$1.1B team moves to Atria firm after Signature Bank failure

The largest branch of Atria Wealth Solutions subsidiary Cadaret Grant added a billion-dollar team that left the former Signature Bank a couple of months after its failure.

Atria Wealth Solutions

Financial advisors Edwin Milner, Laura Palacios and Jason Kurz dropped Flagstar Bank — whose parent firm took over Signature Bank after its shutdown amid a crisis among regional banks that started with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — to join Jericho, New York-based American Investment Planners, the firms said May 31. The team managed $1.1 billion in client assets with their prior firm. Their transition represents the second-largest to any of Lee Equity Partners-backed Atria's six brokerages this year and the biggest recruiting move across the firm.

"Our business is built on open and honest relationships with our clients, and we owed it to them to offer more robust investment solutions and better technology while still providing the tailored high-touch service they are accustomed to," Palacios said in a statement. "Feedback from our clients, as well as the recent bank challenges, prompted us to seek a partner who understands our vision and has the capabilities and resources to help us realize that vision."

Representatives for Flagstar, the new brand for the 40 former branch locations of Signature Bank that were part of the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history in March, declined to comment on the team's move. While moves from SVB's wealth unit and that of First Republic Bank have attracted the most attention in the industry in the wake of the closures, the former Signature RIA now called Flagstar Advisors listed 44 brokers and $939.9 million in assets under management in its latest SEC Form ADV disclosure.  

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"The conversations we're having are really around simplification," Garcia said. "How do I simplify the technology infrastructure but still deliver 98% of the outcome more effectively at a lower cost and who do I partner with? Technology is a big conversation today."

Private equity-backed Atria purchased Syracuse, New York-based Cadaret Grant and its 900 advisors with $23 billion in client assets in 2018. When Atria's pending deal to acquire Grove Point Financial from Kestra Holdings closes later this year, the group of seven brokerages will reach $115 billion in client assets and nearly 2,700 advisors. In December, the firm hired former LPL Financial lead recruiter Bill Morrissey to be president of Cadaret Grant and head of its independent channel.

In a statement, Morrissey congratulated the three advisors on their "successful transition to independence" with American Investment, which he said "has consistently been one of our most successful Cadaret Grant branches." 

"This is about creating a long-term relationship that empowers them to be their best and deliver an elite wealth management experience for their clients," Morrissey said. "This transition further underscores Atria's broader value proposition to growth-oriented financial professionals from the independent and employee channels who are seeking to reach the next level of success as wealth management business owners."