World Investment Advisors Starts Custodial Relationship With Raymond James

World Investment Advisors, a division of World Insurance Associates LLC, has started a custodial relationship with Raymond James Financial Inc., the firms announced Thursday.

The partnership comes after World Investment Advisors, formerly Pensionmark, in July acquired Boston Harbor Wealth Advisors, which had been affiliated with Raymond James for almost 10 years. World Investment Advisors works with six custodians overall, according to a spokesperson.

The Santa Barbara, California-based wealth and retirement advisory is billing the Raymond James relationship as another draw for independent financial advisers and wealth managers to join the firm. Troy Hammond, CEO of World Investment Advisors, has been building its wealth division over the years. The firm currently supports more than $55.4 billion in assets across investment management and retirement plan consulting services, including regulatory assets under management of $24.5 billion, with $11.5 billion coming from wealth management.

“We are focused on enabling advisers to manage their businesses their way, optimize operations and recapture time spent on tasks they can delegate to us, ultimately allowing them to spend more time growing assets and building personalized relationships with their clients,” Hammond said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “The addition of another custodian choice—especially one that comes with this level of service and support—is very much in line with these key pillars of our wealth management value proposition.”

The announcement also stated that the partnership would expand World Investment Advisors’ network to Raymond James, including individual practices with $100 million in assets to “multi-adviser teams and firms managing billions of dollars.” World Investment Advisors, in turn, will have access to the “vast majority” of Raymond James investment offerings available to its independent contractor advisers and employee advisers.

“For any firm looking to recruit advisers, adding a custodian such as Raymond James can only help them,” says Louis Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants, a financial adviser recruiter and M&A consultancy. “Raymond James has a stellar brand, reputation, and tech platform for advisers, so it bolsters their value proposition.”

Diamond notes that Boston Harbor was one of the larger Raymond James independent advisories. That makes him think the partnership is “multi-purpose—being able to retain asset custody at Raymond James for all the Boston Harbor advisers and to help them onboard other advisers who may be interested in leveraging the Raymond James platform as part of World Advisors.”

Hammond added: “World brings the RIA ‘flexible-experience’ environment many advisers are looking for, while RJ brings a ‘comfortable’ custodian experience ideal for advisers currently with larger wirehouse, regional and independent broker/dealers.”

Hammond’s firm currently has more than 350 advisers and staff in 65 locations.

Meanwhile, Raymond James has about 8,700 financial advisers in its network, according to the firm.