Direct Indexing Built for Your Millennial and Gen Z Clients
More than 90% of Gen Z and Millennial investors want portfolios that reflect their values and financial goals.¹ Direct indexing makes it possible by giving investors ownership of individual securities rather than a whole index, with the tax optimization strategies that used to be available only to wealthy clients. Apex makes it accessible starting at $1,000.
¹ CFA Institute. Next-Gen Investors: A Guide for Wealth Managers & Financial Advisers. March 2026.
The Opportunity
Why Do Millennials and Gen Z Want Direct Indexing?
Because these next-gen investors think a generic ETF isn’t personal enough anymore. More than 90% of Gen Z and Millennial investors say it is important to align their investment portfolio with their personal values² — and direct indexing is the strategy that makes it possible to own what they believe in and exclude what they don’t.
The strategy is growing faster than ETFs and mutual funds because it solves what today’s investors actually care about: personalization, values alignment, and tax efficiency.³
Until recently, those benefits were locked behind high minimums that kept mass-affluent investors out. Apex’s direct indexing starts at $1,000, giving more investors access to strategies that were once out of reach.
² CFA Institute. Next-Gen Investors: A Guide for Wealth Managers & Financial Advisers. March 2026. https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/reports/2026/next-gen-investors
³ Fain, Diana. “Direct Indexing Reshapes Tax-Efficient Investing.” InvestmentNews, March 12, 2026. https://www.investmentnews.com/practice-management/direct-indexing-reshapes-tax-efficient-investing/265439
Built for Scale
How Does Apex Make Direct Indexing Easier to Manage?
By automating the manual complexity. Direct indexing used to require a dedicated operations team, manual tax lot monitoring, and hours of portfolio construction work per client. Apex has significantly reduced that effort, so firms can offer direct indexing at scale without the manual burdens that used to make it impractical.
And because direct indexing on AscendOS™ is integrated with the Apex Rebalancer, drift detection, tax lot tracking, and trade proposal generation can happen automatically. The result? Your team can spend less time managing portfolios and more time growing them.
Custom Index Upload
Upload your own custom benchmark and track the specific securities that fit your strategy.
Thematic Investing and ESG
Screen for ESG themes, exclude categories that don’t align with investor values, or tilt toward thematic strategies.
Tax Lot-Level Restrictions
Restrict individual tax lots, not just at the security level for more granular control over tax outcomes.
Automated Tax Loss Harvesting
Systematically identify buy and sell opportunities within direct indexed portfolios to optimize for tax outcomes — no manual monitoring required.
Capital Gains Budgeting
Set short- and long-term gains budgets at the account level; the Direct Indexing engine honors those budgets when proposing trades.
Lower Minimums
How Can Apex Offer Direct Indexing Starting at $1,000?
Three capabilities make it possible to offer direct indexing at minimums that were previously unthinkable:
- Fractional Shares
Rather than buying whole shares, Apex supports fractional share purchases, so every dollar in a client’s account can be put to work, regardless of share price - Automated Rebalancing
Without automation, the operational cost of managing a $1,000 account would exceed the revenue it generates. That’s why we recommend using the Apex Rebalancer — because it can handle drift detection, tax lot tracking, and trade proposals automatically
Direct Indexing Strategies
Which Direct Indexing Strategies Does Apex Offer?
Apex supports a full spectrum of direct indexing strategies, from simple long-only index tracking to sophisticated long/short approaches designed to generate greater tax alpha. Choose the strategy that fits your clients’ needs and account sizes.
Ready to Offer Direct Indexing to Mass-Affluent Investors?
Talk to an Apex representative about adding direct indexing to your platform — and giving the next generation of investors access to the investment strategies that resonate with their values and goals.
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