Edward Jones meets investor needs
In a challenging year of high unemployment, bank failures and financial market turmoil, Edward Jones grew to meet the needs of individual investors, adding several hundred new financial advisors and expanding its headquarters, according to Gretchen Morse, financial advisor in Presque Isle.
The firm began 2009 with 12,155 financial advisors and ended it with 12,615. A significant number are women, a result of the firm’s Women Initiative for New Growth Strategies (WINGS), launched in 2008 to recruit, hire and retain new female financial advisors. About 25 percent of new financial advisors now hired at Edward Jones are women.
While the corporate world was shaken by layoffs, pay cuts and retrenchment, Edward Jones did not lay off one associate and continued to hire financial advisors. The firm not only endured one of the worst market cycles in its 87-year history but earned a profit and continued its long-standing practice of sharing those profits with associates.
Once again, 2009 was a year of accolades for Edward Jones’ workplace practices and face-to-face approach to investment advice.
For the 10th year, Edward Jones was named one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” by FORTUNE magazine in its annual listing in 2009. The firm took the No.2 overall spot in the FORTUNE ranking and was named to the No.1 spot for large companies.
For the 17th consecutive year, Registered Representative, a trade magazine, rated Edward Jones No.1 among the nation’s leading brokerages in its anonymous survey of the firm’s own brokers. The magazine randomly selects financial advisors nationwide and asks them to rank their firms in various categories.
Edward Jones also ranked highest in investor satisfaction among full-service brokerage firms in the J.D. Power and Associates 2009, 2007, 2006 and 2005 Full-Service Investor Satisfaction studies.
“Clients appreciate the Edward Jones approach to investing,” said Morse. “They enjoy personalized, face-to-face investment advice designed to help them accomplish such financial goals as sending children to college and achieving a comfortable retirement. We spend time educating our clients and recommending sound, quality investments that work for them. Our branches are conveniently located where they live and work.”
In 2010, Edward Jones financial advisors will continue to help clients work towards their investment goals, whether financial markets rise or fall under their feet.
“Edward Jones relies on tried and true principles and long-term investment decisions,” Morse said. “We help our clients understand that short-term events occur, but that solid long-term plans will endure.”
Morse’s office is located at 455 Main Street in Presque Isle. Her phone number is 764-0802.
