Raymond James has picked up another large advisory team for its employee channel, adding four financial advisors who previously managed $1.1 billion in client assets at Baird.
The group – Kurt Carlson, Kenneth Breaden, Cassidy Carlson and Brian Koble – will operate as The Carlson Group of Raymond James in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, joining Raymond James & Associates (RJA), the firm's employee advisor channel.
Amy Smart, Mid-American regional director for RJA, confirmed the move.
The practice serves business owners, endowments, foundations, families, retirees and pre-retirees, and brings client service associates Teresa Davis and Jacquelin Croissant along with it.
Kurt Carlson, the team's managing director and father to Cassidy Carlson, said the shift to Raymond James was a deliberate one "rooted in the firm's genuine commitment to helping clients succeed."
The veteran advisor with more than 35 years of financial services experience also cited Raymond James' "willingness to reinvest in its business, particularly in technology and innovation, to enhance the client experience and support long-term growth as the industry enters a transformative era of artificial intelligence."
During the firm's annual institutional investor conference in March, Raymond James CEO Paul Shoukry emphasized the potential of AI to help solve the industry's looming talent shortage.
“I would tell you that the wealth management industry needs these AI-driven solutions to help advisors better serve their clients, to help advisors get both more scale in their business, to serve more clients and more assets,” Shoukry said. "These AI solutions actually help the wealth management business evolve and providing more sophisticated holistic advice while at the same time, doing it for a larger number of clients."
More recently, Raymond James reaffirmed its commitment to AI with a rundown of initiatives – its proprietary AI assistant Raimond, an AI-powered meeting manager integrated with the RayJay CRM, its AI academy with training and resources for advisors; and cybersecurity enhancements supported by AI – backed by a tech budget that so far has spent $1.1 billion on AI this year.
The Pennsylvania addition at RJA arrives on the heels of other additions this week. The firm's independent advisor channel, Raymond James Financial Services, welcomed Seven Arrows Wealth, a New Jersey-based team that prevously managed $250 million in client assets at Ameriprise. The day after, RJFS announced another East Coast addition, a $540 million team that crossed over from LPL in North Carolina.
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