“Since inception in 1994, we are deeply committed to building robust investment products that can serve our clients’ goals in every market condition.”
– Co-founders, Aaron Izenstark & Howard Nixon
Innovation drives our corporate culture just as it does our industry. Our founders and leaders began their careers in Chicago’s international trading exchanges. As sweeping technological changes were shifting the investment landscape, our co-founders Howard Nixon and Aaron Izenstark recognized the need to add value to simple direct exposure – beta* investing. By committing themselves to build a company that would harness the power of technology without compromising the pure investment know-how and integrity that provide clients true value, IRON Financial was born.
Key Milestones
2020 –
As of December 2020, IRON surpasses $8 billion in assets under management.
2019 –
With $5.4 billion in assets under management and 25 years of existence, we continue to be driven by the same “client-first” ethos set forth on day one.
2016 –
The IRON Strategic Income Fund (IFUNX) reaches its 10-year milestone in the alternative fixed income space.
2014 –
ERISA 3(38) plans under management exceed 1,000.
2012 –
We expand our offering of asset management strategies by adding four separately managed accounts including REITs, Convertible Bonds, Equity Option Premium Income, and Corporate Bonds.
2009 –
We expand our risk-based portfolio solutions with IRON Select Portfolios – a curated selection of the best ETFs and mutual funds based on our proprietary ranking system.
2007 –
Seeing a storm brewing in the financial services industry, we reinvest significant capital into our infrastructure in order to create “The Engine.” A major expansion of our data repository and quantitative research team in order to take advantage of new opportunities in individual asset classes and diversified portfolios.
2006 –
As assets grow in our strategic income style, we launch the IRON Strategic Income Fund (IFUNX), a fixed income alternative mutual fund.
2000 –
We formally launch our Corporate Retirement Services division, offering risk based portfolios to plan participants, and third party administration services to retirement plan sponsors.
1996 –
As we gain a reputation of consistency as a fixed income fiduciary, a growing number of business owner inquiries opens the door to a new retirement plan focus.
1994 –
IRON is born. Out of the belief that every investor should have transparency in what they are investing in and when an investment is made the investor should be able to see real value, IRON Financial was launched.
We begin managing assets in a “strategic income style,” an alternative fixed income style that is actively managed and designed to be non-correlated to “beta*” investing.
* “Beta” refers to passive investment in the entire broad market, which, in the references above, is defined as the set of all publicly traded bond issues. The concept of ‘beta’ is defined in the Capital Asset Pricing Model as developed by Jack Treynor, William F. Sharpe, John Lintner, and Jan Mossin, which built on the earlier work of Harry Markowitz.