Talk to us about leveraging real-time data to enhance your active equity management.
At NextFolio, we combine decades of investment expertise with cutting-edge data science to redefine active management. By leveraging mathematics and real-time data, we extract high-conviction insights from institutional mutual fund and ETF managers—insights that were previously out of reach.
After four years of rigorous research and vetting, NextFolio officially launched in 2024, building on our Ensemble Active strategies, which date back to 2019. Our institutional-grade solutions empower banks, RIAs, broker-dealers, institutions, and family offices with a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional active management.
Decades of investment and leadership expertise.
Ability to harness multiple managers’ insights while minimizing bias.
US active equity strategies for every Morningstar style box.
Help your firm and clients thrive with top real-time stock picks from leading fund managers, all in one expertly constructed portfolio.
Paul Ahern, co-founder of NextFolio, brings 35 years of asset management experience, specializing in portfolio strategy and technology-driven competitive advantage. He was among the first to recognize the transformative potential of Ensemble Active Management, a conviction solidified through years of due diligence.
Jeff Seiple, co-founder of NextFolio, is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years in investment management. He specializes in driving revenue growth and building strong client relationships. Known for his forward-thinking approach, Jeff consistently seeks innovative investment solutions that deliver results.
Stephen Beinhacker is a finance professional with nearly 40 years of experience. He has held senior roles at SEI, including Head of Manager Research, overseeing $125 billion in allocations, and Head of Strategic Planning. At AB (formerly AllianceBernstein), he managed over $10 billion in international and emerging market equities as a senior portfolio manager and CIO. Stephen holds an MBA in Finance, a BS in Mathematics/Computer Science, and is a CFA® Charterholder.
William has over a decade of experience in financial services, working with fintech firms, asset managers, RIAs, and institutional investors. He has held leadership roles focused on driving investor engagement, product education, due diligence and business development across diverse channels.
Stephen Tall is a seasoned wealth management leader with expertise in family offices, ultra-high-net-worth client services, and trust company operations. Over his career, he has transformed underperforming business models, led strategic integrations, and managed fiduciary services for clients with net worths exceeding $1 billion. A graduate of Trinity College with a BA in Economics, Stephen brings creativity and grit to every challenge, driving innovation and lasting impact. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Ohio State University and is a CFA® charterholder, with prior experience as a portfolio manager at a registered investment advisor.
Gib Watson, with over 30 years in financial services, is a consultant, Board member, and speaker in wealth management. He has led growth initiatives at Swan Global Investments, Envestnet, and Prima Capital, a firm he founded. Earlier roles at KPMG and AMG National Trust Bank focused on advising ultra-high-net-worth clients and developing asset management platforms. A CIMA® designee through Wharton and creator of the SMA Awards, he serves on industry boards and supports Colorado philanthropic initiatives. Gib lives in Vail with his wife, Robbie, enjoying its outdoor lifestyle. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Ohio State University and is a CFA® charterholder, with prior experience as a portfolio manager at a registered investment advisor.
Miles Healey has a wealth of experience in the financial industry, particularly in distribution and marketing consulting for start-ups and asset managers. As a co-founder of Saambaa and SideStage, In addition to entrepreneurial ventures, Miles has served on advisory boards and held executive roles at companies like WealthBook and Nuveen Investments. Miles holds a degree in Economics-Finance from Northeastern University and has also pursued further education at UC Irvine and The Wharton School.
Andre Havas began his career in asset management in 1997 as a sales and marketing executive for a Swedish investment manager. Over the past 27 years, he has held senior roles across global institutional firms and specialized asset managers, covering Asian, European, and Nordic markets. His experience spans the buy and sell sides, financial product development, sales, and financial technology. A frequent speaker and moderator at industry events, Andre now leverages his deep expertise at Alfa Tail, helping bridge demand and supply in capital markets.
Robert Corbally is the founder of Robert Hawser Consulting, established in 2021. With over 24 years of experience in the asset management industry, he brings a blend of practical expertise and technical knowledge to help organizations develop, refine, and expand their businesses. Based in London, Robert leverages deep European market insights with a global perspective to deliver strategic solutions in financial services.
David M. Blitzer was the Chairman of the Index Committee and a Managing Director at S&P Dow Jones Indices with overall responsibility for index security selection, index analysis and management. Prior to becoming Chairman of the Index Committee, he was Standard & Poor's Chief Investment Officer and Chief Economist. Before, Blitzer was a Senior Economic Analyst with National Economic Research Associates, Inc. He was a consultant to various government and private sector agencies, including The National Commission on Materials Policy and Natural Resources Defense Council. Mr. Blitzer won the 2012 William F. Sharpe Indexing Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1998, he received the Blue Chip Economic Forecasting Award.
A graduate of Cornell University with a B.S. in engineering, Mr.Blitzer received his M.A. in economics from the George Washington University and his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.
With 30 years of experience in equity research, portfolio management, and capital allocation, Brad has a deep understanding of equity management and commercial success drivers. He led SEI Investments’ equity manager research team, overseeing $130 billion in capital, and is currently Managing Director at Rosemont Investment Group, partnering with firms managing over $40 billion. Brad is a CFA® charterholder.
Brad’s broad network and strategic insights into investment processes and organizational development provide valuable guidance for emerging platforms, while his success in identifying innovative strategies adds unique value to NextFolio’s growth.
Dr. Scott E. Yonker is a Professor of Finance at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, specializing in corporate finance, behavioral finance, and investments. His research focuses on how identifiable differences in key market players influence their decisions, utilizing tools from psychology, sociology, and economics. His work has been published in top journals and cited by major media outlets. Dr. Yonker serves as an Associate Editor for Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Management Science.
He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Ohio State University and is a CFA® charterholder, with prior experience as a portfolio manager at a registered investment advisor.
Find answers to common questions about NextFolio and Ensemble Active.
NextFolio aims to redefine active management by offering data-driven strategies that overcome the limitations of traditional single-manager approaches.
Our founders, with over 60 years of combined wealth management experience, spent nearly five years evaluating the Ensemble Active approach and recognized its breakthrough potential. In 2024, they launched NextFolio to deliver institutional-grade Ensemble Active Portfolios to banks, RIAs, broker-dealers, institutions, and family offices.
NextFolio offers ready-to-implement strategies designed for banks, RIAs, broker-dealers, institutions, and family offices, helping them drive asset growth through differentiation and scale that no other firms can provide.
NextFolio addresses the challenge of traditional active management in four ways:
Data science is at the core of how NextFolio develops its strategies, accessing machine learning to analyze real-time holdings and build strategies based on high-conviction stock picks of multiple mutual fund managers. Machine learning powers Ensemble Active’s ability to access and analyze the real-time holdings and weights of mutual funds (information typically not publicly available), offering unmatched visibility into high-conviction stock picks.
The primary source of holdings data comes from form N-Port filings, which registered investment companies (RICs) are required to file quarterly with a 60-day lag (and just for the last reported month of the fund’s fiscal quarter). Those quarterly holdings are “converted” to daily holdings through machine learning techniques applied by NextFolio’s technology partner. NextFolio’s technology partner creates daily replication portfolios of mutual fund holdings using machine learning that has been able to produce over a 99% correlation with daily fund NAV changes. Through this replication technology, NextFolio accesses a “best estimate” of how a fund’s holdings evolve over time. For ETFs, which report their holdings daily, no replication is required; data can be accessed directly.
Ensemble methods (or learning) involve multiple models, often referred to as base models or weak learners, combining their predictions to harness the power of collective knowledge and multiple viewpoints.
Ensemble Active is the process by which NextFolio tracks the daily holdings of mutual fund/ETF managers across the U.S., using this data to construct portfolios that reflect real-time, high-conviction stock selection from a curated set of 10-15 competitively-advantaged institutional-quality managers.
NextFolio addresses the challenge of traditional active management in four ways:
Ensemble Alpha™ represents the excess returns achieved through using ensemble methods to identify and invest in only high-conviction stocks. This is measured by comparing the return generated by a NextFolio Ensemble Active Portfolio with the underlying basket of funds from which high-conviction stocks are drawn.
In this manner, Ensemble Alpha™ seeks to capture collective skill while avoiding dilutive overdiversification.No. Ensemble Active Portfolios are composed solely of long-only, U.S. domestic equity securities, drawn directly from corresponding benchmarks. This ensures that all portfolios are style-pure, meaning a Large Core portfolio, for example, contains only stocks from the Russell 1000 benchmark.
Fund of Funds combine entire funds without considering overlap in stock selection. This compounds the overdiversification drawbacks already present in single funds that dilute alpha. Ensemble Active Portfolios only use high-conviction ideas sourced across multiple funds, determining which of those stocks to own directly.
Fund of Funds rely on entering into sub-advisory agreements with fund managers and paying them fees for their service. Ensemble Active Portfolios use only publicly available information to inform their stock selection process, providing greater flexibility in hiring and firing decisions.
Yes, while fund selection and portfolio construction overlap conceptually, they are distinct processes.
Ensemble Active Portfolios require a curated set of competitively advantaged managers. It’s not just about picking strong funds; it’s about how they fit together. The process emphasizes high-conviction ideas across funds, making factors like holdings count, active exposure, and top-ten concentration crucial.NextFolio offers strategies across all nine Morningstar style boxes. The inception dates for each are as follows:
For the ensemble process to effectively capture high-conviction signals across funds, 10-15 strategies are the desired range. Too few funds lead to insufficient diversification on multiple levels, while too many funds overdiversify the number of signals needed to achieve effective ensemble construction.
NextFolio’s key differentiator is its focus on utilizing multiple funds and only high-conviction stocks across those funds to form portfolios. Unlike traditional firms that offer single-manager products, NextFolio's Ensemble Active process uses mutual funds as models to identify investment insights, focusing on high-conviction ideas as predictive signals.
Another major distinction is that NextFolio applies this approach across all nine Morningstar style boxes, a breadth few firms offer.Ensemble methods combine the strengths of individual models by leveraging their diverse perspectives. This approach:
It has, in areas like asset allocation and risk management, but not effectively or at all in stock selection. Historically, mutual fund holdings have been disclosed only with significant delays, making it difficult to apply this approach.
With proprietary new technology that provides real-time access to holdings and weights, Ensemble Methods can now be used effectively in portfolio construction.
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