Bankoh Investment Services Inc., the broker/dealer subsidiary of Bank of Hawai‘i, with $23.5 billion in assets, has signed a multi-year secondary clearing arrangement with Sorrento Pacific Financial, an Atria Wealth Solutions firm, allowing Bankoh to use the firm’s wealth management operating platform. This type of arrangement is known as a “pass through.”
BISI will maintain its broker/dealer, brand and control, but it will gain access to Clear1, Atria’s bank-branded client-facing portal and mobile application. That portal will be integrated with Bank of Hawai‘i’s website. The bank’s advisors will also have access to Unio, Atria’s proprietary integrated technology platform that was a finalist at the 2022 Wealth Management Industry Awards for its transition support capabilities. Their advisors can also use SPF’s investment suite, which includes Contour, a fee-based advisory platform that offers everything from processing and rebalancing to research, portfolio construction and billing.
The bank b/d will be supported by SPF’s home office.
“As we look at our business today and into the future, it was clear to us that the demands placed on our business and financial professionals will only grow exponentially,” said Christopher Otto, BISI CEO and president, in a statement. “We see this across the entire landscape from what clients expect from their financial services providers to increased regulatory demands to our internal growth goals. We sought a partner able to provide an operating model to meet those ever-increasing demands and to free us up to focus on the relationships between us and our clients.”
“In order to compete and differentiate, firms need to make significant investments in people and infrastructure on an ongoing basis,” said Eugene Elias Jr., Atria’s COO and a founding partner, in a statement. “That has been our commitment at Atria and SPF since day one and that’s what Bank of Hawai’i will leverage to best serve the evolving needs of their clients.”
Atria was launched in 2017 by former Morgan Stanley executive Doug Ketterer, with a plan to build a network of independent broker/dealers via acquisition. Sister broker/dealers CUSO Financial Services and SPF, both based in San Diego, Calif., were the firm’s first deals. With the backing of private equity firm Lee Equity Partners, it has since added other subsidiaries to build out its channel strategy, including Cadaret Grant, NEXT Financial Group, Western International Securities, SCF Securities, and, most recently, Grove Point Financial, which was a subsidiary of Kestra.