Attinger is a multi-family office managing $600 million. The firm offers private investment funds, which aim to drive industry-leading performance over a long-term investment horizon. We sat down with Attinger’s Head of Investment Analytics Tom Nicholson to discuss a wide range of topics—from how he spends his free time to the role technology plays in Attinger’s success.  

My name is: Tom Nicholson

Childhood ambition: Ski racer 

My superpower would be: Teleportation. I love traveling, but I hate airports.

My Friday night looks like: My wife works the night shift as a nurse, so my Friday night is low-key watching TV with my dog, Phoebe. 

I’m currently watching: WeCrashed

Currently listening to: Weezer, the Blue Album

I find joy in: Riding my bike to work (We asked–it’s 9 miles each way.)

On my travel list: I’d love to take my wife on an overdue honeymoon to Spain and Portugal.

My life post-Addepar: It’s been empowering. 

My favorite Addepar feature is: Navigator

Q. What’s your role and what are you currently focusing on at Attinger? 

My title is head of investment analytics. I’m currently focused on improving Attinger’s client experience using Addepar. We strive to deliver a high-touch and personalized level of client service.

Because our clients cross a large spectrum of asset bases, there’s no single portal view or report that meets everyone’s needs. We recently decided to scale back some of the features in our client portal, for example, to simplify that experience. And now that we’re using Addepar’s reporting tool, we can develop reports on the fund and client level–turning out reports more consistently, with better information in a finished product. We were using Excel before, which is hard to scale. 

Q. What led you to your current role with Attinger? 

I started at Attinger back in 2018 when it was still a single family office. I’ve been supporting that growth and evolution into a multi-family office since then. 

Q. What are you most proud of in your professional career or personal life? 

I’m really proud of playing a major role in starting a new firm.  That's not something I saw happening at the beginning of my career. I started out at a large investment bank, working at Macquarie Group, and then got involved in a single family office. When we made the decision to start a new firm, it was all hands on deck. But it’s also been a lot of fun. 

Q. What recharges you after a long week? 

Going on hikes with my wife and dog. We live pretty close to a major trail system in the Philadelphia area, so we enjoy spending time outside. 

Q. What trends will technology help you capitalize on in the future? 

Using Addepar data to make timely investment decisions is one of them. We’re leveraging Addepar’s data and analytics to make decisions faster. If you’re not fast enough, you may lose the opportunity. 

Q. How has Addepar changed your focus at work?  

For us, Addepar is one system that can do everything. It helps us manage our data. Obviously, it’s a reporting tool and it’s our portfolio management system. Addepar allows us to focus on more important tasks. We don’t have to stress about things like “is our system calculating rate of return correctly?” or “can we show specific metrics for a client?”

It gives us the freedom to do more of what we want, and to be very flexible for our clients. A client could email us tomorrow with a new set of metrics they want to see on their portfolio. Other systems might not allow us to do that, but Addepar does. 

Q. How would you describe your partnership with Addepar? 

It’s been empowering. We’re a small firm that is highly reliant on technology. We’re four people, and Addepar’s ability to scale as we grow is imperative. It’s great to see monthly or weekly releases from Addepar with new features, and I love that the development team is pulling ideas from clients directly. It makes us feel like Addepar is actually improving their systems in ways that benefit the client.

Also, Addepar has been so responsive which is a huge benefit for an organization of our size. We have to be quick in responding to clients, along with being flexible, and Addepar fits that type of environment.