Modern Financial Advisor: Recent Episodes
Truelytics
The Modern Financial Advisor podcast, by Truelytics, explores topics related to transition management and business optimization for the wealth management and insurance industries. The show is hosted by Mike Langford and features a variety of guests.
Matt Spielman, Founder and Head Coach at Inflection Point Partners shares how financial advisors can leverage coaching principles in their business to achieve more in their careers and personal lives while also providing higher quality service to their clients.
Greg Prokott and Samatha Angell, Managing Partners at Advisor Financing LLC make the case for why financial advisors should consider a partial sale of their business to ensure the continuity of their firm. Greg and Sam also offered a detailed roadmap for securing financing to facilitate M&A deals and internal success plans.
Julie Pinkerton, CEO of ClientFirst by Evozen sat down with Mike Langford to explore how "community" can solve three of the biggest problems facing financial advisors today.
Jeff Conyer, CEO of Wealth Advisor Financing joins Mike Langford for an expansive conversation about how financial advisors and RIA firms can secure the financing they need for M&A deals and succession.
Robert Russo, CEO of Independent Advisor Alliance joins Mike Langford for an in-depth conversation about how financial advisors can navigate the transition from "accidental business owners" to owners of high-performing wealth management firms.
Calvin Williams Jr, CEO of Freeman Capital shares why he sees massive opportunity in serving overlooked financial consumer segments who need help building wealth.
Lacy Garcia, Founder and CEO of Willow sheds some light on the tremendous opportunities available to financial advisors who learn to serve women investors better. With 70% of widows changing advisors after the death of a spouse and 80% of divorcees changing advisors after their marriage ends... there's a case to be made for learning to better serve women investors is a defensive strategy as well.
Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of AssetMark shares some key insights into the expectations millennial and Gen Z investors have of their financial advisors. She also offers some key strategies for advisors to scale their business and provide a more modern service experience by leveraging outsourced solutions.
David Kakish, CEO of RIA WorkSpace says that financial advisors often like to ask about the ROI of investing in cybersecurity solutions... that's the wrong question. They should be asking what's the RON (Return On Negligence) of not investing in cybersecurity.
On this episode, David shares some simple tips that RIAs and independent financial advisors can use to boost their firm's cybersecurity to better protect their clients and their business. David and Mike Langford also share a few other suggestions for upping your tech stack on a budget.
Kyle Simpson, Head of Field Strategy at FS Investments joins Jeremi Karnell and Mike Langford to explore the benefits of investing in programs designed to help financial advisors thrive in all areas of their lives. The key takeaway? A well-rounded and balanced professional is more likely to avoid the pitfalls that keep many advisors from reaching their full potential.
Chuck Failla, CEO of Sovereign Financial Group shares how what was supposed to be a small online event that he was going to host for 20 to 30 folks grew to a large national event with premier speakers from the wealth management industry. Now, he's co-hosting the RIA Labs with InvestmentNews.
Laurie Barkman, CEO of Small Dot Big makes the case for why financial advisors should focus on serving entrepreneurs and business owners who are selling or retiring. Laurie and Mike Langford also explore how financial advisors can attract entrepreneurs and business owners who are on the cusp of a transition.
BTW: Much of this conversation is also relevant and helpful for RIAs and independent financial advisors who are considering their own transition.
Brian Thorp from Wealthtender explains how financial advisors can embrace client testimonials and endorsements from referral partners, friends, and their wider network thanks to new recent SEC rule changes. Brian and Mike Langford also discuss how financial advisors can level up their online presence by focusing on solution-based and client-specific content marketing.
Gil Baumgarten as a solo advisor grew his business from $200 million AUM to over $1.2 billion AUM in only 10 years. His firm, Segment Wealth Management has only 9 employees serving 210 households and operates as an "extraordinarily simple business."
Pepper Anderson, President and CEO of Chilton Trust shares her insights on how modern financial advisory firms can scale in the face of a rapidly changing business environment.
Kieran Bol, Head of Platform Operations at PriceMetrix by McKinsey joins Mike Langford for a deep dive into "The State of The North American Retail Wealth Management" market. Specifically, Kieran and Mike examine the lack of real growth for individual financial advisors. Why are so many advisors not adding new clients or new assets?
If you wanted to sell your RIA or independent financial advisory business to an internal successor or a third party would you be able to? Josh Patrick, Founding Principal at Stage 2 Planning Partners and author of "Sale Ready Company" shares what you need to do to make your firm sale ready even if you have no plans to sell.
Land Bridgers, CEO of Integrated Financial Group (IFG) shares how the use of compassion has become a core cultural strength for his firm when it comes to recruiting new financial advisors and clients. Additionally, because compassion is a fundamental ethos across all advisory teams at "The Brain Trust", as IFG is affectionately known, there is a tremendous amount of cultural glue with the relationships between advisors, staff, and their clients. This has created a lot of stability for the business.
Bill Trigleth, Executive Director of Certifications at Cannon Financial Institute offers an actionable roadmap for transitioning a financial advisory business from one that relies on product sales and AUM to a modern firm that serves clients more holistically.
Laura Gregg, Senior Vice President, and Director of Practice Management & Advisor Research at Northern Trust’s FlexShares ETFs joins Mike Langford to share some powerful results from a new survey the firm conducted on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The ecosystem of consultants and professional services providers who work with RIAs and independent financial advisors is extensive. Yet, most providers lack the ability to evaluate the value and performance of a modern financial advisory firm.
In this episode of The Modern Financial Advisor podcast, Owen Dahl, Head of Professional Services at Truelytics and the original architect of the company's software, shares his insights and vision for how consultants and practice management professionals can best serve advisors by leveraging the Truelytics platform.
Andrew Crowell, Vice Chairman of Wealth Management at D.A. Davidson & Co. shares why financial advisors should actively participate in educating their community on the concepts of financial literacy.
Most financial advisors do not offer tax planning and strategy services to their clients. Why? Well, according to Steven Jarvis, CEO of Retirement Tax Services the answer is simple. Most advisors aren't CPAs and they lack the skills "in-house" to deliver tax planning services. But now it's possible for advisors to use a firm like Retirement Tax Services to offer more value to their clients.
Nick Cantrell, CEO of Green Future Wealth Management shares how he founded a rapidly growing financial advisory firm that focuses on serving clients who value ESG investing.
Jeff Hamaoui, Co-founder, Chief Education & Innovation Officer of Modern Elder Academy joins Jeremi Karnell, CEO of Truelytics, and Mike Langford for a fascinating and fun conversation about navigating life transitions.
Brian Nuttall, Joe DeMarco, and Rick Wilkens of Elevate CPA Group return to the show to join Mike Langford for an exploration of what an RIA or independent financial advisor can do to ensure they succeed when buying another RIA firm or book of business.
Scott Danner, CEO of Freedom Street Partners has acquired many financial advisor's books of business over the years to build a large wealth management firm. In this episode of the show, Scott shares his process for identifying and completing acquisitions as well as the personal growth journey he has undertaken as the firm has grown.
Ian Karnell, Chief Revenue Officer of Truelytics joins Mike Langford to share a fresh perspective on the opportunity for wealth management firms, RIAs, and independent financial advisors to navigate business transitions and achieve new levels of growth through the use of data and platform-based solutions.
Allen Darby, CEO of Alaris Acquisitions shares how his team of buyer advisors helps RIAs and independent financial advisors acquire high-quality practices with greater speed and less expense than other options available.
Financial advisors often help their clients with estate planning. But few help their clients prepare for the duties of becoming the executor of an estate. It's a weighty responsibility.
Dan Stickel of EstateExec joins Mike Langford to share how their solution can help advisors ensure their clients are ready when the time comes to manage a loved one's estate.
It may sound odd but, many financial advisors have never sat down with a financial planner to make sure they are on track to achieve their long-term goals. Brookly Brock of Ellevate Advisors shares how she and her team are helping RIAs and independent financial advisors with their financial plans and helping them navigate their business exits.
Jeremi Karnell, CEO of Truelytics, and Scott Wetzel, CEO of SkyView Partners join Mike Langford for an expansive conversation on what the next decade holds for advisor transitions. This episode was originally shared with the audience of the Virtual Financial Advisor Conference hosted by Broadridge Advisor Solutions and Advisorist
Kevin Darlington of Broadridge Advisor Solutions and Jeremiah Desmarais of Advisorist share how their Virtual Advisor Summit is helping financial advisors learn how to grow their businesses with modern digital marketing strategies and techniques.
Brian Nuttall, Joe DeMarco, and Rick Wilkens of Elevate CPA Group join Mike Langford to share how their firm, which specializes in serving RIAs, helps a business achieve higher levels of growth.
Nate Isaacson of Grapevine6 (Now Seismic | LiveSocial) joins Mike Langford to share how financial advisors can use personalized content to attract new clients on social media.
Max Winthrop, CEO of Winthrop Wealth Management joins Mike Langford to share how he and his brother worked with their father and uncle to transition the business to the next generation and then transform the firm into a modern financial advisory business.
Tom Hine, CEO of Capital Wealth Management and author of "The Zen of Business Acquisitions" joins Mike Langford for an expansive conversation on how financial advisors should approach acquiring a business. Tom and Mike also explore some of the ins and outs of writing a book and recording an audiobook.
Sten Morgan, author of "7 Mindsets of Success" joined Mike Langford to share how he grew his financial advisory business from zero to top-performer status in less than 5 years. The goal is to help firms improve their ability to recruit and develop financial advisors for the next generation.
John Prendergast, CEO of Blueleaf joins Mike Langford to explore the origin story of the company and share how financial advisors can learn from the lean startup process to create better client experiences.
Tony Stich, COO of Advicent NaviPlan joins Mike Langford for an expansive conversation about the evolution and future of financial planning. Tony and Mike also explore how technology will be employed to allow financial advisors to serve clients at scale during the coming wave of advisor transition.
George MacAllister, of The Next Level Solution, shares how financial advisors and RIAs can use storytelling techniques to increase their success rate when trying to acquire another advisor's book of business or acquire an RIA firm. The use of stories is also valuable in the sales process for clients according to George and he shares several examples and strategies that you can implement in your business.
Matt Reiner of Benjamin, a digital virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence joins Mike Langford to explore how automating repetitive tasks can save time and free advisors up to serve their clients better.
Jason Gallagher of ViewPointe Strategies Group and Terry Mullen, CEO of Truelytics join Mike Langford for a deep-dive exploration of the current state and future of the OSJ model for independent financial advisors and the broker-dealer ecosystem.
Tammy Robbins, Vice President of Business Development at ProEquities shares how she and her team rapidly adjusted to the new reality of working from home while also helping the firm's clients, a distributed population of independent financial advisors who rely on them for support, make the adjustment as well.
Shauna Mace, a consultant and coach who help RIAs achieve higher levels of growth shares how focusing on small, incremental process improvements often leads to the biggest gains.
Runik Mehrotra and Samir Vasavada, Founders of Vise join Mike Langford to share how financial advisors can deliver custom portfolios to their clients without spending countless hours selecting stocks and tinkering with asset allocations. Instead, Vise uses artificial intelligence to do the heavy lifting. As a result, advisors can have custom portfolios that fit each client's specific needs with the ease of implementation that is usually only reserved for model portfolios.
Terry Mullen, CEO of Truelytics explains how RIAs can dramatically improve their performance by focusing on four key areas of their business.
Why is it that we encourage individual financial advisors to focus on niche markets but RIA firms and smaller broker-dealers still roll with the mass market approach? The benefits of target marketing are available at the firm level as well. In this episode, Mike Langford explores how you can transform your business by focusing on a target market for your advisors and the clients they serve.
Dan Cuprill of Advisor Architect and host of The Profitable Advisor Podcast joins Mike Langford for an exploration of how financial advisors can become their own wealthiest clients by focusing on improving the profitability of their business.
Owen Dahl, of the Dahl Consulting Group, joins Terry Mullen, CEO of Truelytics, and Mike Langford for a conversation about how the COVID-19 pandemic might affect valuations, deal structure, and the volume of M&A deals for financial advisors.
There are a lot of parallels between high-performing wealth management firms with top-performing advisors and the top teams and their drivers in auto racing. In this episode, Mike Langford explores what broker-dealers and RIAs can do to emulate the elite teams in Formula 1, Nascar, NHRA, and World Endurance Championship racing to produce advisors that outperform their peers.
Dan Mayes, SVP of Succession Planning and Business Acquisition at Cetera Financial Group joins Mike Langford for a conversation about how one of the world's largest independent broker-dealers is helping their advisors protect their business. The firm's innovative Legacy Builder Progam and Advisor Resiliency Pack are two programs helping advisors through a challenging time and protecting the long-term value of their business.
Catherine Williams, VP and Head of Practice Management at Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) and Tom Orecchio, CEO of Modera Wealth Management join Terry Mullen, CEO of Truelytics for a conversation on the value of benchmarking for RIAs and independent financial advisors.
The conversation is moderated by Mike Langford.
Eli Gassert, Chief Technology Officer of Truelytics shares his vision and approach for the rapid development of new technology solutions for a fast-changing wealth management industry. In a space where it is commonly expected to have technologies take years to develop and deploy, Eli explains how it is possible to shrink that time down to a matter of weeks.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act has opened up the opportunity for independent financial advisors, RIAs, and other wealth management firms to access emergency capital as a mechanism to cushion their businesses during this time of economic crisis. Mike Langford is joined by Scott Wetzel of SkyView Partners to take an initial look at the details with an effort to help the Truelytics community get started exploring the programs for their businesses.
Financial advisors and their clients are likely feeling a lot of anxiety in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy and society. As a wealth management leader or individual financial advisor, you have an important role to play as a leader. In this podcast, Mike Langford shares some action steps you can take to project leadership and a sense of calm during this time of crisis.
Brad Bergdahl and Brennen Bergdahl of Premier Wealth Management Group sit down with Mike Langford to share how the succession planning process transformed their business. Not only did it secure Brad's legacy but it also set in motion a future for Brennen and the other members of the team. This, in turn, has allowed them to focus on growth.
Terry Mullen, CEO and Co-Founder of Truelytics joins Mike Langford to explore the urgent need to improve the financial advisor recruiting process.
As the pace of advisor transitions and mergers & acquisitions for RIAs picks up in the new decade, the need for financing options to facilitate these moves will increase. In this episode of the Modern Financial Advisor podcast, Mike Langford is joined by Scott Wetzel of SkyView Partners to explore the new range of financing options that are available to advisors.
Recruiting financial advisors to your broker-dealer or RIA firm requires an in-depth understanding of what drives the advisor on an emotional level. Changing firms is a big, risky move for an advisor's business and few enter into that decision lightly.
In this episode of the Modern Financial Advisor podcast, Mike Langford is joined by recruiting expert Matthew Bassuk to explore the history of recruiting in the wealth management industry and look at where things are headed.
In a recent study by CNBC and Acorns, it was revealed that 99% of Americans are NOT working with a financial advisor. That means that nearly everyone you come in contact with is likely in need of your services.
In this episode of the Modern Financial Advisor podcast, Mike Langford explains why now is the best time to start targeting the 99% and he shares a few strategies for how to find clients.
Justin Paterno, COO of Stocktwits and the newly launched zero-commission brokerage TradeApp, joins Mike Langford to explore the potential impact of the industry's move to zero trade commission on financial advisors. During this episode, Mike and Justin also talk about why social media and building an online brand is important for the modern financial advisor.
Shanna Tingom of Heritage Financial Strategies joins Mike Langford for an exploration of how she and her team are using their website to win new clients at a 66% higher rate than other channels. It turns out these new clients are much more profitable as well.
Shanna also shares how she is leveraging Truelytics to facilitate the acquisition of another advisor's practice.
Big news! Truelytics won the Allianz Field Advisory FinTech Pitchfest on September 18, 2019.
Also, we are going to be changing the name of the Valuations Podcast to something a little broader in meaning. If you have suggestions, please send them to mike@truelytics.com
On the show this week, Mike Langford is joined by Jeff Concepcion of Stratos Wealth Partners. Jeff shares his insights into what limits many individual financial advisors and insurance agents as they try to grow their practices into larger businesses.
The conversation starts with martial arts and flipping burgers and ends with a discussion about Mike doing karaoke on Jeff's podcast.
In this episode, Mike Langford draws your attention to the one undeniable trend that is changing the wealth management and insurance industries as well as every other business in the world. That trend? Making business easier for clients and for employees.
Your competitors are constantly looking to remove friction and make it easier to do business with them. They are also exploring ways to make it easier for their advisors and agents to be productive. In this episode, Mike will shares some ideas of how you can make your business easier to work with... for everyone.
Mike Langford is joined by Andy Ambrose, co-founder & President of Liveoak Technologies to explore how the use of compliant and secure video conferencing coupled with digital signatures and identity verification is transforming the speed of business for wealth management and other financial services firms. Imagine how much better your business would be if you could completely eliminate the need for client paperwork and the constraint of meeting in person for transactional tasks? Liveoak Technologies is making that world possible.
In this episode, Mike Langford dives into the three crucial elements of attracting millennials to your wealth management or insurance business. The key is recognizing and embracing the life-shaping experiences of this generation of talent and empowering them to help you grow the business for the future.
In this episode, Mike Langford shares a story of how he noticed exceptional attention to detail during his recent family vacation to Walt Disney World and how it reminded him how important details are to the valuation of a wealth management or insurance business.
Mike Langford shares a story of how his recent experience of serving as a juror in a criminal case illuminated the importance of helping a buyer get beyond a reasonable doubt for the valuation and acquisition of a wealth management or insurance business.
Mike Langford (flying solo on this episode) explores the strategic value of acquiring another wealth management or insurance business. While it is crucial to base the valuation of a firm on its cash flow, it is also important to remember that the newly acquired business will bring a lot of opportunity above an beyond the immediate cash flow add.
Kirsten Petras of Oak Street Funding joins Mike Langford to explore the rapid increase in acquisition activity in the wealth management industry. As the great wave of transitions heats up for RIAs and independent financial advisors, firms with the right financing in place are aggressively scaling up their businesses by acquiring the businesses of retiring advisors.
Mike Langford is joined by Kelli Cruz of Cruz Consulting Group to explore how wealth management businesses (RIAs, broker-dealers, and individual financial advisors) can increase the value of their firms and the success rate for their transition (either by acquisition or internal succession planning) by focusing on the talent within their organizations.
Victor Gaxiola, Head of Marketing for Tech Girl Financial, joins Mike Langford to explore how he and his team are using social media as well as video and podcasts to grow their business. In this episode you will hear how partnering with a forward-thinking broker-dealer made all the difference and why Victor believes that acquiring an audience is key to increasing the value of your wealth management business.
Brian Margolis, founder of Productivity Giant and author of "The Index Card Business Plan" joins Mike Langford for a refreshingly new look at how to grow your wealth management business or individual financial practice.
Ivan Barretto of RIA Compliance Concepts joins Mike Langford to explore how compliance can be used as a strategic edge by wealth management firms and individual financial advisors.
Jamie Wise, CEO of Buzz Indexes, joins Mike Langford to explore how the use of sentiment analysis and powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools have allowed Buzz to create a new stock index that continuously outperforms the S&P 500.
Grant Hicks of Advisor Practice Management and author of "Guerrilla Marketing For Financial Advisors" joins Mike Langford and Carla McCabe of Truelytics to explore the most important practice management themes for 2019.
Henry Yoshida, founder of Rocket Dollar, joins Mike Langford to discuss the value of providing clients with an easy mechanism for investing in alternative investments within tax-advantaged accounts such as IRAs and Roth IRAs.
Jeremi Karnell, CMO and Chief Product Officer of Truelytics joins Mike Langford to discuss the importance of digital transformation and how blockchain may be leveraged inside of Truelytics.
James Hughes of Live Oak Bank joins Mike Langford to discuss how wealth management firms and individual financial advisors can use debt financing to acquire a business or use it to facilitate the sale of a business. Also, in this episode, we explore whether it is a seller's market or a buyer's market. Who is really in control?
Jim DeCarlo, CEO of StratWealth joins Mike Langford to explore the role company culture plays in the success of today's wealth management firm. Happy employees make happy clients!
Shane Morrow, Managing Partner and Director of Investments at IronBridge Wealth Counsel joins Mike Langford to explore the modern wealth management firm and what's in store for the future of the industry.
Jeff Miller, President and COO of Truelytics joins Mike Langford to explore the ins and outs of business valuation for wealth management firms and individual financial advisors. Jeff also discusses his vision for the future of the wealth management industry. Hint... he doesn't see the robots taking over anytime soon.
Carla McCabe, Director of Practice Management at Truelytics joins Mike Langford to dive in on topics ranging from the valuation of OSJs to the future of the wealth management industry. Carla also draws a parallel between training for American Ninja Warrior and building a valuable financial business. Lots of great stuff! Listen up!
Terry Mullen, CEO and Founder of Truelytics joins Mike Langford to discuss the origin story of the company and explore why wealth management firms and financial advisors need to take valuation and succession planning seriously.