Over 90 percent of advisors from Deutsche Bank Wealth Management’s U.S. Private Client Services Unit have committed to joining Raymond James.
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based firm announced it intended to acquire the unit in early December. The advisors, 200 spread across 16 U.S. locations, will join Raymond James under the revived Alex. Brown brand.
As part of a series of home office visits and information sessions held following the acquisition announcement, “virtually all” of the Deutsche advisors had the chance to visit the St. Petersburg headquarters and reviewed the firm’s platform, Raymond James CEO Paul Reilly said in a statement Thursday.
As part of the deal, Haig Ariyan, Deutsche’s co-head of Wealth Management Americas, will be moving to Raymond James where he will serve as president of the Alex. Brown division. Other key members of the Deutsche management team will also remain.
The firm is on track to complete this transaction in September 2016, closing over Labor Day weekend, firm spokeswoman Anthea Penrose said. Raymond James structured the closing of its $1.2 billion Morgan Keegan deal in 2012 in a similar fashion.
Raymond James’ initial success in retaining the incoming Deutsche advisors is in stark contrast to similar deals announced last year by Stifel Financial and Wells Fargo Advisors.
When Stifel Financial announced their intention to acquire Barclays’ U.S. wealth management business last year, the Barclays team had some 180 advisors and over $56 million in client assets. Though Stifel made significant investments to accommodate the incoming advisors, when the deal closed, only about half of the Barclays team was still on board, according to published reports.
And despite its deal with Wells Fargo, several high-profile wealth managers from Credit Suisse have recently decamped to UBS and Morgan Stanley. Wells Fargo senior executive vice president and chief financial officer John Shrewsberry told analysts in January the deal would not be “a huge game-changer in terms of the numbers” of Credit Suisse brokers who are joining the San Francisco-based brokerage.
