Financial services firms based in Central Florida have spent recent days preparing for Hurricane Ian's arrival, shutting down their offices and having advisors and other members of their staffs who live in especially vulnerable areas evacuate before the brunt of the storm arrived.
Raymond James' home office in St. Petersburg, Florida, will be closed Wednesday and Thursday "in preparation for Hurricane Ian and to ensure the safety of our associates," the firm said in a statement released Tuesday.
"We've enacted our business continuity and evacuation plans to ensure support for critical operations from our Memphis, Southfield, Mich. and Denver facilities," Raymond James added.
On the same day that Raymond James and Concurrent Advisors, its affiliate based nearby in Tampa, Florida, said they split up and that Concurrent was restructuring its business as a multi-custodial, hybrid RIA, the companies were making similar plans to ready for Ian.
"Concurrent's whole Tampa office was shut down and evacuated yesterday, which has impacted around 30 folks," including co-founder Nate Lenz, who "evacuated his family including his newborn child," a Concurrent spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday.
"Most of the impacted Concurrent team have been preparing for the hurricane for the past few days, and have evacuated from their homes. They expect to work remotely for the rest of the week," the spokesperson added.
Dynasty Financial Partners, meanwhile, is "executing its business continuity plans and evacuating employees in vulnerable areas," a spokesperson for that firm told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday.
