Episode summary
Thematic investing with venture-backed Savvy Wealth’s CIO Sharma, who increased AUM 4.5x in 2025
Summary
Savvy Wealth’s CIO Anshul Sharma said the firm is building a more institutional investment platform for independent advisers, while preserving the flexibility that attracts them to the RIA model. He described moving Savvy from a loose collection of adviser approaches toward a centralized framework covering strategic allocation, tactical allocation, selection, due diligence, and implementation. He also said the firm’s assets have grown to a little over five billion dollars after increasing more than 4.5 times in 2025.
Sharma’s investing approach favors low-cost ETFs for efficient core exposures, but he wants active managers where the market is less efficient, such as US small caps. He said Savvy is adding thematic portfolios, direct indexing, and alternatives, with private credit treated as a client-specific tool rather than a default allocation. In his view, volatility from the Iran conflict is real but not a reason for wholesale portfolio changes.
On markets, Sharma said the base case remains a softer dollar, resilient earnings, and a broadening equity rally in 2026. He is slightly overweight equities versus fixed income, likes technology, consumer discretionary, healthcare, utilities tied to AI infrastructure, and emerging markets, and sees gold as a safe-haven differentiator. He does not hold crypto and said Bitcoin remains speculative in his view.
Key takeaways
- Sharma said Savvy now has a little over $5 billion in assets after a 4.5x increase in 2025 and is building a centralized CIO-led framework for advisers.
- He favors ETFs for efficient core exposures, but expects active management to matter more in less efficient areas like US small caps.
- Savvy is close to launching thematic portfolios around AI, precious metals, energy production, aging demographics, longevity, and quantum computing.
- Sharma said the Iran conflict has not changed portfolio positioning wholesale, though Savvy is watching energy, oil, and rates closely.
- He expects the dollar to keep softening in 2026, while gold and emerging markets could benefit from that trend.
Notable quotes
“we're not changing anything as of today in response to the conflict over in uh in Iran”
“The dollar has been strong for a number of years. If growth in the US begins to moderate and if rate differentials narrow a bit, I think you could continue to see further softening of the dollar”
“we'll pay up for our alpha where we think that there's opportunity for outperformance”
How the episode opens
Sustainable energy, aging demographics is a theme that we're looking at. Longevity is another theme that we're looking at. Quantum computing is another theme that we're looking at. — Okay, let's do some prognosticating. So, the market outlook for 26. I'm going to just bring up the thing that's top of everybody's mind right now, and that's the war in Iran and its impact on energy prices. What are your thoughts on this? And are you changing anything about your portfolios um in response?
Yeah, uh I'll answer the second part first. uh we're not changing anything as of today in response to the conflict over in uh in Iran. If you go back and you look at how markets have behaved shortly after these conflicts begin and say 6 months down the line, 12 months down the line, what tend what we tend to see is that volatility spikes which we have seen already today uh and for the last week and then some.
But 6 months down the line, 12 months down the line, more often than not, markets still end up higher than where they were when the conflict began. The dollar has been strong for a number of years. If growth in the US begins to moderate and if rate differentials narrow a bit, I think you could continue to see further softening of the dollar.
I don't think that this is necessarily structural. Welcome back to Markets Group's podcast. We have uh Anchel Chararma from New York-based Savvy is joining us today.
Hi, Anchel.
Hey, good morning Ally. — So, Savvy is a venture capitalbacked RAIA owned by a parent company uh Savvy Wealth, both of which were launched by Rick Malhotra in 2021. The RAIA, which supports independent adviserss across the country, kind of got off to a slow start, but then increased assets by more than 4.5 times in 2025 and brought you on in September.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- thematic investing
- aum growth
- riaconnected advisory model
- portfolio strategy
- private credit and alternatives
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Savvy Wealth
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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