St Louis, Missouri-headquartered brokerage firm Edward Jones has fired general partner and chief market strategist Alan Skrainka, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Skrainka was fired in relation to the "use of [outside] written materials without giving attribution," according to the publication.

The firm reportedly confirmed that Skrainka, who had been at the brokerage since 1982, departed last Friday.

This is not the only high level departure from Edward Jones this month: Michael Sharples, a 17-year veteran of the firm who was based in Durham, North Carolina, left to work for  LPL Financial on 10 May, according to Investment News.

According to the report, Sharples was in the top 3 per cent of advisors at the brokerage in terms of the fees and commissions he brought in.

However, despite these losses, overall staff numbers at the firm will be increasing this year, as it has expressed plans to hire more than 1,100 new financial advisors and open hundreds of branches in an expansion across the US and Canada. It intends to increase its US advisor force by 1,068 people, equivalent to a rise of 9 per cent, while adding 95 net new brokers in Canada, a 14 per cent hike.