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By HELEN HUNTLEY
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2001
Raymond James Financial raised the ire of some of its brokers earlier this year when it started charging $100 an hour for calls to a telephone help line on retirement plans. Some brokers say they only discovered the new policy when they got their first bill last month.
"Something like this makes you wonder if this company isn't becoming like some of the places we left to come here," J. Barry Watts of Springfield, Mo., complained to Investment News, an industry newspaper.
The charges apply to 3,800 brokers affiliated with the St. Petersburg company's independent contractor subsidiary, Raymond James Financial Services. Those brokers pay their office expenses and receive payouts of up to 90 percent of the commissions on the trades they handle. Company spokesman Lawrence Silver said brokers who use specialized services should pay for them.
"A lot of guys are very proficient in retirement planning and they don't need this," he said. Silver said brokers who claimed not to know about the new charge don't read their mail.
There is one consolation: Calls that take less than three minutes are free.