Frequently Asked Questions


What is Lasso Advisor Portal?

Lasso Advisor Portal is the companion app to Lasso Investor.  Below is a high level overview of how the apps work together: 


How do I use Lasso Advisor Portal?


How do I find new leads on Lasso Advisor Portal?

On your advisor dashboard.  Select Community.  Under New Plans, you will see a list of all plans created by investors on the platform.  Simply select a plan that you would like to enhance and click “Send Request”. This will alert the investor that you would like to review their plan.  If the investor accepts your plan request, you will receive a notification and see the plan under Shared Plans

Looking for plans more specific to your practice? Click the filter button as shown below and filter by the investor’s distance, plan type, plan score or goal amount:


Can I use Lasso with existing customers?

Yes. Lasso provides an easy framework for consumers to understand investing problems. Lasso supports a more effective conversation between advisors and clients by breaking down any financial goal into 4 core components - amount already saved, time horizon, future contributions and portfolio. Lasso then provides a simple interface for consumers to interact with those 4 components and understand how each component impacts the stated goal. 

This is a conversation that can be had with any client as a part of a check in meeting to help clients understand where they stand and any potential actions that are needed to get them on track.  


How do I invite pre-existing prospects and clients onto Lasso?

It’s simple! Simply select Investors along the left-hand side of the Advisor Dashboard and click the + sign next to investors.  Select Share Lasso and choose a delivery method best suited for you.


How do I understand the cards on the Community page?

The cards on the Community page all represent plans that investors have built on Lasso. Each plan is for a financial goal that the investor would like an advisor's help implementing (and hopefully improving). If you see a plan or an investor you think you could help, you can reach out to the lead using the 'Contact Lead' button.

See the images below for specifics on what each value on the card represents.


How do prospects and consumers share plans with me on Lasso?

Plans can be shared with you through three different verticals:

  • You can invite pre-existing prospects and clients onto the platform who can then share plans with you. See this question for how to send invites.
  • Consumers on the platform can find you organically and request that you review their plan.
  • You can send requests to consumers in the Community for plans that meet your pre-qualifications and for which you want to build a proposal. See this question for how to send requests.

How do I create a proposal?

You can only create proposals for plans that have been shared with you, which will appear under Shared Plans on your Advisor Dashboard. For shared plans, you can build a proposal in 5 simple steps to showcase how you could improve the consumer’s plan:

Step 1: Review the consumer’s current plan.

Select a plan that has been shared with you and View Summary to see a high level overview of the consumer’s plan.  When the consumer built their plan, they were able to select and modify their savings, time horizon, contributions and portfolio allocation, which resulted in an overall plan score out of 100 points that lets you know whether or not the consumer’s plan is on track. If the plan is at or over 100 points, their plan is on track, otherwise, they need some help!  After viewing the vitals of the consumers plan, you are now ready to Build a Proposal.

Step 2: Confirm the Benchmark

Based on the consumer’s goal and information presented in the plan summary, determine the minimum amount of stock you’d like to have in the investors portfolio.  If you believe the investor’s benchmark should be modified, select Change.

Step 3: Improve the Score

You will be presented with curated lists of funds that you could use to optimize the consumer’s portfolio. . The goal of this step is to improve the consumer’s plan through strategic asset allocation of actively managed funds.

Adjust the slider: Once you have selected the funds that you would like to use, modify the underlying asset allocation by toggling the Choose Portfolio slider.  As you adjust the slider, notice how the asset allocation changes under “Funds, Asset Classes and Portfolio Statistics”.  Click Next once you are comfortable with the asset allocation.

Step 4: Suggest Plan Improvements

You will be presented with plan suggestions that, if selected, will be included in the client’s plan proposal. Notice that if your plan enhancement is over 100 points, the plan suggestions inform you that the investor can either reduce their savings, time horizon or contributions. If applicable, select a plan improvement and select Next.

Step 5: Review and Send Proposal

Select Preview.  Once selected, you will preview the plan proposal you are sending the investor. Once complete, select Send Proposal.  The investor has now received your plan proposal.


What happens after I send a proposal?

After sending a plan proposal, the investor has the option to accept or reject your proposal.  If they accept your proposal, both of your contact information will be shared with one another.  You can view the investors contact information under Investors on your Advisor Dashboard.


What is the Leaderboard?

The Advisor Leaderboard is a location to showcase which advisors are actively creating value for investors on Lasso. The ranking is based on how many points advisors have created for consumers via proposals. Each time an advisor sends a proposal, the additional points created by that proposal are added to an advisor’s total score. The rankings are calculated starting on the first of each month through the last day of the month.


Are assets custodied on the platform?

No. Lasso provides the framework for better prospecting and client conversations but does not involve any account management. All assets are custodied on the systems that you are already using and any transactions occur there. 

Lasso does not execute trades or make any financial or investment decisions on your or your client’s behalf. Lasso also does not perform any monitoring of investments.


How do I choose which funds to use in the proposal?

Consumers do not see any of the specific funds listed that were used to enhance their plans. Instead, consumers simply see the name(s) of the fund managers that were included as a part of the advisor’s proposal. Because no specific fund recommendation is made, advisors do not need to determine suitability of the funds included in a proposal. 

Further, all funds available through Lasso are 40 Act Mutual Funds and ETFs. There are no restricted classes of funds included in the Lasso platform. There is also no obligation or expectation that a consumer actually invests in the funds that were used as a part of the proposal. 

However, there is information provided by the consumer around their investment goal type, time horizon, asset level, risk tolerance and investment preferences that can help guide an advisor’s choice around a reasonable Pass for a consumer’s plan. 


What are manager passes?

Manager passes are curated allocation suggestions for a particular user’s investments in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). All funds used in manager passes are 40 Act Mutual Funds and ETFs.


How are the risk and return characteristics calculated for the funds held in the manager passes?

Lasso Advisor Portal makes use of mutual fund forecasts.  These forecasts are created quarterly by GBI.  Forecasts of fund risk and return each consist of two components.  The first is the component of return and risk that is due to the fund’s style, defined as the portfolio of asset classes that best explains the variation in fund returns.  The second component is the component of risk and return that is uncorrelated with the fund’s style.  We call this active return and active risk.

Fund styles are determined using the well-known technique of returns-based style analysis.  This analysis results in a fund’s style, which describes a portfolio of asset classes that best explain the variation in fund returns.  Forecasted style returns and risks are calculated by referring to the asset class forecasts for the fund’s style portfolio.  Active risks are calculated by smoothing the historical active risk using an exponential weighted process.  Finally, for active return, we map a third-party fund rating service research (e.g. Wilshire Associates Manager Research) to an expected information ratio (active return / active risk).  Taking the product of the expected information ratio and the forecasted active risk gives us the expected active return.


How can I request more passes?

To request more passes, simply click on your Profile on the Advisor Dashboard and Select Request Passes. From there, select the fund manager you would like more passes from.  


What if my preferred asset manager does not have passes?

If your fund manager of choice is not on the platform and you would like them to be, please suggest it here:


What are the points I see on prospect plans?

To build a plan in Lasso, investors play a simple game in which they add ingredients (savings, time horizon, annual contributions, risk tolerance) to their plan until they reach 100 “points”.  A point is defined as the percentage of expected portfolio assets versus the expected liability (goal) value.  100 points means that expected portfolio assets (given the plan ingredients) are expected to equal the expected value of the liability at the time the liability is due.  Adding ingredients (e.g. adding 1 year of time) to a plan increases the number of points.


How are plan points calculated?

Game points are calculated using a stochastic process that models the portfolio, the liability and the covariance between the two.  This process gives us the expected value of portfolio and liability when the investor is expected to provide funds to begin defeating the liability.  By comparing portfolio and liability value, we can determine the degree to which the investor’s currently chosen ingredients are expected to satisfy the demands of the liability.