Raymond James Hired a $5.5 Billion Comerica Team in Newport Beach. The Figure Comes From a Source, Not the Bank.

By Intersection Advisory · Advisor Moves

Published: July 6, 2026

Category: Advisor Moves

Cory J. Matsumoto, Genae A. Affrunti, and Rey L. Carandang registered with Raymond James & Associates on July 6, 2026, in Newport Beach, California, and began operating as Capital Reserve Group. AdvisorHub reported on July 17 that a source close to the move put the practice at $5.5 billion of assets and about $6 million of annual revenue, and that the three moved with support staff Julia Bica and Brian Toyama. Wealth Management and InvestmentNews, in accounts that track what reads as a Raymond James announcement, later reported $5.4 billion. The advisors are the same people. The asset figure is not. Anyone repeating a single number should say which desk it came from.

AdvisorHub said the three leaders did not comment and that a Fifth Third spokesperson declined to comment. The $5.5 billion and the $6 million therefore have one origin in the public record: an unnamed source talking to AdvisorHub. The $5.4 billion figure is the one attached, in subsequent trade coverage, to the firm’s own welcome. Raymond James is not quoted in AdvisorHub confirming either the source’s assets or the source’s revenue.

What does BrokerCheck show that the headlines do not?

The securities registrations do not run in a straight line from “Comerica” to “Raymond James.” All three advisors show a broker-dealer change in November 2023 from Comerica Securities to Ameriprise Financial Services, with a Costa Mesa address, and then a July 6, 2026 registration at Raymond James & Associates. Ameriprise registrations end in late July 2026, after the Raymond James start. That 2023 change matches the clearing relationship AdvisorHub described: Comerica’s advisors had been moving onto Ameriprise’s independent brokerage platform, and were later pointed at Fifth Third’s own brokerage after the bank sale. A broker-dealer change in 2023 was a platform change inside the bank program. The July 2026 change was a change of firm.

| Advisor | BrokerCheck broker-dealer sequence | Raymond James start |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Cory J. Matsumoto (CRD 5183211) | Comerica Securities from October 1, 2012; Ameriprise from November 3, 2023 | July 6, 2026 (investment-adviser registration July 7) |

| Rey L. Carandang (CRD 4690831) | Intersecurities, 2004–2005; ING Financial Partners, 2005–2009; Comerica Securities from March 29, 2011; Ameriprise from November 3, 2023 | July 6, 2026 |

| Genae A. Affrunti (CRD 5527996) | Stifel, 2011–2014; a short J.P. Morgan Securities registration in 2014; Comerica Securities from October 29, 2014; Ameriprise from November 3, 2023 | July 6, 2026 |

Wealth Management reported that, before the move, Matsumoto had been at Comerica for 20 years, Carandang for 14, and Affrunti for 12, and that all three joined Raymond James & Associates as senior vice presidents of wealth management. InvestmentNews said Matsumoto began his career in 1995, that Carandang has 25 years in the industry, and that Affrunti has 24. Those tenure claims are not the same as the BrokerCheck start dates at Comerica Securities, which fall between 2011 and 2014. Bank employment can predate a securities registration. The record reviewed here does not show a broker-dealer entry for Matsumoto before October 2012, so a “20 years at Comerica” claim, if it is right, is not a BrokerCheck fact. AdvisorHub’s narrower statement — that registration records showed the three joined or started with Comerica between 2012 and 2014 — fits the securities files more closely than a 20-year broker registration would, and it still does not capture Carandang’s March 2011 Comerica Securities date.

What did the advisors say they were buying?

Wealth Management quoted Matsumoto: after looking at the market, Raymond James “distinguished itself through its institutional capabilities, nationally recognized fixed income platform, financial strength and long-term commitment to advisor independence.” InvestmentNews reported the same theme and added that he cited fixed income and technology investment. InvestmentNews also quoted Simmons, identified in that story as the West Coast regional director: “Cory, Rey and Genae bring a sophisticated practice to Raymond James, and they make an impactful addition to our Western presence.” The practice, in that coverage, offers financial planning, investment management, and institutional consulting to families, business owners, corporate executives, endowments, and foundations. Bica is identified by Wealth Management as a senior registered client relationship associate and Toyama as a client relationship associate.

The word “independence” in Matsumoto’s statement is sitting on an employee-channel hire. Raymond James & Associates is the W-2 brokerage, not the independent contractor channel. AdvisorHub described the hire as part of a West Coast push in that employee channel and noted a prior-month hire of a $1.2 billion team from RBC’s City National Bank in Beverly Hills. The same story said Raymond James had recently lost an employee team and an independent team, to &Partners and Janney Montgomery Scott, and that the firm had called its first quarter its second-best recruiting quarter on record. Wealth Management, reporting second-quarter results, said Raymond James recruited advisors with $156 million of trailing-12 production and nearly $23 billion of client assets across the independent and employee channels, and quoted CEO Paul Shoukry saying the firm was on pace for a record recruiting year and that advisors “do not have to choose between culture and capabilities.” Those are firmwide recruiting totals. They are not Capital Reserve’s production. The only production figure attached to this team remains the source’s $6 million.

Where does the bank sale fit?

Fifth Third announced on February 2, 2026, that it had closed its merger with Comerica, creating what it called the ninth-largest U.S. bank, with full system and brand conversion expected in the third quarter and Comerica branches still operating under the Comerica name until then. AdvisorHub placed Capital Reserve’s July 6 move in the aftermath: Comerica advisors were leaving Ameriprise’s platform for Fifth Third’s in-house brokerage and custody. AdvisorHub said the exit of nearly 90 Comerica advisors weighed on Ameriprise’s wealth flows in the first quarter, and that those advisors, concentrated in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and the Carolinas, managed around $18 billion in what a 2023 announcement called Comerica’s “securities business.” Ameriprise, AdvisorHub reported, received a $25 million breakup fee in the first quarter as the clearing relationship unwound.

Financial Planning, covering Ameriprise’s April earnings, confirmed the $25 million figure from the company’s own language: pretax operating earnings “included a $25 million benefit due to the termination of the Comerica Bank relationship.” CFO Walter Berman said the Comerica loss caused a “reasonable portion” of outflows and that the pattern was likely to accelerate in the second and third quarters. Net new assets at Ameriprise fell by nearly 60 percent year over year, to $4.2 billion, in that quarter. Capital Reserve is one team inside that unwind, not the whole program. If the source’s $5.5 billion, or the announcement coverage’s $5.4 billion, sits inside the roughly $18 billion securities business AdvisorHub cited, it is a large single exit. It is still an unreconciled pair of asset figures.

On the source’s own pair, $6 million of revenue against $5.5 billion of assets is about 11 basis points. That arithmetic is not a disclosed fee rate. It is a reason not to price the practice off assets alone. Bank programs often include deposits, credit, and low-fee institutional assets that do not behave like a household advisory book. The coverage does not give the fee mix, the share of bank referrals, or any non-solicit terms. Moves like this one are easier to compare on the [Advisor Pulse](https://intersectionadvisory.com/pulse) tape when the asset line stays tagged to its source. Until Raymond James, Comerica, or Fifth Third states a number in its own voice, the confirmed facts are the July 6 registrations, the Newport Beach employee-channel destination, and a bank-program platform that had already changed broker-dealers once, in 2023, before this team changed firms.

Sources

- https://www.advisorhub.com/raymond-james-snags-5-5b-comerica-team-in-california/ — July 17, 2026: source figures of $5.5 billion and $6 million, July 6 date, names, Fifth Third no comment, Ameriprise transition, roughly $18 billion securities business, $25 million breakup fee, West Coast recruiting context.

- https://www.wealthmanagement.com/ibd-news/raymond-james-adds-54b-team-from-comerica — $5.4 billion, senior vice president titles, Bica and Toyama titles, Matsumoto statement, 20/14/12-year tenure claims, Shoukry second-quarter recruiting comments.

- https://www.investmentnews.com/independent-broker-dealers/raymond-james-lands-54b-advisor-team-from-comerica/267622 — $5.4 billion, career-length claims, Simmons quote, client types.

- https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260202908949/en/Fifth-Third-Completes-Merger-with-Comerica-to-Become-9th-Largest-U.S.-Bank — February 2, 2026 close, ninth-largest bank claim, third-quarter conversion timing.

- https://www.financial-planning.com/news/ameriprise-cushioned-by-25m-comerica-breakup-fee — Ameriprise’s $25 million breakup-fee disclosure, outflow commentary, net new assets of $4.2 billion.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5183211 — Matsumoto.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/4690831 — Carandang.

- https://brokercheck.finra.org/individual/summary/5527996 — Affrunti.

- https://intersectionadvisory.com/pulse — Comparison tape; not a source for this team’s assets.