The wealth management house issued an October update of its results, showing that last month dented assets as stock markets slid.

Raymond James Financial, the St Petersburg, Florida-based wealth management group operating in North America and the UK, has reported higher securities commissions and fees for October, driven by improved private client group results.

Fees and securities commissions rose by 11 per cent year-on-year to $403 million in October, rising by 7 per cent from September this year, the New York-listed firm said yesterday.  

Total client assets are $753 billion.

Client assets under administration of $753.2 billion increased by 7 per cent over October 2017 but fell by 5 per cent from September this year, with falls in stock markets taking a toll. Financial assets under management of $133.1 billion increased by 35 per cent over October 2017, helped by the Scout and Reams acquisition in November 2017, and declined by 6 per cent compared with September, with the market effect again evident.

The update comes after the business has announced a number of wealth management hires in recent weeks. (See an example here.) 

Raymond James Financial said that it has reclassified certain revenues among income statement line items and renamed certain line items to meet accounting changes.

“Following a very strong month in September, investment banking revenues declined in October, which is not atypical,” said chairman and CEO, Paul Reilly.  “However, we are still optimistic about our investment banking pipelines, particularly in M&A, although the timing of closings are inherently difficult to predict.”

Record net loans at Raymond James Bank amounting to $19.6 billion were up by 15 per cent over October 2017 and 1 per cent over September 2018.