This is a report of how employees of national firms (such as Edward Jones) like their employer, not how customers like their advisors.
One cannot read the actual study (this is how companies like JD Powers make their money), but one can still go to the actual press release. That provides more (and often clearer) information than one gets elsewhere (rewrites of the PR).
The survey has been going on for many years (at least since 2008) - the rewrite said just the past two years. It is true that the survey was restructured in 20
14, but it appears that the same
1,000 point scale was preserved. (I can't find any description of the scale, e.g. whether it is linear, or like M* ratings distributed unevenly.)
Here's the
2015 release,
2014 release, and
2013 release.
It seems that what the restructuring amounted to was using the same seven factors (e.g. compensation, operational support, etc.) in surveying all advisors post 20
13, as opposed to using different factors for employee advisors (9 factors) and for independent advisors (8 factors). The older surveys also ordered the weighting of the factors differently depending upon whether the advisor was an employee or independent.
Not that I think any of this matters, but if one's going to read the results, one might has well have an idea of what they're talking about.
