About a year ago Spark invested in a start-up called Covestor that we hoped would give people an alternative means of managing their money. If you look at the data, the Institutional Money Managers haven’t done a great job beating the basic indexes. This means that people are paying fees for active management and not doing any better than if they passively invested in the market indexes themselves. There are Money managers that have beaten the market but they come and go and few justify their existence based on their returns. In the last year or so, the Investment Management Industry has been in turmoil to say the least. This would seem to be a perfect time to introduce a new way to manage your money. Enter Covestor. The company offers an alternative to the institutional money management machine. Covestor.com has been around as a social investment site until now. On Covestor, investment results are transparent. An individual investor can establish a track record and share investment results with the Community. The company’s recently released upgrade transforms the company from a Social Investment Community site to a web-based Investment Management firm. Covestor Investment Management (CVIM) is the platform that allows you to manage your money. As a subscriber, you can invest real money into a Multi Managed Account (MMA), the world’s first of its kind. You can then choose from a variety of investment models that equate to your investment goals and appetite. The models are in the form of individual investors with certain investment styles and characteristics. You can choose from a selection of Investment Strategies or Model that match your investment needs. To become a CVIM client, one must establish an account with Covestor/CVIM and put some money in the MMA. The money actually stays in the clients brokerage account but is directed by Covestor. When a client follow a Model, the money placed behind that Model automatically replicates the investments made by the Model. Clients can decide how much to put behind the Model and can increase or decrease the amount at any time. Clients can also follow multiple Models thereby creating a portfolio of Models. The Models available to follow are screened by Covestor and the choices depend on the risk profile and investment approach sought i.e. aggressive growth vs. value-oriented. CVIM ensures that its clients can only subscribe to models that fit their risk profile and permits fine-grained control, such as excluding trades in the stock of the company they work for. As Models trade, CVIM evaluates these trades and replicates the trades in the client’s account based on the rules established for the MMA account. As CVIM adds more managers to the platform, the choice of Investment Models increases and clients can change based on the actual performance of those Models. The result is a way for you to find and follow investment strategies outside the traditional institutional money management firms. I think of CVIM as an American Idol of investment managers. You can vote for the managers you like based on their performance. Due to regulations, I am not able to talk about the performance of Covestor’s Investment Models or CVIM program. However, you can see for yourself by going to Go to http://www.cv.im.