Tags: M&A

The golden handcuffs are coming out now that Raymond James has taken Morgan Keegan off the market. The goal, they say, is to keep every single advisor working for the firm.

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Raymond James COO Dennis Zank has sent offers to advisors with annual production above $300,000.

The near-term incentive here is a seven-year retention package that looks a lot like what the wirehouses handed out back in 2008-9.

Money will be handed out to advisors who agree to stay, but they will have to pay back all or part of the money if they leave. Part of these "loans" will be forgiven in early 2014 and the rest will expire at various points between then and 2019.

Some are grousing that the bonuses are relatively small by wirehouse standards, ranging from 30% to 50% of annual revenue.

Granted, advisors who wanted to jump could probably get sweeter signing deals elsewhere.

But for advisors who were already pretty content with their new corporate parent -- said to be a great match culturally -- it's a nice chunk of cash.

And in the long term, Raymond James is opening up its profit-sharing programs to incoming Morgan Keegan reps. In all, it expects to pay $215 million to keep its newest reps hapy.