A recent partnership with a valuation and analysis start-up founded by former Morgan Stanley executives has strengthened the annualised sales which represented a growth of over 50%.

Ramond James Financial (Raymond James) has closed its FY24 ended 30 September with a record US$5.6 billion traded notional of structured products, compared to US$3.7 billion and US$3.5 billion for the prior fiscal years, according to Christopher Loudon (pictured), head of structured product origination at Raymond James.

Approximately 95% of the volume came from SEC-registered structured notes while the remainder were exempted issuances under Section 3(a)(2) and market-linked certificates of deposits (MLCDs). The total sales translated to a 4.0% market share during the period, SRP data shows.

What distinguishes us relative to the other buy-side firms is the way that we have internalized almost everything - from front, middle to back office and origination to sales

The Florida-headquartered independent broker-dealer currently holds north of US$10 billion notional of structured products, predominantly with callable contingent coupon and snowball payoffs.

“It’s been a pretty steady upward market this year. The performance is great for structured products,” Loudon told SRP. “What distinguishes us relative to the other buy-side firms is the way that we have internalized almost everything - from front, middle to back office and origination to sales.”

As part of this ongoing initiative, Raymond James undertook a pioneering step by adopting third-party valuation and analysis tools for structured products among broker-dealers in the US.

The company inked a partnership with Arrow Investment Analytics (Arrow IA) in August 2023 for a tailor-made system that provides analytics involving pricing and a range of metrics including probability of a gain/loss and tail risks.

“Our partnership with Arrow IA is the first large scale one in the industry that I’m aware of,” said Loudon.

The New York-based analytics start-up is spearheaded by co-founders Larry Wilson and David Walsh, who left Morgan Stanley earlier this year.

“The idea there is to use it to lend better clarity to a relatively complex product set allowing advisors to make more informed decisions,” said Loudon. “Ultimately this will hopefully pave the way to creating our own internal separately managed account (SMA) solutions.”

In terms of sales model, Raymond James split the US sales division into five regions in 2020 (six as of 2025) where it pairs an “external consultant” with an “internal hybrid” for each region, effectively doubling the staff level.

“This was done at a cost less than that of wholesalers, directly benefiting clients,” said Loudon.   

The goal is to bring in new advisors and move existent advisors up the food chain from “dabblers” to “power users” when it comes to structured products.

“The belief here being that if we provide the best experience, sales will follow,” Loudon added.

There are currently north of 200 “power users” that typically engage with the structuring desk directly and account for majority of the custom business, according to Loudon.

With roots in brokerage, Raymond James has been shifting towards a fee-based business, which forms about 65% of the structured product traded notional for FY24, or US$3.6 billion. 

The 62-year-old firm listed on Nasdaq saw its FY24 earnings largely in record territory with US$2.1 billion net income groupwide, US$1.5 trillion assets under administration (AUA) and US$875.2 billion in fee-based accounts at its private client group (PCG) unit.

The main business segment housed 3,826 employee advisors and 4,961 independent contractors as of 30 September, a stable level since a 10% year-on-year increase from 2019.

New business 

Loudon noted that rollover money constitutes “a big part” of the structured product notional for the past year across Raymond James and the wider market, notably a number of Russell 2000-linked notes which had failed to be called since 2022. 

“Trying to delineate between new and recycled dollars has become a significant challenge as we really want to focus on and understand the organic growth of our business,” said Loudon. “That is where we can influence growth while call volume is at the discretion of the market.”

Looking ahead, the structured product specialist expects 2025 to be a growth year for quantitative investment strategies (QIS) as concepts like volatility control and decrements “become more common, normalized and accepted in the market”. 

“I think we’ve been in something of a Goldilocks economy and market for a long time,” said Loudon. “I don’t necessarily expect that to change but there is certainly the chance for world events to have a major impact and that is the real risk relative to regular market and economic cycles.”

Raymond James is the recipient of the Best Independent Broker-Dealer accolade at the SRP Americas 2024 Awards.

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