Direct indexing has quickly become a transformative innovation in wealth management, giving advisors new tools for portfolio personalization, tax efficiency, and precision that go beyond traditional models and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Pushing the direct indexing frontier is Alpha Vee Solutions, a company built at the intersection of advanced research, technology innovation, and disciplined risk management.
Alpha Vee blends quantitative research with proprietary software to deliver direct indexing solutions designed for the complexities advisors face every day. The firm manages more than two dozen distinct portfolios across multiple TAMP platforms, all guided by the same core principles: rigorous risk management, rules-based execution, and flexibility to accommodate real-world client situations. With seven years of live portfolio management through volatile market conditions and a deep investment in technology development, Alpha Vee has established itself as both an investment manager and a technology partner for advisors who want to move beyond standard models.
In an interview with The Wealth Advisor’s Scott Martin, Leigh Eichel, Co-Founder and CEO of Alpha Vee, explained how the firm’s roots in quantitative research and proprietary software have shaped a platform designed to empower advisors with scalable customization and transparency.
A Foundation Built on Risk Management and Technology
From its earliest days, Alpha Vee has approached portfolio design differently—beginning not with products but with process.
“Alpha Vee built its brand and intellectual property and tech stack and research analysts all around risk management. And the way we do risk management is unique,” explains Eichel. The firm applies traditional fundamental analysis—examining income statements and balance sheets—but runs that data through proprietary methodologies built for risk-managed portfolio construction, ultimately setting it apart in the direct indexing space.
Where many firms layer risk management on top of existing strategies, Alpha Vee builds portfolios with risk considerations embedded at every level. “So, what makes us different? The risk management, the methodology, and the technology,” he adds.
Eichel notes the firm has invested nearly $15 million in building out its technology infrastructure, a commitment he believes is crucial given where the industry is headed. “I think, going forward, most people would agree that to generate the alpha results, the beta results that people buy, you have to have a serious tech stack.”
Manual processes simply cannot meet the demands of modern portfolio management, particularly when customization and scale converge. Alpha Vee’s rules-based systems execute strategies across thousands of accounts with precision and without deviation, applying the same methodology whether managing $100,000 or $100 million. Automation addresses the risk of human error while allowing the firm to handle complex requests that would overwhelm traditional portfolio management approaches.
Customization Meets Tax Efficiency
Direct indexing’s biggest appeal is its potential flexibility—but for many providers, delivering on that promise can be difficult, particularly when clients bring complicated situations to the table. Alpha Vee’s technology allows advisors to truly personalize portfolios while maintaining discipline around taxes, costs, and exposures.
Working with several thousand advisory accounts, the firm sees a consistent pattern: advisors want Alpha Vee’s exposures but need them tailored to each client’s unique situation. “‘Hey, I got this account with a bunch of embedded gains or embedded losses. Can you do tax-loss harvesting? Can you help us migrate into these exposures and transition the account?’” Eichel recounts. “The answer is hell yeah, that’s what we do every day.”
Tax management capabilities transform direct indexing from a conceptual advantage into a practical tool. Clients rarely arrive with clean portfolios ready for immediate implementation. They bring concentrated positions, low-basis stock, and complex tax situations. The ability to navigate concentrated holdings and tax complications while moving toward optimal exposures determines whether direct indexing delivers on its potential or remains a theoretical exercise.
The firm’s technology handles the complexity involved in optimizing across multiple objectives simultaneously—achieving desired exposures, harvesting tax losses, managing transaction costs, and respecting client restrictions. Manual management of competing priorities quickly becomes untenable as account numbers grow.
From ETF Index Provider to Direct Indexing Focus
Before focusing on direct indexing, Alpha Vee worked with major asset managers, including WisdomTree and American Century Investments, as the index provider or research partner behind the scenes, supplying methodology and data to asset managers—ultimately gaining valuable lessons about designing robust, scalable strategies.
But for Eichel, the firm’s deeper purpose came into focus through separately managed accounts. After years of supporting ETFs and institutional clients, Alpha Vee saw an opportunity with separately managed accounts (SMAs) to bring that same quantitative rigor directly to advisors and their clients—where personalization, tax management, and transparency could have the greatest impact.
“We love SMAs. We love working with the individual advisors and their firms, and no one size fits all,” Eichel says. “The only constant in our business is change, and that’s great.”
The shift toward SMAs mirrors a larger industry movement. As wealth management becomes increasingly personalized, advisors need strategies that can reflect each client’s goals, values, and tax realities. High-net-worth clients expect their investments to reflect their unique circumstances, and advisors need partners who can operationalize that expectation.
Alpha Vee’s platform availability demonstrates its commitment to advisor accessibility. The firm’s direct indexing strategies are available through leading TAMPs and technology providers, including SMArtX Advisory Solutions, Smartleaf Asset Management, Charles Schwab, FusionIQ, Advyzon, Virtue Capital Management, Amplify, and others. Advisors can implement Alpha Vee portfolios through their existing technology infrastructure rather than adopting new systems or workflows.
Proven Through Market Cycles
Historical performance data carries inherent limitations—past results never guarantee future outcomes. However, the range of market conditions a strategy has navigated can provide insight into its resilience and adaptability.
Alpha Vee’s rules-based portfolios have operated on TAMP platforms since 2018, accumulating seven years of real-world implementation. The equity component draws on a methodology running since 2015, originally used for one of the firm’s ETF partnerships. “We’ve been through a pandemic with it and crazy political situations and a fair amount of academic and financial stresses to prove out the methodology,” says Eichel.
That tenure encompasses extraordinary volatility—the COVID-19 pandemic, dramatic interest rate shifts, political uncertainty, and rapid sector rotations. Market environments ranging from extreme fear to exuberant optimism have tested the strategy’s risk management framework under genuine stress, demonstrating its past performance under pressure.
The firm maintains transparency about its methodology and results. Third-party verification allows advisors to independently evaluate performance claims and understand exactly what drives results, assessing performance on their own terms. “We follow the rules, and the rules are what’s behind [our work],” he adds. “I encourage everyone, you have our Morningstar IDs and Bloomberg IDs here. Look them up.”
Current Market Positioning
In today’s market, Alpha Vee’s risk-managed approach has led to positions in healthcare, industrials, cyclical goods, telecom services, and technology—sectors identified through its bottom-up, rules-based framework.
Technology remains a particular point of focus. In Eichel’s opinion, the sector represents an outsized portion of major benchmarks, creating tension between capturing performance and managing concentration risk. “It’s frankly too large as a component of the S&P 500,” he observes. “That’s always the higher-volatility one. You got to be in it to get the performance. I don’t like the volatility.”
Balancing exposure to high-performing sectors without overconcentration requires discipline. Alpha Vee’s framework is designed to strike that balance—aiming to capture participation in sectors driving market gains, such as technology, while maintaining guardrails against excessive single-sector risk. The approach seeks to avoid rigid benchmark tracking but also resist chasing momentum for its own sake, aiming instead for consistent participation and diversification rooted in fundamentals.
Sector allocations don’t shift daily or weekly—meaningful changes in underlying fundamentals take time to develop and confirm. The rules-based approach prevents overreaction to short-term noise while allowing responsiveness to consequential shifts in risk-reward dynamics.
Beyond Investment Management
Alpha Vee operates along two complementary business lines: investment research and technology licensing. The research division manages its direct indexing strategies, while the software side licenses its proprietary platform—comprising 15 modules—to other investment managers and advisors for fact sheet automation and digital dashboards.
“We have a complete replacement tool like a FactSet or a Bloomberg terminal for a very focused application for equity portfolios and the ETF portfolios,” Eichel explains.
For advisors, the value lies in access to sophisticated analytical tools without the cost or complexity of enterprise systems. The platform supports portfolio construction, backtesting, optimization, and tax-loss harvesting, as well as automated reporting and digital dashboards.
Enterprise-level systems like FactSet and Bloomberg deliver powerful functionality but come with enterprise pricing and complexity. Many firms try to stitch together similar capabilities from multiple vendors—an effort Eichel warns can be both expensive and slow.
“To cobble together existing legacy vendors, some of which I’ve named and hired programmers and all that, more power to you. But that’s a pretty heavy lift,” he says. “We’ve already done that, and that’s why we think it’s reasonable and we’ve been successful licensing it to very successful managers that want to do the work in-house.”
A Comprehensive Offering
Alpha Vee’s catalog extends well beyond its flagship strategies. The firm manages 28 portfolios spanning different objectives and market exposures. Risk-managed income strategies address advisors seeking yield with downside protection. All-cap and disciplined growth approaches target different points on the risk-return spectrum. “With 28 portfolios, we have something for every advisor, and I hope some of the advisors consider us as one of their managers and research partners,” Eichel says.
The breadth of offerings reflects a recognition that advisor needs vary widely. Client circumstances, market conditions, and portfolio construction philosophies differ significantly across practices. A single strategy rarely addresses every situation, and advisors value partners who provide multiple tools rather than promoting a one-size-fits-all solution.
As direct indexing continues to gain traction, the distinction between providers becomes increasingly important. Technology infrastructure, customization capabilities, tax management sophistication, and investment methodology all matter. Alpha Vee’s blend of quantitative rigor, software innovation, and practical experience positions it as a powerful ally for advisors navigating the transition from traditional indexing to more personalized portfolio solutions.
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