The results are here! We've gathered the most popular SAM blog posts from last year, ranked by audience readership, and have put them all in one place. Our top blog posts of 2024 included our support for householding,  making the case against sleeves for direct indexing, our annual taxes saved or deferred report, and more. 

1. Smartleaf Asset Management Announces Collaboration with Clearstead Advisors to Deliver Personalization and Tax Optimization at Scale

SAM started off the new year by announcing its collaboration with Clearstead Advisors. In this partnership, SAM acts as a subadvisor for Clearstead, with responsibility for the ongoing review, rebalancing, and trading of Clearstead's client portfolios. SAM implements client personalization preferences set by the advisor, including custom product selection and cash management, as well as religious value, socially responsible investing (SRI) and security screens. SAM is also responsible for implementing tax management, including tax-sensitive transitions, year-round loss harvesting and ongoing risk-sensitive gains deferral. In conjunction with its tax management, SAM will be providing a “Taxes Saved or Deferred Report” that enables advisors to document how much each account has saved or deferred in taxes through Clearstead’s active tax management. 

2. Why SmartleafAM?

What we do, who we serve, what makes us different, and what problem we’re solving. 

In this post, we answer the question: why SmartleafAM? “SmartleafAM” is short for Smartleaf Asset Management. We’re a subadvisor, but of a different kind. Our goal isn’t to beat the market. It’s to enable wealth advisors to provide every client, of every size, with exceptional personalization and tax optimization, while retaining control of asset allocation and product selection. We enable the firms we work with to execute on their vision of what wealth management should be. 

3. SAM’s 2023 Estimated Taxes Saved or Deferred Report

SAM’s account-level Estimated Taxes Saved or Deferred Report enables advisors to document for each account the value they’re adding through active tax management. In this post, we report that in 2023, on average SAM saved or deferred investors taxes equal to 1.68% of tax-managed assets. The total dollar amount came out to $13,615,148.36. Stay tuned for our 2024 report, coming soon. 

4. Direct Indexes Are Great. Direct Index SMAs Are Bad

Direct indexes can outperform comparable ETFs on an after-tax expected basis. In turn, holistically-managed direct indexes can outperform standalone Separately Managed Account (SMA) direct indexes. We explain “why” and “how” in this blog post. 

5. SAM announces support for householding, enabling advisors to outsource personalized, tax-optimized portfolio management at the household level

This post explains SAM’s new service, in which SAM jointly manages multiple accounts in a household to a single household-level target asset allocation, leveraging qualified accounts as tax-free household-level asset allocation rebalancing centers. The service prevents wash-sales across accounts in a household and supports tax and gains budgets at the household level. SAM’s proprietary Taxes Saved or Deferred report, which documents how much each account has saved or deferred in taxes through SAM’s active tax management, has been extended to capture the value of the household-level tax optimization. SAM continues to tax manage the individual taxable accounts, providing year-round tax loss harvesting, risk-sensitive gains deferral, and optimal tax lot selection. 

6. [Webinar Recording] Hyper-Personalized Index Solutions at Scale

In May of 2024, SAM President, Jerry Michael, sat down with Jonathan Chandler, COO of Syntax Indices, to discuss how technology can drive hyper-personalized index solutions at scale, meeting the growing demand from investors for tailored portfolios. This post shares a recording of that webinar. The conversation covers the broad scope of what personalization can mean, and how to deliver it efficiently. 

We want to extend a sincere thank you to all our readers for your support and readership. Your feedback means the world to us. We’d love to hear your thoughts — feel free to share any ideas or topics you’d like to see us explore in 2025 here.