Charlotte de Vries
EXE Capital
Charlotte is a Director at EXE Capital Management, a directly authorised private investment office and has worked in financial services since 2015.
As a new, directly authorised firm with previous network experience, we were seeking a platform that could combine our investment management requirements, along with a personal approach and an efficient service to help us navigate the setup of a new company. Ensuring that our high-net-worth clients would receive a smooth onboarding process was key.
It was also essential that the trading and investment systems were able to offer access to a wide range of holdings, as well as having a charging structure that allowed our target client sector to benefit from tiered family charging.
The teams at Raymond James offered us reassurance, proactive training and frequent contact to make sure we had all the support we needed. This put to rest our initial concerns about the level of training and support we would need to take on the additional areas of compliance and account opening responsibility.
After several meetings with the Business Development team we could see that we would be working with likeminded individuals and a solution-focused, client-centred company. We felt confident that we’d be able to build a long-term, trusted relationship with Raymond James.
Informed team members, with quick response times and efficient work from the Operations and Wealth Management divisions. When we contact individuals via email and telephone, we find that responses are forthcoming and pragmatic in trying to find solutions.
We appreciate the work that the Raymond James Transfers team puts in to onboarding our clients, including making sure that client portfolios are transferred from other providers swiftly and with minimal intervention needed from our office. As an entirely new firm, we didn’t need to move clients from a previous platform, however the team helped us effectively onboard £100m+ in our first nine months’ trading.
Working with Raymond James allows us to hone our proposition in terms of product selection and investment choice, in line with meeting our clients’ bespoke needs. In most areas it has out-delivered on our expectations. Raymond James has taken the time to understand our structure and get to know the members of the team at all levels. Following our sign up to Raymond James, the service level has continued to be extremely high, showing a focus on the ongoing relationship, not just the initial engagement.
Bear market of 1974The severe bear market of 1974 threatened the existence of Raymond James, which was bleeding capital by the day. Tom James, his father and other leaders took extreme measures to keep the firm afloat, slashing costs, forgoing pay checks and even attempting to sell the firm for just enough capital to protect client assets and retain as many associates as possible. The story could have ended very differently if not for a sharp upturn and continued rebound in the stock markets late in the year. |
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Black MondayOn 19 October 1987, the stock markets experienced a dramatic plunge that prompted many firms to shut down their trading desks and turn off their phones to minimize internal losses. Raymond James refused to do the same. Our desks stayed open to help meet clients’ needs, resulting in our first and only unprofitable quarter since the firm went public in 1983. |
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Who was Raymond James?The Raymond in our name is actually from Edward Raymond, owner of a 15-employee mutual fund sales group, Raymond and Associates, along Florida’s west coast. He sold his company to Bob James on 15 July 1964, on condition that the surviving firm be called Raymond, James & Associates. Three days after the sale, Ed Raymond was involved in a near-fatal automobile accident and never joined the firm. Nonetheless, even after Raymond had passed away, Bob James insisted that his name remain on the door – ahead of James’ own. That was a promise he made to Ed Raymond three days before the accident, and Bob James was a man who kept his promises. |
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Taking Raymond James PublicWhen consideration was being given to taking Raymond James public, Tom James penned a letter to shareholders (largely employees at the time). ” … the public offering should be considered as a statement of our independence. While this is a psychological rather than an economic rationale, it is nonetheless very important. We have asserted for some time that we are not interested in becoming a small part of a very large corporation. That assertion results mainly from the inclinations of management rather than the economic benefits associated with either alternative. The public stock offering affords us the opportunity to enjoy a little bit of the best of both worlds. While shareholders will be given liquidity at fair market value, we will still have the ability to control our own destiny.” After 40+ years of Tom’s leadership, upon becoming CEO, Paul Reilly was often questioned about whether the company might ultimately surrender its cherished independence and be acquired by some larger entity. His response: “Not while I’m around.” It’s a theme that continues today. |
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