New Raymond James Program Helps Advisors With the Wealthiest Clients

Raymond James unveiled a new program on Wednesday that it said was designed to help advisors increase their high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

The new Private Wealth Advisor Program is an expansion of the company’s recent enhancements to its solutions for advisors who serve wealthy clients, it said.

The designation program will provide advisors with a “holistic and rigorous training experience that equips advisors to effectively attract and serve” HNW and UHNW clients, according to the firm.

The firm’s inaugural class of Private Wealth Advisors is scheduled to complete the “intensive, highly interactive” six-month program this fall, with another cohort to be enrolled later this year, Raymond James said.

“Raymond James has built a leading platform of advice, planning, solutions and support to serve the complex needs of wealthy clients through their trusted financial advisor,” Private Client Group Chief Operating Officer Kim Jenson said in a statement.

“The addition of the Private Wealth Advisor Program, among other developments, is a natural evolution of our innovative partnership with advisors who specialize in this practice,” Jenson added.

The new program includes a combination of virtual and onsite sessions in which participating advisors will “gain a deep understanding of the wealth management needs unique to high-net-worth clients, the knowledge to leverage the full scope of Raymond James resources and the opportunity to engage with a community of peer advisors,” the company said.

Andrea Beyer recently joined Raymond James as director of Private Wealth coaching to develop the designation program and lead a team of dedicated private wealth coaches, according to the firm.

The firm also hired industry veteran Kevin Ruth as senior vice president of Private Wealth early this year.

The overall number of experts focused on significant wealth at Raymond James continues to grow to support advisor demand. The firm’s Global Wealth Solutions division has also doubled the size of its team of Private Wealth consultants, who provide personalized, technical advice and analysis for HNW clients, it said.

Meanwhile, the number of credentialed attorneys, and estate and tax planning experts — known as private wealth strategists — is also growing at Raymond James, it noted.

Via its Investment Banking division, the company also recently made available exclusive private company investments that it said allow “wealthy clients to work with their advisor to build a private investment portfolio based on their unique interests.”

Raymond James had about 8,600 financial advisors with total client assets of $1.19 trillion as of Aug. 24, according to the company.