Can AI Solve Wealth Management’s Technology and Succession Challenges? Ft. Ferian Nickelson

• Beacon Strategies, LLC
• LinkedIn: BeaconStrategies
• LinkedIn: Chip Kispert
• chipkispert@beaconstrategiesllc.com

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Beacon 1% Better Every Day with Chip Kispert, founder of Beacon Strategies. This podcast is all about challenging the norms of wealth management and empowering professionals to make continuous progress and always be curious. Chip knows firsthand how small, consistent improvements can lead to big breakthroughs, and that’s what we’re focused on here: helping you get 1% better every day.

We’ll dive into conversations with industry professionals, share actionable strategies, and explore the mindset needed to overcome industry challenges and create lasting change. Let’s be curious, push beyond what’s always been done,and uncover better ways together

RJ Malyk: Welcome to The Beacon 1% Better Everyday Podcast.

Today, Chip sits down with Farian Nicholson, chief operating officer at Vestgen Wealth [00:01:00] Partners, a firm built to solve the succession crisis facing financial advisors, to talk AI-driven consolidation, data ownership, and what the next generation of advisor looks like. Right now, here’s Chip.

Chip Kispert: RJ, thank you for that great introduction Farin, welcome

Ferian Nickelson: Thank you.

Nice to see you.

Chip Kispert: So I am super excited to have you on the show. Uh, it’s funny, you’re one of those people in, in my being that I’ve only known you since April, but I feel like I’ve known you my whole life.

Ferian Nickelson: Loves both ways, my friend.

Chip Kispert: It’s just that we’ve had some great interactive discussions over the last couple months.

So I am super happy to have you on the show. We got some great topics to talk about. Um, we’re gonna talk about consolidation, and not the way normal people think about consolidation. Um, we’re going to really kind of dive [00:02:00] into the way you look at the tech stack within your organization and other organizations, which I love to do.

So let’s get right into it, all right? Um, the first thing I always like to do is get a little bit of a background story on you, okay? So tell, tell the audience a little bit about yourself.

Ferian Nickelson: Sure. So let’s see, an East Coast native transplanted through the United States, and I’m now in, uh, Chicagoland. Uh, starting my career in the wire house space, so I cut my teeth, uh, in the market and at wire h- at, at Morgan Stanley in particular.

And very early on in my career, I landed in a transitions role, and this is at the time where transitions was stealth and nobody spoke about it and nobody knew these roles existed, and there was not one person that was craving to go into transitions coming out of college, okay? It was, you know, equity analyst or item king.

That being said, it was foundational for my career because when I did enter the independent space in 2012, and that was with Hightower, um, that breadth of experience of working with so many advisors and strategizing how to move the complex books of business from place to place really gave me a foundation for how to actually look at the business as a general manager and set up all of the infrastructure, people, process, technologies to serve those advisors and end clients.

So I would say I have had a career that has been led by, uh, the fortune of being asked to do stuff and saying yes. Um, I’ve worked at large name brands such as Northern Trust, BNY, obviously Hightower. Uh, I, I also have a little bit of LPL experience. So the wire house independent IBD space, trust space, all, uh, coming together in my current, uh, role here as COO at Meshtant.

Chip Kispert: Cover a lot of ground.

Ferian Nickelson: Very lucky. Uh, there’s a lot up here. Sometimes it takes a minute to defrag

Chip Kispert: it. I understand that. I, I understand that very well. So, um- [00:04:00] Question for you, and we talked about this in our pre-call, um, and I thought it was super fascinating. Most people think about consolidation in the way that RIAs are consolidating under an umbrella In our conversation, you looked at consolidation a little differently.

Tell us about that.

Ferian Nickelson: That’s funny. We are in the business of consolidation because for advisor succession, we are buying retiring advisors’ books of business, developing next generation talent, and moving those clients into the new trusted relationship. We’re doing that matchmaking. Um, so that’s already core and incumbent in what we do.

Uh, for us, though, in order to move clients from one advisor to the other, give them the opportunity to establish that trust, [00:05:00] and be able to service those clients better or even serve more clients, right, than one advisor serving today because we do have the succession crisis, there are more advisors exiting the market than there are entering, we’re actually looking at our technology landscape, our ecosystem of services and how we bring that together through our tech stack to be able to create efficiencies and scale.

And sometimes it’s actually through reaction. It’s actually through that consolidation and simplifying the number of vendors or partners you’re using, or frankly, limiting the amount of in-house development you have to do to make them all work. So for us, that’s what we’re keeping our eye on right now.

We’re only two years in the market, not even, and so we’ve established our core foundational tech stack. But with this evolution of AI and the big boom in the last year, not even two years I would say, we now have an opportunity to oversimplify the complexity that exists, whether you want it or not.

Chip Kispert: [00:06:00] So as you look at that, and y- you’re in the succession business, and we’ll talk a little bit more about that later, but are you making the experience easier for the advisor in many ways, and allowing them to spend more time with their clients and prospects?

Ferian Nickelson: Absolutely. Well, it starts with the advisor. You can’t really make things easier for the client if you can’t actually provide that capability to the advisor who needs to deliver the experience or the services to the client. So if you look at the productivity formula, right, um, time is the largest variable in the productivity formula.

Literally a one-to-one correlation. It’s not the only variable, but you start with that one because when you can actually give time back, alleviate the swivel chairs, normalize your data, make sure that one update goes across all the tools and systems, right, then that enables the advisor to then deploy their time elsewhere.

[00:07:00] So with that said, that’s the first one. Then we’re looking at insights, right? How do we provide insights for the advisor to do what they’re doing better? And create more human touchpoints that add value to the relationships with our clients. Or frankly, create space for them to go out and serve more clients.

That works too, right? But the idea is, let’s take the lowest common denominator off the table, which everybody knows is operational inefficiency and data management, and then begin to layer in things that actually move the needle for clients.

Chip Kispert: Is that in planning stages, or is that reality today?

Ferian Nickelson: I believe it’s an ever-going evolution.

So for us, it’s both.

Chip Kispert: Fair. Absolutely fair.

Ferian Nickelson: The minute you do it, you’re already onto the next to redo it.

Chip Kispert: Yep.

Ferian Nickelson: And that’s not gonna end. In fact, I think the pace of that is just going to continue to evolve. Uh, data migrations have never been easier. There are more and more players coming into the space to help with that, right?

So clients and, and firms and whatnot of the traditional [00:08:00] providers are, um, you know, enabled a lot faster. So that being said, uh, there are certain things that we’ve established, which is our core foundational tech stack. Okay? And now we’re adding in, um, the AI automation across a whole host of areas. Uh, I’m sure you’re gonna wanna know about our data lake, ’cause you and I-

have spoken about our data lake. I

Chip Kispert: was just going there.

Ferian Nickelson: Yeah. So it’s no joke, right? It’s no joke that in order to really apply AI, you need a solid footing for data. Okay? Uh, our point of view is we need to own our data, know what we have, and control what we have, and categorize what we have. And again, there are so many tool sets that are helping us do that a lot easier and at a faster pace than what was historically possible.

We’ve actually partnered with Snowflake. No secret on that. So we use Snowflake for our data lake and our data warehouse needs. And so with that said, we’ve invested a lot of time and a lot of energy to get that right, okay? ‘Cause we have data [00:09:00] coming in from a whole host of sources, your traditional sources like custodians, as well as our business management applications, right?

So solidifying that base was important, and we did it out of the gate, so we didn’t have to go and do it later, where it would be timely, distracting, and costly. There are so many large firms or top firms in the 200, 300 billion arena that are only now doing it after 15 and 20 years of legacy operation.

Okay, we’ll s- save those names maybe for later. That being said, for us it was important. Then we made certain decisions to work with key partners that I’m sure, you know, most RAs are working, like everybody else, and we’re starting to employ AI, AI for speech revenue- And AI to elevate the service experience, as well as protection, which I think we should probably also hit on security as well.

But for us, uh, now we’re automating and enabling,

RJ Malyk: uh, account opening,

Ferian Nickelson: okay? Note-taking and meeting prep, as well as we’re trying to [00:10:00] digitize, we’re almost there, digitize the paraplanning wall, okay?

Chip Kispert: Mm-hmm.

Ferian Nickelson: That doesn’t replace the financial planners. In fact, we are a heavy financial planning organization that’s very, very much rooted in our transition path planning process for new advisors entering a new client relationship in succession.

But that automation to enable us to execute quickly and serve clients, uh, in an expedited manner when it matters most is so important, and that’s where we’re investing our time for AI. So to answer your question, some of it we’ve done, some of it we’re doing, and once we, right, once we enable some of these capabilities, remember, we’ve only been at it for less than two years, we’re going to continue to evolve and invest in maintenance.

Chip Kispert: Is a bit of a loaded question because as I kind of go through, everything’s an evolution, right? The, the, nothing, you know, um, nothing stands still. So what are the other areas that… ‘Cause we’re building out lots of AI tools for us, [00:11:00] for our f- organization, and we’ll share those with the marketplace shortly.

Um, but, you know, it- APIs were the big calling card for the last decade MCPs are now in vogue, right? How do you see the relationship between those? Or, you know, help me understand how you think about that, ’cause I have my own particular way of looking at that issue currently.

Ferian Nickelson: Well, I think, you know, you posed the question to me, and I literally stopped talking.

You’ve got me thinking, you know, should every firm deli- … you know, build their own MCP? And, you know, I can’t say with any level of certainty whether I think it’s necessary beyond it’s worth considering if you want to protect your data and limit what goes out, okay? So it might be something to consider.

The over-under on that, Chip, right, the over-under on that is who are you speaking to, [00:12:00] because there are certain platforms that need to evolve to also be able to speak to whatever you as a firm are doing. Okay, so now you’re getting into can the API, you know, acclimate to what’s happening in your firm’s tech stack and vice versa?

But also, we have so many RAs that just don’t have the infrastructure or the people in-house to do all that, right? So it’ll be really interesting to see where the demand and the supply come in for that level of sophistication. What happens… And, and again, everything I’m talking about is really only a one to three, maybe five-year timeframe because we don’t know what’s gonna happen beyond year five.

If you wanna ask that question for what does it look like in 20 years, sure, I think we’re gonna get there, and everybody’s gonna, you know, obviously be writing to a completely different, uh, norm. But that being said, it’s worth considering for first and foremost protection. Uh, and then, you know, the custodians need to evolve first and foremost ’cause they touch all of our clients unless you’re self-custody.

And depending on what goes on over there, that’s gonna be telling for how we advance. [00:13:00]

Chip Kispert: That is true. So, um, you know, it’s interesting what you said there. I, I, I find it fascinating. I also find it fascinating you, you used a three to five-year window. Um- I looked at a one to two-year window, ’cause everything’s changing so fast.

It, it is absolutely incredible. The stuff we were talking about last year is now, you know, 100 miles behind us, so to speak, and it, it’s pretty fascinating. The industry, I’ve never seen the industry move this quickly, and I think I’m having more fun than I’ve had in a long time doing what I’m doing.

Ferian Nickelson: Yeah, no, it’s fun.

It’s also freaky, right? And so I, I caution… I, I knew you were gonna call me out on that. I caution, and I have to say one to three to five years, because look, um, uh, in the last couple of months I’ve demoed a handful of providers that are in market, they’re in production, and I’m seeing something that I didn’t necessarily believe before, but I think the [00:14:00] world of CRM is either gonna completely go away or change as we know it today.

Okay? There

Chip Kispert: are

Ferian Nickelson: players out there that have mastered workflows, okay? Workflows with agents that know things before you do and can make recommendations you haven’t thought about yet, okay? And then if you think about what CRM is, it’s a master spreadsheet with relationship data points, right, which can be replaced by AI as well.

So as long as you solve your pipeline management process, which could be a workflow in and of itself based off of a spreadsheet, um, and figure out how to run campaigns, which that capability set is out there as well, right? The CRM infrastructure really needs to evolve to create a new value proposition.

Um, and I say that because they’re massive players, right? And so that’s where the three and five-year arena I believe is going to be more realistic to see where that level of robustness goes away. Now, that being said, that being said, note-takers were the coolest thing on earth last [00:15:00] year.

Chip Kispert: Right.

Ferian Nickelson: They’re commoditized already.

They’re completely commoditized. So you see a lot of, like, Zocks and Jump, they built phenomenal products to your point, right? I think they’ve, you know, continued to invest. They have these major valuations. They’re now getting into that data orchestration layer because they have data, now they wanna put it to work because the note-taking arena is just not that hot anymore.

Chip Kispert: Right. Uh, well, it’s like, “All right. What have you done for me lately,” right? And I find it fascinating because I first kind of had the thoughts that the, on the CR- traditional CRMs probably about 15 months ago. And I’m like, “Hmm, somebody’s either gonna have to move forward very quickly or, you know, they’re gonna be seriously under attack.”

So I, and I think they, more and more, if I look at what- Um, essentially jumping Zox and, [00:16:00] you know, maybe a couple others are doing. Um, you know, they’re getting into onboarding. They’re getting into a ton of different areas that at the end, you know, I, I see them getting involved with marketing, um, lead gen, all those different pieces of the puzzle, and I see them, could they substitute?

Could they put the UX on that does the right things? Could they actually work with a customer to To personalize that UX, there, there’s a lot of opportunity there, and I think the traditional CRMs, um, I think if I look at them, I would suggest they’re fade. Um, and secondly, um, they got a lot of ground to cover.

Ferian Nickelson: They do. You know, you got there before me just based on where we’re playing in the market and what we’re all doing. We’re also starting up a company and, uh, integrating, uh, about, you know, 15 months ago. Uh, that being said, so we’re looking at a [00:17:00] whole host of providers in the space. Uh, I’m happy to call out the one that actually made me see that CRM is going to evolve tremendously.

It has to, right, for the level of survival. Yes, it

Chip Kispert: does.

Ferian Nickelson: And so it was actually Nevis. Now, Nevis is not the only one doing what they’re doing, and really they’re more of a platform approach to pull data together, normalize it, and create that UX for an advisor, okay? So if you’re not building your own.

Chip Kispert: Farin, just for the audience, right, who is Nevus?

Ferian Nickelson: Um, yeah, so they’re, they’re a new fin- uh, fintech. They’re a new startup, a new player in the market. They’re not the only one, okay? But that, that was, like, the first one I saw that I said, “Oh my God,” right? In this kind of line- lineup, “This is gonna happen.” Um, and so, uh, they’re funded by some really big VC names.

They’ve created a product. They’ve got, like, 60 engineers or whatnot. They’ve created a product where they have an advisor workstation. And so you can load up all of your clients, and they have workflows for account opening and client [00:18:00] service and whatnot, and they’re gonna continue to build on capabilities.

Which is where, you know, the concept of consolidation comes into play. So they’re not gonna be the last. More and more are gonna be creating services where the integration’s already there, okay? And the workflows are pre-built, so all you have to do is just fine-tune or just develop anything additional you need.

And so now advisors don’t need to figure out who to use and then how to make it all work. It’s already working, hence the consolidation, right? And there’s probably a cost factor there, too. If you do the math, you can save a lot of money utilizing these platforms as well, okay? It depends on where all that lands and where the demand is.

But that being said, that’s what we’re starting to see

Chip Kispert: because when I did demo some of these solutions, I started writing down, “Well, if they actually deliver X, Y, Z, I can reduce this one tool. If they do A, B, C, I could reduce this other tool.”

Ferian Nickelson: Now, we’ve not engaged with [00:19:00] all of the names that I mentioned, okay?

We’ve placed our bets, and we’re placing multiple bets right now because it’s wise to do so to see who actually evolves and who can work with us in scaling. Obviously, there’s a service component, too, so that’s a massive tipping point for us. And then obviously layering our IP above and beyond that. But again, fundamentally rooted in that data lake because we own our data and we can deploy it out.

Um, so that, that’s, that’s the way we’re looking at it. Um, I would tell you, I would tell you the other thing that, you know, is very important for us is the security. Okay?

Chip Kispert: Has to be.

Ferian Nickelson: It has to be. Because look, we’ve got Claude, we’ve got Copilot, right? We’re-

Chip Kispert: Yeah …

Ferian Nickelson: the advisor community needs education, okay, on how to use these tools.

Because if you aren’t awar- you know, aware and you have not yet implemented a program for application lifecycle [00:20:00] management or frankly change management, advisors may take information that you just don’t know and load it up, you know, innocently into these applications, and now all of a sudden, surprise.

Okay? So a lot of advisor education’s absolutely critical, and you need to have a very strong policy in place for how these tools are utilized.

Chip Kispert: Great point. That is huge and, and I could go on on that one, but I don’t wanna rattle anybody’s cages, like, with what I’m thinking about right now. I, I do wanna switch gears a little bit, okay?

Your business is built on succession and ultimately segmentation as well Tell us a little bit about that. Tell us why this is a fabulous place to be

Ferian Nickelson: It’s not an easy place to be, it’s a fabulous place to be because we have more advisors. I mean, you can look at any study. We have more advisors [00:21:00] sun-setting their practices.

They’re retiring now and, and so they, they have to retire. They’re done. They’ve run their course. They want to spend time with their families. They want to retire, at least most do, right? Some, some stay longer and they’re incredibly successful. Uh, and just as you look at the statistics, there are fewer advisors entering the marketplace.

For whatever reason, they’re j- they just aren’t, aren’t as predominant, if you will. And so we also found that a lot of the training programs, you know, the wires and the traditional spaces haven’t always been as successful as the early. So that being said, we are now all being forced, which there’s an opportunity, uh, there too, right, we are all being forced to figure out how to succeed those businesses.

So what Vestrum is doing in particular is we are an M&A acquirer, so we, we are an inorganic growth, um, uh, firm. And so we are buying advisor practices. Okay? And these are advisors who don’t have a succession plan or do have, uh, junior advisors that maybe aren’t ready, don’t wanna run the business in the [00:22:00] traditional sense, maybe can’t buy it outright.

Okay? And they come to us. And so we will develop, uh, advisors where that particular advisor or practice didn’t already have somebody in that second chair ready to go, and we’ll train them up. Okay? Everything from campus hires to, uh, advisors that have a couple of years of experience, and frankly, that’s our sweet spot, right?

And we emphasize, and, and here’s how we do it and I’ll tell you why it’s important, we, we emphasize very heavily how to become a good advisor before we teach the technicals, right? How to have conversations in the good times, okay, as well as the bad times, ’cause you have to have those hard conversations in both cases.

Financial planning, goals-based oriented outcomes. How do you actually manage a client relationship to that? How do you get a full picture of the client need so that you can bring solutions to bear? Maybe solutions that the former advisor didn’t even have access to, right? So really ingestion that youth and technology into that relationship.

And then last but [00:23:00] not least, do we actually train the technicals? Okay? So the technicals, I mean, how does margin work, how does a bond work? And so, um, we have that opportunity because of the market shift. Also because we have the know-how and the infrastructure of the founders of the firm, right, to be able to establish our, uh, formula in this market.

You know, I think we’re gonna do a lot of things right. We’ll obviously learn along the way, but you don’t see a lot of people talking about what happens to the client relationship after the M&A transaction, right? And that’s what we’re focused on, what actually happens to that relationship and how do you grow it and make it more fruitful and carry it on into perpetuity.

And so with that said, one of the things that we also normalize so that it’s, um, important to serve more people and also elevate those touch points for the client relationship as it transitions to the new advisor, is one, creating the efficiencies of the technology, which is where it was started, and then the other thing we just normalized was a centralized investments team so that the pressure is not on the next generation advisor to also do that, [00:24:00] okay?

No one advisor’s gonna be the best equity manager, best fixed income manager, best index shop. So with that said, we have our own in-house centralized investments team to enable those advisors to be successful day one.

Chip Kispert: I think that’s super smart given the fact that I, most advisors I’ve met are fabulous relationship people and prospect people.

And it’s funny, when you, you look at the statistics of advisors that do their own management, money management, versus those that have a centralized, um, their performance is a lot lower.

Ferian Nickelson: It is. I mean, if you look at the stats, you’re right. Um, and again, the technology’s normalizing so much of that, right? So how do you make it easier for the advisor to operate and again, spend more time with the clients?

Because in any one conversation, you can find out things you would never have found out before.

Chip Kispert: All right This is, we go to the finale, all right? Um, two question- or actually one question, and [00:25:00] then some time for you. So I always love to ask this question on, on this show, and, um, who are two or three people or firms, um, that you’re, that you see out in the marketplace that are doing the right things, that you admire, um, and why are they worth wa- take watching as time pr- progresses?

Ferian Nickelson: Sure. So it’s interesting ’cause the two that I wanna mention, so in terms of people, uh, I’d recently reconnected, uh, with an old alum, uh, if you will, and I’m, I’m gonna call out Brad Goodman-

Chip Kispert: Sure …

Ferian Nickelson: who is with Apalon. Yeah. And I say that because I respect Brad very much, but Brad is, um, you know, at this point very much a doppelganger navigating the technology landscape for what they are doing.

Slightly different than what we’re doing, of course. Um, but he too is looking at how to simplify his life to enable a firm to scale and grow, uh, and deliver to, to his advisors. So, uh, we’ve had some fun conversations as of late of where we see the market [00:26:00] going and, and, um, what solutions we need. The other, um, uh, call it surprise, if you will, and, and maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was for me.

Uh, we utilize Orion for our, uh, data aggregation, performance reporting, and client reporting, if you will. Um, and Orion made a acquisition not too long ago, Summit, okay? And at first it was like, okay, yet another acquisition by a large firm, and how’s this gonna work? Um, we’re keeping an eye very, very attuned to what Orion’s doing because they too are investing heavily in AI capabilities to create that platform experience for advisors beyond what they’re doing today.

And that’s gonna be one where, again, everyone will succeed in their own way. That’s gonna be one where if they do it right, I think that’s gonna start setting them apart of beyond their peer. Not only do they have the robust capabilities they have, but if they can actually deliver what they’ve scripted, it’s gonna [00:27:00] be changing.

Chip Kispert: Love those answers. Um, it’s, it’s a small world in our business. Um, and I love the people that, that you mentioned, the firms that you mentioned as well. Um, they’re working real hard on, on the issues that broker dealers and RIAs need, need solutions to. All right, we close the show with you. 1% better every day flash.

You have 90 seconds To share with our world, um, something that is about wealth management or something that you have some thoughts on.

Ferian Nickelson: So everything I said, I reserve the right to pull back because the market may move at, you know, that fast. And I think that’s the lesson in all of this. Um, you make the best-informed decision that you can in the moment based on your needs and your research.

You seek out help for, from Beacon or others, [00:28:00] right, to help you get information that perhaps you wouldn’t have otherwise seen. And look, you hedge and you stack the deck in your favor. Obviously, there’s an opportunity cost and a cost outright to some of these decisions, but you have to innovate in order to advance and survive.

And frankly, you need to be prepared to continue to innovate at a pace that hadn’t existed before. So hence the comment, I reserve the right to pull back everything I said because the market may teach us something by tomorrow. Uh, but until then, I really appreciate you asking your thoughts.

Chip Kispert: Oh, that’s terrific.

So, um, Farian, loved having you on the show. For anybody who wants to learn more about Vestgen or connect with you, where should they go?

Ferian Nickelson: Vestgen.com is a good place to start. All of our contact information is there. Uh, we’re all on LinkedIn, so let us know.

Chip Kispert: Fabulous. Uh, can’t thank you enough for spending some time with us today.

Loved having you on the show.

Ferian Nickelson: Thank you so much.

Chip Kispert: RJ, I loved [00:29:00] talking to Farian. That, that, that was 30 minutes that went by in a flash.

RJ Malyk: Yeah. L- lot of information, and it, it … There was also, like, common sense in there too. Like, she made the point, and, you know, I’m taking notes while I’m listening, how AI is forcing companies to expand their services, and she used Zocks as an example.

And I, I found that fascinating how that is how AI is expanding and helping companies to be able to do more than just specialize in one thing and be able to really offer a lot of services to their clients. So it was a fascinating conversation.

Chip Kispert: It absolutely is. And, you know, I think you mentioned Zocks, I think jumps right there in terms of helping the advisor just expand, um, kind of the services and the data capture and the mining of that data.

I think it, it’s absolutely [00:30:00] fascinating right now. Um, I had a couple f- I had three different takeaways. Um- You know, the first, and, and I was listening to what Faryn had to say, and I jotted this down, but again, I kind of go back to it, this is a theme within our round tables, AI only works if the data foundation’s solid.

RJ Malyk: Mm.

Chip Kispert: Right? So that da- the da- underlying data has to be terrific to be able to, to really utilize, to maximize, to optimize, whatever you want to call it, um, the AI that lays over the top. I also loved how she talked about, and yes, there potentially is some cont- uh, tech consolidation out there, but she really talked about the real opportunity is simplification, um, and not just adding more tools.

And I kind of reflect on, um, a comment I read about Steve Jobs at [00:31:00] one point, where he said, “Simple is really hard.” And I think, I think that a lot of the, the companies coming down now, um, and those that are… have been, you know, what I’ll call legacy platforms, I think they’re making progress, but AI is allowing, um, us as an industry to be able to simplify quicker and more effectively.

And then, listen, the last thing is the advisor tech stack is completely being reshaped and reshaped quickly. So those are the three things I took away. Um, I think as, you know, we wrap this up, RJ, um, you know, one of the things I always like everybody to do My Ted Lasso quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

This is Chip Kispert wishing you well [00:32:00] until our next edition of the Beacon One Percent Better Every Day podcast.

RJ Malyk: All right, Chip, w- uh, we need to also add in a shout-out as this podcast is brought to you by Beacon Strategies, LLC, the go-to resource for round tables, consulting, and services that support wealth management firms and their providers.

If you need some industry perspective or help, please visit beaconstrategiesllc.com. Again, thank you for listening to the Beacon One Percent Better Every Day podcast. We ask you to share this podcast, rate it, and leave a review because this actually helps others find the podcast. Again, thank you for listening and for Chip and everyone at Beacon Strategies.

I’m R.J. Malyk, and we look forward to you joining us for the next Beacon One Percent Better Every Day podcast

Outro: Thanks for joining us on Beacon’s 1% Better Everyday podcast. Be sure to hit that follow button so you never miss an episode, and stay up to date with Chip [00:33:00] and his friends’ latest insights and strategies. If you want to learn more about Beacon Strategies or get in touch, visit us at beaconstrategiesllc.com.

Remember, progress starts with just 1% every day. Let’s keep challenging ourselves to be curious and grow. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest, and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Beacon Strategies. The content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only.

The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice.