Pershing Moves to Help Indie Advisors Expand in LatAm Market
This growing market is largely cornered by the four "wirehouse" brokerage firms — for now.
BNY Mellon’s Pershing is giving independent advisors and broker-dealers in the U.S. more tools to grow their booming business with Latin American investors, a market largely cornered by the four wirehouse firms — Bank of America-Merrill, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo.
The clearing and custody firm said Wednesday that it rolled out 11 Lockwood Offshore Asset Allocation Portfolios for investors in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In the fourth quarter, it will launch Offshore Flex, a mutual fund program for both fee- and commission-based advisors.
The news was announced at its Pershing Insite conference in Phoenix, which had over 2,000 guests — including advisors from 20 countries. The event’s agenda featured three sessions on Latin America.
“As more trusted advisors move into the independent model, there is an opportunity for us all [to capture] some of the $200 billion in managed assets in Latin America — most of which is at the wirehouses,” Lockwood Chief Operating Officer Joel Hempel said during a panel discussion.
Plus, Pershing research has found that 80% of advisors with non-U.S. clients work at the wirehouse firms.
Latin American assets on Pershing’s platform have jumped over 35% since 2016, the firm says, and topped $90 billion in April 2019.
“We see continued growth in offshore assets on our platform, with the fastest growth coming from Latin America,” according to John Ward, managing director of global client relationships at Pershing.
Hempel says Latin American investors “continue to allocate a significant portion of their investments to domestic fixed income vehicles.” The 11 Lockwood Offshore Asset Allocation Portfolios can help these clients “improve global diversification and portfolio risk management.”
The new mutual fund and ETF program, OffShore Flex, will include offshore funds from different fund families for advisory firms and broker-dealers with fee-based and commission-based programs. It will not have program minimums, short-term holding periods or ticket charges.