Eric, tell us a little about yourself.
Why Edward Jones?
Please describe your typical client.
What sets you apart from other financial professionals?
How does the 5-step asset management process work?
How do you help your clients identify their goals?
Please share with us why you believe diversification is so important.
Do your clients have to use the 5-step asset management process?
Eric, how do you get paid?
Is there anyone you can't work with?

Q:  Eric, tell us a little about yourself.
A:  Well, as you know, I am a financial advisor for Edward Jones.  I live in Irvine, California with my wife Jill and my son Preston.  My office is in Newport Beach, California.  I have been with Edward Jones since 2005, and manage assets for several hundred clients throughout the United States.
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Q:  Why Edward Jones?
A:  When I first decided to go into this line of work, I interviewed at several brokerages.  The design of Edward Jones was - and still is - the best fit for me.  The business model allows me to be the most client-centered advisor that I can be.  My office is easily accessible to local clients, who can always feel free to drop by and say hello.  For my clients who are not local, my office has a direct line ... so there is never a call center or phone system you have to go through.  Along with that, Edward Jones provides a full-time office administrator who is dedicated to enhancing the client experience.  Along with answering the phones, making sure that we have all the paperwork we need from clients, and handling my calendar, the office administrator also acts as the first line of excellent client service.  This allows me to be fully focused on providing for my clients' financial needs.
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Q:  Eric, please describe for us your typical client.
A:  That's a great question.  My clients range from young investors who are just getting started to retired investors who need to ensure the safety of their income streams and investments.  The main quality that all of my clients have in common is that they are all serious investors who have long-term outlooks for their portfolios.  I will not take on a client who wants to "dabble" with investing, and I refuse to manage accounts for clients who want to day trade, buy option and futures, commodities, or IPOs.  If you want to gamble, go to Vegas.  If you are serious about your retirement money, then I can help you set goals, analyze where you are today in reference to those goals, and then set a realistic road map in place to help you get from point A to point B.  That's what I do every day for my clients.
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Q:  What do you believe sets you apart from other financial professionals?
A:  Well, it's not the investments!  Edward Jones has no proprietary investments.  In other words, Edward Jones does not create its own investments.  There are no Edward Jones mutual funds, ETFs, etc.  Instead, I am able to pick from the best investments available and offer them to my clients, without incentive or any type of conflict of interest.  That said, because the investments I offer are not proprietary, you can get them anywhere.  So it's not the investments that set me apart.  I believe that the core of what makes me different is the service.  The reality is that my main job is to help my clients identify their goals, determine where they are in relation to their goals, and then lay out a road map to get them from where they are today to where they want to be in the future.  Investments are the tools that I use to help my clients achieve their goals, but they are not the core of what I do.  I think that makes me very different from others in the financial industry.
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Q:  Eric, you always mention the "5-step asset management process."  How does that work?
A:  The 5-step asset management process is a system that has been developed by Edward Jones.  I have fully implemented the system into my branch office, and my clients love it!  The five step process is:
        Gather Data
        Establish Goals
        Analyze Information
        Make and Implement Recommendations
        Review Performance
The most important aspect of this process is that investments don't come in until you get to step 4.  As a result, the client has a full understanding of why they are investing, and we can speak about the investments that I suggest in reference to their goals, something which is rarely done by other advisors.
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Q:  How do you help clients identify their goals?  That seems to be a main theme of what you do.
A:  When it comes to helping my client identify goals, I have some great tools available to me.  Edward Jones provides for our clients a system which we call FAST, which stands for Financial Assessment and Solutions Tools.  Using FAST, I can provide a client with a full picture of their financial situation.  We usually start by giving them an outline of what we call their "Financial Statements."  This includes their net worth (which almost nobody knows, but is extremely important in planning your finances), cash flow, debt to income, and several other key factors.  We then go through a system called "Concept Profiler."  This system, based on my interactions with the clients and their answers to some questions in the FAST system, creates a rough outline for me to follow with the client.  From there, I work with the client to create a step-by-step process to tackle their investment needs, which often include retirement, education planning, survivor needs and debt management.  The greatest aspect of the FAST system is that, unlike other firms, we don't charge to prepare all of these reports for our clients, potentially saving them hundreds or thousands of dollars.
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Q:  Another topic you always mention is diversification.  Please share why you feel it is so important.
A:  Mike, you are a perfect example of why diversification is so important.  In the late 90s and early 2000s, your advisor had your portfolio invested in around 85% tech stocks.  When the internet bubble burst, your portfolio value dropped just a little over 50% in less than 4 months.  Then, again, in late 2007, a different advisor had you invested in about 70% financial stocks.  Again, your portfolio value was cut in half in less than a few months.  First of all, this is not your fault.  You trusted the advisors and they did not provide for you as they should have.  They did not have your holdings diversified.  I tell my clients all the time that there are things we can't control and there are things we can control.  We can't control interest rates, the dollar, the cost of oil, when the next scandal will be, and many other factors.  However, we can control the quality of our investments, and we can control the diversification of our portfolio.  Diversification is important because by having a mix of investments that range all the way from no-risk cash to higher-risk international investments, and everything in between, we can mitigate our chance of losses and we can take advantage of growth.  Of course, diversification does not guarantee growth, but if you look at historical trends, diversified portfolios have provided the most stable returns.
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Q:  Do your clients have to use the 5-step process?  What if they just want you to invest their money?
A:  Clients do not have to use the process, but I highly recommend it.  Investing without a plan is like saying 'I'm going to drive to the other side of the country, but I'm not going to figure out how to get there first.'  That said, sometimes clients do like to come up with their own plans, or they may simply not want to go through the process.  I will say, however, that there is certain information that I require my clients to share with me at a minimum.  In the end, I am responsible for making appropriate recommendations, and I do have to know some information in order to do that.
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Q:  Eric, how do you get paid?
A:   Let me start by talking about how I don't get paid.  Clients are never charged for consultations, nor do we ever charge for things like 'account research,' 'transfer services' or any of the other 'nickel and dime you to death' fees you see at some other institutions.  Instead, my clients work with me on either a commission or fee basis.  One of the first things I do with new clients is discuss with them the differences between our commission and fee structures.  Then we determine which programs they will qualify for.  Once we have that figured out, we do an in-depth discovery process to determine, based on the clients risk tolerances, expectations, and personal preferences, which investment system is best for them.  Of course, the system we choose has to match the road map we've put in place, so that is also a major consideration.  In the end, I make sure that the client is fully aware of every cost that is associated with working through my office before ever investing their money.
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Q:  Eric, is there anyone you can't work with?
 A:  There is rarely a situation where I can't work with someone.  I will often get calls from people who have been referred to me and who live in states where I am not currently licensed.  Fortunately, my license is acceptable in all states, so the process of getting licensed in a state usually only takes a few days.  In the mean time, if the person wants to set up their accounts so that everything is in place once the license is accepted, we can certainly take care of the administrative work to do so.  I just can't speak about investments until the state recognizes me.
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