A Few of the Finer Things - February 2015
This past month marked my six year anniversary of moving my team to Raymond James & Associates. It is somewhat hard to believe that six years have gone by so quickly. Lauren and I were reflecting the other day that in some ways it feels like we just got through with all of the transition paperwork!
When I moved my team to Raymond James, one of the biggest reasons was that after the financial crisis of 2008, I wanted to get as far away from "Big Wall Street" as I could. I was exhausted from one-way loyalty and tired of being embarrassed by the actions of my firm. My goal was to find a platform that had all of the high-end products and services but none of the headaches of irresponsible management decisions having negative effects on my business and most importantly, my clients.
I think we did very well in finding the right "home" and hope that you agree. While I have a lot of entrepreneurial freedom to run Weiss Wealth Strategies of Raymond James the way I see fit, I am very proud to be an employee of Raymond James & Associates. I am proud that other than the Arizona Cardinals playing in the 2009 Super Bowl at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the firm has rarely been in the news and hardly ever in a negative light. When we were making the move and making the phone calls to tell you all that we were moving to Raymond James, we got a few comments like "I have never heard of them." My reply was mostly that was a good thing—the firms you have heard about were the ones that were in trouble and in the news mostly for cutting dividends to shareholders and getting government bailouts—firms such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney/Citigroup. The "quiet sleepiness" of Raymond James was quite welcome.
I also told many of you at the time of the transition that I hope to never have to move again. I stand by that statement and hope to end my career here (it is still a long way off—lots of kids still to educate—we are 2 years in to 12 straight years of college tuition!) and barring something like a big bank buying Raymond James Financial, we expect to be here for as long as they will keep us! With close to 50% of RJF stock being owned by insiders and employees I think the likelihood of a sale is remote. My fellow Raymond James advisors and I thrive on our culture and our independence. Management has stuck by the following mantra:
- Take care of the client
- Take care of the advisor
- Take care of the firm; if you do #1 and #2 well, #3 happens all by itself
Thank you for your continued trust and confidence. It took a leap of faith by you to make this journey with us and we are eternally grateful!
– Gary Weiss, February 2015
