Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, Pa., produced the 2018 ranking of Cool Places to Work in Michigan for Crain’s. Any Michigan company with at least 15 employees could participate. First, the employer provided detailed information on its benefits and policies; next, its employees answered an 80 question confidential survey about workplace culture, company leadership and other aspects of work. The client survey accounted for 75% of the final ranking Companies paid for the survey; not all companies that applied were chosen as a cool workplace. The ranking may not be representative of any one client’s experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisors future performance. No fee is paid in exchange for this award/rating. Raymond James is not affiliated with Best Companies Group of Harrisburg, PA or Crain’s.

Source: InvestmentNews “2019 Top 50 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers”, April 2019. The Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers program is a national program managed by Best Companies Group. The survey and recognition program are dedicated to identifying and recognizing the best employers in the financial advice/wealth management industry. The final list is based on the following criteria: must be a registered investment adviser (RIA), affiliated with an independent broker-dealer (IBD), or a hybrid doing business through an RIA and must be in business for a minimum of one year and must have a minimum of 15 full-time/part-time employees. The assessment process is compiled in a two part process based on the findings of the employer benefits & policies questionnaire and the employee engagement & satisfaction survey. The results are analyzed and categorized according to 9 Core Focus Areas: Leadership and Planning, Corporate Culture and Communications, Role Satisfaction, Work Environment, Relationship with Supervisor, Training, Development and Resources, Pay and Benefits and Overall Engagement. Best Companies Group will survey up to 400 randomly selected employees in a company depending on company size. The two data sets are combined and analyzed to determine the rankings. The award is not representative of any one client's experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of advisor's future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors pay a fee in exchange for this award. InvestmentNews and/or Best Companies Group is not affiliated with Raymond James.

The Financial Times FT 300 Registered Investment Advisors 2018 award had about 39.5% of the 760 advisor applicants being recognized as a Registered Investment Advisor. The FT used the database of RIAs who are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and selected those practices reporting to the SEC that had $300 million or more in assets under management. Qualifying RIA firms complete an application that gave more information about their practices. That information was augmented with their own research on the candidates, including data from regulatory filings. The FT generated an internal score for each applicant based on six broad factors: advisor assets under management, AUM growth rate, the firm's years in existence, advisors' industry certifications (CFA, CFP, etc.), compliance record, and online accessibility. AUM comprised approximately 70 to 75 percent while asset growth comprised roughly 15 to 20 percent of each RIA's score. Additionally, to provide a diversity of advisors, the FT placed a cap on the number of RIA's from any one state that's roughly correlated to the distribution of millionaires across the U.S. The ranking may not be representative of any one client's experience, is not an endorsement, and is not indicative of future performance. Neither Raymond James nor any of its Financial Advisors or RIA firms pay a fee in exchange for this award/rating. The FT is not affiliated with Raymond James.