Opinions and Advice on becoming a Financial Advisor with Edward Jones

Hope that helps.

No current or past Edward Jones employees?

Any advice on breaking in to the financial advisor career field?

It's a sales job. Ed Jones does not provide particularly good support. They are not concerned with turnover. If you are going to do well with cold-call sales then you can do well there. Most people sell to family and friends and when those pots are exhausted they find they are not much good at selling to strangers and move on to something else.

I guess if you like sales. Annoying 500 people for every 1 person you can dupe into signing on.

I hate brokers. They are the scum of the earth. creating absolutely nothing of value. About 90% of the time the indices will beat a brokers/FA's advice.

My best friend is a hedge fund manager and I have 2 other friends who are brokers. All of them are slicked up sales people and it is 100% a sales environment.

Feel sorry for you that you are actually considering this as a viable career switch. Either you are completely ignorant of the industry or a shallow salesman

I'm a former broker and used to work for the best investment brokerage in the world. I quit because I'm just uncomfortable with sales. Contrary to what the previous poster said, there is nothing at all remotely wrong with selling, and you can make a lot of money if you are good at it and persistent. Only 2% of the population are born salesmen. The problem with Edward Jones is that they sell, IMO, mostly shitty overpriced US based investments, whereas the current environment calls for an alternative investment philosophy to get people out of the kinds of investments Edward Jones pushes.

I have been a Financial advisor for 22 years. Learn the products, work hard, and be honest. There are other characteristics you'll need, but these are the main three

The perks are tremendous once you get past three years (it won't be easy). 1.You get to write the amount of your paycheck (there will still be down times). 2. You get to create your own schedule. Work hard now and by the time your kids reach school age you'll be established. That means you can work your schedule so that you can see your kids play sports. You might even be able to afford to send them to a private school.

Good luck......no case is too small!

You only listed 2 of your 3 pieces of advice, sir.

Most of what I read online is bad about EJ. I make decent money now and don't know if I could make it by in the first 2 years with the low pay while building a client base.

I know this. I don't want to stay in accounting. I do believe I'm one of those natural born salesman, that's what I like about the EJ financial advisor career. So I ask, a guy like me who enjoys finance and enjoys helping people with their finances, what are some other career paths. My fear is that if I stay in accounting in another 5 years I will become stuck there and that's NOT what I want to do. I can talk the talk and thoroughly enjoy meeting and talking with people. I'm the only accountant at my current job with any type of personality. I don't want to be surrounded by silent introverts the rest of my career.

Is it better to take the longer path, study on my own terms and become a CFP that route? I'm really torn at this point of my life. I have even considered going in to sales, I think I would really enjoy it, but financially I can not afford to work strictly off commission. I'm starting to feel stuck in accounting already and that's scary.

I was in a similar situation as you about 8 years ago.

I had always enjoyed investing and the stock market and my wife was already the bread-winner, so I decided to try out Edward Jones.

Did the door-knocking, convinced some family & friends to invest with me, etc. Quit about 1 year after I started. I was an idiot and didn't realize (or didn't care to realize at that point) that this was a sales job, and until you had a big enough base a decade down the road, you weren't really helping people with their finances, you were just trying to sell anything.

Same as you, my background is accounting. After EJ I got back into accounting/finance and have been there for the last 7 years. I'm not passionate about it, but I am good at it.

I look back and do not regret trying it at all b/c I would now be still thinking about that career path if I hadn't tried it. Think long and hard about whether this is the career path for you. Of course you can always try it out and have accounting as a fallback.

Good luck with whatever you decide. Make sure you and your wife are on the same page.

Make something. Build something. If you must sell something, sell something tangible. Financial advisors are what's wrong with America.

Thanks for the feedback. The more I read online about people's past experiences the less I like. I know I have a nack for sales and I'm passionate about helping people make wise investment decisions but not if my financial well-being is dependent upon pushing financial products that may not be best for the client, just to make a buck.

I'm going to keep researching things but it's looking like I need to start focusing my attention in another direction. I spend so much time away from my family while at work so I want to do something I really enjoy and am passionate about. I would coach, but it doesn't pay enough and I don't want to teach. Maybe I will start looking in to other types of sales jobs since that's more of the type of atmosphere I'm interested in.

I'm a financial advisor - 5 yrs in.

I absolutely love the job. I help people all day. Clients love me.

Only way I succeeded tho was being 40 when I started so I knew people with money and my wife could support the family for a couple years. So I could do what was right for the customer, meaning I made maybe $20,000 per year for 3 years.

The problem with starting the business is that at the beginning you are under huge pressure to generate sales...usually through annuities and other high commissioned products. WHich you might not sell otherwise.

So if you need money to live on for 3 yrs...it will be very difficult to do what's best for the customer.

Thanks for the insight, sir. I'm the bread winner for the family so financially there's just no way I could afford to do that. So it's back to the drawing board in this crazy game of life. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I'm giving myself this year to establish a better career plan so that I don't get stuck in accounting. I can't complain though. I've got a great family support system, good health and a good job for the time being.

buckEYEnationOH wrote:

Thanks for the insight, sir. I'm the bread winner for the family so financially there's just no way I could afford to do that. So it's back to the drawing board in this crazy game of life. I'm sure I'll figure something out. I'm giving myself this year to establish a better career plan so that I don't get stuck in accounting. I can't complain though. I've got a great family support system, good health and a good job for the time being.

be mindful of what you are doing now - build reputation and contacts so if in 5 yrs you do make the switch, you will have a list of 200 people who might trust you.

1. Learn the products 2. Work hard 3. Be honest

That's 3

Anyway after reading your posts, I believe an alternative for you would be the following: Stay in accounting so you maintain your core income. You may want to get into a public accounting firm. Try to get affiliated with a broker dealer. Get your series 6, 63 and 7 and 24 licenses. Being an accountant, especially a tax account, you will have a steady stream of prospects. Obviously, details would need to be worked out.

I was wondering how many of you use a financial advisor? I imagine people here are only considering fee-only advisors, but I'd be interested in hearing even if you use a commission-based, Edward Jones-style advisor. I've been considering meeting with with a fee-only financial advisor. For me, money is probably the most tense area in my marriage (as I'm beginning to think it is for many couples), and I'd like to have us be on the same page before we have kids, etc. Have you done this before? Found it beneficial? Did you just go once?