No more guessing, hoping

Sarasota-based wealth manager Alin David Lozada has spent the bulk of his career in search of a solution to a serious issue: How to track a diverse portfolio's potential losses in real time, every day, to avoid large drops.

Stop-loss strategies, in Lozada's view, where brokers get out of a client's position or holdings at a pre-determined price, are slow and don't always work. Lozada's quest came to fruition at a seminar in Atlanta early last year, where he discovered AssetLock, a new proprietary tracking software program that can quickly adjust to market dynamics. The ultimate goal: Provide investors a maximum amount they can lose prior to investing.

“It blew my socks off,” Lozada tells Coffee Talk. “This takes the emotion out of investing. It will change the way people invest.”

Adds Lozada: “Guessing and hoping isn't a strategy. AssetLock is a protective feature. It's like insurance on your portfolio.”

The founder of Sarasota Wealth Advisory, Lozada also has a big business opportunity with AssetLock: He's one of 82 investment advisers nationwide, and the only one in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, approved to sell the software to clients. He's held some seminars and taken out some ads in newspapers.

“My whole job is to get this out to the public now,” Lozada says. “I want to advertise more. I want to get the word out.”

Centennial, Colo.-based wealth manager Jason Jenkins created AssetLock. The program, according to its website, was “designed so clients could help eliminate having to hear those awful four little words from their adviser ever again, 'Just hang in there.'”

AssetLock through Lozada's firm costs clients a fee of 1.2% to 1.7% of the total portfolio. Lozada started offering it in May, and says clients rave about it, including the text alerts it sends out about market movements.

Sarasota Wealth Advisory, says Lozada, has around $877 million in assets under management, with several large institutional investor clients. Lozada also works with individuals on retirement portfolios, estate planning and family financial planning. In addition to Sarasota, the firm has an office in Lakewood Ranch and Lozada plans to open one in St. Petersburg this year.