[calmbonsai]

This was precisely their business model.

The problem was easy/trivial competition from larger brokerage firms. The core IP was all about tax optimization. The same customers who would employee direct indexing already have dedicated accounting services for exactly that purpose and the additional brokerage fees are either sunk costs or de minimis.

To use an analogy, the folks who are hedge fund customers don't care about the lack of liquidity or higher management fees. You can't capture that market on margin, volume, or any kind of flow ancillaries.