Raymond James awards new CEO for strong 2025

With Paul Shoukry’s elevation to the top of Raymond James is coming a nice little pay bump.

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Shoukry, who took on the CEO title last February, is receiving nearly $16.7 million in total compensation for 2025, according to a proxy statement the firm filed on Wednesday. That consists of a base salary of $645,833, a roughly $8 million cash bonus, nearly $3.2 million in stock bonuses he’ll receive at a later date and $4.8 million in stock bonuses he’ll receive if he hits certain performance targets.

Shoukry’s total pay is up nearly 140% from the just over $7 million he made the year before, when he held the titles of president and chief financial officer. But it was still quite a bit below the $23 million his predecessor in the CEO role, Paul Reilly, made in his last full year at the top of the firm.

Recruiting from Commonwealth, record headcount and revenues

Shoukry stepped into the CEO spot on Feb. 20, taking over a position held for nearly 15 years by Reilly, who now has the title of executive chair. Shoukry’s time at the top of Raymond James has been marked by success recruiting from industry rivals, strong earnings results and a record headcount for advisors in the firm’s wealth management division, called its Private Client Group.

Raymond James reported in October that it had 8,943 advisors both in its direct-employee and independent-contractor divisions. That number was up 2% year over year and marked an all-time high for the St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm.

Raymond James enjoyed a good deal of success last year recruiting advisors from Commonwealth Financial Network, a rival independent broker-dealer acquired by LPL Financial in August. More Commonwealth advisors who chose to leave that firm amid its incorporation into the much-larger LPL went to Raymond James than any other competitor, industry registrations suggest.

Raymond James’ proxy statement this week credited Shoukry for helping to recruit “financial advisors to the domestic independent contractor and employee affiliation options with a record $407 million of trailing 12-month production at their previous firm.”

But the year was also marked by the departure of a pair of prominent contributors to Raymond James’ recruiting successes. Shannon Reid, formerly president of Raymond James Independent Contractor Division, left last month to take on the title of president at the firm’s independent broker-dealer rival Osaic. She was followed out the door shortly afterward by former division director Alex David, who departed to become president and CEO of dually registered brokerage-advisory firm Equity Services in Montpelier, Vermont.

But Shoukry’s first year wasn’t marked by recruiting successes alone. Raymond James’ proxy statement also credited him for: 

helping to swell the firm’s assets under administration by 11% year over year to a record high of $1.67 trillion (owing in part to $52 billion in net new assets), increasing assets held in fee-generating accounts 15% year over year to $1.01 trillion;and driving the Private Client Group’s net revenue up by 8% year over year to $10.2 billion.

Ratio of CEO pay to employees’ mean compensation

Securities and Exchange Commission rules require publicly traded firms to furnish a ratio showing how much their CEOs make compared with the median salary paid to their employees. Since Shourky did not serve a full year as CEO in 2025, Raymond James also included in its calculation the pay Reilly received while he still held the CEO title. The resulting ratio showed the Raymond James CEO position made 153 times the firm’s median annual pay of $123,007 to employees. 

Shoukry isn’t the only Raymond James executive who’s being handsomely compensated for the firm’s results in 2025. Reilly is receiving just over $16.1 million in total compensation. That consists of a base salary of $604,000, an $8.7 million cash bonus and nearly $6.8 million in potential stock bonuses.

Tashtego Elwyn, the president of the Private Client Group, received $7 million in total compensation. That consists of a $500,000 base salary, a roughly $3.9 million cash bonus and nearly $2 million in potential stock bonuses.

Rounding out the firm’s executive suite, Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Oorlog received just over $4 million in total compensation, President of Capital Markets and Advisory James Bunn received $7 million and Chief Operating Officer Scott Curtis received $5.85 million.