A year after it bought Hilliard-Lyons, PNC Bank Corp. is adding offices and brokers to broaden services to high-net-worth individuals.
This month the Pittsburgh-based banking company opened two more Hilliard-Lyons offices, bringing its total to 100. It plans to add another four by yearend, including the conversion of at least one PNC office to the Hilliard-Lyons name.
The Hilliard-Lyons unit has added 40 brokers in the past six months. Another 70 brokers -- who had been with PNC's own retail brokerage -- became Hilliard-Lyons representatives in the spring.
Louisville, Ky.-based Hilliard-Lyons, which was bought in December for $275 million, strengthens what had been a weak link in PNC's services to the affluent, company executives said.
"We didn't have good penetration with our full-service broker-dealer," said Thomas Whitford, chief executive officer of Hilliard-Lyons and PNC Advisors, the company's high-net-worth unit.
The goal is to bring money management and other high-end services to PNC's own market area of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey and to Hilliard-Lyons' established territory in the Midwest and Southeast, Mr. Whitford said.
Mr. Whitford said PNC's strategy is to make transactions as seamless as possible. And, he said, "more and more clients want to work with one adviser and are willing to pay for that advice."
One market observer said Hilliard-Lyons should bring PNC the kind of up-market profile it seeks.
"Hilliard-Lyons has significant expertise in the wealth management area," said Michael A. Flanagan, a financial services company analyst with Financial Service Analytics of Philadelphia. "This is one of the most logical avenues for PNC to utilize to go after the high-net-worth market."
PNC does not break out revenues and earnings for PNC Advisors and Hilliard-Lyons, but figures the company does release suggest the operation is gaining business. In the third quarter, noninterest income from units including PNC Advisors and Hilliard-Lyons accounted for 51% of overall revenue.
The results included a 22% increase in asset management fees, to $175 million, and a 27% rise in assets under management, to $193 billion.
