An Florida Billionaire’s Investment Playbook

Tom James built Raymond James Financial into a regional brokerage and banking powerhouse, now encompassing $1.25 trillion in assets. After sixty years of successfully navigating bull and bear markets, the octogenarian shares his investment wisdom.

Born in Sandusky, Ohio but a Floridian from the age of three, Tom James excelled as a student at St. Petersburg High School and matriculated at Harvard. He graduated magna cum laude in 1964 and from Harvard Business School in 1966, where he was a Baker Scholar and graduated with high distinction. In Cambridge, he was in a rock band, played tennis and squash and ran several investment clubs before returning to the Sunshine State to the Raymond James investment firm founded by his father, Bob James in 1962.