Attrition of Broker even at Edward Jones

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040126/SUB/401260705/-1/INIssueAlert04

January 2004

Edward Jones is known for many employees who have put in many years at the firm.

But even if has to face attrition issues.

As many as 1,300 brokers were out of the door during the first eight months of 2003.Edward Jones, which has 8,133 individual brokerage offices in the United States.

Some reasons;

"There was also a lot of pressure to take time away from my clients to help train new brokers," Mr. Anderson (former Jones broker now working for Raymond James in Vero Beach) said. "The veteran brokers had a saying: `Ask not what Jones can do for you, but what you can do for Jones."'The firm has a long-standing policy of recruiting and training a staggering number of new brokers, targeting 200 trainees each month.

To some, Edward Jones isn't keeping up with its competitors in a variety of areas.

Edward Jones is particularly susceptible to losing its brokers to independent broker-dealers, some observers said. The company's vaunted "one broker, one office" model is basically that of an independent broker-dealer, only with half the payout and a much smaller shelf of investment products.