The latest merger and acquisition transactions in North American wealth management and related fields.

Raymond James
The financial institutions arm of US-listed Raymond James has welcomed a team at Benchmark Financial Solutions, which is the wealth management arm of Benchmark Community Bank. Benchmark was previously partnered with Infinex.

Through this new alignment, the professionals at BFS will offer financial planning and wealth management services to clients through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc, a member FINRA/SIPC, Raymond James said in a statement. 

Benchmark Community Bank has $707 million in assets and operates in 16 branch locations throughout southern Virginia and North Carolina. BFS has more than $190 million in assets under management. The program is led by Chris Bailey, program manager and financial advisor, and includes Brandon Clark, advisor trainee, who through the move will be joining Raymond James’ Advisor Mastery Program, and assistants Becky Aleman and Mary West.

“After carefully evaluating broker/dealer partners for more than two years, we knew that Raymond James would be the best fit in a partner for us going forward,” Bailey, vice president at Benchmark Financial Solutions, said. 

The Financial Institutions Division was established by Raymond James in 1987 to provide banks and credit unions with an alternative to traditional third-party investment providers.