Why We Partner with a Custodian

It has been a harrowing few weeks since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 8th. Since then, there have been additional bank failures, buyouts, and decreased share prices amongst several other banks, accompanied by increasing concerns about the stability of the financial sector. I’ve received many calls from clients and friends wondering what this means for them.

Times like these remind me of the reasons my partners and I founded Balentine in the first place: to create an investment firm that manages money the way we would want our own money managed. There are many facets to this approach, among them providing unconflicted advice, employing a data-driven unemotional investment process, and safeguarding the assets entrusted to us.

I remain resolute in our conviction that advisors should custody assets separately from the advisory business, and I am assured in our decision to partner with BNY Mellon's Pershing to this end.

Specifically, Pershing:

• demonstrates core financial strength. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNY Mellon, Pershing is grounded in America’s longest standing financial institution. Founded in 1784 as The Bank of New York, BNY Mellon has grown to the largest custodian in the world, with $44.3 trillion in assets¹.  
• segregates assets and employs rigorous internal controls including an independent annual audit.
• ‍holds itself to a high standard of excellence. In addition to the registration required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Pershing is a member broker-dealer of FINRA and BNY Mellon is classified as a Global Systematically Important Financial Institution (G-SIB), subject to the most stringent standards.
• ‍provides investment protection for high-net-worth clients. If a brokerage firms become insolvent, SIPC protects up to $500k for each investor. Pershing provides additional insurance above and beyond this level to protect high-net-worth clients.

You can read more about Pershing’s protections for clients here and here.  

I feel grateful to stand behind our team of experienced professionals at Balentine and BNY Mellon’s Pershing and appreciate the continued trust our clients place in our firm.  

We hope it has been helpful to identify some key attributes of custodians by examining our own custodian, Pershing. Should you have any questions about market activity or your personal financial situation, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

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