Raymond James boasts of attracting high-earning advisers

Raymond James Financial has attracted a number of recruits in recent months and is on track to add advisers with more than $100 million in production this year. The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based firm recruited several top-performing advisers from Wall Street wirehouses with a combined $1.3 billion in client assets during the second quarter alone, confirmed Raymond James Financial Services Inc. spokeswoman Anthea Penrose. One of those is Dan Pimental, an adviser at The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of New York, who ran $600 million and generated $2.7 million in annual production. In addition, Raymond James hired a pair of reps from Citigroup Inc. — Fernando Ereneta and John O'Keefe — during the second quarter. Each of them managed $125 million in client assets. Mr. Ereneta and Mr. O'Keeffe produced $1.3 million and $1 million, respectively in revenue at New York-based Citi. Raymond James also hired Jason Dilauro, an adviser with Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. of New York, who managed $250 million in assets, as well as Glenn Buckingham, a rep with Wachovia Securities LLC of Richmond, Va., who had $200 million in client assets under management. While the firm declined to break out its total head count for recruits in 2009, Ms. Penrose said that these recent hires have put Raymond James Financial Services on pace to surpass the total number of recruits the firm recorded in all of last year. In 2008, she noted, Raymond James Financial Services attracted 398 advisers. And in a recent filing, Raymond James disclosed that it expects the production of these recruits to exceed a combined $100 million in trailing-12-month production."