At Pershing Insite, Tibergien Reports More PAS Growth: $92 B in Assets

After signing up 98 new RIA "relationships” in 2010, bringing with them an average of $180 million in AUM, Mark Tibergien says Pershing Advisor Solutions is “carrying the momentum” from last year into 2011.

Thus far, Tibergien (left) said in an interview on Wednesday with AdvisorOne just before the formal kickoff of Pershing’s annual Insite conference, PAS has added “probably 100 new relationships” this year. Of those, about half came from other custodians, with the remainder coming from new RIA firms, including those formed by breakaway brokers.

These firms are attracted by Pershing’s “new-model custodian,” he said, which he characterized as a “B-to-B platform,” not an outgrowth of a retail model. “It’s a business relationship,” he said, where Pershing “anticipates where the market is going and then invests ahead of it." While acknowledging the strength of PAS’s competitors, some of whom may have “incubated” many RIA firms’ growth, he said that some of those firms that have joined Pershing questioned whether they “have outgrown my custodian.”

Some of them, too, are disenchanted when they “see a decline in attention from the top” of their custodians, noting in response to a question about Schwab’s recent decision to build financial advice franchises that “it’s such an in-your-face statement.” Contrasting that approach with Pershing’s, Tibergien said that “the more they extend retail, the more it becomes an issue for advisors.”

Assessing his accomplishments as CEO of PAS, Tibergien said “we’re finished with the foundation” of building that new-model custodian, noting in particular advances in technology and improvements in customer service. “We still have hiring to do in practice management,” he said, summing up his feelings as “pleased, but not satisfied.” Advisory firms are understandably “wary” about joining a new entrant to the custodial ranks, he admitted, but