Back when Orion Advisor Services’ CEO Eric Clark was still working for his father’s RIA, I’ll bet he never imagined that one day he would be on stage in front of 700+ clients, partners and staff of his own company.
And on his birthday, to top it all off.
Yet this very scenario played itself out last week at Orion’s Ascent 2018 conference in Miami, FL. A lively mix of engaging guest speakers (such as Joe Duran and Josh Brown), were interspersed between product announcements, training sessions and discussions of industry trends (See Winners of Wealthtech: Eric Clarke)
I’ve dug through my copious notes and Twitter feed (#Ascent2018) to pull together this quick conference summary for you. Enjoy!
Money=fuel. Your clients don’t care about the gas station, they care about their life journey. #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/9u01rJLQVK
— Stephanie Macon (@StephLMacon) September 5, 2018
I thought I would kick things off with a quote from Joe Duran, CEO of United Capital. His message was that advisors must broaden their scope of services beyond their client’s investments. Too many advisors obsess over money instead of focusing on what their clients want to use that money for.
I'm just sitting here with my mouth hanging open in awe. #Ascent2018 https://t.co/dJG85PgJSy
— Johnny Sandquist (@johnellert) September 5, 2018
This could be said about a lot of the content delivered at Ascent 2018, but this particular comment was about ultra-marathoner Dean Karnazes who was describing how he ran 350 miles (560 km) in 80 hours and 44 minutes without sleep! And you think that you’re tired from your workout today?
Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover
Billy Beane is a former American professional baseball player and currently the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics. He revolutionized how teams evaluate talent by correlating individual statistics with team winning percentages. He was able to reduce the teams payroll from the highest in the league to one of the lowest, yet still be competitive.
Billy Beane takes the stage at #ascent2018. The gent behind the best-selling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by author Michael Lewis pic.twitter.com/MrgcP18QV4
— Jimmy Moock (@jimmymoock) September 5, 2018
While interviewing Beane for the book Moneyball, author Michael Lewis accurately summed up Beane’s secret to success – he was arbitraging baseball players by finding those that were under-priced relative to the market.
Beane was the first general manager to hire someone without any baseball experience to help evaluate players when he brought in Harvard-educated statistician Paul DePodest. All baseball teams now routinely hire statisticians and other academics to crunch data and better manage their teams.
During his Ascent talk, Beane warned advisors not to rely on “the eye test” when searching for talent. Just because a candidate doesn’t look the part, doesn’t mean they’re not the best candidate for the job.
Portfolio Rebalancing
One of the biggest reasons @orionadvisor clients are moving from old trade order management (TOM) module to new Eclipse trading tool is portfolio rebalance tolerance bands set at multiple levels, another is household support #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/bNYpK1fE6n
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
The market for portfolio rebalancing has never been more crowded with solid product offerings than it is now. Orion realized that their TOM app was falling a bit behind, so they invested in development of an advanced rebalancing and trading platform called Eclipse, which is quite robust. When I saw a demo a few months ago, i could only find a few things missing. Expanding rebalance tolerance bands and support for households were two of the biggest ommissions, so I’m happy to see that they have addressed these concerns. (See Orion Advisor Tries to Eclipse the Competition With New Portfolio Rebalancer)
A @Morningstar study reported that #advisors that combine multiple accounts as a household & allocates assets accordingly, can increase overall returns by 52 bps annually @orionadvisor #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/kYwIHuZUZJ
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
A few years ago, Morningstar introduced the concept of “gamma,” which involves quantifying “the additional expected retirement income achieved by an individual investor from making more intelligent financial planning decisions.”
Compliance
No vendor conference would be complete without announcements about new features and functionality being released. Orion provided a slew of updates to their current suite of products, including the compliance app, Compass.
Compass Compliance app is designed to help #RIAs with #SEC audits & will soon monitor employee trades @orionadvisor #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/JoXdPp4Mqa
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
In a recent survey of RIAs, compliance had the second largest increase in spending (26%) right behind technology (31%). Having compliance tools built right into the Orion platform makes it that much easier to manage your firm.
SEC Rule 204A-1 requires investment advisor and broker-dealer employees who are defined as “Access Persons” to report their personal securities transactions and holdings to the firm, in order to monitor for and prevent insider trading, front running, and other violations of securities rules.
Many RIAs outsource the monitoring, review and trade approval of employees’ personal trading, but this can be expensive. Firms that are looking for ways to reduce costs will be able to access Orion’s Compass Compliance app, which already provides the ability to run a mock SEC audit and screen clients for anti-money laundering (AML), will soon be able to monitor employee trades.
I always recommend that my clients select products that provide the tightest integration between components to avoid unnecessary export/import routines and other manual data entry processes.
“Any conflict of interest – whether it relates to fees earned by the adviser OR expenses incurred by the adviser – needs to be disclosed” @danbernstein on what SEC will focus on this year #Ascent2018
— Joe Anthony (@joeanthony) September 6, 2018
Dan Bernstein from MarketCounsel also reminded advisors to perform a fiduciary review of their books & records and all communications their firm sends out.
Panelist comment: “Everyone is doing an annual review of their compliance program” ….. a few advisers raise their eyebrows, as in “Everyone?” Table stakes, folks #Ascent2018
— Joe Anthony (@joeanthony) September 6, 2018
Bernstein also shared a new trend of client reporting coming into sharper focus with enforcement. The SEC doesn’t give a free pass on this!
Billing
Music worlds collide at @orionadvisor’s #Ascent2018 …welcome ‘The King’ to sing about “the billing blues”… pic.twitter.com/o7HMfy9pec
— Jimmy Moock (@jimmymoock) September 5, 2018
Since it is a such a dry topic, Orion decided to bring in Elvis as their billing product manager so he could sing about their new features.
Integrations
Some of Orion's top integration partners are at #Fuse2018 #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/wq77lhZMOx
— Joel Bruckenstein (@FinTechie) September 5, 2018
When we evaluate vendors in our consulting practice, the breadth and depth of integrations used to be towards the bottom of the list of priorities. That is no longer the case.
Now integrations and APIs are towards the top and sometimes even the most important criteria we use. This has always been one of Orion’s strengths.
Portfolio Optimization
ASTRO can help #advisors replicate indices for #HNW qualified accounts to enable tax loss harvesting, also portfolio optimization, support low cost basis stock, & #ESG portfolios partnering with @MorganStanley @orionadvisor #Ascent2018
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
ASTRO is based on a mean variance optimizer that accepts parameters such as tax efficiency, risk, legacy positions and ESG restrictions and generate a customized portfolio. Orion is positioning it a tool that can advisor can use to create their unique SMAs for individual client accounts.
😢😢 @orionadvisor ASTRO is sending my amazing spreadsheets into extinction. #Ascent2018 #ExcitedNotSad pic.twitter.com/65f065MMXP
— Todd Youngs (@toddyoungsie) September 5, 2018
I’ve heard this so many times about so many advances in advisor technology. When will MS Excel be totally retired from the advisor’s workflow?
Communities (Model Marketplace)
#Communities enables peer-to-peer model sharing, now offers popular strategist models from @Blackrock & @Russell_Invest, fact sheets & technology resources @orionadvisor #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/YPMUACfkr9
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
I had serious doubts about the success of Communities when it was originally released since it did not include models offered by external providers. It seemed to me that the industry trend was headed this way and that it would soon become table stakes that every vendor would have to offer. I believe Orion saw the writing on the wall here and took the plunge. (See Can Retail Model Marketplaces Challenge TAMPs for Assets?)
There is so much profit generated by large providers of ETF models just from scale that they can make money with no overlay fee, no cost to access on technology platform & NTF on most custodians #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/4OCNTnUc1p
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
The Race to Zero continues.
#advisors can potentially save 450 hours annually by switching to models @blackrock @orionadvisor #ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/Htdmz8iJYz
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
One would think that this would be common knowledge after most of the industry switched to models over the past decade. But it seems there are still some people that need the stats shown to them over and over before they understand the benefits.
iRetire from @blackrock is a free #financialplanning tool that provides a lot of the core functions available from market leading products & is integrated into @orionadvisor via single sign-on #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/NI3ZAkwQPV
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
As if BlackRock didn’t have enough going for them, now they are making inroads with more free software. The largest US clients using iRetire include UBS, Mass Mutual, and Lincoln Financial.
Client Communications
.@orionadvisor introduces their planned communication tool to advisors attending #Ascent2018https://t.co/EvTcyvPGFm
— Sam Steinberger (@slsteinberger) September 5, 2018
Event Driven Notifications is designed to automate email communications to clients. It will include a dozen standard templates matched to a list of clients that the system identifies as most likely to receive them. This can include birthday well wishes to notifications for required minimum distributions (RMDs) or rebalancing.
Managed Accounts
How is @orionadvisor leveraging their acquisition of @ftjfundchoice? With a Managed Accounts offering, just announced at #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/kvUa87IMNY
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
This is only the first step in what I see as a long process of integrating FTJ into the Orion Advisor ecosystem. SMAs and UMAs were always a gap in the Orion product lineup that this new managed accounts offering will eventually fill.
There is still a ways to go, since FTJ was focused on broker-dealer clients, they will have to shift their product offerings and marketing to appeal more to individual RIAs, which make up the bulk of Orion’s client base.
Security Equivalence
Security equivalents can be used to provide options for smaller accounts that are excluded from investments based on high minimums @orionadvisor #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/2oh9i2o1eK
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
Security equivalents are an advanced feature that exists in many of the high-end portfolio rebalancing solutions. Most firms use equivalents to support accounts that have restrictions on buying certain individual stocks (due to existing large positions) or industries (guns, oil, nuclear power, etc.). But using them to avoid having to manually purchase model positions for smaller accounts that do not have enough to meet investing minimums is also useful.
Wash Sale Alerts
Tax loss harvesting can improve portfolio performance, but many rebalancers don’t have the ability to alert the #advisor when 30-day wash sale period is up, but @orionadvisor #Eclipse does #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/3ksLHQyf20
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
This is a pet peeve of mine! Having built a portfolio rebalancing engine from scratch and evaluated many others, I’m picky about certain features and this is one of them. Every rebalancer has an option to avoid wash sales, but very few automatically generate an alert to the advisor or home office when the 30 day window is up. It’s a big time saver that Orion’s clients can now take advantage of.
Joe Duran
The “one thing” keynote in case you are missing it: “it’s not about dying richly but living richly.” My favorite by Joe @United_Capital #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/96qIX3CNSo
— Min Zhang (@InMinWeTrust) September 5, 2018
Duran always brings his “A” game when he is speaking at a conference. This was no exception. Well thought out and chocked full of memorable soundbites that are fantastic takeaways for anyone in the audience. In his presentation, Duran offered a primer on how to differentiate yourself as an advisor. You can’t win by just copying what the biggest firms do. (See The Indispensable Advisor by Joe Duran)
@DuranMoney providing some great insight. #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/kAE3Y6kWMI
— Todd Youngs (@toddyoungsie) September 5, 2018
This was a terrific graphic. Every advisor should frame it and put it on their desk. “There are three places advisors can compete, but the winning zone is where you can deliver what your clients want while making your competitive world far easier.”
Most of what you are told about generational characteristics are bogus, all people go through the same life phases @duranmoney #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/bdnOivo1Yz
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
I can’t tell you how many presentations I have sat through telling advisors how to speak to clients from different demographics. GenX likes this, Baby Boomers like that or the dreaded Millennials like something completely different. The truth is that every GenX-er was once in the 18-35 age range and every Millennial will one day be older than that.
Duran pointed out that, “Humans are not efficient decisions makers by nature, but they want to feel important.” This is a twist on a saying from American philosopher John Dewey, “The deepest urge in human nature is to feel important.”
United Capital has been doubling their assets every three years (now at $20 billion) and spends $10-15 million annually on technology.
Client Portals
Mike Seid with AxxcessWealth presented fully branded, integrated prospecting portal powered by @orionadvisor @ASmarterLook at #Ascent2018. Cut-down on onboarding time, no paper #Growth! pic.twitter.com/y0YMdCWbt3
— Wealth Access (@ASmarterLook) September 6, 2018
There are so many client portals floating around at some firms that I’m surprised that anyone can keep them all straight. Especially clients.
One of our larger broker-dealer firms has no less than four client portals running and in use by different segments of their clients. This includes one from their financial planning software, one from each of their two custodians, and a fourth from their CRM. (See The Battle for the RIA Technology Integration Hub)
Wealth Access is one of the best of the standalone client portal applications that focus on the RIA space. Others include InvestCloud (which has since expanded their product line to become a complete wealth management platform), PortalsXpress, and Blueleaf. (See The Battle Of Advisor Dashboards And Client PFM Portals – Advisor Technology As The Engine Or The Interface?)
Data Aggregation
A dashboard is provided by @quovo that allows #advisors to see data aggregation across client accounts by institution and drill down #ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/nUd4mcQTvT
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 5, 2018
This session turned into more of a Q&A roundtable of advisors and operations staff launching a steady stream of questions at the Quovo rep, Andrew King, their director of sales engineering. King deftly handled the onslaught, and everyone came away with a better understanding of how to enhance their practice with held away accounts and data aggregation from Quovo.
The Quovo dashboard looks like a very handy tool for operations staff at larger firms to keep track of the data coming in from multiple sources across the firm. Since some larger RIAs use two or more data aggregation tools, there is definitely an opportunity for providers of aggregated dashboards (an aggregator of aggregators).
Financial Planning
This morning's presentation from @advicentcoo on "The process-driven practice" at @orionadvisor's #Ascent2018!
— NaviPlan by InvestCloud (@NaviPlan) September 6, 2018
Looking forward to talking more #FinTech today and tomorrow with everyone! pic.twitter.com/NJv2i8bNji
Differentiators of Success
This was one of the few panel discussions at Ascent and I thought it was very informative and stocked with an impressive group of industry leaders:
- Aaron Schaben – EVP Carson Group – $6.7B AUM
- Marc Dupont – SVP, Focus Financial Partners – currently partner with 55 RIAs and 28 of them are Orion clients.
- Dean Zayed – CEO and Founder of Brookstone Capital Management – a hybrid RIA/TAMP with 300 advisors, providing TAMP services to 50 IARs and outside RIAs, $2.5B AUM
You need to be the one helping your clients adopt your technology & show your value proposition, otherwise, another advisor could replace you with the exact same technology, if they do a better job of demonstrating it. –Aaron Schaben, @rchusker #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/IqZaCWDOu7
— Craig Iskowitz (@craigiskowitz) September 6, 2018
Technology adoption rates are all over the place in our industry. Some firms are good at and some are not. But Schaben is right to point out that if you don’t succeed, another advisor could take your place.
Focus Financial uses game and reward-based systems to drive technology adoption, Dupont explained. They only enable 20% of the functionality to start to avoid overwhelming clients. It is critical that you control the pace of rollout, and avoid letting the vendor push too hard.
65% of consumers said they would use Google, Apple or Amazon for financial services without even knowing the cost. But according to Dean Zayed, his firm is not afraid of these consumer giants entering our space. He noted that this is a relationship business, and these companies can’t just come in and replace our relationships. Brookstone leverages their CRM to touch their clients 10-15 times per year.
Advice for Advisors
We're asking some of the bright minds here at #Ascent2018:"What is one piece of practical advice you would give to advisors?" @FinTechie @NexusStrategy @BillWinterberg @AaronSchaben @acketyack @craigiskowitz @StephLMacon @Scottemckenna @slsteinberger @BillMHarris @emwilcoxtweets
— Orion WealthTech (@orionwealthtech) September 6, 2018
“Take a deep breath. Don’t just buy the hot new product. Ask questions and figure out if this is something you need or something you want. And make sure it plays nice with what you have. Don’t buy Legos if all you have at home is Lincoln Logs.” — Matt Ackermann
“Before a conference/workshop, set an alert for 3wks after event as reminder to follow-up on what you learned. Doing it in advance ensures you go with a plan and actually act upon your takeaways.” — Stephanie Macon
“Do annual evaluations of your technology, workflows and client engagement tools. Stay up to date on latest software releases from your current providers.” — Joel Bruckenstein
“Look outside the industry, too! Ask yourself, what ideas and features do you like outside of wealthtech? How could you creatively incorporate them into your practice?” — Sam Steinberger
“Constantly be looking at how you can make your technology work for you! Make sure you are working with tech vendors who want a partnership and not to simply provide.” — Emily Wilcox
“Listen to your young technology & operations staff when they suggest ways to make things better. I’ve heard too many of them vent their frustration when their recommendations are ignored. You’re wasting money by thinking you know better.” — Craig Iskowitz
Josh Brown
Watch @orionadvisor's broadcast: Who better than @ReformedBroker to follow @Coolio at #Ascent2018 The Most Importan… https://t.co/uUYBxbS4M4
— Bill Winterberg CFP® (@BillWinterberg) September 7, 2018
Only Josh Brown, CEO of RIA Ritholtz Wealth, could use American hip-hop group The Wu-Tang Clan as role models for how his firm manages their bloggers. But he did it. And I’ll wager that most of the audience remembers this anecdote of how the band refused to sign a record contract unless the individual members were allowed negotiated their own solo deals. I’m guessing Brown would say he is most like Method Man.
Here are some sound bites from Brown’s talk:
- We have characters people care about, we’re real and don’t put on a facade. Authenticity acts as a filter.
- The people who get on radio and television today are those who have built a following online, and that provides an incredible opportunity for advisors looking to get their message out.
- It’s 2018, and the only thing that matters is culture. Advisors join us because they believe in the mission & we’re building a practice based on what we put out to the public.
- Social media is even more important as a client retention tool, not just a lead gen tool.
- Ritholtz Wealth generates 150 quality inbound client inquiries every month without spending a penny on advertising.
- People do business with people they like, this will never change, and technology cannot make you likable.
- Know your audience better than anyone else, never go with what’s traditional, don’t follow the industry leaders (they’re usually wrong), don’t ask for permission.
FUSE 2018 Hackathon
I’m planning another blog post to cover what went on during the FUSE 2018 event. But I’ll include this sneak peak behind the scenes:
First time contributing a personal hack today for advisors and built an interactive #SlackApp using @SlackHQ and @orionadvisor #api #FUSE2018 #Ascent2018 #hackcoolstuff pic.twitter.com/pXCpLoI4hU
— Brian McLaughlin (@redtailtech) September 6, 2018
CEO of Redtail Technologies, Brian McLaughlin rolled up his sleeves and did some nifty coding that impressed everyone in the audience. He took this selfie to prove to his staff that he was actually there. (See Winners of WealthTech: Brian McLaughlin)
After Hours
These are the happy faces of a team of advisors and Orion employees giving back at the Rise Against Hunger meal packing event! #ascent2018 #2030ISPOSSIBBLE pic.twitter.com/DszoJ6a0VW
— Orion WealthTech (@orionwealthtech) September 6, 2018
I would like to suggest that all conferences include an activity like this in their agendas. Why not give something back while you’re away from home? Conference attendees helped pack 15,000 meals that will be heading to Haiti care of Rise Against Hunger!
“For most children that we work with, this is the one nutritious meal that they receive that day,” said a spokesperson from Rise Against Hunger.
Our #Ascent2018 attendees are getting to taste some of the best Cuban bites in #Miami on the Little Havana Food Tour! We’re getting to see all that this friendly and vibrant neighborhood has to offer. pic.twitter.com/qiTxxFvFYS
— Orion WealthTech (@orionwealthtech) September 6, 2018
An afternoon of culinary delight for those foodies in attendance.
Today's #Ascent2018 appreciation events continue with an hour-long private charter on a high-speed cigarette boat cruises down the Port of Miami, then into Biscayne Bay and over to Star Island! pic.twitter.com/LfHlH6JsGe
— Orion WealthTech (@orionwealthtech) September 6, 2018
High speed thrills on the water for those who needed to get some fresh air after two days stuck inside the Fontainebleau Hotel.
Catching some sun and playing some volleyball at #ascent2018 with @orionadvisor! pic.twitter.com/baiNuuIZ47
— Kim Cosgrove (@KimCosgrove6) September 6, 2018
What is Miami without a little beach time?
This guy knows all about innovate, win, disrupt. #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/ZDrONlrbNC
— Kyle Hiatt (@kyleh2) September 6, 2018
And that’s why I skipped the Everglades Tour.
#YoungMC knows! You want it, you got it with @orionadvisor. #disrupt #win #Ascent2018 pic.twitter.com/0tCSHH84FW
— Tricia (@TheDrexAbides) September 6, 2018
No vendor conference can end without a Thursday night party. Orion came through with a 90’s Throwback Concert headlined by Young MC, Rob Base, Tone Loc, Coolio, Doug E Fresh and the Sugar Hill Gang. I heard it was all that and a bag of potato chips. Booyah!