Doug Ketterer sees a very different wealth management industry in the near future, and he wants advisors to be ready.

The former head of field management at Morgan Stanley says the business of wealth management has already changed, but advisors are struggling to keep up with the rate of disruption.

“From my perspective, the future is now, and we’re trying to build a firm around what we think that future is,” Ketterer says. “We’re seeing so many disruptive forces and changes affecting the industry faster than ever before, and we think that advisors, and ultimately their clients, need help to keep up.”

Rather than rely on a home office and a platform provider as a back- and mid-office utility to help run their business, Ketterer says that most advisors are instead looking for partners that can help them grow, develop and modernize their businesses while also acting as a platform provider.

Earlier this month, Ketterer, Eugene Elias, former head of client and advisor platforms at Morgan Stanley, and Kevin Beard, former head of acquisition and recruiting strategy at AIG Advisor Group, launched New York-based Atria Wealth Solutions with the purchase of two California broker-dealers.

CUSO Financial Services L.P. and Sorrento Pacific Financial are San Diego-based hybrid firms that specialize in providing planning, investment and insurance services via banks and credit unions.

As part of the deal, Atria will purchase equity in CUSO and Sorrento from their founders and several dozen credit unions. CUSO and Sorrento Pacific co-founders Valorie Seyfert and Amy Beattie, respectively, will continue to lead their firms while obtaining equity interest in Atria.

Together, the acquisitions will bring 500 advisors and $30 billion in AUM to the Atria.

“We think we can be the partner that advisors are looking for,” says Ketterer. “We think we can help them grow, and assist them with business development and practice management in this changed world.

“If you think about wealth management at large, a lot of traditional investment firms are trying to move increasingly into the liability side of their client relationships, whether it be banking, deposits, lending or mortgages,” Ketterer adds. “We believe the flip side is an opportunity as well, doing holistic wealth management for bank and credit union clients. It’s a vibrant, growing business.”

Atria’s first purchases were backed by Lee Equity Partners, a private equity firm focused on backing growing wealth management businesses.  Lee Equity is also one of three private equity investors in Edelman Financial.

Ketterer and his partners brainstormed the new firm in a series of meetings in midtown Manhattan.

“We were starting a business from scratch, so we were meeting in Lee’s offices and around Manhattan, literally sitting in atria in mid-town,” he says. “If you think about an atrium, it’s dynamic, trafficked but sheltered, and you feel safe and at ease though it’s a central place. We thought it was a good name.”

Ketterer says Atria’s founding leadership helps differentiate it from other acquirers. While all three worked directly with advisors in previous roles, they had different areas of focus. Elias, for example, brings knowledge and experience working with technology, which Atria may use to help its partners build out their own platforms. Beard, on the other hand, is well-versed in acquisitions and recruitment. Ketterer adds operational skill to the mix.

As Atria matures, it will help its partner firms build out efficiencies, technology platforms and support services, with a focus on offering firms an open architecture platform for holistic wealth planning.

Ketterer sees Atria moving beyond the bank and credit union space with future acquisitions.

“If you look at CUSO and Sorrento Pacific, they’re primarily in the bank and credit union channels, but they also have independent reps,” he says. “It’s not a big focus of their business, though. The client segment of the independent channel is interesting and exciting to us.”