What’s Next for Atria After Buying Next Financial?
January 8, 2018 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor As industry watchers compare Atria to Cetera, management insists the firm is focused on bringing the right services to its advisors. With news Tuesday that Atria Wealth Solutions is buying Next Financial, some industry watchers are wondering what the parent firm will do as a follow-up act. The Next purchase is Atria’s fourth since it was formed in 2017. Once complete, the group should have more than 1,900 independent advisors and about $65 billion in total assets. But Atria — which has the financial support of Lee Equity Partners — insists it wants to forge its own path. “We are not following an acquisition strategy,” said Atria CEO Doug Ketterer in an interview. “We are building something unique and want to be different in how we serve financial advisors.” While scale is “the...