Fast Track: Foliofn’s adviser chief looks to broaden reach

You can call it an entrepreneurial itch that just won’t quit.

After helping to launch an account aggregation business last year, James Vitalie has joined another company that hasn’t reached its first birthday.

But in his new position as president of Foliofn Institutional, a unit of Foliofn Inc. in Vienna, Va., Mr. Vitalie sees nothing but opportunity.

“As far as what the company has built, [including] its technology platform, it’s exciting,” says Mr. Vitalie, 41.

“And looking at the founder and key management here, there’s an outstanding array of talent and character in this organization,” he says.

Indeed, founder and CEO Steven M.H. Wallman, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has faced little difficulty in attracting talent to the company, which employs about 200.

But as with any new business, there’s still the challenge of getting its products into the hands of customers.

Foliofn’s flagship products, called folios, are prefabbed or custom-made baskets of stocks that give investors control over their holdings, along with tax efficiency.

While an attractive investment option in several ways, folios compete head-to-head with standard brokerage accounts, private money managers and the behemoth of mass investing – the mutual fund.

That’s where Mr. Vitalie’s expertise comes in.

As president of the institutional division, Mr. Vitalie will work to expand the reach of Foliofn’s products and services for financial advisers, banks, credit unions, insurance companies, brokerage houses and even mutual fund companies.

“Jim’s industry experience gives him the ability to work with a range of companies, from banks to mutual funds to brokerage and clearing firms, and to understand their business requirements,” says Mr. Wallman.

Before joining Foliofn, Mr. Vitalie served as president and chief operating officer for StatementOne, a company in Lawrenceville, N.J., that provides data aggregation services to insurance companies, broker-dealers, banks and the like.

Before that, he served as president of Century Retirement and Wealth Management, a division of Century Business Services in Cleveland. He joined Century after practicing law for several years.

At Century, he was responsible for business integration, technology platforms, product development and products and services for broker-dealers, investment advisers, wealth managers and retirement plans.

Mr. Vitalie “has a key role to play in the company’s growth as we continue to roll out institutional partnerships and products,” Mr. Wallman says.

Under the institutional division’s purview falls Folio Advisor, a web-based service launched in January that lets advisers buy and manage personalized stock portfolios for clients.

Advisers can pick from more than 120 model folios based on sectors, indexes and other preset criteria. Or they can customize the clients’ folios.

Folio Advisor also offers an automated tax-lot tracking system that lets advisers manage a client’s capital gains and harvest tax losses, which can result in tax savings used to offset advisory fees.

All statements and performance reports are delivered online unless otherwise requested. Folio Advisor will also handle client billing, and it integrates with portfolio software management systems.

Mr. Vitalie, who started with Foliofn in mid-March, says virtually every segment of the financial services industry has approached Foliofn about partnering or using its services.

“The majority of my time has been [spent] trying to define what the opportunities actually are and to try moving them into business arrangements,” Mr. Vitalie says.

“The biggest issue we face today is capitalizing on [existing] opportunities and making sure they are fully supported,” he says.

Foliofn is counting on deals with companies that already reach many investors, either directly or through advisers.

For instance, the company announced in January a deal with Advent Software Inc. in San Francisco to integrate Folio’s system into its software. More than 6,000 money managers license software from Advent, the leading maker of software for money managers.

“Given the stage the company is in, that type of leveraged distribution strategy is important to us,” Mr. Vitalie says.

Clifford Jack, president and CEO of National Planning Holdings, a holding company for independent broker-dealers, landed a deal with Century when Mr. Vitalie was there.

“As I understand his new role, it’s something that he’ll do extremely well,” Mr. Jack says. “And candidly, we’ll look at Foliofn because he’s there.”