Second quarter net new assets and household growth are both down. FAs are leaving. Home office productivity and morale are at an all-time low due to the 6 month enterprise reimagined debacle. This is a colossal failure of leadership. She has destroyed the proud culture of Edward Jones. She must go before there is nothing left.
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Service to branches is already in the toilet. Some GP genius thought outsourcing a majority of calls to a third party contracting company was a smooth move…..not! The contractors there are paid even worse than home office service associates, don’t get benefits and could care less. And I don’t blame them. It’s horrible what has happened to this firm-and all for a dollar so the GPs can buy their third or fourth vacation home. There is a hot place waiting for all of them and they deserve it for treating people this way.
@ag the issue with “lack of transparency” on the back to work in the office was that time and time again we heard “no plans of coming back into the office, productivity hasn’t dipped with wfh, etc.” Many felt lied to and that’s where the “lack of transparency” feedback came from.
If they would have said “no plans of coming back into the office YET, but that is subject to change,” that would have been different.
They took that feedback and completely swung the pendulum the opposite directly without having any actual self reflection on the actual issue with the back in office announcement, and did it with something significantly more life changing to the average associate, causing anxiety and a dark cloud over every single person for what, 6-8 months now? This has been an absolute disaster, and most would have appreciated at least some sort of an idea of a plan before being announce like they did.
Unless of course, the anxiety was part of their plan the whole time, then mission accomplished!
PP is PooPoo 💩
@bt Thanks, I appreciate the grace
@bn Already more integrity than our ELT. You can admit when you messed up instead of just shouting I AM ACCOUNTABLE into the void.
@ac is that you Batman?
I’m “ac” who asked about market impact on AUC, below. Ignore that. I reread the article. They were talking about NET new assets, not AUC. So my question is misplaced
@a5 if it was done “quickly and quietly” people would be on here ranting about the lack of transparency. The senior leaders have made their intentions clear. People may not like what they are hearing but they can’t say leadership hasn’t given them enough information and time to decide if they still want to be here.
@OP I noted yesterday’s article on AdvisorHub. Mixed figures but what’s most interesting to me is the decline in AUC. The S&P is up 14.6% over the last rolling 12 months. I assume that would ordinarily buoy AUC even without asset gathering. So are transfers out actually greater than 10% but disguised by a good market? Or has that already been adjusted in the figures?
Has PP ki-led the golden goose? Time will tell.
What I see for each stakeholder:
Clients are leaving and aging out, and EJ has been losing share for years in its stronghold (middle US). And while it’s been gaining share on the coasts (primarily with higher net worth clients), EJ is not competitive and probably won’t be for a long while.
Partners (GP or LPs), your silence is deafening. It’s time to speak up and act before it’s too late. I would anticipate lawsuits from exiting GP’s challenging the firm’s tax status (that they’re being treated as employees, not partners). If those are successful, the firm loses its pass through tax status and the goose is dead. You need to act on Penny…and now.
FA’s - get out before the consequences of this debacle are fully felt. Service disruption, chaos and poor morale are all going to plague home office for not months, but years. Not to mention transitioning work to low cost outsourced countries like India - which hasn’t even started yet…
Finally - associates, the hammer is about to drop in a few weeks. The days are gone that the firm or its leaders cared about you over the almighty dollar. There is no going back. Take your skills somewhere they’ll be appreciated (and properly compensated for).
I feel for all of these stakeholders and how they have been victimized by Penny and her cronies.
Is ER a debacle? Or is it working exactly as intended?
It is entirely possible to do a top down re-org quickly and quietly. The six months of limbo and torturing associates was a choice and intended to induce attrition.