Intro

Corey: hey everyone corey whalen managing director bridgemark strategies firm that’s helped over a thousand financial advisors objectively explore the broker dealer and ria marketplace and help them find the firm with the right combination of feel fit and financials for them and their business

Experience With Edward Jones Advisors

Corey: as discussed in other videos i’ve helped a lot of financial advisors with edward jones over the last 10 years of my recruiting career explore their options at other broker dealers and i’ve seen a lot of mistakes and pitfalls along the way that i’d like to share with you to educate you in the best way possible

Mistake 1: Buying Office Space and Renting It Back

Corey: the first mistake that i see a lot of edward jones advisors make is they get more successful they have enough money to go out and buy their own office space and they decide to rent that back to their employer it makes sense there’s a lot of advantages to that from an economic and tax standpoint and your employer could be a really fantastic tenant that’s going to pay on time every single month but if you ever decide to move to another firm there’s some restrictive covenants in that agreement where not only are you going to have to move your clients from one firm to another you’re also going to have to find new office space for yourself for a few years while your new competitor that’s trying to retain your clients is sitting in the office space that you bought

Mistake 2: Proprietary Products

Corey: the second one is avoiding proprietary products such as bridge builder funds we see this with financial advisors across all employee firms but typically being in a place where they have to not only change firms but they also have to liquidate their clients out of their current investments and move into something else that’s going to potentially create a taxable event in a non-retirement account

Mistake 3: Overselling Edward Jones

Corey: the next one is just overselling edward jones and not making the relationship about you and your clients the most successful advisors that i’ve seen that transition the most clients possible are truly making the relationship about the advisor and the client and edward jones very much just being a platform and if a financial advisor is selling edward jones too much throughout the meetings with all of their clients it normally means they’re going to have a harder time bringing clients to a new firm

Mistake 4: Not Speaking With an Attorney Early

Corey: the next one is just speaking to an attorney as quickly as possible even if you are a couple years out from potentially considering leaving speaking with a qualified attorney that’s had a lot of experience moving edward jones advisors in the past is just going to give you a clear idea of what you can and cannot do during a transition or in order to give you a ton of tips to over the next couple years prepare the communication in the best way possible for you to have a successful transition

Mistake 5: Making a Decision Too Quickly

Corey: and the last mistake is making a decision too quickly and truly understanding what all of your options are out there lettering a consultant like myself can really help you understand what else is out there in the industry as efficiently as possible

Ex-Edward Jones Firms + Playbook

Corey: there are a lot of firms out there that are made by ex edward jones advisors for edward jones advisors they’ve made the move themselves they’ve made the mistakes and they’ve built a road map and a playbook to make sure that you’re going to have the smoothest path possible over to independence

Wrap-up

Corey: if you have any other questions at all or you’d like to explore some of the options out there i’d be more than happy to help