Hi, I've never used a Financial planner before and was wondering thoughts on Edward Jones? We move often and they have offices everywhere.
We just moved from TX to OH so I thought maybe a national company would be a better fit for us?

Thanks!

I work with EJ. Finding a person who you trust is working the best for your goals is who you want. Once you find that person, stay with them. I don't meet very many clients face to face anymore. Most want to do everything over the phone. You can also do webex.

thanks!

Now I will give you the other view of EJ. My company went with them for our retirement accounts and my experience has been pretty mixed. They have never significantly beat the investing I have done on my own. Rarely have my EJ accounts bested the SP 500. I put the minimum in my EJ account and put most of my money else where.

That said. It is occasionally nice to have some one to email when I have bigger financial question about stuff like Cash balance plans, what are tax considerations of various 529s etc.
Most of that stuff I can look up online but it's nice to have someone who can navigate the nuances.

It's typically more about the advisor and your relationship with the advisor than it is about the underlying company name on the sign.


Other than that, I'm checking in for the comments that are coming.

Second that you should find an advisor, not a firm, that you can have a relationship with. Advisors move firms from time to time, oftentimes for the betterment of their clients, and that's where your loyalties ought to lie. Make sure wherever you go, you have an understanding of what that transition looks like.

I think the future of financial advice will remove location as a requisite for finding the right advisor. Instead, there will be advisors that only specialize in certain niches and are experts in their small field.

i.e. Wanting to sell your medical practice? there's an advisor in Virginia that is an expert at the tax, legal, investment ramifications of that

-Work at a tech startup with unvested shares? There are firms that specialize in that

-Work for an O&G company with a stock plan, NUA, large pre-tax assets? There is a firm that specializes in that

I don't love EJ because they are not fee-only (you won't find many EJ advisors recommending low-cost index funds), but I view them as lightyears better than Northwestern Mutual.

I live in Texas and use an EJ adviser that is based in Ohio. I have known him for years, so there is a lot of trust built over time. Happy to link you up if you want, he's done an outstanding job for me. I am moving most of my money over to there.

From standpoint of working with them, it has been very easy. I travel a lot, and once we got my accounts set up, I have been able to do business at multiple EJ offices regardless of location when I need to sign docs or deposit funds, etc. It has been a great experience for me.

Lawsuit over fee based churning

Additional Reading re: reverse churning/parking assets

What part of Ohio??

SquareOne07 said:

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Second that you should find an advisor, not a firm, that you can have a relationship with. Advisors move firms from time to time, oftentimes for the betterment of their clients, and that's where your loyalties ought to lie. Make sure wherever you go, you have an understanding of what that transition looks like.

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Maybe a stupid question but how hard is it to change advisors if you don't like the one you select

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Maybe a stupid question but how hard is it to change advisors if you don't like the one you select

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Great question. The answer above is correct, but I would add some more context.

If your advisor works with life insurance products (including annuities), they will be loaded with surrender charges. So, you can get yourself somewhat locked in if that's your situation (whole life insurance absolutely does as well...that's why your cash value is negative for the first TEN YEARS--it's a built-in "surrender charge" of sorts).

That's my beef with Ed Jones-their advisors often sell A share mutual funds (a mutual fund with a 5.75% sales commission on the front end. BTW, it still has significant annual fees imbedded in the fund. It's not free after the 5.75% commission). So, don't like your Ed Jones advisor? Well, if you just bought the funds 6 months ago, that's quite the fee you've already paid to bolt now.

I would only work with an advisor that doesn't have any sort of surrender charges-whether that's an actual surrender charge on an annuity or a practical one like the example above with A shares.

TWTCKS said:

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Maybe a stupid question but how hard is it to change advisors if you don't like the one you select

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Great question. The answer above is correct, but I would add some more context.

If your advisor works with life insurance products (including annuities), they will be loaded with surrender charges. So, you can get yourself somewhat locked in if that's your situation (whole life insurance absolutely does as well...that's why your cash value is negative for the first TEN YEARS--it's a built-in "surrender charge" of sorts).

That's my beef with Ed Jones-their advisors often sell A share mutual funds (a mutual fund with a 5.75% sales commission on the front end. BTW, it still has significant annual fees imbedded in the fund. It's not free after the 5.75% commission). So, don't like your Ed Jones advisor? Well, if you just bought the funds 6 months ago, that's quite the fee you've already paid to bolt now.

I would only work with an advisor that doesn't have any sort of surrender charges-whether that's an actual surrender charge on an annuity or a practical one like the example above with A shares.

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Good points, but a point of clarification - it's the product, not the advisor, that would carry with it any sort of surrender charges.

Regarding annuities and life products, if your advisor can't educate you as to how these work so well you could easily make your grandmother understand them, find somebody who can.

EDJ loves their A-Shares (charging 1.08% - 1.22% for a portfolio of American Funds with an internal expense ratio north of 60bps), so make sure to have a crystal clear understanding of costs to you and how your advisor is compensated (this will peel back the onion and reveal how they arrive at some of their recommendations).

I don't have any specific experience with Edward Jones, but as others have mentioned, I'd focus on finding a person you can trust rather than a firm. I'd go to a fee-only adviser who is a registered investment advisory (RIA) not a broker-dealer. It's important to make sure your investment adviser has a fiduciary duty to you. I believe Edward Jones is a broker dealer.

A short video explaining the difference.

Tatem said:

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What part of Ohio??

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Canton area.

I literally haven't sold an A share mutual fund in YEARS

Since when does an A share carry a 1.08% annual fee with a internal expense like that?

Care to correct yourself?

Edward Jones offers the option to pay the upfront fee in the form of A shares if you prefer or you can use a fee based platform for everything

In which case you buy F3 shares of whatever fund family you want. The internal cost of those can be well below 60 bps.

So not sure you are very familiar with this??? I figured you would be though.

1.3% is not high. Edward Jones and Vanguard/Fidelity are not in the same business. Hope that helps

nactownag said:

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Since when does an A share carry a 1.08% annual fee with a internal expense like that?

Care to correct yourself?

Edward Jones offers the option to pay the upfront fee in the form of A shares if you prefer or you can use a fee based platform for everything

In which case you buy F3 shares of whatever fund family you want. The internal cost of those can be well below 60 bps.

So not sure you are very familiar with this??? I figured you would be though.

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Care to correct myself? Not really. SMCWX's F-3 fund carries 69 bps. I realize that's on the higher end of the scale, but my point was that there are in fact funds with that kind of expense ratio inside of accounts that carry a 1.08% management fee, the lowest that Jones can discount, I believe.

The criticisms that others here have laid out about Jones are deserved as evidenced by the lawsuits levied towards them, but those are problems certainly not exclusive to Jones.

Like you've said, there are bad apples in every batch, and many within Jones leveraged DOL as an opportunity to convert their A Share and Stock Based books to fee based business clearly not in the best interests of their clients.

not worth it

Tincup12 said:

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not worth it

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Not at all

Honest to goodness to hear people talk about 60 bps like it's high and then turn around and sell whole life insurance is hilarious!

That's my final comment on that subject!

SquareOne07 said:

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Tincup12 said:

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not worth it

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Not at all

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No, it's not worth it to argue. I've got plenty of opinions on some of the stuff you've mentioned. I'll wait till I don't have to use my burner acct anymore

30wedge said:

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...and the third one is one of my son-in-laws...If he does a bad job, his mother-in-law might have to move in with them.

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Now that's good planning!

Tincup12 said:

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SquareOne07 said:

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Tincup12 said:

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not worth it

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Not at all

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No, it's not worth it to argue. I've got plenty of opinions on some of the stuff you've mentioned. I'll wait till I don't have to use my burner acct anymore

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Eagerly awaiting to hear your opinions

You have on several past threads.

I'm simply saying that if we're talking about doing the right thing for the client and cost transparency and being a fiduciary all while selling the heck of that product is just downright distasteful

nactownag said:

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You have on several past threads.

I'm simply saying that if we're talking about doing the right thing for the client and cost transparency and being a fiduciary all while selling the heck of that product is just downright distasteful

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Right, as a planning tool? It 100% has a place in a planning conversation, to say otherwise is unethical, I would argue.

I couldn't agree with you more. If you're acting in a fiduciary capacity, you ought to discuss every single tool at your disposal and not just your mutual funds. If you're going to accuse me of selling "the heck out of" life insurance, I'd be really curious how you've arrived at that.