WealthTech on Deck

Creating Solutions That Help Advisors Compete and Succeed with Natalie Wolfsen


Listen Later

Advisors are constantly looking for ways to best serve their clients. However, with the fast-paced and ever-changing landscape of the industry, it can be difficult to keep up.  Advisors are expected to deliver the highest level of client experience while growing their business and managing time-consuming tasks.

In this episode, Jack talks with Natalie Wolfsen, Chief Executive Officer at AssetMark. Prior to AssetMark, Natalie held product management and marketing roles in firms such as First Eagle Investment Management, Pershing, Charles Schwab, and American Express. She took the reins at AssetMark a year ago and has spearheaded the company’s strategic direction, which encompasses its platform of curated investment and technology solutions, business consulting and operations support, and strategic acquisitions that serve the best interests of financial advisors and their investors.

Natalie talks with Jack about what AssetMark offers advisors, how asset management and planning are integrated into its distribution model, and why outsourcing is key to helping advisors serve their clients better.


Key Takeaways

  • [01:11] - What AssetMark is and how Natalie plays a key role in the business.
  • [03:14] - What Natalie finds exciting about the future of wealth management.
  • [05:39] - AssetMark's approach to personalizing its products and services.
  • [07:33] - How their acquisition of Voyant has enabled clients to achieve financial wellness.
  • [11:33] - What makes Voyant a popular wealth management software provider.
  • [13:22] - How AssetMark integrates asset management and planning into its distribution model.
  • [16:08] - How planning and proposals are translated into the portfolio.
  • [18:48] - What AssetMark's distribution model looks like.
  • [23:05] - Why outsourcing is key to helping advisors serve their clients better.
  • [27:48] - Natalie’s three main takeaways.
  • [28:49] - What Natalie enjoys doing outside of work.

  • Quotes

    [04:08] - "In the pandemic, we all became much more reliant on technology. And also, the benefits of technology became so clear to so many for the first time. As a result, demands for advice and technology have changed. And one important way it's changed is personalization." - Natalie Wolfsen

    [08:15] - "From my perspective, what financial wellness ultimately does is it brings together the goals, dreams, and aspirations that live in a financial plan with the investments that advisors and their clients make to bring that financial plan to life." - Natalie Wolfsen

    [14:11] - "Financial wellness is the combination of ongoing communications between the advisor, their clients, goal setting, goal management, risk management, and investments." - Natalie Wolfsen

    [20:16] - "One of the reasons that AssetMark advisors grow so quickly and at the heart of that is a concept of outsourcing. If you outsource your investment management, if you outsource your technology, or if you outsource key parts of your operational processes, your number of clients grows, your revenue grows, your profitability grows as does your client satisfaction and your own quality of life." - Natalie Wolfsen


    Links 

    • Natalie Wolfsen on LinkedIn
    • AssetMark
    • First Eagle Investment Management
    • Pershing
    • Charles Schwab
    • Voyant

    • Connect with our hosts

      • LifeYield
      • Jack Sharry on LinkedIn
      • Jack Sharry on Twitter

      • Subscribe and stay in touch

        • Apple Podcasts
        • Spotify
        • LinkedIn
        • Twitter
        • Facebook
        • ...more
          View all episodesView all episodes
          Download on the App Store

          WealthTech on DeckBy LifeYield

          • 4.8
          • 4.8
          • 4.8
          • 4.8
          • 4.8

          4.8

          17 ratings


          More shows like WealthTech on Deck

          View all
          Planet Money by NPR

          Planet Money

          30,938 Listeners

          Notes on the Week Ahead by Dr. David Kelly

          Notes on the Week Ahead

          188 Listeners

          a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz

          a16z Podcast

          1,022 Listeners

          We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network by The Investor's Podcast Network

          We Study Billionaires - The Investor’s Podcast Network

          3,366 Listeners

          Capital Ideas Podcast by Capital Group

          Capital Ideas Podcast

          279 Listeners

          Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

          Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

          800 Listeners

          Masters of Scale by WaitWhat

          Masters of Scale

          3,982 Listeners

          WealthTech Today by Craig Iskowitz

          WealthTech Today

          14 Listeners

          The Compound and Friends by The Compound

          The Compound and Friends

          2,050 Listeners

          The Long View by Morningstar

          The Long View

          885 Listeners

          Kitces and Carl - Real Talk for Real Financial Advisors by Michael Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP and Carl Richards, CFP

          Kitces and Carl - Real Talk for Real Financial Advisors

          239 Listeners

          All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

          All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

          8,902 Listeners

          Barron's Streetwise by Barron's

          Barron's Streetwise

          1,537 Listeners

          ACQ2 by Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

          ACQ2 by Acquired

          208 Listeners

          BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

          BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

          454 Listeners