ORION CUSTOM INDEXING CASE STUDY

Elevating Value

Private Advisor Group and Orion Custom Indexing

The Situation

Private Advisor Group is a large RIA with over 750 advisors and roughly $28.5 billion in advisory AUM. The RIA provides advisors with a range of practice management and support services, including technology, investment platforms, compliance, relationship management, and succession and business liquidity options.

The firm already had a longstanding, multifaceted partnership with Orion, where Orion technology serves as the backbone of their RIA business. They were leveraging Orion's operational and compliance infrastructure, along with the advisor and client portals. Plus, they leverage Orion to power their investment management platform.

The firm was looking for a new way to help provide more value for their advisors and, in turn, help advisors provide more value for their clients. They knew that their advisors were facing challenges every day around tax management, embedded gains, transitioning clients from legacy securities, and providing more diversified portfolios that could be customized to their client's specific needs. They were looking for a solution that would help advisors help their clients address all of those areas.

Passionate about direct indexing capabilities to help address these challenges for clients, they began a deep dive to compare pricing, accessibility, support, resources, and technology with various providers. Ultimately, they found that Orion's Custom Indexing checked all of the boxes for them.

Overview

OFFICE LOCATION
Morristown, New Jersey

WHO THEY ARE
Founded in 1997, Private Advisor Group leverages its resources to deliver strategies positioned to improve financial outcomes for individual investors and to inspire growth, fiduciary adherence, succession, and a client-centric approach for independent financial advisors’ practices.

Three colleagues looking at a computer screen

The Solution

The firm decided to include Orion Custom Indexing as a key strategy to their investment management platform, WealthSuite, which launched in October 2022.

Verne Marble, Director of Business Development at Private Advisor Group, says offering direct indexing capabilities to their advisors helps to drive growth for the firm in two ways:

It helps advisors serve their clients.

With a wide range of strategies that can be replicated or customized, Orion Custom Indexing is a cost-effective way for Private Advisor Group to help their advisors address a full range of client needs, including diversification, tax management, and personalization of their portfolios.

It makes the firm more attractive to prospective advisors.

Orion Custom Indexing serves as an enhanced offering for recruiting prospective advisors who may be considering joining their RIA. Marble believes that advisors should continually assess how their strategic partners are adding value to their practice and should consider those factors when joining a new RIA. When Private Advisor Group approaches a prospective advisor, they can now position Orion Custom Indexing as a key solution to help them better serve their clients.

For anyone thinking about ways to increase their value, take the time to explore all the things Orion can do for your RIA. Whether it's wealth management, investment management, or technology, engage with their relationship manager to refine what your practice needs today.

— Verne Marble, Director of Business Development
Private Advisor Group

Upping the Advantage With Orion Stacks

Orion Custom Indexing enables the firm to add value for their advisors, giving them a cost-effective solution to help solve a wide range of client needs. Private Advisor Group noted some of the key benefits for their firm.

Support and Engagement

One of the key decision-making criteria for Private Advisor Group in selecting Orion Custom Indexing was the accessibility and support of the Orion team. Marble points to how they go beyond walking the firm's advisors through how to set up direct indexing. On top of the standard onboarding, they also help them understand how it can be valuable to clients — including digging into real client scenarios to help advisors feel confident about positioning it with their clients.

Ease of Use

Marble says he was pleasantly surprised with how simple and easy Orion Custom Indexing was to implement. It is fully integrated within the advisor portal, which makes it easy for the firm’s advisors to access and use. He believes that ease of use is a key driver to getting advisors who may have a preconceived notion that direct indexing is complicated, to begin using it right away.

Orion Custom Indexing

Orion Custom Indexing enables advisors to offer proactive tax management to every client with the touch of a button. It's a cost-efficient, scalable way to offer customized portfolios and:

  • Attract high-net-worth clients by addressing many of their tax management and personalization needs.
  • Turn prospects into clients through tax-efficient portfolio transitioning.
  • Add value to client returns and reduce taxes through ongoing tax loss harvesting, capital gains budgets, and tax-optimized portfolio rebalancing.
  • Partner with CFA Credentialed Portfolio managers to optimize and monitor client portfolios on an ongoing basis.
  • Capitalize on additional revenue while reducing management time and costs.
Personalization

Orion Custom Indexing gives advisors the ability to build portfolios that align with a client's personal needs or preferences. Marble says that flexibility was really one of the key factors for his firm. "We looked at some other options that were very tight with tracking error, for example, and what we found with Orion is that, yes, they have boundaries and guidelines, but if there is a client need that means deviating a little or significantly from those boundaries or guidelines, the Orion team is willing to do that to meet the needs of the client. And that is obviously paramount to our firm."

Tax Management Capabilities

From tax-loss harvesting and tax transitioning, Orion Custom Indexing enables Private Advisor Group advisors to offer high-value, professionally managed portfolios to their clients while being supported by a dedicated team and Orion’s industry-leading technology. They now have a solution that enables them to offer:

  • Proactive tax management, including tax loss harvesting
  • Tax-effective transitions
  • Capital gains budgets
Growth Engine

Orion Custom Indexing is a scalable way for firms and their advisors to offer truly personalized investment experiences to investors and attract new clients. Marble notes “We embarked on an educational campaign to make sure that our advisors understand what direct indexing is and how it can benefit their clients — but also how it can create scale and differentiation for their practices. And I think it then becomes a core offering within their practices and ultimately, once advisors experience those particular business drivers, that’s when direct indexing becomes a core offering within their practices.”

I don't think the custom indexing trend is going to slow down, I think we were early adopters of this. As an RIA, one of the things we like about it is that it can help solve so many problems for clients.

— Verne Marble, Director of Business Development
Private Advisor Group
Computer screens showing Orion Custom Indexing

Orion Custom Indexing can offer
powerful personalization
for every investor.

Learn More

Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor. Custom Indexing offered through Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC a registered investment advisor. Custom Indexing is also offered through Orion Advisor Technology, LLC (OAT) in a subadvised arrangement. Orion has not compensated Verne Marble from Private Advisor Group specifically or directly for this testimonial but they could from time to time receive gifts or entertainment as part of our normal business relationship or their firm may participate in marketing or administration support agreements with Orion. None of these occurrences are in place in order to compensate Verne Marble for the supplied statements.

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