| Areté Quarterly Q3 24.pdf |
Business update
The big news on the business side is the merger of Areté’s custodian, Shareholders Service Group (SSG), with Altruist. As a result of the merger, client portfolios will be transitioned off the Pershing platform and onto the Altruist platform at the end of October.
As I stated in a client letter, I think this will mainly be a good thing. Assets will remain safe and be protected by all the same safeguards and insurance policies as larger custodians, so that is not a concern of mine.
Clients will have a new user interface but shouldn’t see any major functional differences. I will have to make a few modifications on the operations side, but nothing major.
From a higher level perspective, I have two major thoughts. First, there is definitely potential for upside over the longer-term. Altruist was founded on the premise that technology can be leveraged to make the experience for advisors and investors far more efficient and effective. This is completely consistent with Areté's founding principles and also a welcome development.
In my opinion, the financial industry has been ripe for technological disruption for a long time and has been no small part of Areté’s proposition. I’m glad to see someone bringing that effort to the custodial services business and am glad to be a part of it. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit that can improve the well-being of both investors and advisors.
In addition, I have been really impressed with the team at Altruist all around. They have a lot of quality people and they all seem oriented to customer service. This is an accomplishment in any business, and especially so in financial services.
The second thought is one of some caution. I believe the business model of venture capital often forces businesses to try to grow more than they should. Since Altruist is funded by venture capital, I do have some concern aggressive growth targets could potentially undermine service or cause other problems at some point in the future.
To be sure, this is a general concern and I don’t have any evidence that it applies to Altruist at this point. But be assured, I will be watching.
Finally, while I must admit I don’t like spending time on things I didn’t ask for – like preparing to transition accounts to Altruist – it’s also not the right comparison. SSG was increasingly constrained by what it could do in terms of technology services so something would have had to change sooner or later anyway.
In addition, prior to the merger, I had already been exploring ways to streamline my operations. The development roadmap for Altruist dovetails nicely with that effort. In addition, I am excited about some of the new offerings from Altruist – such as their new fixed income trading platform.
So, I’m sure there will be at least a couple of glitches along the way, there always are in a transition like this. But, it’s also good to keep in mind that sometimes change is a good thing – and sometimes it’s even a very good thing!
If you have any questions about what I do, about the transition to Altruist, or just want to learn more about the All-Terrain strategy, please reach me at [email protected]. I look forward to it!
Thanks for your support!
David Robertson, CFA
CEO and founder, Areté Asset Management
The big news on the business side is the merger of Areté’s custodian, Shareholders Service Group (SSG), with Altruist. As a result of the merger, client portfolios will be transitioned off the Pershing platform and onto the Altruist platform at the end of October.
As I stated in a client letter, I think this will mainly be a good thing. Assets will remain safe and be protected by all the same safeguards and insurance policies as larger custodians, so that is not a concern of mine.
Clients will have a new user interface but shouldn’t see any major functional differences. I will have to make a few modifications on the operations side, but nothing major.
From a higher level perspective, I have two major thoughts. First, there is definitely potential for upside over the longer-term. Altruist was founded on the premise that technology can be leveraged to make the experience for advisors and investors far more efficient and effective. This is completely consistent with Areté's founding principles and also a welcome development.
In my opinion, the financial industry has been ripe for technological disruption for a long time and has been no small part of Areté’s proposition. I’m glad to see someone bringing that effort to the custodial services business and am glad to be a part of it. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit that can improve the well-being of both investors and advisors.
In addition, I have been really impressed with the team at Altruist all around. They have a lot of quality people and they all seem oriented to customer service. This is an accomplishment in any business, and especially so in financial services.
The second thought is one of some caution. I believe the business model of venture capital often forces businesses to try to grow more than they should. Since Altruist is funded by venture capital, I do have some concern aggressive growth targets could potentially undermine service or cause other problems at some point in the future.
To be sure, this is a general concern and I don’t have any evidence that it applies to Altruist at this point. But be assured, I will be watching.
Finally, while I must admit I don’t like spending time on things I didn’t ask for – like preparing to transition accounts to Altruist – it’s also not the right comparison. SSG was increasingly constrained by what it could do in terms of technology services so something would have had to change sooner or later anyway.
In addition, prior to the merger, I had already been exploring ways to streamline my operations. The development roadmap for Altruist dovetails nicely with that effort. In addition, I am excited about some of the new offerings from Altruist – such as their new fixed income trading platform.
So, I’m sure there will be at least a couple of glitches along the way, there always are in a transition like this. But, it’s also good to keep in mind that sometimes change is a good thing – and sometimes it’s even a very good thing!
If you have any questions about what I do, about the transition to Altruist, or just want to learn more about the All-Terrain strategy, please reach me at [email protected]. I look forward to it!
Thanks for your support!
David Robertson, CFA
CEO and founder, Areté Asset Management
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