Pros
Working in an office with only one other person. Flexibility with work schedule. Room to grow,learn & advance. Great benefits with health, dental, HSA including a match in addition to profit sharing and limited partnership offerings. I get to plan my day & prioritize tasks so every day is different. It is rewarding to help people and build relationships with the clients. I am not just a number here and I have wonderful work/life balance. I feel appreciated and rewarded. Lots of community involvement & volunteer work is rewarded as EDJ donates a lot of money each year to charities of our choice. As a previous Sr BOA I felt capped out in career potential and income so I am very happy they released new roles to allow us to get our licenses and advance without becoming a FA as the only other option.
Cons
The biggest con is if you are hired by a FA that doesn’t have the same goals as you for growing the business & yourself you will possibly never reach what you hope to earn. It may not be a career path because the FA has control over that. The firm hires you at a low hourly rate as they claim it is incentive based with bonus potential. In all of the admin support roles you have zero control over those potential bonuses. It is based on profitability which the FA is responsible for and how much of their bonus they choose to share with you. The firm matches up to 10% of the FA’s bonus and I would say most FA’s do share 10% but if they do not allow you to see their P&L you do not know for certain what they are giving you. In addition they can give you up to 100% of their bonus but most admins don’t know this. If you work with a FA that you don’t get along with you are basically stuck. EDJ doesn’t train them how to be leaders or how to manage people and they have a lot of control of that office with no day to day supervision. If there is conflict or mistreatment you can reach out to HR but it is your word against their word. If you want to leave to work at another location there has to be an opening and if that branch is a lower level you will sacrifice your bonuses to do so. I have worked for 2 advisors and I am lucky they are both fair and good people. EDJ is a wonderful firm that cares about it’s employees but the advisors have too much control when they constantly preach that we are their business “partner” not their secretary. The advisors I work with treats me as an equal in every aspect and is extremely generous with bonus & growth opportunities so I will never leave. I got lucky!