Raymond James & Associates hired an industry veteran to join its Indiana management team to guide the firm’s advisors in the region and grow the business across the state.
Based in Indianapolis, Patrick O’Donovan will be initially responsible for the firm's South Indy Complex and four branches in northern Indiana, ultimately succeeding current Indy North Complex Manager Joe Touchton, who will retire in December 2018. After Touchton retires, O’Donovan will then takeover managing the entire Indiana market, the firm says.
O'Donovan currently supports 40 advisors as part of his complex, and when Touchton retires he will support 113.
With over three decades of experience in the financial services industry O’Donovan joins Raymond James with the intent to aid advisors as they navigate industrywide challenges.
O’Donovan previously worked at SunTrust, but spent the bulk of his career at Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records.
SunTrust declined to comment.
Raymond James has been on a
“Our advisors own their own books and they’re not really dictated to as to how they should be running their businesses,” says O’Donovan, a former Navy brat and art history buff.
When it comes to potential recruits, O’Donovan says an entrepreneurial spirit can count as much as a big AUM.
Regional brokerages and firms that assist breakaway advisors have been picking off top talent at the wirehouses.
“There might be great advisors that are two or three years in the industry and they’re doing a great job but they feel like they hit a bit of a ceiling where they are, relative to support,” O’Donovan explains.
Looking ahead, O’Donovan wants to take the opportunity to do some succession planning at the firm’s Indiana locations. Raymond James, like other firms, has an aging population of advisors in Indiana that are “hungry” to sit down and discuss a succession plan for themselves over the next three to five years, O’Donovan explains.
The key to successful succession plans is to be able to work hand-in-hand with advisors. “Not by forcing something down their throats,” O’Donovan says, but rather getting them involved so they can take part in and influence a plan that is going to impact their clients in the future.
