Edward Jones takes hybrid platform direct to next-gen investors

Edward Jones said Tuesday it is rolling out Digital Managed Solutions, a hybrid investment advisory product aimed at people early in their financial lives, InvestmentNews reports. The offering, sold directly to consumers, combines a digital investment platform and self-serve tools with access to a human. A small group of the firm's associates is testing it now; broader availability is set for mid-2027.

Ryan Robson, a principal at the firm, frames the product as a way to get younger clients started earlier and keep them in strategies that can change as their lives do. A Gallup study conducted in partnership with Edward Jones gives the move its urgency: only 5% of Gen Z adults say they feel financially fulfilled. Millennials do only a little better, at 10%. Among financially fulfilled adults who have sought guidance, 60% have worked with a professional advisor. That figure drops to 33% for financially conflicted adults. For the financially stressed, it is 14%.

Hybrid advice is not new. US Bancorp Advisors brought out a hybrid offering for emerging affluent clients earlier this year. Edward Jones is surrounding its own launch with related moves. PWD has covered the firm's minority stake in Quicken, the consumer finance app. In June, the firm added J.P. Morgan Asset Management and T. Rowe Price to its retirement plan menus, along with expanded options from Manulife, Transamerica, Capital Group and Empower.

Edward Jones appears to be making digital the entry point, with the advisor arriving later, once the account is open. The bet is that technology keeps the account cheap to serve while personal advice keeps it from leaving. If that holds through next year's wider rollout, the younger client the firm has been courting through research and retirement-plan additions may never need to set foot in a branch.