And … when you find out the answer please let me know. 

Personally, I would explore RJ and Cambridge.  You will need to get your series 65 so you can do advisory business.

You need a salary to start.  Your chances of failure by commission only on day 1 rise exponentially, so Cambridge is out (otherwise a good indy firm).

EDJ is a good place to start, but you want to end up indy anyway.

RJ has all channels.  You can start there as an employee with a salary, and seemlessly go indy or RIA without ever changing firms.

RJ by a mile.

Not a reason to not consider RJ if all else fits, but in Canada they are now charging a 5% "supervision fee" for 5 years to an advisor that transitions from employee to independent. Also for advisors that transfer from one independent to another independent branch. 

Fucking robbery and has stopped a number of people from starting independent offices.

 

In the Cambridge option, same thing, the branch manager is your boss, and you need an exit agreement when you go in.

Fuck Edward Jones if you have better opportunities, but if you need sales training and mustache trimming expertise, it's a good start. These other two options are better if you'll actually have the appropriate level of help you'll need.

There is no decision here to be made.  RJ wins by a mile.  Commonwealth is a good firm, but starting out commission only is a bad idea.   EDJ would be a fine choice if you didn't have the RJ Employee channel as an offer.  Their investment menu leaves some to be desired (but is fine), but otherwise they pay a nice salary and have good training.  

The tie breaker is that EDJ is captive and that's your only option.  The ability to seemlessly move from one RJ channel to another is HUGE.  And all three channels are solid versus their competitors.  

Does RJ amp teach prospecting as well as EDJ? 

No.  It's 0% of the equation.  The only thing the brand can do is hurt you, not help you (a la, Wells Fargo the past few years).

Is this referring to the EJ assets?

If so definitely RJ. Only go to Jones if they are offering you assets and an office with at least 25mm in assets in a non competitive situation. Otherwise RJ hands down as Helado said. 

+1.  20-25 sounds like a good cutoff and “at least 5” sounds like bullshit 

Depends where you are. EJ helps in small town America and/or where it has had a significant presence for a period of time. Major city, probably no help. 

That’s not much. 

At Jones they would go after your book and try to keep it. 

Don't go to Edward Jones for less than $25 million. The performance standards will be higher but you want a book that'll be profitable or close to it. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have agreed to less than $50 million. I received $25 million from a retiring advisor and it was almost all trash, old mutual fund accounts and annuities that couldn't be moved to connection when that came out. I came from a bank with a good business network and never had a problem hitting asset goals but all the same wish I had taken a different offer. The goodknight wasn't worth the headaches and hassles. $5 million is a waste of your time.

rockandtrail wrote: Thank you both! Good points on retiring advisors as well as the goodnight amounts. Do they allow bargaining since they are short on newer advisors? Maybe I’d have some bargaining power with them if that’s the case? I have a great network but every little bit helps. Especially if I can possibly get much more than 5 million.

That depends on the needs and office makeup of the region. If that region doesn't have any retiring advisors or large offices willing to part with a big goodknight then you have nothing to go for there and would probably be better off looking at the Raymond James or Cambridge offer.

Finish the entire hiring process and let them know what you are looking for before you sign the offer letter. They can then keep you in mind for open opportunities. The problem is Edward Jones is uniform though so you couldn’t officially get the office unless you have each of the licenses they require and are onboarded. That’s an issue since you don’t have their 7/65&63 or 7/66 plus insurance licenses ready to go so you’d have to get those before you could take over an office or assets. And sometimes they want to backfill those offices sooner rather than later. That’s the gamble you take with Jones but the odds are very much in your favor. 

Go with the company who you feel best about. RJ and Cambridge are great but every office just like at Jones is gonna have different people and personalities. Meet other advisors and managers OSJs -‘d Regional Leaders etc at whatever firms you are considering and ask to meet with the person at Jones who you are being considered as a GK for and don’t be afraid to ask how much they are thinking and the types of clients, they may open up to you about it but be tactful. I didn’t get some big goodknight nor did I inherit an office, but I’ve given plenty in assets away and I started about 12 years ago from scratch with no network and make an incredible living and work life balance. If you come to Jones and are doing well and happen to hit a little luck timing wise you will probably take over some significant assets. Even in my day I turned down two offices that were very large (100 million dollar books) because of pride and the distance (different states each time) and get I still made it but nowadays EVERYONE gets SOMETHING and most get a good chunk.  At the end of the day if you are meant for this business and have the network you state, you’ll make it anywhere. 

At Jones they are going to try to hold out the really big books for internal candidates or licensed advisors with a decent book of business to bring over though. 

Great point!   

You sound equally motivated to everyone else that is trying to sell themselves on why they should get a better deal than others.

This is actually a good point. Do you own your book at RJ as a trainee or only once you graduate AMP?

Why do you ask?

Thinking of starting there or?

Well here’s the thing.  EDJ gets a bad rap cuz they are hyper selective.  There are a lot of advisors that tried to get into Jones or were there that just couldn’t cut it so they settled for a no name indy or Better Call Saul type of RIA.  

They say Jones is harder to get into than Harvard.  I think it’s a bad analogy.   Harvard freshmen don’t know anything.  Jones is filtering people from all across the industry spectrum.   Which one would you choose?   So you can see why the vibe is off.  

Been with jones for 14 years. Never been anywhere else. Not looking to leave. 

Great support and training for new FAs now. Probably no better place to start a career. Experienced FAs have some legitimate gripes (myself included). Indy may be a better fit for some. Overall, it’s balance positive for me and I have a great situation.

Hiring is way more restrictive than it used to be. When I started  we applied the shotgun (throw against the wall and see what sticks) approach. Attrition rate was 90 plus percent. I stuck it out and have been rewarded for it.

New FA comp and support are infinitely better than they were 14 years ago. Harder to get hired now. Easier if you are a woman, identify as a woman, are sexually confused or can claim a “diverse“ ethnicity.

Regardless of what is in writing on your contract offer, you will almost certainly start with assets. Jones has pretty much eliminated the “scratch start” FA concept. Most new hires in my region start with $20-30mm right out of the gate. 

sorry Jimbo.....my post was total sarcasm......