Concurrent grabs $1.3B Raymond James team: Advisor Moves

October 24, 2025 1:54 PM

Recruiting deals and mergers and acquisitions are constantly roiling the wealth management industry.

This week, the RIA Concurrent Investment Advisors had one of the biggest recruiting wins with a team lured from Raymond James. Wells Fargo also pulled from Merrill, and Raymond James continued recruiting from Commonwealth Financial Network amid that firm's absorption into LPL Financial.

Read about those deals, along with a big acquisition and the appointment of a CEO at the Financial Planning Association, below.

Concurrent pulls $1.3B team from Raymond James

The large RIA Concurrent Investment Advisors has made its largest recruiting deal so far with an advisory group from Raymond James.

Keaton & Sams Wealth Management has joined Concurrent in Savannah and St. Simons Island, Georgia. The firm had formerly managed $1.3 billion in client assets at Raymond James.

Its addition pushes Concurrent's total assets under management to more than $15 billion. Concurrent was founded in 2017 within Raymond James' independent financial services division and left in 2022. It gets support from Merchant Investment Management, a private equity firm that acquired a minority stake in the firm in 2021.

Keaton & Sams is led by founding managing partners Bill Keaton and Thomas "Alfred" Sams. Keaton started in the industry in 1994 and moved to Suntrust Investments in 1998 and then Raymond James in 2017. Sams started at Suntrust in 2001 and also moved to Raymond James in 2017. Keaton & Sams plans to use Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions as its custodian to provide safeguarding of client assets and various types of technological support.

Raymond James reported on Thursday its advisor headcount had risen by 2% to 8,943 over the past year, a record for the firm.

Wells Fargo recruits $1B team from Merrill

Wells Fargo has pulled over a prominent high net worth and ultrahigh net worth practice in Washington State from Merrill.

The Kang, Dime, Tran, Osborne Group is joining Wells Fargo's private client group in Bellevue, Washington. It had previously managed $1 billion at Merrill and had generated $4.8 million in annual revenue.

The team is led by Hyeon Kang, who now holds the title of managing director and private wealth advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors. It also includes the financial advisors Larry Dime, Hung Tran and Joe Osborne, alongside the client associate Kevin Ki.

Kang has 23 years of industry experience. He started at UBS in 2002, then moved to Morgan Stanley in 2007 and joined Merrill Lynch in 2015.

Dime began his career in 1995 at Morgan Stanley and moved to Merrill Lynch in 2015. Tran first registered in 2012 with Morgan Stanley before also joining Merrill Lynch in 2015. Osborne had a brief stint at Wells Fargo in 2013. After a break, he also joined Merrill Lynch in 2015.

Raymond James draws $357M team from Commonwealth

Raymond James is keeping up its streak of recruiting advisory teams from Commonwealth Financial Network amid that firm's absorption by LPL Financial.

KCH Financial is joining Raymond James Financial Services, the firm's channel for independent advisors, in Bethalto, Illinois. It had formerly managed $357 million at Commonwealth, which was purchased in August by LPL Financial in a $2.7 billion deal.

KCH Financial is Brian Keister, Jody Chiapelli and Brian Keister's children, Sara Hinthorne and Joshua Keister. The advisors will use Raymond James' corporate RIA, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors, to provide fee-only wealth management services.

A big question hanging over the acquisition of Commonwealth has been how many of the firm's advisors and how much of its assets under management LPL will be able to retain. LPL has set itself the ambitious goal of transferring over 90% of the 2,900 advisors and $285 billion in assets the Commonwealth had when the purchase plans were announced.

Raymond James has been one of the biggest magnets for departing Commonwealth advisors. Raymond James' other recent recruits include The Manning Companies, a five-advisor group in San Diego, California, which had previously managed $1.1 billion at Commonwealth; and Capital Wealth Management, a team with $411 million under management out of Glastonbury and Wilton, Connecticut.

AlphaCore Wealth Advisory acquires $1.5B RIA

The large RIA AlphaCore Wealth Advisory is pushing its AUM above $8.5 billion with the acquisition of a firm in Maryland.

AlphaCore, in La Jolla, California, has bought SPC Financial in Rockville, Maryland, which has $1.5 billion under management. The deal, whose terms weren't disclosed, is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

AlphaCore was founded in 2014 with a mission that included opening private markets more to retail investors. The firm's growth has been driven in part by a capital infusion from the private equity firm Constellation Wealth Capital, which took a minority share in AlphaCore in December 2023.

Financial Planning Association names new top executive

The Financial Planning Association, the trade association for certified financial planners, has officially appointed Dennis Moore as its new CEO.

Moore has been the chief operating officer and interim CEO since February, when former CEO Patrick Mahoney died. Moore brings two decades of extensive involvement with the FPA, holding leadership positions at both his local chapters — FPA of Dallas/Fort Worth and FPA of West Texas — and at the national level. His experience includes operational and financial planning roles at various firms, as well as experience as an adjunct professor of financial planning at Texas Tech University.

"I often tell people FPA had a lot to do with the success of my career, and I am so grateful for that," Moore said in a statement. "I want to ensure that as many members as possible feel the same way."