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Liquidity
Case Study
5 mins
4 Ways Fortress Financial Helps Business Owners Get Faster, Cheaper Capital
Joseph Wang
Mar 3, 2026
Key Takeaways
Business owners need capital for equipment, new ventures, capital calls, and a dozen other things that don't wait for a convenient time to sell investments. Unfortunately, accessing that capital usually means one of two painful options: liquidate long-term holdings and trigger a tax event, or go hat-in-hand to a bank and navigate a slow underwriting process that may refuse to accommodate irregular income.
Fortress Financial Partners, a registered investment advisor serving business owners and high-net-worth clients, now provides their clients with a third option through their partnership with SyntheticFi.
SyntheticFi uses box spreads to create portfolio-backed loans at near-treasury rates, an approach that is often significantly cheaper than what banks or traditional securities-backed lines of credit offer.
In other words: SyntheticFi makes it easy for clients to borrow against their existing brokerage holdings, keep their investments intact, and pay less for the privilege–all without ever needing to look outside their advisor's practice to do it. We'll cover the mechanics later in more detail.
Here's how Fortress partner Chris Gure puts SyntheticFi to work.
The following examples are illustrative and do not represent all client experiences
1. Helping clients grow their businesses while diversifying their wealth
Chris regularly sees clients who pour every dollar back into their business and make zero deposits into their investment accounts. They believe they have to choose between investing in the business or investing in their retirement.
With SyntheticFi, Chris can help these clients do both. The portfolio covers short-term business needs through low-cost borrowing, while the underlying investments stay in the market and compound. Over time, the client is diversifying their net worth away from the business without ever feeling like they're starving it of capital.
When one client understood this, they shifted their entire approach: deposited $250,000 into their brokerage account, borrowed $100,000 through SyntheticFi to fund operations, and now contributes roughly $20,000 a month toward long-term investments while still fully funding the business.
Results vary by client and depend on individual financial circumstances, market performance, and risk tolerance.
2. Tax-smart equipment financing
A blue-collar business owner needed heavy equipment. He also knew he wanted to eventually sell his business and needed to start diversifying ahead of that exit.
A traditional securities-backed line of credit could have funded the purchase, but interest on an SBLOC is only tax-deductible when the proceeds are used to buy taxable investments. Use it to buy equipment, and the interest cost is just a cost.
Because SyntheticFi loans use Section 1256 contracts, borrowing costs are deductible as capital losses (60% long-term, 40% short-term) regardless of how the funds are used. That meant Chris's client could buy the equipment, capture depreciation write-offs on their CPA's advice, and deduct the borrowing cost on top of it.
"Many advisors are familiar with SBLOCs, but they haven't seen liquidity solutions priced and structured this way. This is something we can offer our business owner clients that most advisors have never heard of."
3. A mortgage alternative for business owners with uneven income
On paper, business owners are often cash-rich but income-poor. They minimize W-2 wages to avoid self-employment taxes, which is smart until they try to qualify for a mortgage. Mortgage brokers want to see high, regular income. Business owners often can't show that without restructuring their compensation in ways that cost them more in taxes.
With SyntheticFi, qualification is based on eligible brokerage collateral, not income. No income verification, no hard credit pull, no appraisal. Underwriting takes less than two weeks, and applications can be processed in a single trading day. And because rates currently sit around 3.95%, compared to 6-8% through a bank SBLOC, or a traditional mortgage, the client is also paying meaningfully less.
Borrowing costs are derived from options market pricing and fluctuate based on prevailing market conditions.
4. Unlocking capital for higher-return opportunities
Access to cheap capital creates opportunities that wouldn't otherwise exist. One of Fortress's clients runs a debt fund, lending money at 10%. When they learned they could borrow at under 5% through SyntheticFi, the arbitrage was obvious.
"Everyone gets this. A lot of our clients are using SyntheticFi for that specifically — factoring, hard money loans, cash flow and real estate projects."
Another prospective client chose Fortress as their advisor specifically because, with SyntheticFi, they could fund capital calls on their real estate investments at a fraction of what they'd pay through a traditional custodian.
"If we did this at Schwab, they'd charge 8–12%. At SyntheticFi it's 4–5%. The client instantly realized our value when he saw how much he'd be saving with us."
Better lending keeps assets and relationships in-house.
For Fortress, SyntheticFi is a client benefit and a business development tool. When clients can borrow against their portfolio at rates that beat the bank, there's no reason to move assets to a wirehouse for lending. The lending relationship stays inside the advisory practice, and so do the assets.
"They thought the bank channel had an advantage, being a bank. When they saw that advantage not only did not exist, but it was a conflict of interest because they were still a higher price, it solidified that relationship with us. That’s a $20MM relationship.”
The result: Fortress can serve business owners on both sides of the balance sheet. Liquidity events become planning opportunities rather than disruptions, and the advisor's role expands from portfolio manager to strategic capital partner, which is exactly the kind of relationship business owners are looking for.
"Everyone says they're a holistic advisor, but how do you prove it?"
Want to learn more about how SyntheticFi can help your RIA drive better outcomes for business owner clients? Set up a call Here with our team today.
How does it work?
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 / ~3.70% 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. 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.
→ Learn more about SyntheticFi Here.
