With enormous wealth expected to pass to a new generation during the next 10 years, some banking companies are looking to offer private-foundation services to wealthy families, and the PNC Advisors unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has made progress in extending its reach beyond Pittsburgh.
R. Bruce Bickel, the senior vice president and managing director of PNC Advisors private foundation management services unit, which was started in 1990, said it has grown significantly since raising its sights to the national market 15 months ago after having served only Pittsburgh clients. In February 2001 the unit had three families with $21 million of assets; since then, it has added five non-Pittsburgh families with $129 million, for a total now of $150 million.
In the next five years, Mr. Bickel said, he hopes to place executives in each of PNCs major markets Pittsburgh; Philadelphia; Cincinnati; Delaware; Boston; Greenwich, Conn.; Florida; and New Jersey so that the unit can grow without losing the personal touch.
We want to grow so that we can offer this product anywhere. Whether that be Phoenix or California, we think this is a product, with the proper level of personalization, that can be a unique harbinger for business for PNC, Mr. Bickel said.
He added, this is a product, this is a line of business that is a door opener with wealthy customers.
The private foundation unit manages grant distribution and administration for customers private foundations. Mr. Bickel said he works with each family to teach its members how to give and which charities to give to.
Mr. Bickel said that more institutions are looking to offer similar turnkey foundation services. Bank One Corp. and TD Waterhouse have both formed partnerships with Foundation Source, a Norwalk, Conn., company that offers automation and administrative services to make possible the online offering of private foundations.
Mr. Bickel said that personalized service distinguishes his units activities from Foundation Sources.
We offer a variety of services, he said. We never wanted to be a broker that buys and sells a product. We want to provide good advice and good services. This is what positions us to cross-sell. We are more than product providers; we offer sound advice.
Burton Greenwald, a Philadelphia high-net-worth analyst, said that PNCs private foundations unit has a lot of strong attributes, not the least of which is Mr. Bickel, who joined PNC in 1987 and has established a good track record for his relationships with wealthy-family clients.
But the units affiliation with PNC Financial Services might be its Achilles heel, Mr. Greenwald said.
People see banks as great places to hold and save money but not as places to find trusted advisers, he said. We are talking about eight families, not 800 that are using PNCs private foundation service.
Mr. Bickel said his unit is growing, slowly and steadily, and its affiliation with PNC has only been a door opener.
Having all of the resources of PNC behind us has given us all of the products and services that our clients could need, he said. The foundation services allows PNC to become the trustworthy adviser of choice.
