Concurrent turns breakaway recruiting into an equity play

Chris Davitt and Anupam Singh, two former Raymond James executives, launched Proxima Wealth Partners on Wednesday, according to InvestmentNews, with a structure that gives every advisor who joins an equity stake in the new firm, betting that the next wave of breakaways wants a chassis more than a flag. Davitt, who most recently ran one of the largest regions within Raymond James' Private Client Group and oversaw employee branches in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, will lead recruiting and enterprise-value growth as outsourced chief growth officer; Singh, formerly vice president of platform strategy and operations for Raymond James' Asset Management Services unit, will oversee technology, operations, financial and risk management as outsourced chief operating officer.

Proxima is built to recruit teams looking to grow enterprise value through organic growth, advisor recruiting and M&A, and the equity stake mirrors the ownership incentives that have made independent channels attractive to advisors weighing a break while relieving them of the operational chores that come with independence. "Many advisors who choose independence underestimate the burden of running and operating a small business," Singh said in a written statement. "Proxima helps minimize this burden so advisors can spend more time with their clients and drive meaningful value in their businesses."

Concurrent supplies the institutional infrastructure behind Proxima: its investment platform, enterprise technology, risk management resources and strategic capital to back advisor transitions and acquisitions. In effect, the advisor gets the upside without the back-office. The equity offer is the sharpest departure from the usual platform pitch—most platforms pay a percentage of revenue or offer a loan, but ownership for every advisor is rare. It is a direct bid to make every producer feel like a principal, which is exactly the psychology that pulls advisors toward independence. The catch is that the equity is in Proxima, not in Concurrent, so its value depends on Proxima's ability to grow and eventually monetize; Davitt pointed to "long-term capital" and advisors' ability to "monetize their life's work," which suggests the equity is designed to be a retirement vehicle as much as a recruiting tool.

Concurrent chief executive Nate Lenz, who cut his teeth in the Raymond James system, knows his way out of it—he founded Concurrent in 2017 as an office of supervisory jurisdiction within Raymond James' independent broker-dealer arm, a branch that held almost $13 billion in client assets when it announced plans to leave Raymond James in 2022 and restructure as a multicustodial, hybrid RIA. Weeks later, the firm selected Fidelity Clearing and Custody Solutions as its preferred custodian, according to InvestmentNews. He emphasized that this is what the platform was built for: "They could have gone anywhere, and they chose to build their own firm on our chassis, which is precisely what this platform was designed to do."

Fidelity's rate hike turned custody into a financing war, and Concurrent's strategic capital is another weapon in that fight; it can fund an advisor's move without the advisor taking on personal debt, giving Proxima a running start over platforms that expect advisors to finance their own transitions. The same week, two California teams left Raymond James for a $21 billion FiNet affiliate, taking $545 million in client assets. Raymond James has been bleeding teams across channels all summer, and Proxima is a recruiting engine built to pull teams out of the same channels its founders left. The escapees are building a net.

The equity structure shifts the recruiting pitch from revenue share to ownership: an advisor who joins Proxima becomes an owner of a firm that has hired Concurrent as its service provider, rather than an employee of Concurrent. That difference matters when liquidation value is calculated—a $500 million book that goes to a wirehouse is worth a payout; a $500 million book that goes into Proxima is a stake in an entity that can be sold. Davitt's emphasis on "monetize their life's work" suggests the goal is to build Proxima into a sellable enterprise, and the equity is the token that makes that credible.

In the platform arms race, independence is no longer the product; the chassis is. Concurrent's use of long-term capital to back transitions and acquisitions is a direct challenge to rivals who expect advisors to finance their own moves, and firms still selling pure independence—bring your own custodian, build your own compliance—will likely lose the next wave of recruits to platforms that offer infrastructure and capital. The competition is fierce: the same week Proxima launched, two veteran Wells Fargo teams took $580 million to Ameriprise and Janney. Proxima will need to differentiate on speed of transition and the credibility of the chassis, not just the equity. The model is attractive on paper, but the test is execution—a new brand with no track record, and a $13 billion platform that has yet to prove it can support a recruiting machine. The first few team announcements will show whether the pitch has real pull.

Davitt ran a five-state region, Singh ran platform strategy for an asset management unit; both know the levers. Watch whether Proxima's first recruits come from Raymond James's own employee channel—the same channel Davitt used to oversee. If the pitch works there, Concurrent's chassis play will be the template for the next five years of breakaways.