Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Reps Move to Raymond James: Recruiting Roundup
Meanwhile, Integrated Partners picks up an Ameriprise team; LPL Financial adds advisors from Advisor Group-Ladenburg.
Raymond James recruited Vic Howie, Paige Passerallo and Dustin Lisk to its employee channel in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Merrill Lynch, where they managed $240 million in client assets.
Howie has been an advisor for 15 years, spending the past 11 year with Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. “We found through due diligence that everyone at Raymond James is focused on putting the client first,” he said in a statement.
Passerallo also has been an advisor for 15 years. Earlier, she worked as a senior trust and estate advisor and a trust administrator; she joined Howie in 2012. Lisk began his career as an advisor nine years ago, and spent the past seven with Merrill.
Separately, Raymond James recently welcomed Complex Manager Jeremy Silvas to the employee channel in Dallas from Merrill Lynch. Earlier,
Silvas had been the market executive for Merrill in the Greater Houston market; he has 21 years of industry experience, including seven at Merrill an five with UBS.
He now will manage Raymond James & Associates’ North Texas/Arkansas Complex. Before his work in Houston, he was an advisor and producing manager in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, as well as a market executive and director for the wirehouse in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
“Jeremy is an outstanding member in the financial services industry … ,” said Pat Allison, Western division director for RJA, in a statement. “His many years of experience and reputation of high integrity make him a wonderful addition to the firm.”
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Raymond James’ employee channel recently recruited Kimberly Maxey in Chicago from Wells Fargo Advisors, where she managed $121 million in client assets.
“Raymond James truly stands by their mantra of ‘putting clients first’ and allows advisors to have the independence to do what is best for each client,” according to Maxey. “I was also very impressed with the resources and cutting-edge technology offered right at your fingertips.”
The advisor has been in the business for 20 years, having spent 16 at Wells Fargo.
In another development, Steward Partners Global Advisory — an employee-owned, independent partnership associated with Raymond James’ independent channel tapped Jeffrey Gonyo to be its head of recruiting, a new position at the firm.
Gonyo also will keep his existing roles as divisional president and wealth manager at Steward.
“His ongoing leadership and enthusiasm in identifying and recruiting the best of the best to join our team made him a natural choice to serve as our first head of recruiting,” Steward CEO Jim Gold, in a statement.
Gonyo joined Steward in 2014. Earlier, he spent about 10 years with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, after entering the industry in 1993 as an advisor at Merrill Lynch.
Integrated, LPL Updates
RIA Integrated Partners, which uses LPL Financial as its broker-dealer, has added Konvergent Wealth Partners of Seattle and Bend, Oregon.
The firm is led by partners Homer Smith and Dave Stuehling, veteran advisors who each spent roughly the past 20 years with Ameriprise Financial; they work with about $200 million in assets and will use Fidelity as a custody partner.
Smith also will head up the western operations of Integrated Business Alliance, a unit of Integrated Partners; this job will focus on helping the firm’s CPAs, advisors and other specialists, who serving business- owner clients.
“We wanted a partner that understood our passion for helping business owners and families with complex financial challenges that go far beyond asset management,” according to Smith.
Integrated currently includes 148 advisors and 127 CPAs working with some $6 billion in client assets.
Meanwhile, LPL Financial said advisors Kenneth Small, CFP, and Natalie Jump are affiliated with the firm. They have worked with some $135 million in assets and recently were with Securities America, one of Ladenburg Thalmann’s broker-dealers. (Late Monday, Advisor Group said it is buying Ladenburg and its BDs.)
Small has 36 years in the business. Jump joined his team in the late 1990s — first as an assistant and later as a licensed wealth advisor. The team is becoming part of Professional Wealth Advisors, an LPL team in Downer Grove, Illinois.
“While I have no plans to slow down or stop working anytime soon, I need an exit strategy to support my clients’ futures and ensure continuation of service,” Small said in a statement. “Natalie and I will continue to work exclusively with our clients under the new partnership.”
Separately, advisors Cris Arnold, David McIllwain, Charlotte Martin and Brenda Speer joined LPL from FSC Securities, an Advisor Group BD. The advisors, who work with $240 million in assets, are aligned with Independent Advisor Alliance in greater Nashville.
Arnold and McIllwain, who are longtime friends, merged their practices in 2003. That same year, friends Martin and Speer formed a practice to serve retirees in middle Tennessee. The two groups expect to merge their practices in early 2020.
“We plan to take advantage of IAA’s programs and capabilities that allow us to use their staff for routine tasks such as opening accounts and preparing paperwork, freeing up our team to provide more meaningful experiences for clients,” according to Arnold.