Raymond James sets record recruiting $2.4 billion Morgan team

Raymond James Financial Inc. has hit a new milestone in its quest to lure top wirehouse talent.
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based firm, which in recent years has been focused on attracting veteran advisers from wirehouses or boutique firms, scored the largest coup in its 54-year history with the addition of a $2.4 billion team from Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.
That surpasses a $900 million team that the firm recruited in December from J.P. Morgan Securities.
The six advisers, who on average manage $400 million compared with $129 million for all Morgan Stanley advisers, include industry veterans Don d’Adesky, W. Kristopher Lemke, Matthew Cicero, Jose Cabrera Sr., Kevin Gourrier and Ryan Weber. They operate as The Americas Group and will be part of Raymond James’ employee-adviser channel, Raymond James & Associates Inc.
(Advisers on the Move: All of Raymond James’ other 2015 hires)
Raymond James has around 6,400 advisers across its employee and independent advisory units. Those advisers manage some $502 billion, or an average of $78.4 million per adviser.

HIGH NET WORTH, INSTITUTIONAL CLIENTELE

The Americas Group, which will operate out of two Florida offices in Boca Raton and Miami, focuses on a mix of high-net worth clients and institutional clients, including insurance companies, car dealers and bankers located in the Caribbean region.
Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Christine Jockle confirmed the group’s departure but said the firm was no longer able to cater to the group because of a shift in how it classified certain clients.
(Related: Morgan Stanley’s 2015 adviser departures)
“We were no longer able to accommodate their business model,” she said in an emailed statement. “They serve a number of smaller central banks in Caribbean and Latin American countries and for regulatory reasons, we are shifting coverage of these clients to our institutional business and will no longer serve them in wealth management.”
Mr. d’Adesky said that he decided on Raymond James because it has “outstanding products and services designed specifically for that [institutional] client” in addition to a “strong” retail channel. He declined to break out what portion of the assets were from institutional clients.
Mr. d’Adesky had looked at Raymond James a decade ago, but felt that the firm wasn’t ready to handle his team’s institutional business, he said. He changed his mind following the acquisition of Morgan Keegan & Co. in 2012.
“They acquired some very particular skill sets,” he said. “That to me was one of the main reasons why [the acquisition] was a huge differentiator for that part of our business.”
Mr. d’Adesky, who had been with Morgan Stanley since 2009, said he had a “wonderful experience” at the wirehouse and left on good terms.
“They were extremely cordial and very nice,” he said. “They were definitely not wanting us to leave.”