Bento Engine said it best: Even the best advice, delivered at the wrong time, can fall flat. Financial advice delivered too early – or worse, too late – can have the opposite effect of its intention. In order to truly help their clients, and therefore improve engagement, loyalty and retention, advisors need to offer advice when it actually matters.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, Director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Philipp Hecker, co-founder and CEO of Bento Engine, on how they’re helping advisors connect with their clients on a deeper level by combining powerful SaaS technology with impactful content and timing expertise.
Shannon and Philipp discuss:
The power of holistic advice
How Bento Engine is encouraging all family members to participate in the financial planning process
How the timing of advice encourages action towards financial goals
How advisors can help fill the gaps in client financial literacy
Why updating technology is as essential as staying up to date on financial news
Global business strategist (J.P. Morgan, DB, BCG), passionate about advice beyond investing.
Previously Head of Wealth Planning & Advice, and Global Head of Strategy at J.P. Morgan Wealth Management Focused on tech-driven advisor-enablement for the benefit of clients, their families, and their communities
Would you rather walk through 37,000 different financial scenarios with your clients or review a one page sheet simplifying the financial plan? Not to mention having the ability to showcase what really matters to your clients.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, is joined by Carl Richards, chief brand officer of Elements, in discussing how the company provides advisors a way to capture vital client data quickly and easily, and ultimately present a holistic picture of their financial life in a tangible and understandable way.
Shannon and Carl discuss:
How Elements is modernizing the traditional financial planning model
What is the goal of the one-page-plan (OPP) and how they benefit advisors and their clients
Why they’re focused on building a client centric mobile app and overall engaging experience
What makes Elements ‘nudge’ capabilities different from any of the other CRM providers and other planning providers
Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner and creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in The New York Times since 2010.
Carl has also been featured on Marketplace Money, Oprah.com, and Forbes.com. In addition, Carl has become a frequent keynote speaker at financial planning conferences and visual learning events around the world.
Through his simple sketches, Carl makes complex financial concepts easy to understand. His sketches also serve as the foundation for his two books, The One-Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to Be Smart About Your Money and The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money (Portfolio/Penguin).
His sketches have appeared in a solo show at the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah as well as other showings at Parsons School of Design in New York City, The Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California, and an exhibit at the Mansion House in London.
RIAs need to find ways to continue to be profitable and scale, even when the markets aren’t offering much growth.While technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, with new products and services being introduced every year, advisors still need to utilize the right technology to improve workflows within their business.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Ryan George, chief marketing officer of Docupace, on what to look for when introducing new technology to a business to fill gaps in productivity.
Shannon and Ryan discuss:
Why now was the right time for Docupace to enter the RIA market
What the word ‘scale’ means within the RIA marketplace, and how is technology helping
Which technology will be most impactful for financial advisors this year and beyond
Eight questions to ask when looking for new technology to incorporate into your business
Ryan George is the Chief Marketing Officer at Docupace, a solutions provider focused on digitizing and automating operations in the financial advice and investment industry. He serves as the company’s “chief diplomat” evangelizing the company’s people, solutions and brand across the financial services/ wealth management industry. As a member of the senior executive committee Ryan collaborates with key stakeholders across Docupace to support the company’s growth, retention and profitability objectives.
As an advisor, your clients don’t necessarily care about what CRM tool or planning software you use. They care about HOW you use that technology to engage them and help live their best life.
In other words, it is time to shift your focus from product-centric to client-centric!
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, Director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, speaks with Santiago Burridge, CEO and Co-Founder of Lumiant, about what is driving innovation around advice engagement. They also explore how advisors should approach client engagement differently in 2023 and beyond.
Shannon and Santiago discuss:
How Lumiant’s platform helps advisors effectively engage the unengaged
What advisor engagement truly means — and how it can make clients fall in love with you
The adoption of advice engagement technology by next-gen advisors
Why intimate client connections are key to accelerating your organic growth
Santiago is passionate about helping the financial advice industry deliver on the promise of advice. A 23-year industry leader, Santiago founded Lumiant to support advisors in delivering an extraordinary and engaging software-supported advice experience. Starting as a financial advisor, Santiago quickly became disillusioned with the product-centricity of the profession. Instead, he wanted to personalize the experience and create a model that placed client preferences at the heart of their financial decisions. In 2010, Santiago co-founded Implemented Portfolios, a technology platform that delivers highly individualized investment experiences, which now has circa $2bn in funds under management.
Technology innovations continue to shake up the wealth management industry. More than ever, advisors need to be aware of the solutions and tools available, and how they’re ultimately impacting the financial planning space.
In this episode, Shannon Rosic, Director of WealthStack Content and Solutions, is joined by Davis Janowski, Senior Technology Editor at WealthManagement.com. Shannon and Davis explore how emerging wealthtech players are changing the future of financial planning. They focus on some of the latest innovations and how advisors are incorporating them into their practice.
Shannon and Davis discuss:
Technology’s role as a driving force for success in the wealth management industry
Where are the biggest opportunities for financial advisors to grow
What interesting firms and wealth tech concepts that financial advisors should be paying attention to in 2023 and beyond
How are new practice management and “advice engagement” platforms being integrated by advisors
New advisor rating and review tech thanks to the SEC ad rule change
Davis Janowski is a career journalist who has done stints with FinTech startups and as an analyst. Along the way, his work has appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. While much of his focus has been in the FinTech sector for the last 13 years, Davis also has extensive experience in evaluating technology and tech products. His career in tech journalism began at PC Magazine, where he tested and reviewed consumer and business products and managed a team of editors, technicians, and analysts. Davis also spent six years covering FinTech for InvestmentNews, where he was a technology reporter and columnist and also spoke frequently at industry conferences. Outside his daily work he volunteers with several groups that have a strong environmental and sustainability focus and, on occasion, writes about them too.
As more individuals enter and approach retirement, the role of a financial advisor is changing rapidly. An increasing number of clients need their advisors to act as “personal risk managers” and focus on downside protection and stability, vs. growth and outperformance.
To learn more about this evolution, Mark Bruno, Managing Director of Wealth Management at Informa, is joined by Rick Bookstaber, Co-Founder and Head of Risk at Fabric, and Dr. Ashby Monk, Executive and Research Director at Stanford University, to discuss the importance of understanding risk and the advisor’s role as risk manager for clients.
Listen in as Mark, Rick and Dr. Ashby discuss:
The most prominent market, economic and planning risks in today’s environment
What financial advisors can learn from institutional investors about risk management
How advisors should balance long-term risks with short-term risks
How risk management technology has evolved – specifically, the risk management tools and resources available to financial advisors.
Rick Bookstaber has worked in risk management with chief risk officer roles on both the buy-side at Moore Capital and Bridgewater, and on the sell-side at Morgan Stanley and Salomon. From 2009 to 2015 he served in the public sector at the SEC and the U.S. Treasury, drafting the Volcker Rule, building out the risk management structure for the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and developing an agent-based model to assess financial vulnerabilities.
Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford Global Projects Center. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford and a Senior Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California. Dr. Monk has a strong track record of academic and industry publications. His research and writing have been featured in The Economist, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Institutional Investor, Reuters, Forbes, and on National Public Radio among a variety of other media.
Cryptocurrency is a hot topic with many investors – yet, financial advisors are still in the early stages of learning and navigating the evolving world of crypto and digital assets.
Mark Bruno, Managing Director of Wealth Management at Informa, is joined on the WealthStack Podcast by Ben Cruikshank, Head of Flourish, in discussing the growing role of cryptocurrency within financial and retirement planning. They specifically focus on:
Where are we now in the professionalization of cryptocurrency
What role crypto could – and should – play in client portfolios
What options are available for financial advisors to consider
How current events are markets are creating new opportunities with Crypto and cash management
Ben Cruikshank is the Head of Flourish and leads the Client Strategies organization, including sales, marketing and support. Ben is a frequent commentator on issues related to investment advisors and crypto and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Marketwatch, and numerous industry publications. Prior to Flourish, Ben worked at Betterment, where he was a founding member of the Betterment for Business team and led the 401(k) sales team.
Are investors outpacing advisors in their understanding of crypto and digital assets? 16% of advisors say they recommend bitcoin and other digital assets, yet 24% of American adults own crypto. It’s important for financial advisors to overcome this gap as the number of digital assets in the market continues to grow and the asset class increases in popularity.
Mark Bruno, Managing Director of Wealth Management at Informa, is joined by Ric Edelman, Founder, Digital Asset Council of Professionals and the Funding Our Future Coalition, to discuss the growth of cryptocurrency and the “professionalization” of digital assets.
Listen in as Ric and Marc explore:
How to educate financial advisors and broaden the knowledge base when it concerns digital assets.
As innovations in digital assets continue what does it mean for the first adopters of this technology by hedge funds, billionaires, endowments, pension funds, insurance companies.
How the government is reacting to the rise of digital currency and how much truth are there in the predictions that by the end of the decade every government around the world will have a digital currency.
To what degree is the lack of knowledge in digital assets a result of a lack of technology, lack of regulation, or lack of infrastructure.
The ideal allocation for your client’s portfolio as these digital assets grow.
Ric Edelman is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of 10 books on personal finance. He was ranked three times as the nation’s #1 Independent Financial Advisor by Barron’s and founded the nation’s largest financial planning firm, now serving 1.3 million clients and managing $300 billion in AUM. Edelman is in both Research Magazine’s and Barron’s Financial Advisor Halls of Fame, and recipient of IARFC’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Investment Advisor, RIABiz and InvestmentNews all named him one of the most influential people in the investment management profession. He is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of 10 books on personal finance with more than one million copies in print in seven languages.
Innovation and adoption of technology are rapidly redefining the way financial advisors work with clients – and are revolutionizing the wealth management industry.
One of the most experienced and knowledgeable voices in the wealth management and WealthTech industries — Lori Hardwick, CEO of Red Rock Strategic Partner — stopped by the WealthStack podcast to highlight the developments in FinTech that all advisors need to know.
Ms. Hardwick talks with Mark Bruno, the Managing Director of Wealth Management at Informa, about her key learnings sitting on the boards for major players in WealthTech, such as Orion, Cetera, and Vestwell. In addition, they discuss:
How emerging technology is improving every interaction advisors can have with clients
How technology is accelerating change in retirement plans
How financial planning, risk management, and asset management are converging to create a truly holistic and customizable wealth management experience.
Lori Hardwick brings more than 25 years of experience of working in the financial industry as a prominent voice and is known for her intense passion for continuous improvement in the financial advisory industry.
As CEO of WealthTech at RedRock Strategic Partners LLC and as a Strategic Advisory Board member of Genstar Capital, Lori works directly with C-suite level executives at some of the largest financial services companies, to help them create, and execute against, winning growth strategies and to improve the overall experiences for advisors and their clients.
Lori has been appointed to, and currently serves on, several corporate boards in the financial services and fintech industries including Orion Advisor Technologies, Cetera Financial Group, as Vestwell for which she serves a s Chairman. Lori previously served as Chairman of the Board at Riskalyze through mid-2021.
In 2017, Lori created and co-founded, Advisor Innovation Labs (AI Labs) which underwent a successful transaction in early 2020. Prior to founding AI Labs, Lori served as Chief Operating Officer for Pershing, a BNY Mellon company, sharing leadership responsibility with the CEO for managing the Pershing family of companies. Lori served as a member of Pershing’s Executive Committee and BNY Mellon’s Senior Leadership Team.
Previously and for the majority of Lori’s career, she was a Co-Founder and Group President of Advisory Services for Envestnet, overseeing its enterprise relationship management, institutional advisory sales, strategic partnerships and practice management programs. She had been with Envestnet since its founding in 2000 and served in a variety of roles managing its enterprise, sales, services, advisor orientation and onboarding divisions during her 16-year tenure at the firm.
Lori has been recognized as one of the “22 People who will Transform Wealth Management in 2022” by Financial Planning Magazine, and as one of Top Women of Wealth Tech by ThinkAdvisor, a “Winner in Wealthtech” by Wealth Management Today, a “Woman to Watch” by InvestmentNews and on Investment Advisor’s list of “The 25 Most Influential People in the Financial Industry”.
Financial advisors often have an impact on the lives of their clients that extends well beyond investment performance. An ability to help clients navigate complex life and financial decisions – which are frequently intertwined – is at the core of any successful advisor’s long-term relationships.
But how can you ensure that clients understand the true value of the services that you deliver – and ultimately the unique problems that only you can solve for them?
In this episode of the WealthStack podcast, Mark Bruno and Jamie Hopkins Esq., LLM, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP®, managing partner of Wealth Solutions at Carson Wealth, reveal how to articulate your unique advisor “alpha”. They dive into different ways to communicate your value with prospects and demonstrate what makes you different from other advisors. Jamie discusses how advisors are adapting to create experiences for clients, while also focusing on:
The most effective ways to communicate your value proposition
The role of technology as a differentiator for advisors
The difference between service and relationship for advisors and clients
The services, outcomes or solutions that have the most value for investors
How behavioral finance impacts clients’ advisor selection
Jamie P. Hopkins, ESQ., MBA, CFP®, LLM, CLU®, ChFC®, RICP® is the Managing Partner of Wealth Solutions. He is a Finance Professor of Practice at Creighton University’s Heider College of Business.
A nationally recognized writer and researcher, Jamie is a regular contributor to Forbes, InvestmentNews and MarketWatch. A highly sought-after speaker in the financial services industry, Jamie has also been featured on Wall Street Journal podcasts, NPR radio and Fox radio, and has made multiple appearances for NBC10 Philadelphia, PBS and USA Today.
He’s been published in dozens of financial, educational and legal journals and developed educational materials for The American College’s CFP®, CLU®, ChFC® and RICP® programs, along with CE programs for attorneys.
Additionally, Jamie has co-authored three text books and has two ebooks on Retirement Planning, “Retirement Success In 10 Steps: How To Stretch Your Dollar To Last Through Your Golden Years” and “Retirement Risks: How To Plan Around Uncertainty For A Successful Retirement.” He is also the author of 2018’s “Rewirement: Rewiring The Way You Think About Retirement.”
