WealthTech Today

The post Ep. 97: When One Door Closes, Another Opens – May WealthTech News Roundup appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . Alexander Graham Bell made the famous announcement, “When one door closes, another opens.” While this may seem quaintly optimistic, many world-famous scientists and entrepreneurs who struggled through years or decades of failure have spoken about learning from th...

The post Ep. 96: Converting Tax Returns Into Actionable Insights for Advisors with Kevin Lozer, Holistiplan appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “How Holistiplan came about was we were looking for a way to automate tax planning a little more, to scale it so that as you grow as an [advisory] firm, and bring on more clients, you can support all of your existing clients without havin...

The post Ep. 95: Travel Gadget Geek-Out with Brian McLaughlin, Redtail Technology  appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” – Paulo Coelho, author of ‘The Alchemist‘ This quote was written pre-pandemic, but it certainly fits.  We all created routines the past year or so while we’ve been stuck at home that we would love t...

The post Ep. 94: Building Invisible Digital Infrastructure with Tricia Rothschild appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “We think of ourselves as a technology company first, which you would think might be obvious, for somebody that’s providing digital infrastructure and back end pipes and plumbing, but I’ve observed that it is actually an area where there has been precious little i...

The post Ep. 93: Putting the Puzzle Pieces Together – April News Roundup appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle.” — Richard Dawkins, British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and author This month, we cover six stories in wealth management technology related news.  Four of them are acquisitions.  This is not a new trend...

The post Ep. 92: Taming Your Company’s Technical Debt with Alex Sauickie, CircleBlack appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “The fact that we’re new technology and we have very low tech debt, our tech debt is measured in weeks not months or years, decades, in some cases with older companies, we think that’s an added advantage. With RBC BLACK, they’ve certainly taken advantage of th...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 91: Creating a Gravitational Pull Towards Your RIA Platform with Jason Wenk, Altruist appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “The most compelling thing you can have when you go to market in any industry is simply providing immense value to your users. So the combination of people who are frustrated with their current solutions, so it’s not like we had t...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 90: How Merrill Lynch Drives Digital Adoption with April Rudin appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “I think that Merrill embraces that opportunity which has multiple entry points, Merrill Edge, Merrill One. They have something that they announced last year called the customer experience workstation. So in other words, they’re thinking about it from a...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 89: When the Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts – March News Roundup appeared first on and was written by Elana Iskowitz . “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” A phrase attributed to Aristotle and misquoted by those seeking to understand one of the most mysterious properties of a system: Emergence. [read my exploration into that topic] The phrase...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 88: A Digital Wealthtech Showdown — US vs Europe with Ralf Heim, Fincite.de appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . European geography has become almost irrelevant as FinTech markets have flattened out, enabling technology firms to more easily reach customers beyond national borders. Boosted by cloud software efficiency, specifically productivity tools,...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 87: The Engine Powering the SS&C Advent Insurance Marketplace with David Lau, DPL Financial Partners appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “I know this from my many years at Jefferson National, it was difficult to get the Orions and the BlackDiamonds of the world to build insurance functionality, because they didn’t have demand. Their advisors aren’t r...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 86: Behind the Scenes of the Cetera-Voya Deal, with Lori Hardwick appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Firms like Cetera, and certainly Genstar, at the private equity level, we see a lot of value there because we are already a well oiled engine inside Cetera. So we know that when we bring on this number of advisors and this number of assets, that we’...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 85: Reddit Targets Robinhood And The GameStop Débâcle with Aaron Klein, Riskalyze appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “For markets to work there have to be winners and losers. It’s not a good look for Robinhood to change the rules of the game and effectively turn off one side of the GameStop trade. It’s also not a good look for the DTCC, the prime br...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 84: The Road to Success is Paved with Data, with Jeff Marsden, Xtiva appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Data as an asset is a theme that comes up in conversations time in and time out. It’s almost universally across size of customer, market segment, go to market strategy in terms of employee or independent contractor model. Data as an asset is a co...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 83: The Bitcoin Enlightenment Comes to Wealth Management with Efi Pylarinou appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Essentially, blockchain has the potential to change the economics of how we manufacture different securities as we know them. Whether it’s a deposit, or some other structured product and DeFi is one experiment, we will see whether it works...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 82: Can eMoney’s Mobile App Deliver an Incentive for Clients? appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “There’s a large percentage of American households that are not being served by financial advisors. That’s where this concept of financial wellness comes into play, in helping individuals in need of advice who don’t know where to turn. Helping them to la...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 80: Best of 2020 – Part 2 appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . Welcome to our annual best of the year edition of the Wealth Management Today podcast. I’m your host, Craig Iskowitz, and I run a consulting company called Ezra Group. We are experts in everything related to wealthtech, and this is where I usually give our standard marketing pitch, but ins...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 79: The Ultimate Tech Stack for Retirement Plans with Aaron Schumm, Vestwell appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Our goal is to make sure that every single person that touches this platform, irrespective of who it is, if it’s an advisor, if it’s an asset manager, if it’s a company, if it’s the employees of those companies, every person has to be bet...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 78: 7 Secrets for a Successful Advisor Podcast with Cathy Curtis & Marie Swift appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “The old man rubbed his hands: ‘Ah! A meta-subject! Using language to discuss language, there’s nothing better. I adore that’.” ― Laurent Binet, The Seventh Function of Language This episode is one that I’ve been talking with my team abo...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 77: Building a Fintech Ecosystem for Modern Retirement, with Rhian Horgan, CEO of Silvur appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “What I think is different about our approach, firstly, is that we’re purpose built for decumulation. The second thing is that we’re built for what I call modern retirement. In the old days you had a pension, but you probably w...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 76: Standing on the Edge of a TAMP Revolution with Matt Regan, Wealthcare appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “TAMPs are often the first thing that advisors outsource.  They know that they aren’t very good at investments and they were very happy to turn to somebody who had some expertise in there. So what’s happened is that they’ve had to adopt and i...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 75: When The Wealthtech Rubber Meets the Road appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . It’s another fantastic day in the wonderful world of wealthtech. Welcome to episode 75 of the Wealth Management Today podcast. This is our monthly roundup of some of the top wealthtech news and we’ve got a terrific mix of stories to keep you on top of the latest industr...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 74: Not All Fintech Funding Checks Are Equal with Sean Brown of YCharts appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Not all checks are equal. You can go get funding from somebody who will give you a check and no more than that. Or, you can get funding and a partner in a journey that will inspire you, support you, push you.  There’s so much capital being pou...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 73: Confessions of a Fintech Heretic with Lex Sokolin appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “Why am I fintech heretic? I must get bored easily and so I always look for what’s the edge. Where’s the place where people are breaking things and re-imagining how they could be? Even in a situation where 99% of the industry is the same, I’m always going to loo...

The post #ItzOnWealthTech Ep. 72: Finding the Right Fintech Deal with LPL Financial appeared first on and was written by Craig Iskowitz . “We want to be the leader wherever advice is delivered. And as you think about how our firm has evolved, this is really about being there for advisors and helping them where they are in their practices. And we’re agnostic of platform, affiliation level. We’re re...