Mark Tibergien joined Pershing Advisor Solutions in 2007, and since then he has built Pershing’s RIA business from $30 billion in assets under custody in 2008 to $120 billion. In a speech Tuesday, he challenged a room full of broker-dealer execs to step up their game.
The average advisory commitment to PAS, he said in an interview Tuesday during FSI’s OneVoice conference, is $250 million, and the average client of the RIAs who custody with PAS is $4 million to $5 million. “We had a phenomenal year” in 2013, he reported. He also said “we’re right on plan” in PAS’ goal to be “recognized as the leader in providing custodial” and other solutions to “professionally managed, growth oriented advisory firms,” who have clients “with complex financial lives.”
Beyond the dollars in custody, Tibergien was even more pleased to report that Pershing had its “best-ever client satisfaction” rating and “highest ever employee engagement” score, which ranks whether PAS employees are “happy and fulfilled.” As for those employees, he said, “we want people who are happy to be here — and our clients [the advisors] feel that.”
Anyone who knows Tibergien and has followed his career would not be surprised that he seems to naturally focus on the importance of having engaged employees, of having clear goals and positioning and of accurately measuring business success. Throughout his career, first at Moss Adams and now at Pershing, in his writings for Investment Advisor and in his industry speeches, Tibergien has been instrumental in calling on advisors to turn their practices into businesses, to apply strict metrics to their businesses, to have a clear vision of who their ideal clients are and to warn of an advisor shortage just as demand for advice is peaking.