Edward Jones continued to make moves in 2025 to increase advisor headcount while trimming home-office staff, according to its annual 10-K regulatory filing.
Amid an effort to increase new offerings and retain and attract advisors, the St. Louis-based private partnership reported a 11.7% year-over-year increase in total compensation and benefits to about $12.4 billion. Some of those expenses were due to higher home-office and branch wages, healthcare costs and separation costs associated with staff cuts the firm announced to employees last March. Separately, financial advisor compensation rose partly due to commissions earned on increased revenue.
By year’s end, the firm had 20,425 advisors, about 1.5% more than the year prior, while reducing home-office staff by 4.5% to about 8,971 employees.
The results, however, came at a cost. Operating expenses rose by 11% year-over-year to $15.6 billion “primarily due to increases in compensation and benefits expense, variable compensation and communications and data processing expense.”
That cut into margins for the firm, which was working off a net revenue increase of 11% to $17.7 billion and income before allocations of $2.1 billion, up 4% from 2024.
Edward Jones started making several moves last year to strengthen its operations for advisors and clients amid increased competition from peers and the growing registered investment advisor sector. That included sweetening its limited partnership opportunities, adding new services, such as a model for serving high-net-worth clients, cash flow optimization tools and winning a years-long effort to open its own in-house bank.
Part of that push also included “Enterprise Reimagined,” a program to eliminate redundant home-office jobs, with the aim of bolstering efficiency and add new capabilities and technology.
“Our focus remains on equipping advisors with the knowledge, technology and resources needed to deliver highly personalized advice and comprehensive planning,” David Chubak, head of wealth management and field management, said in an emailed statement. “Every step we take is centered on helping clients feel more confident about their financial lives and ensuring we continue to serve them at the highest level.”
Edward Jones’ workforce comprised of 55,000 full- and part-time employees, and includes 14,916 branches—576 of which are in Canada—at the end of 2025.
The total number of branches was down from 15,198 at the end of 2024, even as Edward Jones is opening a handful of new hubs for its HNW client program, Edward Jones Generations.
Edward Jones saw assets from its roughly 9 million clients increase year over year by 14%, to $2.5 trillion. Net new assets, however, remained relatively flat compared to 2024 at $74 billion, according to the filing.
“These results reflect the confidence clients place in our financial advisors, our planning approach and our partnership model,” a spokesperson said via email. “They also demonstrate the positive impact of the firm’s ongoing investments. We are modernizing digital capabilities, expanding and diversifying our suite of products and services, and strengthening the support and leadership available to our branch teams.”
Edward Jones, like most of its peers, does not report advisor attrition.
Shelby Nichols, founder of recruiting firm Muriel Consulting, published a report on Edward Jones using data from AdvizorPro that showed about 1,458 advisors left the firm in 2025—the most since 2021.
She later posted that Edward Jones had sent her a cease-and-desist letter.
A spokesperson for Edward Jones declined to comment.
