Folio Financial - Offering Advanced Fractional Shares and Commission-Free Investing for 20 years

MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Folio Financial, Inc., a leading digital-first brokerage, custody, and FinTech firm, has offered fractional shares and dollar-based investing, as well as commission-free trading, since our launch in 2000. Charles Schwab's decision last week to introduce fractional shares and earlier moves by Schwab and other firms to eliminate transaction fees follows and affirms Folio's long history of commitment to innovation in financial services that puts the investor first.

"We support Schwab's decision to offer fractional shares and applaud their and others' announcements to offer zero commission trading," said Steven Wallman, CEO of Folio Financial and a former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "Both are features Folio has offered since we opened our doors and are the right thing to do for investors.  Along with our other robust suite of features and services, they support the cornerstone of our mission: 'To deliver innovation that benefits investors and those who serve them.'"

The technology underlying fractional shares, especially in the full portfolio trading needed for advisor applications and scalability, is very complex. Over time, Folio has perfected its fractional shares and dollar-based equity, ETF, and mutual fund portfolio (or "folio") investing capabilities. Those innovations empower advisors to manage portfolios with precision, to encourage consistent and personalized investing regardless of the number of securities in a portfolio and to enable new business models, such as customized direct indexing and robo-TAMP offerings. This is all accomplished in part through Folio's patented trading technology.

Folio's comprehensive platform provides advisors and their clients with a broad array of unmatched tools and services for one low all-encompassing fee that other custodians in the market simply do not offer, including but not limited to:

• Seamless model management with SMA/UMA and TAMP capabilities, with sub-accounts and folios and one-click smart rebalancing across hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of accounts
• A newly available, state-of-the-art hybrid as well as robo multiple-program digital wealth technology platform that leapfrogs what's currently available in the marketplace and that facilitates advisors' digital engagement and practice expansion and further reduces advisor cost
• Direct indexing, theme investing (including SRI/ESG overlays), Ready-to-Go Folios^TM, and a third-party model manager exchange
• Sophisticated automated tax optimization tools, including our patented Tax Football^TM and ten different tax lot relief methodologies
• Robust practice management tools to improve advisor productivity, like online client onboarding, customizable dashboards and reports, online proxy voting, automated billing, and more
• Margin lending that automatically supports the varied and changing model, allocation, and folio-level securities positions in an account with different investing and trading strategies

"Folio was founded to provide advisors with the tools they need to deliver better investing to their clients, so that investors of all sizes and investment styles can enjoy the advantages of consistent investing in well-diversified and personalized portfolios with reduced costs, enabled by commission-free fractional shares investing," adds Wallman. "We are delighted that Schwab and the other industry leaders are coming around to our long-held philosophy."

Find out more by reading Steve Wallman's letter addressing these latest market developments or by visiting www.folioinstitutional.com.

About Folio Financial:
Folio Financial is an innovative market leader that owns and operates a unique self-clearing broker-dealer and FinTech company. Among its activities, Folio develops and supports digital-first investment platforms for advisors and enterprises, fully integrated with its subsidiary's brokerage, clearing and custody solutions. Folio utilizes technology to fulfill its mission while embracing diversification and low cost as core principles, along with consistent investing, tax efficiency and personalization. Its key business segments currently are RIAs, asset and wealth managers, TAMPs, other broker-dealers and financial institutions such as banks and credit unions, as well as other FinTech firms, including robo advisors. Folio's businesses include Folio Institutional, focused on providing innovative solutions for RIAs and enterprises; VIA Folio, an end-to-end investing platform for private investments available to both institutional and retail investors; First Affirmative Financial Network, the leading advisor network serving the responsible investment community; The SRI Conference and Community, the nation's premier conference on impact investing; and Folio Investing and Folio First for self-directed retail investors.

SOURCE Folio Financial