Adam Curran, YALL
Values-Based Investing: The God Bless America ETF
Adam Curran is the founder of the God Bless America ETF, ticker YALL. He grew up in Connecticut where his dad was a self-taught mechanical engineer who never made more than $60,000 a year and whose job security depended on which defense bills passed the state legislature. His mom hung her shingle as a professional clown to supplement the family income. Adam spent his childhood answering the phone "Sparkles the Clown, how can I help you?" and watching his parents obsess about money at the kitchen table. That combination of financial anxiety and entrepreneurial hustle sent him down a path that included working on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange trading floor, a stint at a hedge fund where clients needed $20 million minimums, and eventually founding his own financial planning firm in Charleston, South Carolina focused on middle-class retirees.
On this episode, Adam talks with Brad about the philosophy behind YALL, how the fund screens out companies involved in political activism, and his broader vision for building an investment firm that serves "middle-class millionaires" with the same sophistication available to the ultra-wealthy.
The Origin of YALL
Adam's entrepreneurial itch started on the trading floor. He got his first Wall Street job by showing up at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange every day after class at Drexel University and pestering traders until Susquehanna International Group gave him a job just to stop him from bothering everyone. He worked there during the electronic trading revolution, watching the transition from human specialists to algorithmic execution, then moved to a hedge fund serving ultra-high-net-worth clients.
The idea for YALL came from his financial planning practice, where he works primarily with retirees who spent their careers "pedaling uphill, clipping coupons, driving cars until the wheels fell off." These clients care about values alignment in their investments but feel ignored by the ESG movement, which tends to screen based on progressive social criteria. YALL takes the opposite approach: it starts with a broad US equity universe and removes companies that Adam believes have prioritized political activism over shareholder value. The fund's thesis isn't about left vs. right politics. It's about businesses focusing on business.
How the Screen Works
YALL's screening process evaluates companies based on their level of involvement in social and political causes that Adam believes are outside the scope of running a business. The analysis looks at public statements by executives, corporate donations to political causes, diversity and inclusion mandates that go beyond regulatory requirements, and other indicators of corporate activism. Companies that cross the threshold are excluded from the portfolio.
What remains is a diversified portfolio of US equities that meet traditional investment criteria (market cap, liquidity, fundamental quality) without the companies Adam considers to be the most politically active. The fund is designed to provide broad market exposure with a values-based exclusion screen, similar in concept to how ESG funds exclude fossil fuels or tobacco but applied through a different philosophical lens. Rebalancing and reconstitution happen on a regular schedule, and the screening criteria are documented and systematic rather than ad hoc.
Marketing Strategy and Distribution
Adam is refreshingly honest about the marketing challenge. YALL has gotten significant media attention because of its provocative positioning, but converting attention into AUM requires reaching advisors who can allocate client assets. His distribution strategy mirrors his personal brand: direct, unapologetic, and built on grassroots engagement rather than institutional relationships. He's active on social media, speaks at advisor conferences, and leans into the contrarian positioning rather than softening it.
He draws an interesting distinction between his RIA (which provides comprehensive financial planning including tax strategy, healthcare planning, Social Security optimization, and retirement income management) and YALL (which is a single-issue product based on values screening). The planning firm is what pays the bills and serves clients comprehensiveally. YALL is the entrepreneurial bet, an attempt to build a product that resonates with a large underserved market of investors who feel that ESG has become a one-way political ratchet.
The Planning Firm Philosophy
Adam's financial planning practice in Charleston focuses on what he calls "middle-class millionaires." His advisors specialize in areas that don't directly generate revenue for the firm: the progressive income tax system, Medicare Parts A and B, alternatives to long-term care insurance, healthcare planning for pre-65 retirees. He believes the financial planning industry has historically served the ultra-wealthy well while treating the mass affluent as an afterthought, running them through a sales-driven model of commission-based products and aggressive prospecting. His firm is built to deliver family-office-level sophistication at a price point that works for people with $500,000 to $5 million in investable assets.
Key Takeaways
- Adam got his first finance job by pestering traders outside the Philadelphia Stock Exchange until Susquehanna gave him a role, then worked at a hedge fund with $20 million minimums before founding his own planning firm.
- YALL screens out companies that Adam believes prioritize political activism over shareholder value, applying a values-based exclusion that is the philosophical opposite of traditional ESG screening.
- His financial planning firm in Charleston specializes in retiree planning: tax strategy, Medicare, Social Security optimization, and healthcare planning for clients he calls "middle-class millionaires."
- Adam's mother was a professional clown whose entrepreneurial hustle inspired his own drive to start businesses. His father's job insecurity as a defense-dependent engineer taught him the importance of controlling his own financial destiny.
- The fund's screening process is systematic and documented, evaluating corporate political activity through executive statements, donations, and policies that go beyond regulatory requirements.
Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
Full Transcript
8,520 wordsMachine transcribed from Brad Roth's conversation with Adam Curran, YALL, with speakers identified automatically. Timestamps link to that moment on YouTube. Lightly cleaned, otherwise unedited.
Welcome to Behind the Ticker. I'm Brad Roth, Chief Investment Officer of Thor Financial Technologies and Portfolio Manager of THLV, the Thor Low Volatility ETF. Behind the Ticker uncovers the inner workings of the ETF industry. We will interview portfolio managers and ETF service providers to dive deep into their work lives and their businesses. We will learn the inner workings of their strategies and what drives them as they continue to grow their company. Many of these individuals are entrepreneurs and will have unique and compelling insights to share as much goes on behind the ticker. Please note, nothing in this show is investment advice and it is meant solely for educational and entertainment purposes only.
Welcome to Behind the Ticker. Today we have on Adam Coran. He is the founder of the God Bless America ETF ticker YALL, Y-A-L-L. It is a fund that focuses on U.S. equities, however, has a filter and screen to eliminate those that are involved in political agendas and activism. He believes that businesses should be focused on doing business rather than getting involved in public conversation around politics and so he wants to only invest in those companies that he believes aligns with his core values of businesses staying involved in only business and focusing on the task at hand which is delivering shareholder value. We have a lengthy discussion about the objective of the fund. We also talk about marketing strategy and a little bit about his background and upbringing and how he got involved
In the business. So without further ado, please welcome Mr. Adam Coran. Hey Adam, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me.
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So before we get started, I always like to ask everybody to tell us a little bit about your background and how you eventually got to Curran Financial.
Well, yeah. I would be remiss if I didn't talk about my background and talk about my mother being
A clown growing up. that usually is like, a good conversation starter. Yes,
I grew up in Connecticut. My dad was a self-taught mechanical engineer. I don't think he ever made more than $60,000 in one year. And because of the nature of his work, he was always on the chopping block. He was basically living and sleeping and eating and breathing based on what piece of legislation got passed and if the state of Connecticut got some pork for a defense bill. So because of the level of uncertainty with his job, my mom hung her shingle and started her own little business as a professional clown. So I grew up in a household where we'd answer our phone, Sparkle's a clown, how can I help you? And quite frankly, it caused me to just be enamored with money.
Right. Because I'd see my mom come home after a long weekend of work and she'd be, I don't know, either grieving or just talking about how the kids were brats, but the parent gave her a tip. And dad was constantly focused on his company stock price and also worried about his job security at the same time. So money was always a topic of conversation at my kitchen table. And I knew I needed to bring money to my kitchen table to have some relevance there too. So I just started working at a young age, doing everything I can to make a buck. And then I accumulated a little bit of wealth. My dad took me under his shoulder, under his wing and said, Hey, let me show you what wealthy people
Do with their money. And he took me to a stockbroker's office. This is before the discount brokerage revolution occurred. So you had to pay 50 bucks, a hundred bucks to make a stock trade. So I walked into this guy's office and I don't even know if he made eye contact with me. He told me to put all my money in chock full of nuts, heavenly coffee stock. I was like 12. I never had a cup of coffee and put all my money in chock full of nuts and would open up the newspaper every week and see that stock drop lower and lower and lower and watched half of my wealth disappear investing in a crappy coffee stock. So I made a commitment at that point. I said, I'm never,
Ever, ever making an investment without doing a little research on my own and just started tracking the capital markets. And I was hooked like so many of us in this industry. I just fell in love with it. Uh, told that story about my mother being a clown, uh, to the administrators over at Drexel university. I got a really nice scholarship to go to Drexel, fell in love with Drexel because it's right down the street from the Philadelphia stock exchange. If you've ever been to downtown Philadelphia. Um, so as soon as I got, uh, it admitted to Drexel, I started going to the Philadelphia stock exchange trading floor and I was bothering guys as they left the floor. And as Brad, you can pick them out real easy because they were goofy vests and stuff. And I would say,
Guys, give me a job. I'll fetch coffee. I'll shine your shoes. I'll do whatever you asked me to do. And eventually, um, company finally, I think gave me a job just so I'd stop bothering all their traders. So I worked at Susquehanna. Um, and, uh, there were of course a big specialist market maker options traders. And I was there for a few years and then got an opportunity to work at,
Um, you didn't know I was going to give you this whole, uh, this is awesome. Keep going.
So, um, yeah, so I, I kind of bore witness to the electronic trading revolution, the statistical arbitrage, where I started to see, some of those early traders there were making just gobs and gobs of money because there was, um, there was still arbitrage to be had. But as soon as all the computers came in, um, I just kind of read the tea leaves and said, I don't know if this is going to be, now granted there's still people there making lots of money, but, um, it's certainly the spreads weren't nearly as big as they once were. So I had an opportunity to work at a big hedge fund and the hedge fund I worked at, uh, individuals had to have
$20 million to invest with the firm. And not many people had 21. Most people had hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's kind of surreal to, uh, to think someone with a hundred million dollars is asking the son of a clown for advice on what they should do with their money. But what do they say about wall street? Wall street's the only place people drive to in limousines to get advice from
People who took the subway. That's right. So anyways, that, that's my professional walk.
And then I had this, this itch that needed scratching, as much as it's fun to make fun of mom being a clown, she was a little business woman. She was an entrepreneur. And I knew I always wanted to start my own company. I wanted to dictate my own destiny. I didn't want to be on the chopping block like dad. So I started my own, uh, financial planning company, a kitchen table, financial planning company with the goal of bringing planning concepts that the wealthiest people in this country have access to, to middle-class millionaires, like my mom and dad, people who peddled uphill, clipped coupons, drove cars till the wheels fell off. I believe they need and deserve the same level of financial sophistication and,
And, uh, tender loving care that the wealthiest Americans in our country, uh, get to experience. So we created our little financial planning firm, 800 miles away, uh, from New York down here in Charleston, South Carolina. And, uh, our small but mighty American dream is having a little impact on the world. I like to think, man.
Yeah, no, I love it. It's, it's fun. My mom was not a clown. Um, but our backgrounds are similar where once you catch the itch, uh, and it needs scratched, you'll chase everybody down to get that first job, um, on wall street or, or near it, or in my case on a trading desk. And, um, I loved every second of it. And, and I too, had that entrepreneurial itch and it needed scratched. And I'm glad I did it. It's, it's, it's, as I always like to say, it's like crawling through glass, but it's, uh, it's worth every, every step you take in it and, or every, every knee nick, uh, that you get, but it's definitely, it's definitely something that's, that's necessary to help the type of people that you want to help.
Absolutely, man. Yeah. I'd have it no other way.
So before we get too deep into, uh, the ETF, I always, again, like to ask, what do you like to do when you're not behind the desk? What hobbies, what keeps you busy after hours?
Uh, make children and then wrangle the children after they, uh, leave the birth canal. I have four kids. I have four kids. Um, I used to say five and under cause my, my five-year-old just turned six, but basically four kids, five and under. So hobbies, uh, don't exist for me any longer. That's, I know I just kind of completely skirted that question, but that that's just the
Truth of it. That's a very popular answer. It's either that or taxi driver, unpaid taxi driver. So, um, we're kind of all in the, uh, all in the, all in the gauntlet of, of young kids. So with, with your financial firm, before we get into the ETF, so it's, it's heavy planning, investment management. are you running it kind of family office style? Uh, can you just talk a little bit about the firm itself? Yeah. Yeah. The goal is to kind of have
More of a family office feel to it. Boy, it's awfully hard though. It seems like the, um, the tax preparation component of a family office, it seems like that industry is just broken, cause no one wants to file an extension. The IRS wants to change the rules three months, uh, before filing date. So, um, we pretty much have every component, but that piece, but we have kind of a stable of tax preparers that work with us in arm's length away. Um, but yeah, certainly we pride ourselves on planning, right? So, um, and in particular for retirees. So if you looked at any of our branding, it's always retire y'all retire. Uh, and, and the premise is just, I think middle America is getting taken for a ride by our industry. when you look at
The financial planning industry as a whole, um, now it's improving dramatically, but the old model was like hire 10 guys, make them door knock or bother their friends and relatives for, their list of a hundred. No darn well that like nine out of the 10, aren't going to make it take the orphaned accounts from the nine. Cause the other nine are going to take on an account or two. It's so gross, man. Uh, and luckily I never experienced it. Cause I told you how I kind of came into this industry, but there are so many individuals I've met in this industry who talk about, you talk about claw, like, crawl, crawling through glass. Like it's, it's even
Grosser than that to a certain degree. So it go figure the people who make it in that environment are the type of people I don't want to hang out with. Like the guy who gives their business card out at the cocktail party, like, uh, so, um, we've got an industry that for decades upon decades was ruled by that guy, the commission breath, annuity huckster selling everyone cash value, life insurance, doesn't understand tax code, uh, all hat, no cattle. And, now it's starting to get, there's a, a slightly higher level of sophistication, but at first that sophistication was kind of deviating towards the wealthy of people. Right. And, I was born on the other side of the tracks and I'm proud of it. And, um, even though I might be banished from polite
Society sometimes because of that, I just think that people, there's a mass affluent society that needs quality investment advice and Lord knows we're not the only ones doing it, but I do think we're in the minority because that, that old guard of selling people stuff is still heavily, heavily prevalent. So, um, we pride ourselves around here on getting, we get paid for talking about stuff that doesn't get us paid. So I like to think our advisors are very prolific and proficient when it comes to the progressive income tax system. We understand how healthcare works, whether you're under 65 or how Medicare part a and part B works alternatives to long-term care, all of that stuff needs to be put in good order before you even consider talking about the investments. So I think good financial
Planners know more about that stuff and the investments are kind of the easier, easier part
Of this whole game. Yeah. You, you said a lot there that, that I agree with and I've also witnessed, you're going to make me pause this interview and go up and get my, uh, all hat, no cattle hat. Cause that's my, uh, I tend to wear that on the weekends around. That's a, I didn't know many people had that saying in their arsenal. And I, I don't know if you saw me chuckle when you said it, but it's, it's something we use in our house all the time. Um, but let's, uh, let's transition.
Brad, how old are you, man? I'm 35. Okay. So, um, I was just rifting with a dude in my office about this. It seems like, cause I'm 41 around the same age, like gone are the days when individual,
We'll, you, you, like where'd you grow up? Which town? I grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called late trope. So, okay. Oh, I know about the truck. That's where rolling rock is made. Rolling rock used to be made there. Now they make energy drinks. We're, we're famous for two things, Arnold Palmer and the invention of the banana split.
Okay. That's I'll take that. Yeah. I, I, my hometown was known for like pouring, uh,
Chemicals in the, in the river. So Arnold Palmer and a banana split, but, but anyways, no, you're,
You're, you're, I could tell you're my people. So, so, um, I was rifting with someone in my office, young people, and I'm talking people our age, I guess we're millennials. I feel like I'm on the tail end, but gone are the days when the mechanic down the street, he, his brand, his name, his word, his bond, like that is what was of tremendous value to him. His work ethic, his output, his final product, right? Now young people want to work as little as possible and make as much money as possible. And to a certain degree, I don't blame them, right? I want to work as little as possible and make as much money as possible, but you have to recognize something's going to suffer
If we're all doing that. Right. And what suffers is the work and the output and the customers. So this all hat, no cattle phenomenon, I don't know, you use it with your family,
Like don't be all hat, no cattle. Is that, is that how you use it? We use it in that context. And, um, we also use it in the context where I'm trying to teach my young, young kids. Uh, I have a seven year old daughter and, uh, materialism is, uh, is not a great thing. And sometimes people tend to spend money on things to make it look like, uh, they've got it all going on when under the hood, it's, it's riddled with debt. Uh, and it's, those aren't the types of things that make you happy. And so I, we use it in kind of both contexts. I love it. I love it. I live in the land
Of the yuppies here in Charleston too, like the little wealthy zip code. And I wish I would, I wish I didn't know so much about this industry. And I know you're math guy, finance guy too. Like you can kind of just do the math in your head when you witness someone who's all at no cattle, even if they're like a doctor and the husband's a lawyer, you're kind of like, you start mathematically looking at what their after tax income is and calculating things. But you know,
You shouldn't count another person's wallet, but yeah, I know you're like minds there. Yeah. You, you, you, you hit the nail on the head where you kind of see, uh, you see profession, you've seen so many different planning clients. Um, you kind of know where things fall and you're like, Hmm, I wonder how they're affording that. But anyways, I digress. Let's talk about y'all. First of all, I love the ticker, uh, great ticker. So it's the God bless America ETF. Can you talk, uh, kind of at a high level, what the fund's objective is and the types of companies that you're investing in? Yeah. So I could kind of tell you how the, the idea was
Brought to life. I was having tons of conversations with clients. And of course, we serve the mass affluent. These are not rich fat cats. This is kitchen table financial planning. And I just kept hearing the same kind of mindset. And that was like, Hey, the stock market's been really good to me. I got a million bucks because I've been putting money in my 401k and in mutual funds and, and the market's been good. I believe the American dream is alive and well, I'm living, breathing proof of it. And, um, I love the stock market, but I am really sick and tired of investing my money in companies that seem to be going out of their way to make comments and make activist statements that trounce on my
Beliefs and my values. And, um, one conversation in particular comes to mind because I'm kind of a bogle head, like throw it in Vanguard and just kind of, I love Vanguard. I think that that company has probably been the greatest, uh, asset manager for the little guy ever, ever invented. Right. So, so a guy said to me one time, he goes, I would be okay. If my investments trailed the S&P by one or 2% periodically, if I know I wasn't supporting these companies and I, and like a big light bulb went off, I said, Oh, like this isn't a commoditized. Cause as as someone who launched an ETF, you can't compete with BlackRock or Vanguard. Like the, the, the, the race is to the
Bottom. It's a commoditized product where, um, heck I talked to the guy who manages the, the, the, um, pension fund for the state of South Carolina. And he's like, BlackRock pays us to use their funds, you know? So I don't want to be in, in, in games like that. Um, because naturally the, the fee structure is just going to go to zero. And I don't even feel like I'm earning my fee to a certain degree. So I had this aha moment where I said, this isn't a commoditized product. This guy's looking for, this is a movement. This is almost like a religion. This is a group of God fearing flag waving conservative people that are sick and tired of seeing their money invested in companies that are
Trouncing on their values and their beliefs, but they still want to invest in the stock market. So I said, someone's got to create this thing. And when I went and searched the market for products that would kind of here again, scratch that itch, there was some conservative funds. There were some like biblically responsible funds, but the conservative funds were like just a bunch of crusty industrials and oil and gas companies. And I was like, well, all the growth from the markets have been coming out of the tech sector. We can't just put everyone's money in oil and gas and tell them to hang in there. They'll go up sooner or later. Um, and then even some of the big biblically responsible funds and funds that were a little bit more, I don't know, call them anti-woke.
They were investing in companies that I'm looking at going, this company is not in line with my values whatsoever. So we created the fund. I live down here in Charleston. So we say y'all, uh, in the New York times anointed, uh, y'all the most inclusive of all pronouns. So I want it to be inclusive because we're all about diversity, equity, and inclusion around here. Uh, so we gave it the ticker y'all and why the heck not call it the God bless America ETF. God bless America. Um, is actually a wonderful bundle of words because I truly believe that. And, and also it acts as like a, a self segregation tool because oddly enough, there's a large swath of society that gets triggered by the words, God bless America. People want to add an asterisk and go like, sometimes God bless
America. Good. kick rocks. We, if you don't love our country, if you don't recognize that this country offers a chassis for upward economic bill mobility, unlike any other place on the face of the earth, don't invest in the fund. You weren't going to invest in it anyways. So the idea makes
Sense to me. And now I, now I want to figure out how you're putting it together. So how do you, how do you put a, I'm going to call it wokeness screen, if that's fair to say, uh, on the companies
That you're putting in the fund? Yeah. So here's what we did right off the rip, right? We wanted it to smell like the S&P 500, right? So we want it to have the same sector waiting, right? So if technology is 24%, we want to have a 24%, 24% waiting in technology. And then if energy is 2%, we want to have a 2% waiting. And so we broke it into 11 sector, 13 sectors, I think now. And, um, when did the other two sectors come? I think real estate was not about a year or two ago, but, uh, so we broke it into those, those sectors and then we waited the stocks accordingly. Now, how did we come up with the socks? What were the screens? Well, it wasn't all that hard. It was one of those moments, man,
Where I opened up a spreadsheet and I just pulled up the 510 companies within the S&P. Uh, although it's not just the S&P because ultimately we have a 1 billion market cap, so you can get some mid cap names in there as well. Um, but there's been a number of hot button issues that have crossed the newswire over the last five years. Okay. Um, one of them was Georgia's, um, election reform bill. Okay. So that was immediately labeled Jim Crow 2.0 by the media. And two days after its passing, there was a, a, a two page article taken out in the Washington post. And I believe the New York Times called the, we stand for democracy pledge. And it had kind of this altruistic copy about we
Stand for democracy. We believe that, uh, asking people to present a identification of voter ID and not allowing ballot harvesting, um, is Jim Crow 2.0 now. So any company publicly traded company that signed the, we stand for democracy pledge, we believe was participating in activism. Now, why do we believe that? Right? Cause some of you were kind of like, well, yeah, what Georgia did wasn't right. Well, if what Georgia did wasn't right, why was there a record voter turnout in their most recent election cycle? Why was there a record minority voter turnout in their most recent election cycle? Would Jim Crow 2.0 see that to happen? No. So if you stand the, the, the sign that we stand for democracy pledge, even though that that has been proven to be incorrect, you were participating in political
Activism. You weren't focused on returning shareholder value. You weren't focused on delighting customers, separating them from their money, growing their customer base, growing your business. You were participating in activism. So that's one example. The other big one was, uh, Florida's parental rights and education. You want to believe the number of publicly traded companies, uh, that decided to call that the don't say gay bill, the number of publicly traded companies that thought educating kids under third grade about sexuality, sexual preference was a smart idea. And if you don't think that was a smart idea, you're a homophobe. So I'm sorry. you might not have wanted me as a, as a guest right now, but, um, this is the number of companies that use their social media handle, the number of companies that, that, that did press releases
Saying that they disagreed with Florida's parental rights and education bill. Here again, if you make widgets in Seattle or have a social media platform, or you make shoes in China, um, but you sell them here in America, why are you making a statement about Florida's parental rights and education bill? Why are you some go gung ho about teaching first graders about sexual preferences? You have a seven year old. Do you think that's prudent? No. Hi honey. I don't even want to go there because it's, it's, it's, it's creepy. Right? So, so if a company made a statement about that, we believe that they, they lost track. They, they, they, they got lost. They forgot that their job was to delight customers, separate them from their money,
Grow their client base, return shareholder value. They started participating in activism. Uh, another big one was, um, the business round, business round table, uh, stakeholder capital pledge. This was one of the biggest ones, right? And a lot of people point to this as, um, the Trojan horse of ESG. Okay. So a lot of people call our fund to anti ESG fund. I don't even care about ESG. I don't know what an ESG, there's so many companies out there issuing ESG scores. It's meaningless to me. I don't, I, and I think, I think someone David in my office did a report and he like, our fund actually has like an okay ESG score somehow. Uh, it doesn't matter. It's such a play stupid games, win stupid prizes type thing. Um, but the business round table stakeholder capital
Pledge, a bunch of companies signed this pledge to, um, the old business round table pledge was to, uh, to, uh, stick up for your stakeholders, right? Your stakeholders. Now your stakeholders are not just your customer are not just your employees. They're also your community. They're also your environment. They're, they're, they're your employees, but the employee starts to creep into this thing. Well, if you really want to stick up for your employees, you should have a diverse workforce. So now all of a sudden we have, uh, publicly traded companies with pie charts on their website, keeping track of how much melanin their workforce has in their skin. I say that out loud. I, I, you, you think I'm like a Ku Klux
Klan member. Is that not zany? You have a pie chart on your website, keeping track of how much melanin your employees have in their skin. This all came with the stakeholder capital pledge. It also talks about the environment, right? So, so it's like, oh, if you're a good stakeholder, uh, you are going to do idiotic things like fly around in private jets, but chastise people for, um, driving an SUV. So, and I'm doing a terrible job of unpacking that quite frankly, but ESG was Trojan horse into corporate vernacular through the K the stakeholder capital pledge.
Couple that with all of the publicly traded companies that felt fit to make comments about the Roe v. Wade ruling recently. And look, I get it. Some of these things that I'm talking about are nuanced. I have an opinion on them too, and you might have a different opinion and who's to say whose opinions right or wrong, where I'm drawing a hard line in the sand in, in the purpose of our ETF is to say businesses should focus on business. And as soon as you start making comments on political and social activist items, you're automatically alienating 49 to 51% of your potential customers, employees, and shareholders. And by you doing that, you're a business. I don't want my investors to have their
Money in. So with that being said, and, and I don't, I think you did a very good job of articulating it. And it sounds like to me, um, you're looking at certain events that occur certain, activism type, uh, environments, and then kind of screening out those who are participating. But from that, once you have that screen done, I understand that your market cap waiting, uh, the holdings inside of the portfolio to align with the S&P. How are then let's just use technology as an example. How are you waiting within those companies within just your technology sleeve? Are you, are you, are you making decisions and betting on certain companies you think might do better?
Or are you market cap waiting those as well within that sleeve?
No. Yeah. We're, we, there is, there is a little bit of, active, it's an actively managed fund. So there was some active management there, but I'll say two things. One, when I, when I, it was one of these moments, I think I said it earlier, but I'll say it again. It's one of these moments where I sat down behind a spreadsheet and then I picked my head up and it was like 12 hours later. Right. I was just, and I was like, well, this is something I must be fascinated in. Like I lost track of time and I just sat here and geeked out and researched every single company and just saw if they signed these different pledges, saw if their, their social media handles made comments
On, on these different hot button issues. But, I told some people what I was doing and the common response was Adam, there's going to be no companies left. They all gone woke. They all make comments. And I was pleasantly surprised to see, um, only about 200 of the S&P 500 companies were boycotted, right? So now that is 40%. So it is a little bit this disheartening, but 60% of companies are not doing this. 60% of companies are staying in their lane and focused on business. So that's one thing. Now I will say this though, almost all of the technology companies are doing this, especially the mega caps. I don't even need to say them out loud, right? The mega cap technology companies are the ones who were the loudest with their comments about social and political
Activist issues. Now there were a few left, right? If you look at our holdings, you can see them. Um, so we look for quality, right? Uh, we look at PE ratios. Another thing that we do, which is a little unique. So if there's a tie and I know this probably flies in the face of, of, of what a, a stock picker should do because human capital is the most expensive line item on a P and L statement. But if there's a tie, we're going to elect the company that creates more American jobs. Um, why? Because my dad was on the chopping block and my mom was a clown. And I recognize that an American job, even if it's a $50,000 a year job creates stability in America
And give someone confidence that they could, save into a 401k, pay down their mortgage, put a kid through college and all that. Um, so we waited according to the sector, of course, and our fund basically likes to keep only about 40 stocks, right? So in essence, if it's a, if it's a large sector like technology or healthcare or financials, we'll sometimes pick four stocks in those sectors, five stocks in those sectors. But if it's a smaller sector like energy or materials, we'll pick one or two sectors in those areas. Um, the biggest challenge I have quite frankly is finding quality tech names. Cause if you were to look at my, investment universe that I have at my disposal in the tech sector, um, it's kind of slim picking. So we've had to make some
Concessions there where, look at Tesla, for instance, Tesla's technically not a tech company. Technically sure smells like a tech company to me, right? The whole point of that company is to gather data, of course, make, vehicles that drive with, electric, but, uh, there, yeah, I think that when you look at the valuation of that stock and the reason that, some people look at it and go, man, they've only done like one 10th of the cars that Ford made. And, um, but when you, when you try to justify, you talked about PE ratios, when you try to justify the PE ratio of Tesla, you have to look at that company as a disruptor in the insurance industry, as a disruptor in, uh,
The battery industry, it's a disruptor in all sorts of other industries. So if you start to kind of, blend it into those different areas where it can make cash flows into the future, um, we look at it as a tech company, right? So, um, I think that answered your question, right?
Yeah, it does. Yeah. It answers my question. I would assume you might have some issues in financials as well. Um, some of the larger financial companies as well as, but as far as
Oddly enough, my industry, right? Like most every company that's in my industry is as woke as well can be, unfortunately. Yeah. Um, but you'd be surprised, you know what, no, it breaks my heart the most, Brad, when, when there's a company who I like and it's like, I like him cause I think their quality, I like, just my family uses it. Something as simple as that. Um, and then I got to boycott them. I'm like, ah, that's the challenge I have, uh,
Running this thing. So when you, uh, you make your, Oh, one more thing, one more thing,
Brad. I'm sorry, man. Sorry. Here's a trend I've seen recently. Right. And I know, I think you said, be careful about using tickers and stuff that, that baby is my already up and thrown out the window with the bathwater. So more and more companies now, whereas five years ago, they would have the pie chart with their workforces, race and sexual identity on, on the website, dude, I'm not kidding about that. Oh, I know how many companies keep track of their workforce's sexual identity in the name of being virtuous and pious. Like it's freaking creepy. Um, but anyways, more and more companies now are coming out. Costco, I think of, uh, Charles Schwab have come out and they go, Hey, we're not going to make comments on political and social activist
Statements. We're not going to give money to political candidates. Like, so they're making this statement now, and this is a relatively new phenomenon and Lord knows it's not because of my little rinky dinky ETF, but maybe my ETF had a little bit to do with it. Um, so that is an encouraging phenomenon that's happened just recently. More companies are going, okay, we went a little too far. Maybe our marketing department didn't need to make a social media post about the, uh, piece of legislation that was passed in Florida about teaching second graders about sexual identity. So more companies are now coming out there and saying like, we're going to stay in our lane. We're going to focus on business. So anyways, sorry, man.
No, that's what I was, I was going to ask. It was, um, was, would there be, would there be a point where you rerun the screen? Uh, like if there's a leadership change or, a change in, in culture and attitude where you might say, Hey, come on back into the screen. Let's, let's take another look.
Yeah. The CEO would have to walk through the streets of Charleston naked with a shame bell and we would throw slop on them. Um, no, I'm just kidding. Uh, so how do you atone? Right? You truth be told. Uh, I don't know what that looks like quite yet. Uh, I, I, I actually, we've had conversations behind closed doors where we've seen some of that. I just gave you a couple examples of companies that, that in our opinion are moving in the right direction. Um, and here, the, the waves of that, I just said that it's a, it's a phenomenon that's happening more, more often, but it's still a phenomenon, right? It's not like, it's not like a wave more, more likely than not. We're seeing, companies initiate DEI initiatives,
Um, at the expense of their shareholders. So, uh, I, I, I haven't really put my finger on the moment you go, Hey, you used to be woke, but you're not anymore. Right. Um, is, is Budweiser not woke anymore because they did a, a, an advertisement with a, a soldier riding a Clydesdale horse. I don't know. I can't put my finger on that quite
Frankly. So let's transition just to, I guess I'm supposed to put my finger on it though.
Yeah. I'm supposed to have like the actual like line and like, this is what makes them, inherently I hold grudges. So, uh, if you do something that bothers us, um,
That'll follow you for two generations. Okay. So it'll be someone else's problem. Um, it'll be their, the CEO's grandchildren. Right. Right. So I'm going to transition here a little bit and I don't want to, I don't want to talk about actual performance numbers because, um, I don't want you to get in trouble with your compliance department, but performance has been really good. Um, what do you attribute to that? And how do you plan on kind of capitalizing on that from a marketing perspective as we head into 2024?
Oh, good question, man. So, um, two things. One, I'm not so naive. I've been, I've been managing money long enough. I've, I've had a lot of experience in this industry that, you have to attribute some of the picks we made and the timing of those picks. There's luck in this, right? The goal of the fund is to mirror the S&P 500. Now, if you look at our, our performance in year one, you'll notice it didn't do that. It didn't do that for the better, thankfully, but I know that there will be a reversion to the means, right? So periodically we might have, um, periods of time where we underperform, but my goal, I will be a happy camper. If 10 years from now, I look back and I see two line graphs that look somewhat
Synonymous. That was the goal of the fund. So, um, what do I attribute some of the, the performance to though? We read the tea leaves, uh, two things. One, I'm starting to drink my own Kool-Aid, man. I'm starting to be like, yeah, maybe not being like, maybe focusing on business is a recipe for outperformance because that's all the funds done. Maybe not making political and social activist statements is not a good decision to do business wise. You should focus on customers and money and your P and L and all that. So that's one thing. But the other thing that we did is there's, there's a couple of moments in time this year where we saw what we believe to be quality stocks, um, grossly undervalued. And we do a quarterly rebalance every now and again, we'll do another,
Balance. Like we're, we're not active. If you look at the turnover of our fund, it's very, very low. Um, but we just kind of said, Hey, that's a good company with good, strong leadership and the markets being unfair to it. Let's back up the trucks. And sure enough, when we did do that, um, of course, keeping them with law in line, uh, it panned out really, really well for us. And that's, that's, what's attributable to the alpha. I would say as far as how we're marketing it, dude, I could say this to you because you got your own ETF too. Um, I, that has been the most disappointing thing I've experienced in the last year and a half. Like I'm an RIA, so I'm not really
In bed with FINRA. Um, so the RIA rule book is like, don't make forward looking statements. Don't say performance data. But when you start marketing an ETF, you have the FINRA rule book, which is, uh, a hundred times bigger. So, um, I'm inherently kind of, I liken myself to a marketer. Like I believe I'm kind of a carnival barking marketer if you haven't noticed. Um, so I was really, really excited to launch this thing because I wanted to start carnival barking. I want to start beating the drum very quickly. The nerds and compliance took all the wins out of my sales very quickly. When I started to see the fees I was racking up in order to get a one line tweet
Approved through, um, the compliance overlords, I was just kind of like, I don't even want to market the thing anymore. It's just, it's, and as launching an ETF is not like some of my friends are like, wow, you got $50 million and you're at 65 basis points. You must be getting rich. And I'm like, not really. Right. quite frankly, I death by a thousand cuts for the first year. Um, so our bread and butter is helping people at kitchen tables live abundant retirements. And I never, ever, ever want to get knocked off track. They're happy to have the ETF out there. Happy people are engaging with it. It acts as a wonderful billboard for my company. So when people
Are like, okay, are these the type of people we want to work with? Or are these not the type of people we want to work with it, which is even better for us? Like learn it early that this is how we see the world. And if you don't share our value set, we might not be the advisor for you. And I hope you, I wish you well, I hope you find someone, um, who holds themselves to the standard that we hold ourselves to. But, uh, as far as marketing the thing, I'm doing it right now. I'm on a podcast, um, we've, we've, we've almost, um, compliance has taken the wind out of our sales. Quite frankly, I had a PR person representing me and we did a bunch of TV and that was cool.
Um, but that's gross too, to a certain degree. Like, I don't like being at the mercy of some TV channel. Like, Hey Adam, I need five minute comment from you at two 20 on the CPI reading. Like I got four freaking kids, dude.
Yeah. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to do this show. quite honestly, is because the, our fund is, isn't, or I should say the way that we manage money in general, isn't, we don't care about necessarily the CPI reporter data or make a comment on how you think Apple's earnings are. Right. And so we did some of that as well. And you're right. Marketing, I think is the number one challenge. It's a shame because this is your year. If I'm like, if I'm looking at a product that had really good performance last year and you're entering an election year, like this is when you, uh, you could just start beating down the door. And, and this would be, this would be the asset growth year. Um, after a stellar 2023
And election year in 2024, when all we're going to see on mainstream media is, uh, politics 2024. So I, I, I, I wish you luck there and hopefully you can get some things through compliance because when, well, rift with me, dude, because I, I agree with you.
One part of me taking the foot off the marketing gas pedal was let's get a year of data in there, right? Well, we got that year of data. It's good. It's good data too. And I agree with you. It's an election year. People are going to be as gross as ever. Uh, and conservatives are going to be as
Disgusted as ever. So it's, it is the, how would you market it? Oh, geez. I, I would be doing, um, a lot of these types of things, um, with, whether they're industry people, but also the outlets in which listen to the message in which you're trying to get out there, which is, Hey, look, let's, let's make, um, let's make rational decisions when it comes to what types of companies we're invested in, are in, uh, that align with our values. And there's definitely shows and sub stacks and podcasts galore that might not be financial services related, but are going to reach the audience, uh, that you're going to reach. But as as well as I, and you said it great where it's going to, everything's going to get really gross
Here in the next 11 months, uh, 10 months. And this is when all of these things are going to boil up to the surface. And this is the time, the opportune time for, you to get that story out. And, and even on top of that, you, you earlier in the show, you said, you, there are some other funds that do something similar. Um, but they're not as, um, focused in on what I would deem, your conservative values and investment stance on those values. And so you do have a unique product and, um, yeah, it's, it's definitely a challenge, but you're trying to find those outlets, uh, would be, would be number one. And because as as well as I do trying to put something
On social media or on LinkedIn, or it is a challenge. And if it's not worded correctly, or if the font's too big or too small, you're not going to be able to put it there.
Yeah. And, and, I, I didn't mention we, I like the whole marketing engine for our company is radio. So I do a bunch of radio. So we got our radio show 15 different channels here in South Carolina. So, I'm perfectly okay being a big fish in a small pond. Um, but I agree with you. We just had a wonderful year. It's a, it's a year to gather assets. I'm a capitalist pig unapologetically. I want more assets in the fund, if not for anything, cause I want to start supporting companies that are focused on business. So yeah, it's, it's, uh, maybe you just motivated me, Brad. Maybe you just motivated me to do more, to do more stuff like that.
Well, good. I, and I, I, I, I wish you a ton of luck and I've, I've two more, I've two more final questions, um, that everybody gets, which is when you're talking to another investment from about your product, um, where would you recommend they put it as far as their overall model portfolio, uh, construction from what I'm hearing from you, it's probably a compliment, uh, to large, large cap equity exposure. Would that be fair?
Yeah. It's a core holding, man. It's, it's a, it's an index fund in our eyes that boycotts well companies. So if you look at it on a morning star sector waiting, it's a large cap,
It's a large cap blended fund. So where, before I let you go, where can people learn more about you? You mentioned you do a radio show. Where can they learn about the fund and where can they learn about, your financial planning firm? Yeah. So everything has y'all in it. So if you want to come and learn
More about our, our firm, my radio show, my podcast, it's retire y'all.com. And if you want to learn more about the ETF, uh, guess what the, guess what the, the, the website is there.
Y'all ETF y'all. ETF y'all. Okay. There you go. You got them mixed up.
ETF y'all.com or go to the God bless America ETF and you could find it right there. But, um, I appreciate it, Brad. I appreciate you shining a light on my little rinky dick American dream. And, uh, hopefully someone's still tuning into this and listening to this. And, um, if you are, send up a flare and let us know that, uh, um, you hate my guts, please. I love hate mail. I got a whole drawer of it or send up a flare and, and, uh, you motivate me more so than the compliments for every 10 compliments I get. Um, one piece of hate mail, uh, really gets me out of bed with a little bit more pep in my step. So, uh, or let us know that, you listened to
The interview and you're intrigued by it. Yeah. Well, Adam, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations, on your first year and, and good luck in the future. And again, thanks for your time. Yeah, Brad. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah. Yeah.
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