Financial advisors are switching broker-dealers in record numbers these days, and Raymond James seems to be capturing a significant share of this movement.
The seven deals the company has announced in the last nine months were only the tip of the iceberg, and more growth is expected in the future, Raymond James executives said during a recent interview with Financial Advisor.
“Our success at recruiting advisors and advisory firms to our platform dates back at least three years,” said Scott A. Curtis, president of Raymond James’s Private Client Group. “We have a good business model for independent advisors and for our employee advisors. We have every flavor of business model through which advisors can associate with Raymond James.”
Raymond James’s most recent financial statement showed total assets of $745.3 billion as of June 30. The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based firm has slightly more than 7,700 advisors in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Although some large broker-dealers are rumored to be offering unprecedented buyout packages for advisors, deals that include forgivable loans, Raymond James has not changed its offering to advisors in the past five years, Curtis said.
“We’ve seen deals recently from competitors, from regional firms and from large independent firms that we have never seen before in the industry, but we have not changed,” Curtis said. “We don’t think we have to match those offers.”
Curtis said he is not at liberty to reveal any of the deals made with the advisors recruited by the firm.
The firm’s targets usually have an established history of growth if they have been in existence for a long time, and have $500,000 in revenues for the trailing 12 months. However, that is not a hard and fast rule, Curtis added. If a young firm with good growth potential had $300,000 in revenue for the trailing 12 months, the firm would be considered as a potential addition to Raymond James.
“If a successful firm is looking for a succession plan, we would take that into consideration, too,” said Jodi Perry, president of the Independent Contractor Division of Raymond James Financial Services.
Raymond James’s latest deal was announced Thursday. The firm recruited financial advisors Linda Pardini and Douglas Wulbrecht to Raymond James & Associates, the firm’s traditional employee broker-dealer platform. The duo is based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and operates as Pardini Wulbrecht Financial Group of Raymond James. It provides wealth management services primarily to individual investors with a focus on retirement income.