After an outflow of client assets in 2024, one of the largest custodians in wealth management flipped that script in 2025 and unveiled its plans for a new referral program.
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BNY Pershing raked in $51 billion in net new assets in the fourth quarter alone, which fueled a total inflow of $55 billion for the year, according to parent firm BNY’s fourth-quarter results. That’s a far cry from the $6 billion in net losses in 2024 amid the deconversion of First Republic and other M&A deals that reduced the firm’s client base. Previously announced renewals and expansions of Pershing’s relationships with TIAA, Cambridge Investment Research and Northwestern Mutual contributed to the turnaround, even before the firm revealed long-awaited plans for a client referral program for financial advisors.
Recently launched independent firms 71 West Capital Partners — one of the largest wirehouse breakaway moves of 2025 — and VestGen Wealth Partners also contributed to the inflow, according to prepared remarks by BNY Chief Financial Officer Dermot McDonogh. The notable influx above $50 billion in net new assets in the fourth quarter represented “healthy growth from both new and existing clients,” he said during a Jan. 13 call with analysts after the company released its results, according to a transcript by the website Investing.com.
“Over the course of 2025, we earned numerous wins from new $1 billion-plus wealth firms, and the business accomplished several multi-year contract renewals with key clients,” McDonogh said. “Our commitment to serving multibillion-dollar, growth-minded wealth firms across a full suite of custody, clearing, lending, investment products and wealth services is met with interest from existing and new clients. And we remain focused on capitalizing on the important opportunity to enable growth for breakaway advisors as their platform of choice.”
To see the main industry takeaways from the fourth quarter of 2025 for Pershing and BNY’s Investment and Wealth Management segment, scroll down the page. Also, find analysis of the firm’s results in the first, second and third quarter.
New RIA referral program
After decades of referrals to registered investment advisory firms through the retail brokerage arms of rival custodians Charles Schwab and Fidelity Investments, Pershing is starting its own program through BNY Advisors in 2026, according to a regulatory filing last month.
At more than $190 billion in assets under management or advisement through outsourced chief investment officer services on behalf of retirement plans, endowments, foundations, family offices and other clients, BNY Advisors (formerly known as Lockwood Advisors) can pitch the possible RIA clients to a wide audience of prospective customers. In return, the participating advisory firms, which must be clients of the custodian, will pay Pershing an annual fee of $50,000 and up to 0.30% of assets maintained at Pershing Advisor Solutions. For any holdings transferred outside Pershing, the advisory practices will pay a one-time buy-out fee of 0.75% of the assets.
“You will enter certain profile information through BNYA’s online interface for the service, or a BNYA representative will work with you to gather the information such as net worth, marital status, and financial goals (collectively, ‘Profile Information’). To arrive at one or more advisors that align with your criteria, BNYA will use our screening process to compare the profile information you have provided with the information provided by the advisors,” the filing stated. “The decision as to which advisor, if any, to hire is yours. If you decide to hire an advisor, it is your responsibility to work with your advisor to determine if the services it provides are appropriate for you.”
FA-IQ first reported the filing last week.
READ MORE: Schwab and Fidelity referrals give certain RIAs business, deal others out
Pershing assets under custody or administration
The incoming flow of client assets and ongoing value appreciation pushed up customer holdings with Pershing by double digits in 2025. Assets under custody or administration jumped 11% year over year to $3 trillion, while average active clearing accounts climbed 4% to 8.5 million.
Wealth management client assets
Rising stock and bond values offset some outflows in BNY’s wealth management arm, where the client assets increased 7% from the end of 2024 to $350 million.
Pershing revenue
Higher business from net interest income and asset appreciation surpassed the lower client transaction levels in 2025 at Pershing. The custodian’s revenue rose 9% from the prior year to $2.93 billion. As a unit under BNY’s Market and Wealth Services division, Pershing and the other components generated pretax income of $3.42 billion on revenue of $7 billion for a profit margin of 49%. The pretax income surged 18% from 2024, while revenue was up 12% and the margin expanded by three percentage points.
Investment and Wealth Management profit
Revenue for BNY’s wealth management business remained flat in 2025, with an additional $2 million compared to 2024 added to a topline figure of $1.06 billion for the year. The wealth and asset management division as a whole produced pretax income of $543 million on revenue of $3.26 billion for a margin of 17%. The numbers fell from the prior year, due to larger capital investments by the firm and the weaker U.S. dollar, according to BNY. The unit’s pretax profit slipped by 10%, revenue dropped 4% and the margin ticked down by one percentage point.
READ MORE: What’s wrong with the big RIA model, straight from advisors’ mouths
Remark
When combining every business line into company-wide results, BNY topped its previous records for profit and revenue to the tune of $5.3 billion in net income out of a topline of $20.1 billion in 2025, CEO Robin Vince said in a statement.
“Three years ago, we embarked on a multi-year transformation of BNY,” Vince said. “Two years ago, we communicated our strategic roadmap and a set of medium-term financial targets for what we viewed as the first, foundation-setting phase of that work. The pace of progress and our results to date demonstrate that the strategy is working. Today, we are raising the bar. With the foundations in place, we expect to realize greater scale and growth opportunities across our platforms.”
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