BPN Insights Podcast – Brian Thorp (Wealthtender)

• Why are online reviews becoming essential in an AI-driven advisor search process?
• How does Wealthtender help advisors increase visibility while staying SEC compliant?
• Where do online reviews fit within a wealth firm’s growth “flywheel”?
• How can independent firms use reviews to compete with wirehouse brands?
• What role do reviews play in compliance, recruiting, and firm culture?
• How might positive online reviews impact long-term firm valuation and succession planning?

RJ Malyk 0:03

Welcome to the BPN Insights Podcast with your host,

Chip Kispert 0:16

I’m your producer, RJ Malik.
Chip, this is brand new, so I’m going to hand it off to you and let you explain what the BPN Insights Podcast is going to do.

Chip Kispert 0:16

Fabulous. Appreciate that, RJ.
We’re super excited to have
Brian Thorpe from Wealthtender with us.
We’re going to do a rapid fire set of questions with Brian and get some of those answers so we can start to share some of the things that Wealthtender is doing within the marketplace to help wealth firms and help them grow their business.
So Brian, welcome.

Brian Thorpe 0:43

Thank you for having me, Chip.

Chip Kispert 0:44

So let me ask you this basic wide open question.
Why Wealthtender?

Brian Thorpe 0:50

Yeah, well, I appreciate the question.
It’s certainly a broad one.
And what we’re seeing across the wealth management landscape is a fundamental shift and how consumers who are looking for an advisor do exactly that.
You know, they’re moving online and beyond just going online, they’re turning to AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and beyond to do their searching.

And we’ve done a study that actually indicates that even when somebody receives A referral from a professional or a family member, the very first thing they’re doing is looking to go online and find online reviews about an advisor, 83% of consumers looking to do just that.

And So what we’re doing at Wealthtender, we were the industry’s first SEC compliant online review platform designed really from the ground up for regulatory compliance.
So the goal is that when the advisors and wealth management firms join Wealthtender, we’re helping them with that visibility.

They’re getting visibility with the consumers that visit our website, but just as importantly, they’re getting visibility with those reviews going to work for them from an SEO search engine optimization perspective, as well as AI optimization and ensuring that they’re getting greater visibility opportunities no matter where an individual is looking to find and hire an advisor.

Chip Kispert 2:00

Certainly a different way to look at going out and getting new customers. I think it’s, it’s, it’s actually a very, very good one and it puts the, the investor in the driver’s seat. So another question I have, Brian, is how does Wealthtender fit into a wealth firm?

Brian Thorpe 2:22

Sure.
So we’re working today with over 700 advisors and wealth management firms.
And when they join Wealthtender, we really want to do the heavy lifting.

So the first thing we’re going to do is within a day or so, we’re going to set up those profiles for each advisor along with the firm.

And then from there, we provide a lot of flexibility for the firm to have the administration of those profiles handled by home staff or by their advisors or any combination of both.

And then we’ll introduce the advisors and their home office staff to the different benefits that advisors can participate in.
And so that includes opportunities to be featured in different specialist directories and guides that get a lot of visibility.

So for firms that have advisors focused on working with small business owners or families with special needs, we have a lot of different opportunities to help create visibility for them.
That again helps not only on the Wealthtender platform visited by about half a million consumers each year, but also propelling them higher in search results, whether an AI tools or traditional Google.

And so from a wealth management firm perspective, we’re not looking to replace their tech stack.

We’re really a complement to other marketing tools that they may already be utilizing and doing so for a very affordable cost.

Chip Kispert 3:32

Excellent, excellent.

And one of the things that I’m always curious about, Brian, is and I, I have a new term that I picked up from my last marketing recruiting roundtable.

So I, I like it. How do you fit into the flywheel of a wealth firm, right. You talked there very specifically and, and what I’d call more of a vertical perspective. How do you fit into the horizontal flywheel of a wealth firm?

Brian Thorpe 4:04

Sure. So wealth firms clearly are doing a tremendous job of serving their clients.

We see that with the reviews that have come in through Wealthtender, where more than 99% of all reviews are five stars. And it’s really fulfilling to see just how much people love their advisors.

Now, as a wealth management firm, you have that client, they’re a satisfied client, but it’s going to take that invitation for them to take the initiative to write a review. So in terms of the flywheel, once you have these satisfied clients taking advantage of our platform to then be able to reach out to your clients, inviting them to write a review.

Now they’re saying positive things about your firm and now they have even more skin in the game. They already love you as an advisor and now they’ve really invested online sharing their thoughts and how that contributes to the flywheel is that now the feedback that they’re sharing online, those positive online reviews are contributing to that prospect discovery process where now that prospect is reading those online reviews.

And next thing you know, they’re getting that discovery call set up with the advisor and the firm becoming a client, following in the footsteps and becoming a highly satisfied client, writing an online review and contributing to that next generation of consumers and prospects becoming a client as well.

So a very powerful flywheel. And then one thing I do want to add on there is because we work with so enterprise wealth firms, right?

Chip Kispert 5:25

So if we’re looking at an independent broker dealer, an insurance broker dealer or you know, some sort of regional broker dealer, how does that, how does your tool fit into the overarching kind of tech stack as well?And whether I’m going with that is compliance marketing, all those pieces of the puzzle that quite frankly, these advisors have to get checkboxed as part of the process.

Brian Thorp 5:55

Sure. So a great example, there’s a national firm that has probably 1500 advisors across the country where it was actually their chief compliance officer that learned about Wealthtender through the National Society of Compliance Professionals and really appreciated.

And perhaps this is my turn but term, but the we’re the Boy Scout in the industry when it comes to compliance related to regulatory oversight for handling online reviews, the collection process, the workflows, and then ultimately the publication of those reviews to ensure that they are compliant.
And I think that’s a great example where we’re really proud of the fact that we’ve built a digital marketing tool that benefits advisors.

But we know first and foremost, we need to ensure that compliance officers and the compliance staff in the Home Office, whether at a large wealth management firm or an enterprise partner, feels very confident in the way that we’ve designed the platform to ensure that their advisors can operate within the regulatory guardrails that are important to them. And both from a regulatory perspective as well as any firm policies and procedures that they need to see implemented as well.

So that same national network that I mentioned, we were able to work with them to tailor some particular specifications that they wanted to see to really ensure that the experience for their advisors is exactly what they expect from a compliance perspective as well.

Chip Kispert 7:12

Love that answer. We, you have so many compliance folks that we talked to. They’re, they’re very, very sensitive to, to marketing tools. And that that was just a great overview for them.
So you shared some numbers with us before. What are the numbers telling you when you really get down and dirty about what how Wealthtender is impacting those advisors that have embraced it?

Brian Thorp 7:41

Sure. What we’re seeing and I would suggest today, a lot of this is more anecdotal, but we’re excited probably another year or two down the road when we have a more robust data set to really put together a study that we’ve seen conducted in other professions, trust based professions like doctors and lawyers where they didn’t have the regulatory impediment.

And in those professions, doctors, lawyers have been able to collect online reviews for many, many years. And I bring that up as an example because what we’ve seen in the case of attorneys that studies have shown that the advisors who have a handful of reviews are in fact generating 3 to 4 times greater conversions than those advisors who don’t have reviews.

And so down the road, being able to conduct a study of that nature. And again, I think we’re probably a year to 18 months from being able to do that effectively. But in the meantime, what we’re hearing anecdotally from the advisors and wealth management firms with reviews on Wealthtender are multiple ways that they’re now generating incremental business.

What we like to say is fattening in their funnel. More leads that are coming into that funnel are actually converting and ultimately choosing them over other firms that aren’t yet allowing their advisors to utilize reviews.

So a quick example would be a firm in New York, couple 100 million in AUM, where to be clear, the founder was actually a little reluctant to get started with reviews and then got religion and said, all right, we’re going to do this.

And within a couple of weeks, they had a couple of dozen reviews and then they had a prospect that reached out who said I was doing a Google search and I saw your gold stars that appeared next to your Wealthtender profile.

They then read the reviews and that inspired them to reach out and ultimately become a client. Another example, because we do see when it comes to the numbers that nearly 100% of consumers are not only going to do that research online, but they’re going to interview at least two and probably 3 advisors before choosing who to hire.

And the same firm had a prospect that said, you know, I’ve narrowed down my search to a large wirehouse firm. I won’t name names, but a household name.

And the prospects that I’ve heard of them and they’re telling me and reminding me that I’ve heard of them, but I haven’t heard of your firm until recently. Why would I want to work with you, the independent firm that doesn’t have that household name?

And that independent firm said, well, do they have reviews that look like this? And that really did two things. One, the prospect got to read about the changes in the lives that the independent advisor had made and ultimately moved over $1,000,000 the next day.

But two, it created that seed of doubt in the mind of the prospect who now is wondering, well, why doesn’t that other advisor have reviews? And if they actually took the time to ask the advisor why they don’t?

And the answer is, well, our Home Office doesn’t allow us to share client feedback online. That certainly puts a seed of doubt within the mind of the prospect as to why they would want to work with a firm that isn’t comfortable letting the client share feedback.

So really interesting times. But today, especially for independent firms, I would say it’s a really powerful and timely opportunity to distinguish from firms, especially like the Wirehouse.

Is that maybe a couple of years, if not longer from allowing their advisors to be able to collect and publish online reviews?

Chip Kispert 10:48

Brian, thank you. That’s fascinating to me.

My last question, what are the benefits to gathering online reviews that you feel many wealth firms haven’t considered as of yet?

Brian Thorp 11: 05

Yeah, it’s a really great question. And this is something that has been not only exciting for us to see, but ultimately for the advisors and firms to experience themselves. So one, we know of course how those online reviews benefit the prospect experience and increase the likelihood of that prospect converting and becoming a client.

But other benefits include how those reviews now where a lot of advisors to have a little bit of imposter syndrome. They’re may be afraid they’re going to get a negative review. And again, as I mentioned, almost all reviews are extraordinarily positive, positive.

And as the firm, as their leadership team, as the advisors get to now read those reviews, it’s really providing them with a lot of great insights into exactly what has mattered most to the clients that they’ve served.

And then sometimes that’s been a little bit surprising in a positive way, and then others more constructive, providing them an opportunity to really recognize, wow, we’ve clearly made an impact in the lives of these clients in ways we didn’t even consider.

How might we lean into that and better position ourselves to serve other clients going through a similar life event or experience? The other thing that we’re seeing is the ability for those firms with positive reviews to have an easier time attracting new advisors to come over into their firm or staff because they’re seeing, wow, clearly this must be a great place to work.

The clients love working with the advisors there. They can read about that experience, start to get a sense of what the culture at that firm might look like, and that gets them excited and even more excited about working there.

And the third thing that I would say beyond just the potential for reduced marketing costs, because now if you have that better ability to convert that prospect into a client because they’re establishing trust that much more quickly.

The other opportunity is that you could even have a greater business valuation. So if you’re a wealth management firm thinking about succession planning or potentially even selling your business down the road, imagine if you were yourself looking to buy a business and it could be across any industry.

And you see whether it’s a restaurant or a particular store that’s got great reviews relative to one that does not, you’re going to feel that much more confident knowing that the clients that have experienced the services that that business provides have something positive to say.

And so we clearly see some pretty incredible multiples these days for our IA firms that are executing well. And I would suggest that we’re going to see firms that have positive online reviews that really exhibit the terrific job they’re doing serving their clients, being able to command an even higher multiple.

Chip Kispert 13:35

But I, I that what a fabulous answer that was. And you know, one of the things I look at is, you know, the whole kind of advisory world used to be driven by referrals.

Right now it’s, it’s being driven more by merit and with your, with your tool set, I see that merit being able to be rewarded, right. And, and, and these advisors being able to, to help more of more investor customers that are out there.

So thank you very, very much, Brian.

Brian Thorp 14:08

My pleasure, Chip. Thank you again for having me.

Chip Kispert 14:11

Right, till next time, thank you for checking out the BPN Insights podcast, which is brought to you by Beacon Strategies, LLC. For more information, visit beaconstrategiesllc.com.

RJ Malyk 14:21

Until our next VPN Insights podcast for Chip Kispert and everyone at Beacon Strategies, I’m RJ Malyk.