Pershing Adds Subscription, No-Fee Pricing for RIAs

BNY Mellon’s Pershing says it will now give RIAs two more ways to pay for its custodial services:  subscriptions and zero-transaction-fee pricing.

Its subscription model starts at $25 a month per investor client, with fees tiered to the client’s asset level, while the zero-commission model is tied to a low-yield cash sweep program and is aimed at investors with portfolios concentrated in stocks and ETFs.

The news comes two days after Pershing said its the head of its RIA custody business, Mark Tibergien, would retire on June 1. It tapped Ben Harrison, head of business development and relationship management for RIAs, as his replacement.

“It empowers advisors to choose what’s best for their clients and better aligns us with the fiduciary model. As the rest of our competitors double down on the direct-to-consumer retail channel, we are proud to be the only [large] custodian doubling down on the future of the RIA business,” Harrison said in a statement that seemed aimed at rivals Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade and E-Trade, which work with DIY investors.

The firm says advisors choosing to go with the “Netflix-style” plan can offer investor clients tiered “competitive cash yields for clients using cash as an investment vehicle … [which] rewards clients who have higher deposits and offers FDIC protection up to $2.5 million.”  Investors with this plan also will pay no fees for bonds and mutual funds.

In addition, they’ll be able to use a planned suite of ETFs. Assets held in these BNY Mellon products will be excluded from an RIA’s subscription fee calculation.

Advisory firms with investor clients that have “complex needs” and prefer a tiered asset-based custodial fee or pricing based on transaction fees (i.e., commissions) can stay with Pershing’s existing variable pricing model, which as some 80 cash sweep options.

— Check out Tibergien’s Successor Says RIA Custodial Business Is Ripe for New Pricing Model on ThinkAdvisor.