their client 5% without explaining all the catches?  Or even worse, sell them a product with these features without ever explaining them.  Guess what, I bet the firm’s code of ethics strongly prohibits ever selling anything without full disclosure, so I guess no broker would ever consider doing something that their b/d deems as dishonest.  Give me a break. 

2.  A broker’s client will admit that you told him about your exit planning strategies when put into arbitration.  So, a client would have hired an attorney due to being upset and filing a complaint, but then his conscience gets hold of him too (just like the broker from the previous example) and he decides to admit that he knew what was going on all along and he OK'd it in the beginning. (this is from a past post, but again displays a miscalculated confidence in people)

These are serious flaws in your thinking.  Both of these views are 100% insane and I wish your dog could slap you for being so stupid.  Maybe I need to move from <?:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Texas to NY so I can meet all of these ethical, honest and perfectly straight people that seem to be saturating this industry. 

Just because someone does not go through the lengthy process of litigation does not mean that an offense never occurred.  Maybe at some point they should put it behind them since they did nothing to rectify the situation, but to think that people are acting in accordance with their firms policies when there are commissions waiting to be made to meet their production requirements, keep a job, keep the house, keep your wife (before she starts banging the neighbor who isn’t a loser like you the failed broker) is an opinion of the uniformed. 

I am sorry that you are not bright enough to understand why you are wrong--but you are.

I have never said that brokers don't make rescue phone calls--I even acknowledge that sometimes those phone calls may suggest that the departing broker had traits that caused the firm to be glad he's gone.

What I do not accept is specific statements such as "He had problems with the IRS."  The reason is there is no way to know for sure how close the person being called is to the departed broker, whether the call may be being taped and so forth.  Just too much risk to intentionally libel the departing broker.

Add the layer that Loony introduced--that the calls are being initiated from a boiler room type of environment in St. Louis and it becomes even less likely because that boiler room would be too close to the executives who would hang if what was being alleged was actually true.

The manager of the office the departing Jones broker is reporting to would be more than happy to go to war with Jones if there was even a scent of this happening.

Again, I am not saying that phone calls are not made--what I'm saying is that those who say that their clients were told that they had IRS problems are lying.

As for the drivel about clients and the discussing of exit strategies.  I'm not going to waste my time with that any longer.  I have been involved in something like 5,000 arbitration cases and I know what a panel will and will not believe, and I know what a good defense attorney can and cannot get a client to acknowledge.

You children can get back with me when you grow up and know half as much as I have already forgotten.

So nobody from a firm would ever call a exiting brokers client and say something like, "he had issues with the IRS", "he was fired for being unethical to clients", "he was fired because he had inappropriate relations with other employees". 

That never happens.  I mean I guess I am so stupid that one day I'll learn to pay attention to what I have HEARD BROKERS SAY.  And the things they say are exactly in line with what I wrote and what looney wrote. 

Looney, I believe you.  I know that agents will say anything to keep a client.....and I mean anything. 

********NOTE******** -  Newby has no problem telling Looney, myself and others that we are LYING.  However it would be asanine if a broker were to ever call an exiting brokers client WHEN THERE ARE COMMISSIONS TO BE MADE. 

So, when we have nothing to gain except exposing you for dumba$$ that you are we must be lying.  However, when there are commissions on the table we would never lie and say something outside of a generic "rescue call".  Your logic seems horribly flawed. 

You can't have it both ways to make your argument.  You have to decide whether we are liars or not. 

Until then, enjoy living in the dark. 

You're paranoid and delusional if you think that Jones management is tollerating some sort of hit squad to jump on the phone as you walk out the door and slander YOU as an individual.

Jones is one of the nation's premier brokerage firms--and as such it is going to have policies and procedures that would avoid negative publicity as if it were the plague.

We have a handful--three or four--EX Jones brokers who are whining that they were misteated, slandered and worse.  Yet not one of them did anything to counter the slander.

Does that really make sense to an intelligent, open minded, person?

Do you really think that a manager at, say, Morgan Stanley would sit by like a passive observer while his newly hired broker was being slandered?  How is that going to reflect on Morgan Stanley's reputation--hiring a guy who had IRS problems, or anything else.

I have no doubt that the rescue calls may have warned the client to be aware that the depared broker will probably attempt to take them out of positions they were in and put them into different positions.

I have no doubt that the rescue calls may have suggested that there was a bonus paid for making the move--most investors would be glad to know that their broker was worthy of a bonus.

I have no doubt that the resuce calls may have suggested that the move occured in the middle of the night, or over a weekend.  Most clients could not care less about those types of details and would probably conclude that that was what they would do too.

But common sense says that if you were slandered you'd react in a way more forceful than whining about it on an Internet forum--not one of you whiners talk about suing Jones.  Why not?

Common sense says that if you were being slandered your new B/D would sue Jones because statements such as those being alleged slander the new B/D--not one of you whiners talk about your new B/D suing Jones.  Why not?

Common sense says that clients would recoil in anger if they were told that the broker they had chosen was dishonest, had IRS problems, was taking liberties with somebody in the office, or anything else.  If you were going to try to retain somebody's account would you say those kind of things?  I'll assume you're thinking that you would not.  Why do you suppose somebody else would?

On the other hand, might you say something like, "I'm calling to let you know that we had to let Bob Broker go this morning but that we certainly hope we can keep you as a happy customer...."  I'll bet you're thinking you would do that--and so would the Jones rescue callers in St. Louis.

excuse my edit....

********NOTE******** -  Newby has no problem telling Looney, myself and others that we are LYING.  However it would be asanine if a broker were to ever call an exiting brokers client and lie to them WHEN THERE ARE COMMISSIONS TO BE MADE. 

[quote=ribsnwhiskey]

excuse my edit....

********NOTE******** -  Newby has no problem telling Looney, myself and others that we are LYING.  However it would be asanine if a broker were to ever call an exiting brokers client and lie to them WHEN THERE ARE COMMISSIONS TO BE MADE. 

[/quote]

If you were speaking would you say, ".....telling Looney, myself and others....." or would you say, ".....telling Looney, me, and others....."

Since when does ANY manager sit there and supervise a broker’s phone call to orphan clients.  Who says that Jones or anyone is aware of this happening frequently? <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Not being aware that this is common practice (not just jones, and for the record I never worked there) is usually a case of turning your eyes to keep assets.  You think people don't play dirty when nobody is looking.  How is your Branch Manager or anyone for that matter going to ever know the scare tactics you used to gain a client, unless the client files a compliant against you and cites the comments a broker made.  Then it turns into "he said" "she said". 

Just as Looney mentioned, just because she did not go after them and sue them does not mean something did not happen.  Why would she as a broker spend time and energy if 70% of my clients have moved with her and she is making more money now?  Most advisors want to wash their hands clean of everything from their firm and not dig deeper into a situation that they are trying to get out of.  Just because they do not sue does not mean an offense ever occurred. 

Since you have so many years of experience in arbitration, do you not know that many people avoid it because of how much the time and expense can drain someone?   

Do you know how these 'orphan' accounts are distributed and monitored?  I do.  They hand each broker a spreadsheet with all the contact info and a snapshot of the cleints account and say "get to dialing".  From there, all anyone cares about is the production generated from the orphan client.  And guess who cares the most, the Branch Manager.  Sadly, you think the BM is the friend of the client and would never allow a negative comment about a departed broker to bring the company future commissions.  Once again, you have a misplaced trust in people. 

How many years were you a BM to oversee these type of activities?  What did you do as a BM to ensure that your brokers were not using any unethical tactics when soliciting these orphan clients?

Keep talking, I like how you continue to show your a$$.