Altruist

Altruist is not an investment firm and does not deploy capital as a principal. It is a technology and custody platform providing brokerage, clearing, and software services to independent registered investment advisors. The platform does not participate in direct investments, fund commitments, or co-investments alongside external GPs.

Altruist offers a Model Marketplace populated by third-party asset management firms, with over 500 strategies available through its rebalancer. The company states these models are up to 3x cheaper than the average TAMP, based on its analysis of publicly available pricing from providers including AssetMark, Envestnet, and Orion.

Altruist operates as a vertically integrated service provider for financial advisors, not a family office. Its corporate structure includes Altruist Financial LLC, a registered broker-dealer, and Altruist LLC, a registered investment adviser. Both entities exist to service external RIA firms rather than manage a single pool of family capital.

Hazel is an AI platform that draws on an advisor's custodial data, CRM, email, and notes to generate client insights, draft financial plans, and produce meeting summaries. According to a client testimonial published by Altruist, Hazel has been used to improve prospect communications, train advisors after meetings, and create first drafts of client plans.

Altruist supports over 30 account types, but the firm does not publicly market donor-advised funds, private foundations, or philanthropic management vehicles as distinct offerings. The company's published materials focus on retail brokerage, retirement, and trust account types.

Unlike advisors who custody through Schwab or Pershing and rely on those firms' clearing operations, Altruist acts as both custodian and clearing broker. The firm self-custodies assets, routes trades internally, and generates its own account statements, which it argues reduces layers and potential delays between third-party custodians and the advisor's software stack.

Altruist's High-Yield Cash program sweeps uninvested client balances into FDIC-insured accounts at a network of partner banks, advertising variable rates at 8x the national average. The firm earns revenue from the spread between the interest paid to clients and the interest received from the program banks, a model similar to bank sweep programs at other major RIA custodians.