Edward Jones Saw Uptick in Senior Advisor Exits in 2025: Report

Advisors with at least 10 years at Edward Jones accounted for 35% of exits from the firm in 2025. More than 500 long-tenured advisors exited Edward Jones, compared with 322 the prior year, the Muriel Consulting report said.

More than 73% of those long-tenured advisors left the industry, while the rest moved to other firms, the report showed. The number moving to other firms, 133, represented a slight decrease from 2024.

Using data from AdvizorPro, Muriel reported that Edward Jones saw nearly 6,000 advisors exit from 2021 through 2025; among them, over 3,200, or 55%, affiliated with other firms, while the rest left the industry.

"Advisor exits rose steadily over the five-year period and peaked in 2025," with substantively more long-tenured exits, the report said. In 2021, advisors with at least 10 years at the firm accounted for 21% of departures, compared with 35% last year.

"They dramatically increased in 2025 versus every other year that I studied," Muriel CEO Shelby Nicholl, who earlier worked at Edward Jones for nearly nine years, told ThinkAdvisor in a recent interview.

Besides retirements, "there is a core group that is moving firms," she said.

Many of the advisors who left Edward Jones landed at high-profile firms such as LPL Financial, Ameriprise, Merrill, Fidelity and Raymond James, according to Muriel.

"For the vast majority of exits, we find the common element at the landing places to be book ownership," the report said. "Book ownership is unavailable at Edward Jones."

Nicholl suggested that significant changes at Edward Jones in recent years, including technology rollouts and the firm's first home-office layoffs, may be driving exits.

The departures also may represent a talent pool for an RIA industry facing an expected labor shortage, she said, citing an opportunity to hire licensed early-tenure advisors who exit Edward Jones.

"I think many of the people who fall out at Edward Jones may not be the type that can go out and acquire clients, build clients in those early years of their tenure," she said. "It doesn't mean that they can't be amazing advisors in other capacities for investors."

Anecdotally, the consultancy sees a pattern where high-performing Edward Jones advisors move to the independent broker-dealer segment first and the RIA channel later, the report said, noting that many advisors use independent broker‐dealers to claim ownership of their businesses, then reassess whether and when a full RIA transition makes sense.

"Advisors who move, especially those with experience, are not escaping the industry," the report said. "They are redeploying their businesses. They understand that what they've built has value beyond the firm, and they choose models that allow them to own, shape and ultimately control that value."

Muriel, which recently produced a report on LPL and plans more this year, suggests that advisors look at such data when considering leaving a firm.

Nicholl reported on the Muriel website that she received a cease-and-desist letter from Edward Jones' legal counsel March 4 concerning public comments about the research findings she had made on LinkedIn in late February, calling them misleading and defamatory.

"As you know or should know, the data you report regarding Edward Jones advisor departures is in fact entirely consistent with the well-known, industry-wide trend in retirements, as reflected in voluminous industry data and coverage regarding the constriction of the financial advisor marketplace because of retirements," the letter to Nicholl stated.

An Industry Trend

AdvizorPro, citing its own recent industry report, noted on its blog in February that advisor mobility sped up in 2025. The biggest shift industrywide came from advisors who moved from one broker-dealer to another, with the second-largest group moving between RIA firms, the data show.

A separate AdvizorPro report found that more than 69,000 advisors switched firms last year.

"Channel transitions are not random. They reflect structural shifts in advisor preferences, payout models, ownership incentives, and long-term growth strategies," the AdvizorPro blog post by Cole Cummings says.

"For recruiters and platform executives, this underscores the importance of precision targeting. Not all channels present equal opportunity. Understanding where advisors originate and where they are statistically likely to move creates a meaningful competitive edge," the post said.

A 'Strong Workforce'

Edward Jones had no comment on the Muriel Consulting report. A spokesperson, via email, said that the firm recently released its annual report, which shows "a strong workforce of 55,000 people." The firm also said that " investment in associate development and wellbeing remains a priority."

The company ended 2025 with 20,425 advisors serving more than 9 million clients, the firm noted.

"Our results this year underscore not only the strength and stability of those client relationships, but also the essential role financial advisors play in helping clients navigate market complexity, plan for the future, and stay on track toward their long-term goals," the spokesperson said.

Consistent with industry standards, Edward Jones said, the firm no longer reports advisor attrition percentages. "Our focus is on year‑over‑year headcount and the continued growth of our financial advisor population, which provides a clearer and more accurate view of the strength of our advisor team."

Credit: Shutterstock