In this episode, Jack talks with returning guest, Steve Gresham. Steve is the CEO of The Executive Project, a consulting firm that provides tools and training for financial advisors. 

As an industry leader, Steve has spent time in many different roles. Outside the office, he is an ardent advocate for rethinking, reimagining, and restructuring the concept of retirement. Steve has been a long-time proponent of shaking up the industry and inviting more channel collaboration across teams. 

Steve talks with Jack about lead generation, the importance of taking the next step, best practices for better engagement with clients, and the benefits of using the right tools.

“Tool sets allow you to not only provide clients with a more consistent experience—which also drives referrals because they'll say, ‘Well, here's what you can expect and it's painless…’—but it also allows them to have the progression in lead generation and next best action. Those have to be facilitated with tools that are driving off of your database because you'll never be able to do that with Post-it notes and Excel spreadsheets.” ~ @thegreshamco

In this episode, Jack talks with Nicole Casperson, FinTech reporter for InvestmentNews.

Nicole is well-known for covering innovation and wealth tech trends in finance. Recently, she has been developing strategic innovations in UMH. Prior to her experience in fintech, Nicole wrote for trade publications in the housing and mortgage industry. 

Jack and Nicole talk about the importance of cyber security in finance, the impact of personalization, and the future of UMH.

“UMH needs to evolve beyond a platform or a service we provide. Within five years it will become mainstream. It will become table stakes that technology is connected, that data is connected, that accounts are integrated, so they can talk to each other and then work together to create different outcomes.” ~ @nicolecasperson

In this episode, Jack talks with Noreen Beaman, President of Orion Advisor Solutions.

It’s been a year since the Brinker and Orion merger and Noreen is already harvesting the fruits of her efforts. The open-architecture experience she’s bringing to the table is creating an exciting ecosystem for engaging with advisors. She's thrilled to be at the forefront of advisor empowerment and wants to advocate more for the human component of portfolio management.

Noreen talks with Jack about creating personalized engagement for investors, mastering the art of listening as financial leaders, and using a well-connected tech ecosystem for advisor empowerment.

“I think as we look towards the future, we need to create a frictionless experience for our end investors. The companies we run look like the clients that we have. As women become a larger part of how we buy, do we want to buy the old traditional ways? Do we want to engage in ways that make us feel comfortable? That’s why having the tools and multimedia, and knowing how our next-gen want to buy we have to stay focused on the consumer and investor, and help those financial advisors drive that experience.” ~ Noreen Beaman

In this episode, Jack talks with Executive Vice President of Product Development at LifeYield, Martin Cowley.

Martin is one of the pioneers in building UMH solutions in the industry. Through technology, he's been developing the most efficient and effective ways to improve outcomes for clients. 

Martin and Jack discuss the benefits of UMH implementation on asset allocation, tax drag minimization, and operational improvement.

“There's a lot of listening involved. A lot of time is spent understanding existing workflows and existing systems. The challenge with putting a UMH in place is that everybody's situation is different. All of our clients have different systems in place. They look at the investment process in slightly different ways. Even the definition of UNMH may be different in terms of what people mean.” ~ Martin Cowley

In this episode, Jack talks with Dana D’Auria, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Envestnet, Inc.

Dana is an all-around leader at Envestnet, overseeing investors' capabilities, due diligence platform research, overlay services, non-traditional assets, and many more areas. With such scope, her chief responsibility is to connect the dots, identify what fits in the puzzle, and offer a simplified solution to achieve better outcomes for advisors. Before joining Envestnet, Dana worked for Symmetry for 14 years, where she managed the onboarding of asset managers.

Dana and Jack discuss optimization using algorithms, personalization in configuring solutions, and increasing client engagement using tech.

“Solutions, by and large, were always there. They’re just more readily accessible now because of technology. They’re more evident now. Our job is to help the advisor to navigate the ecosystem better which should lead to better outcomes for clients in the end. ” ~ Dana D’Auria

In this episode, Jack talks with Keith Gregg, Founder, and CEO of Chalice Network, a fintech company based in San Diego.

Keith has more than three decades of experience in financial services and executive leadership. During the first part of his career, he served as a financial advisor and created his first independent business focused on planned giving. Keith also served in the US Marine Corps and was the recipient of the Presidential Service Award from President Ronald Reagan. 

Keith and Jack discuss the benefits of creating digital marketplace e-commerce platforms, helping small businesses, and embracing tech advancement in the industry.

“There's no turning back--that genie is out of the bottle. They're not going to put it back in, so you better become incredibly perfect with being able to digitally communicate and coordinate and deliver to your customers via a digital platform.” ~ Keith Gregg

In this episode, Jack talks with Lee Chertavian, Operating Partner at Long Ridge Equity Partners.

Lee is one of the pioneers in the advisory space. He was the CEO of Placemark, a sophisticated asset management company, which was purchased by Envestnet seven years ago. Lee led its growth to nearly $16 billion in assets under management with more than 45,000 clients. Furthermore, Lee finished his MBA with distinction at Harvard Business School.

Lee and Jack discuss the improved tax management in UMAs, six key trends in fintech, and the role of tech in enabling advisors to make better decisions.

“Consider a client's entire lifestream. We need to figure out planning. We need to integrate with tax, not just the tax on the portfolio, but their whole tax situation. And fortunately, so much data is becoming more digitized that we have the ability to bring that in—to help the advisor make those better decisions for clients.” ~ Lee Chertavian

In this episode, Jack talks with Jeff Quigley, Vice President of Enterprise Relationships at LifeYield about navigating the world of social security. They’re also joined by Alyson Dorosky, Marketing and Social Security Specialist at LifeYield.

Jeff helps thousands of advisors understand and implement LifeYields’ Social Security+ solution through group training and seminars. Alyson is a technical lead at LifeYield and covers the gamut of client services, including helping advisors keep track of the myriad rules around social security. 

Jeff and Alyson talk with Jack about maximizing retirement income outcomes by leveraging social security tools, and the concept of delayed filing credits (for the client and the surviving spouse), and layers of income.

"If you don't have these tools, it is difficult to make good informed decisions that you can benefit from. Firms that are adopting these kinds of technology and tools, for instance, when the pandemic hit, their usage went through the roof. They were ready in a digital world right there.” ~ Jeff Quigley

In this episode, Jack talks with Scott Holsopple, Chief Growth Officer at Hightower Advisors.

Scott has 20 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, and wealth management. Scott and his team at Hightower work with firms to help them stand out and achieve the vision for the next chapter of their business.

Scott and Jack discuss what goes into a thoughtful client experience and how adding value and scale helps achieve organic business growth.

"We’re in an ever more competitive industry. Technology is enabling us to do more things. Firms with scale are really deploying assets and specialties and expertise in a way that's never been done before in this industry. And I think it's going to require us to be more thoughtful.” ~ Scott Holsopple

In this episode, Jack talks with Paul Deer, Vice President of Advisory Service at Personal Capital.

Paul oversees a team of more than 60 financial advisors and their clients at Personal Capital, the first advisory firm of any scale to conduct their business online. In addition, Paul is passionate about hybridizing wealth technology with human interaction so you can provide holistic and personalized advice at the same time.

Paul and Jack discuss the reinvention of retirement planning, the importance of advisor specialization, and the confluence of human and digital advice.

“We have found that you can't just do it with tech. You need to have humans to have a real conversation with where you can perceive emotions and kind of dig deeper than just the surface of what someone's telling you. So that combination is what's going to help people make the best possible financial decisions over and over again, throughout their lifetime. Which is going to help them with the best possible outcome.” ~ Paul Deer