Raymond James pays big for recruiting, sees upswing in net new assets

Raymond James’ net new assets surged in its latest quarter, but so did its costs related to recruiting and retaining advisors.

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Raymond James reported Wednesday that its net inflows of new assets were up a whopping 160% year over year to $23 billion in the first three months of 2026 — officially its second quarter. CEO Paul Shoukry said the firm recruited advisors with $21 billion in client assets at their previous firms and $141 million in annual revenue generation.

Those additions helped push net revenue for its wealth management business, named its Private Client Group, up by 13% to $2.81 billion. Offsetting some of those gains, though, was a 25% year-over-year increase in recruiting and retention-related compensation, which rose to $111 million in the quarter.

Shoukry said he and other executives “prefer to recruit one-by-one versus doing acquisitions because we know — first, 100% of the transition assistance is going to the retention of the advisor.

“And secondly, we can ensure that the advisors we’re bringing over are really good cultural fits for the firm,” he added.

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Commissions, benefits and other forms of pay to advisors meanwhile increased by 14% to $1.55 billion. With those and other costs factored in, the Private Client Group’s income before taxes was down by 3% to $416 million. Raymond James said the decline was the result of “lower interest-related revenues and certain costs associated with our continued investments in growth.”

Raymond James has ceased providing quarterly updates of its advisor headcount but reported in October that the tally had reached a record at 8,943. 

Raymond James has been among the most aggressive recruiters over the past year and has enjoyed particular success in bringing over advisors who had been at Commonwealth Financial Network at the time of its purchase by LPL Financial last year. LPL, which has more than 32,000 advisors and $2.4 trillion in client assets, bought the much-smaller Commonwealth in August with the intention of bringing it into its fold as a separate brand retaining many of the characteristics that had made it distinct in the broker-dealer industry.

Hundreds of Commonwealth advisors have since left for other firms. Raymond James has been the destination for more than 150, according to the industry data tracker AdvizorPro. 

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Assets and revenue and income for Raymond James as a whole

The net inflows of new assets helped boost assets under administration in the Private Client Group by 15% to $1.478 trillion. Of that, just over $1 trillion was held in fee-generating accounts, a figure up 20% year over year. Fee-generating assets are particularly prized for producing steady streams of income.

For all of the firm’s business lines, which also include capital markets, asset management and banking divisions, Raymond James reported its net revenue was up 13% year over year to a record high of $3.86 billion. Its net income was up 10% to $542 million.