Raymond James has big recruiting deals and CEO payday

Raymond James pulls from UBS, Morgan Stanley, delivers big CEO payday

After the holidays, the deluge.

Industry news about recruiting deals, M&A and executive pay and hiring rolled in quickly this week. Read about it below.

Raymond James recruits $525M advisor from UBS

Raymond James has drawn an advisor from UBS for its direct-employee channel.

Raymond James announced this week Mary Lauritano had come over to start Lauritano Wealth Management of Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida. Lauritano had previously managed roughly $525 million in client assets at UBS.

Joining her at Raymond James are Natalia Morales and Melody Price, both senior client service associates. Their practice is part of Raymond James & Associates, the firm's channel for direct employees.

Lauritano Wealth Management specializes in working with high net worth clients and families, business owners and corporate executives. Lauritano has more than 37 years of industry experience, according to Raymond James, and was at Lehman Brothers for roughly five years before joining UBS in 2005.

Raymond James snags $440M team from Morgan Stanley

Raymond James has recruited John "David" Veitch and Drew Veitch to Raymond James & Associates, its employee advisor channel.

They, along with John's brother, Scott, will now run Veitch Legacy Advisors of Raymond James in Tulsa, Oklahoma. John and Drew had previously managed roughly $440 million in client assets at Morgan Stanley.

They specialize in providing retirement, estate and trust, and corporate retirement plans. David brings over 50 years of experience in the financial services industry and was at Morgan Stanley for 15 years. Drew joined his father at Morgan Stanley in 2015.

LPL pulls father-son team managing $320M at Osaic

LPL Financial has gone to its industry rival Osaic again for a recruiting deal, this time pulling over a father-son advisory team.

LPL announced this week that it had recruited Bart Lewellyn and Alex Lewellyn, who had previously been managing roughly $320 million for Osaic in Medford, Oregon. Bart Lewellyn started his firm in 1995 and his son, Alex, joined in 2012. They provide investment services, retirement planning, insurance advice and complex planning services to clients ranging from lineman engineers and business owners to families.

On joining LPL, the duo decided to rename their practice Lewellyn Wealth. Before joining the Osaic subsidiary Triad Advisors in 2010, Bart Lewellyn had been affiliated with Transamerica Financial Advisors for roughly 15 years.

MAI Capital Management buys firm with $317M in AUM

MAI Capital Management is extending its presence in Arkansas with its purchase of the investment advisory firm Garrison Asset Management.

Garrison, which has its headquarters in Fayetteville, Arkansas, brings $317 million in assets under management to MAI. The firm provides portfolio management and wealth planning to both individuals and institutions.

Garrison will adopt MAI's brand and make use of its existing human resources, operations and marketing services. MAI Capital, based in Cleveland, Ohio, has nearly $30 billion in assets under management and 475 employees in 16 states.

EP Wealth adds to Midwest presence with $1.6B firm

EP Wealth Advisors is extending into Michigan with the purchase of the registered advisory Executive Wealth Management.

The purchase of Executive Wealth, based in Brighton, Michigan, brings $1.6 billion in assets under management and pushes EP Wealth's total to $31 billion. The deal was completed in December and marked the seventh for EP Wealth last year.

Besides its offices in Michigan, Executive Wealth also has locations in Florida and Colorado.

Merit Financial acquires firm with $739M under management

Merit Financial Advisors is pushing further into Pennsylvania with its purchase of Zimmerman Investment Management & Planning.

Merit closed last month on its acquisition of Zimmerman, a firm based in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, with $739 million in assets under management. The deal gives Merit its fourth office in the Keystone State.

Merit, which has its headquarters in Atlanta, has more than $11 billion in assets under management and more than 40 offices throughout the U.S. The deal marked Merit's 31st acquisition since it accepted a minority ownership investment in December 2020 from the financial services holding company Wealth Partners Capital Group and investors led by the private equity firm HGGC.

Mariner acquisition adds $292B in institutional assets

The RIA aggregator Mariner has brought institutional assets under advisement total to $550 billion with the purchase of Cardinal Investment Advisors.

Cardinal, which has offices in St. Louis and Chicago, will become the insurance advisory practice within Mariner's institutional division. It brings $292 billion in assets under advisement and 40 employees.

Besides insurance companies, Cardinal specializes in working with corporate retirement plans, healthcare systems, foundations and endowments. The merger of the two firms is expected to be complete by the end of March.

"This acquisition kickstarts a year that will be filled with growth, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of providing the best client-focused financial services," said Marty Bicknell, the CEO and president of Overland Park, Kansas-based Mariner.

Snowden Lane buys back ownership stake from PE firm

Wealth management firm Snowden Lane Partners has repurchased a majority of the ownership stake it sold to the private equity firm Estancia Capital Partners.

The deal means that employees and shareholders of New York-based Snowden Lane now control roughly two-thirds of the firm, according to a press release Friday. Estancia Partners has been trying for years to find a buyer for Snowden Lane, a firm founded in 2011 by former Merrill employees.

The deal will allow senior advisors who have been paid in part with ownership stakes in the firm to receive payouts on as much as 40% of their equity holdings, according to the release. Snowden Lane ended 2024 with $11.7 billion in assets under management and $80 million in revenue. It has 82 advisors in 16 offices throughout 10 states.

Raymond James' incoming CEO Paul Shoukry and outgoing CEO Paul Reilly.

Courtesy of Raymond James

Exec moves: Outgoing Raymond James CEO pockets 34% less in 2024

Raymond James CEO Paul Reilly, scheduled to retire in February, ended his last full year in office with about $23 million in payouts.

That figure was down 34% from the nearly $35 million he earned the previous year. But that previous amount was bolstered by a one-time retention award of $15 million, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Reilly's pay for 2024 consisted of a $750,000 salary, $11.65 million in cash bonuses, nearly $10.5 million in stock awards and $134,347 in other forms of compensation. The ratio of his payout to the median for Raymond James employees — which came in at $119,044 — was 194 to 1.

Raymond James' proxy statement credited Reilly for helping increase the firm's assets under management in its private client group — its main wealth unit — by 28% to $875 billion by the end of its latest fiscal year on Sept. 30. The statement also said the private client group's assets under administration rose by 25% to $1.51 trillion and the firm recruited advisors who had generated $335 million in revenue over the previous year.

Raymond James meanwhile paid Paul Shoukry, scheduled to take over for Reilly on Feb. 20, just over $7 million. That was roughly a 6% increase for Shoukry, who now holds the titles of president and chief financial officer.

Exec moves: Merrill brings back ex-employee from Citi for capital markets role

Merrill has reeled back in an executive who spent more than 20 years with it and its parent firm, Bank of America, before leaving to join Citi in 2018.

Merrill announced Friday that it has hired Ed Riley to be head of capital markets within its investment solutions group. His new role will have him working with advisors and clients at both Merrill and Bank of America's private bank.

Before returning to Merrill, Riley had been head of wealth markets for the Americas at Citi, working with ultrahigh net worth clients. Before Citi, Riley had been at both Bank of America and Merrill for nearly 20 years. His last position was head of markets product origination within the firm's global wealth & investment management division, which includes Merrill and the private bank.

Separately, Merrill announced it had hired Jessica Mullin from UBS to be a capital markets strategist in the investment solutions group. She will report to Rob Romano, the head of the firm's capital markets investor solutions unit as well as its newly formed Ultra-High-Net-Worth Advisory Group, and is based in New York. Merrill introduced the UHNW group this week to provide advisors with a team of experts who could help provide advice on the often-complex needs of ultrawealthy clients.

Mullin was previously the head of capital markets sales at UBS.

Exec moves: Dynasty pulls head of advisor transitions from Raymond James

Dynasty Financial Partners has named a 19-year Raymond James representative its new head of advisor transitions.

Dynasty announced this week that it had hired Lindsey Strawhecker from Raymond James, where she had most recently been a senior regional manager in charge of transition management. Strawhecker will work out of St. Petersburg, Florida, where both Dynasty and Raymond James have their headquarters.

Her new role will have her working with advisory teams that have recently joined Dynasty, helping to ensure the move over is smooth both for them and their clients. She'll also look for new ways for the firm to support advisors and will report to Chief Client Officer Gordon Ross.

Dynasty's network has 57 firms, more than 500 advisors and $105 billion under management, according to the firm's website. Dynasty provides a wide variety of technology and business services to its member firms.

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