Raymond James enterprise hires former Waddell & Reed recruiter

After receiving its first outside investment, one of the largest independent Raymond James enterprises has tapped an experienced recruiting executive to ramp up its growth.

San Diego-based Concurrent appointed Steve Bielke, the former director of recruiting and advisor acquisition with Waddell & Reed Financial Advisors, to be its managing director of business development. Bielke began serving in the remote role with a national scope earlier this month after departing Waddell & Reed in the wake of LPL Financial acquiring the firm in April.

It’s common for executives of newly acquired firms to leave, and Bielke selected the office of supervisory jurisdiction after exploring independent firms for roughly the past six months, he said in an interview. Concurrent has 125 advisors with more than $12.2 billion in assets under management. Financial services operating company Merchant bought a minority stake in the firm last month, which Bielke says is prompting more advisors to consider Concurrent’s “drastically different” approach from OSJs led by managers who also have their own practices.

“Our existence is merely to serve our partner firms,” Bielke said. “We're dedicated to focusing on the firms and servicing their needs and leveraging the scale to provide additional resources to them that may be too expensive for them to buy individually.”

In another area of difference with some other major enterprises at IBDs, Concurrent uses the corporate RIA of Raymond James Financial Services rather than its own. Advisors and other industry professionals often use the term “Super-OSJ” to refer to the enterprises like Concurrent that are the size of many standalone independent broker-dealers themselves but instead operate under BD affiliations with giants like Raymond James, LPL and Advisor Group.

“While a super-OSJ/BD relationship can be a two-edged sword at times, recruiting efforts are generally complementary to each other,” Brad Wales, a former Raymond James business development executive who now owns a consulting firm for advisors called Transition to RIA, said in an email. “A super-OSJ’s recruiting apparatus is essentially an extension of a BD’s own efforts, at almost zero additional cost to the BD.”

Industry News

IBD Elite 2021: LPL’s hybrid RIA power play

August 23, 2021 9:00 AM

Bielke comes to Concurrent with substantial experience in such independent recruiting dynamics. Last year, the incoming advisors to Waddell & Reed brought the largest year-over-year increase in recruited client assets in the company’s history, according to Concurrent. Prior to joining Waddell & Reed in 2019, he spent 11 years with Wells Fargo’s independent arm, the Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. Bielke started his tenure in the industry in 1993 with A.G. Edwards & Son, which eventually folded into Wells Fargo.

He “has an outstanding track record as a recruiter and business development executive who shares our commitment to preserve and enhance the Concurrent culture,” Mike Hlavek, a founding partner of Concurrent, said in a statement. “He’s not only experienced in the wirehouse space but also has a rock solid understanding of the challenges and benefits afforded to independent advisors.”

A 5-year-old firm, Concurrent is having its best recruiting year to date after nine teams with a combined $1.26 billion in client assets joined the firm in the first five months of the year. Bielke aims to add $10 million to $15 million in recruited production per year to the enterprise’s typical annual return of $25 million. The time he took after LPL acquired Waddell & Reed to consider the available opportunities has paid off, he said.

“The LPL role would have been a traditional recruiting role if I had stayed on,” Bielke said. “I was more interested in the development side and making an impact to the company as a whole as opposed to just my region.”