Vest Launches Synthetic Borrow to Revolutionize Portfolio Financing with Listed Derivatives

New digital platform seeks to offer fixed-term, institutional-grade financing to advisors and their clients.

Vest, the innovative financial firm that created the first Buffer Fund and pioneered defined outcome investing, today announced Synthetic Borrow™, an advisor-ready portfolio financing strategy delivered through a digital investment platform. Synthetic Borrow™ takes an alternative approach to traditional portfolio borrowing through listed derivatives. Advisors can generate sample borrowing terms showing indicative rates in seconds — no banks, no credit checks, no forced sales of securities.

“Options- and derivatives-based strategies have transformed investing, giving advisors access to target-income and target-outcome tools that were unimaginable a few years ago,” said Jeff Chang, President and Co-Founder of Vest. “With Synthetic Borrow™, we’re taking the next step—redefining how advisors approach liquidity planning. Having helped lead the industry’s evolution with buffer funds and ETFs, Vest is now applying proven derivatives strategies and technology to bring new efficiency to portfolio-based financing—changing that landscape and unlocking greater value for advisors and their clients.”

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The launch targets the $138 billion portfolio financing market (source: federalreserve.gov), historically dominated by pledged asset lines (PALs) and margin lending. With Synthetic Borrow™, advisors can use Vest’s digital investment platform to:

• Onboard clients and review sample borrowing terms through a secure online interface
• Lock in fixed, market-based rates upfront–avoiding floating-rate uncertainty
• Keep portfolios fully invested while accessing upfront liquidity

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“We built the first Buffer Fund because we believed advisors needed better access to derivatives strategies,” said Karan Sood, CEO and Co-Founder of Vest. “Now we’re applying that same philosophy to portfolio-based financing. The traditional financing solutions are left wanting — variable rates create uncertainty, credit checks delay access, and it all can result in less-than-optimal outcomes. We rebuilt portfolio financing from the ground up by utilizing implied financing available in the listed derivatives markets and delivering it for easy access through a tech-enabled platform. In our view, portfolio financing should have been this efficient all along.”

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