In this episode of the RIA Edge Podcast, host David Armstrong speaks with Andy Busser, president and CEO of Pitcairn, about how the century-old firm has evolved from a single-family office into an RIA serving approximately 150 families and overseeing roughly $12 billion on their behalf.

Andy shares how Pitcairn combines investment management with trust, tax, accounting, insurance, family education and governance services to support families across generations. He also explains why the firm prioritizes character, curiosity and emotional intelligence when building its team, how it approaches growth and alternative investments, and how artificial intelligence is creating more time for deeper analysis and stronger client relationships.

Andy discusses:

• How shared single-family office services combine investments, trusts, tax, insurance, accounting and family support
• Why Pitcairn selectively evaluates new families to ensure long-term cultural and relationship fit
• How hiring employees for optimism, curiosity, empathy, work quality and self-awareness shapes the firm’s culture
• Why employee engagement is the firm’s leading leadership metric and how it relates to revenue and EBITDA growth
• How the firm is exploring the use of AI to speed up analysis and planning, and create more time for client relationships and staff development

Resources:

• Listen to the RIA Edge Podcast on Wealth Management
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Apple Podcasts
• Listen and Subscribe to the RIA Edge Podcast on Spotify

Connect With David Armstrong:

• Wealth Management
• LinkedIn: Wealth Management
• LinkedIn: David Armstrong
• Twitter: David Armstrong
• LinkedIn: Informa

Connect With Andy Busser:

• LinkedIn: Andrew Busser
• LinkedIn: Pitcairn
• Website: Pitcairn

About Our Guest:

As President and CEO of Pitcairn, Andy guides the firm’s culture and operations, building on a century of gold standard experiences for clients and employees. Andy’s curiosity and energy set the tone for a team focused on deep relationships, integrated service, technological innovation, and continuous learning.

Before becoming CEO in 2023, Andy served as Pitcairn’s President of Family Office, leading the firm’s relationship managers, analysts, and client communications professionals. He came to Pitcairn in 2015 from Symphony Capital, a healthcare-focused manager of private equity and hedge funds, where he was a partner. Earlier in his career, he was a management consultant with The Wilkerson Group/Wilkerson Partners.

Andy advocates for helping families become empowered stewards of wealth across generations, a topic he speaks and writes about often. He presents regularly at events hosted by the Family Wealth Alliance, The UHNW Institute, and Family Business Magazine’s Transitions and Align conferences, and he writes a Forbes column on family office leadership and strategy. His perspective has appeared in Barron’s, Bloomberg, Crain Currency, and InvestmentNews, and on NPR.

He also represents Pitcairn in the Wigmore Association, a global collaboration among the chief executives and chief investment officers of independent family offices located in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Mexico.

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