Since the ‘90s, fintech has only become smarter and more accessible. The challenge for advisors today is no longer competing with technology, but integrating it into their practices in ways that facilitate new conversations about retirement, and set themselves apart from the competition.
Casady sees two important aspects to this rethinking of the relationship between technology, advisors, and their clients. “I think first and foremost it's about really having delighted clients,” he says—and that delight goes beyond just offering clients a shiny app to track investment returns on their phones. The quality of the people greeting your clients when they walk in the door right on through to the quality of your discovery process should keep clients engaged with their financial planning, and with their advisor.
That leads to Casady’s second key: improving advisors’ value propositions to each individual.
“If you talk to me about what money means to me, and why money is important to me, and how I think about charitable choices or choices for my children, that matters a lot more,” he says. “Now you're engaged in the psychology of money, and I personally think that that's the way to build an enduring franchise.”
Casady believes that combining those two aspects—the quality client experience with quality of life discussions—will keep advisors at the forefront of clients minds any time they’re faced with major decisions where their money and their lives intersect. That’s a smart strategy for retaining clients, and closing prospects.
Future Of Financial Advice
So what does the change expert see on the horizon for the financial advice industry? In the fintech space, Vestigo is targeting investable companies that are innovating in wealth management and automated regulation—two spaces that align with Casady’s interests, and expertise of his team. At the advisory level, Casady doesn’t see a future where a few big wirehouses swallow up independent RIAs, even as LPL seems to be entering another phase of consolidation and acquisition. Scaling will continue to be a key challenge for ambitious independent RIAs, but Casady notes that whether you’re a $50 million AUM firm trying to hit $100 million, or a $100 million AUM firm shooting for $1 billion, “It’s all a form of institutionalization of your business that's important. They're all forms of the same thing, which is scale and being able to take your cost across a larger asset phase.”
Ultimately, Casady circles back to the importance of “delighting” your clients, and baking that sense of delight into your branding, and your corporate culture. “If I’m Casady Wealth Management, and my brand is about customer delight, then that has to become a part of the culture. I have to teach it to new employees. I have to reinforce it with existing employees. I have to live the brand. Whether you're running an organization of two people or you're running an organization of 10,000, you've got to live the values of your brand. Because that brand is your culture, or vice versa.”
It sure seems like Casady is “living his brand” in retirement.
“What fun I’ve had,” Casady says of his career, and his life. “My wife and I, particularly now that we have a little bit more time together, look at each other and say, ‘Are we the two luckiest people we know?’ What fun we've had along the way. And what fun we're going to have as we go to the next days.”