Raymond James Nearly Back to ‘Normal’ After Irma

September 14, 2017 at 10:55 AM
Share & Print

Raymond James, which moved some staffers and operations last week due to Hurricane Irma, says its corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida, reopened on Thursday. The firm says it should return to its "normal operations" by Monday and pledged support for general relief efforts and staff needs.

"I'm happy to say that our planning and exercises anticipating a variety of crisis situations paid off during Hurricanes Harvey and Irma," said CEO Paul Reilly, in a statement.

As Hurricane Irma approached Florida late last week, Raymond James announced that it was relocating critical business operations out of the area. Some personnel went to Memphis, Tennessee, as well as to Detroit and Denver, where the company has facilities.

"We smoothly transitioned to our business continuity protocol and experienced no operational support issues during the evacuations and relocation of associates. And most importantly, we've heard of no injuries among our associates from the storms," Reilly explained on Thursday.

Other steps taken by the firm, which has more than 7,000 advisors, include the following:

  • A donation of $500,000 to recovery efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Irma;
  • Matching up to $100,000 of donations to Friends of Raymond James, which supports associates coping with hardships, by Reilly's family and matching of an additional $135,000 by the firm's Executive Committee;
  • Over $1 million of financial help tied to the cost of evacuation, travel and other storm-related expenses for non-management/senior advisor branch professionals and non-executive level corporate associates located in areas most affected by the recent hurricanes;
  • Regular compensation regardless of work availability during the storms;
  • Space at the firm's conference center as temporary shelter for associates and their families;
  • Supplies being shipped from Memphis to St. Petersburg to help those without power and access to water, coolers, batteries, diapers and more.

"I'm incredibly proud of the dedication and performance of our associates during this emergency," Reilly said. "We've received dozens of communications from our advisors across the country, their clients and our institutional partners expressing their satisfaction and gratitude."

— Check out Weighing the CMBS Impact of Harvey and Irma on ThinkAdvisor.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Related Stories

Resource Center