In order to escape the Polar Vortex gripping the country, I traveled to a much more comfortable location in beautiful Denton, TX and attended the T3 Advisor Conference 2019.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Ready to kick off #T32019 with the incomperable @FinTechie – Lets Go! #EverythingIsBiggerInTexas

How can we start a conference summary without paying tribute to the man himself, Mr. Joel Bruckenstein?

According to Joel, 775 people attending this year’s conference, which is their biggest ever. Only about 1/3 were exhibitors, which means the rest were advisors, IBD execs, VCs, press & interested others.

During the event’s three and a half days, I sent out over 200 tweets! These included interesting bits from the many presentations, product announcements, and vendor demos. We curated the most interesting tweets for this summary and also  included perspectives from other attendees.

Overall, this is the absolutely best, most comprehensive review of the conference you can find anywhere. Enjoy!

Top 3 Trends + 4 Innovative Ideas

There were a number of themes that we saw repeated throughout the conference:

• Increasing integration between systems via application programming interfaces (APIs)
• Product focus on client experience and emotional intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence

These are four of the biggest innovations and disruptive ideas I saw at the conference:

Facial Recognition

This is one of the first applications I have seen that leverages facial recognition in a way that could have a direct benefit to both advisors and clients.

Ian McKenna on Twitter

Really looking forward to seeing @nviso launch their #FacialRecognition #RiskProfiling tools at #T32019 transforming a boring experience to a great #CustomerExperience #UX #UI #Fintech #WealthTech #Decipher https://t.co/Omuf6y6e0r

A combination of video and artificial intelligence was released by technology firm NVISO, which claims to be the leading provider of emotion recognition software.  They refer to their system as a “personalized engagement solution” that is named EmotionAdvisor and utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to reveal people’s true feelings about their financial priorities. Using an ordinary webcam or smartphone, it precisely tracks the movements of facial muscle and analyzes facial expressions in real-time as users watch a video about a variety of financial issues. Machine learning algorithms then decode the muscle movement and match them to their corresponding emotions. At the end of the experience, EmotionAdvisor delivers a personalized report that allows advisors to help clients make better financial decisions.

I have written extensively about risk profiling and assessment tools on my blog, including an article about whether Big Data and AI could replace the standard question and answer format. I’m always on the lookout for innovative solutions that can disrupt the status quo. (See Can Big Data Make Risk Tolerance Questionnaires Obsolete?)

So far, EmotionAdvisor has only been used in New Zealand with just two hundred thousand people. I am interested to see if NVISO can land an accounts with a global bank to see how their technology scales to millions of users.

Financial Planning

The biggest splash at the conference was definitely made by industry icon Edmund Walters (founder of eMoney Advisor) during his announcement of a new set of financial planning tools targeting HNW/UHNW. His new firm, Apprise Labs, is a joint venture with Envestnet and PIETech (MoneyGuide Pro).

AdvisorStream on Twitter

AdvisorStream is extremely excited to be apart of #MoneyLogixPro with @MoneyGuidePro, @ENVintel & #EdmondWalters #T32019, #FinTech

Envestnet is referring to their version of the software as MoneyLogixPro. Neither Walters nor PIETech have shared what their tools will be named.

MichaelKitces on Twitter

Fascinating to see what Walters built. He’s gone upmarket to build the more comprehensive software real financial planners have been asking for, while @eMoneyAdvisor & @MoneyGuidePro have become beholden to legacy Broker-Dealers going downmarket to non-CFPs. #T32019

This will definitely shake up the high end of the planning market that has been pretty much owned by Advicent’s Naviplan for the past decade. More competition is definitely good for advisors who will see more innovative features and could also see prices fall.

Joel Bruckenstein on Twitter

@MoneyGuidePro Blocks are a game changer. Makes planning approachable for everyone #T32019

MoneyGuide Pro launched their “Blocks” planning applets last year and they looked like a great way to feed bite-sized chunks of information to clients.  They have released many more Blocks focused on different aspects of planning.  But what CEO Bob Curtis demonstrated was a completely new user interface that shows that his firm can still do some out of the box thinking.

While their “Netflix UI” is simple and a replication of how most streaming content is presented today, it is quite innovative for wealth management software. I played with it for a bit on an iPad and it I could see how clients without much experience with finance would be able to work through the scenarios and interact with the different widgets. And everything they touch is tracked and can be mined for information about how the client is thinking about the future. The data can help advisors build a stronger and more holistic relationship with their clients.

Compliance

While this compliance isn’t as sexy a topic as facial recognition, it is still a critical one for wealth management firms and is ripe for innovation.

Jason Lahita on Twitter

@hdelux – SEC has a target of examining 19% of RIAs in 2019 – “if you have been getting the sense that the cop is on the beat, its real.” Don’t get complacent. @orionadvisor’s “Audit Tool” can test your firm’s readiness before regulators turn up to have a look…#T32019

Orion Advisor Services launched a new compliance oversight tool called Inform that can be used to help survive an SEC audit.  Build in partnership with Market Counsel, Inform handles monitoring employee trading, catching front-running, enforcing the Code of Ethics and automatically logging data and preparing it for any regulators. It sounds like a fantastic system that every advisor would want.  And it’s tight integration with the Orion platform and their Compass compliance tool should deliver a seamless experience.

Riskalyze: The Greatest Advice You’ve Never Heard

We have been conditioned to expect exciting new features to be announced every time Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein takes the stage at T3. And this year was no exception.

I was asked my opinion on Riskalyze by some people at the conference who were new to the industry. I replied that they are really a User Experience & Communications company that also happens to have some risk profiling functionality  Their entire platform is dedicated to building beautifully-designed tools that help advisors explain critical financial information to their clients and set their expectations around market volatility.

It’s no wonder why they’ve become so successful in such a short time. (See Winners of WealthTech: Aaron Klein)

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

New feature from ⁦@Riskalyze⁩ called #MultipleOpinions that allows for separate risk profiles for each spouse #t32019

Something that many advisors will instantly take to is Multiple Opinions, which allows creation of separate risk profiles for each spouse.  This is important since research has shown that all other things equal, wives are much less willing to take risk than husbands.  According to a report called “Risk Tolerance of Married Couples,” separate analyses of husbands and wives show that each group is affected in a similar way by factors such as age and education. Financial planners should try to obtain the risk tolerance levels of both the husband and the wife in assessing a married couple household. (See What Exactly is Riskalyze Building?)

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

RetirementMaps from @riskalyze allows #financialadvisors to determine if their risk capacity is compatible with their #retirement goals #t32019

The updated user experience from ⁦Riskalyze looks streamlined & intuitive⁩. Just when you thought they couldn’t improve their UI/UX any more, they go and top it.⁩  Part of the new release is an expansion of their “lite” financial planning tools with Timeline events able to be layered onto Retirement Maps.

There’s a growing trend for vendors to switch from the single, gigantic conference to a bunch of smaller, regional ones. Some firms are doing this in alternating years while some have switched entirely.  Klein announced that his firm will be conducting a series of bootcamps around the country to help train financial advisors on their new functionality. (See Riskalyze Expands Beyond Profiling to Become a TAMP Supermarket)

Alex Chalekian on Twitter

Great job by @AaronKlein, @jonnytealscott, @dcunning1 and the @Riskalyze team! I was hoping for the Pet Risk Analysis ??? that @jboat came up with… but Timeline is probably a better feature. ? #T32019 https://t.co/1OUo1wpUnJ

This was too funny not to include.

Custodians

Pershing

Christina Townsend, Head of Platform Strategy at BNY Mellon’s Pershing Advisor Solutions shared her Top Five Ways for Advisors to Maximize Results:

1. It’s all about the experience
2. Driving profitable growth
3. Realizing ROI on technology
4. Changing behavior
5. Walking the Walk

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

ChristinaTownsend from @pershing takes the big stage to start off Day 3 of #t32019 to talk about “walking the talk” of advisor #technology

Townsend shared that hybrid robo-advisor Personal Capital had selected Pershing for custody because they felt they were best to help implement their vision for customer experience.  This is important since Personal Capital has been given strong ratings on their Ease of Use, Accessibility and Tools.  (See Wealthfront Revs Up With AI, But Is Still Running on Fumes)

“The most successful advisory firms are building their technology framework around their optimal client and the experience they want to deliver,” said Townsend.

The average RIA spends 3.6% of their revenue on technology, but 54% on people, Townsend reported.  This is an important statistic that many advisors probably overlook. It’s easy to be seduced by technology even though staff are an integral part of the firm’s success. A majority of RIAs across all asset levels are planning to hire additional staff and firms are taking measures to attract and develop the best talent, with the majority of firms looking externally to fill positions.

The shift to fee-based advice has changed the asset mix at Pershing such that 1/3 of assets are now advisory. RIA assets passed $600 billion last year, the custodian reported.  In fact, 50% of new Pershing clients are breakaway brokers.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

advisor firm growth is dependent on a scalable & efficient #technology infrastructure #ChristinaTownsend @pershing #t32019

Traditional method for categorizing wealth management firms (i.e. broker-dealers, RIAs) don’t work anymore, Townsend insisted. A better way is breaking them instead into Adopters, Integrators & Creators.

Pershing also joined a flood of other vendors at T3 announcing expansion and enhancement to their API Store to encourage integration with their core custody platform.  (See Advisor Group’s eQuipt is a Quantum Leap in Onboarding Technology)

Fidelity

Tricia Haskins, VP, Digital Strategy & Platform Consulting at Fidelity Institutional Investment & Technology Solutions shared some of what the Big 4 RIA custodian has been working on.  This includes their newly launched Integration Exchange, which is a one-stop online technology center and sounds like they learned a lot from TD Ameritrade’s VEO platform.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Building a seamless #onboarding experience is crucial to ⁦@Fidelity4BD_RIA #t32019 https://t.co/Tf6DmPv6xG ⁩

The screen shot Haskins showed looked good, but I would need to see a demo of their onboarding process to get a better idea as to whether it is seamless and matches what other firms have launched. (See Advisor Group’s eQuipt is a Quantum Leap in Onboarding Technology)

Haskins explained how the Digital Quotient (DQ) is the new way to measure an advisors’ ability to interact with clients and has surpassed IQ and EQ (emotional quotient). DQ is made up of:

1. Strategy
2. Culture
3. Capabilities
4. Organization & talent

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

On the bleeding edge of #technology w/ #VirtualReality advisor & client Experience ⁦@Fidelity4BD_RIA⁩ #t32019

As a techno-geek, I love almost every new idea to squeeze some kind of technology into the advisor/client relationship. I’m just not sure we’re ready for virtual reality (VR) advice. Seems more like it is positioned more as a proof of concept than something clients would actually use.

64% of financial advisors want to use AI in their practice, but only 5% have adopted it. Haskins pointed out that this was a tremendous opportunity for custodians and fintech to get onboard with AI. Fidelity is already ahead of the game with their AIRay application that will include biometric data and analytics. ⁦

According to a study co-authored with eMoney Advisor, a new type of advisor is leading the industry, which Fidelity has dubbed “FlexGen Advisors”.  They are more likely than other advisors to agree that they:

• Embrace change (82% vs. 45% of other advisors)
• Love learning (96% vs. 84%)
• Challenge conventions (87% vs. 61%)
• Are forward-thinking (96% vs. 79%)
• Are nimble (86% vs. 55%)

FlexGen advisors have also see higher average AUM growth than their peers 24% vs 14%, Haskins noted.

E*Trade

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

50% of logins to @etrade4rias systems were from #dataaggregation vendors who were given consumer credentials #T32019

Data aggregation has become table stakes for most wealth management firms, which has been a boon to data vendors like Yodlee, Quovo and ByAllAccounts. But not so much for the firms where the data is being taken from. Capps reported that 50% of logins to E*TRADE’s systems were from data aggregation vendors who were screen scraping data using consumer credentials.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

APIs have been mentioned twice this morning. Another tend? ⁦@etrade4rias⁩ #t32019

The top APIs being researched shows a trend towards AI based technology, Capps noted.  I had trouble verifying the source of this list from Internet searching, so I reached out E*TRADE to find out.

I found the chart on the right that shows the most clicked through public APIs as of last year.  Looks a lot more like weather, social media and movies are the most popular.

When checking with developers, they say that the most important APIs to know are those for IBM Watson, Slack, Amazon, Twitter and Google, in that order.

No matter which ones are the most popular, the usage of APIs is growing exponentially and we should expect more data being passed between more applications than we ever saw before.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

55% of logins to ⁦@etrade4rias⁩ in one month were from #dataagregation vendors #t32019

Wealth Platforms & Portfolio Management

This section is for fintech vendors that provide portfolio management or end-to-end wealth management platforms.

Envestnet

Jud Bergman, CEO of Envestnet, was part of a heavyweight industry triumvirate presentation along with Edmund Walters, founder of eMoney Advisor, and Bob Curtis, founder of MoneyGuide Pro.  Bergman was up first and provided some interesting stats about his firm and the industry overall.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

50% of ⁦@ENVintel⁩ total assets of $2.8 trillion are #RIAs #t32019

92,000 advisors is a huge number! Looks like they added a little more than 3,000 advisors over the past 12 months (based on an investor presentation I saw last March). The 25 million end clients is inflated by Yodlee aggregation clients. (See How the Quovo Deal Validates Envestnet’s Vision for Yodlee)

The big keep getting bigger: 80% of the net asset growth in advisory is concentrated in RIAs with $5 billion+ in assets, according to Bergman. That doesn’t leave much for the rest since the vast majority (72%) of RIAs are much smaller, with less than $100 million in assets under management (AUM) according to Cerulli’s US RIA Marketplace 2017 Report.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

financialadvisors that use #dataaggregation & #financialplanning have an 80% wallet share vs 30% average #JudBergman @ENVintel #T32019

This was a great lead-in for Edmund Walters to present his new joint venture, MoneyLogixPro, which combines financial planning, data aggregation and estate and trust planning tools.

SS&C Advent BlackDiamond

Doug McPhail, Director of Solutions Consulting for SS&C BlackDiamond was the presenter for this session, which was mostly about marketing.  One trend that McPhail pointed out was that only 42% of financial advisors customized their messaging & content to align with their ideal target client segment.  This becomes an issue when paired with the statistic that more clients switch financial advisors due to communication issues than performance.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

BlackDiamond realised that #advisors need their portal to customizable to appeal to different types of clients ⁦@SSCAdvent⁩ #t32019

McPhail used Amazon as an example of the best client experience, but I think this may be too high of a goal for financial advisors who provide long-term services rather than discrete retail transactions.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

After many years of offering only a very basic #portfoliorebalancing tool that didn’t compete, #BlackDiamond finally revamped it last year #dougmcphail ⁦@SSCAdvent⁩ #t32019

Finally! We’ve been waiting for Black Diamond to release a new rebalancer that could compete with Tamarac, Morningstar’s tRx or TD Ameritrade’s iRebal. We publish a comparison of the top portfolio rebalancing tools on a regular basis and look forward to including BD’s in our next report. (See Advisor’s Guide To Choosing The Best Portfolio Rebalancing Software)

Orion Advisor Services

• 40% of existing Orion clients increased firm revenue by at least 30%
• 30% of existing Orion clients increase their number of accounts between 30-50%
• 57% increased new assets per client by 10-30% or more

Ryan W. Neal on Twitter

In addition to an integration with @BizEquity to help advisers serve business owners, @orionadvisor is also showing new event-based mobile notifications for client communications. #T32019

Since advisors are fiduciaries for their clients, they need to know that their fees are in line with other advisors. Orion’s Advisory Fee Benchmark tool can demonstrate not only how fees compare across advisors in the same firm, but also across the entire Orion client base.  Peer-based comparison data used to be hoarded by consultants and data management firms. Now they’re cropping up in more wealth management platforms and being made available directly to advisors. This can be a huge help in practice management, pricing, and running a business.

? Johnny Sandquist ? on Twitter

Kylee Beach of @orionadvisor and @HDelux discussing the intentional UI design of Orion’s new Inform tool to ensure advisors can get info they need quickly-addressing a fatal flaw in many other compliance software apps #T32019

The most interesting part is the new #Inform product from Orion Advisor Services which they built with MarketCounsel and AdvicePeriod.  Most RIAs have a manual process for monitoring employee trade activity and staying in compliance with their Code of Ethics. Leveraging data aggregation from and integrating with their Compass app provides a tremendous framework for RIA to better manage compliance.

Noting that third-party solutions were too limiting, Beach explained the intention behind the new tool. With the SEC devoting more resources to RIA exams, Orion and its partners wanted to come up with a new solution. Orion’s push into compliance technology signals a “new environment” for the firm, she said, and is an area that continues to see interest from a variety of tech companies.

Invent.us

Oleg Tishkevich was the founder of financial planning software firm FinanceLogix that was acquired by Envestnet in 2015. He has recently launched his second venture called Invent.us.

MichaelKitces on Twitter

One of the striking new trends really visible at #T32019 – return of Advisor #FinTech founders back for their second/new ventures. Oleg Tishkevich, Edmond Walters, even heard Jim Starcev of Etelligent is here! It’s a sign of depth in our space that we’re on 2nd Gen companies.

Oleg explained that it was much harder to launch his first startup than his second.  Probably because he has more experience, but also due to the advancement of technology that has greatly reduced costs and enabled more virtual work.

Invest.us has 30 people on their team, yet have no physical offices. They are located in six different countries across 13 time zones, Oleg explained.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

OlegTishkevich focused his new company https://t.co/CTXKKdgHXF on the #brokerdealer market & will have 14,000 advisors using their tools when they go live later this year #t32019

Firms that leverage cloud-based architecture will spend $206 billion on cloud technology, see a 20% increase in growth and reduce operational costs by 17%, according to Oleg.

The software infrastructure of most financial services firms contains a significant amount of legacy code, which usually lumps all of the complex business rules into monolithic code bases.  These are expensive to maintain and difficult to modify.

Cloud-based is just moving your existing  monolithic architecture into the cloud. What Oleg realized is that cloud-based system are not taking advantage of all the efficiencies and scalability available. This was the impetus behind starting Invent.us. To evangelize “cloud-native” software development that allows for lower maintenance costs, more scalability and enhanced connectivity.

Financial Planning

Some of the biggest announcements and innovative product ideas came from the financial planning vendors.

Edmund Walters and MoneyLogixPro

One of the biggest crowds of the conference packed into the main ballroom to hear the announcement of a new high-end version of financial planning software created by Edmond Walters.  Scheduled for release this summer, MoneyLogixPro was developed through a new firm called Apprise Labs that is a joint venture between Walters, Envestnet and PIEtech (MoneyGuide Pro).  Industry guru Michael Kitces has been saying for years that this was a huge gap in the feature set of existing planning software.

MoneyLogixPro will focus on estate planning and tax management in its first release, according to Walters.  While a number of commentators and trade publications have jumped on the “founded targets his old company” headline, I thought this to be too obvious to be his motive.

In a conversation I had with Jud Bergman later in the conference, he told me that eMoney wasn’t their target at all.  Financial planning software is too sticky and advisors rarely change from the first software they learned, he stated.

Their goal with MoneyLogixPro is to position it as an add on to MoneyGuide Pro and marketing to their existing clients to encourage them to upgrade to a premium version, Bergman explained.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

MoneyLogixPro will be taking on #NaviPlan ⁦@AdvicentFP⁩ in estate planning & tax Mgmt led by #EdmondWalters w/ ⁦@ENVintel⁩ & ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ #t32019

During Walters’ presentation, I tweeted that Advicent’s Naviplan is the biggest potential competitor for MoneyLogixPro.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

MoneyLogixPro is designed for managing legacy wealth transfers across multiple family heirs #EdmondWalters ⁦@ENVintel⁩ ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ #t32019

Definitely focusing on the HNW and UHNW market segments with trust and legacy wealth transfer functionality.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

MoneyLogixPro by #EdmundWalters provides what if scenario generation to help clients negotiate complex wealth transfers ⁦@ENVintel⁩ ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ #t32019

What if scenario tools that allow advisors to model the impact of complex estate structures is definitely something that would appeal to family offices, which is a client segment that Envestnet has not seen much traction.

Gavin Spitzner on Twitter

Interesting insight from @MichaelKitces Definite industry theme around “dumbing down” and simplifying financial planning. Is it to serve the needs of non-planners or to more effectively meet the less complex needs of mass affluent investors? #T32019 https://t.co/Rs54EVZjd8

I’m including the above tweet since it launched an informative exchange with Michael Kitces that spanned the financial planning needs of mass affluent investors through to the maximum number of clients that a financial planner can realistically support. Sometimes the most interesting discussion take place away from the conference.

MoneyGuidePro

Bob Curtis, CEO of MoneyGuidePro, stood before one of the largest crowds of the week to talk about a radically different approach to growing an advisors’ practice using financial planning.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

BobCurtis demonstrating new feature of ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ to allow #advisors to help clients reduce credit card debt #t32019

I’m impressed with how they have expanded their Blocks functionality into wellness.  Budgeting and reducing credit card debt are areas that most advisors don’t deal with. This Block makes it easy to find out how much debt your client has and offer suggests for paying it down over time.

There’s a 64% chance that 1 of 2 spouses live to age 90, advisors need to plan accordingly, Curtis stated.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

BobCurtis showing off the new #UI of ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ Blocks that looks like ⁦@netflix⁩ #t32019

One of the top 4 innovative ideas that came out of T3 this year.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

LifeInsurance Block from ⁦@MoneyGuidePro⁩ gives #advisors a tool for engaging clients in a conversation #T32019

Clean, intuitive UI is the standard for the Blocks apps.

Advicent

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Creating unique digital experiences using #APIs is a undeniable trend at #t32019 ⁦@AdvicentFP⁩

74% of advisors are happy with the financial planning technology at their firm, but many use multiple tools to support clients at different wealth levels, Pecoraro noted. We have seen this in our consulting practice as well. Advisors will sometimes split their books at a certain asset level and use MoneyGuide Pro for the lower end and Naviplan for the upper tier. (See 4 Top Financial Planning Software Apps for Advisors)

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

comprehensive #financialplanning products is being stressed by #AngelaPecoraro ⁦@AdvicentFP⁩ #t32019

This slide shows the breadth of functionality that has become table stakes for most financial planning software.  Insurance, healthcare expenses, debt consolidation and onboarding are all features that overlap with other available tools but can provide a better overall client experience and give advisors tremendous insight into the financial lives of their clients.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Adding new retirement goals & analysis will provide more information to help clients better prepare. ⁦@AdvicentFP⁩ #t32019

Pecoraro took the wraps off a new user interface from Naviplan that reduces screen clutter and streamlines the UI.  The Retirement Need screen and New Client Profile screen, both coming in April, can help advisors deepen their client relationships.

Digital Marketing by Snappy Kraken

This was one of my favorite sessions. I can tell which speakers are providing the most value by how many notes I take of key concepts. For Robert Sofia, CEO of digital marketer, Snappy Kraken, the total came to 22! That was by far the most useful ideas that came out of any session I attended.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Almost no #financialadvisors have built their business via digital marketing even though it’s been successful in other industries @robertsofia @SnappyKraken #T32019

This tweet generated a lot of comments and discussion between Alan Moore (@R_Alan_Moore) Co-founder of XY Planning Network and Sofia. Click on the tweet above to see the thread.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Examples of successful digital marketing for #advisors ⁦@robertsofia⁩ ⁦@SnappyKraken⁩ #t32019

Don’t Blend In: Financial advisors must differentiate themselves in their digital marketing in order to stand out from the crowd, Sofia recommended. This includes not using website templates from your custodian or broker-dealers (since every RIA is doing the same thing) and not relying on curated content unless there is geographic exclusivity (which costs more).

Financial advisors need to play the numbers game by creating massive awareness in prospective clients in order to be successful, Sofia warned.  Advertising is the most under-utilized tool by financial advisors, even though every $1 investment in digital advertising yields $2 in revenue, he noted.  I believe this mental block is due to lack of understanding by advisors on how to use advertising effectively.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Asking #ProspectiveClients for a little more personal information at each stage of the sales funnel works better than asking for everything up front @robertsofia @SnappyKraken #T32019

Marketing Out of Context: Sophia believes that financial advisors ask too much personal information in their initial digital engagement with prospective clients. This turns them off rather than encouraging them to interact. Most advisors aren’t creating the right content for the right people and delivering it at the right time, he observed.

Cetera Financial

Adam Antoniades, President of IBD Cetera Financial Group demoed their new risk profiling and assessment tool called Decipher. Built with the facial recognition technology from NVISIO, it’s a big step forward in the client onboarding process and certainly will be used as a differentiator for Cetera recruiting.
Antoniades complained that there will be a 10% decline in the number of financial advisors and 65% increase in people seeking advice – so why aren’t prices rising?  Due to fee pressure hyrbid and direct digital providers like Vanguard that are keeping a ceiling on prices.

Also, the Long Bull Market since 2009 has shielded financial advisors from fee compression, but with volatility increasing, fees will start feeling downward pressure.

70% of financial advisors kept their fees stable or increased them in 2018, Antoniades reported. This means that 30% reduced their prices.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Building an advisor-centric experience is at the core of the ⁦@CeteraFinancial⁩ technology platform w end-to-end alignment #t32019

Decipher provides insights into each client using facial recognition & psychometric analysis to drive a new term called “relationship alpha”. Edmund Walters (founder of eMoney) helped Cetera develop Decipher, which uses a combination of risk tolerance questions, facial/emotional recognition & video training to better understand how clients think.  It also performs risk assessment by categorizing clients as past, present or future thinking, to predict their responses to future events & recommends to advisors how to adjust their client conversations.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Decipher from @ceterafinancial analyzes clients emotional responses to different life aspects & compares them to their peer group, also identifies sales opportunities #t32019

Flash Sessions

These were shorter presentations that ran throughout the conference. But were held in a separate section inside the vendor hall. I thought this was an excellent idea that enabled attendees to learn about more products that could help their firms.

AdvisorStream

Kevin Mulheron is CEO and Co-Founder of AdvisorStream, which is a social media marketing platform for advisors. He gave us a preview of their latest product, AdvisorStream Connect.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

⁦@AdvisorStream⁩ #Connect has a ⁦@netflix⁩ -like UI/UX for #advisors to select high quality content to share + ⁦#Bloomberg partnership for CE credits #t32019

AdvisorStream Connect aggregates real-time industry news, high quality educational content and leading practice management resources.  I really like the UI/UX, which is similar to what you would see on Netflix or Apple TV.

One very useful feature of their platform is that they have agreements with many of the major content providers (i.e. WSJ, Bloomberg, Forbes) so users clicking the link are taken directly to the content, even if it is behind a paywall. Other social media platforms send direct links to the source, which requires a subscription to read. But less than 10% of Americans subscribe to online content, according to Mulheron, so many clients and prospects can’t access it.

AdvisorStream⁩ enables sharing of paywall content and there are no ads displayed when it is shared. This avoids having clients/prospects see advertising for competing advisors or asset managers around the content that they want them to read. Plus everything is displayed on a custom page with the advisor’s branding, logo and photo, so it delivers a fantastic user experience.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Advisors swarming #KevinMulhern from ⁦@AdvisorStream⁩ after his presentation to get free lifetime access to their new #Connect #practicemanagement content platform #t32019

I have seen a LOT of demos over the years. But this is the first I’ve ever seen financial advisors swarming the presenter afterwards to hand over their business cards! That’s a powerful presentation!

Advisory World

Recently purchased by LPL, Advisory World is still one of the leading providers or proposal generation software.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Informative breakout session by ⁦@AdvisoryWorld⁩ about their API-enabled proposal generation tools. #t32019

RIA Billing from Redi2 | BillFin

Billing is one of the unglamorous parts of your technology stack but can also play an important role in the success of your firm.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

FerminGarcia from ⁦@Redi2BillFin⁩ giving advisors tips on how to prepare for #SEC audits related to billing #T32019

Fermin Garcia, President and Chief Operating Officer of Redi2 Technologies explained how their Billfin application can help deal with the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) when they come calling:

• Risk #1 – Incorrect Account Valuations. This includes incorrectly valuing certain client assets resulting in overbilling.
• Risk #2 – Improper Billing Timing. Avoid billing processes that differ from what is stated on the Form ADV Part 2.  This includes billing monthly instead of quarterly, billing in advance instead of arrears and not billing new clients on a prorated basis.
• Risk #3 – Applying Incorrect Fee Rates. Applying a higher rate than stated in the advisory agreement or double-billing.

Billfin from Redi2 can be the safeguard for advisors to mitigate these risks and ensure that you sail through any SEC audits with flying colors (at least as far as your billing is concerned).

Blaze Portfolio

Blaze Portfolio was founded in 2010 by CEO Bryson Pouw. Their main product is Atom Align, a portfolio rebalancing and trade order management solution for financial advisors, that includes order creation, support for algorithmic trading and straight through processing over 50 different executing brokers and custodians.  Their monthly averages are $2.5 billion in trading and 350,000 allocations. Atom Align is integrated with a wide range of external systems such as Black Diamond, Advent APX, Orion Advisor, and Addepar. (See Perfect Together: Portfolio Rebalancing + Best Execution = BlazePortfolio)

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Flash session from ⁦@BlazePortfolio⁩ is one of the great features of #t32019 lots of different venues to learn

FCI Cyber

FCI Cyber is an IT service provider that offers cybersecurity monitoring and management, virus and spam blocking, intrusion detection, firewalls, end point security and virtual private network (VPN) management.  Their CEO Brian Edelman session was titled “How to Avoid a Cybersecurity Nightmare”.

Cybersecurity is only effective when it is applied consistently throughout an enterprise, Edelman warned. This presents a significant challenge to independent distribution models where the broker-dealer, marketing group, BGA, or other such distribution affiliate have limited control over the infrastructure and operations of affiliated producers and their practices.

In the event of a breach, this lack of control will likely provide very limited protection from liability to a distribution firm with deep pockets, Edelman stated. The added challenge is that many distribution firms will not impose operational burdens on the producer and will allow the firm to remain “independent”.  This results in a heterogeneous environment with respect to hardware, software, infrastructure, and procedures—all of which must be managed separately to deliver effectively cybersecurity.

FCI’s Detectit solution can help wealth management firms to address these challenges. Detectit is a cloud-based platform which launches as soon as a user logs in and automatically applies the correct security protocols and base-level of protection required by the firm’s policies.

Detectit then evaluates the “health” of the device—whether PC, tablet, or smartphone—prior to allowing the login to continue. If the user’s device is not healthy and consistent with the firm’s minimum cybersecurity requirements, it will automatically update the device.

FCI has been around since 1995 and both protects private data and provides evidence of compliance of technical control requirements (FINRA, SEC, NAIC, NYDFS, etc.), as well as delivering and remediating cyber compliance, tools and settings to endpoints.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

BrianEdelman from @fcicyber sharing tips for #advisors on how to survive a regulatory audit #t32019

InvestmentPOD

Jacqueline Ko Matthews is CEO of InvestmentPOD, which she said was “the first multi-strategy, automated investing platform” combining the benefits of digital advice technology with sophisticated asset diversification strategies. Their goal is to enable advisors to better serve high-net-worth clients who require more than simple buy-and-hold portfolios.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

⁦@InvestmentPod⁩ provides Robo automation with asset strategy & enables strategies formerly available only to #FamilyOffices #JacquelineMatthews #T32019

InvestmentPOD has also been called a white-label digital adviser that can provide robo-like automation with asset strategies that are currently only available to family offices.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

⁦@InvestmentPod⁩ enables #advisors to build portfolios that stand the test of time at a low cost with minimal effort #T32019

Their mix of services give them a TAMP-like offering that crosses over a number of key areas where advisors need automation and a seamless user experience.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

⁦@InvestmentPod⁩ enables #advisors to differentiate their product offering from traditional passive buy and hold strategies #T32019

The valuation of RIAs can drop by 70% during market downturns due to the drop in AUM, which leads to a drop in revenue, which leads to a reduction in EBITDA, which negatively impact the firm’s trading multiple, Matthews explained.  Buy & Hold strategies have suffered frequent losses over time since they don’t incorporate defensive risk management, which can be provided by InvestmentPOD’s service.

Softpak

Naaz Scheik is CEO of Softpak Financial Systems. They have developed a number of sophisticated portfolio management tools including a mean variance optimizing rebalancer (MARS), an Enterprise Risk Management solution and a Universal Portfolio Rebalancer (URebal).

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Helpful explanation by #NaazScheik from https://t.co/USInO6WLpP of the benefits of #household level #rebalancing #t32019

Softpak announced the addition of household-level rebalancing for the URebal platform.  Household-level rebalancing allows multiple accounts owned by related individuals to be grouped together and assigned a single portfolio model.  Urebal will analyze the holdings and adjust across accounts to bring the entire household back to the model target weights.

The system uses a multi-swap methodology that performs deep analysis to optimize trading and tax management across all connected accounts, Scheik explained.

T3 Advisor Conference

Jason Lahita on Twitter

@HDelux @derekbruton Called it. Best #T32019 tweet. ?? @craigiskowitz won for volume and real-time relevance, @hdelux nailed the favorite post…what a show…thanks @FinTechie this was an epic way to start 2019’s confefe season.

It’s good to be the winner of something.

Craig Iskowitz on Twitter

Awesome event! https://t.co/xfBu2GLaBM

What an awesome-looking group!