A number of financial advisor teams are joining Raymond James to bolster its business in the Southeast, the firm announced this week. Two financial teams with $308 million in total assets under management will be joining the Atlanta complex, while a separate team with $215 million in managed assets will join Raymond James’ Fort Myers, Fla. office.
Joel and Zach Theis, a father-and-son financial advisor duo, are joining Raymond James from Truist and will be located in the firm’s Dalton, Ga. office. The duo managed $189 million in assets prior to the move. Joel Theis called the firm a “great fit” due to its culture.
“They have top-notch support and technology offerings that create efficiencies and allow us to focus our time on serving clients,” Theis said.
In Raymond James’ Fayetteville, Ga. office, financial advisors Joshua Pruitt, Harry Pence and Demtrios Protopapadakis will be joining the firm from Merrill Lynch, having previously managed $119 million in assets. The three advisors, alongside Jammie Perri, a senior registered client service associate, will make up the newly-established Pruitt & Associates Wealth Management of Raymond James. Both Pence and Protopapadakis (as well as Zach Theis) took part in Raymond James’ Advisor Mastery Program, a two-year training module for nascent advisors.
Also joining Raymond James from Merrill Lynch are financial advisors Francine Payson and Tarek Salhab. The duo previously had about $215 million in AUM and will be joined in the move by client service associates Gail Siebenmorgen and Lynda Demarco to form Riverview Wealth Partners of Raymond James in Fort Myers, Fla.
Payson has more than 43 years of experience in the industry, spending a decade on Wall Street with EF Hutton before a 32-year run at Merrill Lynch. Salhab has worked in the industry for more than two decades, starting with Morgan Stanley in 2000 before joining Merrill Lynch for 15 years. Like Theis, Salhab cited Raymond James’ tech solutions and access to expertise and support as an essential reason for the shift.
“It’s an exciting combination that will ultimately allow us to enhance services to our clients,” he said.
Raymond James, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla., has been consistently attracting advisors in the Sunshine State. Last month, the firm welcomed Adam English, an advisor with $130 million AUM who also previously worked at Merrill Lynch, to its branch location in Naples, Fla.
In early October, a Palm Beach Gardens-based financial advisor team with about $195 million in managed client assets left Ameriprise and joined Raymond James to form Helius Wealth Management, and several weeks earlier financial advisor Alberto Sisso left Wells Fargo, where he’d managed about $200 million in assets, to join Raymond James & Associates' Fort Lauderdale, Fla. office.
In a podcast interview released today on WealthManagement.com with Tash Elwyn, the president and CEO of Raymond James & Associates called Raymond James a firm that was “simultaneously big enough and small enough,” arguing it had the scale to help advisors compete for business but the agility to do so with the responsiveness and ‘family feel’ of a more manageable firm.
