For Sponsors (Mutual Fund and ETF Issuers)
If you are a mutual fund or ETF issuer, you already know what fund distribution costs and how little of that spend is auditable. Lead-Lag Media® is built to fix that. You subscribe. You get direct access to a network of financial advisors whose engagement is measured, transparent, and credit-verified. You see who accepted your meeting, who attended, who gave feedback, and what happened after.
We use “Sponsor” as the primary term for our paying clients on the issuer side. This includes mutual fund issuers, ETF issuers, closed-end fund issuers, interval fund issuers, and any asset manager or capital markets firm distributing an investment product to financial advisors and their clients.
You will also see the phrases “fund issuer,” “mutual fund distribution,” and “ETF distribution” used throughout deeper pages on this site. Same idea. Same customer. Sponsor is our preferred working term because the relationship is continuous, not a one-off blast.
Every Sponsor subscription is scoped to the client. The standard components are:
Ghost-written articles under the Sponsor’s byline for third-party trade publications.
Sponsor blog posts optimized for SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
Video content, short-form clips, and social media assets.
Monthly market commentary and product-specific research notes.
Smartlead-based campaigns to targeted advisor segments.
HeyReach-driven outreach to matched advisor lists.
GetResponse-based sequences to consenting advisors.
Every list passes ZeroBounce verification and the advisor no-contact registry.
Introductions to advisors in the network whose profile fits your target.
Calendly-managed booking with automated reminders.
Engagement summaries visible inside the Sponsor Portal.
Every meeting logs a credit event on the advisor side, visible in aggregate on yours.
Weekly podcast, 10,000+ monthly listeners, with a full production kit.
22,000+ subscribers seeing your work.
Inclusion in Lead-Lag Report distribution, 243,000+ subscribers.
Warm intros to top-tier trade publications.
Every Sponsor-facing asset scanned before it reaches you.
Approve, request changes, or reject each asset before send.
Every asset produced and every send executed is logged.
FINRA Rule 2210 and SEC Marketing Rule frames applied throughout.
Every Sponsor gets a Sponsor Portal login. Inside it:
The credit system means every engagement metric you see in your portal has a verifiable transaction behind it. When we report “12 advisors attended your webinar,” those are 12 credit events, not 12 rows in a CRM.
Sponsor subscriptions are custom scoped based on your deliverable mix. Base subscriptions typically run six to twelve months. We can quote a specific number after a 30-minute walkthrough call with Michael.
Michael A. Gayed, CFA is Founder of Lead-Lag Media®. Two-time Charles H. Dow Award winner (Beta Rotation, 2014; Leverage for the Long Run, 2016), two-time NAAIM Founders Award winner (Lumber, 2015; Actively Using Passive Sectors, 2020), and CFA charterholder.
He publishes The Lead-Lag Report Substack (243,000+ subscribers) and hosts Lead-Lag Live. His media appearances span CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Fox Business, The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Reuters, and MarketWatch.
No. We are a marketing and distribution firm. Sponsors remain responsible for their own regulatory compliance.
No, and neither does anyone who is being honest with you. We guarantee auditable engagement. What happens after the meeting is between you and the advisor.
Yes. Book a walkthrough call with Michael. We will show you the current advisor segment shape, aggregate engagement data, and how the portal works, before any contract.
Lead-Lag Live sponsorship (see /sponsor) is a standalone podcast-only sponsorship product. Full Sponsor subscriptions include Lead-Lag Live as one of many deliverables plus content production, advisor outreach, and direct meetings. Most Sponsors start with a Lead-Lag Live sponsorship and expand into a full subscription.
A 30-minute walkthrough call shows the current advisor segment shape, sample engagement metrics, and a specific proposal scoped to your fund.