S&P’s Wurzbach On Building Custom Indexes For RIAs

Shaun Wurzbach, Managing Director of Channel Management and Solutions, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Ryan Hessenthaler, COO & Partner, Lunt Capital met with Julie Cooling, Founder & CEO, RIA Channel to discuss how advisors can utilize custom indexes. S&P Dow Jones has had a long history of educating advisors on asset classes and indexes. However, only about seven years ago did the global index provider shift its focus to building custom indexes for RIAs. Joining on as an early partner, Lunt Capital brought its expertise around factors and index application to the table for other advisors. “Custom indexes made a lot of sense for us,” says Hessenthaler on their primarily rules-based approach. Eventually, Lunt Capital launched their first ETF: LVHB. S&P sees an increasing amount of interest from RIAs who want to run their own strategies. One major benefit is that custom indexes allow firms to maintain their own intellectual property. “You can be incredibly innovative using our parts and pieces, and making them be the building blocks of your strategy,” said Wurzbach.