Edward Jones History

Firm History

Since its inception, St. Louis-based Edward Jones has taken a personal, long-term approach to investing.

Until the mid-1950s, Edward Jones looked much like any other investment brokerage firm. In 1955, however, Edward D. "Ted" Jones Jr., son of the firm's founder, brought to life his vision of how investments should be delivered to individuals. His experience convinced him that when important financial decisions are involved, most individuals prefer to work face-to-face with a trusted professional.

Starting with the first branch office in Mexico, Mo., Ted Jones devoted his energy to building a network of small neighborhood offices, each run by a single financial advisor and full-time support person, the branch office administrator (BOA). The mission of each of those offices was the same - to provide quality investments and personal service to investors in the local community.

Back in St. Louis, the home office was organized in a hub and spoke manner to provide branches with technological, marketing and operations support. By 1980, there were more than 300 Edward Jones branch offices.

John Bachmann succeeded Ted Jones as the firm's managing partner in 1980. Under John's leadership, and continued focus on a strategic approach to investing, growth of the branch office network has continued. In 1994, the firm expanded into Canada, and in 1998 the first branch office opened in the UK. Today there are more than 10,000 offices throughout the United States, and in our Canadian and United Kingdom affiliates.

Edward Jones is the nation's only major financial services firm that retains a partnership form of ownership.

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Timeline


1916 Edward D. Jones Sr. starts work as a securities salesman for N.W. Halsy & Co. in New York.

1920 Mr. Jones becomes the manager of the St. Louis office of Blair & Co., a New York bond brokerage.

1922 Edward D. Jones Sr. establishes Edward D. Jones & Co., determined that his company will treat the salespeople as partners in the business and treat clients fairly by selling appropriate, high-quality investments. The firm's offices open in downtown St. Louis, the heart of the city's financial district.

1929 The stock market falls 12.9 percent in one day, foreshadowing the Great Depression. Following the crash, the St. Louis Stock Exchange and other regional exchanges in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Cleveland merge with the Chicago Exchange to form the Midwest Stock Exchange.


1941 Edward D. Jones Sr. purchases a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for $21,000, one of the lowest prices ever paid for an NYSE seat. Seats had sold for as high as $625,000 in 1929, the year of the stock market crash.

1941 The firm Mr. Jones founded is restructured as a partnership to comply with the New York Stock Exchange requirement that member firms have more than one company principal.

1943 Edward D. Jones & Co. merges with Whitaker & Co., a 72-year-old brokerage firm in St.Louis

1948 Edward D. "Ted" Jones Jr. joins the firm.

1955 The firm's first branch office opens in the small town of Mexico, Missouri.

1956 An automatic stock quotation board, one of only three such boards in St. Louis, is the latest technological revolution at Edward Jones.

1959 John W. Bachmann joins Edward Jones as a summer intern at the St. Louis home office, where he cleans the basement and delivers messages.

1970 John Bachmann returns to St. Louis with responsibility for long-term planning and corporate finance.

1972 Edward Jones moves to 201 Progress Parkway, an industrial park in Maryland Heights, a suburb about 20 minutes west of St. Louis. Other St. Louis-based firms indicate that it will be impossible for Edward Jones to function operationally without being downtown.

1972 John Bachmann shows uncanny vision in a memo to Ted Jones that maps out the firm's future.

1974 Ted Jones expands the partnership to provide an opportunity for those who work at the firm to share in its ownership.

1974 Doug Hill is named a principal in the firm and becomes a regional leader.

1976 Jim Weddle joins the firm as an intern working part-time in the Research department.

1977 Edward Jones reaches 200 offices.

1977 Jim Weddle moves to Connersville, Indiana to open the firm's 200th branch office.

1977 Gary Reamey, future principal responsible for Edward Jones Canada, joins the firm as a financial advisor in Morris, Illinois.

1978 Doug Hill moves from his Dodge City, Kansas, branch office to the St. Louis home office to help develop and implement formal training for the firm's financial advisors.

1979 Edward Jones enters the computer age by replacing Teletypes with Burroughs computer terminals and printers.

1980 Ted Jones realizes his dream of opening 300 offices and names John Bachmann as the firm's new managing partner.

1981 John Bachmann persuades management authority Peter Drucker (left) to consult on the firm's expansion plans. Under Drucker's encouragement, Edward Jones aggressively targets metropolitan areas for expansion of its branch-office network.

1982 Edward D. Jones Sr. dies on Oct. 10 at the age of 89.

1982 Gary Reamey leads the firm's expansion into Chicago, setting the stage for Edward Jones' expansion into metropolitan areas.

1984 As a limited partner of the firm, Jim Weddle moves to the home office in St. Louis to assume a role in Sales Training.

1986 The firm celebrates the opening of its 1,000th office, located in Stoughton, Wisconsin.

1986 John Bachmann is elected chairman of the Securities Industry Association (SIA), a government agency responsible for supervising and regulating the securities industry.

1986 Jim Weddle is named to the firm's management committee.

1987 On Monday, Oct. 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 507.99 points, a drop of 22.6 percent, the largest percentage drop of the DJIA's history, and closes at a record-breaking low of 1,738.74. The media dubs the day "Black Monday."

1987 John Bachmann is re-elected chairman of the SIA, becoming the first person in the history of the association to serve two consecutive terms.

1988 Edward Jones becomes the first firm to begin mailing dividend and interest income to clients on a daily, as-needed basis. The industry standard at the time was weekly or monthly.

1988 The firm begins building a satellite network that will allow firmwide broadcasts to air in branch offices simultaneously.

1990 Edward Jones begins planning and preparation for expansion into Canada, its first venture beyond the borders of the United States.

1990 The firm completes the installation of its private satellite network, the first of its kind in the securities industry.

1990 Ted Jones passes away on Oct. 3.

1991 John Bachmann heads the Bachmann Task Force, working with leaders in the financial industry on a regulation that will help prevent another market crash.

1992 Edward Jones purchases a large office building in west St. Louis County and undergoes a major headquarters expansion.

1992 Edward Jones opens its 2,000th branch office, located in Ocean City, New Jersey.

1992 The Bachmann Task Force recommends to the Securities and Exchange Commission a measure called T+3, which would reduce the trade settlement time from five to three business days.

1993 Edward Jones begins four years of extensive research and analysis with the London Business School to determine the feasibility of expanding operations across the Atlantic.

1994 Edward Jones Canada opens operations (left) in Mississauga, Ontario, 12 miles from Toronto, under the leadership of Gary Reamey. The firm opens six offices its first year in the country — the first in Orleans, a suburb of Ottawa.

1994 The firm's 3,000th branch office opens in Marietta, Georgia.

1995 After years of identifying itself as Edward D. Jones & Co., the firm adopts a new corporate identifier: Edward Jones. The shorter name will make it a more recognizable brand.

1995 Under John Bachmann's leadership, T+3 is implemented and becomes a model for world markets.

1995 Edward Jones buys Boone National Savings and Loan in Columbia, Missouri. The acquisition enables Edward Jones to offer trust services to clients.

1995 By the end of the year, the firm has 24 Canadian offices in Ontario and British Columbia.

1996 Edward Jones unveils its public Web site, www.edwardjones.com.

1996 Edward Jones offices are located in five of Canada's 10 provinces — Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

1996 The Dow Jones Industrial Average turns 100 years old on May 26.

1997 Edward Jones offers its first credit card.

1997 Edward Jones Limited opens operations (left) with 10 headquarters associates in Canary Wharf, an area just east of London, and eight U.S. Financial Advisors relocate to open the firm's first branch offices in Europe.

1997 The firm more than doubles its presence in Canada, growing from 44 offices to 102. The 100th Canadian offices opens in Nepean, Ontario, and more than 10,000 Canadians investors call themselves Edward Jones clients.

1998 Investment Executive magazine ranks Edward Jones the No. 1 investment firm to work for in Canada the first year the company is included in the survey.

1998 Doug Hill becomes firm's first chief operating officer.

1999 The firm opens its first offices in Scotland — ending the year with 86 branch offices in the United Kingdom. A 12,000 square foot addition for training is added to the U.K. headquarters.

1999 Romford, Essex England, is the site of Edward Jones' 5,000th branch office.

1999 Edward Jones Canada celebrates its fifth anniversary. The firm is the 10th largest investment firm in the country with 520 associates and 254 branch offices.


2000 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at an all-time high of 11,722.98 on January 14.

2000 Ground is broken on a new regional office site in Tempe, Arizona, that will house selected functions of Information Systems, Operations and the Service division.

2000 The A.F. McKenzie Training Centre is dedicated in Mississauga, Ontario, in memory of the financial advisor credited as the father of sales training at the firm. More than 400 financial advisors make up the Edward Jones Canadian sales force.

2001 The Tempe Campus in Phoenix, Arizona, opens, serving financial advisors in the western United States.

2001 Edward Jones ranks fifth in Training magazine's "Top 50" for employee career development.

2001 Investment Executive magazine names Edward Jones the No. 1 firm to work for in Canada. As the seventh largest brokerage in the country, Edward Jones tops all other investment firms for the third time in four years, sweeping 17 of 22 categories.

2001 The firm opens its 8,000th branch.

2002 Edward Jones ranks No. 1 in Fortune magazine's annual listing of "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America. This marks the firm's fourth appearance on the list, but first time at No. 1.

2002 Edward Jones buys the naming rights to St. Louis' football stadium. The facility, home to the St. Louis Rams, becomes the "Edward Jones Dome." (John Bachmann with Ram's owner Georgia Frontiere.)

2002 The Wall Street Journal ranks Edward Jones' Model Stock Portfolio No. 1 in the five-year return category and No. 2 in the one-year category for the quarter ending Sept. 30.

2002 Edward Jones ranks No. 1 among full-service brokers by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine.

2002 Edward Jones ties for first in J.D. Power and Associates' first-ever study of customer satisfaction among full-service investors

2002 Edward Jones opens five offices in Quebec, the firm's first foray into an English and French-speaking market, and projects that 500 of the 3,000 offices planned for Canada will be located in the province.

2002 Doug Hill is named to succeed John Bachmann as Edward Jones' managing partner.


2003 In it's first year of eligibility, Edward Jones ranks fourth in Report on Business Magazine's "50 Best Employers in Canada."

2003 For the second consecutive year, Edward Jones ranks No. 1 in Fortune magazine's annual listing of "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America.

2003 Registered Representative magazine ranks Edward Jones No. 1 for the 11th consecutive year in the magazine's annual brokerage ranking.


2003 There are nearly 600 Edward Jones offices in Canada. The firm continues to be recognized throughout the country as a best place to work — ranking No. 1 for the fifth year by Investment Executive magazine and No. 12 in Report on Business magazine's "50 Best Companies to Work For" in Canada.

2003 Edward Jones ranks among the best advocates for its customers, according to the "Winning the Changing Financial Consumer" study by Forrester Research. The firm, the highest-ranking brokerage named on the list, placed second in the customer advocacy ranking.

2003 Edward Jones Limited celebrates its fifth year in the U.K.

2004 Doug Hill becomes managing partner.

2004 Edward Jones celebrates its 10th anniversary in Canada, serving over 150,000 clients in Canada.

2004 For the sixth year in a row, Fortune magazine ranks Edward Jones among the "100 Best Companies to Work For" in America. The firm takes the No. 4 spot. This was the firm's sixth appearance on this prestigious list and the fifth time the firm ranking in the top 10.

2004 For the second consecutive year, Edward Jones is among the best advocates for its customers, according to a national research study of U.S. financial-services firms by Forrester Research. Edward Jones is the highest-ranking brokerage named on the list.

2004 Edward Jones retains the services of a marketing communications agency to help clarify the firm's brand and integrate global marketing communications in all media.

2004 Barron's magazine reports that for more than seven years Edward Jones' Model Stock Portfolio's long-term track record beat the performance of 13 other brokerage firms it surveyed.

2004 Edward Jones ranks as a top company for training associates, according to Training magazine's Top 100 edition.


2004 The Edward D. "Ted" Jones and Pat Jones Confluence State Park in Missouri is dedicated, marking the eastern starting point of the Katy Trail.

2005 Edward Jones ranks "Highest in Investor Satisfaction with Full Service Brokerage Firms" according to a J.D. Power and Associates study.


2005 For the eighth consecutive year, Edward Jones Canada ranks among the top five firms in Investment Executive magazine's annual ranking. This includes five No. 1 rankings and two No. 2 rankings. Edward Jones ranks No. 4 on the 2005 'Brokerage Report Card.'

2005 Edward Jones ranks No. 1 in the annual SmartMoney full-service broker survey. Edward Jones places ahead of seven other firms and scored the highest possible ranking in the four categories surveyed: customer statements, stock picking, customer satisfaction and in a trust survey.

2005 A new marketing communications campaign, "Making Sense of Investing," kicks off as part of an effort to build the Edward Jones brand.

2005 Barron's magazine reports that Edward Jones' Model Stock Portfolio ranks at No. 4 for five-year performance and No. 2 for seven-year performance among 13 other brokerage firms.

2005 Edward Jones Limited in the UK ends the year with about 140 financial advisors.

2005 Edward Jones pledges $2.5 million for Hurrican Katrina relief.

2005 The firm launches a new global recruitment campaign.

2005 Dalbar rate the Edward Jones client statement No. 1.

2005 Jim Weddle is selected as the new managing partner to succeed Doug Hill.

2005 The firm opens its third building at the Tempe Campus in Phoenix, Arizona.

2005 For the 13th consecutive year, Edward Jones ranks No. 1 on Registered Rep magazine's annual brokerage report card, with the top ranking in 14 of 20 categories.
2006 Jim Weddle become the firm's new managing partner.

2006 The firm launches a Spanish-language Web site in the US (www.edwardjones.com/espanol)

2006 For the seventh year, Edward Jones is named one of the "Best Companies to Work for in America" by FORTUNE magazine in its annual listing. The firm takes the No. 16 spot overall in the ranking. The firm also is named to the No. 4 spot for large companies. The seven FORTUNE rankings include top 10 finishes for five years and consecutive number one rankings in 2002 and 2003.