Edward Jones Review: What to Know When Choosing a Financial Advisor
Edward Jones is the largest financial advisory firm in the U.S. by number of advisors.
In fact, there are nearly as many Edward Jones offices (15,000) in the U.S. and Canada as there are Starbucks locations (18,000).
That scale has made Edward Jones one of the most recognizable names in wealth management and a popular choice among people who prefer the face-to-face experience of working with a local advisor backed by a national firm.
However, despite those potential benefits, I generally don't recommend Edward Jones.
Based on conversations with former Edward Jones' advisors, it seems the company is run more like a sales organization than a true advisory firm, with a heavy focus on bringing in new clients and placing them into templated portfolios filled with high-fee investment products.
Your exact experience will vary significantly depending on the advisor you work with. Some Edward Jones advisors are excellent. But even the best advisors at the firm are limited in how much customization and depth of service they can provide compared to a high-quality independent financial advisor.
In many cases, you'll likely receive more personalized advice, broader planning capabilities, and lower overall fees by working with an independent firm instead.*
*In fact, many of Edward Jones' top advisors eventually leave to start or join independent RIAs where they have more flexibility and can offer clients a wider range of solutions.
Here's what you should know before deciding whether Edward Jones is the right fit for you.
What is Edward Jones?
Edward Jones is a financial advisory company founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922.
The company took a unique approach to its growth, opening branches in small- and medium-sized cities across the United States and Canada. Today, there are more than 20,000 Edward Jones advisors operating out of over 15,000 offices.
This network has allowed it to establish massive reach and brand reputation across North America while still maintaining the 1:1 relationship style and accessibility of local advisors.
In all, Edward Jones advisors serve more than 9 million clients and manage over $2.4 trillion in assets.
Is Edward Jones a franchise?
No, Edward Jones is not a franchise. Every branch is wholly owned by the company, not by the financial advisor working out of that office.
However, each financial advisor does operate independently, managing their own book of business and generating their own profit and loss statements.
This hybrid approach provides financial advisors with the independence of running their own business while also receiving the support of a larger firm.
Edward Jones advisors earn a percentage of the revenue generated from their clients' accounts. Advisors who have been with the company for more than five years earn between 36–40% of their revenue generated.
How does Edward Jones work?
Target clientele
Edward Jones primarily caters to individual investors and local business owners.
While most advisors won't turn away any potential clients, they're generally aiming for middle- or upper-income earners or people with moderate-to-high net worths.
Minimum investment requirements range from $0 to $500,000, depending on the type of account and level of service you choose.
Service levels
Edward Jones offers three main service levels:
- Select Accounts: This is a basic account with no minimum investment. It's a self-guided option, meaning you have the final say in all decisions. You can invest in stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and annuities. You can reach out to your advisor to ask for advice but you won't have the same level of service as you would with a Guided account.
- Guided Solutions: With this level, the decision-making is still yours, but you will receive more research and guidance from your advisor. Your account will have “guardrails” and automatic rebalancing so you don't have to worry about accidentally getting too far from your target allocations. There is a minimum investment of $25,000 and you will be billed based on the assets in your account.
- Advisory Solutions: The Advisory level is Edward Jones' high-touch, done-for-you tier of portfolio management and tax planning services. There is a $25,000 or $300,000 / $500,000 minimum investment, depending on whether you choose its Fund Model or its Unified Management Account (UMA) Model.
You can read more about the fees below, but first, let's cover the different investment models.
Investment models
If you select the Advisory Solutions at Edward Jones, you will have the option to invest in either its Fund Models or its Unified Management Account (UMA) Models.
Fund Models
After determining your portfolio's objective (based on your age, risk tolerance, income needs, and total portfolio value), your advisor will help you choose from over 90 Fund Models, which contain unique mixes of mutual funds and ETFs.
The Fund Models are reviewed and rebalanced regularly to keep them in line with the research team's criteria. There is a minimum investment of $25,000.
UMA Models
After determining your portfolio's objective, your money will be invested into a combination of mutual funds, ETFs, and separately managed accounts (or SMAs, which are professionally managed portfolios of individual stocks and bonds).
There are five UMA Models:
- Growth & Income
- Balanced Toward Growth
- Growth Focus
- Income Focus
- Balanced Toward Income
The first three have minimum investments of $300,000, while the latter two have minimums of $500,000.
Regardless of which UMA Model you choose, your account will be monitored and automatically rebalanced if it drifts too far from your target asset allocation.
While clients are placed into an investment model based on the results of their profile questionnaire, they are all pre-built portfolios that lack the depth and individualization of an investment strategy you may receive at a higher-touch independent advisory.
Fee structure
Clients pay various fees depending on which service level they're in — Select Accounts, Guided Solutions, or Advisory Solutions — and which assets they buy, sell, and hold in their portfolios.
Here's a breakdown:
Select Accounts
-
Trading commissions: Select Accounts are charged commissions every time they buy and sell an asset. The commission varies depending on the type of asset that is traded, but stock trades begin at 2.50% (larger trades are subject to lower fees).
Guided Solutions and Advisory Solutions
- Program Fees: Program Fees cover your financial advisor's services, trading costs, performance reporting, evaluation and selection of investments by the research team, and other services. These fees begin at 1.35% (additional invested assets are subject to lower fees) .
- Platform Fees: Platform Fees cover the support and maintenance of accounts on the platform, such as trading and risk tools, training and education, and ongoing platform development. These fees begin at 0.05% (additional invested assets are subject to lower fees).
Here's a look at its tiered fee structure for Program and Platform Fees:
| Program Fees | Platform Fees | |
| First $250,000 | 1.35% | 0.05% |
| Next $250,000 | 1.30% | 0.05% |
| Next $500,000 | 1.20% | 0.04% |
| Next $1,500,000 | 1.00% | 0.03% |
| Next $2,500,000 | 0.80% | 0.02% |
| Next $5,000,000 | 0.60% | 0.01% |
| Over $10,000,000 | 0.50% | 0.00% |
Additionally, each account is subject to the internal expenses of the mutual funds and ETFs owned in the portfolio.
For example, Edward Jones' mutual funds may include front-end load fees (a one-time charge for the initial purchase) as high as 5.75%, 12b-1 fees (an annual fee for marketing and selling the fund) as high as 1.00%, and expense ratios from 0.73–3.07%.
Altogether, clients can end up paying exceptionally high fees.
One advisor calculated that clients who had moved from Edward Jones to his firm were paying, on average, 2.37% in fees per year before switching — more than double what most independent advisors charge.
You can see the complete fee schedule here, mutual fund fees here, and the commission schedule here.
Is Edward Jones a fiduciary?
Notably, Edward Jones advisors are not fiduciaries, which means they are not legally required to put their clients' needs ahead of their own.
They also are not "fee-only" advisors, which means they receive commissions for the investment products they place their clients in. This may incentivize them to recommend higher-fee-earning investments that aren't necessarily the most suitable for your portfolio.
To their credit, Edward Jones openly admits in its compensation disclosure that its fee structure could lead to conflicts of interest. However, more could be done.
While some of their advisors choose to operate as if they are fiduciaries anyway, this certainly isn't the case for all of them.
Why I don't recommend working with Edward Jones
Despite having a solid reputation, a large presence in North America, and local advisors you can meet with face-to-face, I don't recommend working with Edward Jones.
Here's why.
1. Templated portfolios
New clients are asked to take a quiz which covers their age, risk tolerance, income needs, and total portfolio value. Based on their answers, and what service tier they select, they will be placed into a pre-built investment strategy (known as a “model”).
While these models do a pretty good job of asset allocation, they're far from the highly tailored plans you'd receive from a good independent advisor.
Edward Jones advisors are confined to using these templated models — they do not have the freedom or investment options to build unique plans.
2. Low-touch service model
Edward Jones advisors are limited to using the firm's pre-built investment models and script-like approach to plan building.
This model allows advisors to manage a large number of clients efficiently, but it also leads to a more standardized experience where recommendations are based more on firm templates than the specific nuances of a client's situation.
In practice, that often means less customization around areas like tax strategy, estate planning coordination, concentrated stock positions, business ownership, or more advanced portfolio construction.
3. Fees not aligned with investors' interests
As highlighted above, Edward Jones charges a wide variety of fees including commissions, management fees, platform fees, and internal mutual fund expenses.
In all, Edward Jones clients should expect to pay at least 2% per year in fees — about double the industry average.
Additionally, Edward Jones advisors are not fiduciaries, which means they're not required to act in their clients' best interests.
And since advisors make their money as a percentage of revenue generated on their clients' accounts, they may be tempted to recommend higher-fee investments that aren't necessarily the best fit for their clients' portfolios.
Conversely, most independent financial advisors charge around 1% annual fees and do not receive kickbacks or commissions for the investment products they recommend (these are known as “fee-only” advisors).
Alternatives to Edward Jones
Here are a few alternatives you may consider instead of Edward Jones.
1. Independent financial advisors
If you want to hire an expert to manage your finances for you, you should look for an independent advisor who is a fee-only fiduciary.
Unlike one of the generic models Edward Jones will put you in, a good financial advisor will build a unique plan from scratch for each of their clients. These plans are tailored to the clients' exact needs and financial goals.
In addition to investment management services, a good advisor will provide tax planning, insurance recommendations, and advice on real estate or other investments.
Plus, most will only charge 0.70–1.20% — much lower than Edward Jones' total fees.
Scratch Capital is a fee-only fiduciary advisor located in Boise, ID. The firm servces clients across the U.S. I interviewed Drew Lunt, the firm's founder and lead financial advisor, for this article.
You can get a free, custom financial plan built by Drew by filling out this form.
Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. We may receive compensation if you take action through it.
2. Self-directed investing
If you don't want to pay the fees for a professional advisor and have the willingness to learn how to manage your own money, you should consider becoming your own advisor.
There are countless books, podcasts, and videos that will teach you how to manage your own portfolio. The information is out there — you just need a willingness to learn.
You can use an online brokerage like Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, or Public to start investing for free (or close to it), and see this article for one of the simplest ways to invest.
3. Robo-advisors
Alternatively, if you're not interested in learning how to do it yourself and don't mind having a basic templated portfolio, you could choose a robo-advisor.
While you still won't get a truly personalized strategy, you can get roughly the same level of service as Edward Jones — minus the face-to-face interaction — for 0.25–0.50% in annual fees.
If you're young and want to take a set-it-and-forget-it approach, a robo-advisor might be a great option (I like Betterment).
Pros and cons of working with Edward Jones
Below is a summary of the pros and cons of working with Edward Jones, in my opinion:
| Pros | Cons |
| Convenience of working with a local advisor | Generic portfolios not tailored to your specific situation |
| You will always work with and be able to reach a real, human advisor | Expensive, commission-based investment products and many other miscellaneous fees |
| The company has an established reputation and many locations | May receive low-touch service due to your advisor having too many clients |
| Advisors receive commissions for the investment products they recommend | |
| Advisors are not fiduciaries |
Final verdict
Your experience working with Edward Jones will vary dramatically based on the specific advisor you work with. Some are much more knowledgeable and take better care of their clients than others.
However, even the good advisors would be able to serve you much better if they weren't hamstrung by the limited investment options, high fees, and sales-first business model of Edward Jones.
For these reasons, rather than working with an advisor from Edward Jones, I would recommend working with an independent advisor instead.
