A Telling Sign for EJ?
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This has GOT to be the dumbest conversation I have read about Jones. This is certainly a new low. Criticizing Jones for employing assistants in the offices. Now, if Jones DIDN’T give us assistants, THEN what would the conversation be?
FYI - I don’t even have a full-time BOA. I only employ a part-timer. Jones doesn’t care, and my BOA didn’t want to commit to 35 hours or whatever she needs to maintain that status. She typically works 30-37 hours per week. Makes my P&L look good.
That is exactly my point and this is a terrible thread. I think if others at EJ would think outside the box they would benefit from cutting the hours of their BOA because in reality they are paying for her.This has GOT to be the dumbest conversation I have read about Jones. This is certainly a new low. Criticizing Jones for employing assistants in the offices. Now, if Jones DIDN’T give us assistants, THEN what would the conversation be?
FYI - I don’t even have a full-time BOA. I only employ a part-timer. Jones doesn’t care, and my BOA didn’t want to commit to 35 hours or whatever she needs to maintain that status. She typically works 30-37 hours per week. Makes my P&L look good.
[quote=Spaceman Spiff]
Morean - you get the point with the S7 comment. Don't be a hater.
[/quote]This is where you lose me.... How much time could you possibly waste on paperwork(What paperwork, unless you are opening an account?) How much time sending mailers(if you are calling then sending out info, normally it's the same stuff to everyone, i understand a BOA would be helpful but I think we are talking 20 minutes max.) Who are you playing phone tag with? If you are new, how many silly questions are you answering(can't have that many clients... and if the questions are similar, maybe you should review your process when explaining info to clients)I’d have to agree with Spiff. A BOA is vital. I could be bringing in probably double the business I am right now, if I had a BOA to throw all the paperwork towards. Being a newer broker, I waste ALOT of time on paperwork everyday, answering silly questions, playing phone tag, sending mailers, and organizing my day. If I had a BOA to do all of that, and I could come in and go straight to calls, or appointments instead of having to scan paperwork, I’d be doubling my paycheck…
[quote=Incredible Hulk] [quote=Ron 14] [quote=Incredible Hulk]Thus you don’t get a BOA until you hit a certain point, unless inherited from the previous broker. They also should be running the broker’s marketing campaigns. Mailings, seminars etc… Is there free time early on? Of course, just one of the “perks” I guess. I mean, we are paying 60% for nothing more than the EDJ sign over the door.[/quote]
Yeah, you get a BOA at about 8k/monthly production. They aren't needed at that point. Marketing campaigns ? Mailings? Yeah, good luck with those. How is 60% for an EDJ sign working out for you ? Sounds like a crappy deal.[/quote]
So, Jones is a crappy company because you get nothing for the 60%? And Jones is a crappy company because they give us a BOA when we could share it with 2 or 3 other brokers?
Just so I follow the logic, they give us more than we need, but we over pay for what they don't give us? Reminds me of a Yogi-ism.
You don't believe in mailings? Have you ever started a business? Did people magically appear with their checkbook when you opened your door? Going face to face is apparently beneath you.
Finally, my guess is that my 40% is more than your 80%.
How did I get sucked into another one of these circular arguments? [/quote] You believe in magical mailings? Aren't the Jones direct mail campaigns done by home office anyways and never reach the branch.? How does going face to face have anything to do with mailings? My argument was that in certain areas(metro areas, not rural) that jones could cut expenses thus increasing profitability if they combined some offices, cut real estate and some extra personel. And then you guys could get your bonuses back.. I think in rural areas and the south, the one broker one boa idea works much better than say... Philly.
This is where you lose me.... How much time could you possibly waste on paperwork(What paperwork, unless you are opening an account?) How much time sending mailers(if you are calling then sending out info, normally it's the same stuff to everyone, i understand a BOA would be helpful but I think we are talking 20 minutes max.) Who are you playing phone tag with? If you are new, how many silly questions are you answering(can't have that many clients... and if the questions are similar, maybe you should review your process when explaining info to clients)[/quote] I agree. The "paperwork" argument doesn't make sense to me either. I am about to graduate to Seg 2 and my BOA works very little. I would make an estimate that she works a total of about 5 hours a week, and I am fairly busy compared to the rest of the people in my seg/time in service. I actually wish I could share an BOA with another FA, I would love to start working toward profitability early. Instead, I have to increase my production twice as high to cover the cost of something I don't utilize much. That may be my own fault for not knowing how to leverage my BOA, but I still see it as sort of a waste. In fact, if I were honest with you, the biggest thing I get out of a BOA is being able to say I have a BOA...[quote=wind3574]I’d have to agree with Spiff. A BOA is vital. I could be bringing in probably double the business I am right now, if I had a BOA to throw all the paperwork towards. Being a newer broker, I waste ALOT of time on paperwork everyday, answering silly questions, playing phone tag, sending mailers, and organizing my day. If I had a BOA to do all of that, and I could come in and go straight to calls, or appointments instead of having to scan paperwork, I’d be doubling my paycheck…
Here we go again. Newbie guru would be doing double the business if he had a BOA! Just unbelievable.I’d have to agree with Spiff. A BOA is vital. I could be bringing in probably double the business I am right now, if I had a BOA to throw all the paperwork towards. Being a newer broker, I waste ALOT of time on paperwork everyday, answering silly questions, playing phone tag, sending mailers, and organizing my day. If I had a BOA to do all of that, and I could come in and go straight to calls, or appointments instead of having to scan paperwork, I’d be doubling my paycheck…
That's called masturbating!20 mins? Really?..It takes that long just to scratch my nuts in the morning…Maybe you are spoiled with a BOA or a secretary…I sure as hell aren’t…
He scratches his nuts and then gets out of bed and is instantly in his office because they are both his bedroom.
Wind, be careful what you wish for. Having a BOA is not the panacea you think it is. Yes, I will agree that I spend littel time on paperwork, but that just means I work less hours, not get fewer clients, because of it. I never spent prospecting hours working on paperwork anyway.
And the whole "most have 2 or 3 assistants" argument is bunk anyway. Let me give you an example. I am a fairly active seg 3 producer - meaning I am seg 3 but aggressively working towards moving up. I don't need a full-time BOA yet. Let's say I open 10 accounts per month. That's about 5 hours of work, max. OK, now I have 155 hours left in the month. Hmmmmm. What else can my BOA do? My BOA answers teh phone, calls to schedule annual reviews with clients, prepares my birthday cards, handles all the annual fee payments, deals with stupid admin crap from home office or clients, does the mail, checks, etc. We don't even send out our own trade confirmations anymore. At the end of teh day, she could do her busy work in probably 2-3 hours per day. It gets a little dicey when I have client appointments or am out of the office prospecting, networking, etc. and someone drops in or calls. I don't like to have a "closed" office or no answer on the phone. I also host a Legacy FA in my office (a newer FA without an office yet), so between the three of us, the office is almost always covered. Point is, if it were the two of us(meaning the other FA), or three or four of us, I could use a full-time BOA (or maybe 1.5) and fill her day with busy work. HOWEVER, I also take full advantage of all the "paperless" stuff at Jones. I don't keep any client files (other than current cases) - it all gets scanned and shredded. I have most of my own investment models already set up in Morningstar, so it's just go in, change the names, make a tweak, voila, done. How long does it take to print a Portfolio or Account Holding screen? My brethren across town is a low seg 4 producer (he's actually seg 5, but is doing high seg 3, low seg 4 numbers). He's got probably 300 clients and 45mm AUM. He has HUNDREDS of files, scans NOTHING, prints GOBS of reports, etc. and makes his BOA do every last bit of it. He also doesn't pick up the phone. She makes ALL his calls. He refuses to use e-mail, doesn't know how to pick up wires. Now, he has 1.5 BOA's (of which he has to pay for some out of pocket), because he is so freakin' needy. So, it's easy to say "everyone" has multiple BOA's, but you have to put that into context. Many of the "old timers" still manage like it's 1973.Jones needs to get their head out of their butts on this one and let people share offices. It only makes sense financially. Put a wall in the middle if you don’t want the “ego maniac” syndrome. Let them move out on their own after year 3 like someone else said.
One caveat - I know some pretty heavy prodcuers that really do need more than one BOA - a lot depends on your own personal model. Of the big producers, you have th guy with 1500 households and 200mm AUM, and the guy with 300 households and 200mm AUM. Two very different models, doing very different things. One might use a lot of FAST (our financial planning software), the other one might use NONE of it. One might do all transactional work, the other does a lot of SMA's and funds. One might do tons of insurance (which is paperwork heavy), the other does none (the firms largest producer, like $3mm+, does almost half his revenue in insurance).
So again, it ALL depends on the office.