Vantaggi
Edward Jones is an established, private firm with a conservative investment philosophy. The company has an outstanding reputation and has avoided many of the financial pitfalls other firms have recently struggled with. You have the freedom of running your own practice with no upfront money to get started. EJ finances your start-up costs. They provide top-notch, paid training and support from the corporate office, and they make field training accessible. The firm values a balance of work and life and really goes beyond what most companies do to include your family in company events. The culture is unique and open, and the firm encourages FAs to offer supportive and critical feedback regarding aspects management and operations. For the most part, the FAs are geniunely good and honest professionals. As a successful FA, you have your own office, a branch administrator and when tenured, the opportunity to become a firm partner entitled to partnership income in addition to earned commissions.
Svantaggi
The opportunity to run your "own" practice is remarkable, but keep in mind you are an employee of the firm and thus forgo rights to legally own the practice you run. You also are held to strict performance standards which if not met will eventually result in termination. The company has established an amazing volunteer effort to train new FAs, which is extremely critical to the recruitment and training process. Tenured FAs volunteer as field trainers and mentors to "train" new FAs. In return for their service, tenured FAs get to establish their participation in unpaid firm activities, which is weighed in the considerations for becoming a firm partner. This is a great responsibility consdiering that they also have to run their practice. In my opinion, some field trainers are spread thin and may not be as helpful to new FAs as the firm expects them to be. The training for new FAs lacks in this area. Lastly, like most sales careers, it takes persistent effort and time to build your practice. The firm requires you to market your services the old-fashioned way, face-to-face, door to door, which they call doorknocking. In my opinion, this is effective but its also hunky dory and may not be the best way to market in some areas.