Edward Jones Adds New Tools, Products and Services Designed to Enhance the Branch and Client Experience

Milestones include more than 1,400 branch teams in new practice models in 2023

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- As it continues its transformational journey to provide deep personal relationships and more comprehensive planning and advice to clients, financial services firm Edward Jones today announced enhancements to its tools, product and service offerings along with greater flexibility, autonomy and choice in how its financial advisors work with clients.

In the past six months of 2023, the firm met key milestones including making MoneyGuide Elite available to all U.S. branch teams, enabling deeper discovery conversations with clients and more comprehensive goals-based advice. The firm also announced its intent to deliver a financial planning experience that started piloting in 2023 and will expand as an option for branches to engage with and deliver financial planning directly to their clients starting mid-2024. The pilot delivers financial planning to clients through the firm's headquarters and focuses on testing and refining the fiduciary financial planning experience that branches will be able to deliver directly to clients in the future.

Edward Jones is also rolling out enhancements to its Investment Advisory Platform such as an optional tax loss harvesting service that monitors eligible investments in certain taxable accounts for opportunities to realize losses while maintaining alignment with the client's objectives. A Portfolio Assistant tool helps financial advisors build and manage customized portfolios that are aligned to client risk objectives, enable tax advantageous strategies for clients, and save time for financial advisors. And it recently launched Financial Advisor Managed Solutions, an advisory program where clients delegate investment discretion to their financial advisor who provides ongoing investment advice and guidance.

"In addition to new tools, products and services, we are also investing in developing, retaining and growing our branch teams by offering new practice models and more flexibility, autonomy and choice in how they run their practices," said David Chubak, Head of the U.S. Business Unit at Edward Jones. "As we continue into our second century of business, we are equipping our branch teams to hone their craft – with the human-centeredness, practice management and financial acumen needed to serve millions of current and potential clients in a personalized and more complete way."

Acumen building includes helping its financial advisors and client support teams achieve professional designations such as Certified Financial Planner^™ (CFP ^®), Chartered Financial Consultant^® (ChFC^®), Certified Exit Planning Advisor ^® (CEPA^®), Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional™ (FPQP™) and Accredited Assistant Management Specialist^SM (AAMS^®). Edward Jones estimates it will exceed its goal of enrolling 2,000 financial advisors in CFP^® and ChFC^® professional designations this year.

More than 1,400 Edward Jones branch teams elected to transition to new practice models, including multi-FA offices, financial advisor teams and new roles for financial advisors and client support team members such as Associate Financial Advisor and Registered Branch Associate. The new practice models and new roles offer additional options for how clients work with their financial advisor and how branch teams work together, in addition to building capacity for branch teams and deeper experience to serve more clients more completely. With these expanded offerings and choice for financial advisors, the firm has a three percent growth objective for financial advisors in 2024, building on the momentum of financial advisors transitioning to Edward Jones due to compensation, support and flexibility in how they run their practices.

"With progress against these significant milestones in our journey, we are focused on transforming the way we work with clients and enhancing the value we're delivering to our clients and branch teams," said Chubak. "The investments we're making today will allow our financial advisors to spend more time with their clients and families and provide the more comprehensive advice they are seeking."

About Edward Jones
Edward Jones is a leading financial services firm in the U.S. and through its affiliate in Canada. The firm's more than 19,000 financial advisors serve more than 8 million clients with a total of $1.8 trillion in client assets under care at the end of September 2023. Edward Jones' purpose is to partner for positive impact to improve the lives of its clients and colleagues, and together, better our communities and society. Through the dedication of the firm's approximately 52,000 associates and our branch presence in 68% of U.S. counties, the firm is committed to helping more people achieve financially what is most important to them. The Edward Jones website is at www.edwardjones.com, and its recruiting website is www.careers.edwardjones.com. Member SIPC.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. You can identify forward-looking statements by words that predict or indicate future events, such as "intend," "goal," "projection," "seek," "will," "in the future" or similar expressions. All forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include the factors discussed in the firm's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as supplemented by the firm's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2023, June 30, 2023 and September 29, 2023. These forward-looking statements were based on information, plans, and estimates at the date of this press release, and the firm does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or new information.

SOURCE Edward Jones