SunTrust Recruits Pair of Brokers from RayJay’s Alex. Brown
(Adds comments from Rhodes in fourth and sixth paragraphs, and opening of two SunTrust offices in Texas in seventh paragraph.)
Suntrust Investment Services has hired two Atlanta-based brokers from Raymond James’ newly formed Alex. Brown unit in its private wealth group, a SunTrust spokesman confirmed this week.
Todd Douglas Ryman and Will Rhodes joined Suntrust on February 14, according to their Financial Industry Regulatory Authority BrokerCheck records. They collectively managed around $200 million at Raymond James, according to Suntrust, and their trailing-12 production was what Rhodes characterized as “a goodly number.”
The former Deutsche Bank Securities advisors have been with Raymond James since September, when it closed its purchase of the German bank’s U.S. brokerage unit, which is operating as the Alex. Brown high-net-worth private client arm of its employee branch network.
“We pretty much deflected all the recruiting calls we got” when Deutsche Bank announced its decision to leave U.S. brokerage, Rhodes said in an interview on Wednesday explaining the pair’s decision. “We reached out to Suntrust partly because they had recruited Cynthia Norville [Deutsche Securities former southern region executive in Atlanta who joined SunTrust in 2014] and because of the deep bench in terms of capital market and trust business.” He also said that Atlanta-based SunTrust’s name “plays extremely well” with the team’s prospects in the southeast.
Ryman and Rhodes, who are “private financial advisors” and senior vice presidents, added financial consultant Luke Bennett to their team on March 23. Rhodes and Bennett are old friends who worked together at Lehman Brothers, according to Rhodes.
Bennett, who left Lehman after seven years in 2007, has worked for almost two decades in “private equities and investment opportunity services,” SunTrust said in a statement. For the past decade he has been a partner at Salvus Capital Management, a private equity firm Bennett helped found.
SunTrust said separately on Wednesday that it has eight bankers to open new private wealth management offices in Houston and Dallas. The offices, which are focused more on private banking than brokerage services, will be run by Karen Dixon, a 30-year veteran of the banking industry who was Houston market executive at BBVA Compass Global Wealth.
Raymond James officials have boasted that they retained around 90% of Deutsche Bank’s approximately 200 U.S.-based brokers after the deal closed, and are recruiting into the Alex. Brown unit.
CEO Paul Reilly also has said that the company’s recruiting and retention costs have skyrocketed since the deal. Raymond James spent $350 million in its fiscal 2016 year ending in September, and expects to pay about $35 million in retention bonuses this year to Alex. Brown brokers.
Ryman’s BrokerCheck history discloses two pending customer disputes, along with four that were settled and one state disclosure issue since 2000. He has worked at six firms over his 21-year brokerage career, including eight at Banc of America Investment Services and Merrill Lynch.
Rhodes’ BrokerCheck history over his 32 years in the industry at five firms is clean.
—Jed Horowitz contributed to this story.
