Kyle Wiggs

Kyle Wiggs spent years as an external wholesaler sitting in advisor offices, absorbing what they actually needed versus what firms were providing. That gap , between what advisors wanted and what platforms delivered , became the founding thesis for UX Wealth Partners, which he launched in June 2020. Today, UX Wealth operates as a TAMP (turnkey asset management platform) that handles trading, billing, reporting, and model portfolio management for RIAs, with a technology stack that pipes into Fidelity, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers.

The Advisor's Problem: Technology Fragmentation

Before UX Wealth, Kyle ran platform technology, trading, billing, reporting, and distribution for a broker-dealer network with about 4,000 advisors. When that entity was sold to LPL in 2017 , "at the height of the DOL" , he did deep due diligence on the TAMP space and concluded that what advisors were asking for simply didn't exist in one place.

"What we do is really everything that an advisor probably has to do but shouldn't do," Kyle explains. Trading, billing, all reporting, a branded advisor dashboard, a client-facing portal for statements and billing files, and a sophisticated trading system. The goal is to let advisors outsource operational complexity so they can focus on client relationships , creating scale, efficiency, and ultimately equity in their firms.

The competitive space includes names like AssetMark, SEI, Investnet, Orion, and SmartX. What differentiates UX Wealth, according to Kyle, is the integration depth , everything running on a single platform rather than stitching together multiple vendor solutions.

AI-Powered Model Portfolios

Where UX Wealth gets particularly interesting is their model portfolio lineup. Rather than traditional fundamental research, they've built strategies that leverage technology and artificial intelligence. Kyle describes two broad categories: strategies focused on minimizing volatility and drawdowns, and strategies pursuing alpha.

On the risk management side, the key insight is behavioral: "I don't care if you're the best money manager in the world , in 2008 or during COVID, you became emotional, just like everybody else. Your strategy all of a sudden becomes skewed by that human emotional component." UX Wealth looks for managers with disciplined, unemotional, rules-based approaches to de-risking , systems that proved themselves through 2008, Q4 2018, and COVID.

On the alpha side, they use technology that measures things humans simply can't process. One specific strategy monitors real-time sentiment across all 500 names in the S&P 500, analyzing everything being said about each company in the digital world on a weekly basis. "Think of the volume of info that would be required. It forms an opinion , is the sentiment about Tesla this week positive or negative? And then just ranks and picks the top 30 names." The speed advantage is decisive: "Humans, by the time you research and analysis and meet with the investment committee and vote, it's already priced into the market."

How Portfolio Construction Is Evolving

Kyle offers a candid assessment of the advisory industry: "The lion's share of the assets really haven't evolved. The asset allocation logic using modern portfolio theory as the singular thesis around how we construct portfolios really hasn't changed." The vehicles have improved , ETFs offer more transparent, liquid, lower-cost access , but the underlying allocation approach is largely the same as 20 years ago.

Where he sees the future heading is technology-driven allocation that "doesn't have an opinion" about growth vs. value, U.S. vs. international, or large vs. small cap. Instead, it determines which environment we're in today and finds the most efficient combination of securities within a given risk tolerance. "It almost throws the rules out , you've got to have a style box that's all checked at a certain percentage. It's simply trying to find the most efficient combination regardless of all the rules we've been living by for 50 years."

Seeing Strategies Before They Become ETFs

Because UX Wealth works with advisors and managers across the spectrum, Kyle has a unique vantage point on active strategies that are either considering or have already converted to ETFs. He sees them in their infancy , understanding the decision-making process around when a strategy is ready for the ETF wrapper. That perspective makes him an unusual voice in the podcast: not an ETF manager himself, but someone who understands the ecosystem from the advisor's chair, where adoption ultimately happens.

The Denver Broncos may be a disaster (Kyle's words , they gave up 70 points in a game right before this recording), but UX Wealth is building something the advisory industry has needed for a while: a platform that matches the sophistication of the strategies it delivers.

Kyle offers practical advice for strategy managers considering the ETF wrapper: build demand first. "Let advisors use your strategy as an SMA for two to three years. Let them use it, let them get a few hundred million in assets. Then go to the very people using it and say, hey, you've got a $25 million allocation to the SMA , half of that could go into the ETF with lower cost and better tax efficiency." He estimates this path could get an ETF to $100 million within nine to twelve months , dramatically faster than launching cold into the market.

Key Takeaways

• That gap , between what advisors wanted and what platforms delivered , became the founding thesis for UX Wealth Partners, which he launched in June 2020.
• Today, UX Wealth operates as a TAMP (turnkey asset management platform) that handles trading, billing, reporting, and model portfolio management for RIAs, with a technology stack that pipes into Fidelity, Schwab, and Interactive Brokers.
• Before UX Wealth, Kyle ran platform technology, trading, billing, reporting, and distribution for a broker-dealer network with about 4,000 advisors.
• When that entity was sold to LPL in 2017 , "at the height of the DOL" , he did deep due diligence on the TAMP space and concluded that what advisors were asking for simply didn't exist in one place.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.