After trying life as two silos, the custody units of BNY Wealth Management and Pershing will largely merge

Brooke’s Note: From an advisor’s perspective, Pershing LLC is a complex organization with Trinity-like qualities: It is the top clearing firm in the United States, the fourth-largest (by most measures) RIA custodian and the subsidiary of BNY Mellon. But there is a fourth element: BNY Mellon’s own RIA custody unit. Dina’s reporting from Pershing INSITE shows that maybe Pershing-BNY Mellon is no longer quite so multi-layered after all.

BNY Mellon Wealth Management and Pershing LLC have joined forces, hoping to combine their respective strengths to serve a range of customer needs, executives said at this week’s Pershing INSITE conference.

“The custody unit of BNY Mellon and the custody unit of Pershing work as one,” Pershing Advisor Solution’s head Mark Tibergien stated on Thursday.

Brian Shea, CEO of Pershing, confirmed the collaboration and said that a marketing plan featuring the two units pulling in tandem is in the works.

When BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s national custody division hired Peter Berg, a former Schwab executive, in April 2010, the plan was to expand the unit’s marketing efforts with an eye toward capturing advisors with $500 million of assets under management as well as high-end family offices.

What was unclear was how the unit would – or would not – interact with Pershing Advisory Services, also owned by BNY Mellon, which targets RIAs with $100 million or more in assets.
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At the time, Tibergien and Berg vowed to resolve any turf disputes. But it was clear from the start that BNY Mellon Wealth and PAS, were, to some extent, in competition with one another. After all, Pershing handles its fair share of advisors with more than $500 million of AUM. See: BNY Mellon’s new RIA custody unit will collaborate [and compete] with Pershing Advisor Solutions

Joint presentations

Any friction is in the past now, according to Tibergien. He, Berg and the two units now act as a team, tracking the same referrals and making joint presentations to prospects as they knit together their data on the NetX360 platform.

It’s a good partnership in an era of hybrid advisors, according to Tibergien. “Almost all RIAs require bank custody solutions,” he said. “There are certain reasons – some regulatory – why end clients require a bank custodian rather than a brokerage custodian. We’re a brokerage custodian owned by a bank.”

He added that family offices with sophisticated and varied needs could especially benefit from the partnership.

PAS and BNY Mellon Wealth Management currently have a combined $93.7 billion in assets and 652 RIAs.