About Us
AIQ Asset Management is first and foremost an investment management firm and, thus, our primary mission is to meet, and exceed, clients’ financial objectives while taking the appropriate amount of risk. Our belief is that investors are generally taking too much risk. Some investors are chasing returns while others are at risk of not meeting their goals by being too conservative.
We believe our unique investment process which combines the tremendous and rapidly evolving power of artificial intelligence with irreplicable intuition and experience of traditional fundamental analysis will improve financial outcomes and that it can be made available to clients of all sizes and levels of sophistication at a reasonable cost either through direct institutional relationships or via our independent financial advisor partners.
For our Advisor Partners
While much of this site is focused on the investment process, it is important to highlight that AIQ is dedicated to improving the lives and business prospects of its independent financial advisor clients.
Financial Advisors are required to be a fiduciary for their clients which necessitates them being an expert on a wide range of financial topics including regulations, tax codes, and planning matters, while at the same time fulfilling their legal obligation to construct appropriately tailored, risk-aligned investment portfolios for each of their clients.
Each of these are full time jobs in themselves with investment management possibly being the most time consuming given the need to focus on the ever-changing economic backdrop, watch financial markets, and evaluate thousands of potential investment opportunities and client holdings.
Additionally, advisors need to find time to manage their practices from abusiness perspective.
AIQ significantly decreases the amount of time and stress our advisors commit to investment management. We have had a material positive impact on the practices of our advisor partners. Our team lives and breathes investments all day, every day; and we offer that commitment, combined with our decades of investment experience and our highly sophisticated artificial intelligence tools, to independent advisors to help them get a significant chunk of their day back while also providing their clients with access to sophisticated individually curated investment strategies at a reasonable price.
Our History
Two distinct paths converge to reshape the investment management industry
AIQ is the culmination of ideas, technology, and experience that are decades in the making.
Roots in institutional asset management but paths diverge
AIQ’s co-founders, Jean Paul Lagarde and Michael Thomas, both began their careers in the institutional asset management business; however, Jean Paul became increasingly focused on quantitative data science driven strategies and risk-management via options, while Michael focused on traditional fundamental analysis managing both equity and fixed income portfolios.
Unified goal of superior risk adjusted returns, different approaches
What did not diverge was their frequent conversations and their consistent desire to produce higher returns with less risk. It was in these conversations that the two began to realize the pitfalls of their respective strategies and how each other’s strengths could help solve for those shortcomings.
The beginning of AIQ
The two formally joined forces in 2020 and with the recent formation of AIQ Asset Management and its close partnership with Advisor Resource Council, they upgraded and expanded the investment and operational teams and put in place additional enhancements to both the A.I. interface and the fundamental research process which they expect to drive even better client outcomes.
Experience matters in your people
AIQ’s co-founders each bring more than 25 years of investment experience to the company, have known each other for more than 20 years, and bring a wide breadth of experience across the investment landscape including public and private investments, equities, fixed income, and options, as well as both hedge funds and long only investment vehicles.
AND your technology
It is also important to realize that while Artificial Intelligence has become a common expression over the last couple of years and businesses across industries tout their A.I. prowess, the team of data scientists that drive our A.I. are far from newcomers. The models at the heart of the investment process were first developed in 1990 and have been evolving since.
Jean Paul Lagarde
Chief Investment Officer
Michael Thomas
Senior Portfolio Manager
Nick Moore, CFA™
Senior Trader
Shana McHaffey, CFP®
Director of Operations
Sarah Pais
Chief Compliance Officer