Raymond James Trims CEO Pay 17% in 'Difficult Year'

The company’s 2020 compensation targets were “based upon historical compensation, financial industry surveys and fiscal 2020 budget projections,” it noted.

Also, in setting those targets, the Raymond James Corporate Governance, Nominating & Compensation Committee also “stipulated that annual bonuses would be funded from a pool equal to 6% of consolidated pre-tax income, with no individual bonus to exceed 3% of such measure,” the proxy statement said.

“Overall, and despite many challenges, Raymond James was able to achieve good financial results” in fiscal 2020 that included record revenue of $8 billion, Reilly explained in the proxy. But he noted that net income declined 21%, “largely due to higher provision for loan losses and interest rate cuts.”

“We nevertheless continued our strong retention and recruiting of financial advisors, reaching records for the total number of advisors and year-end client assets,” he said.

“Moving forward, we expect to face continued headwinds in 2021 from a full year of lower short-term interest rates, and there remains a high degree of uncertainty about the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to a new U.S. administration,” he said. “However, we believe that Raymond James is well positioned for growth.”

The number of advisors in the firm’s Private Client Group increased in 2020 to a record of more than 8,200, according to the proxy statement.

Revenue in the division grew 4% to $5.6 billion but pre-tax income decreased 7% to $539 million, it said. The revenue growth was “driven by strong growth in assets in fee-based accounts” and the increased number of advisors, it noted.

Private Client Group assets under administration ended the fiscal year at a record $883.3 billion, representing 11% growth over Sept. 30, 2019.