The WealthStack Podcast

For financial advisors, having a growth partner is essential for achieving sustainable success and scaling their business. The right partner can provide strategic insights, and enhance an advisor’s operational efficiencies and client service capabilities. Through strategic partnerships, advisors can access new markets and opportunities more effectively, manage risks better, and stay ahead of...

LPL Financial has been a leader in the independent broker/dealer space for years, serving nearly 22,000 financial advisors representing over $1 trillion of brokerage and advisory assets. This means the business needs its infrastructure to be fast, reliable and secure. Everything LPL does is positioned around helping advisors take care of their clients, with technology being a driving force.  In th...

Is estate planning the next frontier of wealth management? Estate planning solutions are becoming steadily more popular with advisors, especially those seeking to differentiate their services. As clients become increasingly aware of the complexities of wealth transfer, asset protection, and legacy planning, they expect comprehensive guidance from their advisors. By using estate planning tools, adv...

The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the Securities and Exchange Commission dominated trends in the first quarter of 2024. But how did we even get to this point? While Bitcoin has been around since 2009, cryptocurrencies have quickly evolved from digital novelties to trillion-dollar technologies, poised to disrupt the global financial system. Digital currencies are being increasingly viewed as inv...

For years, firms have benefited from a rising equity market and an equally long period of near-zero interest rates. RIAs found themselves in a position where they could achieve growth with minimal effort. However, most executives in wealth management are not content with this passive approach to growth. The secret to RIA growth lies in keeping sight of their priorities. In order to differentiate i...

The advent of wealthtech represents both a significant opportunity and a challenge. On one hand, it offers tools that can enhance efficiency, improve client engagement, and enable more personalized, data-driven advice. On the other hand, it demands a shift in mindset and skill set, requiring advisors to become adept at integrating new technologies into their practice. The implications of wealthtec...

Financial advisors are much more than just “money experts”, and their role is evolving from traditional wealth advising to a more personalized wealth coaching approach. As the needs of investors become more complex, advisors are relying heavily on technology to help them become more efficient and streamline operations. By saving time and money, they’re truly able to focus on a holistic approach fo...

Evaluating technology ROI is crucial for ensuring that investments in digital tools and platforms directly contribute to operational efficiency and client satisfaction. This process helps to align technology spending with the firm’s strategic goals, driving growth and enhancing the value delivered to clients. Ultimately, evolving digital experiences for clients and advisors can help firms de...

The custodial space is notoriously difficult to break into, but Betterment wasn’t afraid to take the leap. While larger custodians are locked in a battle for scale, Betterment saw an opportunity to better serve smaller RIAs by helping them leverage the platform to support their growth and operational efficiency. In this episode, Shannon Rosic, director of WealthStack content and solutions, speaks...

The future of the wealth management industry isn’t going to be dominated by robots. Instead, it will be an evolving hybrid market in which human advisors use digital techniques to gather data and generate thoughtful, and more precise recommendations faster and more objectively than they do today. When it comes to artificial intelligence, the challenge is not fending off extinction, it is shifting...

The fastest-growing, most resilient RIAs are relying on modern technology to deliver a differentiated experience and keep up with client expectations. Given the significant amount of market turmoil over the past year, having the right technology, data, tools and perspective are more important than ever to navigate volatility and a dynamic risk landscape. Fortunately, Addepar has been at the forefr...

Is the perfect tech stack a unicorn…does it even exist? The battle between all-in-one versus best-of-breed wages on. But, Practifi, a performance optimization platform, is on a mission to help wealth management firms create the perfect tech stack. Can a firm get an idealized tech stack for their needs? Absolutely. Would it be perfect for the next firm? Almost certainly not. There is an importance...

Nebo, which stands for needs based optimization, was born after nearly a decade of GMO research focused on solving for optimal portfolio construction that seeks to minimize shortfall risk. Nebo has already passed $1B in platform assets, after launching in 2022, and the brilliant minds at the firm are on a mission to bridge the gap between asset management and financial planning. Spoiler alert: Adv...

AI continues to dominate headlines in the wealth management space. But, will it eventually end up replacing everything outside of actual conversations between an advisor and a client? Possibly. Generative AI may still seem intimidating to many, but the reality is the future belongs to those who are willing to learn and implement it correctly. As the world’s first AI-powered GPT assistant [fo...

Is a picture worth a thousand words? In the case of visiWealth, the answer is yes. Financial planning is complicated and often full of jargon that is complex. As advisors know, when complexity increases, understanding can often decrease, and it can be a challenge to get clients to trust what they don’t understand. This is why the power of engaging visuals has become a game changer in wealth manage...

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...

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, spearheadi...

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 diff...

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, spea...

*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...

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 e...

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...

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...

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 s...

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 t...