Today, Rusty and Robyn are joined by Joe Smith. Joe is Co-founder, Chief Investment Officer and head of Parti Pris’ Investment Strategy Committee. He has executive responsibility for wealthtech platform development, and thought leadership. In his leadership role, he brings deep expertise in applying technology and portfolio optimization tools to portfolio design and implementation issues specific to wealth management. Joe is the primary architect of Parti Pris’ investment approach including Parti’s proprietary Household investment management process and our Advisor SketchBook™ portal. 

Joe brings almost 20 years of financial industry experience to his position at Parti Pris. Previously, he served as Senior Market Strategist and later Deputy Chief Investment Officer of CLS Investments, LLC. He has held several other investment management and product development roles including Manager of ETF Product Research & Development at Russell Investments and Senior ETF & Index Product Specialist at Charles Schwab Investment Management. 

Joe holds a BS in Economics from the University of Washington and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. Joe has hosted several industry podcasts and authored several articles and papers regarding the investment management industry and trends, application of quantitative methods to portfolio management, and the role of ETFs in asset allocation portfolios.

Key Takeaways

• [03:59] - Joe’s professional background and how it led him to his current position.
• [10:14] - Parti Pris is the organizing thought, or decision, behind an architect’s design. How does this idea guide the identity of Joe’s firm and how it operates?
• [12:16] - What’s Joe’s assessment of the current state of Direct Indexing and the customization marketplace and what should people expect as the next key areas of focus?
• [14:58] - What is Unified Managed Householding and why does Joe think that it will play a crucial role in the future of wealth management?
• [16:32] - What is currently the biggest driver of demand for Unified Managed Householding and what is the ultimate market opportunity for it?
• [18:55] - What are some obstacles that advisors might face when implementing Unified Managed Householding and how does Parti Pris help advisors overcome these?
• [21:13] - What are some of the key lessons that Joe has learned as an entrepreneur?
• [24:23] - What does Joe consider to be the building blocks of a cohesive company culture?
• [27:27] - How does Joe think the industry needs to evolve risk management to ensure advisors can help their clients navigate short-term market movements and deliver better investment outcomes over the long-term?
• [30:02] - How has Joe’s experience in the industry been shaped by his identity as a person of color?
• [32:42] - What steps can be taken to encourage more people of color to pursue careers in wealth management?
• [34:53] - What is currently Joe’s favorite investment idea?

Quotes

[13:49] - “Now, where do I actually think [Direct Indexing] is going, and what we have seen at Party Pris, in terms of the third act of what I’ll call the great wave in direct indexing and personalization. It’s really focusing more on holistic, related solutions than being individualistic…and I think that’s where the concept or idea of Unified Managed Householding is really starting to come into focus for a lot of advisors” ~ Joe Smith

[18:55] - “I think there’s really two major challenges [to implementing Unified Managed Householding]. One, I think, is more technology related and two is more education related. When we talk about Unified Managed Householding, it requires a lot of input from the client [and] it requires a lot of input from the advisor and getting all of that information in one centralized place to make the right decisions [is critical].” ~ Joe Smith

Links

• Joe Smith on LinkedIn
• Parti Pris
• “The Fire” by The Roots & John Legend

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Disclosure(s) - Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor.

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