Edward Jones confirms outsourcing support to India as home-office staff declines

Edward Jones is using India-based contractors to support its digital and operations functions while reducing U.S. home-office headcount, according to its latest SEC filings and a company spokesperson. The move underscores a shift in how the brokerage manages back-office work.

The firm reported 8,971 home-office employees at the end of 2025, down 4.5% from 9,393 a year earlier, according to its latest Form 10-K filing dated March 13, 2026. A companywide restructuring last year included layoffs and voluntary separation buyouts that together impacted more than 800 home-office employees across multiple rounds of job cuts. 

A spokesperson for Edward Jones confirmed to InvestmentNews that the St. Louis-based firm began outsourcing to India in late-2021, operating primarily in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Mentions of Edward Jones offshoring support roles to India have circulated on Reddit and TheLayoff.com message boards in recent years, but the firm had not publicly confirmed its use of India-based contractors until now.

"We are continually evaluating opportunities to strengthen our ability to serve clients and branch teams at scale. The firm currently has a team of India-based contractors who support our digital and operations functions. We do not have any in country associates, and none of our contractors are client or branch facing. Edward Jones remains focused on delivering consistent, high‑quality service and support to our clients,” said the Edward Jones spokesperson.

The spokesperson added “we do utilize global contractor support, including in India, to support our operations and digital teams,” but declined to share specific contractor headcounts. Edward Jones is not the only brokerage giant expanding in India, as LPL Financial opened its new technology and operations support center in Hyderabad earlier this year led by former StateStreet India head Ramesh Kaza.

While home office staff declined, Edward Jones reported ending 2025 with 20,425 advisors, about 1.5% more than the year prior. The company did mention outsourcing services in its 10-K filing, noting “these third parties enable certain critical business operations including outsourcing services which had previously been performed by the Partnership, such as tools that support branch teams' interactions with clients and enhance client experiences.”

Edward Jones ranked highest in the 2026 US Investor Satisfaction Study recently released by JD Power. The company operated 14,916 physical Edward Jones branches across the U.S. and Canada to end 2025, about 2% less than its total to end 2024. 

A report published this month from advisor recruiting firm Muriel Consulting showed that 1,458 advisors left Edward Jones in 2025, marking a 35% jump from 2024. The report, which used AdvizorPro data, said among Edward Jones’s 2025 departures, about 55% joined another firm while 45% left the industry entirely. 

“The offshoring is one piece of a larger story of change at Edward Jones. Advisors comment on outside leadership (meaning newcomers to the firm), difficult technology rollouts and the home office layoffs in 2025 as other factors leading to exiting Edward Jones,” Muriel Consulting founder Shelby Nicholl wrote to InvestmentNews.