Alex. Brown Expands into Maine with $1.7-Mln Wells Broker

Alex. Brown, the former Deutsche Bank unit Raymond James Financial acquired in September 2017, is opening a new office in Portland, Maine, with a million-dollar Wells Fargo producer, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Eric Dexter, who spent his nearly 24-year career with Wells Fargo Advisors and its A.G. Edwards & Sons predecessor, joined Alex. Brown on Friday, according to his BrokerCheck record. Dexter had been producing around $1.7 million in fees and commissions on $250 million in client assets, the person said.

Dexter, who moved with two support staff from Wells’ private client group channel, did not return a call for comment.

The new office is Alex. Brown’s 19th, the source said. It is managed by Stephen Pryor, a regional executive who oversees almost 30 advisors, about two-thirds of whom came from Deutsche Bank, in Alex. Brown’s Boston office. Pryor joined Alex. Brown in 2017 from RBC Wealth Management-U.S., where he had managed the firm’s Portland office.

St. Petersburg, Florida-based Raymond James has been expanding northward and westward, and bought Alex. Brown in 2016 to also give it a niche with higher-net-worth clients than are served by most of its Ray Jay-branded brokers.

RayJay executives have said that they retained 193 advisors–around 90%–of the more than 200 Alex. Brown brokers who had been with Deutsche Bank.

There are about 200 Alex. Brown brokers today, a relatively tepid growth pace that reflects management’s focus on retaining rather than hiring in the initial stages of integration, the source said. But Raymond James in 2018 shuffled Alex. Brown’s management in a reorganization aimed in part at growing headcount. The source said that the Portland office has room for around 15 advisors and is actively looking to hire.

The Alex. Brown unit that continues to be led by its legacy Deutsche Bank executive Haig Ariyan offers the typical Raymond James recruiting deal centered around an upfront cash payment of 125% of trailing-12 month production for million-dollar producers, the source said. Advisors also can earn about 125%-of-T12 on the ‘back-end’ if they hit certain asset and production targets.

Raymond James, which has not formally announced Dexter’s hire, said in April that Alex. Brown recruited Joseph M. Hubbell, a former advisor at RIA Snowden Lane Partners in New York who had been managing around $170 million of client assets. In February, San Francisco broker Jon T. Dayton joined from Merrill Lynch, where he was producing around $1.3 million in annual revenue.