Built for Tax-Intelligent Advisory Firms

Tax Alpha. Any Market. Every Year.

Orion Custom Indexing is the direct indexing platform for advisors who want to offer tax-efficient, personalized portfolios — without building investment infrastructure in-house. Proposal generation, trading, and ongoing optimization are handled in a single tool, managed by CFA-credentialed portfolio managers.

It's how Orion advisors delivered 
$368M+ in tax losses harvested for clients in 2025 alone.2

Is Custom Indexing Right for Your Practice?

Built for Advisors Ready to Win on Tax

The HNW-Focused Advisor

You're serving clients with $1M–$5M in investable assets — many with highly appreciated stock, concentrated positions, or complex tax situations. You want to offer personalized portfolios without building your own trading operation.

Quick check:

  • Clients with significant unrealized gains or concentrated positions
  • Ready to offer direct indexing without adding headcount
  • Looking for a tax-intelligent alternative to ETF-only portfolios for their most complex accounts

The Tax-Conversation Avoider

You know taxes are eroding your clients' returns, but you don't have the tools to do anything about it. Clients ask about tax efficiency and you don't have a satisfying answer. That's about to change.

Quick check:

  • Clients who ask about tax efficiency but don't get a real answer
  • Avoiding rebalancing decisions because of tax exposure
  • Ready to make the tax conversation a competitive advantage

The Wirehouse Competitor

Your HNW prospects are comparing you to Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, or a multi-family office — and personalized portfolio management is a category where you can't compete. Yet.

Quick check:

  • Losing HNW deals to institutions offering bespoke portfolios
  • Clients who expect more than a standard model portfolio
  • Need institutional-quality tools without institutional overhead
Tax-Managed Transitions

Direct Indexing Used to Mean Complexity. Not Anymore.

The #1 reason advisors don't offer direct indexing isn't the strategy — it's the operational lift. Orion Custom Indexing handles the complexity so you don't have to. Here's what the process actually looks like.

  

1
Analyze
 
2
Plan
 
3
Transition
 
4
Optimize

Step 1 of 4

Understand the Starting Point

Before anything changes, Orion maps exactly what the client is working with — their current holdings, tax exposure, and constraints. This gives advisors a clear picture of where flexibility exists and where guardrails need to be set before the transition begins.

What happens here

Review holdings, cost basis, and unrealized gain exposure
Identify concentrated positions, legacy assets, and sector risks
Establish the client's capital gains budget and transition timeline

Step 2 of 4

Build a Multi-Year Roadmap

No forced liquidation. Orion designs a phased transition schedule that manages realized gains across multiple tax years — so the client is never hit with a single large taxable event because of a portfolio modernization.

What happens here

Design a phased schedule aligned to the client's tax situation
Set per-year capital gains limits to control timing of realizations
Align transition pace to client preferences, not a fund's schedule

Step 3 of 4

Move Gradually, Stay Invested

Legacy and mutual fund positions shift systematically while tax-loss harvesting runs continuously to offset realized gains. The client stays fully invested throughout — no gaps in market exposure while the transition works in the background.

What happens here

Systematic shift of legacy and mutual fund–heavy positions
Continuous tax-loss harvesting to offset realized gains
Proceeds reinvested immediately to maintain market exposure

Step 4 of 4

Continuous Optimization, Indefinitely

The work doesn't stop once the transition is complete. Orion's CFA-credentialed portfolio managers monitor and optimize every portfolio on an ongoing basis — adjusting to new positions, tax events, and evolving client preferences without adding work to the advisor's plate.

What happens here

Ongoing security-level tax-loss harvesting throughout the account lifecycle
Continuous rebalancing and monitoring by CFA-credentialed PMs
ESG screens, preference updates, and concentrated position management applied as needs evolve
← Previous
Next →

You don't have to start with your whole book. Most advisors begin with a segment — HNW clients, taxable accounts, or a single advisor team. Orion Custom Indexing is designed for phased adoption, so you can scale at your own pace without disrupting existing client relationships.

Get a Consult
Proven Results

The Tax Conversation Pays Off

Your clients aren't waiting for this conversation — they're expecting it.

79%

of investors believe their advisor should proactively minimize their tax obligations3

88%

agree taxes erode investment returns, just like market volatility3

 

You're not gonna always win on the market, but when you don't, there's an opportunity to win in a different way.

For us, it will be the cornerstone moving forward.

Jeff Silverman Partner, Alera Group
By the Numbers

$368M+

In tax losses harvested for Custom Indexing clients in 20252

#1

In Portfolio Design Solutions by advisor market share4

46 hrs

Saved per HNW account per year5

0.85–1.10%

Potential annual tax alpha from security-level harvesting6

See It in Action

Watch How Custom Indexing Works

Everything from proposal to ongoing optimization — in 75 seconds.

financial advisor client conversation
Case Study

Elevating Value: Orion + Private Advisor Group

See how one advisory firm used Custom Indexing to deepen HNW client relationships and build a repeatable tax-conversation playbook.

86% of advisors believe direct indexing can help them grow their practice.4

Read the Case Study
Ready to Start Winning on Tax?

The Advisors Winning HNW Clients Are Having the Tax Conversation.

Every quarter you wait is another quarter of harvesting losses for someone else's clients.

Get a Consult

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Orion Custom Indexing?

Orion Custom Indexing is the direct indexing platform for advisors who want to offer tax-efficient, personalized portfolios at scale. It combines proposal generation, trading, and reporting in a single tool — managed by CFA-credentialed portfolio managers who continuously optimize each portfolio — so advisors can deliver HNW-grade portfolio management without building their own investment infrastructure.

What is direct indexing, and how does it work?

Direct indexing is an investment strategy in which a client directly owns the individual securities in an index or model portfolio, rather than holding a fund that tracks it. That direct ownership creates tax management opportunities — specifically the ability to harvest losses at the individual security level — and allows the portfolio to be customized for the client's specific values, goals, and tax situation. Orion Custom Indexing handles the security selection, ongoing tax-loss harvesting, and portfolio monitoring through a sleeved account at the custodian of your choice.

How is Custom Indexing different from investing in an index ETF?

An index ETF gives a client exposure to an index, but they don't own the underlying securities — which means no tax-loss harvesting at the security level and no ability to exclude individual companies or sectors. Custom Indexing gives clients direct ownership of the individual securities, which creates ongoing tax management opportunities and allows the portfolio to be customized around values, concentrated positions, and sector preferences. The performance of a custom-indexed portfolio may vary from the target index due to customization and tax management activity.

What tax benefits does Custom Indexing provide?

Custom Indexing enables proactive, ongoing tax-loss harvesting — selling securities with unrealized losses to offset gains elsewhere in the portfolio, then reinvesting proceeds to maintain market exposure. Advisors can also set capital gains budgets and manage tax-effective transitions for clients coming in with appreciated positions or concentrated holdings. These are not year-end-only strategies; Orion's platform monitors and manages them continuously.

What customization options does Orion Custom Indexing offer?

Portfolios can be customized across multiple dimensions: ESG, SRI, and faith-based screens; exclusion of individual securities or sectors; concentrated position management; and sector/industry preferences. Each customization starts with a target investment mandate, and the platform applies the client's specific preferences on top of that baseline. Proposal generation for a fully customized portfolio takes under five minutes.

Who is Orion Custom Indexing designed for?

It's designed for advisors — particularly those competing for or already serving high-net-worth clients — who want to offer tax-intelligent, personalized portfolio management without building a custom investment operation. It's especially well-suited for practices that are spending significant time on manual tax management processes or turning away HNW clients because they can't efficiently deliver the level of customization those clients expect.

How much time does Orion Custom Indexing save advisors?

Advisors save up to 46 hours per high-net-worth account per year by implementing Orion Custom Indexing.1 The time savings come from consolidating proposal generation, trading, and reporting into a single platform, and from continuous automated tax-loss harvesting that eliminates manual year-end processes.

How does Orion Custom Indexing compare to other direct indexing solutions?

Most direct indexing solutions require separate tools for proposals, trading, and performance reporting — which creates operational overhead and manual reconciliation work. Orion Custom Indexing is the only solution that brings all three into one platform, which is why it was found to be the #1 market share for Portfolio Design Solutions in the 2025 T3/Inside Information Advisor Software Survey.5 It's also integrated with the broader Orion platform — including portfolio accounting, trading, and reporting — rather than sitting as a standalone bolt-on.

Is Orion Custom Indexing part of the Orion Advantage Stack?

Access to Orion Custom Indexing is available as part of Orion's Stacks, which bundle Orion's tools under a single agreement and unified UX. Advisors who are already on Orion's platform can add Custom Indexing within the same environment, without separate logins or reconciliation workflows.

How do advisors get started with Orion Custom Indexing?

Contact Orion to explore which client profiles are best suited for Custom Indexing and how to implement it within your existing platform setup. Custom Indexing is offered through Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, a registered investment advisor.

1Source: WealthManagement.com Announces 2025 Industry Awards Finalists, WealthManagement.com, 2025.
2Source: Orion internal data, January 2026.
3Source: Orion Research, July 2021. Orion’s Research Initiative maintained a +/- 2.9% margin of error among consumer investors across generations and a +/- 3.8% error rate among Financial Advisors. A mixed methodology was applied that included a robust base of more than 2000 constituents in the online surveys and dozens of in-depth interviews on the topic.
4Source: T3/Inside Information Advisor Software Survey, 2025. Orion holds the #1 market share for CRM, Portfolio Management/Reporting Tools, and Portfolio Design Solutions. Orion also ranks in the Top 3 [by market share] for All-In-One Software, Trading and Rebalancing, TAMP, and Risk Intelligence.
5Source: Proprietary Orion data, as of 7/28/2023.
6Source: An Empirical Evaluation of Tax-Loss Harvesting Alpha. Shomesh E. Chaudhuri, Terence C. Burnham, & Andrew W. Lo, 2020.

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 an investment strategy wherein a portfolio is managed to mimic an index or other portfolio, while taking into account the tax position, holdings, and individual investing preferences of a client. The performance of a portfolio using custom indexing may vary significantly from the target index (referred to as tracking error or tracking difference), and this variance may increase with greater customization within a portfolio.

Tax-loss Harvesting is a process by which securities trading at unrealized losses are sold to realize a taxable loss. Proceeds from the sales are then used to reinvest in alternate securities to maintain market exposure. Tax-loss Harvesting can be used as a strategy to offset realized gains from other investments and/or carried forward to later calendar years to offset future taxable gains.

This information is prepared for general information only. It does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and the particular needs of any specific person. This material does not constitute any representation as to the suitability or appropriateness of any security, financial product or instrument. There is no guarantee that investment in any program or strategy discussed herein will be profitable or will not incur loss. Investors should seek financial advice regarding the appropriateness of investing in any security or investment strategy discussed or recommended and should understand that statements regarding future prospects may not be realized. Investors should note that security values may fluctuate and that each security's price or value may rise or fall. Accordingly, investors may receive back less than originally invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Individual client accounts may vary.

Orion has not compensated Jeff Silverman from Alera Group or 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 Jeff Silverman or Verne Marble for the supplied statements.

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