Raymond E. Ifert is the President and Founder of REI Wealth Management, LLC. Ray has been managing client relationships since 1986. For over 33 years of his 37 years in the financial services industry, Ray has learned from his clients over time what is important to them. Now with his own firm, he can remove the bureaucratic and corporate barriers which place priority on the company and their profits over providing the highest level of client service.

He successfully built a Corporate Trust business from 1986 from less than $100,000 in revenue to running three states and over $10 million in annual revenue in less than 10 years.

Ray was then selected to manage the combined Private Banking and Trust divisions in 1995 for NationsBank in Tampa Bay. After leading the most profitable and fastest growing market in the Southeast Region, Ray was selected to move to Seattle in 1999 to lead the Northwest Region consisting of eleven offices in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In 2002, he returned to Tampa as the Tampa Bay Market Executive once again and retired from Bank of America in 2006.

In 2006, Ray joined AmSouth Bank to build a Wealth Management practice in Florida. Later that year, AmSouth merged with Regions and after determining Morgan Keegan did not share the same vision, he left Regions.

In 2008, Ray led a team of seven to start an office for BNY Mellon. In six years, the office became the 2^nd largest out of six offices in Florida and the fastest growing in three of the last four years. The staff grew from seven to 12 over that time frame.

Ray received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Valdosta State University. He formerly held securities licenses including the Series 7, 63, 66, 24 and 53. Ray currently holds his insurance license with the state of Florida for Life, including Variable Annuity and Health.

He is past chairman of the Tampa Museum of Art and past President of the TMA Foundation. He is currently a Trustee on the TMA Board and a director on the TMA Foundation. He is only the third recipient in the history of the Museum to receive the Jeanne Rozier Winter Distinguished Trustee Service Award. Ray serves as a Trustee for the INDO-US Chamber of Commerce. Ray is also past chairman of the Academy of Holy Names and currently on the Finance Committee.

Ray previously served on the boards of Tampa Community Hospital, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, the Hillsborough County Housing Finance Authority, Seattle Art Museum, Corporate Council for the Arts and the Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.