Raymond James has notched a big win for its direct-employee channel, pulling over an advisory team formerly managing $5 billion at Zions Direct.
If all those assets can be moved, they'll easily make for the single biggest recruiting coup this year for Raymond James & Associates, the firm's employee channel. St. Petersburg, Florida-based Raymond James announced Thursday that it had recruited Scott Burnett and Peter Kelson from Zions Direct, a broker-dealer affiliated with Zions Bank.
They're joining a division within Raymond James & Associates known as Raymond James Advisor Select, which is meant to give direct employees some of the benefits of independence. Wealth managers in advisor select, for instance, are able to choose their own office locations and set pay rates for support personnel. But as direct employees, they receive help with administrative tasks related to accounting, financial reporting and human resources.
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The pair will work out of Raymond James' Salt Lake City office under branch manager Scott Hunter and will manage assets primarily for public entities, corporations, foundations and endowments, according to Raymond James. Their former firm, Zions Direct, also primarily served companies and institutions,
Zions closed its retail brokerage business on Oct. 31 and moved the accounts over to the online trading system Interactive Brokers. Zions Direct couldn't be reached for comment.
The firm's parent company, Zions Bank, was established in 1873 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and has been primarily associated with the Mormon faith throughout its history. Ron Edde, an industry recruiter and the president and CEO of
"And going with the employee channel, they'll get extra assistance and support to help move those clients," Edde said.
Burnett and Kelson cited Raymond James technological support and other services as their primary reasons for the move.
"Additionally, gaining access to the firm's research fosters confidence in delivering the highest quality service to our clients," Burnett said.
Burnett began his career at Lehman Brothers in 1982 and worked for Dean Witter, Wells Fargo and other firms before joining Zions Direct in 2006. Kelson started his career at Fidelity in 1998 and joined Zions Direct in 2002 after a short time at Morgan Stanley.
Raymond James has recruited some other big teams to its employee channel this year. In October, for instance,
"They're pretty good at bringing in teams like this and giving them a lot of freedom and flexibility," Rummage said.
