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.
"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get." — Warren Buffett
Sometimes, in absolute terms, yes. The relevant question is whether the value delivered per dollar is higher. By that measure, the answer is clear.
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.
Institutional-grade strategy, manager selection, tax management, and overlay strategies are individually accessible elsewhere — sometimes at lower component prices. The difference Varium makes is coordination: delivering them as one integrated system, where each strategy compounds with the others. Uncoordinated, they don't produce the value we do.
Scale and scope make that coordination possible:
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-based fee structures with fees negotiable on a client by client basis.
All fees are negotiable on engagement.
Proposed fee schedule (paid on client AUM placed under Varium):
We don't compete on price, rather on the value we create. Part of delivering that value is to assess and minimize every fee and cost to deliver a fair price for the value. 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:
Total expected value-add: +3.5% to +17% annually.
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.
Operationally, we don't have annual or multi-year contracts. We expect RIAs to commit to helping grow the partnership by actively participating in the process, but also by allocating assets to the platform. Monetarily, we do not expect RIAs to pay us directly. However, we do charge a monthly minimum fee depending on the size of the firm, starting at only $10k/Mo. The minimum fee is offset, and ultimately replaced, by the revenue generated from client assets on the platform.
For example, for an advisor under the $10k/month minimum ($120,000 annually), placing $25MM of client assets at an average fee of 50 bps generates $125,000 annually — exceeding the minimum, so no fee is paid by 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 cost at least double the minimum monthly fee 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.
That is up to you. The maximum leverage for advisors, operationally and economically, is to place all your client assets on the platform. After all, you wouldn't hire a CIO into your firm and tell them to only manage 50% of the client assets…
The rule we follow is that advisors will generally spend as much time managing a small portion of their clients' portfolios as they do managing all of them. The operating leverage comes from allocating those responsibilities to us and allowing advisors to focus on holistic planning and client acquisition.
Additionally, the more assets placed on the platform, the more likely the advisor will earn more equity in the partnership.
The simple answer is, RIA firms should do what they are comfortable with, but all the incentives reward allocating the full process to Varium.
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.
Any RIA or family office struggling with their investment process — those seeking to improve the quality of their offering or those seeking to refine the execution of their investment process.
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 has departed, either for a better opportunity or because they performed poorly. Either way, the internal CIO structure is fragile and prone to high turnover. Turnover disrupts operations and creates reputational risk. Varium is a high ROI alternative. There is no expense for our services, so the internal CIO economic conflict is removed. Furthermore, advisors may choose to fire us, but we will never quit. The inherent instability of the CIO position is thus removed.
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. The shared equity ownership model was designed around the idea of a true partnership, and to reward RIAs for the trust they place in us as investment professionals.
It is not necessary to participate in the equity if it does not fit your business model. We are happy to work with advisors who only want to engage with Varium in the traditional fee-for-service model.
We'll ask why, and try to explain that the equity partnership compounds the value being created, in a way the fee-for-service model alone cannot. But the choice is yours.
Two reasons — economics and operations.
Economics. TAMPs and OCIOs are structured — capital, ownership, incentives — to maximize platform enterprise value for their ownership, not yours. Traditional models are strictly fee-for-service (in addition to being "as-is" service) designed to extract economic value from your clients, not share it.
Operations. TAMPs handle implementation. OCIOs handle strategy. Both are designed as a "lowest-common-denominator," "one-size-fits-all" structure to capture as much AUM as possible, not create portfolios designed for your clients' needs.
Varium was designed around customization, not "one-size-fits-all" investment programs. That's the Varium difference — combining institutional strategy with tactical implementation that makes our partners stand out.
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.
To reinforce this, our engagement contract includes an anti-poach clause which states if we do poach a client, we owe the departing advisor 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.
Technically yes, but because no individual advisor partner can own more than 10%, no individual partner has controlling influence. We are fiduciaries and design everything for the benefit of the end client.
However, there is an economic incentive to work with Varium over other available options. This relationship must be disclosed in your Form ADV.
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.
The client's advisor is always the primary point of contact. How the overall Varium relationship is presented to the client is the decision of the advisor. In some cases, advisors choose to "white-label" the relationship and keep Varium in the background, but in most cases, Varium is presented as the CIO of the organizations we work with.
On a day-to-day basis, Varium cannot move money or enable anything other than the actual investment management of the client portfolios. Internal RIA staff or the advisor must enable those services. Quarterly reviews, weekly market calls, monthly market letters, and other client-facing services are available to both advisors and clients.
If your question isn't here, we'd rather hear it directly. Schedule a 30-minute introduction or submit a portfolio for a complimentary review — both paths lead to the same team.
Pick the format that matches where you are in your evaluation. Both lead to the same team.