Speaker 1: Today's Wealth Management dot com Webinar Empowering Wealth Management Mastering Tech Modernization at Scale. Before we begin, let me just quickly thank our webinar sponsor today, Broadridge. My name is David Armstrong and I'm the director of Editorial Strategy and Operations at Wealth Management Group, and I will be your host today. And in a moment I'm gonna turn things over to the

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Again, instructions for getting those credits are available in the resource list widget at the bottom of your screen. The panelists welcome. Any questions about the topic today? And they'll answer as many as they can. Feel free to submit your questions at any time. The way you do that, you just open up that Q&A window there on your screen. On the left hand side. Type in your question, hit the submit button, we'll add it to the queue and the present presenters will get to it as they do. Please also be aware that today's session is being recorded and it will be available for on demand viewing following the event. Simply login using the same link you're using today. And with that, let me just quickly introduce you to today's

Speakers. Alicia Rich. She is the head of Digital Client and Advisor Enablement at Broadridge Financial. Joining Alicia is Kevin Darlington, who's the general manager and head of Broadridge Advisor Solutions. And with Alicia and Kevin are Paul Horrocks, who's the senior vice president of business Services, and Rose Palazzo, who is the group president of Investment Financial Planning. You can find out more information about all the

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Speaker bio widget there at the bottom of your screen. Or we can hear from them ourselves. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Alicia. To you. I think the floor is yours.

Speaker 2: Thanks, David. Appreciate it. And thanks, everybody, for joining. My name is Alicia Rich, and I'll be moderating our conversation on mastering tech monetization at scale. Earlier this year, Rich completed the third annual Digital Transformation and Next Gen technology study. We heard from C-suite executives in 18 countries about prioritization and practical reality as financial services firms face during transformations. Our study reveals that in the dynamic world of financial services, the urgency for modernization has never been more pronounced. From changes in investor behavior and expectations to the changing face of the investor and ongoing innovations in technology, the wealth industry is evolving quicker than ever before. Competitive dynamics, fee compression and rapid technological advancements are driving firms to reexamine how they prioritize strategic initiatives that will not only drive growth but increase employee satisfaction and retain talent. Both are imperative for firms to stay ahead of the curve. With the help of Kevin Roizen, Paul will delve into how to own your tech transformation by focusing in on the realities that wealth firms face when considering the pace and scale of transformation.

We'll discuss some tools they're using to increase engagement and profitability and share examples of how firms are meeting the needs of clients with tech modernization. We hope today's webinar is more than just a discussion, but an opportunity to gain insights, share experiences and navigate the strategic landscape of modernization in financial services. So without further ado, let's bring in our panel. ROSE Paul. Kevin, thank you so much for joining me today. Great to be here. I think. Kevin, I'd like to start with you. In the intro, I alluded to a few drivers for modernization, and we can see in our survey, digital transformation is top of mind for wealth executives, with 55% saying it's their most strategic initiative. And when we dig a little deeper, we see that the I.T. budgets allocated to transformation were up over 154% year over year. So clearly, it's a huge strategic focus. How do you perceive the evolving role of digital transformation in financial services, and can firms still consider this optional?

Speaker 1: Thanks, Alicia. Yeah. So I had a I had dinner with with an advisor last week. I live in northern New Jersey, and as you know, there are a lot of financial advisors in the tri state. And when we got around to talking about business, I asked him, you know, how his business and it's it's interesting. His his challenge is in a lot of ways it's it sort of personifies the challenges of the industry. So I just talk about this for a moment. So I won't name his name or his firm, but he's he's an established advisor. He he made I think this year he made the Forbes best in state list. So, you know, he's been building a practice for the last 20, 25 years, largely growing organically. And then in the last two years, he worked with another advisor at his firm who's who's who's got a very established book. He's an older AFE who has sort of a glide path to retirement and a book where the average client age is, I want to say, in the kind of mid-sixties range. And so he's he's now has this agreement in place for, I think about a year, year and a half, where he's he's he's essentially acquired this book, this other advisor he's working closely with to try to, you know, really get a better understanding of of the practice and be able to service.

Now, all of these clients, the ones that he had before he purchased this practice and now these new clients. And so he he's sort of faced now with two problems. So the the core book of of his clients are are folks that are, you know, amassing more and more wealth. They're largely in a like kind of the hyper accumulation phase, a lot of sort of Henrys the high earners not rich yet and now the folks that he's at it again older clientele, much more significant concentration of assets, but also assets that are largely passing on now to their heirs. So he's got these sort of two blocks of of clients, the younger folks and some of the folks who are, you know, midway through retirement. And he's he's really trying to juggle all of that. And I think then that sort of, you know, passing of the baton. So to speaks is is sort of emblematic of the larger industry. And so he is his client, his his colleague who's selling the business, you know, can kind of ride off into the sunset now. But he's he's got a very significant puzzle on his hands. So the question he's asking himself with. Asking himself, and I think a lot of advisors are is is the firm he's with creating the best possible experience for him to help his clients have their best possible experience.

So for these sort of Henrys, I would say these are individuals, 30 something individuals who, you know, in an Uber, to whatever event they have, can have their, you know, favorite meal, DoorDash to their house and have groceries delivered and watch their, you know, whatever they want and listen to whatever they want, whenever they want. This group of clients who maybe don't have the assets to warrant his full attention, I think reading between the lines, he's saying they don't feel enough attention. So this ability to sort of work with a book of both up and coming and establish clients and give each of those clients the feeling that they're your only client, that's pretty challenging for him. And, you know, you referenced our research, I think when when we looked at the top C-level executives and in the wealth industry and I think we interviewed over 160 different firms, the biggest single contributor to their worries about modernization was not client acquisition, but client retention. So I think that's kind of a bit of a bellwether for the larger industry and I think kind of typifies the problem that we're going to talk about today.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great. And I'm sure you know, the consumer expectation, it's a very similar experience when thinking about the the user as well. And so. Rose From from your perspective, considering your experience with financial planning, how have you seen technology and tools evolve to enable the advisors productivity to make them a little bit happier in what they're doing day in and day out?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and Alicia, thank you. Thank you for having me today. And I'll just echo a little bit of what Kevin said, right. Like there's this shift a bit in sort of having to service maybe different clients differently that are going through different experiences. Right? And so some of what we spend a lot of time talking to advisors about is engaging sort of next gen and not just the clients that are our current clients. And, and the idea that today offering more personalized service, personalized advice to Kevin's point, making that client feel like they're the only client right now and having a good understanding of what of what they need. And I think client expectations are that we have we have an understanding of what they need and that we're able to coordinate across everything that they need. Right? So especially from a wealth perspective, all of the aspects of a client's life are coordinated and the technology should help support delivering on on that. From a planning perspective, I will say that it's one of those things that really drives that personalized conversation you're getting at the core of why clients are investing in the first place and what their needs are.

And then some of what we've seen in terms of technology is moving be moving beyond the old definition of integration where we're single signing on between applications and passing some data to really truly coordinating. If I'm giving you advice as part of a planning conversation, then that set of accounts and those portfolios flow through the process from the recommendations that we're making to the performance that we're providing, the monitoring, etc., and extends to the coordination of the experience and the user experience. So a client feels that everything's connected and it's not disjointed for them as well. And then I'll just touch on a little bit from a productivity perspective. More and more you're seeing some automation that's happening and in AI that's helping to support advisors and and clients and making sure that they're getting the advice and that it's scalable, right? If we're having these conversations, it actually sometimes takes more effort. And so that having the technology enable that is really critical as well.

Speaker 2: Thanks for that great point. It's always thinking about, you know, how do you work smarter. Right. And I think, Paul, this is something top of mind at LPL. How do you give your advisors scale? So what do you consider to be critical in that recipe to enable your advisors to not only increase the book of business, but also maintain the quality of service?

Speaker 4: Yeah, we're seeing a lot of technology advancements and part of it is table stakes, right? If advisors are not investing in technology, they stand a chance of losing clients to other advisors. And the same thing is true for us as a wealth management firm. If we're not investing, we're going to fall behind and not be as effective. Where we're really seeing advisers using technology is automating tasks, automating execution in particular. And what it's allowing them to do is get more time in front of clients or in front of prospects. And certainly one area we're seeing that is marketing. We're seeing advisors use marketing automation to make themselves more effective. Our firm is in the process of rolling out advisors stream to help advisors engage with more clients and more prospects.

What we're seeing is it's not just creating efficiency for the advisors themselves, it's also creating efficiency for their staffs. So it's really an effective tool. Another area we're seeing that is CRM tools. We're seeing more and more advisors are actually creating workflows to streamline their processes within their CRM tools. And it's creating bandwidth for the advisors. And as we know, more time with clients and with prospects typically leads to more wallet share or capturing more leads and turning more of those leads into prospects. And in fact, one of the things that our firm did recently is we did a study looking at larger advisors and saying, Hey, what are they doing to turn themselves into larger firms? What we found is that they're not working more hours. In fact, they're working about the same number of hours as advisors who are smaller, but they're automating they're outsourcing their delegating work so they can focus on bringing in new business. So not necessarily working harder, but working smarter. And I think technology automation is a big piece of that, an issue We.

Speaker 2: Absolutely. And I think it's also how you bring the all of this information together so that we can provide better recommendations. There's actually a question in the Q&A board. It's basically saying that, you know, there's a convergence between financial planning portfolio management. How do you look at the combination of that different sets of data and information, including risk and, you know, bring that together to make better recommendations? Kevin, I think you you want to take this one.

Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I'm trying to. Can you repeat the the second part of the question?

Speaker 2: So it's basically, you know, the convergence between traditional planning and portfolio management, bringing all that data together to make better recommendations.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I think my, my $0.02 is. I think that the the getting the full picture of data together about the entire balance sheet of the client, I personally view that as very attainable. In terms of technology, you know with the proliferation of, you know, the tools that are put directly into consumers hands to aggregate their entire kind of balance sheet and the ones that they can delegate to their advisor to get that fulsome picture. I think that that's that's sort of I think very, very much an expectation for most clients nowadays. But where beyond the technology, I think that firms for firms have very different approaches from from what I've seen in terms of where does the role of the advisor or the advisor practice begin and end. So some firms think of, you know, basic tax planning as not part of the the advisor playbook.

Some think trust, trusts and estate planning is, is or is not. One of the things that's that's kind of an interesting I think emerging trend is. Younger investors that we're seeing who maybe five years ago or ten years ago would nowhere near have qualified for the full service, that maybe, you know, a high net worth or an ultra high net worth individual are increasingly having the expectation that their advisor should be helping them with all aspect of that. So I think that, you know, the firms that are at least leaning into the idea that of managing the full picture of assets and liabilities and planning for the entire lifecycle, you know, I think they are the ones that are, are going to do better getting the technology in place to connect the 360 view of all that sort of in my my opinion comes relatively easily once once the firm has sort of committed that they want to, you know, offer that wholesome level of of capability to.

Speaker 2: Thanks, Kevin. So. Go back to that journey for transformation and modernization. Paul When when you're thinking about transformation, do you see it as something that's constantly on going?

Speaker 4: We do. And part of it is there's always new technologies that are more efficient than old technologies. And so you need to take the time to invest in those new technologies and upgrade there. But the other thing we're seeing is that there's a constant need for integrations in today's Internet and tech stack. Just everywhere you remove, it seems it has to integrate with one thing or another and that those integrations are changing all the time. And if you just look at CRM, for example, as soon as you get done integrating with one CRM, a new entrant comes into the marketplace and you have to build a whole new set of integrations. And so we're constantly looking at that, making sure we're staying on top of that for our advisors.

Speaker 2: Yes, we know what that's like. Every time you think you know the direction you're going, it slightly changes a little bit. Rose, Just to bring you back into the conversation, I think the benefits of transformation are clear. But what's some advice to firms when assessing readiness and prioritization? Any steps that you think are beneficial when thinking about that process to modernize or any pitfalls that that firms should try to avoid?

Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think having gone through it in a in a former role and then having spent some time helping firms kind of embark on some of this transformation right now, one thing that I would say is just getting an assessment of where you are today is really important. I like the there are components of sort of the strategic vision that you have for what you want to deliver and where you want to go. And yet different elements of that might be in different life stages, right? Or there may be gaps in certain areas. And I think taking that inventory in an assessment of where you are today helps sort of the focus of where where you want to start. I also think an approach that we've seen that's really helpful is to is to break it down into pieces and to try to get some of those those wins in tackling what either might be a gap today or might be some of those foundational components that really set the stage for what you're delivering on top on top of that. So those are just a couple of areas. I certainly the conversation around thinking through integration, I know we've all touched on that is so critical because the success in sort of delivering either personalization or productivity or some of the enhanced advice that we can provide and scale is really, really hinges on that.

Speaker 2: We know that that is great. And I think, you know, you had touched on it in one of our prior calls that the you know, the definition of integration has changed significantly, right? Not just the single sign ons, but just truly knitting everything together so that it's that streamlined experience for productivity, but then also for for the consumer. So I think that that's probably one of the biggest areas that that we've tried to focus on is that that seamless integration. So it doesn't feel like it's separate components. It feels like one journey, one one experience. Paul, I'll go back to you. Any any pitfalls that you think firms should try to avoid when thinking through? How do they approach their journey to monetization?

Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, certainly one of the things I would say is you have to be really specific. And so when we went through this most recent process looking at different marketing automation tools, one of things we did is we looked at lots of different use cases. And when I say let's use cases, we took our 50 top use cases and actually went through them one by one and said, How does this tool do for these use cases? Obviously prioritizing them from the ones that are most frequently the ones who do, you know, less frequent. But I think that's a really important aspect of this, is taking the time to do that and make sure that the solution you're going to use really meets the need of all those use cases. And so again, using this most recent example for us, we went through this process with advisors to you. It wasn't just that it met our needs. It was actually when we tested it, it was the most efficient way to do it. We found that our folks that were doing it were advisors that were testing it. They were actually able to do things more efficiently, took less time to send an email or post something to social media or create a new campaign. And that's really critical because I know that it's a tedious process and it's exhausting upfront to do it. But think about the benefits of that over time that if you do it right upfront and you figure it out, it's a little bit of time saved and each one of those execution oriented tasks. But over time, it's going to be a lot for yourself and your staff and your team.

Speaker 2: That's great. And so the actual advisors were brought into the decision making process by testing out the applications.

Speaker 4: We had a lot of people in the process. We had certainly folks on our side as well as advisors as well, taking a look at that. And there's a lot of different ways to get feedback there. But yes, we took a lot of different people into the process and had them actually tell us.

Speaker 2: That's great to come along with you. So they they are part of the part of the process. ROSE Are there ways that you're collecting feedback from financial advisors? Are there different ways that you open up that that that feedback channel feedback loop?

Speaker 3: Yeah, we we certainly talk directly to advisors. We leverage our support teams as well who interact with advisors on a daily basis. We're really formal about how we collect the feedback coming in through those channels from a money guide and planning perspective from a platform perspective. We also work really closely with the firms who help give us access to advisors and provide that information as well. I think along the development process though, much like Paul said, we bring people along with us. So from concept to testing, we like to engage with users to get their feedback along the way and make adjustments and react quickly. So we really try to engage at all of the various stages in the in the lifecycle.

Speaker 2: Are there any tips that you have for how to validate what your users or advisors are asking for? To really see that the value that you're getting to the end client or the investor?

Speaker 3: Yeah, there are ways that we've we've done that in the past, both in former roles and current roles. And some of that is validating with the end investor really doing some some client focused research and engaging them on are they able to consume what we're putting in front of them. Is it communicating the right message? Is it engaging? The other is working closely with firms that really look at the impact of some of this on the business, right. So after launching something, does it drive activity? Does it drive certain behavior, sticking to the advice, actually executing the advice and those types of things? And you can really see some of that bear out depending on on what we've delivered.

Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe one or two points to jump in on that thought, Alicia, is, you know, I probably am saying something kind of coming from the cheap seats because my really my bias is towards marketing technology, you know, But throughout my career we've, I've worked with so many firms and firms from a compliance standpoint typically fall into two buckets. One is compliance is brought in at the very end of a process and sort of, you know, it's it's it's a situation where they've they've kind of now have to scramble to, you know, keep up with what the business is trying to do. In other firms, though, compliance is brought in as a partner and they sort of co plan with the business to if I had a you know, we're all in the same room.

There is an old client of mine who ran one of our wealth businesses used to draw a line on a piece of paper and he would say to compliance, like you would put a dot right on the edge of the line and say, I want you to help me to be right here on the edge of the line, but not over the line. And I think that those firms that bring compliance in is a partner where they they're really trying to evolve as opposed to trying to be, you know, fully fixated on just risk mitigation. Because I think, as we probably all agree, that there's no way to fully mitigate the risk. And sometimes being only focused on risk mitigation is itself in itself a risk because the clients are evolving in terms of their preferences in the firm where the advisor is not able to continue to meet those evolving needs of compliance as a stakeholder in ways to continue to meet the client where they want to be met is another important aspect of the planning process.

Speaker 2: That's a it's a really great point. So not just user buy in, but but also the key stakeholder buy in to make sure. I think to the point you were making your very specific. Right. This is this is what we need, why we need it. And here's the team that can help make that decision to make sure that we don't have to do it again, that we get a course and we follow that that course as it evolves. Let's see, we have a couple of other questions here to the group. How confirmed, try to balance the immediate needs that they have versus an evolution that might take years. ROSE You kind of hit on some of the prioritization and kind of small chunks and steps. But but what are some of those other things that that need to be taken into consideration?

Speaker 3: I think many times when you're going through this transformation, you're supporting sort of the business every day and building on top of or integrating with legacy systems. And that can be difficult in the list of things on a daily basis doesn't get shorter, right? So I do think that some of the things we've done in the past is to be intentional about the resources that you're attributing to sort of the more tactical and everyday business items or the more immediate items versus the resources in the capacity that you are aligning to some of the longer term vision items. And when you make decisions about the near-term items, thinking through whether or not that's being built or enhanced in a way that's supporting that longer term vision is really important. Not to say that there is not some things that you do more immediately because of need that might be throw away or might not necessarily fully align. But going into those decisions with it fully sort of validated is really important as well. I think just that idea of carving out and making sure that you're focused on the the allocation that you have to each of those focuses is an approach.

Speaker 2: And Paul Bruce touched on just your general resourcing. When you think about programs that that you undertake at LPL, do you think about the type of employee resourcing you need either to support the program or just out in the field to to support the lunches?

Speaker 4: Yeah, without a doubt. It can be difficult to get the right talent in this industry because it's such a highly regulated industry and has very specific needs. And I think a lot of times when I'm making hiring decisions, I think I can teach someone the industry or I can teach them this area. For example, I'm managing a number of different product areas and sometimes I find it's easier to get someone who knows the industry and then teach them about product just because there are so few people that really know our industry well. So that's a big issue for us, and that's also where working with third party partners can be really helpful. When you think about some of the technology challenges that we have to try to stand it up just for your own firm can be very difficult sometimes because you do need to have those resources in place and going to a third party, especially if it's something that is not necessarily it's an input to your strategic offering, but it's not the core of what you do. It can be really, I think, important to leverage third parties that do have that expertise and can bring that in rather than trying to bring it in-house where it can be really difficult to to make the best use of them.

Speaker 2: That's a really great point. You know, making sure that you're using your resources in the best way possible and finding experts to help when when they can help. I think that's a it's a great point about that overall plan and how you bring these teams together. Okay. Let's see here. So Citigroup, you know, we've we've all seen these use cases where firms might tend to do a really massive tech overhaul and some try to do a piece by piece, I think, in thinking through some of your your recent transformations. What was a key decision or key point into the decision that that you thought about when deciding, do I do this one step at a time or do I try to think of this as one big massive program?

Speaker 4: Well, I'll just weigh in here. I can say when we take a look at a number of initiatives. I think of it in terms of what can we get done because you have to have the budget for it, You have all the internal resources lined up, but also there's also a lot of key stakeholders. You have to weigh in and sometimes it's just so broad, you know, you can't get it done and you start saying, Well, I know I need to do these ten things. What three can I actually get done this year with the resources we have with the stakeholders, you need to be involved. And so sometimes you find yourself just backing into it. I know that doesn't sound as strategic as it should, but it is the reality of I always love the Omar Bradley quote that the beginners think about strategy in the experts, think about logistics. So it really is the logistics of how do you put it all together. But I would say we try to take it piece by piece and just make sure we're keeping in mind that longer term strategy to know when we get piece number one, two and three, and how are we going to make sure it's easy to follow that with four, five and six?

Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think it's a fair point. And I did say in the beginning that we would talk about the practical realities. So there's an example of a practical one where.

Speaker 3: Many times I'll just jump in with another thought. Many times you really are backing into it because when we talk about not to sort of harp on the integration piece, but certain things have to happen before others, right? And you really do have to back into what needs to come first in order to make something else happen and have that vision in place. But being able to sort of prioritize and stage it in the right way is really important. And then when you take on larger transformations, you also just have to think about the adoption of that. When you make that broad change, that wide, that sort of wide scope, and then you've got this idea of how will people actually adopt that and can we deliver in a place that makes sense in terms of sort of getting up to speed on the technology and how they put it into practice and how advisors put it into practice?

Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, you know, we've we've talked a little bit about how firms get ready and how you approach these big projects. But to that point, do you have any advice for advisors on how to look at it from an adoption perspective, especially if they. Things are. Console. What are some tips for them on how to approach learning the new technology and using it?

Speaker 3: Yeah. From from I'll talk about from a planning perspective. One of the things that we always share with advisors is to get started on themselves, right? Like to do it themselves or somebody close to them through that experience, especially when you're, when you're changing sort of the experience for clients to have that sort of close sort of understanding of it is important. The other thing that I would say is to take it in pieces. That's a message that I have, is to try to take it in pieces, pick it focus area that you think will have an impact to you and start there and then pick the next the sort of next piece. And we've seen a lot of advisors get a little bit overwhelmed if there's a lot of change and a lot of new technology that needs to be sort of learned and consumed, but sort of picking, picking a place, getting familiar with that and moving to the next to the next item can be can be helpful.

Speaker 2: That's great. Can we have a couple of other questions? Okay. Here's an interesting one. So we did mention, you know, new tech next Gen Technologies, A.I. being one. How does A.I. play a role in wealth management?

Speaker 1: I'll jump in with a couple of thoughts on that one. Yeah, I mean, I think that probably I was at a conference six months ago and I think that at that point it was just after the I think it was the not even the Ford audio of Chachi was released, but it was just starting to be talked about. As you know, this is probably something people need to take a closer look at. And I think it's Paul and I even had a conversation about this at one point. I may be on the fringe here, but I, I feel like when we started talking about robo advice however many years ago, it didn't seem that it didn't seem nearly as concerning to the traditional advisors as I think I should be now in so much as. You know, the technology then just did in no way, shape or form was was ready to be as deep be as as sort of much of a copilot as what some of the technology can be today. And I think that that word copilot, I mean, there's technology today that engineers use to help them write code.

There's technology in the air, technology that, you know, a lot of technologists would say has become indispensable, that just making it easier for them to deploy technology. And so I think first thing is, is the the audience that we're talking to here now before before thinking about how I might help you better service the client. I think maybe there's a good question to be asked. Can I help you solve some of your even like see technology challenges? So I've heard, you know, increasingly like people acts that are built in really old languages being now translated and upgraded into newer, more modern technologies, and that's being expedited by some of these large language models. So that's, you know, that's probably the kind of the back end behind the curtain stuff. Maybe the question is a little bit more sort of in front of the curtain, How can I be helpful to an advisor in servicing more clients? Better have thoughts on that. But but I'll I'll I'll pause and maybe let others jump in on that one.

Speaker 3: You know, Kevin, I would agree. I think some of the places that we're seeing, I have a really big impact initially is some of the more sort of home office and scale sort of knowledge bases and getting information out to advisors so that they can adopt technology and those types of things in the execution of technology. I think those are some of the first places where we're going to see that.

Speaker 2: Okay, that's great. And you know, Kevin, you touched on legacy system. So before I ask you to expand on any other thoughts for for eight and you have the end user front office perspective, one of the challenges that the executives mentioned in our study was the inflexible legacy systems. You know, can you can you talk a little bit about or give examples of what options firms might have when there are, you know, legacy systems that that you just you know, it's going to be a behemoth to try to overhaul and approaches that that they can think about. Or Paul talked to you as well because you likely experience that in in your programs as well.

Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe to start, I'll just say, you know, I was actually in a kind of a deep discussion with a lot of a lot of the folks on our engineering team very recently. And we were we were talking about some, you know, some kind of esoteric aspects of some of what we're trying to do to make some of the some of the different systems talk to each other better, where I think we see kind of a typical challenges. Whether real or perceived, is around data security. You know, there sometimes are. Solutions. To solve some of the modern technology challenges that, at least in my experience, may seem risky from a data security standpoint, from a stability standpoint. And I think that what we found at least, is getting the the the core core engineers and infrastructure folks understanding the the problem that's trying to be solved and all working that problem through together often is something that helps rather than have the, you know, the engineering infrastructure folks approach a problem and then lob it over the wall to your data security folks. Because a lot of times when you get those three disciplines together, at least in my experience, some sometimes counterintuitive solutions come about you.

Speaker 4: Other than, you know, we're rolling out a new marketing automation platform and other systems as well. It really is about getting a lot of key stakeholders internally together and things that you think are going to be really simple can often be complex, and sometimes you think things are going to be really complex, end up being really simple when you get the right people in the room, but really getting lots of input so you don't have surprises three months or six months or nine months into a project to find out, Oh, I didn't realize it. That was going to be a hurdle that we had to jump through. So I would just encourage everyone to spend the time talking to all those stakeholders. Again, a fairly tedious thing to do, but it will save you a lot of time in the long run if you really have a clear understanding of all the things that really need to happen in order to roll it out.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I mean.

Speaker 1: You would know this, right? Alicia? I mean, probably all of us lived through a world not very long ago, in fact, where the idea of even using cloud infrastructure was kind of verboten and sort of like, this is the world we live in, right? It's it's, it's it stays the same until it doesn't. And then it changes so quickly that we find ourselves behind the ball. So I feel like coming to the table, you know, for all the stakeholders that Paul just mentioned, bringing those stakeholders together with the assumption that it is changing as opposed to let's find a way to not have it, change is, is probably the posture to show up to those conversations.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a very fair point. I have come from some conservative cultures in the past and and it's always that that approach of finding that right balance of how far you can push. But like you said, Kevin and Paul, if you have the right people around the table, it's usually not a no answer. It's a paddle answer. And just making sure that the right people are engaged early, early on. Although yes, Paul might take you a little bit longer to get to some of those decisions. Once you get to those decisions, I think it makes execution a whole lot faster and easier. Okay, So we've touched on a lot of the key questions that we wanted to cover is a couple of others left here in the Q one Rose. Maybe can you share some examples of some innovative tools or technologies that either your team is using or that you're using with other firms to help achieve deeper client engagement?

Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, just what we're what we're building out to engage clients is really focused on facilitating the collaboration between advisors and clients. I think I'd, I'd say that is across the board with most clients that we're working with is how do we actually sort of bridge that digitally and help it both from a productivity perspective, but also just getting more engagement from the client, more buy in for the advice and and having them come along along the journey with them. So we're focused on that.

Speaker 2: And you mentioned that you do do focus groups with with the end client. What kind of feedback are you getting? Are the clients now participating more because they feel like they're more part of that overall process?

Speaker 3: I do. I do find that, and I think that they're coming to the table with different, you know, having been in the planning space for quite some time, I think they're coming to the table with different perspective than I've seen in the past. What is great about this is that more and more there is an acknowledgment of how these tools help them make decisions that really help empower them to to achieve what they want. So I think the engagement is fantastic. I also think the acknowledgment of how certain things are connected, right? How cash flow is connected to wealth. That's connected. Right. You're seeing sort of a broader set of questions from clients. And sometimes it's surprising. You know, you have your head down on something and you're looking at it for a long time and you think it may be incredibly clear. And then you sit down with clients and you go, Wow, that just isn't getting communicated the way that we want. And so it's so important to kind of get that with them with end users, just to get that that confirmation. It's great.

Speaker 2: And Paul, you've talked about, you know, your experience with launching digital marketing. Any other examples of innovative tools or technologies that have enabled your advisors to to grow and to deepen engagement with clients?

Speaker 4: One thing we've been working on is report automation, though just helping the advisors understand their practices better, do better client segmentation, looking at things like fee analysis. And so part of that is just a data exercise to make sure we can get our data organized so that it can be put into our finances. And then the second thing is taking that fine system and making it available to advisors. And so we've done that at a couple of different places throughout the firm. And what we're finding is that it's helping advisors, that it's really helping them identify what activities are really driving profitability and efficiency and growth and what activities are not necessarily the best use of my time. And so whether they are getting rid of some activities or, again, outsourcing or delegating some activities, we're finding it's really having a big impact on the advisors ability to grow their practice.

Speaker 2: That's great. I think that single pane of glass, right as we as we like to say, is really important and, you know, touches upon Rose, what you're talking about with integration. And, you know, how do you pull this all together? So it's less of a pull from the financial advisor and more of a push to them. Here's, you know, things that they should focus on rather than them trying to figure out what should I should I be doing today? That's great. Thanks for. Okay. So a couple more questions, Kevin, coming from digital marketing, that's something that goes across many different industries, not just wealth and financial services. Do you have any other good examples of things outside of wealth and financial services where you're seeing innovation and where innovation is changing consumer expectations, that that maybe we could take a couple of lessons from.

Speaker 1: Mean? Yeah, I think, you know, the ones that maybe are comparable are, you know, other other services industry where, you know, the consumer is seeking expert expert advice, expert consultation. You know, so I think about, you know, just just even your relationship with your health care providers, doctors, etc.. You know, to to for I guess you use a you know, maybe a what I think is not uncommon. A story I've heard from a friend who who switched financial advisors not long ago. He said he had asked this adviser I want to say was the adviser was was like very keen on, you know, any time they needed to have a conversation, you know, or have any kind of correspondence always over the phone. And my friend said, you know, this is not using any really modern technology. It's like, you know, can you just send me an email? And. And the adviser and we have research that back this up backs this up is the adviser wasn't very flexible to this individual's needs. And so the individual said, okay, well, I guess I could find another adviser who is. So whether it's, you know, text or, you know, Zoom or or whatever the channel, the idea of meeting the consumer in the channel that they prefer is sort of been, you know, always tried and true.

And so like going back to the to the doctor's analogy, you know, most people probably have had different doctor experiences. And nowadays I think the doctors that I that the health care providers that I've worked with who, you know, have a better foundation of enabling me with the information I need in the ways I need to get at it. You know, I that that, to me is is very valuable. So like, I you know, I can get at my records, I can schedule an appointment on my phone. I get reminders via text. So that whole industry, I think, has done a good job of evolving to, you know, make the just the customer experience less fraught with friction. And I would say that the way that to me I feel like some doctors behaviors has, you know, maybe a little bit of parallel to the wealth industry. I don't I mean, I don't know how others feel, but I mean, I think the value prop of the wealth industry.

We're financial advisors a couple of decades ago might have been that they had access to information or could put investors into different classes of investments that maybe others couldn't. I don't think access to information or access to certain investment vehicles is all that differentiating anymore. So the value prop of the industry, I think, you know, is increased. It's just less about that, I think. And so the idea of under truly demonstrating an understanding of each client's needs and, you know, that tailored ability to to tailor solutions that meet the goals, the time horizon, the risk tolerance. That to me is sort of the way the value prop is evolved. And I think that health care in some ways the health care industry has has has helped or shown a good example of of, you know, some aspects of of modernization there.

Speaker 2: It is a great analogy, right. You know, going to talk to someone about your health and also talking to someone about the health of your finances and the health of of your your legacy, both very personal, both emotional. And you do want to remove as much friction as as possible. So I think it is a great example. Financial services is sometimes a laggard when it comes to some of those adoptions. Again, going back to those conservative compliance driven cultures. Right. And not not taking those risks early on. But I think we're starting to see that the industry as a whole evolve and simple tactics like this, just making sure you have the right people at the table, making sure that you're taking things and consumable bite size pieces is is a way to get there. So.

Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sorry to say, go on. If you're not convinced that there is another narrative of why consumers don't need financial advisers, go on YouTube, because there is a whole lot of influencers in their twenties and thirties who are telling anyone who wants to listen that they don't need a financial advisor. So I think the value prop calibration is it's probably beyond technology. Something to think about.

Speaker 2: Yes, there's influencers. Yes, there are out there. Well, thank you all for joining me is a great conversation. Really appreciate spending this hour with you guys. And David has it back to you.

Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks very much, you guys. That was fantastic. Great information. As we said, we did run out of time. I do want to thank our

Speakers, Alicia Rich and Kevin Darlington from Broadridge. Thanks very much for the great information. Paul Horrocks from LPL and Rose, lots of investment. Thank you all for being here. I want to thank Broadridge again for the sponsorship of the Making today's webinar possible and for the audience, Once you leave this event, there will be a short survey window that will pop up and we would love it if you would just take a minute to let us know what you thought of this event. Maybe share your feedback. It helps us provide you with information that's most useful to you in the future, and that's really our intention. So with that, on behalf of wealth management dot com have a productive remainder of the day. X, everyone.