Philanthropic advisory deepens investment program

Thomas Coyle

27 January 2009

Ex-UBS heavyhitter sees "uncanny" alignment of philosophies with Fortigent. Investment-platform provider and wealth-management consultancy Fortigent has extended its run of new business wins with the addition of Denver-based Syntrinsic Investment Counsel, a five-month-old RIA that provides advice and strategic guidance to foundations and endowments, faith-based institutions and philanthropic families throughout the U.S.

"We were attracted by Fortigent's forward-thinking investment philosophy, which closely mirrors our own, and impressed by their exclusive focus on the core investment strategies that are designed to advance the needs of the high-net-worth investor," says Syntrinsic's managing director Ben Valore-Caplan, formerly head of the BVC Foundations Group at UBS' U.S. retail brokerage.

The phrase Valore-Caplan uses to describe the alignment of his investment philosophy with Fortigent's was "uncanny," according to

Fortigent's research chief Scott Welch. In any event, Welch says the combination of Syntrinsic's expertise in philanthropic investing and Fortigent's "robust investment platform will be a powerful combination."

Valore-Caplan adds that the tie-in with Fortigent is essential in helping Syntrinsic establish itself as a provider of "more robust research, more flexible custody, and more cost-effective access to an even broader universe of investment strategies."

Tattered brands

Following the additions of Lowell, Mass.-based Enterprise Bank and Naples, Fla.-based multifamily office Willow Street Advisors, Syntrinsic is the third business win Fortigent has publicized so far this year. Among institutional clients brought in late last year were New York-based iPro One, a consultancy to CPA-owned wealth managers, Menomonee Falls, Wisc.-based Richardson Financial Group, Morristown, N.J.-based Massey Quick Wealth Advocates and Atlanta-based Apogee Family Office.

Altogether Rockville, MD.-based Fortigent -- which started out as the back office and in-house investment platform of Lydian Trust-owned multifamily office Lydian Wealth Management -- has about 50 institutional clients and, as of late 2008, about $20 billion in end-client assets on its platform.

Syntrinsic is a product of two conflicting forces: the impact on Zurich-based UBS and other big-name private-client firms of the ongoing financial crisis, and the success Valore-Caplan's specialty group at UBS Financial Services.

With UBS figuring prominently in the early months of the financial crisis for its exposure to the U.S. sub-prime mortgage market and coming in for additional umbrage because of its alleged involvement in an ongoing U.S.-tax evasion scandal, several of BVC Foundations Group's largest clients said they'd be more comfortable if Valore-Caplan and his teammates left the Swiss bank, Valore-Caplan said in a recent interview with National Public Radio's Marketplace.

Joining another brokerage was the obvious solution, but Valore-Caplan said he and his colleagues decided on a riskier but potentially more satisfying move to independence. This decision has arguably been borne out by events since Syntrinsic's founding in August 2008, including a series of strange-bedfellow mergers that has made the wirehouse space look more like a French farce than the scene of mature and far-sighted financial service.

"It certainly would have been more convenient in many ways to just stay the course, almost as convenient to just move to another firm -- same model, same idea -- get a nice big check," Valore-Caplan told Marketplace. "But I also know if I hadn't made this choice, a little part of me would have died. And I didn't want to look back 20 years from now wishing I had made that leap of faith." -FWR

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