A powerful CRM is crucial for financial advisors if they ultimately want to grow their business. As firms gain access to more and more data, the CRM has become the centralized hub to capture, organize and manage data through the entire client lifecycle. With more information available than ever before, advisors can use this technology to continuously enhance the client experience.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack content and solutions, speaks with Craig Ramsey, COO of AdvisorEngine, about why having up-to-date allows for better and faster decision making.
Shannon and Craig discuss:
Why firms need to invest in talent around handling data
Grading the average RIA around how they’re using technology to drive value
The core components of the the ‘platform mentality’
Craig is a business builder with a background in corporate strategy, investment banking and consulting. He joined AdvisorEngine from WisdomTree where he led strategy, helped establish an international presence and pushed the company beyond ETFs into technology solutions. Craig has prior experience at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Accenture and UBS.
The role of the CTO has morphed into a complex, evolving set of responsibilities. Historically, technology was seen as an expense to reduce, but as firms redefine themselves in this digital era, we’re seeing the technology strategy become intertwined with business strategy. Yet, very few RIAs have a CTO. As technology and data become central to the value companies offer their customers, spearheading transformational change is increasingly a top priority for CTOs. But, how should they prioritize and manage it all?
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack content and solutions, speaks with Vib Arya, COO/CTO of Shufro Rose, about the constantly changing role of the CTO and how to stay ahead of the technology curve.
Shannon and Vib discuss:
Tips that can help RIAs evolve their practice with technology
The biggest concerns that keep CTOs up at night
How to create a company culture that embraces technology
How technology can help deepen the client/advisor relationship
Vib is Shufro Rose’s Chief Operating Officer and previously served as the firm’s Head of Operations and Information Technology. Vib has spent over 25 years within the investment management industry, having held increasing levels of responsibility for technology and operations management, project management, strategy & transformational change, and business administration.
Vib received his B.A. in Computer Science from New York University’s College of Art & Sciences and his M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Organizational Management from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
Vib is frequently requested to participate as a thought leader on operations, technology, and practice management topics for industry conferences and periodicals. Vib is currently on the Advisory Board for the 2023 TSAM (The Summit of Asset Management) NYC Conference.
The emergence of WealthTech-as-a-Service is redefining the wealth management industry. Now, APIs are shaping the future of financial services by providing access to valuable data, enhancing integration and automation, enabling personalization, supporting scalability, and reducing costs. With the increased availability of data, wealthtech firms can quickly develop new products and connect with different financial systems and tools to improve their products and client satisfaction.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, Director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Joe Stensland, CEO of BridgeFT, about how they’re helping firms power their next generation of digital experiences.
Shannon and Joe discuss:
The state of the API economy
Why BridgeFT wants to retire the tech-stack mentality
What the next generation of wealth management applications look like
Why having access to better data points leads to better decision-making
Joe Stensland is the CEO at BridgeFT. Prior to this, he was the Head of Digital Investor at LSEG, and before that, he held positions at Refinitiv and Scivantage.
Mr. Stendland attended Colorado State University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. He later attended Georgetown University McDonough School of Business to complete his MBA. He also holds a certification from the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA).
More than 60% of families in the U.S. do not have a plan to protect their loved ones. Estate planning can have several moving parts, and many people get turned off by the process. But, Trust & Will is on a mission to make estate planning simple and affordable—with the end goal to make it accessible to everyone.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, Director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Andres Mazabel, Head of Advisor Sales at Trust & Will, about how they’ve helped streamline estate planning for thousands of advisors.
Shannon and Andres discuss:
How advisors can incorporate estate planning into their practice
Why more Americans need to get their trust and estate “house” in order
Why the demand for estate planning is booming among millennials
What the great wealth transfer means for advisors in the context of estate planning
Andres Mazabel is the Head of Advisor Sales at Trust & Will. After spending 10+ years in private banking, he’s now on a mission to help advisors implement estate planning and deliver more comprehensive planning. Andres views estate planning as a huge opportunity for financial advisors to deepen relationships, add value, and implement legacy planning conversations. Trust & Will now works with over 8,000 financial advisors nationwide to help solve the fact that more than 60% of individuals don’t have an estate plan in place.
*Since recording this episode, Onramp Invest has been acquired by Securitize, with a mission to expand alternative asset access for RIAs.
The advent of digital assets has led to the development of new financial products with the ability to profoundly change where and how wealth is invested. Fortunately, Onramp is on a mission to bring together everything financial advisors need to safely invest in an array of digital assets for their clients.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Eric Ervin, CEO of Onramp Invest, about wealth management in the age of digital assets.
Shannon and Eric discuss:
Why tokenization is a key driver of digital asset adoption
The opportunities and challenges advisors face when approaching digital assets
What’s happening in the regulatory space when it comes to crypto and digital assets
Eric Ervin is the CEO of Onramp Invest. After nearly 20 years at Morgan Stanley in wealth management, in 2011, Eric Ervin founded Reality Shares, a firm known for innovation in Exchange Traded Funds. The firm’s first ETF, DIVY, was the first ETF based entirely on the dividend swap market. He also pioneered DIVCON™, a quantitative method for analyzing and ranking companies according to their dividend health. As the portfolio manager on seven publicly traded funds as well as other private funds, he has demonstrated expertise in alternatives e.g., dividend swaps, long-short equity, and quant-based cryptocurrency strategies. He is passionate about driving innovation in financial markets, he is a member of the CFTC Virtual Currency Subcommittee for the Technology Advisory Council, he is also regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Barron’s CNBC, Bloomberg, and other media outlets.
What happens to the wealth management industry when your clients can leave you with a click of a button on their smartphone? Change continues to sweep through the industry, with technology playing a critical role. In order for firms to succeed, they should be focused on future-proofing their practice, which means they need to adapt and adopt new technology in order to remain competitive.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Anton Honikman, CEO of MyVest, about how advisors need to evolve and elevate the way they do business.
Shannon and Anton discuss:
The importance of embracing ‘holistic’ wealth management by considering all of a client’s assets and liabilities
Trends around autonomous finance
What personalized portfolio construction means to the client experience
Why the industry needs to expand from wealth management to financial wellness, including non-investment advice
Anton is the CEO of MyVest, a wholly owned wealthtech subsidiary of TIAA, where he drives the company’s strategic vision, culture, and business development. He is a regular speaker and commentator in the fields of wealth management, wealth technology and the future of financial advice.
Anton’s career has focused on the confluence of investments and technology. Prior to joining MyVest in 2012, Anton served as President of Ada Investments, a startup investment manager that built innovative ESG strategies, he launched the corporate venture capital group at Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock), and he spent 10 years in a variety of roles at Barra, Inc. (now MSCI), where he led the team that created BarraOne, a leading multi-asset class portfolio analytics platform.
Anton holds a BS in financial economics and applied statistics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a former trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee of The San Francisco School.
The risk landscape is rapidly evolving, and wealth managers are seeking out new solutions to measure and manage risk for their clients’ investment portfolios. This area of financial planning goes well beyond a risk tolerance number, but, is technology keeping up?
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with risk management expert, Rick Bookstaber and Govinda Quish, CEO and Co-Founder of Fabric, about how they differentiate themselves from other risk management tools out on the market.
Shannon, Rick and Govinda discuss:
Why financial advisors have evolved into a personal risk advisor
How the commoditization of data has changed the risk management landscape
The material risks that will impact individuals in 2023 and beyond
How the platform provides the wealth management industry with institution-level risk management
Rick is a noted expert in financial risk management, and is the author of The End of Theory (Princeton, 2017), and A Demon of Our Own Design (Wiley, 2007).
He has served in chief risk officer roles at Salomon, Morgan Stanley, Moore Capital, and Bridgewater Associates. From 2009 to 2015 he served at the SEC and the U.S. Treasury, drafting the Volcker Rule and modeling risk for the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Most recently he was the chief risk officer in the University of California Office of the CIO for the university’s $170 billion pension and endowment funds.
His roles have placed him at the center of financial crises of the last three decades – working with portfolio insurance during the 1987 Crash while at Morgan Stanley, overseeing risk at Salomon during the 1998 failure of Long-Term Capital Management (dubbed “Salomon North”), and with the aftermath of the 2008 Crisis while in the regulatory sphere.
A black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Rick can be found training at the Renzo Gracie Academy in his free time.
Rick received a Ph.D. in economics from MIT.
Govinda Quish is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fabric (www.fabricrisk.com), a software company that powers portfolio design, customization and analytics, creating client value at scale for investment advisors.
Govinda served as an Investment Fellow and Senior Risk Management Professional at the University of California pension and endowment funds.
His career has been focused on risk analysis and portfolio management for global family offices in the U.S., Hong Kong, the UK, and Switzerland.
He has developed risk and portfolio management models for institutional asset managers and family offices such as the Mellon Family Office, SAP Family Office, and Synergy Fund Management.
In 2007, he co-founded Quish & Co, LP, an RIA in Boulder, CO. In 2014 he founded Quish & CO AG, an asset manager in Zurich, Switzerland serving the interests of European families.
Govinda loves to play polo, you can find him with his horses.
He received a Masters in Religious Studies from Naropa University.
Marc Chaikin didn’t have to come out of retirement, but after watching the 2008 financial crisis unfold around him, he decided to build a technological solution. Based on a 20-factor quantitative model to generate investing ideas, the hope was to build a platform that would make managing money easy for retail investors. It all came to fruition, and the Chaikin Power Gauge was born.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Wall Street legend Marc Chaikin, Founder of Chaikin Analytics, about his market predictions and why he believes growth in the economy is going to come in the sectors that are involved with productivity.
Shannon and Marc discuss:
His biggest takeaways from navigating through 10 bear markets
How to pick stocks using fundamental and technical analysis
How the advent of AI is changing wealth management
After 40 years on Wall Street as a trader, stock broker, analyst and head of the options department for a major brokerage firm, Marc founded Chaikin Analytics LLC to deliver proven stock analytics to investors and traders, based on the Chaikin Power Gauge, a 20-factor alpha model proven effective at identifying a stock’s potential. Chaikin developed computerized stock selection models and technical indicators that have become industry standards (including Chaikin Money Flow) and pioneered the first real-time analytics workstation for portfolio managers and stock traders.
Chaikin Investments has collaborated with Nasdaq and IndexIQ to bring the Chaikin Power Gauge stock rating approach to the ETF marketplace for the first time. Marc and the Chaikin Analytics team rang the NASDAQ Opening Bell on April 30, 2018 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this very successful launch. The Nasdaq Chaikin Indexes, powered by the Power Gauge Rating, have outperformed their benchmarks since their inception in April 2014.
RIAs have a billing problem. Mainly because the process has always been manual and prone to errors. Enter Smart Kx – the only software system designed specifically to help financial advisors dynamically and accurately manage client contracts and fee billing.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Lacey Shrum, Founder of Smart Kx, about how her software has helped eliminate the manual process of contract management and billing.
Shannon and Lacey discuss:
The biggest challenges RIAs face during their billing cycles
Why current technologies aren’t sufficient to document or calculate various fee structures
How Smart Kx software solves billing challenges through automation
Best practices RIAs can adopt when it comes to policies and procedures around fees and billing
Lacey is a founder, attorney and technologist. After continually seeing RIA firms fail the common regulator question “do your fees match your contracts?” Lacey developed Smart Kx to automate client contracts, fees and disclosures into one compliant process.
Before founding Smart Kx, Lacey practiced law focusing on RIAs and startups. She represented a successful whistleblower claim with the SEC and testified as a subject matter expert on cryptocurrency matters. She is a frequent speaker on RIA fee billing methods and compliance, automated contacts, and bitcoin.
When it comes to retirement income planning, an advisor’s role must go beyond getting clients to retirement, it’s also about getting them through retirement. If advisors only concentrate on accumulation and don’t help their clients plan for and support them through decumulation, they’re likely going to lose those clients and all the assets they worked so hard to obtain and manage.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Sheryl O’Connor, Founder and CEO of IncomeConductor, about how their technology is empowering advisors to feel more comfortable talking about retirement, health care, and longevity with their clients.
Shannon and Sheryl discuss:
Why the decumulation planning phase can be more complex than accumulation
What an aging population means for the industry
How the platform uses time segments to build an income plan
Sheryl has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry at insurance and investment management firms, leading strategic business growth and technology innovation.
In 2006 Sheryl co-founded 3D Asset Management, an SEC-registered investment management firm that focused on providing innovative practice management solutions along with investment portfolios to fee-based advisors to help them grow their business and succeed in the wealth, retirement plan and retirement income marketplaces. She has worked closely with advisors and is passionate about helping them re-define their value proposition in ever-evolving professional and market environments.
