Advisor moves: Raymond James lands $700M Truist team in Naples

Raymond James has recruited a Southwest Florida advisor team managing approximately $700 million in client assets from Truist Investment Services, leading the latest round of advisor moves as Cetera and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network added practices from MML Investors Services and LPL Financial.

Truist team joins Raymond James bank channel in Naples

Brown, Taylor, Shaw & Associates, a Naples, Florida-based practice led by financial advisors Darrell Brown, Mark Taylor and Jonathan Shaw, has aligned with Pinnacle Asset Management, the investment program of Pinnacle Financial Partners. 

Client service associate Erin Powers-Westendorf made the move with them.

The team serves clients throughout Southwest Florida and will now provide investment and wealth management services through Raymond James Financial Services.

The recruitment move came through the Raymond James Financial Institutions Division, led by president Stephen Kruchten, which supports advisors working within bank investment programs.

Last month, Raymond James' FID unit notched another win in Michigan, winning over Independent Bank's IB Wealth Management business in Grand Rapids. That program, which included eight financial advisors and three branch professionals managing roughly $645 million in client assets, was previously affiliated with Cetera Investment Services.

More recently, the firm's employee advisor arm, Raymond James & Associates, drew a Paramus, New Jersey-based advisor duo from UBS last week.

News of Brown, Taylor and Shaw's departure from Truist comes just shortly after a leadership shakeup at the firm in which Jeff Dunn, head of Truist Private Banking, Specialty Wealth & Institutional, and Bryan Cram, head of Truist Wealth Brokerage were appointed to act as interim co-heads of Truist Wealth, reporting to Chief Wholesale Banking Officer Kristin Lesher.

Shimna Sameer, whom the bank previously said would join to lead its wealth division, has been tapped to become chief consumer banking officer.

Cetera adds $210 million Connecticut team from MML

Financial Guide Solutions, a Bethel, Connecticut-based practice led by Tim O’Connell and Peter Hall, has left MML Investors Services for Cetera. The team oversees approximately $210 million in assets under administration and joins through Cetera Wealth Partners, a community within Cetera’s Advisor Channel.

Joining them are financial planner Zach Czaplicki, registered representative Joanne Amorosi, financial planning operations director Benjamin Dubinski and client services associate Tiffany DiCerbo.

O’Connell spent more than two decades at the New York Stock Exchange, rising from clerk to floor broker, before becoming an advisor in 2011. Hall, a United States Merchant Marine Academy graduate, worked nearly 12 years in engineering, including stints in the semiconductor industry and Wall Street equity research, before moving into financial services.

The Financial Guide Solutions practice focuses on comprehensive, goals-based planning.

The team alluded to the need for independence over product use at its former broker-dealer as a factor driving the move. “We had a very good relationship with our prior firm, but there were product expectations,” O’Connell said.

Cetera has worked with the team to help keep its existing investment models and continue clearing through Fidelity’s NFS. “Having the independence to choose from a full range of investment options, rather than a limited set of proprietary models, was one of the most important factors for us,” Hall said.

Cetera reported approximately $688 billion in assets under administration across roughly 12,000 financial professionals and institutions as of June 30.

Last week, Cetera claimed a modest win from LPL in Willoughby, Ohio, where the firm said a women-focused practice joined Prosperity Network of Advisors, one of the largest businesses in the Cetera Advisors community.

Read more: At Cetera, CEO Durbin says that recruiting advisors is strong but remains expensive: analyst

FiNet picks up San Diego family practice from Linsco

Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network has added RWP Advisors, a San Diego-based team that oversees more than $207 million in assets. The group joins from Linsco, LPL Financial’s employee advisor channel.

The practice is led by Thomas Russell, who works alongside his sons, Brian Russell and Charles Russell, with registered support staff member Diane Salazar. The team said access to high-net-worth resources was a key reason it chose FiNet.

The addition follows FiNet’s recent recruitment of Orchard Financial Group, an 11-person Los Angeles practice from Ameriprise overseeing roughly $580 million.