Jason Wenk, founder and CEO of Altruist, is positioned as a significant disruptor in the financial services industry, challenging established giants like Fidelity and Schwab. According to Barry Ritholtz, host of the ‘Masters in Business’ podcast, Altruist is a ‘new artificial-intelligence-driven custodian challenging a lot of the legacy entities like Fidelity and Schwab that are stuck with all of their old hardware and software.’
Wenk’s career, as Ritholtz observes, is marked by a consistent ‘through line’ of ‘constantly focusing on creating lower-cost, tech-enabled financial advice.’ This dedication to leveraging technology for more accessible and efficient financial solutions stems from an early background rooted in computer science rather than traditional finance.
From Computer Science to Wall Street
Wenk’s initial aspirations were far removed from the world of finance. He studied computer science at Grand Valley State University, with a clear dream of heading to Silicon Valley to work at a dot-com company. However, the dot-com market peak around 1999 and the subsequent crash inadvertently steered his path. At just 19 years old, during his first year of university, Wenk secured an internship at Morgan Stanley, a pivotal experience that became his ‘crash course in finance.’
He officially joined Morgan Stanley at age 20, initially working in technology. His role involved ‘productivity software’ and ‘building different types of technology within the Morgan Stanley ecosystem.’ This included a project to develop ‘networked versions of essentially the Morningstar database,’ which at the time was still distributed via CD-ROMs to branches nationwide. This early exposure to the mechanics of financial data and tools began to shape his critical perspective.
Critiquing Traditional Investment Models
During his time at Morgan Stanley, Wenk observed what he considered fundamental flaws in the prevailing investment advice. He recalls working with ‘pre-built prompts inside of these research platforms’ designed to help financial advisors construct portfolios. An example prompt he cited was to ‘find funds that have been around for five years, with turnover under 100 percent, with the same manager for five years or longer, that’s in the top quartile of their peer group.’
From his math, physics, and computer science background, Wenk found these prompts to be ‘terrible predictors of future outcomes.’ He stated, ‘that is no prediction of the future result. That is a terrible predictor of future outcomes.’ This early insight into the limitations of traditional, backward-looking investment screens would heavily influence his later ventures. He noted that his perspective aligned with later findings, such as a Morningstar study published years later, which suggested that buying the least expensive fund was most likely to yield higher performance, echoing the work of Jack Bogle.
Pivoting to Entrepreneurship and Fiduciary Advice
Despite obtaining a range of financial licenses, including the Series 7, Series 8, Series 24, and Series 3, Wenk never fully embraced the role of a traditional broker. He went through broker training around 2001 but made the decision to leave Morgan Stanley before actively working with clients, driven by a desire to return to the Midwest and help people he knew. However, he quickly realized the limited access to financial advice in his farming hometown, where ‘nobody I knew had any money.’
This realization, combined with two key observations, spurred him to start his first business between 2001 and 2004. First, he recognized the industry’s shift ‘from commission-based sales… to more fee-oriented financial planners,’ a model he found more appealing due to its emphasis on ‘comprehensive planning advice’ and fiduciary responsibility. Second, his research into asset management reinforced his belief that ‘stock picking or market timing’ offered no ‘discernible benefit,’ often eroding wealth through ‘high cost, high turnover, high taxes.’
His first entrepreneurial endeavor, which he notes ‘doesn’t exist on my LinkedIn profile,’ aimed to provide ’empirical, evidence-based investing’ through an internet-based subscription service. It was specifically designed for individuals with 401(k)s, as these defined contribution plans were often the closest many people had to a brokerage account. The goal was to ‘make it easy for people that have a 401(k) plan to get the absolute best results they can from their 401(k).’
Wenk’s journey underscores a consistent drive to democratize sophisticated financial advice through technological innovation. His early critiques of industry practices and his commitment to fiduciary, evidence-based investing laid the groundwork for Altruist’s mission to modernize the custodial landscape and make financial planning more accessible and efficient for a broader audience.
