Seeking Feedback on Edward Jones Financial Advisors

We Like our EJ FA from Oak Forest.

My family and I have been using Edward Jones in Romeoville for quite sometime right now and are very pleased. The customer service is awesome and he is a really great guy. He can't perform miracles in the stock market but is always their to give you his best advise and I truly believe he cares.

I would give two thumbs up for my Edward Jones advisor. His name is Josh Westerfield and he works in Carol Stream on Schmale Road. He's young, smart, honest, and attentive. I sort of found him by accident (I think it was a God thing, but whatever) and I needed to move a 401-K and I really liked how he explained everything. Now, however, I think it's more like a 104-K. Oh well. Not his fault. lol

Wow, you had one response with a really negative outlook on advisors. I know your request is already almost 6 months old, but just in case you had a bad taste in your mouth about financial advisors, I thought I'd respond too.

Financial advisors are not solely employed to "make you money" - they help you MANAGE your money in a way that's consistent with your goals. They help you determine how much insurance you need, what company will offer the best prices/plans, how much you need to save to reach your retirement goals, what the best vehicles are for those savings, estate planning, trust services, etc.

I think that Yvette's husband may be thinking of advisors that strictly offer stock advice. Very few people were actually making large amounts of money over the last 6 months in the market, but if you were working with an advisor that knows your goals (are you a conservative investor? agressive? will your spouse continue to work if something happens to you? are you planning on having more kids? how much do you want to save for retirement?) you'll be better aligned to meet those goals than if you were doing it on your own.

Also, yes advisors get paid on the business they do. Whether they're fee based or not, or if you were doing it on your own, you'd still be paying some sort of fee. For example, you decide to invest in mutual funds on your own, not only are you paying the sales load on those mutual funds, you're likely paying a transaction fee through whatever service you're using. There are also annual maintenance fees, which (depending on the fund company) may be assessed per position, or per account.

Does it make sense for you to pay 5% sales charge and $7-$30 per trade, plus $50/yr for each position(these are just examples, but they're not unrealistic at all) and not get ANY guidance as to what sort of asset-allocation your risk tolerance indicates? Even direct-sold stuff has management fees. Do you think that the fund companies are letting you buy and sell their securities for free? Read the prospectus.

Whether it be Edward Jones or another company like Northwestern Mutual (which also offers insurance products), it's a good idea to meet with someone. Best of luck!