Dec. 26, 2023

Delivering World-Class Integrated Advice Profitably and Effectively with Spenser Segal

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Season 1

Episode 026: Delivering world-class integrated advice lies in a harmonious blend of human expertise and digital efficiency. It's a tightrope walk between leveraging the knowledge and intuition of seasoned professionals and harnessing the power of data-driven insights and streamlined processes. The challenge lies in ensuring these forces coexist, cooperate, amplify, and elevate each other.

In this episode of The Connected Advisor, Kyle talks with Spenser Segal, CEO of ActiFi. They discuss how to deliver world-class integrated advice more effectively and profitably. Spencer highlights the need for professional management in scaling a wealth management firm and the importance of optimizing processes and technology to support growth. He also emphasizes the potential for AI to automate non-high human value-added activities while allowing advisors to focus on providing personalized and valuable advice to clients.


Join us as we discuss:

[01:38] - How Spenser got into the wealth management industry.

[02:54] - What world-class advice looks like.

[05:05] - What inspired Spenser to create a world-class integrated advice.

[07:01] - What it takes to deliver a world-class integrated advice. 

[11:10] - How ActiFi provides better tools for wealth management.

[15:05] - Spenser's take on what's happening in advisor technology today.

[19:24] - How to structure technology for more centralized operations.

[23:03] - Spenser's thoughts on AI in wealth management.

[24:56] - What makes AI a transformative technology in wealth management?

[30:20] - The best book Spenser read in 2023.

[30:35] - The single most important metric firms should be tracking.

[30:56] - The best part about the Twin Cities.


Key Takeaways

  • The scariest resource in the industry is professional management, and firms need experienced managers who can optimize processes and leverage technology effectively.
  • People trump process. Process trumps technology, and technology is critical to building a scalable and efficient practice.
  • AI can potentially reduce the cost of non-human value-added activities by over 90% and can significantly increase value and margins for advisors.
  • Full automation is not desirable or effective in delivering world-class integrated advice. Clients prefer working with experts who can explain the rationale behind their decisions.
  • Implementing AI requires a well-defined process and a cohesive data strategy to ensure clean and consolidated data that can be used to train AI models. 


Quotes

"What clients really want is to maximize the probability of achieving their goals and the after-tax cash flow that can be allocated to those goals in alignment with what they truly value." ~ Spenser Segal

"There’s so many different capabilities, so many specialized vendors that are exploding. There's no better time in advisor technology than now. The trick, though, is to adapt your processes to take advantage of that." ~ Spenser Segal

"AI will be the most transformational technology in the history of the wealth management industry, and it will likely be 10 times more impactful than the internet." ~ Spenser Segal


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