How One Advisor Won an $8 Million Client His Wirehouse Couldn't Keep | SyntheticFi Case Study

How One Advisor Won an $8 Million Client His Wirehouse Couldn't Keep | SyntheticFi Case Study

A bridge loan, a vacation home, and the lending strategy that moved the entire portfolio.

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The Setup: An $8M Client Told He Couldn't Buy a House

Ben Jones, founder of Wave Wealth, picked up a prospect named Steve* after Steve's previous advisor told him he couldn't afford a $1.5 million vacation home — despite sitting on an $8 million portfolio.

The problem wasn't wealth. It was structure. Steve's brokerage account was full of long-held positions with massive embedded gains. Selling to fund the purchase would have triggered a significant tax event. His advisor either didn't think of another way or didn't have the tools to offer one.

Ben did. It took him 27 calls and meetings — a number he keeps on a Post-it pinned to his desk — but he put together a plan: a SyntheticFi bridge loan to cover the gap until Steve could sell his previous home, paired with a partial mortgage on the new property. No positions sold. No tax event triggered. Steve bought the vacation home, and then moved his entire $8M portfolio to Wave Wealth.

Takeaway: The previous advisor had the relationship. Ben had the solution.

The Pivot: Why Steve Kept the Loan

The original plan was simple: use SyntheticFi as bridge financing, sell the old house, pay off the balance.

Steve sold the house. There was $900K still borrowed through SyntheticFi and the cash to pay it off. Most borrowers close the loop here. Steve looked at his rate, did the math, and said:

"I think we should just leave it in place. If we're only borrowing at 4.45%, we can do better in the market."

So they kept the loan open.

Takeaway: When borrowing costs are low enough, paying off the loan isn't automatically the right move. That's a conversation worth having with your clients.

The Tax Play: Turning Borrowing Costs Into Capital Losses

Here's where it gets interesting. Because box spreads are options transactions, SyntheticFi's borrowing costs show up on Schedule D as capital losses — 60% long-term, 40% short-term under Section 1256.

Every year the loan is in place, Steve generates losses that offset capital gains dollar-for-dollar. Now Ben can gradually sell down Steve's concentrated positions and use those losses to absorb the tax hit from each sale.

Three wins from a single transaction:

1. Liquidity — Steve bought the vacation home without selling a share.

2. Rate — He borrowed at a more attractive rate than a traditional SBLOC would offer.

3. Tax efficiency — The ongoing borrowing costs fund a long-term exit from concentrated positions.

Takeaway: SyntheticFi isn't just a lending tool. For clients with embedded gains, it can become an ongoing part of the tax strategy.

What This Looks Like in Practice

Since that first deal, SyntheticFi has become Ben's default answer whenever the math favors borrowing over selling. A car dealership owner borrowed $1.6M to buy an additional stake in his store — expecting roughly 8x returns on the investment while borrowing at around 4%* and keeping his entire portfolio in the market. Ben refinanced his own wife's car loan from 5.5% to around 4%* through SyntheticFi.

"Every single time my client needs to borrow money for anything, my mind goes straight to SyntheticFi."

Ben has been doing securities-backed lending for 15 years. His take on where SyntheticFi fits:

"Most RIAs have securities-backed lending at this point. That's tablestakes. But this is different."

Fewer than 1% of advisory firms are using SyntheticFi today. Ben is an early adopter. The Steve story shows what a head start looks like.

If you're interested in learning more about how SyntheticFi can help your RIA offer better lending and win new business, set up a call with our team today.

How SyntheticFi Works

Traditional securities-backed lines of credit (SBLOCs) let clients borrow against their portfolio, but typically at rates of 8% or higher. SyntheticFi uses box spreads, a decades-old options strategy recently available to non-institutional clients, to generate liquidity at rates derived directly from exchange-listed options markets, which closely track treasury yields. The result is borrowing costs that are often significantly lower than what banks, wirehouses, or traditional SBLOC programs can offer.

Historically, box spreads were complex to manage and inaccessible to most advisors and their clients. SyntheticFi handles the structuring and execution, giving advisors a simple interface to deliver institutional-grade borrowing terms.

Rates Today: ~3.95%* floating / ~4.00%* fixed. Compare to Schwab PAL (6-8%), bank SBLOCs (5.5-8%), custodian margin loans (8-13%). Rates are lower because multiple lenders compete on the exchange-listed options market to offer capital directly, cutting out the bank middleman.

Tax deductibility: Borrowing costs are deductible as capital losses (60% long-term, 40% short-term) regardless of how the funds are used. Traditional SBLOCs are only deductible when proceeds go toward taxable investments. Estimated after-tax effective rate: ~2.95%*.

Underwriting: Collateral-based, not income-based. No income documentation, no hard credit inquiry, no appraisal. Applications can be processed in a single trading day.

Custodian integration: Works with Schwab, Pershing, Fidelity, and Interactive Brokers. No need to move assets.

Minimums and onboarding: $10,000 minimum (vs. $100,000 or more at Schwab). Onboarding in 2 weeks, with faster options available.

Market infrastructure: Box spreads have been used as a financing tool for decades, with billions in daily volume. Contracts are guaranteed by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU). SyntheticFi uses European-style S&P 500 Index Options only (cash-settled, no early exercise) and has traded well over $1B box spreads.

Risks: Borrowing facilitated by SyntheticFi is collateralized by the client's investment portfolio. If portfolio value falls, clients may need to post additional collateral. Advisors should work with clients to size borrowing appropriately.

Have a SyntheticFi Success Story?

We'd love to hear it. If you've used SyntheticFi to win a client, solve a tricky planning problem, or unlock value for your practice, we'd love to tell your story. Reach out to cooper@syntheticfi.com and we'll work with you to build a case study for your firm.

Interested in learning more? Check out our blog for more content, or book a meeting with one of our team members.

*Name changed to protect client privacy

Ben Jones is not a direct client of SyntheticFi LLC, but collaborates with SyntheticFi LLC on behalf of their firm's clients. No compensation has been provided for sharing their opinion and experience with our firm.