Raymond James Financial (RJF) said early Thursday that it tapped Kevin Monaco, a former Morgan Stanley manager and recruiter, to help it grow its employee advisor channel, Raymond James & Associates, in the San Diego area.
Monaco will join the eight existing employee advisor branch managers in California, along with the recently hired Seattle manager, David Wright.
"As Raymond James looks to deliver on our objective of establishing a number of new RJA offices in the western part of the country, we are delighted to have hired such a proven talent as Kevin to represent us in Southern California, and more specifically in the San Diego area our tenth California location," said Tash Elwyn, president of Raymond James & Associates, Private Client Group, in a press release. "His experience in building and developing teams of advisors is just what we are looking for as we build out this market."
Monaco started his work in the business in 1993 as an advisor trainee with Merrill Lynch (BAC) in Cleveland. He moved to Morgan Stanley (MS) in 1997 and worked as an advisor until 2003, when he relocated to Chicago as a nonproducing sales manager with Smith Barney.
In 2006, Monaco was tapped as a nonproducing branch manager in Glendale, Calif., supervising 40 professionals and later the local Morgan Stanley/Smith Barney integration. Monaco later served as an executive director and business-development manager for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Los Angeles.
"I joined Raymond James to get back to what I enjoy most building an office from scratch and being a high-energy advocate for advisors who are motivated to succeed and dedicated to their craft," said Monaco, in a statement. "I understand the challenges facing today's financial professionals, and I'm passionate about helping top-producing advisors in the San Diego area serve their clients' best interests, advance their careers and establish succession plans that give them total control of their businesses.
Financial Results
Late Wednesday, Raymond James said its advisors had total securities commissions and fees of $245 million in August, up 1.3% from July but down 2% from August 2012.