Savvy Wealth, the financial technology firm that owns registered investment advisor Savvy Advisors, has added new investment capabilities to its “all-in-one” wealth management platform.
The firm launched Savvy Wealth Investment Management, or SWIM, a proprietary investment management service that allows advisors to create and manage personalized portfolios. The offering includes access to an in-house research and investment team, menu of customizable models and a range of asset classes, funds and strategies.
The software was developed exclusively to address the needs of Savvy’s advisors.
“We initially started by leveraging third parties [to offer research-backed models], but we just reached a limitation,” said CEO Ritik Malhotra. “Those were created for kind of a broad base. So, we looked at ways we could systemize a level of customization and still have that research-backed approach, but that was compelling enough for the set of advisors we work with.”
Utilizing in-house research and analysis, the firm has created a set of portfolio models meant to be “modular and flexible,” Malhotra said, offering both structure and a broad range of investment options. SWIM also allows for risk-managed sleeve customizations around things like “factor tilts and tax-efficiency with support for value, growth and dividend-focused strategies, as well as proprietary active strategies,” in addition to trading and rebalancing.
“You can think of them as individual products,” Malhotra said. “But they're really just one because they can all be integrated in or dis-integrated depending on the use case.”
“On the execution side, one of the exciting aspects is our capacity to layer in direct indexing in lieu of, say, the U.S. equity piece for taxable clients,” said Nate Wallace, founding principal wealth manager at Savvy.
“All the ability we have to customize that portfolio beyond what a third-party solution has, or a less advanced in-house solution, has been really exciting to be able to bring to clients,” he said.
SWIM is the latest addition to a fully integrated and AI-enabled technology stack that Savvy is building. While connections with third-party software providers are possible, Malhotra said he’s prepared to incorporate any functionalities advisors are asking for.
The platform is built around a custom advisor dashboard and CRM called Co-Pilot and includes a direct indexing tool introduced last year as well as the new investment management piece, a comprehensive database of alternatives compiled by in-house researchers and financial planning through an “active, real-time” integration with eMoney.
Incorporated in July 2021, Savvy Wealth raised venture capital through two funding rounds before officially launching its RIA the following summer on a mission to build out an “all-in-one” wealth management platform.
Six months later, the firm had attracted a half dozen advisors and more than $100 million in assets. After pausing in early 2023 to roll out the direct indexing and platform tools, Savvy ended the year with 13 advisors and nearing $500 million in recruited assets.
Malhotra, who was named as one of WealthManagement.com’s Ten to Watch for 2024, said he expects to triple headcount this year to more than 50 across advisory, product, operations and marketing.