Atria Wealth Solutions Buying SCF
January 29, 2021
By Michael Fischer, ThinkAdvisor
Atria Wealth Solutions is set to buy SCF Securities in a transaction that should close in the first half of 2021. SCF serves about 150 independent financial professionals from its base in Fresno, California, and includes SCF Securities, SCF Investment Advisors and SCF Marketing.
SCF will become the sixth broker-dealer Atria has acquired since 2017, joining these subsidiaries:
- Western International Securities
- NEXT Financial Group
- Cadaret, Grant & Co.
- CUSO Financial Services
- Sorrento Pacific Financial.
Upon the SCF closing, Atria’s subsidiaries will represent a total of over 2,500 financial professionals with some $95 billion in assets under administration.
These subsidiaries, collectively, are the fastest-growing U.S. broker-dealers in year-over-year growth by number of financial professionals and second fastest in asset growth, Atria said in its announcement, citing Cerulli Associates’ recent U.S. Broker/Dealer Marketplace report.
“SCF has had a strong niche in the hybrid/dual clearing space, offering advisory focused advisors a platform that has better enabled them to achieve a fiduciary standard with their clients via more advisory choices and far better pricing on administrative fees,” according to recruiter Jon Henschen of Henschen & Associates.
“Having a partner like Atria will give them additional capital to grow, as well as benefit from that best features and practices of the other Atria broker- dealers,” Henschen explained. “SCF advisors will also benefit from the tech platform that Atria has brought to all their broker-dealers, which greatly simplifies daily business operations for advisors.”
Atria’s Approach to the Deal
Atria said the acquisition of SCF continues its subsidiaries’ focus on growth in fee-based assets under administration, furthers the multi-custodial strategy and expands the national financial professional footprint.
Randy Meadows, SCF’s president and chief executive, will remain as the firm’s president and continue to operate from the Fresno headquarters.
“SCF is a growth-oriented firm with a very strong advisory business and is well known for providing exceptional, personalized service,” according to Douglas Ketterer, Atria’s chief executive and founding partner.
Ketterer said SCF’s focus on meeting the growing expectations of financial professionals and their clients aligned with Atria’s vision for reinventing the advisor experience and providing solutions that enhance the advisor-client relationship.
“What we have liked about the Atria model has been its similarity to Ladenburg Thalmann, which has multiple midsized broker-dealers that excel in high service with a strong private equity capital partner committed to a long time horizon which has been increasingly rare in our industry,” Henschen added.
