Frontier has made a name for itself when it comes to risk-adverse investment strategies and has more than $6 billion in assets under management. Whereas 55ip, which has been enjoying significant growth largely due to an increased interest in tax harvesting technology, services about $11 billion through its more than 30,000 accounts.
The current arrangement between the firms only covers Frontier’s ETFs, however Miller is optimistic the deal will expand to include more of its strategies in six months.
55ip is looking to offer its advisor clients its tax management services for other investment strategies it currently not available on its platform through either partnerships or organic growth. It is specifically looking to enhance and broaden its access through unified managed accounts (UMA). It is also focusing on adding tax smart solutions across additional passive and active SMAs, fixed income securities, and private investments, according to Shah.
“We are actively looking to serve the advisor and focus on how to deliver our services to a larger number of advisors,” he said. “We have a product roadmap that is focused on broad adoption of tax-smart portfolio implementation, setting the industry standard.”
In terms of the risk management aspect of the relationship, Miller is optimistic that the partnership will bring more attention to the importance of risk management.
“I don’t think the risk management equation has been tackled in the industry as much as it needed to be,” he said. “There has been so much focus on returns that we let the risk fluctuate.”