Tag: Artificial Intelligence
The WealthStack Podcast: How AI Can Uncover Hidden Portfolio Risk With Af Malhotra

The WealthStack Podcast: How AI Can Uncover Hidden Portfolio Risk With Af Malhotra

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Investment teams have access to more data than ever, but more information does not necessarily mean better insight. Analysts still spend enormous amounts of time gathering filings, reading disclosures, comparing earnings calls and reconciling information across disconnected systems. At the same time, market volatility, geopolitical risk and rapidly changing investor expectations are making traditional, backward-looking portfolio analysis increasingly difficult to rely on alone.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Af Malhotra, Founder and CEO of ReN, to explore how AI can help investment teams move from backward-looking analysis toward more forward-looking risk intelligence. They discuss ReN’s approach to analyzing portfolios, why domain-specialized AI matters in financial services, how automation could reshape investment research and what the future of embedded, agentic investment intelligence could look like.

Key takeaways:

  • How AI can help uncover portfolio risks hidden across filings, disclosures and earnings calls
  • Why investment research is moving beyond backward-looking performance data
  • How ReN uses AI to identify inconsistencies, anomalies and changing risk signals
  • Why domain-specialized language models may be better suited for high-stakes financial decisions
  • How automation and agentic AI could reshape the future of investment research and advisor workflows

Resources:


Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Aftab (Af) Malhotra: 

About Our Guest:

Af Malhotra is a tech founder, active investor, and dedicated philanthropist. He has an illustrious career in technology, having held leadership roles in global companies including Amstrad, Fujitsu, and most recently Gartner. 

Af is a regular contributor in the media, having been featured as a ‘technology entrepreneur and visionary ’ on the BBC News, CNBC Live, HuffPost, Financial Express Magazine, The Times, Raconteur, Bloomberg, International Finance Magazine and the Entrepreneur Magazine.

Af has acquired graduate and post-graduate degrees from Goldsmiths College, University of London (Anthropology), Kingston Business School (MA in Business), Harvard Business School (Executive Education). He is also a guest lecturer at London Business School (LBS)  and Queen Mary’s, University of London.

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The WealthStack Podcast: Building the Foundation for Enterprise AI with Dynasty’s Leslie Norman

The WealthStack Podcast: Building the Foundation for Enterprise AI with Dynasty’s Leslie Norman

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As artificial intelligence adoption accelerates across wealth management, enterprise RIAs are becoming an important proving ground for what it actually takes to move from experimentation to scale. The conversation has shifted to be more about the foundation required to make AI useful across an entire wealth management business

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Leslie Norman, chief technology officer at Dynasty Financial Partners, to explore what it takes to move AI beyond experimentation and into the everyday operating system of an RIA. They discuss why advisors can still find themselves acting as the “human integration layer” between disconnected systems, how Dynasty is building a more unified technology and data foundation, and what has to happen behind the scenes for AI to become truly useful at scale.

Key takeaways:

  • Why connected data and integrated systems are critical to getting more value from AI
  • Why Dynasty Labs was created as a dedicated innovation arm
  • How change management affects whether advisors actually adopt new technology
  • How Dynasty is prioritizing AI use cases based on business impact and ROI rather than chasing technology for technology’s sake
  • How virtual assistants and AI agents could prepare work for advisors before the day begins

Resources:

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Connect with Leslie Norman:

About Our Guest:

As Chief Technology Officer, Leslie Norman is responsible for the strategy and delivery of technology solutions that benefit the hundreds of independent financial advisors and professionals across the Dynasty Network. She oversees the Product and Engineering, Information Technology, Cyber Security, and Technology Services teams who help Dynasty’s community get the most from their tech stack. She also leads Dynasty Labs, the firm’s dedicated innovation arm, where emerging technologies are explored and developed into practical capabilities for advisors.

Her leadership has focused on building an integrated platform that supports independent advisors at scale, with a strong emphasis on AI and data-driven capabilities. Leslie has spent her career at the intersection of technology and financial services, leading initiatives that modernize operations and put better tools in the hands of advisors and their clients. Her work spans product development and operational transformation — building systems that simplify complexity, automate the back office, and create more meaningful client experiences.

Leslie holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master’s in International Business from the University of Florida, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Finance. A proud Tampa Bay native, Leslie brings a personal connection to the region’s growth and to the mission of developing the next generation of business and technology leaders.

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The WealthStack Podcast: How AI Is Reshaping Private Market Investing with Anna Joo Fee

The WealthStack Podcast: How AI Is Reshaping Private Market Investing with Anna Joo Fee

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Private markets are moving closer to the core of the wealth management conversation, but the experience around accessing, evaluating and explaining those opportunities remains highly fragmented. As advisors face growing client interest in alternatives, pre-IPO companies and more personalized investment opportunities, the need for better education, due diligence, transparency and portfolio context has never been greater.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Anna Joo Fee, CEO and founder of Goodfin, to explore how AI is changing the private markets experience. They discuss why access alone is not enough, how agentic AI can help advisors and investors navigate complex information, and why the future of private wealth may bring investing, tax, planning and private markets into a more connected ecosystem.

Key takeaways:

  • How AI can help address opacity, fragmentation and information gaps in private markets
  • Why access to private markets can become a source of alpha, but only when paired with education and context
  • What makes applying AI to private markets different from applying it to public markets
  • How agentic AI can support research, document analysis, investor education and investment workflows
  • Why advisor judgment, guardrails and trust become even more important as AI becomes more powerful

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Anna Joo Fee: 

About Our Guest:

Anna Joo Fee is the CEO and Founder of Goodfin, an AI-native wealth platform focused on private market investing. A former attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell, she brings a background in financial services, private markets, and fintech to her work building technology that helps advisors and investors better understand, access, and manage private investments. Through Goodfin, Anna is focused on using artificial intelligence to improve investment research, education, tax planning, and portfolio decision-making while keeping human expertise at the center of the wealth management experience.

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The WealthStack Podcast: AI’s Role in RIA Growth with John Wernz

The WealthStack Podcast: AI’s Role in RIA Growth with John Wernz

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Artificial intelligence in wealth management is moving beyond productivity hacks and into the heart of organic growth. For advisors, the next opportunity is not simply creating more content faster, but building smarter growth engines that connect marketing, client engagement, intent signals, referrals, personalization and measurable business development outcomes.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with John Wernz to explore how AI is changing advisor marketing, where firms should focus now, and why the future of growth may depend on becoming more human, not less.

Key takeaways:

  • How AI is shifting from efficiency tools to direct organic growth drivers
  • Why advisor marketing is moving from point solutions to connected growth platforms
  • How AI notetakers are evolving into workflow and referral intelligence tools
  • Why AEO and GEO are changing how firms get discovered by prospects
  • How firms can measure whether AI is creating real growth or just more activity

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with John Wernz: 

About our Guest: 

John Wernz is a growth strategist, advisor, investor, and marketing leader with more than 25 years of experience helping financial services firms drive organic growth. Throughout his career, he has held leadership roles with organizations including Fisher Investments and Wealth Enhancement Group, where he helped support significant growth initiatives. Today, he advises private equity-backed firms, wealth management organizations, and fintech companies on marketing, business development, technology, and growth strategy. Known for combining data-driven decision-making with a deep understanding of client relationships, John focuses on helping firms adapt to changing market dynamics, emerging technologies, and evolving client expectations.

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The WealthStack Podcast: AI’s Client Engagement Frontier with A.J. De Rosa

The WealthStack Podcast: AI’s Client Engagement Frontier with A.J. De Rosa

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Everyone in wealth management is talking about artificial intelligence, but too much of the conversation still centers on efficiency. Yes, saving time matters. But the bigger opportunity is moving firms from disconnected tools, dashboards and workflows into a world where AI can help deliver timely insights, proactive engagement and more personalized communication at scale.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with A.J. De Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Intellebox, to explore what separates AI as a feature from it as a firmwide strategy, why agentic workflows are not the same as basic automation, and how compliance may become stronger, not weaker, when AI is designed with the right guardrails.

Key takeaways:

  • How client engagement and personalization have become the new bottlenecks in wealth management
  • Why AI needs to evolve from point solutions into agentic operating systems
  • How compliance could become stronger with AI-powered oversight and human review
  • Why the future is not human versus AI, but human judgment plus machine intelligence
  • Why efficiency alone is not a growth strategy for advisory firms

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with A.J. De Rosa:

About Our Guest:

AJ DeRosa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Intellebox.ai, where he leads the company’s mission to redefine wealth management through agentic AI and a next-generation client engagement platform. His extensive experience in startup leadership, capital formation, and enterprise scaling has positioned him exceptionally well for this next chapter, building an industry-transforming company at the intersection of AI and wealth advisory.

AJ brings over 29 years of revenue and operations leadership across finance, AI, and technology. He joined Intellectus Partners as a Partner and CEO-in-Residency, specifically recruited to incubate and launch Intellebox.ai. During his time at Intellectus, AJ helped shape the firm’s growth strategy while architecting the vision, commercial model, and market approach that became the foundation of Intellebox.

Before launching Intellebox.ai, AJ played integral roles in five venture-backed startups. Most recently, as Chief Revenue Officer and Section 16 Officer at Evolv Technologies, he helped lead the company through hyper-growth and its successful NASDAQ public listing in 2021. Prior to Evolv, AJ served as Chief Revenue Officer at Orbital Insight, where he secured over $120 million in venture capital from firms including Sequoia, Google Ventures, and Lux Capital, relationships he continues to support as an advisor.

Earlier, AJ spent more than a decade at Eze Software Group, where he contributed to major private equity transactions and served as Co-Head of Global Sales, solidifying his deep roots in the investment management and hedge fund ecosystem.

AJ holds a B.S. in Economics from Lehigh University.

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The WealthStack Podcast: AI, Capacity and the Future of Advice with Mark Swan

The WealthStack Podcast: AI, Capacity and the Future of Advice with Mark Swan

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Everyone in wealth management is talking about artificial intelligence, but the more important question is what happens when it stops being just another feature and starts becoming the operating layer for the firm. Not just a notetaker. Not just a chatbot. Something that can actually help advisors scale capacity, reduce operational drag and make the tech stack feel a whole lot less fragmented.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic chats with Mark Swan, CEO and co-founder of Nevis, to explore what it really takes for AI to move beyond point solutions and into the core infrastructure of a modern RIA. He unpacks the difference between horizontal AI tools and vertical AI platforms, why voice may become the next major interface in advisor technology, and how firms can start thinking about AI not as a collection of disconnected tools, but as a system for orchestrating work across the front, middle and back office.

Key takeaways:

  • Why the real bottleneck in wealth management is advisor capacity, not demand
  • The difference between AI point solutions and a truly unified platform
  • What lessons from digital banking can teach wealth firms about scaling and reducing costs
  • Why voice could become a much more natural way for advisors to interact with their technology 
  • How lowering the cost to serve could make professional financial advice accessible to more clients

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Mark Swan:

About Our Guest:

Mark Swan is the CEO and Co-founder of Nevis, an AI platform built specifically for wealth management firms. Originally from Scotland, he brings a global perspective shaped by his experience helping scale Revolut into one of the largest digital banks in the world. At Nevis, Mark is focused on reducing the administrative burden that limits advisor capacity, using AI to streamline workflows and improve how firms operate. His work centers on helping advisors spend less time on processes and more time with clients, while also expanding access to financial advice through more efficient and scalable systems.

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The WealthStack Podcast: Elevating the Client Meeting with Dan Zitting

The WealthStack Podcast: Elevating the Client Meeting with Dan Zitting

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Client meetings remain the heartbeat of the advisory relationship, but the expectations around them have never been higher. Advisors are under pressure to show up prepared, deliver deeply personalized guidance and answer increasingly complex questions on the spot, all while navigating a fragmented tech stack and rising client expectations shaped by artificial intelligence.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Nitrogen CEO Dan Zitting to unpack how technology is reshaping the before, during and after of client engagement. Fresh off Nitrogen’s Fearless Investing Summit, Zitting shares why the real opportunity in wealthtech isn’t replacing advisors with automation, but amplifying their expertise through connected workflows, compelling visuals and agentic AI.

Key takeaways:

  • Why the client meeting is becoming the most important battleground for advisor value
  • How Nitrogen rebuilt its platform around its Nucleus AI engine to automate advisor workflows
  • Why tax conversations may spark the next generation of “catalyst moments” for clients
  • Why persuasive visuals can transform client understanding and engagement
  • How AI tools could help advisors manage larger client books while offering deeper planning insights

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Dan Zitting:

About Our Guest:

Nitrogen CEO Dan Zitting is a SaaS entrepreneur & operator, with a passion for software that enables a bold vision, especially one as bold as empowering the world to invest fearlessly. Prior to Nitrogen, Dan spent 13 years in enterprise SaaS for governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC). That journey started with founding Workpapers.com, the first true cloud software for audit & compliance management, which was acquired by Galvanize (then ACL) in late 2011. Then, leading Galvanize, Dan oversaw growth into the industry-recognized leader globally in GRC as recognized by analysts, investors, and (most importantly) customers alike. Galvanize was ultimately acquired by Diligent in a $1B transaction that created by far the world’s largest company in GRC software, a $650m+ revenue SaaS business serving 25,000 customers in 130+ countries. Dan’s lessons along the way have been published in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Business Week, Reuters, The Street, CNBC, etc., as well as from the stage at hundreds of professional speaking events.

Dan graduated with a BSBA in Information Systems and Finance from Colorado State University and received a Master of Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame. Dan believes his purpose is to challenge the planet’s organizations to maximize impact by operating with a conscience, and he’s found cloud software to be his best contribution to that personal mission.

 

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The WealthStack Podcast: Rethinking Technology, AI and the Advisor Experience with Freedom Dumlao

The WealthStack Podcast: Rethinking Technology, AI and the Advisor Experience with Freedom Dumlao

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Technology in wealth management isn’t just changing, it’s colliding with reality. Advisors are expected to deliver deeply personalized experiences, operate at consumer-grade speed and navigate increasing complexity, all on top of legacy systems never designed for this moment. As AI accelerates what’s possible, the real challenge isn’t adopting new tools, it’s rethinking how technology supports the advisor experience from the ground up.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Vestmark CTO Freedom Dumlao to go behind the curtain of modern wealthtech and unpack why advisor experience, data integration and agentic AI are now the real battlegrounds for scaling RIAs. 

Key takeaways:

  • Why consumer software experiences are redefining advisor expectations at work
  • How integration challenges quietly drain time and limit true personalization
  • Why agentic AI is the real leap forward
  • Why the advisor’s moat is validation, not information
  • How compliance doesn’t kill innovation, it sharpens it

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Freedom Dumlao:

About Our Guest:

Freedom Dumlao is the Chief Technology Officer at Vestmark, where he leads the firm’s technology strategy with a focus on resilience, scalability, and building long-term client confidence. He brings a disciplined, hands-on approach shaped by senior leadership roles at Amazon, Zipcar, Flexcar, Wayfair, and Drift, including his work on the Alexa machine learning and AI platform. A strong advocate for open-source communities, Freedom also serves as a board member and treasurer of Ruby Central. Outside of work, he enjoys woodworking, cooking, and spending time with his two daughters building robots and experimenting with electronics.

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The WealthStack Podcast: Portfolio Personalization Without the Ops Headache with Wes Caywood

The WealthStack Podcast: Portfolio Personalization Without the Ops Headache with Wes Caywood

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As advisors race to deliver “personalized” portfolios at scale, a hard reality is setting in: most personalization is still just a model tweak with a nicer label. Meanwhile, clients want more hands-on service, more transparency and more customization, while firms are trying to grow without hiring an army of operations and investment staff. The result is a widening gap between what clients expect and what legacy portfolio tools can realistically deliver. The firms that win won’t be the ones stacking more complexity. They’ll be the ones using automation to deliver truly bespoke outcomes, with clearer decisioning, tighter risk controls and better records behind every trade.

In this episode of The WealthStack Podcast, host Shannon Rosic sits down with Wes Caywood, head of distribution at Pave Finance, to unpack what “real personalization” actually means in 2026, why portfolio complexity rarely translates into client-perceived value and how automation can make portfolio management more defensible, not less. 

Key takeaways:

  • How to modernize portfolio management with “blowing up” your existing workflows
  • Where AI actually fits in portfolio management
  • Where the personalization gap shows up most clearly (and why it becomes an ops and time problem fast)
  • What automation should capture for compliance, auditability, and transparency 
  • The biggest mistake firms make when evaluating portfolio tech

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Wes Caywood:

About Our Guest:

Wes Caywood is the Head of Distribution at Pave Finance, where he works closely with advisors and firms to modernize portfolio management through thoughtful use of technology and automation. With more than 20 years in financial services, Wes brings deep experience working with sophisticated clients, family offices, and advisory teams. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Navy officer, he is driven by a service-oriented mindset and a focus on helping advisors deliver personalized, well-prepared client experiences at scale.

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From Franken-Stacks to AI Agents: The Annual WealthTech Outlook with Davis Janowski

From Franken-Stacks to AI Agents: The Annual WealthTech Outlook with Davis Janowski

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For three years running, the WealthStack season has officially started the same way: with an unfiltered wealthtech outlook conversation between Shannon Rosic and Davis Janowski, senior technology editor and research analyst at Wealth Management. If 2025 was the year firms finally started using AI, 2026 is shaping up to be the year we find out whether all that tech actually pays the rent.

In this annual tech vibe check, Shannon and Davis dig into how AI notetakers quietly reshaped advisor workflows, why agentic AI and “AI operating systems” are the next wave, and what this all means for junior talent, firm structure and the future “Chief AI Officer.”

They also explore whether Franken-stacks are really dying, how niche platforms and new lead-gen tools are redefining value, and why cybersecurity and deepfakes may be the biggest underpriced risks on every CTO’s roadmap. 

Key takeaways:

  • What under-the-radar innovations to watch in the 2026
  • How data fragmentation limits real AI adoption despite rising tech budgets
  • What agent-based platforms signal about the future of advisor software
  • Why critical thinking remains more valuable than pure AI skills
  • How cybersecurity risks are growing faster than regulatory responses

Resources:

Connect with Shannon Rosic:

Connect with Davis Janowski:

About Our Guest:

Davis Janowski is a New York-based technology journalist whose work spans consumer, business and the FinTech sectors.

Prior to his six years with WM, Janowski worked for Forrester Research as an analyst covering Digital Wealth Management. In edition, he has worked for two FinTech startups, Wealthfront and New York-based FeeX, Inc. (now Pontera). His work covering the advisor tech space began in 2007 when he joined InvestmentNews as the advisor industry’s first dedicated technology reporter. His start in tech journalism began as an editor with PC Magazine in 1999 where he later served as an analyst and reviewer.

His work has appeared in The New York Times, Wealth Management, Financial Planning, RIABiz, InvestmentNews, PC Magazine, numerous blogs and several books, including Technology Tools for Today’s High Margin Practice. He has also been a speaker and moderator at numerous industry conferences.

Outside his day-to-day he is a senior guide for Manhattan Kayak Company in New York City.

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