Edward Jones Overview: Edward Jones is a privately-held retail brokerage firm headquartered in St. Louis. Its sole line of business:
- Financial Advisory Services
Size: Edward Jones has offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 7 Canadian provinces, and the U.K. These figures are as of June, 2008:
- Financial Advisors = 11,000
- Total Employees = 37,868 (as of 12/31/07)
- Brokerage Offices in the U.S. = 9,200
- Total Global Brokerage Offices = 10,000
- Number of Client Relationships = 7 million
- Revenues = $4.1 billion (full year 2007)
- The 92nd largest private company by revenues in the U.S., per Forbes magazine
Positives: Edward Jones has a unique business model within the retail brokerage industry, with the vast majority of its offices housing a single financial advisor and a single support person. The culture is one of individual entrepreneurship, even more so than in other firms. Indeed, the one-advisor office concept comes close to being a franchising model. Edward Jones operates mainly in small towns and rural areas where there is no competition from other major firms.
Negatives: The business model of serving small towns and rural areas can limit the growth potential for an individual advisor. Edward Jones’ website offers a much lower level of financial disclosure than other leading financial services firms, due to its being a private company. The website also presents conflicting information regarding its number of offices. A map of their locations at year-end 2007 shows 10,075 U.S. offices (versus 9,200 as noted above) and 13,466 globally (versus 10,000 as noted above). It is not explained whether there was indeed a major closure of offices in the first half of 2008.
