FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions from advisors evaluating the Varium In-Sourced CIO Model. If you don't see your question here, reach out — we'd rather have the conversation than the silence.
Common questions from advisors evaluating the Varium In-Sourced CIO Model. If you don't see your question here, reach out — we'd rather have the conversation than the silence.
The fee Varium charges your clients replaces what they are currently paying to third-party managers and platforms (TAMPs, OCIOs, model providers). Your fee structure with your clients is unchanged. Varium isn't an add-on — it substitutes for the manager-and-platform layer.
Our fee is a wrap fee — the rate the client pays is the all-in fee for our service. The only exception is product-level fees embedded in the underlying vehicles themselves (ETF expense ratios, and the unique fee structures inside some alternative investments). No add-on charges, no transaction fees, no hidden line items.
All fees are negotiable on engagement.
Proposed fee schedule (paid on client AUM placed under Varium):
Aren't these fees high?
We don't compete on price but the value we create, and our fees reflect that. Each tier above gives clients access to institutional-grade value-added strategies. Together, these strategies target the following additional returns on top of the underlying portfolio:
Measured against this expected value-add, the fees are cheap.
These are expected additional returns based on historical implementation and target outcomes — not guarantees. Actual results depend on many variables including client portfolio composition, market conditions, time horizon, strategy selection, and execution timing — and will vary. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Does this add cost to my clients?
Sometimes, yes. Most clients end up flat or lower because Varium negotiates underlying manager fees down through scale and scope:
Sometimes the all-in cost is modestly higher, but the institutional quality is materially better. The fees are reviewed line-by-line during discovery — nothing changes for any client until you have seen the comparison and signed off.
For qualified clients (per SEC Rule 205-3, which sets the standard for accounts that may be charged performance-based fees), Varium also offers performance-fee structures — calculated from the services engaged and the base fee applied.
For the advisor-side commitment (the monthly minimum during build-up), see the next question.
We do not expect any advisor to pay us directly. However, we charge a monthly minimum based on your firm assets under management. This minimum is offset by the fees generated from the client assets placed on the platform.
Minimum Monthly Fee
If the minimum monthly fee is $10,000, placing roughly $25MM on the platform covers the minimum and there is no fee to the advisor.
We think that's a fair ask. For the price of one junior analyst, you get six senior investment professionals — each of whom would individually cost at least double the minimum in salary and benefits. An advisor who isn't willing to commit at that level is probably not the kind of partner we're looking for.
It's a play on words, but with serious intent. The Varium model sits between a purely outsourced solution (TAMP or OCIO) and a purely internal one (an in-house CIO team). We embraced the best attributes of both models and discarded those that don't serve us or our clients. We operate as if we were an internal and integral part of your company, without the significant costs.
In practice, that means you can list us on your website as your investment committee (or part of it), present us to clients as an integrated extension of your firm, and lean on us for active marketing support and client-facing investment conversations the same way you'd lean on internal staff.
Not outsourced. In-sourced. Internal cost and effort — out. Firm value — in, and growing.
TAMPs deliver easy implementation but generic strategy. OCIOs deliver institutional strategy but no implementation. Both transfer the economic value to themselves — taking value created from your client relationship.
Operationally, neither can truly customize a portfolio to the individual client — it is structurally improbable. Even a portfolio managed identically to a Varium portfolio (excellent manager, option overlay, tax management) is run generically. They have no knowledge of your client or their specific needs, and therefore cannot deliver the depth of service we can.
Varium delivers strategy and implementation as one coordinated solution, customized at the client level. The partnership is structured so the economic value flows back to the advisor through cost rationalization and equity ownership in Varium.
Simple answer: any growth-oriented RIA or family office that wants to continue growing, believes in and uses outsourced investment solutions, and wants to maintain control of the full economics of its business.
Most come to us at an inflection point. Two patterns recur.
A size inflection point. The investment infrastructure that served a firm well at one stage rarely scales cleanly to the next. We see this most often at $300MM–$400MM in AUM, and again at $800MM–$1B — the points at which an owner-operator practice transitions into a mature institutional business, and the client base demands more than the existing firm capabilities can manage.
A CIO transition. The firm's CIO or investment lead has departed, and the internal-CIO model is structurally fragile. Over time, a successful CIO will demand more compensation or leave for a better offer; a poorly performing one will have to be replaced. Either way, turnover disrupts operations and creates reputational risk. Varium is a permanent alternative: we add nothing to firm payroll, and we are compensated on the success of the partnership. A partner can fire us; we will never quit or demand more compensation.
A smaller third group reaches us proactively — advisors evaluating best practices for the continued growth of their firm. Sometimes we are a fit, sometimes we are not. Either way, they leave with an honest assessment.
Operationally, one — and it is the same one you face: time. Because we customize deeply for each partner, we cannot do this for everyone. We have capped the partnership at no more than 10 RIA firms. We vet partners as carefully as we expect to be vetted: when we commit our resources to a firm, we need alignment on collaboration, specialization, and the long-term growth that makes this structure valuable.
On the investment side, the limits are practically nonexistent. There is probably something our team has not done, but not much. We can engage investment problems at any size or level of sophistication — from a sovereign wealth fund or large pension plan down to a brand-new IRA for the child of a client — across the expanding alternative-investment universe and traditional stocks, bonds, and cash management alike.
Qualifying advisor partners can own and earn equity in Varium. As our partnership grows, so does the value of every partner's stake.
Specific partnership economics — eligibility, equity pool structure, vesting, governance — are reviewed with qualifying firms during partnership discussions under mutual NDA.
No. We love holding on to all the equity we can — it will be very valuable.
We're happy to work with an advisor who only wants to pay us to manage their portfolios without giving up equity. We'd ask why, and we'd try to explain that the partnership is in your best interest. But we don't want to force anyone to do anything.
Two reasons.
The prevailing models were built to capture economic value, not share it. TAMPs and OCIOs are structured — capital, ownership, incentives — to maximize platform enterprise value for the platform's own investors. Sharing equity downward with the advisors who source and serve the assets directly undermines that. It is a feature of how those firms were built, not an oversight, and it is hard to retrofit into a cap table that was set the other way.
Very few platforms do both strategy and implementation at institutional quality. TAMPs handle implementation. OCIOs handle strategy. Picking one is more scalable and capital-efficient, so most providers picked one. Doing both at institutional quality is harder, and almost nobody does it.
Varium was designed with the opposite premise: institutional quality on both sides, with platform value flowing back to the advisor partners who build the client relationships.
No. Our clients are advisors, not individuals. Varium does not accept retail clients, and if a partner ever leaves the partnership, we will not solicit or accept their clients.
The poach penalty is structured to make it economically impossible: the greater of three years of revenue or $1,000,000 per client.
The partnership includes defined exit provisions for both sides. Departure terms, equity valuation, and the timeline for unwinding are addressed during partnership documentation. We've designed the terms to be transparent and predictable — no surprise traps on the way out.
Discovery typically runs 1–3 months. Implementation runs 3–18 months depending on portfolio complexity, tax-efficiency requirements, and the number of client accounts being transitioned. Once portfolios are running on the full Varium model, the engagement settles into an ongoing rhythm. See the How It Works page for the full phase breakdown.
Yes. Varium works through your existing custodian via a sub-advisory agreement. No custodian migration required.
Both options are available. Model Delivery means Varium provides the strategy and you implement it. Implementation Services means you provide the strategy and Varium handles execution only — no models from us. Full In-Sourced CIO is the combination. Full breakdown on the Investment Solutions page.
During discovery, we review your current managers against the institutional vetting framework — process, repeatability, fit with the new portfolio structure. Managers that pass are kept; those that don't are replaced. The advisor makes the final selection from vetted alternatives.
Yes — and that is precisely why it has to be disclosed and managed. Any compensation an advisor receives in connection with a recommendation creates a potential conflict under the fiduciary standard. Your existing AUM fee is itself a conflict, disclosed and managed through your Form ADV. The Varium partnership works the same way: the sub-advisory arrangement, the economic terms, and any equity participation are disclosed to clients through your Form ADV and account documents.
The structure also matters. The In-Sourced CIO Model is built to align the advisor's economic interest with delivering institutional-quality investment management: no proprietary products, no manager revenue-sharing, no incentives to manufacture complexity. Specific disclosure language and conflict-management procedures are worked through with your compliance counsel during partnership documentation.
At minimum, the advisor's Form ADV Part 2A (firm brochure) and 2B (brochure supplements) are updated to reflect the Varium sub-advisory relationship, the economic terms, and any equity participation. Material conflicts are disclosed to clients in the brochure and at the appropriate trigger points — account opening, annual update, and any material change.
Varium provides template disclosure language and works alongside the advisor's compliance counsel during onboarding to ensure filings, client notifications, and policy updates are handled correctly. Specifics vary by firm structure and home-state requirements; nothing on this site is legal or compliance advice, and final disclosures remain the advisor's responsibility under the guidance of counsel.
That depends on how you want to present us. Varium can stay purely in the background — fully white-labeled and invisible to your clients — or be integrated directly into portfolio discussions.
In practice, most advisor partners treat the Varium team as a credibility asset and bring us into client investment conversations. Either way, the advisor-client relationship stays yours.
If your question isn't here, we'd rather hear it directly. Schedule a 30-minute introduction or take the Varium Challenge — both paths lead to the same team.
Pick the format that matches where you are in your evaluation. Both lead to the same team.