Edward Jones has acquired a minority stake in Quicken, the personal finance software company, to integrate its budgeting and investment tracking capabilities into the firm's network of more than 20,000 financial advisors. The move is part of a broader transformation effort at the St. Louis-based brokerage, which has been seeking new ways to serve its clients.
Quicken, which boasts over two million users, allows individuals to manage spending, create budgets, track investments, pay bills, and plan for retirement. The software is currently owned by Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity firm with a significant presence in financial services. Aquiline previously held a majority stake in SageView Advisory Group, which was sold to mega-RIA Creative Planning last year, and also owned compliance software company RIA in a Box.
Greg Robinson, principal and head of corporate development at Edward Jones Ventures, said the investment will provide clients with greater visibility into their spending, saving, and investing. “Being able to provide visibility into their spending, saving, and investing picture with Quicken just was an amazing opportunity for our clients and our practice teams to be able to serve them even better,” Robinson told InvestmentNews.
Nick Seibert, principal at Aquiline, noted that the investment marks a milestone for Quicken as it expands its capabilities to bring in more leading financial institutions. “For more than two decades, we have connected our portfolio companies with strategic investors who can deploy differentiated capabilities and distribution, and this investment exemplifies that approach,” Seibert said in a statement.
Edward Jones has not yet determined the specific access workflow for Quicken's adoption by advisors or whether the software will integrate into internal platforms. Robinson emphasized a phased approach, involving client research and collaboration with practice teams and Quicken. “We haven't fully determined that because when doing these things we want to take a very thoughtful approach to doing that, which would include client research, working with our practice teams, working with Quicken, and working really collaboratively together to determine exactly what experience would work best,” he said.
The rollout comes amid some advisor frustration with Edward Jones's pace of change. Earlier this month, Les Smith, who left Edward Jones after a decade to join LPL Financial, cited slow implementation of new initiatives. “I think they tried to evolve in the past several years. The problem is they were just very slow to unveil the new things that they wanted. It was just very time-consuming,” Smith told InvestmentNews. He brought $135 million in assets to LPL, as reported in a previous InvestLin article.
Robinson acknowledged the need for a careful rollout, stating, “We will take, as we normally do, a phased approach to the practice teams where they get an opportunity to learn and understand how this fits and how best to work. I would expect it to be something that our branch teams and clients really want to use, and we are very thoughtful when we make these types of decisions.”
This investment aligns with Edward Jones's broader strategy to enhance its technology offerings. The firm recently added JPMorgan and T. Rowe Price to its retirement platform, targeting the small-business 401(k) market, as covered in a separate InvestLin report. Additionally, a recent Edward Jones-Gallup study found that only 16% of Americans achieve financial fulfillment, highlighting the role advisors play in improving financial well-being.
