Raymond James Financial, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based brokerage whose private client group wealth management division is a popular destination for wirehouse breakaways, stated Wednesday that money in fee-based accounts rose to a new record in August, driven by equity market gains and recent recruitment successes.
“Our continued strength in financial advisor retention and recruiting drove record Private Client Group assets in fee-based accounts of $483.1 billion, which grew 20% over August 2019,” said Chairman and CEO Paul Reilly.
Overall client assets under administration at Raymond James Financial grew to $945.2 billion in August, an increase of 15% over August 2019, while assets under management rose 9% to $155.6 billion.
A company spokesman declined to provide further detail on the private client group’s retention or recruiting of financial advisors, with the company set to announce its fiscal fourth quarter earnings for the period ending Sept. 30 on Oct. 28. But in July, the company revealed that in the fiscal third quarter, which ended June 30, its advisor headcount rose to an all-time high of 8,155.
The company also noted that due to the limited nature of the data released Wednesday, investors should not expect it to correlate with the overall earnings picture Raymond James will provide in October.
Raymond James announced earlier this month that it plans to lay off about 500 employees, or 4% of its workforce, in a cost-cutting measure.
