Raymond James Financial Inc. finished last month and began this with another strong showing of recruiting highly sought after financial advisors working as independent contractors with Commonwealth Financial Network, which was acquired over the summer by its rival LPL Financial Holdings Inc.
From September 5 onwards through Friday, Raymond James, through its independent broker-dealer Raymond James Financial Services Inc., has recruited at least nine teams of financial advisors who were formerly registered with Commonwealth Financial, and those advisors had clients with $2.05 billion in assets, according to several press releases issued by Raymond James in the past month.
The nine new teams that Raymond James recruited in less than a month from Commonwealth Financial Network, which had close to 3,000 financial advisors and almost $300 billion in assets when LPL said at the end of March it was buying its competitor, represent the continued emphasis and effort by the firm to capitalize on the changes at Commonwealth.
InvestmentNews reported a few weeks ago that Raymond James, like Commonwealth a key rival to LPL, from August 5 to September 5 issued nine press releases announcing it had recruited the same number of teams to its independent broker-dealer group, Raymond James Financial Services, and those advisors worked with more than $2.4 billion in client assets.
That means the total of Commonwealth Financial advisors has Raymond James has recruited totals 18 teams with close to $4.5 billion in assets. This week alone, Raymond James said it has recruited four Commonwealth teams with $1.08 billion in assets.
And the number of Commonwealth advisors leaving for Raymond James could be even greater, industry sources said. The advisors have the option of announcing their joining a new firm, with some teams preferring to leave without any public scrutiny of a press release. And other firms are recruiting Commonwealth Financial advisors; but they have decided to keep quiet about any recruits rather than make public statements.
“This week was a lot of advisors,” said one industry executive who soke privately to InvestmentNews about the mater. “I was surprised it was that many people.”
A handful of senior industry executives over the summer privately told InvestmentNews that Raymond James was second to LPL Financial in the bidding for Commonwealth, with close to 3,000 financial advisors and $300 billion in assets.
LPL emerged the winner, announcing at the end of March it was paying $2.7 billion cash for the privately held firm, which was owned and controlled by Joseph Deitch, who founded the firm in 1979 and led it to being a top rated, service-focused firm for financial advisors over the following forty-six years. LPL has said it was keeping Commonwealth Financial a distinct firm under its roof in an attempt to assuage advisors’ anxiety about the change.
Spokespeople for both LPL and Raymond James did not return calls on Friday to comment.
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