Category: Finance

7. Gavin Spitzner on What Advisors Get Wrong Around Technology

7. Gavin Spitzner on What Advisors Get Wrong Around Technology

Clients aren’t leaving their financial advisors because of performance issues.  They’re leaving because of communication and service issues with their current advisors. 

What are you doing to prevent your clients from switching advisors? 

In this episode, David Armstrong talks with Gavin Spitzner, president of Wealth Consulting Partners, about the many ways in which financial technology is growing and changing the financial world. They also discuss what you can do to ensure you aren’t underutilizing what strategies and technology is available to you as an advisor. 

David and Gavin discusses:

  • How most advisors are underutilizing the technology they have.
  • How the long-term bull market in equities has made many advisors complacent and masks problems around organic growth and client expectations.
  • Why advisors should expect companies like Amazon or Apple to enter the wealth management industry, and how to prepare..
  • When every aspect of wealth planning is built around algorithms, what’s left for the human advisor?

Connect With Gavin Spitzner:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Gavin Spitzner founded his company Wealth Consulting Partners six years ago. They help wealth managers (banks, RIAs, broker dealers) design and execute profitable revenue growth strategies based on enhancing client and internal associate experiences and leveraging modern, integrated technology, professional development and process re-engineering. Some areas of focus include digital advice, portfolio management, reporting and CRM systems, client portals, data aggregation tools and other systems of engagement capabilities as well as emerging AI/machine learning capabilities. 

6. Marketing Strategies With Sarah LeBlanc

6. Marketing Strategies With Sarah LeBlanc

For many advisors, marketing can be a very scary and daunting task. Advisors don’t want to come off as derivative or phony. And there are many different marketing channels an advisor could use—whether that’s social media, video, blogs, events, email, etc. How should advisors best approach a marketing strategy so that it’s efficient and authentic? 

In this episode, David Armstrong is joined by Sarah LeBlanc, vice president of marketing at LPL Financial, who speaks about the most effective advisor marketing strategies and ways you can increase your growth while still reaching the most influential people. 

Sarah and David discuss:

  • Some of the biggest mistakes advisors make when it comes to marketing; 
  • What encompasses an advisor’s “digital presence;”
  • Advice for those who are tripping up when producing digital content;
  • How to create the most effective videos to draw in new clients;
  • How advisors should think about reach vs. quality in terms of social media followers;
  • Incorporating both in-person and digital events for clients and prospects;
  • How advisors are expanding their geographic reach; and
  • How to measure the success of marketing strategies.

Resources:

Connect With Sarah LeBlanc:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest: Sarah provides custom marketing and social media consultations for LPL Financial advisors and investment programs. In this role, she consults with and supports clients in effectively marketing their businesses in today’s increasingly competitive environment.

Prior to LPL Financial, Sarah was at the San Diego Union-Tribune where she drove consumer marketing strategy, analytics and advertising agency management for the newspaper’s website, and at Capital One Financial Corporation where she launched vertically integrated marketing programs.

Sarah holds a B.A. degree from James Madison University with a major in Media Arts and Design and a minor in Advertising.

5. The New Business World of ESG with Jeffery Gitterman

5. The New Business World of ESG with Jeffery Gitterman

As the world changes, and we realize we can’t keep up the same unsustainable practices as we have in the past, ESG strategies have come to the forefront for many companies around the world. But do you know what that means for you, and your company in the future? 

In this episode, David Armstrong talks with Jeffery Gitterman, co-founder of Gitterman Wealth Management about everything you need to know about being a part of an ESG-centered and sustainably focused business.

Jeffery and David discuss:

  • ESG focused investment strategies that are proven to work 
  • What risks your company might be exposed to and why making a proper ESG plan can save your company thousands of dollars
  • The conversations you should be having with your clients today about ESG and sustainability within your company
  • How the ESG trend has been changing over the last few years, and where it might continue to go in the future

Resources:

Connect With Jeffery Gitterman:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Jeff Gitterman is a co-founding partner of Gitterman Wealth Management, LLC, and a thought leader in the field of Sustainable, Impact, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Investing. He is the creator of his firm’s SMART (Sustainability Metrics Applied to Risk Tolerance)® Investing Services, which offer investment opportunities for individual clients, as well as research and investing services for other financial professionals in the Sustainable, ESG, and Impact arenas.

Jeff deeply believes that the migration of investor capital towards more Sustainable, Impact, and ESG investments is one of, if not the most effective way to help realize the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and he is committed to helping both investors and other financial professionals navigate the rapidly growing Sustainable, Impact, and ESG Investing landscape.

Jeff is also the author of Beyond Success: Redefining the Meaning of Prosperity, and an Associate Producer of the feature documentary film, Planetary. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Child Health Institute of New Jersey at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical and dedicates much of his free time to raising funds and awareness for the autism community.

4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

4. Trends in RIA M&A with David DeVoe

Sponsored by: LPL

Across the board, many companies struggle with succession planning—some of this fear comes from human capital, and others come from misunderstanding of new trends in the industry. 

In this episode, David Armstrong, editor-in-chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks to David DeVoe, founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company to discuss his insight about mergers and acquisitions across RIAs of various sizes. David discusses the impact of COVID restrictions in the M&A space, and discusses the decision-making process when it comes to creating your succession plan. 

David discusses: 

  • How $1 billion+ RIAs are driving the record-breaking activity in deals.
  • What a “META” RIA is, and how they will change the industry
  • The percentage improvement in a firm’s valuation that comes from a mere 1% boost in growth.
  • The numbers that dispel the myth of the “seller’s market” for RIAs
  • How his own journey as an entrepreneur began in the surf shops of Santa Barbara

Connect with David DeVoe:

LinkedIn: David DeVoe
DeVoe & Company

Connect with David Armstrong:

david.armstrong@informa.com
WealthManagement.com

About Our Guest: 

David DeVoe is the founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company, a strategic advisor to RIAs.

Episode 3 – Tax-Based Financial Planning –– With Holistiplan’s Kevin Lozer

Episode 3 – Tax-Based Financial Planning –– With Holistiplan’s Kevin Lozer

HolistiPlan’s planning software is an advisor-oriented tool that integrates a client’s tax return into their financial plan as a way to find more opportunities for “tax alpha.” The technology makes the tax analysis and planning process a scalable, structured procedure between advisors and their clients.

In this episode, David Armstrong, editor-in-chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks to HolistiPlan’s co-founder, Kevin Lozer about how he and his partner Roger Pine saw the need for the tool while running their own financial advisory firms; how they leveraged a small group of fellow advisors as beta testers and won an early XYPN fintech competition; and how they’ve expanded the software, and the team behind it, including bringing on board tax-planning guru Jeff Levine of Buckingham Wealth Partners as a tax-planning strategist.

You will learn:

  • How the idea for HolistiPlan came about
  • The big problem advisors have when it came to taxes and financial planning 
  • How winning the XYPN fintech competition put them on the map
  • How HolistiPlan keeps up with ever-evolving tax codes
  • The difference in software designed by advisors for advisors 
  • The future of the tax planning and software industry 

Resources: WealthManagement.com | LPL Financial | LPL – Advisor Innovation | David Armstrong | HolistiPlan | Kevin Lozer on LinkedIn | Roger Pine on LinkedIn | Jeff Levine on LinkedIn | XYPN FinTech Competition | NAPFA

Episode 2 – The Evolution of LPL’s New Affiliation Models –– With Marc Cohen

Episode 2 – The Evolution of LPL’s New Affiliation Models –– With Marc Cohen

In this episode, David Armstrong, editor in chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks with Marc Cohen, executive vice president of advisor business at LPL Financial in San Diego. 

David and Marc discuss how LPL Financial is enhancing the business to appeal to independent advisors, the expansion of their custodial platform and services for fee-only advisors, and the new affiliation models that challenge the notion of a traditional independent broker/dealer. 

You will learn:

  • Why Marc Cohen told his team they were retiring the term “independent broker dealer” to describe what they do.
  • The primary drivers that are shifting the way advisors do business and serve clients.
  • Why fee-only RIAs are increasingly finding a home at LPL Financial.
  • LPL’s new services around succession planning, business support and transition services.
  • LPL’s commitment to helping the independent advisor — not competing with them — in whichever business model the advisors’ choose.

Resources: WealthManagement.com| LPL Financial | Marc Cohen LinkedIn

Episode 1 – How Do You Want To Live Your Professional Life –– With Mindy Diamond

Episode 1 – How Do You Want To Live Your Professional Life –– With Mindy Diamond

Welcome to Advisor Innovations, the newest podcast from WealthManagement.com.

In this inaugural episode, David Armstrong, editor in chief of WealthMangement.com, speaks with Mindy Diamond, a long-time columnist for the publication and its predecessor titles, the CEO of Diamond Consulting and one of the country’s leading consulting and recruiting firms for financial advisors. 

Mindy and David discuss the broad trends in why advisors work where they do, how the business models where advisors affiliate is changing, the state of the so-called “breakaway broker” trend, and why the line between the broker/dealer channel and the RIA channel are growing blurrier by the day.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • Why, and how, Mindy started Diamond Consulting.
  • How she has seen the industry change over the last 20 years.
  • The new firms that really have the traditional wire houses worried.
  • How the evolving platforms in the brokerage space are blurring the lines between the independent broker/dealer channel and the pure RIA channel.
  • The “push, pull” dynamic that drives advisors’ decisions around moving to a new firm.
  • The rise of the ‘middle ground’ professional options and multi-affiliate business models that sit between fully employed and fully independent.
  • Why money should never be the top reason to make a move (but it’s not unimportant.)

Resources: WealthManagement.com| Diamond Consulting | Mindy Diamond LinkedIn