Brockhouse achieves level of Associate Financial Advisor at Edward Jones
Story and Photos By Kyla Hurt
Frances Brockhouse is originally from the Triopia area, but now resides in Waverly with her husband, Keith. Since 2015, she has worked for the Edward Jones office of Financial Advisor Brent Bordenkircher, AAMS™ in downtown Jacksonville.
Coming up on nine years with Edward Jones, Brockhouse started as branch office administrator (BOA). After three years, she qualified to become a senior BOA. She was also briefly registered branch advisor.
As of February 2, Brockhouse is now an Associate Financial Advisor.
Over the last year and a half, Brockhouse studied and ultimately passed all the necessary testing and licensing exams — all while still working full-time at Edward Jones. “Edward Jones gave me the opportunity to become fully licensed and registered,” shares Brockhouse.
According to Edward Jones, “Associate financial advisors must obtain the required FINRA registrations and be insurance licensed in all states that the financial advisor in the branch is licensed. They must also complete all ongoing training offered by the firm and regulatory authorities and required training to maintain licenses in good standing.”
The training is tailored to Brockhouse’s role directly serving existing clients and creating value/capacity for the branch teams; it focuses on knowledge of Edward Jones branch systems and processes as well as products and services.
To sum up, it is a lot of work.
“I drug her into it,” jokes Bordenkircher.
He continues, advocating for Brockhouse: “Knowing the job and then knowing the background … I saw her ability to do the job.”
Bordenkircher says the industry has changed so significantly away from being product-based to being relationship-based. It’s important to know about the client to ensure making the correct recommendations.
The Associate Financial Advisor (AFA) helps tailor and personalize clients’ experiences on their path to financially achieving the things that matter most.
Adding Brockhouse is one way for Bordenkircher to confirm his office can serve the clientele best.
“I had a unique opportunity to add an extra layer of support, basically, here at the office,” clarifies Brockhouse.
AFAs are fully licensed FAs who, under the guidance of the financial advisor, work one-on-one with clients, develop recommendations, execute orders, open accounts, et cetera.
The AFA also has some leadership responsibilities — they delegate/assign work, empower the team to learn and develop, continually develop themselves and actively business plan.
“We took the extra step, to where she is fully licensed under my leadership, and she can not only execute trades for [clients] but also assess [client] risk profile and recommend solutions,” summarized Bordenkircher. “She is fully able to do everything that I do.”
Especially with something that might be time sensitive, the addition of Brockhouse is paramount; the team at Bordenkircher’s Edward Jones office has the ability to be more proactive and not reactive, and more one-on-one conversation with clientele is possible.
“It only makes us all better,” says Bordenkircher.
“It adds an extra layer of support,” adds Brockhouse, who says she feels like she is now really able to help their clients with her recent designation as AFA.
Brockhouse is excited about her new role, sharing, “At the end of the first week, I had done something to really help a client, and it just made me feel like it was all worth it.”
The Edward Jones office of Brent Bordenkircher is located in downtown Jacksonville at 25 S. Central Park Plaza — or contact the office at 217-243-3111.
