In a Nutshell: The next wave of fintech and wealthtech will offer dramatic efficiency upgrades for advisors. Prepare your team to spend less time shuffling papers and more time having meaningful conversations with clients that will create real value.

Guest: Marty Bicknell, Founder and CEO of the $35 billion AUM behemoth Mariner Wealth Advisors.

My Key Takeaways:

• We need a true advisor desktop platform. Marty believes the independent space still lacks a unified advisor desktop platform and that miss hurts our productivity. But he says it's coming.
• Embrace change. Before the pandemic, about 25% of Marty's team was using the company's internal technology platform. During the pandemic, usage jumped to almost 100%. Now 85% of Marty's employees believe their productivity is up too. Those kinds of workflow and efficiency upgrades can be permanent if you build buy-in with your own team.
• Explore your options. From upgrading your existing systems to affiliating yourself with a larger firm like Mariner, advisors need to evaluate the new pathways to growth that are opening in front of them.

Also Learn:

• What Marty says is the number one problem in finance that tech can help advisor address.
• Why Marty believes that the consolidation trend in our industry "isn't going anywhere, it's just getting started."
• What changes Marty's team made because of the pandemic that will continue to be part of their business post-pandemic.
• How Marty is leveraging the advantages of WFH while also helping his team work through the downsides, such as feelings of isolation.