Exceptional expertise made uniquely available.

Performance. Communication. Customization.

 

The Challenge

NextStep began with a simple insight. Independent financial advisors realize that their primary skill-set and value-add are in planning and client service. These are the activities with the highest RoR on effort. Yet fully outsourcing investment management with a TAMP can be cost-prohibitive and result in undifferentiated cookie-cutter portfolios. Consultants offer more customization but can be aloof and unaccountable. A full-time internal CIO hire is more desirable, but comes at very high cost for small and mid-size RIAs.

The Solution

NextStep offers a middle path, at lower cost. We embed a Chief Investment Officer with your team for the long haul. Together we design exceptional portfolios, provide genuine value-add manager selection and ongoing tactical asset allocation; all within your existing portfolio management architecture. No repapering or custodial changes required. Our objective is enhanced investment performance for your clients and improved communication around the value you create as stewards of their capital. Ultimately, this improves client retention and acquisition, driving profitable growth for your firm.

The Team

Led by founder Michael W. Costa, CFA®, CFP®, NextStep sits at the nexus of a network of seasoned investment professionals and experts in other diverse fields. Our aim is to ensure that practical market insights are married to global perspective, lateral thinking and long term vision. You’ll have a single point of contact but can count on benefiting from the distilled skill and experience of our network.

 
 

Michael W. Costa CFA, CFP ®

Michael is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of NextStep Portfolios. He began his career as an investor in London, during the global financial crisis. He worked for a decade in Europe, most recently with Fidelity International, where he led the research effort in alternative investments for Fidelity’s multi-asset team while assisting in the management of several mutual funds with over a billion dollars in AUM. Michael brings an unusually broad set of experience and skills to bear as a portfolio architect and strategist. He’s a graduate of Columbia Business School (MBA), as well as Columbia’s School of International Affairs (MIA), a Peace Corps alumni, a Chartered Financial Analyst designation holder and a CFP certificant. When not reading the market tea leaves, he enjoys spending time with his family on the North Shore, fishing, hiking and skiing.

  • Nick Peters

    Advisory Board Member

    Nick Peters has over 25 years of investment experience, is a qualified chartered accountant and a Fidelity Multi-Asset alum. He's currently working as an investment advisor with a UK boutique, Marlborough Group. His experience spans direct investment in European equities, fund selection and managing a broad range of multi-asset mutual funds. Nick is a Charity Trustee and additionally provides support for two investment committees.

  • Alessandro Morari, PhD

    Adivsory Board Member

    Dr. Morari is a technical leader and researcher with over 15 years of experience in High Performance Computing (HPC) and Deep Learning. He is currently leading a team of specialists to advance NVIDIA's leadership in accelerating Artificial Intelligence workloads.
    His tenure included spearheading AI for Code research at IBM, which led to the creation of the Watson Code Assistant. In 2018, he contributed to developing the Summit and Sierra supercomputers, the world's fastest supercomputers. In 2014, he spearheaded PNNL's GEMS project, a high-performance, massively multithreaded graph database, which led to the spinoff of the startup Trovares. He has developed and taught the first graduate course on HPC for Machine Learning at New York University. He has contributed to over 30 academic publications and over 15 patents. He holds a Ph.D. from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, an MSc. from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and a BSc. from the University Roma Tre.

  • Advisory Board Member

    Poonam Roberts, PhD

    Dr. Roberts is an executive in the healthcare industry with expertise in strategy consulting. She holds a Doctorate of Business Administration from IE Business School in Madrid and an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. She was named one of the ‘Top 40 Under 40’ by Business in Vancouver Magazine in 2019. As a member of NextStep’s advisory board, Dr. Roberts’ role is to provide insights and guidance on business strategy and management consulting engagements.

  • Barry Betters, CFP®

    Advisory Board Member

    Barry is a financial planning ninja with over a decade of experience directly servicing clients of all types. He holds the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ designation and an MBA from the University of Southern New Hampshire. He earned the rare accolade of being awarded the Distinguished Civilian Service Medal by the New Hampshire National Guard for his work with US service members and his unwavering dedication to the profession. As a member of NextStep’s advisory board, Barry provides insights that help ensure our work is always oriented towards the unique needs of financial advisors.

  • Aldo Martinez

    Advisory Board Member

    Aldo is the CEO of Lumiere Health International, an NGO dedicated to improving the lives of refugees, internally displaced people and other underserved migrant communities. He has extensive experience in the fields of management consulting, healthcare and public policy. Aldo holds an MBA and a Master’s of Public Policy from Harvard Business School. Aldo is a member of NextStep’s advisory board, where he weighs in on matters of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, social enterprise and public policy.

  • Neil Clare, CFA

    Advisory Board Member

    Neil has over 25 years investment experience, all focused on fund research. He is currently a senior analyst with FundQuest, a part of BNP Paribas. He is responsible for selection of equity funds used by BNP Paribas Group worldwide in Global Equity, Global Impact/ESG, Thematic and US equity multi-manager products. He advises on several billion of assets. Previously he was responsible for the selection of Pan Europe equity funds Neil has been a CFA charter holder since 2003.