Listen to the article
Dive Brief:
Strive Asset Management, an anti-ESG and anti-DEI asset management firm, has launched a product allowing clients to follow an index fund by directly investing in individual stocks, rather than an exchange-traded or mutual fund, the company announced last week.
The new product will be offered in partnership with portfolio management company Vestmark, and is available on platforms from Fidelity and Charles Schwab, the company said.
In addition to providing greater customization for holdings, the direct indexing option will also follow the firm’s overarching strategy of engaging in corporate governance “without regard to ESG or DEI restraints,” according to the Nov. 26 press release.
Dive Insight:
Strive AM was co-founded in 2022 by Vivek Ramaswamy, a one-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, with a goal to advocate for an “anti-woke” investing policy. The company’s strategy sets itself up as a counter option to asset managers that take ESG factors into account, as well as those with broader social or political goals, according to its website.
Strive’s direct indexing product will also allow clients to look for potential “tax loss harvesting opportunities.” Strive CEO Matt Cole, formerly a portfolio manager for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, said 97% of U.S. large market capitalization companies experienced 10% dips from their peaks in 2023 before returning to those peak prices.
“To be able to harvest those losses on a daily basis while also receiving the pro-shareholder governance that Strive provides is something investors cannot get anywhere else,” Cole said in the release.
Strive currently has more than $1.8 billion in assets under management, and the company said the direct indexing product will focus on “the best financial outcome for the client.” That will include proxy voting coverage and corporate engagement from Strive’s in-house corporate governance team.
Ramaswamy, who ended his short-lived presidential run in January, has been tabbed by President-elect Donald Trump to lead an out-of-government advisory agency. Along with Elon Musk, Ramaswamy will be in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, which shares an acronym with a dog-themed cryptocurrency, and is expected to find efficiency cuts for the federal government.
Ramaswamy recently said on X, the Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the DOGE office will also look to rescind loans given to Stellantis and Rivian, calling them “illegitimate.”
Last week, the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office gave Rivian a $6.6 billion loan for its Georgia EV factory and followed that up by giving a $7.5 billion loan to Stellantis and Samsung for a pair of Indiana-based battery factories on Monday. The two companies are looking to grab more of the electric vehicle market share from another Musk-owned company, Tesla.
Ramaswamy said “DOGE will carefully scrutinize” both of these transactions once Trump takes office in the new year in his Monday post.
