Alex David jumps to Raymond James from Stifel

investmentnews.com:

Alex David, a leading executive in the independent broker-dealer industry, said Monday morning that he’s left Stifel Financial Corp., where he was president and CEO of the firm’s independent advisors group, to join Raymond James Financial Advisors Inc., the independent brokerage arm of Raymond James Financial Inc., as the director of its northeast division.

David’s departure from Stifel Independent Advisors, which until recently was named Century Securities Associates Inc., comes just weeks after Stifel Financial CEO and chairman Ron Kruszewski said the company had no immediate plans to grow the independent broker and advisor portion of the firm’s business, which is substantially smaller than its employee broker and advisor group.

Independent brokers and financial advisors take home a bigger piece of the revenue than employee brokers but have to pay for out of pocket expenses like offices and assistants. Employee financial advisors are often more profitable for firms like Stifel and Raymond James.

“This appears to be more of a reflection on Stifel than Raymond James,” said Danny Sarch, an industry recruiter who had no immediate knowledge of David’s departure or hiring. “Kruszewski has downplayed the independent side of the business. If a firm is not committed to that, why would a guy like David stay there?”

When asked about Stifel’s plans for its independent contractor business during a conference call last month with analysts to discuss fourth-quarter earnings, Kruszewski replied: “There is no particular focus on growing the independent channel relative to the employee channel. There just hasn’t been.”

“We will deal with that as supply and demand sort of dictates,” he said “We have the platform and it’s a good