Seeking positive or negative feedback/experience on working with an Edward Jones financial advisor. Is this a good route to take for personal financial investing? Thanks in advance!
I would give two thumbs up for my Edward Jones advisor. His name is Josh Westerfield and he works in Carol Stream on Schmale Road. He's young, smart, honest, and attentive. I sort of found him by accident (I think it was a God thing, but whatever) and I needed to move a 401-K and I really liked how he explained everything. Now, however, I think it's more like a 104-K. Oh well. Not his fault. lol
My family and I have been using Edward Jones in Romeoville for quite sometime right now and are very pleased. The customer service is awesome and he is a really great guy. He can't perform miracles in the stock market but is always their to give you his best advise and I truly believe he cares.
We Like our EJ FA from Oak Forest.
my husband wants to help on this, here he is:
Forget financial advisers, period. I'll tell you why. Contrary to popular belief, financial advisers are not all knowing and not always making you money(more like losing money is more true most of the time). Seriously, if they were that good they would all be millionaires and not need your business. But they cannot really create money for you. They get paid a % of your assets as fee(not a % of your gains, I wonder why, eh?), or a flat fee(even safer than % of assets) to do advising, whether you make money or NOT. Most if not all advisors will tell you to buy mutual funds, which you can do on your own by the way. If they tell you to buy mutual funds, understand that these funds also have a % of assets management fees as well each year, plus you will pay taxes on capital gains distribution every year, even if your investment is worth less than at the beginning of the year (this is just the way mutual funds work). And mutual funds, what they really do is just buy stocks/bonds, which you could do on your own without the hefty fees they charge you. In the long run they will lose you money because of how the financial system works. Financial advisers are similar to police officers in a way that they both shove customers(and their money) into a system where you cannot win. Cops work to make revenue for the state/county/city/court system they work for(hey, all the state workers have to eat too, right), and tickets are usually something you must pay or else. Financial advisers shove your money into a system(while making money off the top themselves) where highly computerized institutional companies(trading using sophisticated algorithms) will end up with ALL your money in the long term, but the system needs a constant flow of new dollars for those companies to have someone to take money from. Same for 401K's and other retirement systems, they are basically NEW money, dumb money given to these funds, advisors, etc. who do not care if they make money or lose it, since they get paid % of assets as fees, not % of gains. There is not 1 advisor or mutual fund that charges % of gains as a fee, not surprisingly(because they would go broke quite fast, as they lose money). Not to crap on E.J. or any other advisor company(they have an agenda, and that is to make money off your ignorance and not understanding the system). Contrary to what you have read, heard or been advised, the investment world is a zero sum game. That is, you cannot make money without someone else losing(usually on the losing side are people giving money to advisors, or mutual funds, because they figure those people know better). Everybody cannot make money in the markets, that would be like 1+1=3, which it cannot be. In fact, most people HAVE TO lose money for the select few to make a lot of money(usually the sophisticated institutional traders using expensive computer software and trading for their own accounts or their firms). So what I suggest is you learn about investing(or properly called, speculation) yourself, and keep the fees you get charged by advisors to yourself(get some books on the subject or take a few classes to get basic idea). Make your own decisions about your money. If you don't understand the "speculation", learn about it before you do it. Try with smaller amounts of money first for extended periods to see if you are able to catch the trend, so you do not get discouraged with losses. And most of all, forget about long term "investing", because the scope of the market has changed from the 1970's 1980's and even 1990's in a way that will never return. Most important, just get educated and learn about the stuff yourself. Then if something goes sour, you can only blame yourself. The likes of Walmart, Dells etc. where people bought in the 70's, or 90's for $1 per share and it split 20 times and now worth 200 times their investment,those are nice stories, and certainly a select FEW held in those periods and got very wealthy, but those are in the tiny minority. What about all the people that bought Dell at $50/sh in 2000 or Walmart since the 2000's. Dell they lost 80% and Walmart stock has been flat for past 10 years. Speculation(what everybody else calls investing) is ALL about timing and also a lot about luck( i.e. buying before the other fools do,and selling before the other fools sell). That is all. Even technical analysis can be faulty at times and give false signals. With any buying or selling the final objective is to find a bigger fool to sell to, isn't that right? In order for you to sell your shares at the TOP somebody has to buy your shares at the TOP, isn't that right? And that person or company will certainly lose, either some or a good chunk of their money, if they hold too long as the stock is falling. So zero sum in the markets. In fact, when you figure in commissions and taxes, it's actually less than zero sum, because commissions take part of the gains for somebody who makes money and adds to losses for the losing side.
I have YET to meet ANY person whose advisor made them significant % of gains of their original investment that beats or even meets the market averages. If you have somebody like that(not bernie madoff please, or similar scammers), I would love to meet him.
Hopefully I've explained this in an understandable way.
If not, feel free to ask questions. Hope this is of some help.
Responding to Bobbi K, your advisor losing you money IS his fault(not yours, and you should not make excuses for him). He failed to cut losses early, hoping for a recovery, he is an amateur and should get a real job actually producing something of real value. Just my honest and truthful opinion.
To Maureen H, that you like your FA is nice, but what % gains has he been able to produce for you? I think it would be a SAFE bet to say you have less now than what you startet with, less his fees for this of course. Correct me if I'm wrong of course. I'd love to hear about it.
Sherry S, I'm sure your advisor is nice, but YES, he cannot and never will be able to perform miracles. He is good at telling you to invest long term, even in a falling market, that is what what he must do to keep making money from assets under management. If he was really so good, he would be retired on an island by now, trust me. He may have the education and certifications but he has not a clue about how the system works. He only knows what he read in some books. I'm still in awe that people actually give these guys real money to PLAY, yes, play with. Your hard earned money for them to make bets in a rigged casino, where they will almost always lose. And you pay them to do this.....just wow!!!! Quite shocking and sad, but true.
Wow, you had one response with a really negative outlook on advisors. I know your request is already almost 6 months old, but just in case you had a bad taste in your mouth about financial advisors, I thought I'd respond too.
Financial advisors are not solely employed to "make you money" - they help you MANAGE your money in a way that's consistent with your goals. They help you determine how much insurance you need, what company will offer the best prices/plans, how much you need to save to reach your retirement goals, what the best vehicles are for those savings, estate planning, trust services, etc.
I think that Yvette's husband may be thinking of advisors that strictly offer stock advice. Very few people were actually making large amounts of money over the last 6 months in the market, but if you were working with an advisor that knows your goals (are you a conservative investor? agressive? will your spouse continue to work if something happens to you? are you planning on having more kids? how much do you want to save for retirement?) you'll be better aligned to meet those goals than if you were doing it on your own.
Also, yes advisors get paid on the business they do. Whether they're fee based or not, or if you were doing it on your own, you'd still be paying some sort of fee. For example, you decide to invest in mutual funds on your own, not only are you paying the sales load on those mutual funds, you're likely paying a transaction fee through whatever service you're using. There are also annual maintenance fees, which (depending on the fund company) may be assessed per position, or per account.
Does it make sense for you to pay 5% sales charge and $7-$30 per trade, plus $50/yr for each position(these are just examples, but they're not unrealistic at all) and not get ANY guidance as to what sort of asset-allocation your risk tolerance indicates? Even direct-sold stuff has management fees. Do you think that the fund companies are letting you buy and sell their securities for free? Read the prospectus.
Whether it be Edward Jones or another company like Northwestern Mutual (which also offers insurance products), it's a good idea to meet with someone. Best of luck!