Fintech Impact

Host Jason Pereira talks to Kevin Lozer - Co-Founder of Holistiplan; it is a financial planning software that focuses specifically on tax planning. It generates a PDF version of your tax return and extracts all the verifiable information and actual data. 

Episode Highlights:

• 0.52: Kevin explains about Holistiplan – it is tax planning software for advisors built by advisors. It allows an advisor to upload a PDF tax return and get a client deliverable prepopulated scenario and then screen and identify some planning opportunities all again with just uploading a previous year’s tax returns. 
• 1.12: What Holistiplan really does is automate a tax return review. Then all of the work that succeeds that tax return review that advisors do, typically requires a whole lot of data entry. Historically, the company has taken that data entry out of the picture, and now advisors can just spend the time focusing on conversing with the client about their tax situation.
• 1.19: Kevin says the idea to launch the Holistiplan started to percolate years ago. Roger Pine and Kevin had really put pen to paper and came up with the idea of uploading documents, providing an expert system, providing opportunities, and providing observations that many advisors across the country traditionally make.
• 04.43: Jason curiously inquired about the feedback Holistiplan gets from advisors who implemented this type of software, like where they find the most significant benefit.
• 04.52: Kevin shares when it comes to receiving feedback, it really breaks down into two different types of advisors. “One is advisors or firms that haven’t been doing tax planning. Secondly, we see clients wanting more out of the fees they’re paying advisors than investment advice. They are looking for a more robust, comprehensive relationship from advisors.” 
• 05.51: Kevin explains the simple process of Holistiplan, clients can upload their financial data, and within a minute, the software digests all that pulled data, summarizing it in a client deliverable. Tons of firms are using it just for this feature. Upload or return get a client summary that the clients can understand that advisors can review with the clients. The report also provides planning opportunities that the software identified from that tax return. 
• 06.55: Kevin says, “There is a whole other subset of advisors out there that actually do the quantification of planning opportunities like Roth conversion strategies, donor-advised funds, all kinds of different tax planning opportunities that we look at from a planning perspective. 
• 07.05: Holistiplan also provides a forecasting tool - a scenario analysis prepopulated with the previous year’s data. So instead of spending the first 20 to 30 minutes entering data from the tax return into a calculator or tax software, now one can just copy it over from the prior year. Clients can make some edits to the fields and start doing complex strategies like Roth conversions or qualified charitable distributions, all kinds of tens and hundreds of different things that you can do from a tax planning perspective. 
• 10.31: Jason is really impressed with the features of Holistiplan. He says to Kevin that “You are providing information on tax brackets where they are in terms of relative to phaseouts, right? So, because of that, the tools make it so much easier to understand tax planning.”
• 11.11: Kevin says there are 75 to 100 different planning opportunities in the software, and they keep updating the algorithms.
• 11.45: Holistiplan shares a visual report with 8 or 10 or 12 bullet point items based on that specific tax return. With this tool now clients can read through the 100-page document all by themselves
• 12.15: Jason inquires, “What effort did Kevin and Roger put in to launch Holistiplan?”
• 12.30: Kevin explains how friends and advisors in the financial industry helped them with their valuable feedback and improved the end result of the software.
• 13.04: Kevin says, “Our initial prototype was to upload or return and just get the bullet point observations, but all those like visualization things that we talked about earlier, the emoji phaseout and whether they’re over-under or in those phaseouts, all that stuff was from other advisors as we started to roll this out.”
• 13.41: While explaining their roll-out strategy, Kevin says, “We rolled out a product that wasn’t 100% complete; this was intentional. We wanted to get feedback and crowdsource some of the ideas, and now that we’ve got thousands and thousands of advisors using it, the feedback comes in fast and furious.”
• 15.00: One thing that Holistiplan launched early this year was the tax-prepped letter, which is closing the communication loop between advisor, CPA, and client. Kevin shares “Advisors who are doing tax planning with or without holistic plan come up with some good pretty good observations and opportunities and then execute those and get all that work done before December 31st so that it all counts for this tax year it’s called Roth conversion or qualified charitable distributions.
• 18.05: Jason affirms that when launching Holistiplan, Kevin picked a vertical of the financial planning world that has a lot of depth. 
• 20.38: Talking about the unique work that Kevin and his company are doing, Jason remarks, “Taxation is a one-foot-wide spectrum of the entire financial planning spectrum, but you’re going in mile deep on that.”
• 22.00: Kevin shares his vision to reach out to a lot more consumers. He says that it was part of what got him excited about Holistiplan and the software in general.
• 24.40: Kevin says scaling the company has been the biggest challenge that they have faced so far. A year ago, we were 3 people, and now we are 15 people, and all of this during a pandemic.

3 Key Points:

1. Kevin shares interesting insights on the history of Holistiplan. Where did this come about? What was the opportunity to sell? 
2. Kevin explains how Holistiplan advisors won’t need a checklist anymore with hundreds of different things to look for in the tax return.
3. Jason inquires, “How much of your road map can you share with me at this point?” Kevin says, “We are staying at the tax planning world for the foreseeable future.”

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Holistiplan has taken data entry out of the picture, and now advisors can really just spend the time focusing on conversing with the client about their tax situation.” - Kevin Lozer
• “When it comes to tax planning visuals are far more effective than communicating in words.”- Jason Pereira
• “Not only do people not want to code things twice, but advisors also don’t want to enter the same data two or three or four different times into their various software programs either, so removing the extra data entry part was Holistiplan’s initial work.” - Kevin Lozer

Resources Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Kevin Lozer – Website | LinkedIn 
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Atif Saddiqi - Founder/CEO at Branch. It is a fintech that allows employees to access the money they earned before pay-check.

Episode Highlights: 

• 0.30: Atif says Branch is a payment platform that helps businesses accelerate payments to the workers to empower them. 
• 1.27: Jason asks Atif to share about the history of Branch and what brings him to launch it?
• 1.40: Atif has founded the company way back in 2016. This was started from his own experience as an hourly worker. 
• 1.59: While working as an hourly worker, Atif found that a common pain point for workers is always looking for ways to earn more income.
• 2.14: Branch was initially launched as a mobile B2B product. Over time they kept improving the process. 
• 4.22: “A lot of employers we work with still cuts paper cheques; they don’t have a reliable way to deposit money,” says Atif. 
• 4.31: Atif explains how Branch helps employers by providing cost-effective solutions.
• 5.59: People can use Branch as a banking service, affirms Atif
• 06.31: Jason inquiries from an employer’s standpoint how does Branch helps in cash flow?
• 7.54: Atif talks about the Digital Tips, Wallets, Reimbursements, and other user-friendly services that Branch offers. 
• 08.29: As per a recent statistic, Atif has read that there are workers who are still living pay-check to pay-check.
• 08.48: Atif talks about the new business models that are being introduced for the benefit of various classes of workers. 
• 10.19: Atif elaborates on the user feedback that his company has received and how its services are used. 
• 12.32: Currently, Atif and his team are looking for saving solutions that are automated. 
• 13.49: Jason asks about the success rate data of “Branch”.
• 14.20: When discussing revenue strategy, Atif says that the company primarily relies on interchange revenue. 
• 17.00: Atif talks about various target sectors and how employers benefit from Branch’s services. 
• 18.39: Jason talks about the cognitive burden of living pay-check to pay-check. 
• 20.11: Atif talks about the most significant challenge that he has faced so far in Branch. 

3 Key Points:

1. Atif talks about his company Branch, the reason behind its launch, and how it is benefitting employees as a modernized employer payments technology.
2. Jason curiously inquiries about the user feedback and success story of “Branch.” 
3. When talking about their target sectors, Atif says a large staff is operating in restaurants and hospitals. This helps them to tap into a large employee population.

Tweetable Quotes: 

• “Assessing your wages should be free.” - Atif Saddiqi
• “Employers see Branch is a uniform solution to pay all their contractor.” - Atif Saddiqi
• “We have to do mental aerobics when opening a bank account.” - Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

• Atif Saddiqi: Website 
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Som Seif – CEO and Founder of Purpose Financial. In today’s episode, Som is going to give his unique perspective on the FinTech industry.

Episode Highlights: 

• 0.50: Som talks about “Purpose” and the idea behind its launch. He adds that they are re-inventing the business in 4 core areas – Asset Management, Retirement, Wealth Management, and Small Business owners.
• 03.04: Jason highlights Som’s venture capital history and success stories. 
• 03.28: Som shares his vision about the FinTech industry. 
• 05.57: Som discusses how he partners with people who have similar visions like him.
• 07.14: “We have a deep understanding of our customers and their journey; this is how we solve their problems,” says Som. 
• 09.17: Som gives detailed insight on how his company solves a customer’s problem. He also discusses the global product that they have created. 
• 11.19: Jason and Som discuss about the regulators. Jason says that the regulators are willing to listen if you are willing to work with them. 
• 13.12: “Innovation is extremely important in the Fintech company,” says Som.
• 14.15: While striving for innovation, Som is constantly searching for an answer to the question – “What is going to be the ETF 2.0?”
• 14.42: At present, Som is learning the Tokenization of things; as per him, this is the next big thing. 
• 17.12: Som talks about a prevalent mindset that “People who have little money, makes no money.” But Som thinks otherwise.
• 18.42: Jason asks the listeners to imagine a universe that has something different. He says one has to come out of past methods of doing business and innovate and chart out new ways.
• 18.59: The problem with the FinTech industry is they think on average economics, says Som.
• 20.57: Jason brings up the topic of non-technology solutions, one that is of monumental importance in the future in the financial ecosystem.
• 23.59: Som talks about the interesting products and processes they have launched. He also talks about the “Mortality Credit” that goes to the beneficiary.
• 26.01: Som talks about his organization’s goal “To create income for an indefinite time period.” 
• 27.01: Som explains how he is a big believer in the advisor’s role. 
• 29.27: The game that big institutions are playing gives advisors the cash flow, says Som.
• 31.01: Jason and Som point out how customers want holistic solutions to their financial problems.
• 32.20: Som advice “If you want to true high-net-worth advisor, you should have a planning mentality to truly engage the entire balance sheet of a customer as opposed to the money that you are managing for them.” 
• 33.23: Som talks about the biggest challenges faced by him. 

 3 Key Points:

1. Som shares interesting work areas of his business. He also gives insights on his vision and how he likes to connect with like-minded professionals. 
2. Jason explains how we are in the early innings of replacing ETFs. 
3. Jason and Som discuss the problems that incurred the FinTech industry. They also talk about the wrong assumptions that often circulate regarding small investors.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Everything looks like an opportunity in retrospect that they are going to bounce back.” - Som Seif 
• “There is a lot to learn if you have a good relationship with the regulators.” - Som Seif
• “Regulators wants to see innovation and change.” - Jason Pereira
• “Imagine a universe with something different.” - Jason Pereira
• “There is a significant amount of people who needs financial advice.” - Som Seif

Resources Mentioned:

• Som Seif: Website 
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Nick Catino, Head of Policy and Campaigns with Wise. It is a London-based financial technology company founded in January 2011 by Estonians Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus. In today’s episode, Nick talks about consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses.

Episode Highlights:

• 0.38: Nick says Wise is a global payment technology company giving the best way to move money worldwide used by people who travel, live, and work internationally. 
• 3.08: Jason asks Nick about the origin of the company, how it came to be? Nick points out Wise was founded in 2011 as Transfer wise in London. 
• 3.10: It has two co-founders Kristo Kaamann and Taavet Hinrikus. 
• 4.01: The company’s idea came from the analysis that consumers are getting ripped off to send abroad, and it is so central to our mission today trying the payments more transparent.
• 5.30: Nick says living and leisure is focused on pricing across portal payments. When he travels, he keeps records of his credit card transaction receipts. When he gets back, he calculates how much he has spent, he does this for a living, and it is a complicated calculation.
• 7.17: Jason points out, “If you are running a company and you have to buy from overseas vendors regularly, you will probably speak to your bank about what can be done, and they will graduate you up to the next level.” 
• 8.33: Nick states, “When you are a multinational corporation or large business, you have a finance desk that is negotiating these rates in the wholesale market. 
• 8.40: As per Mckenzie’s study report, hundred or billion dollars in fees consumers pay in small business pay per year.
• 12.53: Jason asks Nick as a consumer, “If I have to send money somewhere in the world how can he utilize your platform?”
• 13.08: Nick says Wise allows to send money to friends and family members on platform using their name or FI. During traveling, you can use your debit card. It is integrated with apple pay. In small businesses, you can use it for goods and services import and exports, paying workers and freelancers internationally, and combined with several accounting platforms to make easy payments.
• 14.48: Jason asks how you enable business and how is that service different?
• 15.14: Nick says we are making it easy for our customers to move money abroad in the business side. Small businesses are joining our services every month, and not only banks some tech companies are launching platforms that users in the US can pay directly in India or Singapore.
• 16.45: Nick says we tried to make it easier for businesses to use our service. We started a consumer-facing brand, and there are end number of features and excited about market growth in the future by integration between business and banks. 
• 18.15: Jason inquires, “What happens if I transact in Euros, but I don’t want Euros? Nick answers then it will automatically transact the lowest cost conversion related to the product.
• 20.10: Nick says payments amortization has been a huge focus in many countries because it benefits consumers, and the ecosystem is very clear.
• 23.00: Jason asks from an end-user perspective, “Why is payment amortization important?” Nick says it’s about the cost. In the UK, on average, fees are 0.4%, and money is moving instantly, but if you are Canadian or American, it is 1% or more, and money can take days to receive on the other side. 
• 24.52: Jason says friction is in two ways one is speed, and two is basically cost, and both are impactful on the economy.
• 26.35: Nick reiterates that a global payment company being new in the market is certainly difficult, and lack of consumer awareness about how much you are being charged while sending money abroad is a challenge we have to overcome.
• 27.49: Jason asks Nick, “What excites him most about every day when he wakes up in the morning and keeps doing what he is doing?”
• 27.55: Nick replies that so many smart, driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries, still continue to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on is the best part of working with Wise.

3 Key Points: 

1. Nick talks about the consumer-facing products used by banks and businesses to integrate APIs directly with their platforms.
2. Nick says, “We pay fees to transfer money abroad, but we don’t realize how much we are overcharged, and many consumers and small-scale businesses are unaware of exchange rate markups.”
3. Jason mentions like western union, you need a massive global network of fixed locations that will allocate money on one side of the border to move it to the other side of the border.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Business doesn’t impact revenue on the way it’s all about living methods of transparency” – Nick Catino
• “In 2021, sending money is like sending email” - Nick Catino
• “Many smart-driven diverse people, 2400 wiser from more than 70 countries continues to learn about different markets in culture and take ownership with projects they are working on.” - Nick Catino

Resources Mentioned:

• https://wise.com/in/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholascatino/
• https://wise.com/us/blog/author/nicholas-catino/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kkaarmann/?originalSubdomain=uk
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/taavethinrikus/?originalSubdomain=uk
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In today’s episode, Jason talks to Jon Cowley, founder of Whatifi. It is a visual financial planning software and tool that helps people think through various scenarios in different methodologies than people are accustomed to. 

Episode Highlights: 

• 1.00: Jon says Whatifi is a highly visual low code financial scenario builder and projection platform, making it easy for professionals to visually create, calculate, present and share multiple financial scenarios to their clients.
• 1.46: Jon doesn’t come from a Fintech background; instead, he runs a VFX company. He has created some of the coolest movies and also some of the biggest duds. A lot of these are leveraging technology workflows for Jon.
• 3.03: Jason points out that most people think spreadsheets are developed for users, but very few people think about using presentation devices.
• 3.48: Considering the fundamental problems, Jon had built a software that connects all the logics and events. 
• 04.01: Because each step is separate, it is very easy to follow along with the history. Utilizing this simple concept as base, Jon thought, why can’t he apply the same logic in Finance? Whatifi uses the same algorithm and calculates all accounting data. 
• 05.13: So far, Jason has not seen any such concept in the Finance Industry. He says that spreadsheets exist for most financial planning software. He appreciates and says that “What Whatifi has done is very simple and logical.”
• 06.41: Jon shares excellent real-live scenarios where Whatifi’s algorithm can be used. 
• 07.02: No, thing in our system is just a number, they are the whole set of metadata that is wrapped around, that allows downstream things to adjust accordingly.
• 08.00: Jon talks about building a roadmap so that every single day the starting point is accurate. 
• 09.14: Jon points out the importance of planning goals. 
• 09.40: Every day at Whatifi Jon’s team updates the baseline to see how they are progressing.
• 11.52: Jon shares Whatifi’s top 3 value propositions. First is with this framework, you can build scenarios far more quickly than the tools currently available. The second is the ultimate scenario. The third is Visualization.
• 13.23: Jason says it is not the Visualization, but the Causality is very transparent. 
• 14.01: People who are indecisive and analytical are going to love Whatifi’s tool.
• 15.07: Jason says so many tools are niche at this moment.
• 17.19: Whatifi is the most unique decision-making software that Jason has seen so far. He is curious to know about the responses that Jon has received so far. 
• 18.35: Jon says that advisors really like the concept of Whatifi.
• 20.53: Jon shares, “While we have calculation engine, we also have trigger roadmaps.”
• 23.30: Jon would like to see more collaboration between FinTech.
• 25.09: For Jon, the biggest challenge is that they are outsiders who are entering the Fintech world.

3 Key Points: 

1. Jason asks about Jon’s history and how he came across the idea to launch Whatifi.
2. Listeners learn that nothing in our system is just a number; they are a whole set of metadata.
3. Whatifi is a calculation engine, and we are using it to build scenarios for people, says Jon.

 Tweetable Quotes:

• “Metadata gets modified day to day and passed down for calculations.”- Jon Cowley
• “No, thing in our system is just a number.” - Jon Cowley
• “There has always been a black box aspect to Financial Planning software.” - Jason Pereira
• “At the end of the day, it is all math.” - Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

• LinkedIn - Whatifi
• LinkedIn - Jon Cowley
• Whatifi - Website
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Dennis Gada, Senior Vice President and Industry Head for Financial Service for Infosys. It is a global digital services company that offers end-to-end services to its clients from technology to business operations, consulting and helping them in the digital transformation journey, and helping them run in their existing business and technology operations.

Episode Highlights:

• 2.40: Jason inquires, “When companies come to Infosys for support, how do you navigate their digital needs?”
• 4.18: Dennis explains, “We work in three different layers; driving efficiency in running business and technology operations, digital transformation of their end-to-end business process, and helping them to grow the business in a new area for consulting services.”
• 5.10: Dennis affirms that the last 12 months post-Covid has seen significant acceleration of client journey, and we can call it a trigger, but it has been a prominent force of transformation. 
• 5:50: Dennis says there is an enhanced expectation from that banking and financial service. Not just traditional banking but also wealth management. He adds that all of that should be much more digital, and it has forced financial services firms to become more digital than it already was.
• 8.38: Dennis justifies that firms have been forced to drive change at such a rapid pace that decision making has been so much quicker and adopting to new technology has been so ramping.
• 9.30: Jason says, “He wants to know the decision-making mechanism how those are going to adapt?”
• 9.55: Dennis explains business and technology have really come much closer together. These days discussions in financial service firms are much more about - What is the next wave of digital transformation? How much you can change the customer experience? How much you can leverage cloud and AI capabilities?
• 11.35: Dennis reiterates with all the advancement in technology that has happened, on-boarding of new clients still tends to be the most complex process, and regulations also drive it.
• 15.30: Dennis says more and more of a partnership between fintech, and larger bank and financial service organization will help to drive the transformation instead of fintech trying to get into all banking services themself.
• 16.10: Jason asks Dennis, “How you see the development in these institutions to continue or had a lot of change in the post covid world?”
• 16.39: Dennis says now 99% to 100% of the workforces are working remotely and delivering great values; this is the trend that is not going to change.
• 17.35: Dennis says the digital transformation journey that had started is not going to stop in any aspect. 
• 20.59: Dennis says firms have realized that while investing in the cloud they have not compromised in security. Cloud is more secure if not at the same level of security, then their existing data center. That’s the mindset shift that has happened in the last year, and more and more investments are going towards the cloud.
• 21.35: Dennis says as firms invest in the new technology of the future, they also need to re-skill their own workforce as they have already done in Infosys.
• 22.06: Jason is curious to know about the biggest post-pandemic challenge that institutions are going to face.
• 24.20: Dennis says there will be some key challenges to sustain the pace of innovation, manage cybersecurity-related threats and risks. He stresses on the importance of motivating the new workforce to continue to work for large bank vs tech company of fintech and deliver the same kind of productivity.
• 24.42: Jason asks Dennis his one wish for something he wants to change in his company or industry as a whole. Dennis wishes to innovate and scale, thus making that a part of DNA that everybody wakes up every day and comes there to see how you can do things more innovatively.
• 25.30: Jason asks Dennis about digital transformation, the biggest roadblock he had encountered while facing clients he already had. 
• 25.37: Dennis says the biggest roadblock is cultural change. There is a mandate at the board level, CXO level. There is also a push from the market, from the client to drive change. There is a lot of democracy and a lot of constrain internally to enable that change.
• 28.12: Dennis says re-skilling of the workforce or right re-skilling of the workforce is an important factor to balance the understanding of business in domain with the understanding of technology.
• 28.56: Jason asks Dennis “What excites him most about every day when he wakes up in the morning and keeps doing what he is doing?”
• 29.40: Denies replies that the exciting thing is the platform we have and the technology we use really. It helps our clients to be successful and helps their end clients manage financial life better.

3 Key Points:

1. Dennis talks about his career journey. He has been associated with Infosys for about sixteen years, and Infosys financial business has been growing significantly over the years.
2. Dennis says digitization was not possible unless there was a new technology intervention that we have brought in; it was the automation of loan process, using AI for underwriting, using machine learning for collections, extracting information from documents so that things can be updated at a much faster rate.
3. Jason explains, “How the countries that are still developing tend to have new and better infrastructure that can help them to adapt to the technological changes what is happening currently.”

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Transformation of experience means a transformation of the process itself” – Dennis Gada
• “Digitization was not possible unless there was a new technology intervention.” – Dennis Gada
• “Firms have been forced to drive change at such a rapid pace that decision making has been so much quicker and adopt new technology has been so ramping.” – Dennis Gada
• “These days, discussions in financial service firms are much more about what is the next wave of digital transformation.” – Dennis Gada

Resources Mentioned:

• LinkedIn - Dennis Gada’s LinkedIn
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Andrew Chau, CEO, and Co-founder of Neo Financial. It is a technology company that is building a better financial experience for all Canadians.

Episode Highlights: 

• 0.42: Andrew explains that Neo Financial is a Fintech company, reimagining the everyday banking experience for Canadians. The company provides a seamless consumer experience.     
• 1.25: Andrew talks about his history. His entrepreneurship journey started when he was quite young. 
• 04.20: Andrew shares that Neo is a credit card and bank account as well. 
• 04.28: The bank account and the credit card connect with a network of local businesses and large national brands where Neo powers the rewards and loyalty programs.
• 04.37: Once a user gets the Neo credit card, they get access to 1000 multiple different cashback programs. 
• 05.10: People often ask Andrew about Neo’s chain between food delivery and banking. He says that it is a consumer-focused business.
• 07.13: Andrew talks about the 3-minute on-boarding process that one has to go through when signing-up in Neo.
• 07.20: The sign-up starts with downloading the app, filling out few basic information, take a selfie and picture of your ID and hit submit.
• 09.16: With one Neo card, consumers can access all different merchants’ and partners and get cashback on them.
• 09.22: Andres points out that typically with credit card one gets points, a person never really uses them or redeem them at the end of the year. But it is not the same with Neo.
• 10.38: Jason inquiries about the level of engagement and how Andrew reached out to the companies. 
• 14.01: The short-term goal of Neo is building the merchant network, helping retailers, and adding value. 
• 17.00: Andrew and Jason discuss the competition surrounding the banking and financial sector in Canada. 
• 18.27: Andrew talks about competing with Big 5 companies. Their business focus is “How do we create our own category and not be in the same category?”
• 19.50: Jason is really impressed by the genius of Neo’s partnership model.
• 21.00: Jason gives insights on small business banking in Canada.
• 23.09: Andrew shares how with Neo they are putting the power back to consumer’s hands and freeing them from the shackles of one institution.
• 24.31: Andrew talks about the biggest challenge he has faced to bring his company today.
• 27.50: Andrew gives credit to his team members and says that everybody has joined Neo to make a difference.

3 Key Points:

1. When launching Neo Financial, Andrew brainstormed, “How can we bring tech experience around banking with a bit of innovation?” 
2. Andrew shares his insights on customer experience and on-boarding at Neo.
3. Andrew talks about Hudson’s Bay Mastercard®—powered by Neo.

Tweetable Quotes:

•  “In most cases, the top 5 apps on a person’s phone are not a banking app.” - Andrew Chau
• “Through Neo, we are trying to add value to Canadian’s life.” - Andrew Chau
• “Nobody wants to carry a bunch of cards normally for the place they eat or drink, so Neo is a good solution.” - Jason Pereira
• “We are looking to build the largest financial institution in Canada.” - Andrew Chau
• “If your business owners love the bank, they will get along.” - Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

• Neo Financial: Website
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Jason Pereira talks to Michael Stroev. He is the COO and Head of Products for Nebeus. The company is an online platform that allows people to borrow, transfer and rent cryptocurrencies.

Episode Highlights:

• 00.35: Michael introduces Nebeus as a learning platform that allows people to earn cryptocurrencies and get loans.
• 2.14: Michel says he works on every single aspect of the company in terms of a COO.  
• 3.55: Jason inquires, “What is the core value-proposition of Nebeus?”
• 4.04: Michael explains Nebeus is an ecosystem of products. He adds “Our main products are launched, we have all the other products that are gone with launch, allowing our users to not leave Nebeus from any of their needs.” 
• 4.48: Michael shares they have also added crypto-insurance to Nebeus where people can insure their cryptocurrencies with a $100 million insurance policy from Lloyd London.
• 6.00: Jason explains “Nebeus crypto-insurance is not like protecting you from market loss but protecting from things that can go wrong with the institutions you are dealing with.”
• 9.50: Michael says, “Our goal is to help users to keep their cryptocurrencies and their investments and not get margin calls and not get their assets liquidated, but it may happen.”
• 10.30 Michael says it’s on users to choose what they want, and it’s on us to educate users to make the right choices and understand what they are doing.
• 11.15: Jason asks, “How crypto renting works?” 
• 11.20: Michael answers, “Crypto-renting is similar to crypto-savings account. People can deposit funds in crypto-renting programs, and they earn a certain percentage for APY per year.”
• 14.10: Michael points out “Revolut allows you to send money to friends and colleagues for free, and we are doing the same with crypto.”
• 14.31: Jason is curious to know “What Nebeus is doing on the Fintech side?”
• 15.45: Michael says, “We have supercharged transfers technology that requires technical partnership with a company called Wolves. Here people can top-up and add funds to their new basic accounts by technology that cash directly from the bank account and transfer it to Nebeus.”
• 16.27: Jason affirms, “You are doing everything that a bank does, in the Crypto realm.”
• 17.45: Michael adds, “We are launching Nebeus for institutions; so, it’s the same product crypto collateralized lending for institutions, and one can get a loan for primarily reinvesting purpose.” 
• 19.00: Michael says, “We don’t have iOS and Android apps. We started with the desktop dashboard functionality first, and I will probably do it the other way around. Internet is primarily a mobile today, so it makes sense to build app first and do the stuff.”
• 20.30: Michael reiterates “Building trust is the key at financial sector and that in return will bring us more users.” 
• 22.12: Michael loves building products. He says that “I love clearing concepts, I love seeing those things come to life, I like forecasting and strategizing the future of all these things.”

3 Key Points:

1. Michael says he joined Nebeus as the Head of Products; Sergey Raomanovskiy was the founder of Nebeus back in 2014. When Nebeus was founded, it was a PHP learning platform and went through multiple alterations to become what it is today.
2. Jason and Michael talk about Nebeus banking facilities, its costs to the consumer, and general structure. Nebeus have two loan options one is a quick loan, and the second is a flexible loan.
3. Jason and Michael discuss about transfers. Jason asks, “Is it a standard paper crypto wallet or is it beyond crypto wallet?” Michael answers, “It is a standard type of crypto wallet although we do have a whole variety and fintech service associated with that crypto transfer can easily send, receive, deposit and stock funds.”

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Building trust is the key at the financial sector, and that in return will bring us more users.” – Michael Stroev
• “Nebeus for institutions is a same product crypto collateralized lending for institutions and one can get loan for primarily reinvesting purpose.” - Michael Stroev
• “We have supercharged transfers technology that requires technical partnership with a company called Wolves.” - Michael Stroev
• “You are providing a point of sales solution, which makes a lot of sense.” - Jason Pereira
• “Everything is Crypto is for exchange.” - Jason Pereira

Resources Mentioned:

• https://nebeus.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstroev/
• https://uk.advfn.com/crypto/Wolves-Of-Wall-Street-WOWS
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host, Jason Pereira, talks to Michael Lecours. He is the Co-Founder of fpPathfinder. It is a flow-charting tool for advisors so that they can make better and consistent decisions. 

Episode Highlights:

• 0.40: Jason is a fan of fpPathfinder, because of its sheer simplicity.
• 1.28: Michael talks and fpPathfinder, and how it helps advisors to make informed decisions using different formats of checklists.
• 1.57: Flow charts provided by fpPathfinder, helps on the decision-making front.
• 2.54: Jason is impressed by fpPathfinder, and he says that an advisor who sign-up with the company can really count on it.
• 3.32: Jason and Michael talk about the constantly changing regulations in the United States.
• 4.03: While talking about Michael’s company, Jason points out that “The fact that we are outsourcing the cognitive decision making is just remarkable.”
• 04.14: Jason is curious to know about the creation and story of fpPathfinder.
• 05.00: For Michael it all started with simple errors and how to provide some clarity to a client; he made a flowchart, which was widely loved and appreciated amidst the Financial Advisors. 
• 07.24: Michael shares how his company constantly updates the checklists, and then they try to add one or two resources every month.
• 08.14: Michael gives insights on the background research that they do. Inevitably fpPathfinder has 3000 Financial Advisors who use its services. 
• 10.25: Jason inquiries about the order of decision points in a flowchart.
• 10.51: As the first step of creating a flowchart, Michael or his team members come up with the issues. Then they step back and think about the unintended effect of the flow. 
• 11.21: Michael talks about the challenges that he faces while building up flow charts in a computer or software. He prefers to build flowcharts on a piece of paper with sticky notes.
• 12.04: fpPathfinder was launched as a grand experiment, and one of the biggest pieces of feedback that they got early on was - “We like the flowcharts and the checklists but get your fpPathfinder off there and let me put my logo instead.” 
• 12.23: Financial advisors did not want their clients to see fpPathfinder’s logo in the flowcharts; so one of the biggest improvements that Michael did was allow for white labelling. One was not able to change the content but was able to change the colors.
• 13.05: A year ago, Michael and other decision-makers of fpPathfinder took a big step; a lot of their resources started interacting with the CRM systems. 
• 15.57: Michael says that they don’t get a lot of push backs from the compliance department. 
• 16:14: Michael says that they don’t give any recommendations to Financial Advisors; they simply say to their clients that “Consider doing this.”
• 18.21: Jason talks about Michael’s book and the interesting stories it has. 
• 20.30: Michael talks about his future aspirations with fpPathfinder. There are several resources that Michael and his team are planning to work on.
• 21.33: Michael talks about tailored checklists that they are going to introduce in the future. Depending on a client’s situation, there will be a checklist that makes more sense. 
• 21.52: Another aspect that Michael will be looking at is making the user experience more easier. 
• 24.25: As a Financial Advisor, Michael’s biggest wish is for the industry to integrate at a higher level. 
• 25.02: Michael reveals the one biggest challenge that he has faced to bring the company to where it is today.
• 27.24: All day long Michael and his team focuses on what they do best. There is no project in a team where they are dragging their feet. 

3 Key Points:

1. Michael explains that fpPathfinder makes checklists and flowcharts to help advisors be more diligent in the planning process and have more diligent conversations about financial planning topics with their clients.
2. Michael talks about “How what started as a simple PDF of a flowchart, fpPathfinder now uses various technologies. It is also integrating with different partners. 
3. Jason asks Michael, “You have got this far with what you have done. What are your future aspirations for fpPathfinder?”

Tweetable Quotes:

• “In financial planning, things that were earlier very popular are now critical to review.” - Michael Lecours
• “Some of the most brilliant ideas are the simplest.” - Jason Pereira
• “Setting-up a flowchart is a lot more difficult than it appears.” - Jason Pereira
• “Reverse mortgages can make or break somebody’s retirement.” - Michael Lecours

Resources Mentioned:

• fpPathfinder: https://www.fppathfinder.com/about-us/
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host, Jason Pereira, talks to panelists gathered at the WP Wealthtech Summit. The topic of discussion was “How the wealth industry is adapting to technology and revolutionizing the future of advice.” 

Episode Highlights:  

• 1.18: Kendra Thompson is associated as a partner in Deloitte consulting practice. She leads the business called future of advice in investing, which focuses on what Canadian families care about as related to their investments? What are they willing to pay for? and How the industry is transforming to deliver that at a scale of profit?
• 1.55: Joseph Lo, Vice President for Wealth Product Innovation for Broadridge. It is a global fintech company focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the wealth management lifecycle better.
• 2.05: Robert Smuk, President & CEO, Agora Dealer Services Corp. It is a B2B trading dealer created to help advisors and dealerships provide advice to all of their clients.
• 2.33: Tom Burmeister, Vice President of Financial Planning with Naviplan and now happy to be a part of the InvestCloud family. 
• 2.55: Jason’s first question is, “As per your experience in the fintech world, what is the most troubling trend you see happening and what are risks and opportunities coming from that?”
• 3.25: Tom talks about e-based models that are getting more focus. The risk with that is – it is a massive change.
• 4.13: Robert says the trend he sees right now is the client’s desire to have everything at their fingertips. “The financial services industry has been behind other industries, and our clients are now expecting what they get from other industries to be from this industry, and it is a real risk if we don’t move further.”
• 5.12: Joseph says we need to be more open and have more APIs that enable prime ecosystems to provide choice for advisors and can use to provide the service need for clients.
• 5.35: Kendra says she sees an acceleration in the pace of modernization and feels out differently whether you are sitting with regulators and the challenges they are going to have to deal with innovation and simplification.
• 7.25: Jason says that the focus of fintech is often on the investment side. He inquires, “How do you see technology is used to support other areas of financial planning?”
• 7.48: Kendra says we focus a considerable amount of our energy on the front end of value change, and that’s where a lot of noise and energy around fintech is heard.
• 09.05: Joseph says the definition of advice is so much beyond investments now whether the advice is helping clients landing their insurance. 
• 9.50: Robert says if we think about the expectations and if we think about the advisor’s ability to provide that meaningful advice, then, in that case, pieces of advice are much broader scope than it was in the past. You need to spend more time with the client and understand them.
• 11.14: Jason says if you want to maintain margin, you don’t do that on the volume; you maintain base margin with volume. If you want to maintain margin, you have to be deep in that offering.
• 12.04: Tom says we expect technology to come and transform. We need to work with stats, partners, and everybody else to make sure that when onboarding a client, we should personalize to what that client needs so that they can scale across the rest of your client base efficiently.
• 12.20: Jason asks “How fintech influences vital space in traditional channels called banker and independent channels?”
• 13.44: Robert says technology is at a point where the challenge in human nature is resistance to change. As people are willing to make several changes and we need to modernize our business, and so the role of fintech continues to guide us.
• 14.16: Joseph agrees with Robert that advisors need to have a blueprint for what technology they introduce. He says fintech influence for independence is hunger for aggregation.
• 15.45: Kendra says the most significant shift she sees, should benefit the independence is essentially recontamination of neighbor’s end from the outside.
• 17.36: Kendra says for bank’s big challenge will be, they have a month of a merger of everything, and so for that, it must be like an internal merger about their platform and bringing all that to a single platform.
• 18.48: Jason asks what should be the first step in terms of digitization? Joseph says the first step should be to focus on the things that are taking up the time you want to do, and secondly is really streamlining the conversations you have with clients and digitizing them.
• 19.35: Robert says you need to understand your client’s willingness to do and willing to use.
• 21.05: Tom affirms “You should always start with the process first, not necessarily what gets technology in reforms over process around that. You have to do several book works to find out techniques which can help you to make better from better you are.”
• 21.30: Kendra says she will highly encourage the identification of the right partner. Added to that she will encourage a small group of individuals not to over customize any out-of-the-box technology.
• 23.30: Jason asks What is the biggest issue in providing advice to clients in the mass market? What trends are you seeing in addressing this issue?”
• 23.50: Tom says digitizing onboarding is the biggest battle in scaling advice and finding all the tasks.
• 24.13: Robert says once you digitize how many systems are out there that need to go, and we are willing to accept it. Digitize it upfront first and figure out how to float it everywhere that needs to float.
• 24.56: Joseph agrees with Robert that getting systems talking together is the expectation for the next generation. 
• 25.31: Kendra does not agree to everything. She says, “When we think about scaling advice, we have to think about challenging the paradigm. You either get advice or you don’t.”
• 30.48: The panelists talk about the most exciting and innovative technologies they have seen in the last 12 months.
• 31.02: Robert talks about the “unified platform”; he has not seen it in Canada. Joseph is impressed by the AI-enabled search engine launched by “The Tifin Group.”
• 32.34: Kendra votes for what Merrill Lynch’s digital team has done. She is really impressed by their latest launch, “Fully Digital On-boarding”. 
• 33.21: Tom reiterates that technology is allowing us to get access to mainstream fashion. 

3 Key Points: 

1. Today’s panelists are Tom Burmeister (VP of Financial Planning, NaviPlan by InvestCloud), Robert Smuk (President & CEO, Agora Dealer Services Corp), Kendra Thompson (Partner, National Wealth & Investment Management Leader, Deloitte Canada), Joseph Lo (VP Wealth Innovation, Broadridge).
2. The panelist shares their views on the troubling trend that they see happening and what are the risks coming from that?”
3. The wealthtech innovators talk about opportunities and unveil trends that are shaping the future of the wealth industry. They discuss the latest technology trends and how to incorporate a digital experience to accelerate business.

Tweetable Quotes:

• “Clients are more tech-savvy than it ever been” – Robert Smuk
• “Technology enables to open eco systems” – Joseph Lo
• “It is easier to consume the trend and the changes that are closest to our own experiences” - Kendra Thompson
• “Investment is just one slice of what we see” – Joseph Lo
• “Technology is thought of equation of being successful in future” – Tom Burmeister
• “Vendor space is really getting better” – Kendra Thompson

Resources Mentioned:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendrathompson/?originalSubdomain=ca
• https://www2.deloitte.com/in/en.html
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/joewlo/?originalSubdomain=ca
• https://www.broadridge.com/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomburmeisteradvicent/
• Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.