Fintech Impact

This is the 18th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, and Jason Pereira interviews Anthony Stich, the Chief Operating Officer of Advicent, the largest provider of financial software in the world. Anthony shares information reguarding Advicent’s product line which includes NaviPlan, the power of their advancements and influence, and the ways in which they are able to service their clients.

● 01:06 – Advicent is the financial software developer that created NaviPlan. They are in seven countries and on four continents. They also have client portals, advisor dashboard, and API technology.

● 01:31 – They have about 100 enterprise clients, about 60 of which are blue chip clients, and service about 100,000 users.

● 02:03 – Advicent’s roots trace back to 1969 by Gus Hansch, a CFP referred to as “The Father of Financial Planning.”

● 03:18 – Anthony Stich began with Advicent, which is a name comprised of advice + enterprise, four years ago, and his career began in marketing first.

● 04:25 – NaviPlan, by user counts, and adoption rates, is the biggest financial planning software in the world with a cash flow first priority.

● 06:56 – NaviPlan’s average enterprise contract length is between 10-12 years.

● 10:30 – NaviPlan is highly customizable thanks to building their portal on top of

APIs.

● 14:08 – Figlo is Advicent’s European tool, available in five countries, with an office in Rotterdam outside of Amsterdam. Figlo used the APIs first.

● 15:51 – Adviser Briefcase is their marketing and communication engine that has about 700 documents that have been reviewed by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).

● 17:01 – As far as integration, Advicent is enterprise-first with back offices with all the core processors of the top five custodians.

● 23:35 – Advicent has about 300 team members, most are in Milwaukee Wisconsin, the Fintech capital of the world. There are also members in Toronto, Winnipeg, about 50 in Rotterdam, and scattered throughout the United States.

● 30:36 – The mission state at Advicent is to enable everyone to understand and impact their financial future, and it is about the end client.

3 Key Points:

1. Advicent has about 100 enterprise clients, about 60 of which are blue chip

clients, and service about 100,000 users.

2. NaviPlan’s average enterprise contract length is between 10-12 years.

3. Advicent has about 300 team members, most are in Milwaukee Wisconsin,

the Fintech capital of the world, the rest in here are also members in Toronto,

Winnipeg, Rotterdam, and throughout the United States.

Tweetable Quotes:

“We’ve built a portal on top of APIs. What we’ve done is decoupled the user experience from those engines itself. And by doing so, we’re allowing larger enterprises and institutions the ability to use that API within their ecosystem.” – Anthony Stich.

“We’ve given them the keys to the kingdom. We have unlocked the powerful calculations of NaviPlan, and allowed people to access them and put them wherever they so choose” – Anthony Stich.

“Not only are we thought leaders in consulting our partners through these regulatory challenges, we are also developing in advance.” – Anthony Stich.

Resources Mentioned:

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook

● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial

● LinkedIn – Anthony Stich’s LinkedIn

● Advicent – Website for Advicent

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Summary:

In this 10th episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, Jason Pereira interviews Aly Dhalla, the CEO and Founder of Finaeo, a platform to help independent advisors make their job easier with digital toolkits connected to a back office to work through their front office needs—from prospect to policy in one workflow. Aly shares what Finaeo’s goals are, who their core audience is, and their technological prospective to financial planning.

● 02:01 – Aly Dhalla introduces what Finaeo is.

● 02:31 – Aly shares information about his professional background as a financial advisor.

● 04:20 – Finaeo began delivering quotes via chat bot to provide them on demand.

● 06:00 – Three targets for Finaeo include:

1.) Early advisors who are 0-2 years in the industry looking for infrastructure.

2.) Growth stage advisors with 3-5 years in the industry making $75,000-$125,000 annually in income.

3.) Advisors towards the end of their career that are looking to exit in 3-5 years.

● 06:59 – Finaeo software process involves an initial needs analysis form for an advisor’s client, who can then log into the software and use the opportunity builder stage. The system sets up auto reminders.

● 11:45 – Finaeo currently does logic-driven data analysis, mining it for patterns.

● 15:52 – Finaeo is willing to partner with their competition.

● 17:29 – Connectivity with carriers is the number one issue that Finaeo is facing

● 19:17 – They will remain very focused on insurance distribution.

● 23:52 – Bionic advisor manta stands for the culmination of human and machine, with machine taking over computation, administration, and workflow. The human component handles building relationships and giving advice.

● 26:33 – Finaeo is free for advisors to work with the CRM software.

● 29:38 – Clients tend to find Finaeo through referrals, blogs, eBooks, podcasts, and webinars.

● 31:33 – As far as capital they have raised, the first $250,000 came from financial advisors, another $500,000 from the tech community and industry influencers. Their partner that lead their seed round of $2.25 million became Impression Ventures.

● 35:54 – Their first product was built by a single engineer in three months

● 38:26 – Faneo’a team is currently 14 full-time people (11 in Toronto, 3 in Vancouver) and are looking to grow to 20 by the end of 2018, with most of them in engineering.

3 Key Points:

1. Three targets for Finaeo include:

1.) Early advisors (0-2 years in the industry)

2.) Growth stage advisors (3-5 years in the industry)

3.) Elder advisors (looking to exit in 3-5 years.)

2. Bionic advisor manta stands for the culmination of human and machine,

with machine taking over computation, administration, and workflow. The

human component handles building relationships and giving advice.

3. Finaeo’s first capital was $250,000 from angel financial advisors, another $500,000 from the tech community, and their partner that lead their seed round of $2.25 million became Impression Ventures.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Our end-state goal is to be digitally bolted onto every insurance company and provide an open Amazon-style marketplace, where advisors can pick and choose from a suite of products.” – Aly Dhalla.

“We think that machine learning is going to drive the next generation of advisor, and help them scale.” – Aly Dhalla.

“Technology is the future of distribution, is the future of compliance, is the future of communication with clients.” – Aly Dhalla.

Resources Mentioned:

● LinkedIn – Jason Pereira’s LinkedIn

● Facebook – Jason Pereira’s Facebook

● Woodgate Financial – Website for Woodgate Financial

● Finaeo – Website for Finaeo

● LinkedIn – Aly Dhalla’s LinkedIn page

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In this insightful episode of Fintech Impact, Jason engages with Brian Portnoy and Andrew Smith Lewis, pioneers behind Lydia, a groundbreaking venture that marries behavioral finance and artificial intelligence. This dialogue explores how Lydia is set to revolutionize the way financial advisors interact with clients, making the advisory process more human through technology.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:47: Andrew takes the lead to describe Lydia's vision. He portrays Lydia as an empathetic AI collaborator, designed to improve advisors' interactions with clients for better outcomes. He emphasizes the project's humanistic approach, highlighting the ambition to use technology not as a replacement but as an enhancer of human capabilities. This vision challenges conventional fears about technology undermining human roles.
• 04:12: Both Brian and Andrew narrate their personal and professional journeys, leading up to their collaboration on Lydia. Their stories emphasize the value of cross-disciplinary insights in creating solutions that address complex challenges, like enhancing the advisory process with AI.
• 18:24: The discussion about Lydia's technological backbone emphasizes its unique approach of remembering and learning from interactions with advisors. This personalized touch demonstrates how AI can be tailored to add value to professional growth and client relationships.
• 24:41: Toward the end, the conversation pivots to the broader implications of Lydia and similar technologies on the industry. Jason Pereira and his guests contemplate the future of financial advising amid rapid technological advancements, highlighting the potential for transformative change in how advisors connect with and support their clients.

Key Takeaways:

• Lydia represents a significant leap forward in integrating behavioral science and AI to enrich financial advisory services. The technology aims to deepen the advisor-client relationship, making advisory processes more intuitive and empathetic.
• The collaboration between experts in behavioral finance and AI underscores the potential of interdisciplinary approaches in tackling industry challenges. By focusing on the human aspects of financial advising, Lydia aims to enhance the quality of advice and client outcomes.
• The development of Lydia emphasizes the importance of personalized learning and growth for financial advisors. Through AI, advisors can gain nuanced insights into their practices, evolving their approach to meet client needs effectively.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "Lydia is about amplifying human brilliance, not replacing it with technology." - Andrew
• "Understanding your clients goes beyond the financial; it's about human connections." - Brian
• "In the era of AI, embracing technology to enhance our humanity is not just possible; it's necessary." - Andrew

Resources Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira's Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira's LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• Podcast Editing
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianportnoy/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/aslives/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Fintech Impact, host Jason Pereira speaks with Mark Gilbert, Co-founder and CEO of Zocks Communications. Zocks Communications introduces an artificial intelligence-driven meeting assistant designed specifically for financial advisors. Throughout the discussion, Gilbert delves into the origins of Zocks, its innovative approach to capturing and structuring meeting-based data, and the broader implications of AI in enhancing advisor-client interactions.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:09: Jason Pereira introduces Mark Gilbert and discusses Zocks Communications, an AI-driven platform created to assist financial advisors by capturing crucial information from meetings. Gilbert shares his excitement about the project, painting a picture of a semantic-rich platform that swiftly organizes and presents meeting data, simplifying follow-up processes for advisors.
• 00:56: Mark Gilbert shares the backstory of Zocks Communications, sparked by his experiences at Twilio and the emerging demand to mine actionable data from client communications. With a grin, he acknowledges the accidental yet timely intersection with the rise of large language models (LLMs), emphasizing the goal of creating a secure, privacy-focused tool that excels in extracting meaningful data from conversations.
• 03:10: Diving deeper, Gilbert discusses how Zocks stands apart from general-purpose note-taking applications by targeting financial advisors' specific needs - identifying and structuring data on assets, goals, and client profiles. This strategic focus allows Zocks to generate actionable insights, streamline follow-up communications, and enhance relationship management through tailored data extraction.
• 05:18: Gilbert elaborates on how Zocks goes beyond note-taking by employing the structured data to support various advisor workflows, including client communication and regulatory compliance. He portrays a vision where advisors spend less time on data entry and more on insightful advisory, thanks to Zocks' backend sophistication and its potential for CRM, planning, and task management system integrations.

Key Points:

• Zocks Communications introduces an innovative AI-driven platform tailored to address the unique data capture and analysis needs of financial advisors, enhancing the efficiency of meeting follow-ups.
• The platform distinguishes itself by focusing on specific data points relevant to the financial industry, offering a more personalized and actionable output compared to general-purpose note-taking tools.
• Strategic integrations with CRM and planning systems are on the horizon, poised to further streamline advisory workflows and enable more meaningful advisor-client interactions.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "Zocks Communications: Simplifying adviser follow-ups with AI-driven precision." - Mark Gilbert
• "At the intersection of technology and finance, Zocks pave the way for next-gen financial advising." - Jason Pereira
• "Embracing AI in financial advisory not only streamlines operations but enhances client relationships." - Mark Gilbert

Resource Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira's Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira's LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• Podcast Editing
• Zocks

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In this episode, Jason Pereira interviews Chanddeep Madaan, the CEO and founder of Aya Care, a health spending account provider in Canada. The discussion focuses on Aya Care's mission to remove financial barriers for accessing health and wellness services. Madan explains how Aya Care uses technology to streamline the process, reducing the hassle of reimbursement, and enabling employees to utilize health spending accounts easily. They also explore the economic impact of traditional insurance versus the flexibility offered by Aya Care's solution.

Episode Highlights:

• 00:09: Introduction of the episode featuring Chanddeep Madaan, discussing his company Aya Care and its role in health spending account management.
• 00:46: Chanddeep Madaan expresses gratitude for being invited to the podcast.
• 00:51: Madan shares the inspiration and mission behind starting Aya Care, highlighting financial barriers in accessing health services in Canada.
• 02:32: Jason Pereira aims to understand out-of-pocket expenses in existing health plans versus health spending accounts.
• 02:49: A breakdown of out-of-pocket expenses, including dental, vision, and the non-coverage areas such as fertility and mental health services.
• 06:32: Benefits of health spending accounts in Canada compared to similar models in the United States.
• 07:31: Madan critiques bloat in healthcare administration costs and positions Aya Care as a cost-effective alternative.
• 08:29: Pereira and Madan discuss the feasibility of Aya Care's solution being adopted by traditional insurance companies.
• 09:17: Aya Care introduces Visa cards for direct health service payments, reducing financial strain on employees.
• 11:58: Madan outlines different reimbursement experiences between traditional insurance, HSAs, and Aya Care's innovative solution.
• 15:48: Pereira elaborates on employer attitudes and cost-control mechanisms in traditional vs. new-age health spending.
• 21:54: Examination of the employee-centric approach fostering healthier and more productive workforces.
• 25:10: Challenges and technological advancements in health spending account claims adjudication discussed.

Key Points:

• Aya Care aims to innovate by removing friction in health spending account processes, contrasting traditional methods.
• There is an emphasis on using AI to streamline the claims adjudicating process, making it instant and cost effective.
• Madaan focuses on creating customizable spending accounts tailored for specific needs, such as mental health and fertility.

Tweetable Quotes:

• "Removing financial barriers to access health and wellness is our mission." - Chanddeep Madaan
• "Imagine submitting a claim in an app and getting approved before you close it." - Jason Pereira
• "Our process is too seamless, but that’s what innovation is about." - Chanddeep Madaan
• "Aligning people towards a common mission has been challenging yet rewarding." - Chanddeep Madaan

Resources Mentioned:

• Facebook – Jason Pereira's Facebook
• LinkedIn – Jason Pereira's LinkedIn
• Woodgate.com – Sponsor
• Podcast Editing
• https://ayacare.com/about-us/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmadaan/

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