Eko Investments Inc. (“Eko”, “us” or “we”) was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on January 4, 2021. Mart Vos is the Chief Executive Officer of Eko.
Advisory Services Eko is an internet-based investment advisory firm that provides quantitative-driven investment advisory and portfolio management services, generally to individual persons in separately managed accounts (“Clients”). Eko interacts with Clients through a software application and technology that is available through the internet or mobile platforms (the “Platform”). In addition, Eko licenses the Platform primarily to financial institutions such as banks, credit unions, and financial technology firms (“Financial Institutions”), who then offer Eko’s investment advisory services directly to their customers through Eko’s white-labeled product (“White-label Clients”). Eko provides discretionary and limited-discretionary advisory services (as further described below) to Clients, including recommending investment portfolios and giving Clients access to live dashboards through various Platforms (as described above).
Eko creates personalized investment portfolios for Clients, in line with the Clients’ risk appetite and investment preferences, consisting of publicly-traded equities and Exchange-Traded Funds (“ETFs”). Eko’s investment preferences allow Clients to focus their investment portfolio on various investment topics. The Investment topics categorized by Eko, include but are not limited to tech companies, healthcare companies, renewable energy companies, regional companies and/or companies with female leadership.
Eko deploys several models to capture the financial performance of companies in its investment universe. These financial checks look at volatility over an extended time period, trend data, volume data, Sharpe ratio, analyst ratings, and other technical indicators. These checks are automatically executed every day for all companies in Eko’s universe of equities and ETFs, so Eko seeks to recommend investments with a focus on maximizing financial returns while limiting volatility.
Eko’s investment offerings Presently, Eko offers 2 advisory investment account products to Clients, and the availability of these products may be dependent on whether they are direct Clients or White-label Clients. For Eko’s White-label Clients, the White-label Client’s affiliated Financial Institution will determine which of Eko’s advisory products will be made available to their customers.
Eko offers the following types of advisory investment accounts: 1) a limited-discretionary managed investment account. In this advisory investment account option, Eko recommends an investment portfolio of publicly traded equities and ETFs to Clients based on their risk appetite and investment preferences. Prior to the Client funds their investment account to purchase the securities from Eko’s recommended investment portfolio, the Client can delete and/or add a limited number of individual equities and ETFs from and/or to the recommended investment portfolio. Any additions the Client chooses to make to their account will be from a limited universe of equities and ETFs recommended by Eko and based on the Client’s risk appetite. Further, once Eko purchases the securities for the Client’s investment account, the Client will have the opportunity to make a limited number of changes to their investment account by deleting a limited number of securities from their account and/or adding a limited number of securities recommended by Eko based on the Client’s risk appetite and investment preferences. This portfolio is monitored and managed on the Client’s behalf, including to ensure that the investment portfolio correlates to the Client’s risk appetite and investment preferences. For both the discretionary and limited-discretionary accounts, Eko has discretionary authority to rebalance the account where such opportunities exist based on various market factors or where the Client’s investment account is no longer aligned with the Client’s risk appetite and investment preferences. 2) a discretionary managed investment account. In this advisory investment account option, Eko creates for Clients a recommended investment portfolio of publicly-traded equities and ETFs based on the Clients’ risk appetite and investment preferences and then manages the investment account on the Client’s behalf. The Client does not provide approval for securities held in the account or for every individual trade.
While the Client’s investment account is monitored and managed by Eko, the Client does not have the ability to make their own trading decisions; and For our limited-discretionary managed investment account, Eko uses direct indexing to create its investment portfolios. This means that Eko’s investment portfolios will primarily consist of individual stocks, as opposed to using one or multiple ETFs. In some cases, Eko will add one of multiple ETFs to the investment portfolio, in most cases to add ETF-traded bonds to portfolios. The amount of a Client’s investment account that is invested in ETFs will generally not be larger than 25% of the amount of investments in the investment account.
Eko’s recommended portfolios will generally consist of 15-50 individual stocks or ETFs. For our discretionary managed investment account create portfolios using a mix of well-diversified ETFs.
Our investing strategies utilize a proprietary quantitative investment model that primarily selects US publicly-traded equity securities and ETFs. Since our universe of available securities is constantly monitored, including adding other potential companies into the available universe of securities, our universe of securities is subject to change throughout the year. Please refer to Item 6 for an overview of our quantitative investment model.
All Clients receive advisory services via Eko’s Platform, which can be accessed through Eko’s website and mobile app, and concerning White-label clients, through the Financial Institutions online website or platform. Before a Client’s investment portfolio is structured and implemented, whereby Eko provides investment recommendations pursuant to our quantitative models, the Client must fill out an online questionnaire designed to identify their investment objectives and tolerance for risk. This questionnaire has 2 parts: 1) questions regarding the risk appetite of the Client and 2) a selection of investment categories/sectors the Client can pick. When a Client chooses certain investment categories/sectors, Eko’s investment recommendations will focus on including securities from the applicable categories for the Client’s investment portfolio. Typically, a client can pick from 10-15 investment categories/sectors in the questionnaire. However, in some cases more investment categories/sectors may be available, if, for example, requested by the Financial Institution. Clients can choose from, including, but not limited to the following categories: renewable energy, energy-saving technology, tech companies, regional companies, female leadership and black leadership. This second part of this questionnaire, regarding a Client’s interest in investing in certain investment categories/sectors is optional,

and Clients can choose to not have specific investment categories/sectors within Eko’s recommended investment portfolio.
The responses to the questionnaire are the sole basis upon which Eko recommends an investment portfolio. The Client’s input in the questionnaire, together with the quantitative models that Eko deploys will lead to a final recommended investment portfolio. Our technology does not work with ‘baskets’, instead, every Client will receive a personalized investment portfolio that aligns with their risk appetite and optionally selected investment categories/sectors, which can also be described as direct indexing. As noted above, direct indexing is an investment strategy where an investor holds individual stocks that make up an index in their own account directly, instead of using a mutual fund or ETF to track the underlying index. After the investment portfolio is recommended, depending on what account-type product is chosen by the Client, Clients may have the possibility to remove certain securities from their investment portfolio.
Clients will be required to open a custody account with Alpaca Securities, LLC (“Alpaca” or “Custodian”) who will serve as the “qualified custodian” for all client accounts. Clients will also be required to execute an investment advisory agreement (“Advisory Agreement”) with Eko that establishes the terms and advisory services that Eko provides. Through the Advisory Agreement with Eko, Clients will authorize Eko to open an account with Alpaca, a registered broker-dealer and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. Alpaca provides custody, clearing, and settlement services for Clients. The Advisory Agreement will set forth the terms and conditions of the advisory services provided by Eko. When clients enter into an Advisory Agreement with Eko, the Client grants Eko certain authority to manage his or her account.
Alpaca exercises no discretion in determining if and when trades are placed.
When a Client opens their account with Eko, they grant us investment discretion (or limited investment discretion, as applicable) to manage their investment account and execute trades in the investment account, and we may initiate or halt trading at our discretion and for any reason, including halting trading under conditions when we believe that continued trading may pose an undue risk of harm to the Client’s investment accounts.
Client onboarding is only complete once a Client (i) has linked the Client’s bank account (“Funding Account”) to the Firm’s broker-dealer/Custodian. Eko will not have access to a Client’s bank account information nor will Eko have access to a Client’s login credentials; and (ii) Eko has accepted and countersigned Eko’s Advisory Agreement electronically. Only when Client onboarding is complete, the Client’s investment account will be actively managed by Eko. Clients should understand that Eko primarily uses electronic (not telephonic) means to provide customer support. Clients and prospective Clients should be comfortable communicating through those channels. Further, Clients should understand that they will not interact directly with investment advisory personnel. White-label Clients should understand that certain aspects of customer service, with respect to their Eko investment account may also be provided through their Financial Institution, although any such customer services provided by the Financial Institution with respect to their investment account advised by Eko may be limited.
Eko does not provide comprehensive financial or tax planning or legal advice, and Clients are advised and afforded the opportunity to seek the advice and counsel of the Client’s own tax, financial, and legal advisers. Eko does not provide a complete investment program and Clients should not use it as the sole component of their investment plan.
Fees and Compensation Eko is compensated by charging Clients 0.3% per year based on the value of their assets and investments managed and advised by Eko (“Management Fee”). The Management Fee is charged monthly in arrears and is automatically deducted from their custodial account. If a Client’s investment account does not have enough funds to cover the Management Fee, Eko may be required (as authorized through the Advisory Agreement with the Client) to sell a portion of securities in your investment account to raise funds sufficient to cover our Management Fee. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to reduce or waive the Management Fee for certain Client accounts for any period of time that we determine.
Further, certain Financial Institutions may determine to offer Eko’s advisory services to White-label Clients at no cost. In such circumstances, Eko will not charge such White-label Clients the Management Fee but instead may charge the Management Fee or additional fees directly to the Financial Institution. In the event Clients wish to terminate our services, a prorated amount of the Management Fee will be charged to your account(s) based on the number of days in the month that the investment account remained active prior to the termination. You must provide notice of termination as outlined in your Advisory Agreement.
Upon receipt of such notice, we will proceed to close out your account(s).
Financial Institution Fees In some cases, Eko charges a fee to the Financial Institutions to integrate and/or implement Eko’s Platform into the Financial Institution’s platform, in order to provide Eko’s advisory services and Platform directly to White-label Clients. Such fees are separate from the Management Fee that may be charged to Clients and Clients are not directly charged these platform integration and implementation fees. However, Financial Institutions may charge their customers additional fees, in addition to Eko’s Management Fee, in connection with providing Eko’s advisory services and Platform directly to White-label Clients on the Financial Institution’s platform. Such fees will generally be determined independent from Eko, and while Eko may collect such additional fees from Clients on behalf of the Financial Institution, Eko remits such additional fees to the Financial Institution and no portion of such fees charged by Financial Institutions will be retained by Eko. White-label Client’s may therefore be required to pay fees for Eko’s advisory services in excess of the Management Fee which Eko will charge to direct Clients and should review any such fees that may be charged by their Financial Institution before determining to become a White-label Client of Eko.
Other Fees The issuer of some of the securities or products purchased for Clients, such as ETFs, may charge product fees that affect Clients. Eko does not charge these fees to Clients and does not benefit directly or indirectly from any such fees. An ETF typically includes embedded expenses that may reduce the ETF’s net asset value, and therefore directly affect the ETF’s performance and indirectly affect a Client’s portfolio performance.
Assets Under Management As of 03/31/2024, we managed approximately $1,252,902.62 in client assets on a discretionary basis.