2001 Press Releases
FOLIOfn Launches Enhanced Technology Platform for Investment Advisors and Money Management Professionals
06/12/2001
VIENNA, Virginia – FOLIOfn, Inc. today announced the launch of an exciting new portfolio investing and management tool. The new product, which has been added to the FOLIO Advisor℠ platform, allows advisors and money managers easily and in one step to create and subscribe multiple clients with individual preferences to stock portfolio models. Advisory and money management firms can also create, publish, and manage models for their advisors to use.
“Gone are the days of tedious, time intensive account-by-account changes,” said James S. Vitalie, President of FOLIOfn Institutional. “For the first time, advisory firms and individual advisors who track stocks and portfolios can increase their efficiency—and increase their business—by subscribing clients to whole model FOLIOs℠ instead of manually recreating the same portfolios in different client accounts. The FOLIO Advisor platform is designed to help advisors maximize their most valuable offering—their advice—by automating routine tasks and paperwork and by providing real time data access.”
Investment advisors use FOLIO Advisor to offer custom stock portfolios under a variety of pricing options, including a low asset-based fee with no minimums, commissions, or transaction charges. Using this proprietary platform, advisors can buy for their clients whole portfolios (FOLIOs) of individual stocks that can be customized quickly and easily, and can be private-labeled for firms and advisors.
“More and more investors want the benefits of separate accounts,” Vitalie added. “The FOLIO Advisor platform is a separate account solution for virtually any financial institution. We’ve heard from banks, insurance companies and brokerages as well as money managers and advisory firms that want to use our platform to capitalize on this growing demand.”
FOLIO Advisor offers advisors and money managers the opportunity to create their own FOLIOs from scratch, or they can start with one of more than 100 “Ready-to-Go” FOLIOs based on sectors, indexes, risk level, Wall Street Analyst recommendations, and other criteria. Advisors can customize any FOLIO to individual clients’ specific needs by adding or subtracting stocks, or using FOLIOfn’s automated stock exclusion and search tools. Advisors can easily update or rebalance FOLIOs with just a few mouse clicks as often as they like with no additional cost.
FOLIO Advisor’s automated tax lot tracking and tax management system lets advisors easily manage clients’ tax liabilities, which may produce significant tax savings. FOLIO Advisor provides for online account opening and also delivers all statements and performance reports online (with paper available, if needed) and takes care of client billing. In addition, advisors can allow their clients to review reports and analysis online, as well as download tax information into popular tax preparation programs. Through relationships with vendors like Advent Software and others, investment advisors are also able to download their FOLIO Advisor data into leading portfolio management software seamlessly.
This summer, FOLIOfn will allow advisors to partner with third party money managers on the FOLIO Advisor platform. “We have investment advisors who look forward to the addition of those managers while others will continue to manage their client portfolios personally,” Vitalie explained.
How Does It Work? One FOLIO Advisor Example
Barbara Smith’s advisory firm, Smith Investments, tracks a group of large-cap stocks as a basis for investing client assets. Barbara creates a few models with those stocks and designated weightings and different risk levels. She chooses to name one model the Smith Large-Cap Low Risk Portfolio.
Later, Steve Jones, an advisor at Smith Investments, decides to subscribe several of his clients to the Smith Large-Cap Low Risk Portfolio model.
Each quarter, Barbara reviews and makes changes to her models. Steve has directed that his client accounts be updated immediately to replicate changes made to the model. Therefore, when Barbara changes her model, FOLIO Advisor generates the necessary trades for each of Steve’s client accounts subscribed to that model.
Steve has also established a profile for each of his clients, reflecting their tax objectives and investing preferences. For example, one of his clients does not want to own tobacco stocks. When Barbara adds a tobacco stock to her model, the FOLIO Advisor system knows to exclude that stock for Steve’s client. That same client wants to minimize his short-term capital gains. When Barbara sells some holdings to rebalance the model, the FOLIO Advisor system knows which shares to select to meet this tax objective.
About Folio Investing
Folio Investing, a division of FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is an online brokerage that enables investors to manage stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds as integrated investment portfolios called “Folios” that deliver better control, greater transparency, and lower cost. Investors can create their own Folios, much like creating personalized ETFs or mutual funds, or invest in over 100 Ready-to-Go Folios representing market indices, sectors, geographical regions, target dates, and more. The Folio Unlimited Plan features unlimited commission-free trading in twice-daily windows for only $29 a month or $290 a year. Ready-to-Go Folios can be managed or unmanaged, are not registered investment companies, and are offered by FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., a registered broker-dealer. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc. does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice. FOLIOfn Investments, Inc., is a member of FINRA/SIPC.