Pershing, a Jersey City, N.J.-based unit of the Bank of New York Mellon, has turned to industry consultant Mark Tibergien, formerly of Moss Adams in Seattle, to become Pershing Advisor Solutions' CEO and a member of Pershing's executive committee. The company says Tibergien, 55, was hired to "enhance its ability to deliver market-leading solutions to the rapidly growing registered investment advisor (RIA) marketplace."
"I'm not coming on board as a consultant, but as the CEO of a business to drive the strategy of the Pershing Advisor group," Tibergien shares. The former journalist says the RIA business is very dynamic in terms of asset growth and is expected to become even more dramatic in the next five years. Pershing works with 480 RIA firms in the U.S., he adds, which represents about $73 billion in AUM.
According to Tiburon Strategic Advisors, a Northern California consulting and research firm, client assets for fee-only financial advisors have grown 18 percent a year on average from 1995 to 2006. These assets represent about 6 percent of consumer households' investable assets, or $1.1 trillion.
To accommodate the growth, RIA firms need to add 9,000 advisors, Tibergien says. This figure was highlighted in a recent Moss Adams study.
In this context, Pershing's role as a B2B organization is to help advisors and others in the investment business improve their effectiveness and their efficiency. "Investors are seeking value from professional advisors, and with today's market uncertainty, financial advisors really earn their keep," he explains.
