Edward Jones

Edward Jones is a full service brokerage that offers a level of personalized service that you don't find in many other places for your investments and savings. There are a ton of local offices and once you've decided on an Advisor, that Advisor will help you on everything, from rolling over any money you may have to setting up new investments in a multitude of different plans.

While I don't think Edward Jones is the perfect place to invest for everyone, my partner and I have been happy investing there for several years now. In that time we were able to roll over our previous retirement moneys at other brokerage services, set up new Roth IRA's and have a joint brokerage account that lets us save up and invest outside of just our retirement money.

FYI

There are a few things you should know about Edward Jones before you start investing there though: 1) that you are going to pay more than you would at a discount brokerage like Charles Schwab or any other number of places; 2) that Edward Jones makes their money when you invest money through them through loads on mutual funds; and 3), that they do have agreements with certain fund families whereas Edward Jones gets some sort of money back from them when Edward Jones investors invest in those select funds.

The Range of Services at Edward Jones

Edward Jones offers a lot of different account options. I would think that just about anyone looking to invest or save for retirement should find something they want. Besides the traditional brokerage accounts, they offer both the Roth and Traditional IRAs, along with banking services such as CDs to save money in. There are also other services available through your advisor, including banking and estate services. In our time at Edward Jones, we have stuck to the brokerage account and the retirement accounts. I also discovered though that they offer services to businesses, as I've been working with them to put together a proposal for a 401k plan at the business where I work.

Our Experiences

Like lots of people, we knew we should be saving for our retirement and just saving in general, but we didn't really know what to do or how to get there. We were saving in a very hodgepodge fashion and it just wasn't getting anywhere. So when we were invited to an investment class at our local Edward Jones office, we jumped at the chance. Even though the end goal of the class was to find new clients, we never felt pressured or otherwise pushed to invest at Edward Jones. It was actually one of the most helpful learning experiences about investments in general that I've had.

After that class, my partner and I each signed up for our own Roth IRA's and started regularly investing in them. In addition I rolled over a Traditional IRA and together we rolled over a brokerage account that we had at Charles Schwab. Over time I also rolled a 401k and we rolled over my partner's old 401k. We also were regularly investing in the joint brokerage account to increase our general levels of savings.

I really like the level of service that we get at our local Edward Jones office. I know the office manager quite well and our Financial Advisor is a good guy that we enjoy working with.

When we first started with Edward Jones we were both working and we were able to save quite a bit of money in both our Roth accounts and the joint brokerage account. I kind of think it was fate, since after a few years, I was laid off and we were not able to invest anything for a year. In fact, we had to dip into those savings to make it by several times. It was nice to be able to talk to our Financial Advisor about these trying times and to work out the best ways to take money out of the accounts. Now that we are both working again, thankfully money is going back in to the account and we are meeting with our advisor, not to plan how to take money out, but where to invest it. We had our most recent meeting a few weeks ago and usually meet with our Advisor about every six months or so, unless something comes up and we need to meet more often. Plus I can pick up the phone and talk to the office manager or our advisor any time I have a question.

Return on Investment

I would not say that Edward Jones is the most cost effective way to save, but in our case, I think it has been the best choice for us. While I know I could be investing and saving on my own through a discount brokerages, I like the personal service that we get at Edward Jones. To me, Edward Jones is a step above your typical online brokerages where you are left to do everything and for someone like my partner and I, we need that person pushing us to save and invest regularly. Having that advisor making sure we were saving sure made it easier for us to stay on track with our savings plan. I know if we had stayed with Charles Schwab, it would have been way too easy to just be like "oh we'll stop this for a while," or "oh, we'll just take some money out and not bother investing it."

Investment Choices

Edward Jones lets you invest in just about any fund, stock or bond you want, though they do tend to steer you to certain mutual fund families. These are all loaded funds, which means you will pay a purchase charge up front to cover the transaction. This eats into the money you're investing, but in our case, we thought it was worth it to have the personal access to the advisor and to have the help when we needed it for investing and savings.

In the end...

At Edward Jones you get to meet face to face with your advisor and you work out an investment plan together, which is something I really appreciate. Our funds have been doing well and I like that we get personal service from our advisor, who stays in contact almost monthly and makes sure we continue with our savings and investing.

To me, if you want a brokerage and investment service more personal than an online discount brokerage, Edward Jones is a good place to start. There are some things to consider, but overall I like having them working with us.