Phoenix-based trust administrator extends reach into the private-client realm. AST Trust Company, a directed trustee, trust-administration and back-office trust-service provider to registered investment advisors (RIAs), family offices and other financial advisors, has acquired the Capital Trust Company of Delaware, another trust-service provider. The companies say the merger will “deliver significant value to both companies' clients” through “increased scale and a broader national presence.”

Greg Tschider, president of Phoenix, Ariz.-based AST says he’s “extremely excited” about a transaction that brings together “two of the larger players in the trust-service space” that also share a cultural affinity. “At both companies we pride ourselves in being extremely advisors-friendly.”

Bigger and broader

That shows up in AST’s outreach to advisors, according to Tschider. “We can function as consultants and be very hands on,” he says. “So if they like us to take part in a client meeting, we can do that, or we can stay behind the scenes.”

AST executive v.p. Nicholas Peters says the merger with Capital Trust “significantly adds to our private client trust assets under administration and allows us to accumulate critical mass in the broker-dealer and independent advisor communities.” In addition, he says, the deal brings Capital Trust’s clients “the extensive resources and solutions” of AST's private-client and retirement-plan groups. “Our model allows our advisor-clients to work with one trustee for comprehensive retirement and personal trust solutions,” he adds.

AST had about $18 billion in assets under management going into the deal, about 85% of that in corporate retirement trusts; Capital Trust had about $1 billion in assets under management, almost all in advisor-directed personal trusts.

Tschider says it’s vital that a third-party trust-service provider be “non-competitive” with its advisory clients. “We’re not an RIA, we’re not a broker-dealer,’ he says. “That means there’s never the threat that somebody across the hall could cannibalize [an advisor’s] client base.”

With AST and Capital Trust paired off, Tschider mentions the Bank of New York and Santa Fe Trust, as two of AST’s bigger competitors.

The agreement between AST and Capital Trust took effect last week. Wilmington, Del.-based Capital Trust will continue to operate under its own name, at least initially. The merged company will adopt Capital Trust’s status as a Delaware-chartered trust company, “thereby allowing its clients to continue to take full advantage of doing trust business in Delaware,” AST says in a press release.

The companies didn’t disclose financial details of the transaction.

AST is a division of American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, a New York-based independent stock transfer and trust company that administers more than six million shareholder accounts on behalf of more than 2,500 public-company equity issuers. –FWR

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