Altruist, which launched its own self-clearing platform earlier this year, has eliminated the $1 per account per month portfolio accounting fee for advisors who custody with the firm. That gives the firm’s RIA custody clients access to performance reporting, fee billing, portfolio rebalancing, a client portal and portfolio accounting software for free.
RIAs that do not custody with Altruist but use its technology are still subject to the portfolio accounting fee, although the first 100 connected accounts are free of charge.
“When you custody with us, we want your experience to be as integrated and as comprehensive and as simple as possible, and a way to do that is to make the portfolio accounting software free,” said Marc Greenberg, CFO at Altruist. “We’re taking away friction in the process, and that’s what we’re about, generally about serving our customers and eliminating friction.”
Altruist estimates that the average advisor managing 200-300 accounts could pay between $10,000 to $15,000 a year for portfolio accounting software, while a client portal could cost $25,000 a year.
“Software and platform fees can become prohibitive to growth for large and fast-growing firms,” Greenberg said in a statement.
Altruist does not charge platform fees for its custodial services.
After years as an “introducing broker/dealer,” Altruist took the final step in becoming a full-service custodian earlier this year. CEO Jason Wenk argues it’s the only one built exclusively from the ground up for the RIA market.
Just weeks later, Altruist announced its acquisition of Shareholders Service Group, a brokerage and custodial services platform, giving Altruist close to 10% market share of total RIA firms, SSG’s service organization and a relationship with Pershing, SSG’s clearing and custody provider.
In April, the company said it raised $112 million in series D funding, led by Insight Partners, new investor Adams Street, as well as existing investors. That round brought its total funding to more than $290 million.
In 2022, the company tripled its assets, even before the SSG acquisition, and it grew revenue by 1,600% year-over-year. In the first seven months of this year, it has already tripled assets on the platform, and is on track to more than quadruple AUM and grow revenue by more than 1,000% this year, Wenk said. He declined to provide specific AUM numbers. Altruist now serves more than 4,000 advisors.