SyntheticFi

About SyntheticFi

SyntheticFi is a San Francisco-based fintech and SEC-registered investment adviser that gives independent wealth advisors an institutional-grade way for clients to borrow against their investment portfolios. Its message to advisors is to deepen relationships, grow wallet share and help clients save by using what it calls the most cost-effective borrowing solution available, bringing securities-backed lending, once dominated by banks and custodians, to registered investment advisors and their clients.

The platform lets advisors offer a securities-backed loan at a floating rate that the site quotes at around 4.2 percent, with interest that can be tax deductible for all purposes and an easy entry process, and it supports major RIA custodians such as Schwab and Fidelity. Compared with pledged asset lines, bank securities-backed lines of credit and custodian margin loans, the product is positioned as lower cost, easier to set up and operationally lighter, without clients having to move brokerage accounts. Advisors use it for needs such as funding home purchases, and the company has been featured by an options exchange for that use case.

The company publishes how-it-works material, rates, a learning section and FAQs, and presents testimonials from advisory firms that collaborate with it on behalf of their clients, while noting that such advisors are not direct clients of the lender. It describes itself as trusted by industry-leading RIAs and acts as a fiduciary partner to the advisory firms and clients it serves.

SyntheticFi works through advisor partnerships, with demos for advisory firms, and earns revenue from the lending relationships it facilitates. It competes in wealth management lending and RIA technology against bank-based securities-backed lines, custodian margin lending and pledged asset lines, on cost, simplicity and independence.