As a current Jones FA, I can confidently say that there has been a steady decay in the trust of Penny and her executive team. Under her “leadership” the firm has declined in every area except AUM. Under her “stewardship” the firm has gone from getting caught with its pants down during COVID in terms of operational capability and business continuity — from which it still has yet to recover — has had one disastrous technology rollout after another — in which capabilities have been net negative due to an ignorant yet slavish devotion to a dangerous sprint philosophy in which the field and live customer relationships are the beta testers of processes, tools and applications that are nowhere near ready to touch a live investor or their money — has had one knee-je-k panicky reaction after another to a slew of high performers leaving what all but the most diehard Kool Aid drinkers see as a complete cultural and market identity collapse waiting to happen, has overseen the complete decimation of Home Office support structures and personnel, all while the leadership team agrees to give each other asinine compensation packages and bonuses that simply aren’t tied to any measurable reality. As a result, Jones is now a less capable, less efficient, and less productive firm that, in an extremely anti-fiduciary policy, pushes more of its proprietary Bridge Builder mutual funds into portfolios that can absolutely wreck investors with massive potential capital gains taxes if they dare try to leave, and which tells clients that while buy and hold is the best long-term investment strategy they need to do so from within fee based accounts that start at 1.4% a year and, gulp, are now going to be charged an additional $3,600 a year for the privilege of financial planning conducted using neutered planning software that’s stripped of almost all of its functionality because the firm doesn’t think its advisors are smart enough to have fully functioning platforms. I mean, you can’t write a movie script that would do a better job of showing a sinking ship slowly dipping beneath the water manned by a bevy of captains shouting loudly that not only is there nothing to be worried about but that you should also not believe your eyes because the ship is actually picking up speed and sailing better than ever.
And all of this combined is a recipe for disaster. Which is why so many Jones advisors are heading for the lifeboats, despite the shouting of Penny and her leadership team.