Raymond James, Osaic make recruiting moves

Raymond James, Osaic bulk up with big teams: Advisor Moves

April 11, 2025 9:00 AM

Recruiting and M&A deals are constantly reshaping the wealth management industry.

This week, Raymond James and Osaic picked up advisory teams from their rivals, while LPL Financial hired a data and AI officer from JPMorgan. Check it out below.

Raymond James recruits $769M team from Wells Fargo

Raymond James has pulled a four-person advisory team to its channel for direct employees.

Marcus Jones, Eric Sommers, Michael "Mick" Foster and Christine Rutherford join Raymond James & Associates — the firm's employee advisor channel — from Wells Fargo, where they had managed roughly $769 million. Their practice, Foster Jones Sommers Investment Group of Raymond James, is based in Perrysburg, Ohio. Joining them are the senior registered client service associate Christie Watson and client service associate Abbey Cymbola.

They work with families and individual clients, family offices, endowments and foundations, people about to retire and corporate executives. Jones, Sommers and Foster all started at Prudential in the 1990s and moved to Wells Fargo in the early 2000s. Rutherford started at Wells Fargo in 2019.

Osaic pulls $450M team from HTK

Independent broker-dealer Osaic is pulling over a team led by a pair of longtime advisors in Kansas.

The wealth management firm NoxNumis, led by John Toothaker and Ron Gabel, had formerly been affiliated with Hornor, Townsend & Kent. The team, based in Wichita, Kansas, had managed roughly $450 million in client assets.

They provide advice on retirement planning, tax minimization, estate distribution, investment management and business and farm-succession planning. Coming with them to Osaic are five wealth managers, an insurance agent, two operations executives and various client service specialists.

Toothaker started at HTK in 2008 and Gabel started there in 2010.

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Raymond James recruits $325M advisor from Edward Jones

Raymond James has pulled an advisor managing $325 million from Edward Jones to its division for independent advisors.

David Tam comes to Raymond James Financial Services, the firm's independent channel, in San Diego. His practice, Tam Wealth Management, also includes the client service associates Jenny Yeager and Kaley Tiller.

Tam provides financial services to clients ranging from business owners and clients who have suddenly come into wealth, to retirees and people nearing retirement. Tam started at Edward Jones in 2003. Before working as a financial advisor, Tam was at Bank of America, where he became a senior personal banker.

Modern Wealth adds $1B in AUM with two acquisitions

Modern Wealth Management, an RIA founded by former executives of United Capital, is pushing its assets under management tally to over $7 billion with two acquisition deals.

Modern Wealth, which receives financing from the private equity firm Crestview Partners, said this week that it's buying Wade Financial Advisory and plans to close on its previously announced purchase of Planned Asset Management in coming weeks. Wade Financial is a fee-only firm based in Campbell, California, and manages more than $700 million in the Silicon Valley area. It specializes in tax planning and helping businesses with everything from taxes, equity compensation and investments to risk management, real estate, retirement and estate planning. Wade Financial's tax planning business will become part of Modern Wealth's established tax business, and Chief Investment Officer Neelesh Champaneri will become part of the firm's investment management team.

Meanwhile, Planned Asset Management is an advisory firm based in Calabasas, California, managing more than $350 million assets. It provides financial planning and investment management services to individual clients, families, small-business owners, corporations and charitable trusts.

LPL Financial hires chief data, AI officer from JPMorgan

LPL Financial has brought on Vaughn Harvey as its chief data and artificial intelligence officer.

Harvey, who is also an executive vice president, comes to LPL from JPMorgan, where he had been a managing director and the head of product and transformation for consumer and community bank finance. Before that, he had held various senior analytical roles at Morgan Stanley, PwC and Jefferies. At LPL, he will oversee the company's work with data and AI.

In the first quarter of last year, LPL introduced AI Advisor Solutions, which helps advisors make the most of their time, deliver tailored services to clients and draw on data to provide sophisticated financial advice. LPL is also trying out using AI to generate insights for financial planning and streamline its procedures for bringing in new clients.