Atria Wealth Solutions, a Lee Equity Partners–backed wealth management holding company launched in 2017 by former Morgan Stanley executive Doug Ketterer, has had some turnover of its internal advisor recruiters in recent months, including the March departure of Gary Bender, who was brought on in April 2022 from Securities America to lead the firm’s recruiting efforts.
Bender is not currently registered with a broker/dealer, according to his BrokerCheck profile.
Most recently, recruiting veterans and twin brothers Scott and Sam Briganti, who were hired last June as senior recruiters reporting to Bender, have jumped ship. The two launched their own recruiting and consulting firm, Successful OnBoarding.
Sam Briganti said the move was not related to anything specific happening at Atria, but rather was motivated by the brothers’ desire to run their own recruiting shop.
“We’re both going to be 50 in a couple years, and so we said, ‘You know what? We’re getting up there, and if we’re ever going to do this, there’s a time and a place,’” he said. “This is really just a lifelong dream becoming reality.”
Earlier this year, Thomas O’Connell, who was director of new business development at Western International Securities, one of Atria’s broker/dealer acquisitions, left the firm and joined Hilltop Securities as senior vice president and advisor recruiter.
In May, Atria lost John Whitworth, another senior recruiter for the firm. He’s no longer registered with a b/d, according to BrokerCheck.
Bender, O’Connell and Whitworth did not return requests for comment prior to publication.
“Since the fourth quarter of last year, we’ve made significant enhancements to our in-house recruitment organization, including the appointments of Bill Morrissey as head of Atria’s Independent Channel, as well as Kevin Mummau and Brian Bichler as co-heads of the Financial Institution Channel,” said an Atria spokesperson. “Under the leadership of these individuals, we have driven record recruiting results over a highly compressed timeframe for both channels. Not only is our recruiting growth stronger than ever, we are well on track to the deliver the best full year of recruiting results since Atria’s inception.”
Atria made a splash last November when it hired Morrissey, a former managing director and divisional president of business development at LPL Financial, to fill the newly created role and take the firm’s growth to the next level.
The spokesperson pointed to recent recruiting wins, including the $1.1 billion team that joined Cadaret Grant last month from Signature Bank. They also said to expect a greater volume of recruits and an increase in quality businesses coming on board in the coming months.
