Golden Nuggets from the 2019 T3 Enterprise Conference

Editor’s notes: Keena Pettijohn, founder and CEO of Lifelogixs Strategic Consultancy Group, was kind enough to write up the following summaries based on her experience attending sessions at the T3 Technology Conference for Enterprises held in Ft. Lauderdale, in October 2019.

The next T3 conference is the big T3 Advisor conference happening in February 2020, followed closely thereafter by T3 Cyber University in early March 2020. The next T3 Enterprise conference will be held again in fall 2020.

Learn more about all of the T3 conferences happening in 2020  at www.TechnologyToolsForToday.com. Use the hashtag #T32020 to see 2020 curated content.

To see curated tweets from all of the 2019 T3 conferences, enter hashtag #T32019 in Twitter.

The T3 Conferences are the rite of passage for the seriously innovative technology firms that are looking to debut and network with peers and senior influencers in the highly competitive and everchanging world of fintech. Financial services firms such as broker/dealers, banks and insurance companies seeking new and innovative solutions for their advisor constituents congregate every fall for the T3 Enterprise conference, whereas financial advisors of assorted business models and sizes flock to the T3 Advisor conference in February each year.

While I was only able to attend the first day of the 2019 T3 Enterprise conference, I’m glad I took the time to join this elite group of finserve and fintech executives.

In the opening session, Joel Bruckenstein briefly summarized the keynote speakers and agenda before moving into an entirely heartwarming and humbling commentary. I was immediately teary-eyed as Joel started the morning with a remembrance of Jud Bergman of Envestnet and his wife Mary, who passed away in a sad traffic accident recently, and Dave Shindel of United Planner who apparently “died with his boots” on while doing one of the things he loved best – riding a horse up into the Arizona mountains and enjoying a campfire. In the world of business, we sometimes fail to think about the fragility of life and how in a blink of an eye it could all change. I was quite impressed that Joel memorized and respected them in the first few moments of the conference.

Below are some other “golden nuggets” I took away from sessions that day.

Connecting Aspirations to Allocations: Help Your Advisors Quickly Turn Client Goals into Investment Plans – By Jason Stipp, Morningstar

According to Jason Stipp, the Director of Product Management for Morningstar, it all started with Alpha, Beta, and now Gamma.

Coming in January 2020, the Morningstar “Goal Bridge Workstation” will allow advisors to connect goal planning to investment planning. The value to the advisor allows for goals-based Investing to connect to allocations as well as tie client goals directly to investment plans.

The underlying principle for Goal Bridge is the fundamental hypothesis is that goal-relative optimization and behavioral coaching could add 1-2 percentage points per year of advisor “gamma” value for clients.

Stipp continued to emphasize that goals are easier to meet if you know them when taking them into consideration with assets, risks, investment plans as a behavioral science. The workflow brings many life objectives into one comprehensive system so that the clients’ needs, wants and wishes become logical conclusions.

Going for Growth: How Wealth Tech is Scaling Value for Advisors – By Richard Kelter, Fiserv

Richard Kelter, CFA and Director of Product Management for Fiserv Investment Services, kicked off his presentation by pointing out that consumers demand how and when they want services and products. The approach of Fiserv is one of a Omni Channel Delivery that keys off providing a comprehensive and holistic management experience that strives for relevant and proactive communication and allows  clients to not only interact with the medium of their choice but to establish the emotional connection that they are looking for. The adage “show me that you know me” is important to consumers; it demonstrates the value of the advisor and the goal-setting process. Kelter emphasized the importance of leveraging social media and said  that 73% of Investors want to see material and content that is relevant to their lives and situation.

Kelter continued to stress that technology continues to be an opportunity for both the advisor, middle, and back office with API’s surface capabilities and integration of the experience.

 What resonates with customers:

  • Intuitive, fast and customized interactions
  • Ever-evolving experiences
  • Anticipation of needs
  • Accessibility of users’ terms and timetable
  • Tight integration with supporting services and applications
  • Visibility and transparency

Bottom line, customers buy the experience and not the products, according to Kelter.

How Two Firms Streamlined their Enterprise with Advyzon – by John Mackowiak, ADVYZON

John Mackowiak, Chief Business Development Officer at Advyzon, provided insights on both the client and user experiences by showcasing  two case studies. Mackowiak was joined  by Wayne Hamilton, Chief Information Security Officer of Peak Brokerage Services, and Bruce Larsen of Presidential Brokerage. Mackowiak showed how Advyzon can aggregate outside information (held-away accounts) as well as provide advisors with a consolidated technology platform, including performance metrics and billing.

It was interesting to hear the use cases made by both Presidential and Peak Brokerage Services; they had great things to say about the client portal and marketing capabilities of this platform that complement the advisor practice and financial planning offerings. As a seasoned financial advisor, Larsen finds the platform straightforward for his clients and his practice. Hamilton talked about  how his firm uses Advyzon to seamlessly support operations.

Not Alone but Fiercely Independent –  By Brian Hamburger and Shirl Penney

Brian Hamburger, founder of Market Counsel and the Hamburger Law Firm, and Shirl Penney, founder and CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, agreed that all roads are leading to the RIA space.

Future predictions included:

  • IBDs will transform themselves into private wealth management firms
  • Custodians will move more into Back Office functions

Penney made the point that “if you don’t exist in your clients’ device, you don’t exist.” Dynasty is making a major investment in digital marketing and has appointed Eric Castillo to lead the charge on that initiative while Penney is in charge on growing their assets and footprint.

Penney said that “culture and leadership really matters.” Dynasty is seeking fresh insights from the launch of a new Advisory Board comprising of clients and advisors. With an advisor average of $100 million in AUM (and growing), Penney said that  “aspirational leadership” is part of their firms’ DNA in addition to providing equity and opportunity to a growing number of firms.

Hamburger was looking forward to his firm’s annual Market Counsel Summit.

Keena Pettijohn
Keena Pettijohn
Keena Pettijohn is founder and CEO of Lifelogixs Strategic Consultancy Group. An accomplished wealth management executive with over 25 years in financial services, she has with experience in fintech solutions, partner integrations and SaaS. She focuses on identifying technology solutions that drive a better customer and user experience. An active supporter and advocate for women’s development programs aimed at attracting more female planners and advisors into the industry, she recently created in her blog, https://keena.lifelogixs.com.

Comments are closed.