NEW YORK, December 10, 2012 — Toroso Investments™, a new investment advisory firm founded by industry veterans Larry Medin, Dan Carlson, and Michael Venuto, challenges conventional advisor-client relationships by placing an emphasis on an advisor’s or a client’s economic point of view, as well as risk tolerance and time horizon when constructing portfolios.
With more than 80 years of combined experience, the firm’s founding partners bring to the business an array of portfolio analytics and wealth management experience. Larry Medin serves as Toroso’s Chief Executive Officer, Dan Carlson as Chief Financial Officer, and Michael Venuto as Chief Investment Officer.
Toroso Investments is launching in direct response to the poor performance of portfolios that have followed modern portfolio theory over the past decade. By challenging modern portfolio theory, Toroso Investments fills an existing void in the marketplace, as advisors and other financial professionals are seeking new tools to help their clients express an economic point of view, as opposed to executing a portfolio based solely on well-worn definitions of risk.
The firm uses Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) to access asset allocation strategies intended to perform well in all economic climates (prosperity, recession, inflation, and deflation). It emphasizes future objectives rather than past correlations, while recognizing the needs of its clients to have a more balanced risk profile with solid returns in which not one single adverse economic scenario can deplete a client’s portfolio.
“ETPs are made for today. They offer transparency in holdings, cost efficiencies, and access to markets in an efficient manner. The greater uses of ETPs, alongside an increased focus on client satisfaction, are emerging as key drivers of success for advisors and asset managers. They are able to offer clients institutional quality portfolios and product innovation that once were too expensive or inaccessible for many investors,” said Sue Thompson, Head of iShares Registered Investment Advisor/Asset Management Group at BlackRock.
Larry Medin has more than 35 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He previously held Senior Executive roles in distribution, policy, and management at Avatar Associates, Bank of America, Alliance Capital Management, and MetLife-State Street Investment Services, Inc. Mr. Medin was involved in the issuance of an Advisory Opinion by SunAmerica, which impacted the retirement industry and led to many provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006.
Dan Carlson has more than 30 years of 401(k) and financial services experience and held senior product development and marketing roles at Avatar Associates and Lincoln Financial. Prior to that, he focused on major consulting assignments with Fortune 500 companies as a Principal with Buck Consultants. Under Mr. Carlson’s leadership and innovation, his prior firm created one of the first collective trust vehicles that used ETFs in portfolios for the retirement industry.
Michael Venuto has 12 years’ experience in the financial services industry. Previously, he was Senior Vice President at Horizon Kinetics LLC, serving as a key executive of new business development, investment strategy, client management, and strategic initiatives. Michael, as CIO of Toroso, provides portfolio optimization services to institutional clients on behalf of Global X Funds.
Medin and Carlson both received national recognition for their work with the Department of Labor,preparing testimony for Senate hearings on target date funds and the inherent conflicts of interest within the defined contribution industry.
Toroso’s CEO and co-founder, Larry Medin, stated, “Portfolios should be modeled after airplane design, meaning they should be able to withstand turbulence whenever it arises.” Medin, a former commercial pilot, continued, “Toroso has built a strategic asset allocation model that’s more resilient to turbulence because it has a better correlation profile. We believe our use of proprietary ETF analytics gives us a competitive advantage when it comes to selecting specific products to
express our clients’ economic point of view.”
ABOUT TOROSO INVESTMENTS™
Toroso Investments™ is an SEC registered investment advisor focused on research and asset management using ETFs and other exchange traded products. With over 80 years of combined experience, Toroso Investments’ approach targets clients’ economic point of view, risk tolerance and time horizon, using Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) to access multiple asset classes.
Clients include Private Wealth Management, Corporate, Endowment, and Pension and Defined Contribution Retirement accounts. The firm is headquartered in New York, NY.
