A group of former executives from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, and Kensho has launched Valence, an AI-native wealth management firm built to serve high-net-worth individuals. The firm enters a market where clients routinely juggle tax, estate, trust, and investment decisions across multiple providers - and aims to replace that fragmented model with a single, coordinated operating system.
"We're not making the existing model more efficient," said Founder and CEO Dan Petrozzo, a former Goldman Sachs Partner and Oak HC/FT investor. "We're replacing it."
Petrozzo leads the firm alongside Chief Product Officer John van Moyland, previously of Kensho, and Chief Commercial Officer Erick Goralski, whose background includes Stone Ridge Asset Management and Deutsche Bank. Their backers include FinTech Collective, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Treasury, Gilgamesh Ventures, and Armyn Capital.
A different operating thesis
Valence's founding argument is straightforward: the industry's low-single-digit organic growth rates signal that clients see little reason to switch firms. Adding more products or hiring more advisors has not closed the gap between what clients need and what they receive.
The firm targets the coordination problem directly. High-net-worth financial lives span tax planning, estate structures, trust administration, insurance, private investments, business ownership, liquidity events, and multigenerial transfers. These pieces typically sit across separate institutions, forcing clients to connect the dots themselves. Valence positions itself as the central hub that aligns decisions, advisors, and strategies across that entire ecosystem.
"Low-single-digit growth rates reveal a simple truth: with limited differentiation across the industry, clients have had few compelling reasons to change firms," Goralski said. "At the same time, research continues to show a meaningful gap between client expectations and the value they believe they receive."
AI as architecture, not add-on
Many firms are layering artificial intelligence onto existing workflows. Valence treats AI as the foundational layer of its platform - the connective tissue that continuously analyzes, coordinates, and manages financial complexity across a client's full balance sheet.
The firm draws a parallel to the industry's earlier shift toward open architecture, which decoupled investment advice from product manufacturing. In Valence's view, AI-native operating systems represent the next structural change: enabling firms to scale insight and coordination in ways that legacy systems, built on disconnected and manual processes, cannot match.
This approach to AI for Finance does not replace advisors. It automates the coordination tasks that fragment client attention and surfaces actionable intelligence, letting advisors focus on judgment, strategic guidance, and relationship management during critical financial moments.
"Firms that own the intelligence layer behind the client experience will define the next generation of industry leaders," Goralski said. "AI can solve for complexity that humans cannot efficiently scale while elevating the uniquely human elements of advice and trust."
Timing and structural tailwinds
Valence launches as the industry faces several overlapping shifts. The largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history is underway. High-net-worth households are managing more sophisticated financial situations. Advisor demographics continue to present succession challenges. And artificial intelligence is emerging as a force capable of reshaping how advice is delivered and scaled.
The firm's strategy bets that the next phase of growth will come from creating a more proactive, coordinated, and personalized client experience - not from expanding product shelves or growing advisor headcount. For wealth management professionals evaluating how to integrate planning and technology, the implications extend to how AI for Management can reshape operational models and advisor effectiveness.
Why this matters for management
Valence's launch is a concrete signal that the wealth management industry's competitive axis is shifting. The question is no longer which firm has the broadest product lineup, but which firm owns the client's complete financial picture and coordinates it in real time. For leaders running RIAs, family offices, or private banks, the takeaway is practical: AI-native platforms are not a future concept - they are being built now, by teams with deep institutional experience, and they will reset client expectations around integration, responsiveness, and administrative burden.
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