Tag: FinTech
Advisor Innovations: Schwab’s Bernie Clark and Rick Wurster on the “Unprecedented” Migration of Assets From TD Ameritrade, and What Advisors Can Expect From the Dominant Custodian Going Forward

Advisor Innovations: Schwab’s Bernie Clark and Rick Wurster on the “Unprecedented” Migration of Assets From TD Ameritrade, and What Advisors Can Expect From the Dominant Custodian Going Forward

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After a summer break, the Advisor Innovations podcast is back. In the new season’s inaugural episode, David Armstrong, director of editorial strategies at Informa Connect’s Wealth Management group, is joined by Rick Wurster, the president of the Charles Schwab Corporation, along with Bernie Clark, managing director and head of advisor services. The conversation was held on the eve of the firm’s Impact conference, and weeks after the final Labor Day marker which concluded the conversion of $1.3 trillion in TD Ameritrade assets, including those from some 7,000 advisory firms, into Charles Schwab, making the firm the dominant custodian to independent advisors.  

Rick and Bernie talk about how they viewed the integration as a challenge to bring together the “best of both worlds,” including adding the prized trading features of TDAI’s trading technology into Schwab’s Advisor Services platform, while integrating Schwab’s larger breadth of advisor services in banking and support for HNW clients, a growing focus of the firm’s advisor support services. 

Specifically, Rick and Bernie discuss:

  • How the competitive landscape has evolved since Schwab made its announcement four years ago, including the arrival of Goldman Sachs and Envestnet as custodial competitors.
  • How M&A in the RIA industry may be down, but “joins,” or advisors joining an independent advisory firm under different employment models, are on the rise. 
  • What advisors need to understand about Schwab’s cash-sweep accounts.
  • How more sophisticated banking services, like its recently unveiled digital securities-based lending platform, are helping its advisor clients keep more assets inside the firm. 
  • What motivated Schwab’s significant investment in Dynasty Financial Partners, and how they are open to making more investments in firms or platforms that help grow the RIA channel – including possible opportunities in financing next-generation advisors. 

Resources:

RIA Edge Podcast

Connect With David Armstrong:

Connect With Rick Wurster & Bernie Clark:

About Our Guests:

Rick Wurster

Rick Wurster was appointed President of The Charles Schwab Corporation in October 2021. In his role, Wurster oversees Investor Services, Advisor Services, Workplace Financial Services, Digital Services, Schwab Asset Management, Third-Party Platforms, and Investor Advice Solutions.  

Wurster joined Schwab in early 2016. He was most recently head of Schwab Asset Management Solutions which provided money management and portfolio advice solutions, wealth management services, financial research, and market insights. He previously served as CEO of Charles Schwab Investment Advisory, Inc. (CSIA), as well as CEO of ThomasPartners, Inc. and Windhaven Investment Management, Inc. prior to their integration into CSIA.

Before joining Schwab, Wurster was employed at Wellington Management and McKinsey & Company where he was a leader of the asset management practice and an Associate Principal.

Bernie Clark

Bernard “Bernie” J. Clark is Managing Director, Head of Advisor Services and a member of Charles Schwab’s Executive Committee. He oversees the business that provides custodial, operational, and trading support to nearly 15,000 independent investment advisory firms with $3.67 trillion in assets under management. In addition to custody services, Schwab Advisor Services provides practice management and consultative support to help independent advisors start, build, and grow their firms. A recognized industry leader, Clark has been named as one of the “IA 25” by Investment Advisormagazine, which annually ranks the 25 most influential people in the industry.

Clark has more than 30 years of financial industry experience serving individual and institutional investors. He began his career at Schwab in 1998 as Senior Vice President of Trading and Operations for Schwab Institutional. He later worked on the retail business as leader of the client services organization before returning to the advisor business to lead the sales and relationship management organization. He took on his current role as head of Schwab Advisor Services in 2010.

Prior to joining Schwab, Clark was with the London office of Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. There he held the position of managing director in charge of global sales support, hedge fund operations, and technology, including managing client service support in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. He also spent 13 years with Salomon Brothers as a member of the executive committee responsible for North American operations.



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Advisor Innovations Podcast: Tim Maurer on Personal Finance is More Personal Than Finance

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Tim Maurer on Personal Finance is More Personal Than Finance

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Tim Maurer is a financial advisor and author who most recently took on the role of Chief Advisory Officer at SignatureFD. In this episode of the Advisor Innovations podcast, Maurer talks with David Armstrong about what, exactly, a Chief Advisory Officer does, and how he sees the lessons of life planning and qualitative financial advice being tactically implemented in advisor-client relationships. 

Tim  discusses:

  • Why he made the move to fast-growing RIA Signature FD after years at the larger Buckingham Wealth Management.
  • How he sees his role as a Chief Advisory Officer, and what it means to sit at the nexus between advisor development and the client experience. 
  • How he’s attempting to embed the lessons from behavioral finance and psychology into the relationship between clients and advisors. 
  • Why advisors who focus more on the qualitative side of financial planning, as opposed to the quantitative, are more successful.
  • How he makes a distinction between advisors as financial therapists, and financial coaches: Most advisors should follow the coaching model. 
  • What he’s learned from pioneers in the “life planning” field like Kinder Institute’s George Kinder and Money Quotient’s Carol Anderson
  • Most importantly, how the sometimes softer side of financial planning is being coded into advisory firm’s workflows and processes in a scalable, efficient way. 

Resources:

Connect With Tim Maurer:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Tim Maurer is a speaker, blogger, author, and financial advisor. As Chief Advisory Officer at SignatureFD he serves as an industry leader to the media and an educator to both consumers and financial advisors. He is a regular contributor to CNBC, Forbes, Time/Money.



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Advisor Innovations Podcast: Dumb indexes, “Smart” Beta and Intelligent Design—How Larry Swedroe Helps Advisors Make Sense of Investments

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Dumb indexes, “Smart” Beta and Intelligent Design—How Larry Swedroe Helps Advisors Make Sense of Investments

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For many advisors, Larry Swedroe needs no introduction; He’s the author of numerous books on investing, a frequent columnist in advisor publications, including Wealthmanagement.com, and the Head of Financial and Economic Research at Buckingham Strategic Wealth, one of the largest RIAs in the country.

He’s also active on social media where he can be found in sometimes heated debates with other industry luminaries on the merits of different compensation models for financial advisors, the dire prospects for most active stock managers, and what the latest academic research on investment management and the markets tells advisors about how to build better portfolios.

In this edition of the Advisor Innovations podcast, Swedroe describes how he views his work, why it is getting harder for active managers to generate alpha in the publicly traded markets, and where he sees opportunities for income in the increasingly accessible private markets. 

Swedroe discusses:

  • Why, in the face of growing evidence of subpar long-term returns, retail investors and active stock managers are proliferating.
  • How a three-year track record tells investors almost nothing about a manager’s long-term prospects.
  • Why “dumb indexes” don’t solve the investors’ problem, and why “smart beta” is an oxymoron and how investors are best served by “intelligently designed” portfolios. 
  • How some research shows stock turnover and management fees are the two variables that can determine active managers’ outcomes. 
  • Why easier access to private markets for investors, including interval funds, are a good option for some investors—himself included.
  • Where he is placing some of his investments now.

Connect With Larry Swedroe:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Larry Swedroe is a principal and the director of research of Buckingham Asset Management[1] and BAM Advisor Services. Previously, Larry was Vice-Chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage, the nation’s second largest home mortgage lender. He has held positions at Citicorp as Senior Vice-President and Regional Treasurer, responsible for treasury, foreign exchange and investment banking activities, including risk management strategies. Larry has an MBA in Finance and Investment from NYU, and a BA in Finance from Baruch College. He is the author of 17 books.

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Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

Julie Littlechild on Client Feedback and the Engagement Engine

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Advisors have long been aware that the better they know the client, the better client experience they can provide. Advisory boards and feedback surveys have been around forever to give the advisor some guidance over how to better engage with clients and prospects.  

In this episode, David Armstrong speaks with Julie Littlechild, founder and CEO of Absolute Engagement, on taking client engagement feedback to the next level. Littlechild recently launched the Engagement Engine, a digital platform that brings client feedback into real-time, ongoing metrics for the advisor. The idea is that through a series of questions and prompts, tucked unobtrusively alongside the standard client touch points and communications, advisors can instantly gauge a client’s confidence and fears, preferences and aversions, and plot some of that data over time to track and measure impact. It’s a game-changer in client engagement. 

Julie discusses:

  • Why client feedback is essential to creating preferred services.
  • How technology has changed the way feedback is collected and used.
  • The balance between personalized planning and managing an entire business worth of clients.
  • The development of the Engagement Engine, and the possibilities for using real-time client feedback across the advisor’s techstack, including the CRM. 
  • Thoughts on evolving from a consultant to a “tech entrepreneur”, putting together a killer board of advisors and what comes next for her company. 

Connect With Julie Littlechild:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Julie is a recognized expert on the drivers and evolution of client experience, client engagement. and referral growth. She is responsible for: designing the firm’s strategic vision and product roadmap, conducting on-going investor and advisor research, driving firm growth and representing the company on conference stages around the world.

 

Products are issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz). Variable products are distributed by its affiliate, Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, member FINRA, 5701 Golden Hills Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416-1297. 800.542.5427 www.allianzlife.com. This notice does not apply in the state of New York.

Allianz is not affiliated with WealthManagement or the featured guest.



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Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

Advisor Innovations Podcast: Mark Miller on Rebooting a Retirement Plan

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Mark Miller is a career journalist who digs deep into the world of retirement planning, social security, medicare and the state of retirement “readiness” among people nearing the goal line. Miller has written regularly for The New York Times, Reuters, Morningstar and has been a long-standing columnist for Wealth Management magazine and WealthManagement.com. He is the author of the recently published Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track. In this episode, Wealth Management editor David Armstrong speaks with Miller about the challenges of retirement planning from both an advisor’s and client’s perspective. 

Mark discusses:

  • Why for many, but certainly not all, clients, social security should be considered longevity insurance, and delayed for as long as possible.
  • What advisors get wrong about advising clients on Medicare choices, and where to go for unbiased, objective advice. 
  • Helping clients do the math around long-term care insurance and LTC riders. 
  • How new research models suggest a higher allocation to equities does not help a retirement portfolio in draw-down mode.
  • What many get wrong in the debate around the financial sustainability of Social Security and Medicare. 

Resources:

Connect With Mark Miller:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Mark Miller is a journalist, author and podcaster specializing in coverage of retirement and aging. He contributes regularly on retirement to The New York Times, and writes columns for Reuters, Morningstar.com and WealthManagement.com. He is the author of Jolt: Stories of Trauma and Transformation (Post Hill Press) and The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security (Wiley).



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Advisor Innovations: Jason Wenk on Scaling Advisor Technology the Right Way

Advisor Innovations: Jason Wenk on Scaling Advisor Technology the Right Way

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In this episode, David Armstrong is joined by Founder and CEO of Altruist, Jason Wenk, to talk about the state of advisor technology and the move toward consolidation of onboarding, custodial services, trading, account management and portfolio reporting with digital applications. Wenk explains why the current state of advisory technology needed a kick to bring it closer to what advisors, and clients, expect. He shares his journey as an advisor and an entrepreneur, why he started Altruist, how it has evolved, and where it is aiming to go in the next few years.

Jason discusses:

  • The problems with the current slate of advisor technology that Wenk set out to solve with Altruist (hint: Smooth, free-flowing integrations between separate components in a tech stack is largely a myth.)
  • Why custodial services cannot scale by charging advisors a basis point fee—and in fact why that kind of structure, advocated by some RIAs,  would hinder custodial innovation and the democratization of financial services.
  • How an ability to sustain lower margins than other custodial services in the market allows him and his team to continue innovating new features on the platform.
  • Why Altruist charges new advisors nothing until they reach 100 accounts, and how the platform is designed to help advisors scale their practice alongside the platform. 
  • How Altruist is misperceived by some as a tech platform for new advisors launching practices, when in fact it has multi-custodial capabilities and advisors at RIAs with over $10 billion serving HNW clients just as efficiently—In fact, Wenk still advises 11 HNW clients himself. 
  • Wenk’s experience starting his first RIA, and building the technology he needed when he couldn’t get it from the marketplace—and his current relationship with FormulaFolios after the merger with Brookstone Capital Management.

Connect With Jason Wenk:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Jason Wenk is a fintech executive, writer, self-proclaimed math geek, and investment systems developer. He began his career at Morgan Stanley in NYC at age 20 as one of their youngest professional employees, working on investment research and asset management systems development. Jason entered the industry with a technology background, and one of his first experiences was to watch the stock market implode following 9/11.



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8. Matthew Enyedi on Business Solutions for the Modern Advisor

8. Matthew Enyedi on Business Solutions for the Modern Advisor

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The modern advisor is not just a financial advisor to their clients, they are also business owners.  LPL, with their Business Solutions Suite, helps advisors with everything from office administration to real estate needs. 

How comfortable are you with hiring new staff or handling all the office administration within your practice? 

In this episode, David Armstrong speaks with Matthew Enyedi, managing director at LPL Financial, about the many ways in which LPL assists their advisors to run their businesses more efficiently.

David and Matt discusses:

  • A deep dive into LPL’s business support services for advisors
  • How hundreds of LPL advisors are using LPL employees as administrative assistants.
  • The assistance LPL gives advisors when it comes to mergers and acquisitions
  • An explanation of the business service support subscription fees
  • How LPL’s support for advisors will evolve in the future

Connect With Matthew Enyedi:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Matthew Enyedi has served as managing director, business solutions of LPL Financial since November 2020. He is responsible for developing and deploying a suite of automated professional services to LPL advisors, and aligning them with the firm’s other programs that support advisors as business owners.  Prior to his promotion to managing director, Matt served as executive vice president, national sales from March 2015 to January 2020. In that role, he led the firm’s data analytics and business intelligence efforts, and oversaw a team focused on providing front‐ and middle‐office capabilities to help advisors grow their businesses and reach new segments of clients.

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7. Gavin Spitzner on What Advisors Get Wrong Around Technology

7. Gavin Spitzner on What Advisors Get Wrong Around Technology

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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. 

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