UPDATE 1-Edward Jones to add 1,100 US, Canada brokers

* Closely held firm expanded 10% a year for past 30 years

* Jones intends to add 1,068 net new US brokers, up 9%

* Firm to add 95 brokers in Canada, a 14% increase (Adds details on hiring plan)

By Joseph A. Giannone

NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - U.S. brokerage Edward Jones plans to hire more than 1,100 new financial advisers and open hundreds of branches this year as the closely held firm extends its reach across the United States and Canada.

The St. Louis-based company intends to expand its U.S. adviser force by 1,068 people, or 9 percent, while adding 95 net new brokers in Canada, a 14 percent increase. Edward Jones ended last year with 11,927 U.S. brokers and 688 in Canada.

"We've had an organic growth strategy for decades. We grow through good markets and down markets," said Price Woodward, an Edward Jones principal in charge of broker development.

"We're a little like the tortoise: we just plug along, growing 10 percent a year," he said.

Overall, Edward Jones would increase its broker ranks by 11 percent, a big jump from last year but on par with the average for the past three decades.

Edward Jones is fairly unique in the brokerage industry, hiring the bulk of its brokers from other walks of life and then pairing them up with veteran advisers for on-the-job training. Brokers are then sent to open one-person branches.

Roughly 85 percent of these hires will involve people entering the business for the first time, with the remainder recruited from rival brokerages. About 15 percent of those trainees are college graduates.

It is also a closely held company owned by the brokers.

The company, which generated $3.5 billion of revenue last year, also invites brokers to say where they want to establish their practice.

One goal, Woodward said, is to extend its strength in Midwest markets to areas where it has much thinner market share -- namely the U.S. East Coast, California and Florida as well as major cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver.

"We just have such an enormous opportunity to significantly increase our presence there," Woodward said. "Our goal is to put advisors where the investors are."

For example, Edwards Jones has 375 advisers in the Chicago area, but could double that number since it currently has less than 1 percent of market share there. Woodward expects to add 50 in that market this year.

In the greater New York City region -- from northern New Jersey through the five boroughs to Long Island -- Woodward sees adding up to 125 new brokers.

The slow and steady approach has allowed Edward Jones to quietly catch up with its biggest rivals. The firm's more than 12,600 brokers manage about $516 billion in client assets, not far behind the $690 billion of assets at No. 4 U.S. broker UBS Wealth Management Americas.

Rivals would note Edward Jones is less profitable and handles smaller, low-balance accounts. Based on 2009 data, Edward Jones advisers on average generate $316,226 a year in revenue -- roughly half that of industry top dogs Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch.

(Reporting by Joseph A. Giannone; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr)