Tag: WealthManagement

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Advisor Innovations: Robert Sofia on Bringing Digital Marketing to Advisors

Advisor Innovations: Robert Sofia on Bringing Digital Marketing to Advisors

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In this episode, recorded live at the Wealth Management EDGE conference at the Diplomat Beach Resort Hollywood in Florida, David Armstrong is joined by Robert Sofia, Founder and CEO of Snappy Kraken, a digital marketing platform for financial advisors.

Robert discusses:

  • What problem Sofia was trying to solve when he founded Snappy Kraken.
  • Why each financial advisor requires marketing tailored to their own clientele and prospects
  • The importance of advisors finding their authentic voice when it comes to creating content
  • How technology has changed everything about how prospective clients see advisors, even if advisors don’t use any digital marketing platforms themselves.
  • How Sofia stumbled upon the RIA industry after successful stints selling everything from Knives to RVs to automobiles, his first job creating marketing for an RIA in Florida, and how that was the springboard to founding his own firm. 
  • What opportunities Sofia saw with the acquisition of the firm Advisor Websites, and where Sofia sees the company going in the future. 

Resources:

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About Our Guest:

Robert Sofia is the Chairman and CEO of Snappy Kraken, an automated growth program for financial advisors. He is the author of four books, including Blend Out: From Ordinary to Irresistible: How Advisors Can Market Like The Greatest Brands in the World, released in 2021.

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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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Advisor Innovations: Dr. Daniel Crosby on Understanding a Client’s Money Mindset

Advisor Innovations: Dr. Daniel Crosby on Understanding a Client’s Money Mindset

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In this episode, David Armstrong talks to Dr. Daniel Crosby, Chief Behavioral Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions. The son of a financial advisor, Crosby holds a Ph.D in psychology from Brigham Young University, and has spent his career bridging those insights to help people understand how they think about, and plan for, money and finances. He was a consultant to the industry for many years (and a one-time columnist for wealthmanagement.com) before joining Brinker Capital as chief behavioral officer in 2018. He holds the same position at Orion Advisor Solutions following that firm’s acquisition of Brinker. At Orion, Crosby is bringing behavioral finance insights into the design of Orion’s advisory platforms to help advisors build – and maintain – better financial strategies for their clients.

Dr. Crosby discusses:

  • How to translate traditional advice into effective tools for financial planning
  • How to address the changing dynamic in a person’s life through their financial plan
  • The impact of personal ideology on major money decisions
  • The role of advisors against the stress of money and irrational decision making
  • And more

Resources:

Connect With Dr. Daniel Crosby:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Educated at Brigham Young and Emory Universities, Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets. Dr. Crosby recently co-authored a New York Times Best-Selling book titled, Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management.

He also constructed the “Irrationality Index,” a sentiment measure that gauges greed and fear in the marketplace from month to month. His ideas have appeared in the Huffington Post and Risk Management Magazine, as well as his monthly columns for WealthManagement.com and Investment News. Daniel was named one of the “12 Thinkers to Watch” by Monster.com and a “Financial Blogger You Should Be Reading” by AARP. When he is not consulting around market psychology, Daniel enjoys independent films, fanatically following St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and spending time with his wife and two children.

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