Longtime advisor and broker-dealer industry executive William Morrissey has been appointed to the newly created position of head of the independent channel at Atria Wealth Solutions.
Atria, a wealth management holding company based in New York City, owns independent broker-dealer and RIA subsidiaries that include Cadaret Grant & Co., NEXT Financial Group, Western International Securities, SCF Securities, CUSO Financial Services and Sorrento Pacific Financial. Atria’s subsidiaries support nearly 2,500 financial professionals with about $100 billion of assets under administration.
Morrissey, who was previously divisional president at LPL Financial, will play a key role in Atria's growth strategies, the company said.
“Atria has done a fantastic job of building a foundation that creates a wonderful culture for advisors, but this is also an opportunity for us to grow in three ways,” Morrissey said in an interview. “Atria can grow organically by supporting our advisors as they help their clients. We also want to grow by attracting other like-minded advisors, and we want to look at mergers and acquisitions.”
Doug Ketterer, Atria CEO, said in an interview, “We do not necessarily need to buy things to grow. We are celebrating our fifth anniversary and we have come a long way in a very short time. I ask myself why an advisor would leave his or her firm. Are they running away from something or towards something, meaning us? I would put our value proposition up against any other. We have had good growth during good markets like last year, and during down markets like this year."
Ketterer and Morrissey said they feel Atria can provide those resources, which positions the firm for continued growth. “There are no specific goals for growth," Keterer said. "We don’t need to buy things to get bigger. But I think this is a wonderful time to be a financial advisor. With the money that is available and the money that will be moved in the near future, I cannot think of a better time to be in this industry.”
Morrissey has decades of executive experience as a business leader, growth architect and effective recruiter, including significant C-suite and board governance expertise. He has served in a number of senior leadership roles across LPL Financial, including managing director and divisional president of business development. Prior roles at LPL included recruiting and practice management, as well as wealth management and advisory platforms.
Morrissey has served in a number of senior executive, board and advisory roles with wealth management and wealthtech firms such as Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch. He served as head of wealth management at Guardian Life Insurance Company, and also has served on the board of directors of the Financial Services Institute and the Insured Retirement Institute.
Morrissey received a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and holds certifications in executive leadership from both Harvard Business School and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.