Mr Smith was appointed earlier in the year and will take over from acting group executive Nick Langton, who will revert back to his role of general manager private client advice.
Perpetual chief executive Geoff Lloyd said Mr Smith was joining the group at an important stage in its history.
"With our Transformation 2015 strategy now well underway and the Perpetual Private business building a truly differentiated high net wealth offer, Mark's considerable experience will provide the leadership team with invaluable insight into how we can extract greater benefits from our strong market position," Mr Lloyd said.
"Throughout 2012, the Perpetual team, under the guidance of Nick, has continued to pursue a number of initiatives to build on the sale and advocacy we have within the wealth advice business, as well as extend into new activities where we hold competitive advantage."
Mr Smith, who will be based in Sydney, said that Perpetual's Path to Growth strategy was putting the business in a strong position to accelerate its growth when investor sentiment improved.
"Our objective must be to reap the benefits of the investments made, starting with the modernisation of the business' client service and product offering via Project ICE," he said.
In addition, on a company-wide level he said it was clear Transformation 2015 was fundamentally improving the way the business operated and was confident the new approach would help drive improved performance for Perpetual Private.
