Abacus Capital Advisors

Abacus Capital Advisors provides discretionary portfolio management to individuals, trusts and estates, businesses, and employee benefit plans, and also delivers customized advisory services and model portfolios to other investment managers and platform providers. The firm reports approximately $119.5 million in discretionary assets under management across a small client base and typically applies a $400,000 minimum on managed accounts.

The firm’s investment approach centers on tactical asset allocation implemented through bonds, equities, ETFs, occasional mutual funds, and short positions, with the adviser executing trades on behalf of clients under discretionary authority. It offers a Core Bonds/Stocks strategy billed as a percentage of AUM and an Abacus Alpha strategy — a 100% equity solution with an options overlay that seeks to outperform the Vanguard Total World ETF and is subject to a 1% AUM fee plus a 20% performance fee with a high‑water mark, available only to qualified clients and using hedging and leverage when appropriate.

Several features distinguish this firm from many peers: the ADV discloses performance‑based fees on the Alpha strategy and arrangements for client leverage/borrowing that are billed and authorized separately, along with institutional work for other managers. The brochure also discloses an affiliated family‑office–style entity that coordinates estate and tax services and identifies related conflicts of interest, and it notes relationships beyond typical retail clients — including institutional and non‑U.S. relationships and insurance‑company clients — with policies in place to address those conflicts.