Dain Rauscher Wessels was a

brokerage A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neith ...

and

investment banking Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...

firm based in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. The firm traced its origins to a number of smaller regional securities firms founded in the 1920s and 1930s. In 2000, Dain Rauscher Wessels was acquired by

Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational Financial institution, financial services company and the Big Five (banks), largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than ...

and operated as a subsidiary under the name ''RBC Dain Rauscher''. In 2008, RBC ended the usage of the Dain Rauscher brand. It is now known as

RBC Wealth Management Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; ) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. Foun ...

The company

Dain Rauscher Wessels was one of the nation's largest full-service securities firms with 1,300 private client and institutional investment executives, 3,600 employees and in 1998 revenues of more than $740 million. The company serviced individual retail investors primarily in the western U.S., and capital markets and correspondent clients in select markets throughout the nation. The company's broker-dealer was a member of the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

and other major securities exchanges, as well as the Securities Investor Protection Corp. The company was previously traded on the NYSE under the symbol DRC.

History

Early history

In 1929, J.M. Dain founded J.M. Dain & Co., which would form the core of what would become Dain Rauscher Wessels, in Minneapolis. Dain had moved to Minneapolis in 1922 to represent a Chicago investment firm but by 1929 had decided to start his own firm. However, with the stock market crash of 1929, Merrill Cohen took control of Dain & Co. in 1933 and helped steer it through the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and into the 1940s. By the late 1950s, J.M. Dain had grown to 75 employees across eight offices.Dain Rauscher Corporation History
Funding Universe Wheelock Whitney was named the head of Dain in 1963 and steered the firm through aggressive growth in the 1960s leading to its initial public offering in 1972. In 1967, Dain merged with Kalman & Co. and then Quail & Co. creating Dain, Kalman & Quail, Inc. with 17 offices across the upper-midwestern U.S. It was also at this point that the

Rand Tower Rand Tower Hotel is a 26-story high rise hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It was one of the city's tallest structures when it was completed as an office building in 1929. It was converted to a hotel in 2020. History The Rand To ...

in Minneapolis was renamed the Dain Tower. Dain also acquired a number of regional brokerages including J. Cliff Rahal & Co. (1969), Platt, Tschudy & Co. (1970), Woodward-Elwood (1972) and Ralph W. Davis & Co. (1972). In 1972, Dain was listed on the

Dain Bosworth and Inter-Regional Financial Group

In 1973, Dain, Kalman & Quail merged with Bosworth, Sullivan & Co., which itself was created through the merger of Bosworth, Chanute, Loughridge & Co. and Sullivan & Co. Following the merger, a new

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

, Inter-Regional Financial Group was formed to hold the two businesses as separate entities. In 1979 management decided to merge the two businesses creating one of the leading brokerage firms in the midwest, under the brand Dain Bosworth. In 1981, Inter-Regional Financial Group acquired Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, which at the time was the largest brokerage firm in Texas. Rauscher was established in 1933 as a spinout from the Mercantile National Bank, based in Dallas. After the acquisition of Rauscher Pierce, the business continued to operate under its own brand until the mid-1990s.

Dain Rauscher Wessels and the acquisition by Royal Bank of Canada

In 1997, Dain Rauscher was formed from the merger of Dain Bosworth and Rauscher Pierce Refsnes Inc., both of which were owned by Interra Financial Inc. The combined firm had more than 1,200 brokers and institutional salespeople, focused primarily on the midwestern United States. In 1998 Dain Rauscher acquired the investment banking firm Wessels, Arnold & Henderson and restructured its Equity Capital Markets unit to become Dain Rauscher Wessels. Dain Rauscher was acquired by the

in 2000. Shortly after the acquisition of Dain Rauscher, Royal Bank of Canada acquired Tucker Anthony Sutro, an independent brokerage and asset management firm, formed from the combination of

Tucker Anthony Tucker Anthony was an independent investment banking and brokerage firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. In 2001, the firm was acquired by Royal Bank of Canada and was then merged with the bank's Dain Rauscher Wessels subsidiary to create RBC Da ...

, a Boston-based firm founded in 1892 and Sutro & Co., a San Francisco based firm founded in 1858. The Tucker Anthony and Sutro branches were integrated into ''RBC Dain Rauscher'' in 2002. In 2007, RBC Dain Rauscher acquired J. B. Hanauer, a brokerage firm founded in 1931. While the Dain Rauscher name was initially used in a number of RBC businesses after the acquisition, the brand was slowly phased out over time. In 2008, RBC changed the name to RBC Wealth Management.RBC drops Dain Rauscher name
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal, March 3, 2008

References