After record year, Pershing Advisor Solutions expects to add up to $15B in new assets in 2016

Pershing Advisor Solutions attracted $19 billion in assets under management in 2015, as the custodian for advisers and family offices posted its best year since its founding nearly 10 years ago. While 2016 is likely to fall short of that high water mark, Pershing is on track to recruit registered investment advisers with $12 billion to $15 billion in net new assets, according to CEO Mark Tibergien. In total, the firm has close to $160 billion in AUM. In an interview Wednesday during Pershing's annual meeting for clients called INSITE in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Tibergien pointed to a variety of reasons for the firm's recent success. Stifel Financial Corp. a year ago said it was acquiring the U.S. wealth management business of global bank Barclays. That sent some advisers in motion, with Pershing eventually landing the business of Summit Trail Advisors, a $1.8 billion RIA comprised of former Barclay personnel, with offices in New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. “It was a confluence of events,” Mr. Tibergien said. “Barclays going out of business was a catalyst. Half of the business we got was takeaways from the other custodians, the other half were breakaway” brokers from wirehouses, he said. “There was serendipity around people making moves that created a new opportunity.” Mr. Tibergien joined Pershing in 2007 and shortly thereafter launched the custody group. Prior to that, he had been one of the RIA industry's leading consultants at Moss Adams. After eight years, Pershing Advisor Solutions has established its identity in the RIA marketplace, he said. “The other part is, now it's pretty clear we have a unique proposition in the marketplace and we're different from other firms,” including the RIA custody businesses of Charles Schwab Advisor Services, TD Ameritrade Institutional and Fidelity Institutional. “Now, you have to take a look at us.” Pershing's differences include its ability to service large RIAs with multiple offices, its variety of service offerings, including private banking, custody and its international reach, Mr. Tibergien said. Another is its emphasis on practice management. “It's not a drive-by experience,” he said. “It's part of the whole relationship management.” “And last, we are with the safest financial institution in the country,” he said. Pershing is a unit of Bank of New York Mellon Corp., a global investment management and services giant. “You pick a custodian for the safety of assets and movement of money, not necessarily the technology.”