The losses to Edward Jones' headcount of 17,900 financial advisors are tapering off, but it's not clear where the wealth management firm stands on its goal of hiring some 1,500 this year.
Edward Jones sustained a "modest" uptick in attrition during the third quarter while hiring fewer incoming advisors under its "continued strategy to focus on intentionally building" the firm's pipeline, according to the Nov. 14 earnings statement of its parent corporation, The Jones Financial Companies. In 2021, the firm had a net loss to its advisor headcount for a calendar year for the first time in a decade, prompting St. Louis-based Edward Jones to disclose its plan to recruit about 1,500 representatives.
A freeze on incoming advisors during the pandemic and the terms of a $34 million race discrimination settlement with Black advisors has changed the firm's training over the past two years. In June, Edward Jones gave advisors the option to work together on teams for the first time. The company hasn't said how many fewer advisors it hired during the quarter or how many it has added this year, though. Slumping stocks are also pushing the value of clients' assets and Edward Jones' overall earnings down, even as the company notched a significant in-flow to customer holdings and paid much lower expenses for compensation.
In the period, Edward Jones "continued to focus on its strategy to grow and promote branch team success," according to management's analysis of the results in the filing.
"This approach to hiring may continue to result in fewer financial advisors hired than historical levels," the filing stated. "The partnership has begun offering options for greater flexibility and choice to its financial advisors, which may have a positive impact on financial advisor retention. These options include co-locating their branches with one or more financial advisors in shared office space while maintaining their own individual client relationships, an expanded variety of branch support roles and a pilot of multi-financial advisor team models."
When asked for additional statistics about the hiring and to know when it expects the headcount to begin to grow again, representatives for the firm declined to answer beyond the statements available in the quarterly SEC filing.
For the most interesting takeaways from Edward Jones' third-quarter earnings, scroll down the slideshow. To view coverage of Edward Jones' results in the second quarter, click here. For a look at where the company stood after the first three months of the year, follow this link.
November 10, 2022 11:05 AM
Note: All figures refer when possible to the company's U.S. business rather than its combined results including those in Canada, where it had 841 advisors at the end of the third quarter. The company breaks out most, but not all, of its results between the two countries.
