Investment News “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 8
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. Investment News 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, and no more than 75% of the AUM with institutional
clients. Additionally, the firm must be independent (not the RIA arm of a broker dealer for
example). Qualifying RIA firms filled out an online application and questionnaire 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 operation, advisors' industry
certifications (CFA, etc.), compliance record, and online accessibility. AUM and asset growth
comprise roughly 80 percent to 90 percent ofeach 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
advisor's 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.
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.