Episode summary
RIA Edge Podcast: Building an RIA on a Family Office Foundation with Andy Busser
Summary
Pitcairn is a century-old RIA that operates as a “shared single family office” for about 150 families, overseeing roughly $12 billion across roughly 600 households. Andy Busser said the firm combines investment management with trust, tax, accounting, insurance, family education and governance services, with a model built around highly personalized support rather than scale efficiencies.
Busser said Pitcairn’s growth comes from selectivity: it typically brings on only four to six new families a year, often with $100 million to $125 million in assets, and it turns away prospects that are not a cultural fit. He said the firm also uses acquisitions selectively, citing Brightside Partners as a way to strengthen its alternative-investments platform and add clients who were already a good fit.
He argued that the most important leadership metric is employee engagement, not just AUM or revenue. The firm hires for warm optimism, curiosity, work-product excellence, empathy and self-awareness, and he said those traits matter more as AI accelerates technical work. Busser sees AI as a tool that frees staff for deeper analysis, more client contact and better development of junior employees.
Key takeaways
- Andy Busser said Pitcairn serves about 150 families and oversees roughly $12 billion with a full-service shared single-family-office model.
- The firm typically adds only four to six new families a year, and the average new family brings about $100 million to $125 million.
- Busser said Pitcairn measures leadership success primarily through employee engagement, which he said correlates with revenue and EBITDA growth.
- He said the firm hires for warm optimism, curiosity, excellence, empathy and self-awareness, regardless of role.
- Busser said AI is speeding up analysis and planning, but the real payoff is more time for client relationships and staff development.
Notable quotes
“we are a an RIA, but really a shared single family office for about 150 families around the United States”
“we provide all the services that a family of wealth would need. So, certainly investments and we have an RIA to do that”
“there's no economy of scale on human labor and we have a lot of that”
“What we really look for is people whose makeup, whose character is at least 51% those characteristics I described”
How the episode opens
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Hello everyone and welcome to this the RIA Edge podcast. This is as my opportunity to speak to the executives building, growing, sustainably growing wealth management firms of the future. And today I'm thrilled to be joined by Andy Busscher, who is the CEO and head of Pitcairn Wealth Advisors. Andy, thanks very much for joining us.
Thanks, David. Thanks for having me. — Very much appreciate you being here. For the folks who don't know Pitcairn, do you want to just give us the 101 on the firm, where you're located, assets managed, clients served?
Yeah, we are a an RIA, but really a shared single family office for about 150 families around the United States. We are a full-service family office. We started in 1923 as a single family office for the Pitcairn family.
John Pitcairn founded PPG, Pittsburgh Plate Glass back in the old days, but today it's called PPG Industries. And so for 65 years we just served the Pitcairn family, but today we serve about 150 different families around the country, roughly 600 households. We oversee about $12 billion on their behalf, and we have about 95 employees headquartered in Philadelphia, but with offices in New York, Baltimore, Jupiter, Florida, and San Francisco.
That's fantastic. Maybe just before we get into some of the mechanics of the firm, we could put some get some guardrails around the nomenclature here because a family office has always been a kind of a spongy term as I understand it.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- building an ria
- family office services
- alternative investments
- ai in wealth management
- employee engagement
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Pitcairn
- Symphony Capital
- Forbes
- Bloomberg
- Barron's
- InvestmentNews
- NPR
- The Wilkerson Group
Watch the episode
Watch “RIA Edge Podcast: Building an RIA on a Family Office Foundation with Andy Busser” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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