The roll-out of planning tools is designed to help advisors improve the discovery process, and build and manage clients' financial plans. The firm also announced that it has taken a minority stake in a business catering to first responders and government employees.

Financial-services firm Edward Jones, which is 100 years’ old, announced today that it is investing $1 billion this year in technology infrastructure, digital initiatives, virtual business enablement tools, and a variety of test and learn pilot programs designed to grow its impact and deepen client and financial advisor relationships.

Edward Jones is implementing planning tools with Envestnet | MoneyGuide, which will help its advisors deepen the discovery process and begin to build and manage financial plans with their clients. MoneyGuide capabilities will allow branch teams to address a broader range of client needs and goals beyond retirement and education, the firm said in a statement. 

Financial advisors in the US will test and learn about other ways Edward Jones might integrate MoneyGuide tools in the future with a goal of scaled adoption by 2025. 

The firm said that its advisors in the US and Canada are piloting new prototypes that could be scaled to Edward Jones' nearly 19,000 financial advisors and more than 7 million clients across North America. 

As part of the development, the business has appointed David Chubak to guide the firm toward “human-centered complete wealth management.”

Chubak is joining from Citigroup's retail services where he provided products and services for Citi's retail consumers. Prior to this, he oversaw Citibank's US retail-banking arm during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Edward Jones is on a multi-year journey to fundamentally shift value creation for our more than 7 million clients, 50,000 colleagues and the thousands of communities we serve," Kristin Johnson, chief transformation and human resources officer, said. 

Acquisition
The firm has also acquired a minority interest in Mesa, Arizona-based Public Safety Financial, which owns a registered investment advisor that serves first responders and government employees. 

The Jones Financial Companies (the parent company of Edward Jones) ended 2021 with $1.8 trillion of client assets under care, a $276 billion increase from 2020, due to increases in the market value of client assets, as well as the cumulative impact of net new assets. The firm's net revenue in 2021 was $12.3 billion, a 22 per cent increase compared with 2020.