CEO of asset management firm highlights her 30-year career that has led her to becoming an industry leader
Meridith Hutchens’ path to founding Fortis Portfolio Solutions started when she worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street. During her time as a stockbroker, Hutchens experienced a lot of hardship as a woman in a male dominated industry. She was able to overcome this adversity through her determination and intellectual curiosity and open her own company.
Hutchens says her firm is geared towards a risk conscious approach because her experience taught her conservative investors do not want to take on the full risk of investing in stocks alone. Her investment strategies help advisors and their clients stay in the markets when times are tough. Because many investors rely on their investments as a source of income in retirement, they are comforted by a smoother ride. She finds most of her advisors and their clients looking for this type of strategy are women, who tend to prioritize long term stability over quick gains. Transparency in the form of constant communication to her advisors describing the rationale behind buy and sell decisions, as well as relevant commentary on the financial markets, differentiates her firm.
Hutchens is always researching new methods to enhance the services she provides to financial advisors and their end clients. Two years ago the firm began incorporating Artificial intelligence (AI) to complement its investment strategy, which consists primarily of money that financial advisors have entrusted to the firm.
Deeper insights are made possible by AI’s ability to analyze large sets of data to uncover opportunities and avoid previously unknown risks through exponential computing power – well beyond human capability. This disciplined approach has delivered superior risk adjusted returns for the firm’s clients. Fortis Portfolio Solutions has been utilizing AI since well before it became a mainstream part of society. She says the use of AI needs to be accompanied by human oversight for it to be worthwhile and reliable. This type of innovative investment approach seeks to stay ahead of what is happening in the markets, but requires deep capital market expertise.
Hutchens says the firm is taking on AI with a thorough and well planned strategy that will benefit financial advisors and their end clients.
“We are enthusiastically embracing AI with the same disciplined metrics that we have always used,” says Hutchens. “We believe by not jumping overboard by relying solely on AI, we will be able to continue to provide a more stable and consistent return path for our investors, enabling them to reap the long term rewards of artificial intelligence.”
