How can someone in the retail financial advising world NOT know who Bogle is, at the least to counter the arguments?
...
Me: if your income is less than 78k (Married Filing Jointly) than your capital gains (most of our income) is taxed at 0 %. The rest is taken care of by the MFJ 24k deduction.
EJ adviser: Really? where's that found?
Me: line 11 of the 1040 capital gains worksheet
EJ adviser: Mmmmmm (suspicious disbelief)
As I described in my previous post, I worked at EJ right out of college. When we took the General Securities license we had to get at least a 72. When I got a 92 I was told I studied too hard, I could have spent more time knocking on doors. Selling>knowledge at EJ.
Tax efficiency/asset location: never covered at EJ.
Backdoor Roth strategy: was covered, and half way through the explanation it was clear 1/3 of the room didn't fully understand how Roth IRA contributions and withdrawals work. These were people who had already been signing up clients for months.
Impact of cost on investing: nope
How to actually pick a mutual fund, pick a stock, or construct a portfolio: "Sell whatever your mentor is selling."
Tax brackets: nope.
How long term capital gains are taxed: nope
Summary: It was a joke. Learn just enough to pass the licensing exam (which isn't much, it's the exact same exam someone would have to pass to work on a customer service phone line at Fidelity), and then start cold calling. People would say they didn't feel comfortable giving advice yet. "It says Financial Advisor on your business card. People will take you seriously." Basically, fake it until you make it.
If the advisor read one of John Bogle's books he would have either quit the following day or come to terms with selling his soul. One of the best decisions of my life was leaving EJ.
There was someone on here a couple years ago who was offered a job with EJ, but they had to bring a list of 200 friends and family with them to the table (I assume to add to their cold call database). I don't know if sales commissions are still their primary pay model, but it was as recently as 3 years ago.
They didn't do that when I was there, in 09-10. Instead, we were given a piece of paper and we had to go door to door collecting phone numbers and information. Going door to door was the expectation for the first few years working there so it was a good interview/expectation setting process.