Michelle Yu:

Hi everyone. For Financial Advisors, the consultation process is key in helping build relationships with clients as well as ensuring their portfolios have a great start. And joining me right now is Lauren Pfendt, associate at Portfolio Solutions at WisdomTree Asset Management to discuss more of that process. And I want to start with having Lauren give us an overview of WisdomTree's Portfolio Consultation Services and how they help financial advisors strengthen their client portfolios. And with that, Lauren, hello and welcome.

Lauren Pfendt:

Thanks, Michelle. Portfolio consultations are a subservice of a broader platform of ours called Portfolio Solutions. And really, the goal of Portfolio Solutions is to provide our client's financial advisors with portfolios that are optimized, but that are suiting their specific needs and their practice. So, there's really three separate subservices of portfolio solutions that we'll cover today. The first one is our CIO managed model portfolio business. So, these are going to be for financial advisors that are looking to access WisdomTree's best ideas and model portfolios. These are going to be models that are managed in-house by our team of 30 plus research professionals, and they're really the ones guiding our asset allocation guidance and views in the marketplace. So, these are going to be turnkey solutions for advisors looking to access WisdomTree IP and research in our model portfolio suite. Now, for advisors that are looking to access WisdomTree model portfolios but want to co-collaborate with WisdomTree, we also have a shared CIO service offering available to them, whereby the advisor is partnering with our investment professionals, our portfolio managers, and delivering co-collaborated model portfolios for their team.

So, this is a great way for advisors to access WisdomTree IP, but to also collaborate with our team and have truly bespoke portfolios for their clients. Now, the third solution that we'll talk through today that I'll spend most of the time covering is the portfolio consultation business. And this is really going to be for the advisor that wants to maintain complete discretion of their model portfolios that isn't necessarily looking to outsource the investment management process, but they're really looking for valuable feedback from WisdomTree. Maybe they're looking to see how we would implement our best ideas in their portfolios, so we meet with them directly and provide them with a proposal in a consultation, and then it's ultimately up to the advisor to decide what they want to implement in the portfolios.

Michelle Yu:

And thank you for that, Lauren. I do think our audience wants to know is what exactly makes WisdomTree's consultation process unique compared to other portfolio review services advisors may have encountered?

Lauren Pfendt:

Well, that's a great question and we know that we're not the only asset manager offering this service, but there are a few key delineators I believe that we offer to the marketplace. First, we provide an open architecture experience for our clients. And what I mean by that is when we meet with clients, we not only suggest at times WisdomTree product in their portfolios, but we also look at third-party fund providers as well. And this is the same philosophy we have in our own model portfolio suite. In our model portfolios, we do include WisdomTree product, but we understand that clients like to have fund diversification in their portfolios. They don't only want one fund manager, right? So, in our portfolio consultations, we take the same philosophy and suggest not only WisdomTree funds when suitable and appropriate, but also third-party providers as well.

I think another delineator for us too is also the, that we have on our platform, we don't have any minimums for account sizes that advisors need to adhere to work with the portfolio consultation team. We meet with advisors that are very new, that are just starting their business and growing. We also meet with advisors that have been doing this for a very long time and have a huge book of business and maybe are just seeking our help to help scale their business. So, it's a very accessible service. And on top of that, there's also no cost associated with meeting with our consultation team. So, no fees, no strategist fees. We'll meet with advisors across the country and they really find a lot of value in meeting with our team because of all the great accessibility. But I think perhaps the best advantage that WisdomTree can offer among all of them is the fact that we are so customizable in what we do.

When we meet with advisors, it's very important that we understand upfront exactly what they're hoping to achieve in their client portfolios. We ask that they provide any targets that they have for the models, any mandates, if there's certain issuers they prefer to work with, or if there's specific elements of the portfolio they really want us to address. And with that information, we fine tune our proposal and make it very unique and bespoke to them. So, our deliverables, we like to say they're not cookie cutter reports. These are going to be fully bespoke proposals unique for that advisor and we deliver them in our consultation process.

Michelle Yu:

Can you go into specific detail and walk us through what advisors can expect in that consultation process?

Lauren Pfendt:

Absolutely. So, when an advisor wants to meet with us and engage in a portfolio consultation, the first thing they'll do is provide us with their original model portfolio. So, they send us a file including the holdings of the portfolio, the weights of the holdings as well, and then we ingest that information and upload it into our toolkit. From there, we're running what we call a diagnosis of the portfolio. So, we're reviewing things like their exposures, we're addressing risks in a portfolio, really ensuring that the stated objectives that they let us know earlier in the process are living out in their current model portfolio. From there, we are addressing needs in the portfolio by developing a proposed portfolio for that client and then delivering it all in a very nice proposal package. One-on-one, we'll meet directly with the advisor, oftentimes in person, sometimes virtually as well, however they prefer. And we deliver the consultation and definitely collaborate as far as next steps.

Michelle Yu:

And speaking of next steps, I think another question people want to know is how do the insights and reports advisors receive translate into real value for their practice and their clients? What is your thought on that?

Lauren Pfendt:

So, I spoke a little bit about the investment committee that manages our in-house model portfolios, right? The team of 30 plus individuals with substantial expertise in investment management. And we think of portfolio consultations as a way to tap into that institutional level of research, but apply it in a way that's action forward. We take those ideas and we're able to show clients where to fund new positions in their portfolio, where should I be selling to achieve that investment outcome? So, it's a very actionable way to apply WisdomTree's best thinking directly to the advisor's portfolio, and in turn achieve the results that they're looking for for their clients.

Michelle Yu:

And finally, what's the best way to get started if advisors are looking to go ahead and do this consultation process?

Lauren Pfendt:

Yeah, if an advisor wants to work with our team, I'd first suggest that they reach out to our website, www.wisdomtree.com/investments. On the top of our website, we have a tab for portfolio solutions where we outline all the services I talked about today. And of course, if a client has an existing relationship with WisdomTree, they can reach out to their sales representative as well.

Michelle Yu:

Lauren, a pleasure to have you here in our New York studios. Thank you so much.

Lauren Pfendt:

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.

Michelle Yu:

And that'll do it for us here on Asset TV. I'm Michelle Yu and we'll see you next time. Take care.